“Well then, I’ll excuse myself now. Thank you for your hard work.”

“Yes, thank you as well.”

Elena greeted Seriana, then gave a small wave to us sitting on the sofa before leaving the room.

Teresa followed Elena out of the room as well.

She must be escorting Elena back to her mansion.

Elena had been living in the estate ever since Liesel and the others left the territory a few months ago, but starting today, she was returning to her own mansion along with her child.

Liesel and the others haven’t returned yet, but Elena had originally been staying here also to help guard Seriana, and now that the dangers in the city have been cleared, there’s no longer a reason for her to remain at the estate.

From Seriana’s perspective, there are plenty of rooms, and she wouldn’t have minded at all if Elena continued living here until Liesel and the others returned, but…

Even if she’s left the house in the care of her servants, being away too long when she could return isn’t ideal, especially considering her status as the wife of the Second Unit Captain of the Knight Order.

Fiora plans to remain at the estate until the men return, and Teresa has also been staying here, so it’s been nice having downtime. But now that the rainy season is over, there might be guests visiting and such.

It can’t be helped.

Besides, it’s not even a five-minute walk from her house to the estate.

Honestly, it might take longer to get from this room to the estate’s front door.

With that in mind, commuting from home isn’t really an issue.

“By the way, has all of Elena’s stuff been moved already? I noticed some things being taken from your room recently…”

Fiora, still seated on the sofa and watching Elena leave, suddenly recalled something and asked.

“Yeah, yeah. Everything was moved out today.”

Elena’s belongings… they’re the gifts she received on her birthday.

I had stored them in the 【Hideout】—meaning my room—for safekeeping, but now that she’s returning home, I’ve been gradually taking them out.

And those items are now being transported to her house by the servants.

It’d be quicker for me to go over there and take everything out of the 【Hideout】 myself, but well… the existence of the 【Hideout】 is supposed to be a secret.

It’s a bit of extra work, but this is probably the most reasonable way.

“There was no need to rush, though… More importantly, did you finish the design?”

Seriana, who had been looking at the door, turned toward me.

The “design” she’s referring to is for the memorial monument that’s going to be built in the church district.

We haven’t yet decided what to do with that whole church district area, but building the memorial itself has been finalized. What kind of memorial it will be, though, hasn’t been decided yet.

Well, it’s only been a few days since the decision was made, so it’s understandable that the design isn’t finalized.

Apparently, other towns and villages in the Riana territory have similar memorials like the one built in the Zelkis territory, so I assumed they’d just follow that model. But during a discussion earlier today, I was told to submit a design proposal myself.

It totally caught me off guard, but it seems the artisans will use my idea as a base and add their own touches from there.

Even though the decision to build a memorial has been made, the people who were competing over that land likely aren’t happy about it.

And since the artisans doing the work are affiliated with the Merchant Guild, they might not be too eager to get involved.

So if I submit a proposal, it might make it easier for them to get started.

It feels like a pretty heavy responsibility.

But still…

“Nnnngh… this is tough.”

The location of the memorial is already set—a bit deeper in from where the well used to be—and the space is five meters by five meters.

I don’t know what kind of building will go up on the rest of the vacant lot, but I don’t think the memorial will be something flashy that stands out too much.

So I think a simple shape should be fine, but the other memorials I tried to use as reference are… well…

They’re just stone pillars, stone slabs, or sometimes even just big rocks with text engraved on them…

They don’t really match the image I have in mind.

They’re not very helpful as references.

“I see… Well, as long as it’s ready by the time the underground space is filled in, that should be fine. No need to overthink it.”

“Yeah.”

Like Seriana said, the point is just to give the artisans something to get started with, so even a rough sketch should be enough. Still, I’d prefer to come up with something that feels right to me.

With that in mind, I’ve been sitting at the table, facing the paper in front of me… but ideas aren’t coming.

I mean, I sort of have an image in mind, but I’ve never really seen a memorial up close before.

A gravestone would be too different…

I sat there groaning “Nnnngh…” as I struggled, until Fiora unexpectedly threw me a lifeline.

“Sera, would you like to borrow some of the documents I have? They’re not exactly about memorials, but we mages sometimes erect monuments as markers. They might give you some ideas.”

“!?”

Mage-related references!?

Come to think of it, mages do build monument-like structures from time to time.

“Please!”

“Sure. I’ll have them ready for you tomorrow.”

Like she said, it might be a bit different in nature, but those documents should have plenty of detailed info and could definitely serve as inspiration.

I’ll gladly take her up on the offer.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Sera ・Blessing・【Hideout】 +1 【Prayer】 【Mira’s Blessing】 【Wind’s Garment】 Blessed Item ・【Floating Orb】 +1 【Shadow Sword】 +1 【Scarlet Bee Needle】 【Fairy’s Eye】 【Dragon’s Lung】 【Amber Sword】 【Danrem’s Thread】 【Serpent’s Tail】 【Ankle Bracelet】 【Amber Shield】 【Purple Wings】 【Red Sword】 【Monkey’s Arm】 ・8 cards

Seriana ・【Area Identification】・【】・0 cards

Elena ・【】・【Green Fang】 【Amber Sword】・4 cards

Alec ・【Strong Strike】・【Red Shield】 【Fierce Horned Trumpet】・10 cards