How does one overcome the problem of having not just one, but two pouting children in your vicinity? Not only that, they're sandwiching you and somehow, somehow the adults in the room expect you to deal with it!

  Rontress didn't bother to do anything, she's here to tell her parents about what's happening in Flotol. Actually, this goes beyond their tiny little town, the whole thing envelops the entire kingdom and they're just unlucky enough to be at the center of it all.

  "As I said, two or possibly even three Duchy's are out to get Ifira, they want her and the rest of the Haromago dead and their territories seized." She said as calmly as she possibly could. "It just so happens that we are part of that territory so they're attacking us too."

  "But why did they attack us first? Shouldn't it be Euthiel?" Putting aside the fact that her mother is now calling the current ruler of Ghorise by her first name, she had a point. "It doesn't make sense."

  "Well, there's two possible reasons why they did this: one is that they assumed we're the pillars that keeps this place running—" which isn't inaccurate. "— and two, they wanted us gone so they could replace our family with someone they could puppet. By doing that, they have access to the territory's internal functions and could sabotage it at will."

  "Thank you for explaining." Her mother sighed. "So, what are we gonna do about it?"

  "Nothing, I've already made plans and have made allies with members of the royal family, including the king, to handle this situation. Just leave it to me." Rontress watched her mother raise one finger, mouth slightly open, expression shifting, then the finger went down.

  She appreciates that her mother didn't ask her about it.

  "You're handling the situation? That's good." Thomala, her father, looked at his wife then back at Rontress. "Why do they want to do it?"

  "I'm not telling." This? She refused to do. It would put her family at risk if they know things they shouldn't, they're already targets so piling more reasons on top of that will only make things worse. That and... "Because I don't know anything about what's happening right now, the wider details? Sure. I can tell you about them, but the hows and whys are currently beyond me."

  "You won't tell us even if you do know, right?" Her mother was spot on, Rontress nodded in confirmation. "Unfortunate, but if it's this important then I don't think I have any right to do something about it, am I even qualified to do so?"

  "No, not really." Their faces fell the moment Rontress confirmed they weren't good enough to help. "Look, I know it's stressful not being able to do anything but wait—"

  "No, not really." Thomala shook his head. "We're more than happy to simply sit back, we know how hard it is to play politics with nobles, that's why we throw reports your way remember?"

  "Right." Should she be thankful? Hate them for throwing work their daughter's way without an ounce of guilt? "Thanks for the vote of confidence mom, dad."

  "You're welcome, now, if you'll give us Rogue, we can leave you and your friend alone to sort out whatever it is that's happening between you." Her mother stood up, she reached for Rigue's hand. "Come on Rigue, leave your aunts to do their own thing, you don't wanna come between them when they're fighting, your father once tried and he would have lost his arm if not for Rontress, who was also the one responsible for the injury."

  Once they all left, Rontress turned to Ifira, her fingers raising to form a V. "I win."

  "Hmph." Ifira sighed. "How did that brat hide from my senses anyway?"

  "You probably just avoided the room with a crate full of rotting fish, right?" At that, Ifira nodded. Rontress wistfully exhaled, "yeah, I get why you did it, I wonder how long that stupid crate has been sitting there for?"

  "Long enough to fill the entire second floor with the smell of rot."

  "That checks out, yeah." Rontress got up as well. "Should we go?"

  "Come on."

  The two of them were free for the rest of the day so they kind of just sat inside their ice cream shop doing nothing. Because of the overwhelming number of people who come to buy, the shop is usually closed but Rontress felt the need to let off some steam today so she opened the doors.

  Most of the time, even if Ifira is here, she's the one who does all the work. Her friend wasn't exactly happy that so many people visit every single time they open their doors— though she was enthusiastic about it in the first week or so. Yes. Week. — so she sits out and lets Rontress' plants do the work, today? It is different.

  Rontress turned to the side, Ifira was really there, serving ice cream and smiling while she did so. What's going on?

  "Uh, Ifira, can I ask why you're..."

  "I apologize for leaving you alone all this time, okay? I'll make it up from now on." The thumbs up Ifira gave her wasn't reassuring. "We'll run this shop together."

  "When we decide to open it." Rontress looked at the giant line that formed in front of the counter and decided that it wouldn't happen daily. "Honestly, even I admit this is exhausting, and we're running out of ice cream."

  She's glad that her plant manipulation is versatile enough that she can use vines and branches to manipulate her environment, without them, she wouldn't be able to keep up with the demand of the shop.

  "I swear it's like people tell the entirety of Flotol about the shop opening and then they all flock here to buy." Or maybe that is what's actually happening? Should she check? Nah, she's flattered that their shop is this popular so she's not gonna hate on it.

  "That or they see others eating ice cream and come to the conclusion that our shop is open."

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  "Yeah, that too." What's the difference anyway? And what's the point of finding the real reason why so many people are coming over?

  When the number of people finally came to a crawl, Rontress flipped the sign over. Now no one should come.

  And hey, opening the shop did its job! She's now mentally exhausted and has forgotten about all the stressful things she just went through today, now all that's left is to rest and start working on them again.

  Starting with Ifira and whatever is happening to their relationship right now.

  Or so she would have liked.

  Rontress is proud to say that her plans rarely derail, this is true even back in her first life. Whenever she thinks of something, it usually ends with favorable results.

  On the off chance that it does happen... She's unsure of what to do.

  Like right now where she just walks with Ifira, all awkward and confused on what the next steps would be. Well actually, she does know what will happen, or what's supposed to happen, the problem is, she just can't take the first step.

  Every time she opens her mouth to speak she freezes up, is this out of guilt? Maybe she just feels this is unfair? And isn't it? This whole situation wasn't her fault, Ifira simply decided to be mean to her because what? She left during midnight to plan with Princess Eonea? How is that fair?

  ... Okay, she sees the problem. Damn it.

  Ifira acting like a child shouldn't make her hate the girl in return, seriously, being so petty that you'd give someone the cold shoulder for being mean is not something Rontress thought she'd ever start doing but here she is, being petty. How childish of her.

  Unfair or not, she wants to make amends and so, Rontress worked on doing just that: she waited until they got home to take action, once they entered their cabin Rontress dragged Ifira to the couch and made her sit.

  "Stay here, I'm making dinner."

  "Why would you even?.."

  "Just stay there!" Rontress pointed at her with narrowed eyes. "Okay?"

  As she cooked something, Rontress couldn't help but ask herself if she was being too much. She wasn't right? Was she being too extreme? On one hand, she either becomes condescendingly cold or she does whatever this is.

  Meat falls into the pan, they sizzle as she fries them alongside onions and other vegetables. Once they turn brown, sauce made from egg yolk stirred in melted butter gets poured. Rontress held a pitcher of milk as she constantly mixed the pot, carefully making sure it doesn't clump or get too viscous.

  Every so often, she would pour the milk before continuing to mix it, just like that, she repeats this several more times.

  Pour, mix, pour, mix. Up until a sweet scent wafts from the mixture, vegetables soon follow, already boiled so that they soften moments after being dropped into the soup.

  Minutes were counted as Rontress carefully mixed, the taste of vegetables would get into the curry if she did this wrong so she put all her focus into cooking.

  Heat dies and steam stops coming out of the soup, the pan comes off the magical stove moments after and then the curry is transferred into a pair of bowls.

  As they cool, Rontress splashes water over the pan, clearing it of leftover soup before putting it back into the fire. She cuts up more meat while waiting for the metal to start heating up, halfway through, she fills it with oil.

  "You're actually putting effort into this." Ifira steps into the kitchen the moment Rontress starts deep frying the pork. "Impressive, what got you so worked up?"

  "Hm... I'd say it's because I feel guilty. Maybe." Was that the real reason? She wasn't sure. "I don't want you to think that I'm choosing the princess over you, okay? I'll never do that."

  "Rontress, I understand that you won't—"

  "You're still hung up on it."

  "No I'm not!" Ifira yelled, she pointed an accusing finger at Rontress. "You're making stuff up!"

  "Am I?" Keeping a careful watch while arguing really is difficult, she still made it work of course. "Or am I right when I say that the princess is practically living in your mind at this point."

  "She's only been here for a day. Who cares about her?” Ifira scowled. "And isn't it the princess! It's her brother!"

  "Aegob?" Wait, why is she confused? She just got an admission out of Ifira! She should take advantage of this and push her point. "Why would you even worry about him?"

  "Okay... You're right but..." Ifira's expression turned complicated, so did the feelings behind her eyes. Whatever emotions are warring in her mind right now is making her think chaotically. "I can forgive you if... You..."

  'She's thinking hard about this.' Rontress thought while removing meat from the pan. 'I wonder what she comes up with?'

  "I'll forgive you if you let me decide who you will be marrying! And only I am allowed to do that, if I say no, then you're not allowed to marry that person."

  "Okay." That was it? She's never gonna show interest towards anyone anyway so that kind of threat is basically pointless. Did Ifira think she's actually interested in marriage? How amusing. "You're the one who's gonna choose who I will marry."

  "Good! Because I am gonna pick the best guy for you! Not some pathetic donkey in the guise of a prince!"

  "If that's what you want." How insane is that? Aegob's reputation is so bad that no sane parent wouldn't want their daughter to marry him. "Can I ask you something?"

  "Yes."

  "Am I still allowed to talk to guys?" Now this is the thing that will either make or break the whole thing.

  "Of course you are, you're just not allowed to marry them yourself, I need to decide that."

  "So you won't mind if I talk to Aegob?" Rontress took one look at Ifira's expression and could immediately tell she's hesitating.

  "... Fine! You are! But you're not allowed to marry him got that?!"

  "If that's what you want then sure, I won't." Great, this means that her plan can proceed as intended. "And dinner is ready, should we eat?"

  "Finally, you do not know how hard it was to just sit still in the living room while delicious smells are coming out of the kitchen." Ifira shuddered. "I couldn't resist the call in the end and fell to temptation, now I'm here."

  "What a weird way to confess that you're a glutton."

  "No, no, not a glutton, I just think that the food you cook smells way too good that no regular human being would be able to resist it. I was complimenting you and saying that you are an exception when it comes to my desires."

  "Sure, whatever you say." By this point Rontress was just teasing her. "Glutton."

  "Fine, you win, I'm falling into the depths of gluttony, but only because you cook well! If it's not for your food I wouldn't act like this."

  No reply came on Rontress' side of the back and forth, she was aware that they were now repeating themselves and any more of it will just cause one or even both of them to feel tired and then they'd need to restart the mood.

  Instead, Rontress changed the topic, "you know, I've always thought about what we should do once we're out of the little bubble we built around Flotol and Ghorise."

  "Me too." Ifira didn't do anything as they both settled in at the dining table, content to just watch Rontress place plates around her. "We haven't gotten any invitations from other nobles yet but it shouldn't take long before we do, especially now that the crown visited us."

  "Getting into circles would mean we have access to information and resources we normally wouldn't though, do I think it's a good idea to make connections with other nobles." The counter that Rontress had was the exact opposite of what Ifira was implying but that's the point, she wanted her friend to think about this whole thing beyond their emotional needs.

  "You're not wrong, do you already have ideas on who we should ally with coming forward?"

  "Not yet." She has no idea what other nobles have to offer during an alliance, actually, she doesn't even know who they are. "But I'll come up with something eventually, what about you?"

  "This is your job, I think." And now Ifira is back to relegating tasks to her.

  She's shouldering all their problems on her own? Nope, sheil is just given a lot of jobs by everyone else, which she isn't really against doing, Rontress likes it when she has some degree of control when it comes to managing the territory, she sleeps easy knowing that Flotol and Ghorise are in the right hands.

  "Oh wow... This really does taste good." Ifira was breathless as she shoved spoonfuls into her mouth. "Why don't you do this more often?"

  "I don't want to get another cooking related class."

  "Understandable." Ifira nodded in agreement and the two of them proceeded to eat dinner in silence.