Chapter 16 – So I wondered (疑問に思ったのよ。)

With the invitation to the Royal Palace looming tomorrow, I felt like a hole was opened in my stomach due to stress, so I decided to pay a visit to the Schneiver house.

I want to meet Ursch-kun and be healed by him!!

Even if he's completely black on the inside, Ursch-kun is still my greatest source of comfort!!

After arriving at the Schneiver residence, I learned that Ursch-kun isn't home much these days.

Rather, it seems that he's more often than not holed up in his workshop, working hard on creating new Magic Items.

And that when I previously met him in town, it just happened to be some really good timing.

The servant who responded to my visit prepared a carriage for me, and I have now arrived at Ursch-kun's workshop, located at a short distance from the center of the royal city.

For a 6-year-old to be given his very own workshop..... just what on earth..

And isn't this workshop a bit too big?

There's enough room to store 3 fighter jets, and even undergo maintenance on them with space to spare, you know?

....That was a weird example.

Anyway, within the workshop—which looks as large as a big, brick warehouse, was a two-storey wooden house.

Yes. There was a building within a building.

At present, I'm on the second floor of that house with Ursch-kun, who is currently hammering away at a magic stone.

All by ourselves, just the two of us.

The servant who brought me here seems to have been busy, and had gone back already.

How careless to leave behind two kids all by themselves...

I mean, I'm technically "still" a Duke's daughter, and Ursch-kun is the son of a major merchant.

What if a kidnapper broke in for ransom or something? There's a limit to how careless you can be.

If you let the two of us fight them off, it'd be a total massacre and become a huge mess!

...Ah..right, we're definitely not going to be targeted.

"Oooh, so you're going to the Queen's tea party tomorrow~. Huh? Isabella, how old were you again?"

Ursch-kun paused in his work and removed his round, metal goggle-like glasses to peer up at me.

Even though this was supposedly a fantasy world of swords and magic, Ursch-kun looked like an inhabitant straight out of a steampunk universe with those goggles of his.

Well, it looks surprisingly good on him, so I don't see any problems with that.

In fact, Ursch-kun's cute, comforting image had just turned into a cool, stylish one.

In other words!! This new-found discovery of another side of Ursch-kun's charms is making me utterly fangirling inside!!

Yeah, that's right!! I'm the type of girl who loves the manly figure of a hardworking craftsman type!!

While suppressing my feverish inner thoughts filled with heavy panting, I replied to Ursch-kun with a pot of tea in my hand.

"I'm six. Still too young for a tea party, but since I've been formally invited, I have no choice. By the way, I made tea, but where's the teacups?"

"Oh, thanks~. You can pour the tea into that over there. So that means you may get to meet the Second Prince."

"Huh? Why's that? Sure it's the royal palace, so their highnesses would live there, but the Second Prince is six years old like me, so he shouldn't attend the tea party. Also, by ‘that’, do you mean this?

"Yeah, that. ...Well, it's just a guess of mine."

Ursch-kun gave me an ominous prediction as he sat while hugging the backrest of the chair.

In my opinion, I don't really want to meet any of the Love Interests...

Even if I'm already engaged to Ursch-kun.

"If it's a guess from you, Ursch-kun, then it's scary because it seems like it'll come true. Also, are you really going to drink tea with this? Isn't this... a beaker?"

Yes, a beaker. A glass container used to hold chemical solutions in science lab experiments.

And you're seriously planning to drink your tea with this...?

"I'm surprised you knew it was called a beaker~. And it's fine, since I don't have any cups here."

Urk, I knew about beakers because I used them in elementary school science experiments during my past life, but now that I think about it, beakers would play no part whatsoever in the daily life of a 6-year-old Duke's daughter.

There's no way for me to know anything about it.

Well, at least Ursch-kun doesn't intend to ask any further, so that's a relief.

But even so, for there to be tea leaves and a teapot yet no cups, chances are that he's been drinking from a beaker on a regular basis.

It's impossible for the son of a major merchant company to be unable to get a cup for his workshop, so this is probably a case of him being too indifferent to his surroundings.

He's definitely the type that when left to his own devices, would hole himself up for days, working nonstop.

While Ursch-kun, with his hair a mess, completely immersing himself in his work for days on end was lovely in its own right, it'd be terrible if he neglected his meals to focus on his work, and ended up dying a lonely death of starvation like I did in my previous life, so I should make an effort to check on him every so often and force him to take a break.

"It'd be bad if you used the beaker and drank something weird by mistake, so I'll leave this here."

I took out the lemonade cups that Ursch-kun and Father-in-Law had drunk out of previously from my 【Closet】.

I hadn't known what to do with the empty cup, so I ended up washing them and storing them back in there.

After receiving the cup of black tea, Ursch-kun seemed to notice it too.

"Oh, this is the cup from the lemonade last time, isn't it? Lately, my dad's been selling bottles of a concentrated version of it. That way, people can add cold or hot water to dilute it to taste."

I see. With that method, you can drink it at home, and the shelf life will last longer.

Speaking of lemonade, that reminds me... the 【Appraisal】 Ursch-kun has, and the 【Greed (Appraisal)】I have seemed to be different somehow.

''Come to think of it, at that time, you figured out the ingredients of lemonade because you did an 【Appraisal】, right, Ursch-kun?”

"That's right~.”

Yep. It's definitely different.

Truth is, after I realized that I had the【Greed (Appraisal)】 skill, I did an "Appraisal" on the lemonade just like Ursch-kun did.

And the results of the appraisal was...

"Hot Lemonade"

A warm, sweet and sour drink.

Slightly heals abnormal status conditions. Particularly effective against 《Fear Condition》.

I can sort of understand the description being more vague, such as the game's display of "Recovers the SAN stat by 3" being changed to "Slightly heals abnormal status conditions", but it doesn't list the ingredients, or the raw materials, like how Ursch-kun's does.

In other words, "Is my【Greed (Appraisal)】 skill a lesser version of the normal 【Appraisal】 skill?" ...Is what it implies.

Now then, what should I do?

Even if I tried thinking it over on my own, I wouldn't be able to get anywhere with my level of brainpower.

In the first place, I didn't know the difference in ability it has with the normal 【Appraisal】skill.

In that case, I figured that asking Ursch-kun, who actually owns the 【Appraisal】skill would be the quickest way to find out.

"Isabella, do you want to have a seat? If you want to consult me about something, I'll hear you out, so why don't you sit down first?"

As usual, Ursch-kun is great at reading my thoughts from my expression alone.

I guess I'll take him up on his offer and talk to him about it~.

There's nothing wrong with discussing things with someone reliable.

After sitting on the chair opposite Ursch-kun, and deciding the information I can share at this point in time, I started with,

"Actually, when I was checking my【Status】the other day, I noticed that I had a skill similar to 【Appraisal】. I say 'similar' because its ability is somewhat different from the 【Appraisal】you have, Ursch-kun. So I wondered, in what ways do they differ, and what margin of error is there between your 【Appraisal】 and the one I have?"

Nice, isn't this information pretty safe to put out?

As for the "Magic Eyes", let's wait until I've gotten to know Ursch-kun a little better.

After listening to what I had to say, Ursch-kun pondered over it for a while before saying,

"First off, I need to ask you something before I can even think about your question. Would that be okay?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"About that 'status check', where and by 'who' did you get it done from?"

Who?

What does he mean by "who"?

I don't think a【Status】 check is something other people are supposed to do for you...

"I did it in my room, by myself..."

"Yeah. I thought it was something like that, with how you phrased it earlier."

Hm? What? What are you talking about?

Did I say something weird or wrong?

"In other words, Isabella, you're able to look at a list of abilities you own, something you call your 'status', freely browsing through it 'by yourself'?

Yeah?

..........

...............

Huh? ......Huh??

Somehow, when you say it like that...

"Isabella... I don’t think you should tell other people about this. It’s not something people can normally do."