Secret Wardrobe of the Duchess

Chapter 52

Edgar narrowed his eyes at seeing Rubica’s eyes shine like that. It was similar to the expression she had made when she saw him for the first time. At the time, Edgar had been unimpressed to see her. He just thought, ‘It’s happening again’.

Someone falling with his beauty wasn’t even something to be surprised about. He had been just slightly interested in her for not being able to hide her excitement.

But very much annoyingly, it turned out Rubica didn’t look only at him that way. She sometimes, no, often made that expression. She had even looked at the cake at dinner that way. It made him feel just a little bad.

“Edgar?”

Edgar kept looking down at Rubica, so she hesitated for a second and called his name. Edgar smiled at his own childishness for getting annoyed at such a trivial thing and took her hand.

“Let me show you.”

Deep darkness filled their way to where the mana quartz statues were. On their way, Edgar started to feel better and better. He thought he had made the right decision when making the guards go away.

“Ugh!”

His good mood reached its height when Rubica held him tightly because of something that leaped out of the darkness. He didn’t have a habit of feeling happy when seeing others suffer. But the tighter Rubica held him while shaking in fear, the higher his lips curled up.

“Shh, it’s just a squirrel.”

“A squirrel?”

Because of the war she had suffered, Rubica reacted sensitively to the darkness and to things that abruptly leaped out. She had never seen something good leap out of the darkness. She thought that round thing jumping out of bushes was a bomb. So, she then let out a sigh of relief. The place was peaceful, at least for now.

“You are more faint-hearted than I thought.”

Edgar said with laughter which angered Rubica. She wanted to get away from him, but she couldn’t calm down just yet. Instead, she pinched his arm with all her might.

“How much do we have to go? You’re not doing this to me on purpose, right?”

“Of course.”

Edgar had to fight the urge to take a detour to see Rubica get surprised again as he showed her the way. Rubica’s eyes soon widened when seeing the spectacle in front of her.

“Wow.”

Mana quartz statues were decorated around the glowing fountain. Rubica could put her fear away thanks to the statues’ light. She let go of Edgar’s hand and started to look around.
Each mana quartz statues let out a different color of light according to its mineral component and content of mana. Most let out a moon-like blue light, but a few glowed in red and yellow. Rubica was impressed to see the craftsmen’s skills of carving them in accordance with each mana quartz’s color.

“… but this one is barely glowing.”

She said so when seeing a baby angel statue. Its light was so faint that she had almost passed by it thinking it was just an ordinary statue.

“Mana quartz exposed to the air loses its light after about a decade.”

“It loses its light?”

Rubica hadn’t known that. It was a rare stone only those with both wealth and power could get. It was so rare that only huge trading companies sold it, and only the nobles of high ranks put it in their gardens, so most people knew almost nothing about it.