Birthday at Age 5
「Congratulations.」
「You’ve already turned 5, time sure flies by fast.」
「How adorable. I look forward to the future.」
「Well well, what is this? A splendid lady you’ve become.」
Spewing lies, and while thinking their words were lies, I responded with a smile.
The guests that arrived one after another were probably people with reputation.
Wrapping their bodies in expensive looking clothes and riding luxurious carriages, they came to our Norfolk residence.
Most were adults who came with the intention of pursuing grown up affairs, talking business and getting acquainted.
But for manner’s sake, they came to me and expressed words of congratulations.
So as not to be discourteous, I carefully considered and replied with words that a child would, but honestly it was tiring.
「Here you are, it would be good if you’re pleased with it.」
「Waa, what could it be!?」
An unpleasant premonition ran through me as I accepted the cutely wrapped bundle.
I opened the bundle in the guise of a child thrilled at receiving a present, and what appeared was a variety of confections.
「Kya, thank you!」
I embraced the parcel as if it were precious, and jumped up and down.
Then after I smiled while expressing my thanks, the guest would nod with satisfaction and turn their attention in a different direction.
While watching the back of the guest who left, I softly sighed.
Aah, I want to say it. I want to say it in a loud voice.
Don’t think that a child will like sweets just because they’re a kid.
My palate hadn’t be reset, so I dragged along my tastes from my past life.
I was no good with sweet things.
If it was just a little sweet, then I’d be fine though.
As expected, with the intention to be given to a child, the confections that were stuffed with an increased quant.i.ty of sugar would be impossible for me.
It’s not a declaration fitting for a five-year-old, but I’ll say it anyways.
I miss alcohol and cigarettes&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;
I was a heavy smoker in my past life.
Even if my salary didn’t rise, and even if the cigarette tax increased, that didn’t deter me.
Still, it seemed like that part had gotten reset at least since I didn’t get irritated from not smoking. 1
But whenever the stress piled up, I subconsciously searched my chest area. 2
By the way. My outer appearance has leveled up from my past life.
I was worried about the slightly rounder than normal figure, but I could say it was an appearance to look forwards to.
If such a chubbily cute girl said,
「I want to smoke a cigarette.」
Dropping such lines, people would feel disappointed. Even if she said it cutely, they’d still be disappointed.
Similarly.
If she were to announce rejection towards all sweets, she would also give them feelings of disappointment.
According to others, I probably appeared like a child pretending to be an adult and was thought of as charming.
There was also danger in receiving a bad impression from others for being a brat that didn’t try to act cute.
The guests here were people who had relations with my parents.
It would be bad to make an unfavorable impression.
With those circ.u.mstances in mind, I welcomed the sweets that were gifted to me one after another with feigned happiness.
But I told them, “I love sweets, thank you for your gifts, everyone!” and conducted myself exaggeratingly.
Seeing my act, the adults went to the table that was lined with extravagant dishes, took a sweet dessert and pa.s.sed it to me.
Being done completely out of goodwill, it was hard to reject them.
In this matter, I was completely a j.a.panese person who was unable to say “No.” 3
「Miss Tiariela Norfolk.」 [^4]
What should I do here?
When I acted like a burikko [^5] and tried to deceive them saying, “I’ll eat it preciously!” the sweets that were in my hands began to overflow.
Towards I who was feeling like I would vomit from the sweet smell that floated over from there, while young, a terse voice called out.
Being careful not to drop the confections I turned to face it, and there was an ikemen-like boy.
In the ikemen youth’s hand, he grasped a small bouquet.
「I’ll give you this.」
Along with his cold words, he stretched out his hand.
From the bouquet thrust near the tip of my nose, a pleasant fragrance wafted forwards and momentarily erased the sickly sweet scent.
It couldn’t be said that the boy’s face held a shred of flattery or sociability, and much of his unwilling feeling was conveyed, but I really wanted to praise his choice.
&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;Even though this guy was small, he had quite the promise. [^6]
In this life I was receiving lady training, so my way of speaking had also become refined, but at the unexpectedness I inadvertently relaxed and spoke with a foulness befitting of my previous world.
I had to take caution so I wouldn’t slip my tongue.
While being cautious, I dropped my gaze to the offered bouquet.
Taking a closer look, the flowers were not something expensive, but seemed to be ones that grew on a mountain in the area, but as long as it wasn’t sweets, anything was fine.
In fact, towards this pleasant smelling bouquet, I who was sickly drunk on the smell of sweets from before was grateful from the bottom of my heart.
I nonchalantly set down the mountain of sweets that had acc.u.mulated in my arms, embracing the bouquet.
The best smile of today spilled forth.
There was no falsehood in it. Young boy, thank you. Praise to your choice.
When I embraced the bouquet wearing a face full of smiles, the boy made a surprised expression.
Afterwards, perhaps having gotten embarra.s.sed towards my extreme happiness, his cheeks flushed and he turned the other way.
Towards us, the surrounding adults looked on with smiles.
「My my, what a cute couple has been born.」
Having such an exchange between children, I couldn’t not understand the feeling of wanting to say something like that.
But the approximate age of the ikemen boy who was in front of my eyes was about 6 or 7.
I don’t have any interest in children.
There seemed to be people in the world who got fired up by boys in shorts called shotacons, but I had absolutely no understanding why. 4
As expected, if a man isn’t past his 40s, it’s only right to be reluctant.
To I who didn’t have my memories reset, I was strongly influenced by my past life’s preferences.
Thanks to that, I was unable to point my finger at any of the engagement candidates that my parents had recommended. It was the same as telling me to get with a kid who just got out of their diapers. 5
It could also be thought of as early recruitment, but hmmm.
There’s no lack of hesitation. They’re young, too young.
In the end, the one I chose was a Margrave that was 42 years old. He’s been divorced.
He had a beard, and his appearance was that of an English gentlemen’s with a pot-like figure, but my parents were earnestly opposed to it so I gave up. 6
Though since Father and Mother also had an age gap, I thought they’d be more understanding.
While I was thinking of such things with my face buried in the bouquet,
「B-Being so pleased over such cheap flowers, you’re a weirdo!」
Uplifting his face enough it seemed steam would come out of it, the boy spat out abusive language and retreated.
He must’ve been embarra.s.sed about the banter praising “a great match～” that kept surfacing.
The boy was shy and pure.
「Good for you, Tiara～」
「The second son of the Fitzroy house, Levin is it? He should be 6 currently? Yes, he may be a fine match for Tiara.」
「My, what are you saying dear?」7
Watching my parents’ exchange, their banter was half joking, half serious.
No no, please pardon me.
A 6-year-old&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;I really am disinclined towards a brat.
The other party might be disinclined to for all I know. These corrupted kids. 8
But that ikemen-kun with promise was called Levin-kun, huh.
According to Father, the Fitzroy house was a fallen lower cla.s.s n.o.ble family, but even with that he was a boy with a promised future of popularity.
Levin Fitzroy.
Later I would have to write a thank you letter, so I thought to remember the name but as I repeated his name in my mouth, hm?
For some reason, I felt like I heard this name before.
Where was it? While being a little fed up with myself who had been exceedingly forgetful recently, I searched my memories.
Where was it? Maybe I had gotten it mixed up with a name that sounded similar? What was it? &h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;Ah!!
「Ah, it was that. It was a name inside a super popular manga!」
Ahh I feel refreshed. Or so I had become, but&h.e.l.lip; hmm?
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[4^]: Here he says Tiariela Norfolk-jou. “Jou” as a suffix can mean miss or lady but it does sound odd in this case. Either way (romaji or English) looked weird to me so I left it in English.
[5^]: If any of you haven’t read this then I’ll go ahead and put it out there. Not caught up though. Basically, a burikko is a girl who pretends to be cute but is actually sorta b.i.t.c.hy inside. Two-faced, that’s the word combo I was looking for.
[^6] Here, she used “Yatsu” which is a rude way to address someone. Doesn’t translate well in English&h.e.l.lip;