Hug Me and You'll Die

14: Have you any pride left as a member of the aristocracy?

"Oh, sure. Not at all." Kale flashed Desmia an apologetic look. "Sorry, young mistress. I promise you we can play shop with these later."

"Brie, go help the young mistress wash up," instructed Tarragon.

It was clear that Desmia's business proposal was not being taken seriously in the least! F***! I want to set up a real shop! Not play shop!

In a fit of fury, Desmia grabbed one of the steaming bowls of porridge on the table with one hand.

"Please be careful, young mistress! Those bowls are very hot!" rebuked Saffron worriedly.

Although Desmia could feel the heat from the bowl slowly begin to burn her hand, she backed away so that Saffron couldn't take it from her. "You want us to finish eating before we can start properly planning? Fine! I'll finish eating!"

She gave one last fierce look before she placed her lips on the tilted rim of the bowl and took a huge gulp of porridge with determination.

The intense burning sensation that at once filled her mouth caused her to spit the porridge out just as quickly as it came in. "Pfffbt!" Holy mother of-!

"Young mistress, are you alright?!?!"

"Quick! Get the young mistress some ice or some cold water!"

Brie frantically picked up a random cup from the table and handed it to Desmia.

Without looking, Desmia took a big swig from the cup only to spray out the liquid inside the cup in great pain, a split second later. "Fffffuu!"

"Brie!!! That was hot tea!" cried Kale as he took the cup from Desmia.

"I'm sorry!!!!!" Brie appeared as if she was near tears. "I was panicking!!!!!"

"Here, young mistress! Drink this! It's safe to drink!" assured Tarragon as he handed Desmia a cup of water.

Desmia alternated between sipping on the water and fanning her tongue for many minutes before the pain lessened to the point where she could resume speech. "Ahh, that's better." But damn, that was insufferable! I really need to remember that I don't have an immortal body right now!

"What in gods' names compelled you to do something so foolish?!" Furious, Saffron neglected to address Desmia by title.

Desmia frowned. "No one was listening to me so I had to do something! Can't you see that nothing is more important right now than discussing how we're going to go about selling the roses?"

"No. I can't see. I'll confess that I was only half-listening to you earlier and you'll have to forgive me for being imprudent, but aren't you getting a little bit ahead of yourself, young mistress?" challenged Saffron. "You keep going on and on about opening a shop but do you even know the first thing about buying and selling merchandise? It's not as fun as you may think it is!"

"I don't want open a business because I think it'll be fun. I want to do this because it'll make us money!"

"To think that we could create and sell enough of these roses to clear our debt is just too optimistic, young mistress! As splendid as your roses are, in the end they're just flowers! And flowers serve no real use except as decoration! Not many people are willing and can afford to splurge too often on mere decoration!"

"That may be true about other flowers but not these ones, Saffron!" contended Desmia. "You know why? Because these flowers have been blessed by a goddess and as a result, if one uses them to confess to the person they like, their confession will undoubtedly be successful!"