Finally we meet Chloe!
TL: clover
ED: clover
Because it is still during the day, the inside of the church is surprisingly bright.
Perhaps they are keeping the facilities as they were, the interior of the church has not changed.
There is a statue of the G.o.ddess in the back, and the audience seat is still intact.
There are about five children and a woman with her pink hair bundled up behind her head sitting on the audience seat. Luke called out to the woman.
"Chloe!"
"Oh my, Luke!"
In response to the voice, I turned around looking at the girl with a slightly different shade of green eyes from me.
I heard from Luke that she"s the same age as me, but she looks younger. However, her facial features are refined and in the future she will be quite beautiful. That is enough to convince me that she is a n.o.ble lady.
She closed the book she had in hand and put it on the audience seat, then she came over to us.
Then, a smile appeared on her face. It"s a lovely smile that makes one feel favorable impression about her.
……how envious. I definitely want to learn how to make that smile from her.
"Hi, Luke. Even though we always meet in a shop or a street, today you come to the orphanage, huh. Oh? There is someone with you, unlike the usual. I wonder who that is. She"s a very beautiful person."
"Long time no see. That girl is……she is the n.o.ble lady in the mansion where I am working, she told me that she wanted to see Chloe today, so I brought her here."
"Eh. The place where Luke works is certainly a Ducal House, right?"
"Aa."
When Luke nodded, Chloe"s complexion changed.
Holding the edge of her skirt hurriedly, she made a greeting worthy of a n.o.ble lady.
"I apologize for greeting you this way……pleased to meet you. I am Chloe Carlisle, the daughter of Earl Carlisle."
I guess it can"t be helped since she"s helping the orphanage. What she"s wearing is an ap.r.o.n dress like Kate. However, I can see that her manners are certainly appropriate for a n.o.ble lady.
I thought that she is person worthy of her position as the young lady of an Earl who has received proper education.
—There is still someone like her. I didn"t know it at all.
I guess it"s because I haven"t made my socialization debut after all. It is apparent that there is a remiss in my information network. When I think about it, I have only been hanging out with the ladies of another Ducal Houses or Marquess Houses until now.
I have no a.s.sociation with the ladies of the Earl Houses.
"……Liz Beltran. The daughter of Beltran Ducal House. This is an orphanage, so let"s drop the formalities. You don"t need to use honorific language with me."
There are orphans around and I don"t want to cause too much trouble.
While saying something like that, I made a greeting appropriate for a lady of the Ducal House in response to Chloe who greeted me properly, and Chloe stared at me. I wonder if there is something wrong.
"Eh……what is it?"
"Is it……really fine not to use honorific language? To a n.o.ble lady of a Ducal House?"
"Yes. It will be rather out of place to use it here, right?"
When I nodded, Chloe beamed while saying, "I"m really glad there is someone who understands!" and called out to Luke who was behind me.
"Luke"s master is a really nice person! Because you told me she"s a n.o.ble lady of the Ducal House, I was certain that she would be a very scary person!"
"……yeah, well, she"s not a bad person."
He phrased it delicately. I"m sure he was thinking that "she is a very bad person until recently"
I didn"t mean to deny it, but I still stared at Luke for some reason.
Perhaps he noticed my stare, Luke had a bitter smile on his face.
"Eh, can I call you Liz-san?"
Chloe spoke to me as I was staring at Luke. I don"t have any particular reason to deny her that, so I nodded lightly.
"I heard from Luke that we are the same age, so you can call me Lily instead. What about you? Is it fine if I call you Chloe?"
"Yes!"
Chloe nodded happily. It"s strange, but when she laughs, I felt that the surroundings became brighter.
Although she"s a n.o.ble lady, she hardly wore makeup. But, I thought that she"s pretty.
—Amazing. She"s full of energy, bright, and straightforward……someone like this must be loved by everyone.
In a sense, she is my opposite.
While I was impressed, Chloe asked me curiously.
"Hey, Lily. Why did you come to the orphanage today? It"s terrible, but all of my aristocratic friends don"t want to come here much."
Hearing Chloe"s question, while thinking that kind of response was natural, I answered her seriously.
"I think Luke has told you the reason, but I came here because I thought that I"d like to meet you."
"For that reason alone?"
"Yes. People have their own reasons, right?"
"That"s true, but……why? I"m not someone important, you know?"
As expected it"s impossible to say, "I wanted to see Luke"s favorite girl" to Chloe who was asking with a doubtful appearance. I mean, Luke was glaring a hole in my head without Chloe noticing.
Those eyes were saying,
—Don"t say it.
I can understand his feelings of not wanting his love being revealed without permission.
Besides, I"m planning to be a bystander from now on, so I"m going to be entertaining Luke"s way of thinking.
Because it seems that right now Chloe only thinks of Luke as a friend, and as his master, I want to see with my own eyes how his love is going to end.
Eh? What"s interesting about that? Things like other people"s love life is very interesting to me.
It will be fine, I looked back at Luke to convey that I absolutely wouldn"t say it, our eyes met.
Aah, it seems my thoughts were conveyed.
At any rate, after I interacted with Luke using eye contact, I told Chloe.
"It was my first time hearing about Luke"s friend. Furthermore, he told me that it was a n.o.ble lady, right? So I was wondering what kind of girl you might be, don"t you think that it is natural for me as his master to be interested?"
"That……certainly, you"re right."
"Right?"
I grinned. Even if I say so myself, I was able to sidestep the question skilfully.