Chapter 25 – Goodnight, My Governess.

After seeing Priscilla Halevy off, Letaria walked alone down Cranea's main street as the simulated evening lights came on.

The heat and noise of the earlier market had settled. Foot traffic was sparse. Only the steady rhythm of the magnetic rail containers passing overhead broke the quiet at regular intervals.

She stopped.

She hadn't yet fully adapted to how this world measured time. But a mild ache in her feet was making the case for rest.

"...Come to think of it--where am I sleeping tonight?"

In Seldia, Milea and the others had arranged a room for her. This was an unknown station. The usual assumptions didn't apply.

As if sensing the thought at precisely the right moment, her bracelet buzzed.

"--Letaria. It's night. Have you had enough exploring?"

On the monitor: Milea, in the lab. Unchanged.

"Milea. Good timing. ...The inspection is more or less complete. However, a problem has come to light."

"A problem? Did something happen?"

"No. ...I cannot find an inn. I have no intention of sleeping in the street."

(An inn...?)

Milea paused for a moment.

"Ah. A hotel."

She shrugged, with the expression of someone who had expected exactly this.

"You hadn't secured lodging, I see. ...Don't worry. I arranged it in advance. I'll send navigation now--go there."

"My. How thorough. You have my thanks."

"Fufu, you're welcome. I booked the finest available bed in Cranea for you--befitting a princess."

"I am not a princess! I am a duke's daughter!"

The correction was spirited. But something small and warm had moved through Letaria's chest. The small details of daily life she hadn't thought to manage--Milea was handling them, from somewhere far away.

◆◆◆

The navigation led to a high-rise hotel in a quieter residential stretch a short distance from Cranea's center.

Nothing like the cramped energy of the market. White ceramic walls, clean and precise. Automatic doors. The opposite of everything she had just walked through.

Letaria held her bracelet to the front desk reader. An automated voice greeted her with composed warmth.

"We have been expecting you, Letaria Adeniam-sama. We will show you to the suite on the top floor."

The elevator opened. A heavy door swung wide.

"...My."

An involuntary sound.

The room was more than twice the size of the functional but modest space she had been given in Seldia. Deep carpet underfoot. One entire wall was transparent glass--and through it, Cranea's iron cityscape spread out below, glittering like a sea of stars.

"Do you like it? When Syn-Fibra staff travel to Cranea, this is where the expense account goes."

Milea's voice, through the still-open comm--slightly proud.

"Expense account...? Oh--so you use this too. Fufu. At last, somewhere suited to my standing."

Letaria sank into the soft sofa and let out a long breath.

The tension of the escort mission. The unfamiliar noise of Cranea. The encounter with Priscilla. Everything that had been held taut in her body began, in the silence of the hotel, to slowly release.

◆◆◆

After a shower and a change into the robe provided--softer than anything in Seldia--Letaria settled onto the bed and picked up her bracelet.

It was deep in the night. But through the comm, the scene behind Milea had not changed.

"Milea. ...Are you still in the lab?"

"Yes. I'm cross-referencing Arden's combat data from the escort mission against some other records. If I don't finish this, I can't plan tomorrow's schedule."

On screen: Milea, coffee in hand, tapping steadily through her keyboard.

"...How much longer will it take?"

"About three more hours, I'd think. Then an hour of sleep, then the morning briefing."

"My goodness!"

The dismay in Letaria's voice was exaggerated. But it was genuine.

"You always do this! No days off, staying up all night--it is an absolute failure of basic feminine self-discipline! My governess--Chiara--said over and over that proper sleep is essential for maintaining one's appearance!"

Milea's hands stopped. She stared at the screen with an expression that said oh no.

"...Excuse me. That's my choice to make. I'm a researcher. Processing data while it's still fresh is an obligation. You push yourself too, you're hardly in a position to--"

"Oh no you do not! You spend every day lecturing me about routine and proper conduct, and here you are ignoring your own rules entirely! You practice what you preach--or you do not preach it!"

Letaria leaned toward the screen, finger extended in pointed accusation.

"And if you resist--I shall have you accompany me through Cranea's main street in that frilly pink dress of yours, as my lady's maid. In broad daylight. Consider yourself warned."

"--!!"

Milea went still.

The frilly dress. That particular memory was the one and only thing capable of producing this reaction in Milea Ichinose, and they both knew it.

"...Fine. Fine. ...I'll shut down right now."

"Ohohohoho! Good. Now go to sleep this instant!"

"Yes, yes. Goodnight--Your Highness."

"I have told you, I am not--! ...Goodnight, Milea."

The comm closed.

The room settled into quiet. A small smile remained on Letaria's face.

◆◆◆

She dimmed the lights.

The ceiling cleared to transparency, and above her, the configured night sky appeared--different from the view in Seldia. Farther away, somehow. But unmistakably radiant.

(...She is a peculiar person. Milea.)

She had thought of it as a transactional arrangement. Each side using the other.

But here, alone in a distant station, settling into sleep--hearing Milea's voice was enough to make the gravity of loneliness feel, just slightly, lighter.

Letaria closed her eyes.

As consciousness drifted down, something brushed past her senses. A scent. Impossible in this world of iron and sparks--the smell of early summer flowers.

(...Chiara...)

In the dream that found her: a stern face, softened by something beneath it. Hands moving carefully through her hair.

"My lady. Sit straight. Wherever you go, you carry the pride of House Adeniam."

Yes. I am a duke's daughter.

No matter how far they have flung me. No matter how distant the stars.

Letaria Adeniam's breathing slowed and settled.

Cranea's night deepened. The artificial stars went on glittering, quietly, as if keeping watch over her sleep.