Chapter 41: Chapter 41 – Sibling love

After staying outside for a while longer, and having mostly calmed down from her trait-induced anger issues, Scarlett eventually returned inside. From earlier, she had been planning on finding Evelyne, meaning to talk to the younger woman about her current plans as well as see if there were any updates on the business side of things. Walking through a hallway on the second floor of the mansion, she spotted Rosa looking at some large paintings that hung off of the wall.

As she approached, the curly-haired woman turned her head away from a vibrant landscape painting in front of her to look at Scarlett.

"You seemed to have fun earlier," she said with a glint in her eye, before shifting her gaze to a large portrait next to the painting she'd been looking at. "Don't mind me, just sightseeing. Not often you get a free pass to go around fancy places like this, so you gotta take the chance when you can, right? Find some of that artistic inspiration, if you know what I mean."

"...I see," Scarlett mumbled as she stopped next to her. She'd met enough of the creative sort in her life to know that they came in all kinds.

She looked over at the portrait Rosa was studying now. It showed a beautiful woman with dark black hair standing in a scarlet dress with golden filaments across it, staring straight ahead with an almost imperious expression.

"So, who's this supposed to be?" Rosa asked.

Scarlett examined the painting for a short while. "This is Mireya Liana Hartford," she eventually answered. "She was the head five generations back, as well as an accomplished mage." There was a family tree of the Hartfords that was recorded on one of the walls in the library back in Freybrook. During the last week, Scarlett had spent some time familiarizing herself with the different previous family members on it, and Mireya Hartford had been one of the more notable ones.

Rosa looked over the painting for a few seconds. "She sure looks...imposing."

"I believe that was the intent."

"Well, your ancestor sure got their money's worth then," Rosa mused. "It's good. Although maybe a bit avant-garde."

Scarlett arched an eyebrow, ignoring the odd use of a decidedly non-English phrase as she looked closer at the painting. "How so?" She couldn't find anything odd. It was just the portrait, with the background mostly being a blurry brown to emphasize the likeness itself.

"I get she wanted to try and appear all serious and menacing—and I'm not saying it doesn't fit with the color scheme—but, the blood is a bit much, don't you think?"

Scarlett frowned. "The blood?"

Rosa paused and looked at her with an odd expression, staying quiet for a second. Then she smiled. "I'm joking."

She turned back to the painting, and after a moment she pointed to the area beneath the lady's eyes. "Doesn't it sort of look like there's blood coming from her eyes, the way the strokes are done?"

Scarlett focused on the portion Rosa was pointing at. "...I do not see it."

Maybe—if you really squinted your eyes—you could interpret some of the thicker strokes, that had a slightly reddish hue to them, that way. But that was a far stretch.

"That's because you're all serious and grim. You've gotta add some imagination."

Scarlett shook her head. She herself wasn't the most creative of people, sure. But she wasn't that bad.

Stepping away from the portrait, she turned down the hallway. "I have some business to handle, but feel free to explore to your heart's content. As long as you stay in my employ the mansion is open to you as you see fit."

"Oh my. I feel like a princess with the way I'm being treated. And it's only my first day."

"That is good. I have no intention of mistreating those in my service," Scarlett said, then started walking away, but stopped for a moment to look back at Rosa. "Be warned, however. We will soon be leaving on an excursion outside of Elystead, where there will be some dangers present. It is likely that your capabilities will be put to the test, though I am certain that you will not have any issues in handling those circumstances."

Rosa brought her left hand up to her temple in some kind of mock salute. "Your words are my command, captain!"

Scarlett came quite close to rolling her eyes at the sight, but simply turned around and continued down the hallway, leaving the jesting bard on her own. She had an inkling of where Evelyne's office in this place was located, and started making her way in that direction. In the process she passed by a young maid that was cleaning a window facing the small garden Scarlett had been in before, the woman almost jumping away in fright when she first caught sight of her. Scarlett didn't feel like scaring the woman even further, so she elected to simply ignore her and continue her way.

This was probably the first of the servants she'd seen in this place, if you discounted Whiteley and the older lady who had opened the door for them when they'd originally arrived the day before. She didn't know how many people they had working in this place. It was probably only a third the size of the mansion back in Freybrook, so it likely didn't require as large a number of personnel. The number was probably less when the place wasn't in use by its master either. She would ask Evelyne about it—it probably wouldn't even be considered weird for Scarlett not to know about something like that—but this probably wasn't the time. Maybe she could ask for a report on all the people working for the family sometime in the future though. It'd be good to know. She doubted they had any hidden knights or some such that she didn't know about—she wasn't even sure if there were any knights that served households in this world, or if they all were part of knight orders serving the empire—but there was still the possibility that there were some particularly useful people serving the house. A barony wasn't particularly big, but there should still be at least a few people working under them back in their domain.

Scarlett soon reached a door at the end of a corridor—not too far from the main lobby—and knocked on it.

"Wait a moment," a voice rang out from the inside. There was quiet for a short while, followed by the sounds of papers rustling before the voice sounded out again. "Alright, what is it?"

Scarlett opened the door and entered the room. It was a small office with a couple of bookcases lining one of the walls and a singular window on another wall. Evelyne sat behind a wooden desk opposite the entrance and looked surprised when she saw her. "Scarlett? What are you doing here?"

Scarlett fought down the emotions that were bubbling up inside her once again, doing her best to ignore the feelings of disgust and hatred that always emerged when she saw the younger Hartford sister. "I have some matters to discuss with you."

Evelyne looked at her for a second, then pointed to an armchair that stood between the two bookshelves. "Alright. I had something I wanted to know too."

Scarlett walked over and sat down, leaning back in the chair as she turned to look at Evelyne.

"Before you say anything, I have to ask." Evelyne probed her with her eyes. "Was that you outside, earlier?"

Scarlett glanced over at the window. Oh. It did appear to give a view of the garden, though you couldn't see the ground from here. She looked back at Evelyne. "Are you perhaps referring to the fire from earlier?"

"The fire?" Evelyne stared at her for several seconds. "I almost thought we were being attacked. It was blinding! For a second I was sure the window was going to melt."

That wouldn't have happened. Scarlett had been careful not to keep it too close to the building itself.

"So it was you then?" Evelyne continued.

Scarlett thought about if there was any point in denying it for a moment, then nodded her head. "It was."

"Since when can you do something like that?" Evelyne seemed genuinely perplexed. "Is it because of some kind of artifact?"

"I suppose you could say that, yes." She wouldn't have been able to do that with just her own mana supply, after all. [Depraved Solitude's Choker] was pretty vital to her.

"Was it another one of those you found in the Zuverian ruins?"

"No." Scarlett moved her red hair to the side with the back of her hand, showing one of the [Charms of Apperception] that hung off of her ear. "These, however, were."

Evelyne shook her head. "Where do you actually find all of this?"

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"In the likes of those Zuverian ruins, evidently," Scarlett said. "As for how I find those...I believe I explained before how that is not a matter you should presently concern yourself with. However, while we are discussing the subject, I should inform you that I will be leaving on yet another such excursion soon."

"Again? But the Light Fest is starting tomorrow. And the Elysian Proclamation is in just three days." Evelyne knitted her forehead. "How long will you be gone?"

"Not long. I will return before the Proclamation begins."

Evelyne studied Scarlett for a moment. "Can I at least ask where you're going?"

"...North of Elystead. To Temisbrook Woods."

"Temisbrook?" Evelyne asked, furrowing her brows. "That's almost a whole day's travel away."

Scarlett hid her surprise at that. She hadn't quite expected it to be that far away. These distance changes between this world and the game were hard to predict. But there was something she really wanted there, and this was a great opportunity to try out her new group.

"I will be leaving tomorrow," she said. It might be cutting it a bit close, but if they left early tomorrow morning they should be able to make it back in time. She'd rather visit that place sooner than later. "I will not be staying in Temisbrook for long, however," she added.

Evelyne sighed. "It's not as if I can stop you regardless. Just...Please don't miss the Proclamation. We wouldn't be able to handle the consequences of something like that right now."

"I have no intention of being absent for it." Even if she really wanted to avoid most of these noble dealings, this didn't sound like the kind of thing she could afford to skip out on. "On another matter, I have been meaning to ask regarding the results related to the Zuverian ruins. Did that bear any fruit?"

Evelyne got a serious look on her face. "It turned out the local Shields Guild branch had already gone ahead and cleared the rest of the ruins because so much time had passed since you found it. They were afraid it was going to get looted. Right now they have everything stored in a warehouse back in Freybrook, but I was told the majority of the artifacts found were just lighting crystals. I've heard those are worth a decent amount, though. There were also some things they hadn't identified yet, mainly what remained of some of the traps and other devices."

She signaled to some of the papers on the desk in front of her. "The Guild might be the ones currently possessing it, but I'm in the process of changing that. They themselves admitted that you were the one that discovered the ruins, and that that gives you the legal right to what's found. It's a little problematic because you didn't collect it yourself, but considering a full month still hasn't passed, I think I'll be able to handle it. I've already spoken with a representative of the Brook Tower about selling some of the crystals to them, and I think I might be able to get in contact with someone from the Ustrum Assembly who could be interested in studying some of the other things that were found."

Scarlett listened on with a neutral expression and slowly nodded her head. It seemed she caused more trouble than she expected by not sharing this information earlier. If she ever visited another place or dungeon that she thought could have things that were valuable besides the items she wanted she would have to make sure to inform Evelyne about it.

"I've also continued the work on setting up the orphanage you told me to arrange," Evelyne continued.

Scarlett paused. Right, she'd almost completely forgotten about that. "And how is that proceeding?" she asked.

"The orphanage itself is already mostly up and running as far as I know. It turns out Garside had already hired some temporary workers to take care of the children. They were competent enough, and a couple spoke Voneian, so I didn't have to do much about that. It'll take some time for the orphanage to be officially recognized though, so it won't be eligible for any allocations from the city or official donations. That would require passing several inspections and a lot of time, but I'm working on the necessary paperwork right now. You're going to need to name it, though."

Scarlett arched an eyebrow. "Me?"

"We'll be setting it up in the household's name, and you're the family head. But if you find it annoying I can—"

"No, I do not mind," Scarlett waved her hand in the air and looked out the window, leaning her head on her fingers. What should she name it? Naming things wasn't her forte.

"Call it The Scarlett Cross," she said after a moment. She wasn't averse to copying pre-existing groups. She also imagined that people wouldn't find it particularly odd if she, as Scarlett, named things after herself.

"Scarlett Cross?" Evelyne seemed a bit surprised at the name. "...Alright. If you say so," she said, looking down as she wrote it on a piece of paper.

"There was also one more matter I wanted to discuss," Scarlett added.

Evelyne looked up again. "And what's that?"

"It's regarding some promising business prospects here in Elystead." Scarlett noticed a blank piece of paper at the front of the desk. She raised her hand in the air, focusing, she created a straight line of fire in a shape similar to a pen above the paper. As lightly as possible, she then tried to press the faux writing implement against the paper as she burned a few place names into the sheet. It was a bit hard from this angle, but Scarlett felt like the result wasn't too bad. When she finished, she turned her attention back to Evelyne — who was staring at her in shock.

Gesturing to the paper, Scarlett spoke. "These are locations of three closed-down businesses on the Silver Way that I have reason to believe will make for good investments. I would like for you to inquire into the possibility of us acquiring and managing them in the future, when given the opportunity."

Apparently still a bit surprised about the whole fire-pen thing, Evelyne reached out for the paper with a doubtful expression. She touched the letters that were burned into it, examining them, before turning the piece of paper around to actually read what it said.

Scarlett looked on as she did. Using her pyromancy like that had mostly just been an off-the-cuff impulse that struck her fancy. It had seemed far simpler than rising from her chair, at least. But she had to admit, it was a little amusing seeing the younger woman react like this to it.

"What are these places?" Evelyne suddenly asked.

Scarlett leaned back in her chair as she tried to recall the game variants of the names she'd written down. They were all the places she had visited the day before. "I believe one is a weavery, one is a silversmith, and the last dealt with jewellery of some kind," she said. "I am not knowledgeable of the specific details of these locales, nor of the types of appliances and equipment that are present there; I simply wanted you to explore the possibilities."

Evelyne looked up at her. "Really? That's everything?"

Scarlett gave a short nod. "It is, yes. There is no obligation for us to act on this matter if you judge there to be no value in it."

Evelyne went quiet. She stared at her as if she was looking at a ghost. Scarlett was beginning to get used to variants of that expression by now.

"It'll have to wait until after the Proclamation, at least," Evelyne said.

"That is acceptable."

"And there's no guarantee of us being able to afford to buy these places, even if we manage to sell the artifacts from the ruins. We have other debts and expenses that we have to prioritize."

"I will arrange some additional funds if necessary. We can consider it as an investment."

Evelyne went quiet again. Then she opened up a drawer on the desk and put the paper in it. "I'm assuming you won't tell me why you're so interested in these places in particular," she stated dryly as she closed the drawer, leaning forward on the desk.

"You assume correctly." Scarlett could have tried and thought up some lie for this part, but considering how little even she actually knew of these locations she would have been hard-pressed to come up with anything believable. She doubted saying she 'had a feeling' would cut it.

Thankfully, Evelyne seemed to give up pretty easily on most matters that had to do with Scarlett. That in itself didn't exactly bode well for the sister-sister relationship between the two—she didn't want to think too much about what Evelyne had to have dealt with over the years—but Scarlett didn't mind using that fact at times like this.

Silence filled the room, and after some time with neither of them speaking Evelyne asked, "Was there something else you wanted to talk about?"

Scarlett looked at her for a moment, then shook her head. They would have more opportunities to speak in the future. "Then I will take my leave."

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