The Accidental Heiress

prologue

There are times in life when something big that changes your life suddenly comes to you.

"All the property of Valleria Eindel Herron shall be inherited by Riella Tennier."

Just like now.

01. Meeting

The sky at the edge of the capital began to brighten.

People appeared one by one to prepare for business that reached the streets where the cool air that remained at dawn smelled of the night. Riella was one of those people.

Riella, who was so carrying a basket full of bouquets that she couldn't see in front of her, moved forward

"Did you sleep well, Riella?"

"Hello Mr.Kyle"

Riella arrived at her shop at the end of the street, skillfully jumping over the puddle after being greeted by a baker who frequently stops by.

"Oh, it's heavy,"

Riella carefully laid the bouquet down on the floor, took the key out of her pocket, unlocked it, and opened the door of the shop.

In fact, it was a very shabby place to be called a store. A sign called 'Riella's Garden' was put on the door, and inside, there were only a few tin buckets and a large wooden table, but Riella went inside as she looked proud of her shop.

Riella took out all the buckets in the store and filled them with water. There were quite a few buckets, and by the time she had filled them all, her forehead was sweating. After wiping the sweat with the back of her hand, Riella put all the flowers she had left on the floor and on the table in the store and wrapped the apron around her waist.

"Then, Shall we start working."

Riella put on thick gloves and unwrapped the newspaper around the bouquet. The newspaper that said, "Prince Haun, will you be able to return from the Northern Front this year?" fluttered in Riella's hand and fell to the floor.

A bouquet of red roses appeared with a fragrant scent of flowers. Next there is the yellow freesia. Then there are the pink tulips.

Every time Riella moved her hands, colorful flowers piled up on the workbench.

The first thing she held in her hand was a pink tulip with slightly open petals. Riella, who cut off the string that tied the flowers, carefully tore off the leaves and cut the bottom of the stem to match the length of the bucket.

Clatter

The sound of ripping leaves from the stem rang in the quiet shop. Riella, who brush off the soil on the stem, gathered the tulips that had been worked on, adjusted the length, and cut off the stem below with sharp scissors.

Then, the bottom of the stem was washed cleanly, and put the tulips I worked on in a bucket filled with water. Then I came back inside and trimmed the rest of the flowers as well.

The moment Riella, who had been working for a long time, put the last rose she had trimmed, a welcome voice was heard.

"Riella!"

"Are you here?"

Across the street, her friend Lina ran to her, waving her hand. Lina had a very large basket in her hand. As Lina approached, a savory smell tickled Riella's nose. Freshly baked bread, melted butter, and even slightly baked bacon.

The smell made Riella swallow her saliva, and Lina giggled and took out a sandwich wrapped in paper and a glass bottle of juice from the basket and put it on the table.

Lina's parents were the owners of 'Black Cat' the largest restaurant here on Briggs Street. That was the only restaurant that was open so early, and most merchants on Briggs Street used to eat breakfast in black cat. And in the case of people who were unable to leave, Lina would deliver breakfast every morning.

While Riella was washing her hands, Lina took out her chair and sat down as if it were her own shop.

"Hey, did you hear? Carson's second daughter is said to have graduated at the top of her class from the Academy."

Lina began to talk before Riella came back and took out her sandwich.

"He's been bragging so much about her good grades, and I guess it's true. I think she's coming back home next week."

Mr. Carson was always famous for his daughter's love. I'm sure he'll have a big party next week to welcome his daughter back in the backyard. Riella chewed on the sandwich and wondered what flowers Mr. Carson and his daughter liked, and which of the flowers that came out these days were cheap and pretty.

"Oh, yes, and I saw Emma working at the Eton mansion yesterday."

"How's Emma doing?"

"No, she didn't look so well. It must be the case that the wife of Eton's mansion has collapsed. She hasn't eaten anything since the day before yesterday. The doctors said she wouldn't last long."

"Oh, dear..."

The Eton mansion was a very large and spacious house at the end of Briggs Street. Lady Evelyn, the owner of the mansion, helped a lot for Briggs Street, so everyone treated her with respect, calling her "Madam of the mansion."

"I must go now. See you later!"

After chatting for a long time, Lina looked at her watch and quickly got up and went back to her parents' shop. Riella cleaned up the traces of what she had eaten, and went out on the road to look at the end of the street. I saw a white mansion in the distance. Riella prayed for a moment towards the mansion.

At sunset the bell tower on Briggs Street began to ring with a heavy bell. The noise stopped all the people on the way, took off their hats, and bowed their heads toward Eton's mansion.

And I wished that the person who passed away a while ago went to a happy place.

***

The next day, Riella came to the store with a lot of white lilies, unlike usual where she bought a variety of flowers.

Then she trimmed the flowers quickly, wrapped them in white wrapping paper, and tied them with a black ribbon without any decoration.

Before I could put the flowers in the bucket, the first customer came.

"How much is a flower?"

"80 shillings."

The customer paid quietly and headed for Eton mansion with flowers.

Starting with the customer, Riella's flower shop continued to receive customers looking for lilies. Eventually, all the lilies I had bought in the morning were sold out before noon. People who visited Riella's shop late looked frustrated and asked if there were any other flower shops nearby. In the meantime, the number of people heading for the Eton mansion was increasing.

Looking at the empty bucket, Riella saw people passing by. Strangers, not people on this street were walking by. Riella, who was looking at them, closed the store for a while and hurried away.

A long time later, Riella returned with rough breathing, and her arms were filled with fresh lilies as if they had just been recently cut. She quickly trimmed them, put them in a bin, thought for a moment, and she erased the price of the stone plate in front of the store, and wrote a new one.

One piece is ten guilders.

In the meantime, a person who came to buy flowers looked surprised at the price. A lily costs at most 1 guilder. But 10 guilders?

"That's too much. Are you going to make such a profit on the mourners?"

The gentleman in a high-hat spoke in an unpleasant voice to Riella. Riella looked at the bucket with a troubled look on her face for a moment, but did not fix the price.

"I got 80 shillings for a lily I bought from the flower market this morning."

The gentleman looked at the words with an expression of incomprehension. 1 guilder was 100 shillings, so 80 shillings per flower was neither high nor low, it was a normal price.

"But why is it 10 guilds per flower?"

"These are flowers with good reason."

"Huh, really."

At Riella's words, the gentleman looked at the lily. It was exceptionally fresh, but it was an ordinary lily. No matter how hard I looked, the gentleman turned away, unable to find any reason to pay more than ten times the price.

Did he come from another region? First-timers on Briggs Street were shouting with their baskets full of white lilies.

"I'm Selling flowers! 5 guilders per flower!"

It was a ridiculous price, but the gentleman looked at the lily that Riella had brought, and approached a strange flower dealer and bought it.

Not a single new lily was sold by Riella until the sun set and the number of strangers on the road increased.

***

The scarlet sunset grew purple, and darkness fell on Briggs Street. The shops were slowly closing, and only a few restaurants and bars were brightly lit. Riella swept the floor of the store, cleaned it up, approached the bucket left in front of the store, and sat down with her chin resting on the back of her hand.

"I guess I'm the only one who can see it."

In the dark streets, Riella's eyes began to see better.

The appearance of a lily shining brightly.

Riella has seen things that others have not seen since she was a child. The first time I found out was when I was five.

"That's interesting. The flowers that Riella picked seem to have bloomer for a particularly long time."

Mother looked at the vase in Riella's room with a curious look on her face. When the whole family went to play on a hill near their house, the three sisters ran through the flowering fields as if they were excited. After following her sisters, Riella suddenly stopped and looked at one place.

"Pretty."

As if she was no longer interested in her sisters who had been trying hard to catch up until a while ago, Riella went into the grass. There were blue flowers in full bloom among the long-grown grass.

"It's twinkling."

In Riella's eyes, the petals of the flower sparkled like jewels.