While Emilia stood off to the side, she heard a voice grumbling. "Not a single day of peace around here. Why is everyone suddenly rummaging through everything today?"
Startled, Emilia wondered how there could possibly be a voice talking here. The voice then told her to stop looking around like she had lost her mind.
At first Emilia assumed Tatau was just teasing her, but the voice spoke up again to correct her. "How does a little kid like this end up here anyway? Not that it matters, since it can't hear a thing."
Annoyed, Emilia shot back, "I can hear you just fine. That's why I'm answering. And who exactly are you?"
Startled that she could actually hear it, the voice told her to turn and look to her left. Emilia turned and saw a flower.
She asked Tatau what exactly this was. Tatau smiled and explained that it was a macken bloom, a plant found only in the north, known for swaying back and forth just like that.
When Emilia asked if it could talk, he burst out laughing. How could a flower possibly talk? People just kept it as a house plant because it was so charming to look at.
Seeing how intently Emilia was staring at it, Tatau offered to give it to her, telling her to take good care of it if she liked it.
Emilia blinked, baffled. She had absolutely no desire to bring it home.
But the plant itself suddenly begged, "Please take me with you. I don't need to eat anything at all. I'll be good, I promise."
In the end, Emilia had no choice but to reluctantly bring it along.
Tatau happily shared his secret to raising the plant. Just give it a little pat and it would perk right up. The plant immediately cursed at the madman and swore it would never forget this hellish day.
Tatau explained that if Emilia took good care of it, its bud would bloom at some unexpected moment. Though, as far as anyone knew, no one had ever actually witnessed it happen. He had tried everything himself and never managed it. Who knew? Maybe Emilia would be the one to finally pull it off. Rumor had it that whoever made a macken bloom could have a wish granted.
By then, the master and Cardan had finished their conversation. Seeing them step out, Emilia ran over happily.
Cardan scooped her up fondly and asked, "What's this yellow flower thing? Why would you give my daughter something so useless?" He grumbled inwardly, cursing this brat for daring to hand his little girl such an odd gift.
The master chuckled and said he still had something to discuss. Even though Emilia's mana already surpassed that of high tier mages, she still needed proper study and training. He asked if she would like to become a student of the mage tower. While becoming the tower's youngest student would draw plenty of attention, the tower would also take responsibility for her protection.
Cardan did not push her either way, worried only that it might put too much pressure on her.
Delighted, Emilia said it was fine. She wanted to learn magic anyway, so she could protect Cardan once she had mastered it.
Cardan smiled and told her she could do whatever she wanted. He would indulge her no matter what.
The next morning, Emilia was woken up out of her sleep.
"Emilia, get me some water. I know you're already awake, so hurry up."
With no other choice, Emilia got up to fetch it water.
Over the past few days, chatting with the macken, she had learned a great deal. Macken were not ordinary flowers at all. They were nature spirits. Hunted by other creatures, they had had no choice but to hide themselves inside flower buds. It begged her to break the curse on it, promising it would do anything for her in return. Seeing it sob so pitifully, Emilia had agreed. But everything had to happen in its own time.
After all, life as a young lady kept her plenty busy.
Cardan had gifted her an entire wardrobe of new dresses. At first his gift giving had seemed rather sweet, so she had accepted it. She never expected he would end up giving her this many.
Once she had finished changing, she scampered off happily to find Cardan. He handed her a letter, telling her it was from the mage tower and that in two days she would begin her lessons there.
There was also a whole stack of other letters addressed to her, most of them from various noble young ladies. Word had spread that she was studying at the mage tower, and they were inviting her to balls and gatherings, hoping to build connections. She never imagined they would want to cozy up to a six-year-old.
Looking at the father standing before her, she knew that if she said she wanted to go, he would surely let her. But if they thought they could push around some pushover six-year-old, they were sorely mistaken. She flatly refused. She could not care less about any of this nonsense anyway.
Pleased with her answer, Cardan set the letters ablaze and told her there was no need to send any replies.
Watching this, Emilia could not help but marvel. He really was the spitting image of a villain, and an impressively cool one at that. If she had actually been a real six-year-old, she probably would have burst into tears by now.
Speaking of which, Emilia suddenly remembered something and handed Cardan a small bag, startling him. It turned out to be a gift she had made for him, a batch of baked pastries.
Emilia had been spending her free time lately hanging around the kitchen, getting friendly with the staff. Baking looked fun, so she had jumped right in and given it a try. And despite the chef's endless pleading to stop, both the pastries and the baking tray ended up burnt to a crisp. The color was a little strange, admittedly, but she still wanted Cardan to try the pastries she had made with her own hands.
Sure enough, the moment he held the bag, Cardan broke into a cold sweat.
Emilia proudly announced that the head chef had begged her so much that she let him try just one bite. "I'm really sorry about that, Papa."
Cardan, his face darkening, told her it would be fine even if she let him eat all of it.