Hug Me and You'll Die

16: It's not as if your attempts at courtship were fruitful thus far.

Kale bolted upright in his chair. "I've said it before but I'll do whatever you need me to, young mistress!"

Desmia's smile grew more prominent as she brought her hands together. "Great! I was hoping you'd say that." She turned to address everyone else. "Now that we're sure of Kale's resolve, tomorrow we shall head into town to aid him in capturing this so-called Sherry's heart!"

It took a while for Kale to process her words but when he did, his expression instantly morphed into one of great distress. Although he suddenly had much he wanted to say, all that came out from his mouth was a loud and disbelieving, "WHAT?!" as he shot up from his chair.

Tarragon placed a hand on Kale's arm to indicate that he needed to calm down. While it was acceptable for their masters to lose their composure in their presence, the reverse was entirely impermissible. Servants who lacked self-control and mindfulness in front of their masters were unfit to be servants.

In fact, when Saffron had scolded the young mistress earlier, though Tarragon understood her concerns, he wasn't able to condone her brashness. This was especially because Saffron did not have the excuse of inexperience and youth as Kale and Brie did, to justify her misconduct. Of the four servants, Tarragon was the most stringent when it came to upholding the propriety of the master and servant relationship.

With Tarragon's interference, Kale realized that he was acting out of line so he took a deep breath to composed himself before fixing his chair and slowly sliding into it.

Tarragon gave him a few pats on the shoulder to show that he had done well then shifted his focus to Desmia. "Pardon me, young mistress, but I believe you'll need to elaborate further on your previous comment. It could be that I'm no longer as sharp as I once was but I honestly fail to see how intervening with Kale's personal matters will benefit our business."

"Nonsense, Tarragon," dismissed Desmia breezily. "You're as shrewd as they come. A sly old fox as some might say!"

It was unclear to those that were listening if she meant this as a compliment or a verbal jab; however, they did not dwell on this for long as Desmia soon continued with, "Nonetheless, since you'd like me to elaborate, I will. In my opinion, the easiest and most effective way to prove that our blue roses grant luck to those who confess is for us to help a handful of people who use them in their confessions become successful in forming a coupling."

Brie seemed to recall something. "Ah, you mentioned something like that this morning too, didn't you?" 

"Indeed, I did." I'm glad at least one person was paying close attention back then. Good job, Brie! Once I perfect that increased dexterity pill, you'll be the first one I'll give it to!

The earl rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hm, if I'm understanding this right, essentially how we go about forming these couplings isn't actually as important as remembering to give the credit of their success to blue roses in the end, correct? Even when the roses themselves would've actually had little to do with the successes, because they haven't truly been blessed by a goddess?"

Desmia nodded in satisfaction. "Exactly." It's good to know we're on the same page, earl. For that I'll see if I can develop a stain removing concoction just for you. That handkerchief is much too grubby!

Tarragon seemed to be ruminating over everything that was said. "Interesting, so this is how one can make an outright lie ring of the truth..."