Later that day, after spending some surprisingly enjoyable time catching up with Kat, Scarlett returned to the mansion by herself.

Shin and Allyssa were at the Guild branch. She wasn’t about to come between them and their first real meeting with Kat for what appeared to be quite some time. She also didn’t have much in the city to do at the moment, and she hadn’t wanted to wait around until they were done, either.

And even though she was being more wary about the Hallowed Cabal right now, it wasn’t like there was a high likelihood of them doing anything in the middle of the day when she was out in the open in Freybrook.

At least, that’s what she’d convinced herself when she had been sitting in the carriage cabin all by herself. In the future, she might bring along Fynn on trips like this too, just to be safe.

Despite her worries though, she did return to the estate without issue. As she was crossing the courtyard towards the mansion’s entrance, however, she was surprised to find Rosa there, sitting on one of the curved benches that encircled the fountain at the center of the courtyard. The brown-haired woman had her hurdy-gurdy-esque instrument in her lap, slowly turning its crank. By the looks of it, she was in the process of tuning it.

Scarlett stopped for a moment to observe. Rosa seemed so absorbed in her work that she hadn’t even noticed her yet.

Suddenly the bard swore, pulling her hands back with a grimace. She sat still for several seconds, staring down at the instrument.

Scarlett frowned. That was odd.

“Is everything all right?” she asked, stepping closer to the curved bench.

Rosa’s head spun to look at her with slightly widened eyes. It might have been all in Scarlett’s imagination, but the woman’s face looked paler than usual. The large smile that grew on her face seemed to belie that impression, however.

“I’m fine.” Rosa let out a light laugh, placing her hand against her chest. “At least I think I am, if my heart hasn’t jumped straight out of my throat now. You sure know how to sneak up on a girl.”

Scarlett took the woman in. For all of Rosa’s appearances of being cheerful and sprightly, she always had a hard time reading the woman.

“I made no attempt at disguising my approach,” she said, walking over and sitting down next to Rosa. “You were simply too occupied with your instrument.”

This earned raised brows from the bard. “Well, sorry for taking pride in my craft. I come from a long line of klert tuners, you see.” Rosa took on an exaggerated tone, patting her instrument. Apparently, it was called a klert. “In fact, legend has it that my great-great-great-great-great-uncle’s-cousin-twice-removed had an affair with a klert, so it’s practically in my blood.”

Scarlett got the urge to roll her eyes. “I see. And I suppose his brother had an affair with a thread of yarn?”

Rosa gave her a confused look. For a moment, Scarlett thought her joke had been a bit too far-fetched, but soon the bard grinned. “Are you perhaps calling my great-great-great-aunt’s-fifth cousin a spinner of yarn?”

“...You appear to have a rather complicated family tree.”

“Why! I’ll have you know the Hales are a prestigious house that put our esteem above all else.” Rosa took on a sultry tone. “We don’t satisfy with a mere tree. We’re not content unless you need an abacus to make sense of it.”

Scarlett shook her head. “I struggle to comprehend what that is even supposed to mean. Although I imagine you have many relatives.”

Rosa turned quiet. She looked forward, at the fountain, and spoke in the same jovial tone as before. “Hmm, yeah. Maybe.”

As the woman’s words trailed off, Scarlett examined her face, considering what else to say. To be honest, she wasn’t sure why she’d sat down to begin with. Or why she started playing along with Rosa’s banter. There was nothing in specific she wanted to speak about with her.

“Is there a reason as to why you are spending your time out here?” she eventually asked.

Rosa turned back to her. “No, not really. Sometimes you just want a breath of fresh air, you know? Tuning my klert sometimes helps me calm down and think. See things for how they really are, rather than how they appear at the moment.”

There was a smile on Rosa’s face, but Scarlett wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. “That is understandable,” she said. “However, if there are any issues with the accommodations provided to you, or if you are uncomfortable with any of the staff, there is no need to hesitate in raising your concerns.”

Rosa gave her what looked like a genuinely incredulous look. “I’m being treated like a guest of honor, at a noble’s mansion of all places. All the while I get to enjoy some of the best food I’ve ever had, and get to go on exciting little adventures several times a week. You’d have to be a real nincompoop to complain about any of that.”

“As long as you are content.” Scarlett nodded along. “And the chef is indeed quite proficient at his craft.”

“That’s an understatement if I ever heard any.” Rosa chuckled. “I’d quite literally kill for those scones I had this morning. Ah, and that beef bourguignon...” the woman trailed off with a blissful expression.

Scarlett leaned her head to the side, her attention caught by Rosa’s use of a word that was decidedly non-English in origin. Even though she usually didn’t pay it much mind, things like that still came off as odd to her about this world.

“Why is it named that, would you say?” she found herself asking.

“You mean the beef bourguignon?” Rosa rubbed her chin. “I don’t know. I suppose it’s the same reason all words are as they are. Some old coot thought to himself, ‘now that’s a gobbledygook if I’ve ever seen one’, and the rest is history. In this case I guess they also happened to be Voneian.”

Scarlett stared at the woman. “...As ever, your way with words astounds.”

Still, she had seen Voneian both in its written and its spoken form. She personally wouldn’t say it was that similar to French, so Rosa implying that it was a Voneian loanword struck her as odd. Although Scarlett was pretty terrible with other languages in general, so she wouldn’t call herself an authority on the matter.

Besides, the English of this world—or rather, the Modern Imperial—would have had to get its loanwords from somewhere. She already knew that some of what she considered Latin terms came from the language of the old Zuver here, and that many of the idioms and phrases from her world also existed in this world. Because of this, she’d already guessed that the way Modern Imperial developed would have had to mirror English in some manner.

But, considering how ridiculously convoluted linguistic history got even after just going back a few decades, she didn’t understand how that was possible. To her, it seemed like the evolution of a language was just too complicated and had too many factors to it for it to be replicated like that, even if it was in a world like this where everything was seemingly inspired by a video game.

But the other alternative was that everything had just popped into place as is, which seemed even more unrealistic to her. After all, she knew there was history to this world. And as such, the evolution of the languages around here had to be part of that history.

God, a linguistics scholar would probably have a field day with this.

Maybe she should spend some time looking into the matter. Did they actually have linguistic scholars in this world? If the Modern Imperial in this world didn’t evolve naturally, there should be some obvious inconsistencies in its history. And even if it did evolve naturally, there might still be clues as to why it was exactly like the English of her world.

She had been thinking about this for a while now, really. In fact, getting to the bottom of this might even give her some clues to what this world actually was.

Realizing her thoughts had wandered, and that Rosa had gone silent with her eyes turned downward towards her klert, Scarlett spoke again. “I have been meaning to ask. The magic that you perform. It is unlike anything I have witnessed. Where did you learn techniques such as those?”

In ‘Chronicle of Realms’, Rosa had a unique class. And as far as Scarlett was aware, she was the only character that used music for their magic. In the game, the woman had always been vague and secretive about most personal matters, and this was a matter Scarlett had never learned much about.

“I picked up a few things here and there,” Rosa answered, turning her gaze upward. “Met this old lady who taught me a trick or two as well.”

“...I see.” Maybe Scarlett had been expecting a bit too much. “Perhaps you know what type of magic it is? If, for instance, it can be considered to belong to the same branch as aeromancy?”

It’d be good to know what kind of items could improve Rosa’s magic outside of just general buff items.

“Can’t say I do. I’m not really much of a mage, you see. To tell you the truth, I would almost have expected you to know the answer to that.”

Scarlett gave her an inquiring look. “And why is that?”

“What, you think a girl doesn’t notice a few things just because you surround yourself with a gaggle of weirdos?” Rosa let out a short laugh. “You’ve got this...it to you, you know? This quality.” Her tone turned more solemn. “Some people interact with the world as it is, living their lives as they come. Others interact with the world as they think it should be, and they live their lives to make it so.”

The woman fiddled with her klert again, much more deftly now.

“I’ve met those kinds of people before,” Rosa continued, glancing at Scarlett for only a second before turning back to the fountain. “They always seem like they know what to do, making you think ‘what is it with this person? How do I become like that?’”

“...You would compare me to them?” Scarlett asked.

“Oh, definitely,” Rosa laughed. “I’ve got a knack for these things.” She winked at her. “Of course, it doesn’t hurt that you go around acting like you know quite literally everything, pulling out one unbelievable thing after another from out of nowhere all the time.”

It looked like she was about to continue, but her eyes suddenly widened and she quickly turned away, turning silent.

Over a dozen seconds passed, before Rosa abruptly spoke again. “Hey, you’re a noble, aren’t you?”

Scarlett arched a brow at her. “I am uncertain whether or not you are expecting me to answer that.”

“When we first met, you said something about being able to help if I ever wanted to learn anything special, right?” Rosa’s voice wavered slightly, her gaze was locked on the fountain before them.

Scarlett studied Rosa closely, paying close attention to the area under the woman’s eyes. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong at the moment. “…While those were not the exact words I used, it is a close enough summary.”

Rosa turned to look at her, the bard’s violet eyes meeting hers. “Does that mean you could help me find information on...anything?”

Scarlett furrowed her brows. She was pretty sure she knew what this was about. “Anything within my power.”

Rosa held her eyes for several seconds. Then, she let out another short laugh and returned her gaze to the fountain. “Well, good to know. I suppose if I ever want to know how to make some fairy friends, I know who to ask.”

Scarlett’s eyes lingered on the woman. “...If there is anything you wish to ask me, or if there is anything troubling you, there is no need to hesitate.”

Rosa shook her head with a smile. “What would I have to worry about? I’m fine. Better than fine, even! Haven’t been in as good a situation as this for years!”

The woman tore her eyes away from the fountain, bringing them back to the instrument in her lap as she started gently rotating the crank again. Some soft notes sounded out as she returned to her earlier tuning.

Scarlett opened her mouth, intending to prod further, but slowly closed it after a moment.

She wasn’t sure how Rosa’d react if she knew she was aware of what it was she wanted to know. Worse came to worst, it was entirely possible Rosa would decide to leave if she thought Scarlett knew her secret. At the very least, the woman would be deeply uncomfortable with the fact.

And it wasn’t as if Scarlett could straight out tell the woman that she could help her. That had risks all on its own.

“If that is how it is,” Scarlett began. “Then—”

The sound of shattering glass blasted out near them.

Both of them turned to look towards their left, where the edge of the courtyard met the east wing of the mansion. Scarlett couldn’t avoid gaping as she saw a person flying out of one of the second-floor windows, landing in one of the flower beds a moment later.

Next to the broken window stood a somewhat ruffled Fynn, staring down at the courtyard.

Scarlett blinked at the sight, holding herself back from crying out.

What the hell just happened?!