It was an angry shout.

“You’ve been skimming the fish!”

Cornelia, who had been serving coffee, startled and spun around.

“Hm?”

It was Omar’s voice. Her guardian, and the owner of the restaurant Abel.

He had always been loud and hot-blooded by nature, so she had been wondering why he’d been so quiet lately. It seemed the time to blow had finally come.

Cornelia flashed an awkward smile at the customers and hurried off to the kitchen. She eased open the side door the voice was coming from, and spotted a large figure in a cook’s uniform standing in the back alley.

“Tell me straight. You’ve been skimming one or two every day, haven’t you?”

Omar stood there taking up nearly half the alley, shaking his fist.

The one before him was Pepe, the fish delivery man. His pitifully scrawny frame was trembling all over.

“Did you eat honey?¹meaning someone has gone suspiciously quiet. Why aren’t you saying anything, hm?”

Having grasped the general situation, Cornelia quietly pulled the door shut again. It had already been several years since she started working as a server under Omar. By now, she had no trouble telling when to step in and when to stay out.

And this was clearly a situation to stay out of. Omar was nothing short of exacting when it came to ingredients. The restaurant had been running for decades on that very exacting nature as its weapon.

Cornelia promptly made her escape back toward the dining hall.

“Cori! Come here.”

But after the lunch service that day, an unexpected summons came out of nowhere. Cornelia set down what she was doing at the table and went to the kitchen.

“What is it?”

Omar was crouched in front of the counter with a grave expression. She looked to see what he was peering at: a box of sardines with only a few left.

“Cori, go down to the harbor tomorrow morning.”

“The harbor? What for?”

The sudden order made Cornelia tilt her head.

“I’m pretty sure that rascal Pepe has been helping himself. The weight comes up just a little short every single day.”

His thick brows furrowed for a moment. Omar stroked his coarse beard and let out a huff through his nose.

“I’ve pressed the harbor fishermen about it too, and they swear up and down they pack it right every time. Well, that makes it obvious, doesn’t it. Either the fishermen or Pepe. One of them is lying.”

“So you want me to follow him and keep watch?”

“That’s right.”

“Would anyone pull something right in front of me?”

“Who said go with him? You tail him from behind. Without getting caught.”

“Good heavens.”

Cornelia gaped at him as though she’d been struck on the back of the head. She studied Omar’s face to see if he was serious, but his expression was earnest. He was genuinely commissioning her to shadow someone.

She couldn’t bring herself to readily agree. She did love wandering about here and there, but this was too out of the blue.

“Why don’t you just go to the harbor yourself and sort it out, Omar? Tailing someone is a bit…”

“I’ll give you extra pay.”

“I’ll go, then.”

The word pay moved her. Cornelia’s attitude changed in an instant and she grinned, which drew a snort from Omar.

“Shrewd little thing.”

“Well, you’re the one who raised me.”

“Go on.”

He was the one who had called her in, yet he waved his hand as though shooing away something bothersome.

Cornelia slipped out of the kitchen and stood in the middle of the dining hall with her arms crossed. She had rushed in mid-cleanup, so the place was a mess around her.

Tailing someone. Well, spending a day playing detective wouldn’t be so bad.

She let the thought pass lightly and uncrossed her arms. The deep blue sea and the smell of the harbor, gulls crying overhead.

The scent of the harbor where the fish thief awaited seemed to drift around the tip of her nose.

* * *

“Cori!”

It was just as Cornelia, finished with the cleanup, was stepping out of Abel. A hand tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around.

“Miss?”

Gentle green eyes, a mouth curved in a warm smile.

It was Julia Marinetti, a noble young lady Cornelia was particularly close with.

Having visited Fiora island this summer as she had the previous year, she and Cornelia had first met as customer and server before growing close. Despite the difference in their stations, they got along remarkably well, and the connection had carried on into a second year.

“I heard the owner was hollering at the top of his lungs?”

Julia looked more entertained than ever today. Cornelia gave a small laugh and asked, “Even something that trivial gets around?”

“What else do people have to talk about when they get together?”

“It was nothing much. I think he wasn’t happy with the delivery. Said the weight was short.”

Cornelia shrugged.

“And?”

“So I ended up getting handed the job.”

She said it with deliberate intrigue, and Julia raised an eyebrow.

“What job? He’s not sending you to catch the fish yourself, is he?”

“No. He wants me to tail someone. Go down to the harbor tomorrow morning, follow along, and catch the fish thief in the act.”

“Oh, that sounds fun.”

“What’s fun about it?”

Cornelia gave a short laugh at the very Julia-like response. She was easygoing and warm, but moments like this showed her noble upbringing. They were going to catch a thief, and she called it fun.

“Oh, wait a moment.”

But all of a sudden Julia raised her hand and began folding her fingers as though counting. One, two.

“What are you doing?”

“Hold on. You said tomorrow morning?”

“Yes.”

“Three, four… Oh, it really is.”

What is? Cornelia could only tilt her head in puzzlement, when Julia snapped her fingers.

“You might get to see Tesoro tomorrow!”

“Tesoro? Duke Tesoro?”

“That’s right. I heard he’s coming in on tomorrow’s passenger ship.”

“What?”

Cornelia blinked wide, doubting her own ears. She wasn’t sure the Duke Tesoro being mentioned was the same person she had in mind.

And with good reason. Who was Tesoro, after all? The head of the most powerful family in the Kingdom of Bellavita. There wasn’t a soul who didn’t know his name even here, so far from the capital. And that very Tesoro was coming here.

“For a holiday?”

“I’d imagine so. Apparently he’s spending the whole summer here.”

Cornelia was still blinking when Julia shrugged.

“Lately at every party, all the women talk about is him.”

“You shouldn’t be doing that, Miss.”

“I don’t! I have Silvio.”

Julia smiled brightly. Silvio was the name of the sweetheart she had met for the first time a few weeks ago.

Since she had brought it up half in jest, Cornelia smiled a little too.

“Anyway, Cori, I suppose you’ll have to dress up for the harbor.”

But all of a sudden Julia grabbed her arm. Cornelia startled and stepped back.

“…Why would I?”

“You might run into the Duke.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Who knows? Maybe the Duke will fall for you.”

“…”

Cornelia fell silent, not even knowing where to begin her objections.

She finally spoke after a long pause.

“I could give you a thousand reasons why the Duke would not fall for me.”

“Then there must be at least one reason he would!”

“That’s…”

“It’s a world of free love, and this is Fiora. What’s there to say it can’t happen?”

Cornelia let out a sigh at Julia, who added that last part as though daring anyone to disagree.

Of course, she wasn’t without understanding. In a world swept up in the love-marriage craze, there had been cases of people overcoming their stations to wed.

And on top of that, this was none other than that Fiora. The island of love, the island of romance. Fiora, where they said you could find true love. There were countless romances set against its backdrop, and no shortage of couples who had come together here.

But even so, wasn’t it too much of an assumption? Why would a duke fall for Cornelia, who had nothing particularly remarkable about her?

And besides…

“I don’t want that either.”

Cornelia didn’t want it herself.

Because her own parents had entered that very kind of marriage, across that very difference in station.

But they had died tragically, and Cornelia, who had witnessed it all firsthand, had no desire to ever recreate that unhappiness. Even if by some chance a noble were to fall for her, she would be the one to decline.

Julia, however, knowing none of the details, wore an expression of complete bewilderment. She tried to persuade Cornelia to open her heart, but when it became clear it was no use, she grabbed Cornelia’s arm.

“I actually had a dress I wanted to give you. Wear it to the harbor.”

“What? A dress, out of nowhere. I’m fine, really!”

Cornelia startled and refused, but Julia didn’t so much as hear her out. She took Cornelia’s hand and pulled her along without a word.

“Miss!”

Cornelia fussed and fidgeted, yet let herself be dragged along. She couldn’t bring herself to shake off her hand.

By the time she came to her senses, Cornelia was standing alone in the middle of Julia’s hotel room. A fine dress, a floppy hat, sandals. She stood there with the things Julia had thrust into her arms.

Cornelia stamped her feet.

“Miss, I really am fine. And what’s with the hat and sandals? You said just a dress.”

Julia had flopped down on her bed and wasn’t budging. She shrugged.

“What good is just a dress? You need the whole look.”

“It’s not as though dressing up a little will make the Duke fall for me…”

“Just take them, please, Cornelia. I bought all of this to give to you in the first place.”

Julia finally cut her off. Cornelia fell quiet in surprise, and Julia picked up the sandals from her arms and held them up.

“See. They’re brand new. I bought them a while back because I thought they’d suit you.”

“But why…”

“I just wanted to give them to you! Or, if it makes you that uncomfortable, think of it as a thank-you.”

Cornelia pursed her lips.

“A thank-you for what?”

“Because I came back to this island to see you, and that’s where I met Silvio. A thank-you for bringing me and Silvio together.”

“…You came back for me?”

Cornelia’s mouth fell slightly open. She hadn’t known. The reason Julia had returned to Fiora this year.