Red Roses

“Are you sure, Lucian?”

Her brother frowned at her. Milena’s humor was a bit too much sometimes. Even now, she was sipping tea on her terrace, watching him train during the sunset.

“I will be busy training young soldiers, for the Castle, and to secure all nearby roads. If you want to have this commerce working, we need to make sure it can arrive safely at the destination. Right, sister?”

“Good.”

Lucian hardly repressed a sigh. Milena probably had this planned out from the start. They had been in the Vermillion Lands for a week and a half now, but everyone was already working and obeying her like the siblings had owned the land forever. Each adult in the village was now working hard to develop the glass industry and put this Castle back to its former glory.

Actually, a lot had been done in such a short time already. They now had a proper salon and living space, and several rooms had been completely cleaned. Milena had a large suite for herself, one without too much sun, yet enough space for her to relax, and a terrace. 

Little by little, she was earning the inhabitants’ trust. Despite the Mayor still being doubtful, Milena had provided jobs for the townspeople and was working seriously on the Land’s messy accounts every day.

Even now, she had some papers in front of her while drinking her tea and watching her brother’s late exercises.

“Those pigs. Those papers say they spent five hundred credits on new doors, two hundred on the roof repairs, eight hundred on the garden…”

They took a look at the desolated garden. It was obviously completely abandoned, with wild herbs growing everywhere and the trees uncut. Milena sighed. They really had completely abused the system to get more money from the Royal accounts and cut off their taxes. So shameless!

“Let’s find a proper gardener. I want a pretty garden, not this mess,” ordered Milena, annoyed.

“We will call for one today, my Lady,” said Dinah. “I will let them know your favorite trees and flowers so you can change it however you like.”

“Find someone young and promising. I hate classical styles, it’s always the same.”

“I will, my Lady.”

“What do you have against classical styles?” Asks Lucian with a smirk.

“It’s boring, too smooth and predictable. There’s nothing great about it. I like new things.”

Lucian smiled. That was so like her. Truth is, Milena didn’t know anything about boredom. She hated not doing anything and was always swamped with work. Even as a child, she never learned anything that wouldn’t be useful to her. She hated embroidery, fishing or cooking, but she would read any economy or politics books.

“Alright, alright. Let’s do an extravagant garden and show off to those old farts. Even this castle, you have plans for it, right? You didn’t order any pieces of renovating, yet you’re having so many artisans come over. Tell me, sister. What is your plan?”

Milena chuckled. Lucian was getting better and better at guessing what she was thinking.

“You’ll see later. For now, let’s focus on producing the glass. The forges are already lit and ready to work, and the workers have gathered a lot of sand. By next week, the artisans will start working. I can’t wait to see our first products.”

“I still don’t know how you thought of that just by seeing this large beach!”

“That’s because you’re too used to seeing traditional raw materials like stone and metal. We have been relying on those because of this Ice Age, but if we don’t look for other trades, we will run out of everything soon. If we put new materials like glass on the market, the high demand for the metal will slowly decrease, and the struggle for those materials will lessen.”

Lucian was surprised. Not only the glass making for this town, but Milena was seeing as far as the country’s global economy? His sister was really…

“My Lady? Some delivery just came for you.”

“A delivery?”

A little group of three young men came in, two of them carrying huge flower bouquets, only red roses. The probably had at least fifty of those roses each!

“What the…” said Lucian.

Milena was blushing already. She had an idea who was behind this, but this was really too much! How could this…

“Lady Milena de Crescent, this is from Prince Ellias de Solaris. We came here to carry a personal delivery of his Highness,” said one of the men, handing her a large envelope.

However, before she took it, Lucian stole it from their hands in a swift movement.

“Lucian!” Protested Milena, angry. “Give that back!”

“No. Sorry Millie, but I’m still your older brother. I can’t let that slide, can I? Let’s see what his Highness has to say to my dear sister…”

Milena was glaring at him so fiercely, no one else dared to say a word. Even the two Crescent Knights looked elsewhere, hoping they wouldn’t get involved in the siblings’ bickering. The Prince’s men, too, exchanged confused glances before letting the roses there and leaving.

“Lucian!”

Her brother pretended to clear his throat dramatically before reading.

“My Dear Friend, it is hard to believe you are so far away already. I am very unfamiliar with the Vermillion Lands, but I do hope the sight of the sea will be a great experience for you. Once again, I am feeling a bit guilty, writing this when I know this dearest mother of mine is responsible for your exile. Honestly, Lady de Crescent, I wish I could come to see you instead of exchanging letters like this. Though I do love your prose, it cannot replace your delicate voice in my mind. A few days without seeing you is already too much. Will you be fine, alone in this isolated piece of land? Would you be lonely, or bored? I do know your bright mind needs great ingredients to feed upon, so I hope some of your curiosity will be satisfied with the library over there. I hope the library…”

Lucian sighed with annoyance.

“All Heavens, do you need so many lines only talking about books? Let’s skip that part… Let’s see…”

Meanwhile, Milena was glaring intensely at him with her arms closed.

“Or you could give me back my letter, Lucian. I do appreciate to read, though it is not something everyone can understand!”

“You can go and grab a book. I’m already reading this, and can you believe it? It’s quite interesting. Oh come on sister, for once I’m reading an interesting piece, you won’t take that from me, will you?”

“You could read anything but my mail, Lucian!”

He sent her a fake smile and got back to the letter. Meanwhile, Milena seriously considered asking Ruby to kill him. Or at least knock him out. Under her seat, Blanche didn’t seem to care at all about what was going on.

“So, where was I again? Ah! There. So, books, bla bla bla…. Books… Manuscript… bla bla bla… Damn, that’s a lot of ink to talk about books! Oh, here.”

He gave her a wink before taking an imperious tone, obviously imitating Prince Ellias.

“...Meanwhile, I took the liberty to have those beautiful roses delivered to you. The sight of that deep, mysterious red somewhat reminded me of you. Of course, I couldn’t possibly find flowers that would match your gorgeous eye color. If I did, I don’t think I would be able to part from them. I miss the real ones very much already. I only wish… Really, Millie, this is a lot of sweet talks just to say he sent you two batch of flowers!”

“Lucian…”

“Wait, wait, wait, I’m almost done.”

“Master Lucian,” said Dinah, “you should really stop! Those are my Lady’s private matters!”

“What private matters? My sister is only sixteen, and I’m her responsible, loving and doting older brother!”

“Dinah, please write that sentence down. I went to remind him he ever said that next time I catch him skipping lessons, visiting young ladies and angering grandmother.”

“Details, details,” sighed Lucian.

While he said that, Dinah suddenly grabbed the letter in a swift movement, and handed it back to Milena, who took it with a glare to her brother.

“Thank you, Dinah…”

“Aaaaah… So mean. That’s what I get when my sister’s maids are former thieves…”

“Thank you for the compliment, master Lucian.”

“That wasn’t one!”

“Don’t you have some sword-swinging to do, Lucian? You look bored, doting older brother of mine. Lukas, Jeremiah, keep him busy.”

“Yes, my Lady.”

“Hey, hey!”

But before he could protest, both Knights were raising their swords against him, and he had no choice but duel them to defend himself. Moreover, the two guards were only too happy to lend a hand to Milena after watching that scene.

Dinah chuckled and turned to Milena, who was reading her letter. No matter what, her mistress always smiled when she read the Prince’s letter.

“...What shall we do with those flowers, my Lady? They are very pretty!”

Milena nodded, trying to hide her slightly blushing cheeks.

“Hand one bouquet to the gardeners, and take the other to my bedroom. Maybe they can do something out of it. I do love red roses.”

“I will, my Lady!”

Watching her maid give orders for the roses to be taken away, Milena got lost in her thoughts. The Spring ball was still weeks away, and she wouldn’t see Prince Ellias until then. It was truly a long time… With all the work here, she couldn’t possibly think of coming back sooner. Would he truly keep waiting for her to come back, though? 

She had to miss many events and parties to stay here. He would be surrounded by other young ladies. Would Prince Ellias gradually forget about his “dear friend”? Milena’s return would be right before the Spring Ball. She suddenly decided, this Ball would be her great return.

After working hard on making the Vermillion Land prosperous, reworking this Castle anew, she would go back at the Capital triumphant, obtaining the Queen’s approval!

Meanwhile, as Milena kept thinking it over, Blanche silently got up, walking to the garden, where the roses were handed to the only gardener for now.

“Blanche? What are you doing?”

The silver wolf turned her head to Olivia, who had just come out, now that the sun was gone behind the horizon. She walked up to the shape-shifter, following her eyes on the garden.

“Roses? Our Lady got roses delivered?”

Olivia frowned, looking at those.

“Red roses… Doesn’t our Lady usually says she like white roses better? She…”

She turned silent again, observing those flowers with an odd feeling. She walked down the stairs, meeting with the gardener to ask who had delivered those. Then, she hurried back into the Castle, Blanche watching her pass by without moving.

Olivia went back to her room, grabbing a pen and paper to write down.

“At sunrise, the roses will burn,” she muttered to herself. “The young Master definitely said something like this. I need to let him know…”