Rosetta and Marie
After advancing to the fourth year, you receive a half-year long vacation from school.
During this period, the students usually go back to their homes to relax for a bit.
With Derrick now defeated, Liam had returned to the Banfield territory.
His fiancée Rosetta, and his underling Wallace had gone along with him.
The va.s.sals had returned as well.
Visiting Rosetta"s room was Marie– the girl who had been petrified two millennia ago.
“Lady Rosetta, it"s time.”
She called out to her using the intercom attached to the door.
Rosetta immediately responded in a hurry,
“Ye-yes!”
Due to the Claudia house not having any servants, she was having a hard time adjusting to life at the mansion.
As a result, she often found herself acting awkwardly around Marie.
In front of Rosetta"s room, there were always two female knights stationed there.
There were also servants on standby, so Marie called out to them,
“How"s Lady Rosetta doing?”
“She"s really shy and refuses to be taken care of. She told us she"d get herself ready this morning, and that we should refrain from entering.”
Marie rubbed her chin,
“…this is troubling.”
In this universe there were many useful tools that could be used to help one get ready in the morning.
There was no need to have servants a.s.sist you.
However, the servants here were professionals hired specifically for this task.
It"d be a problem to prevent such personnel from doing their jobs.
“What"s Lord Liam"s opinion of this?”
“He told us to watch over the situation until she got used to it.”
Marie wanted Rosetta to prepare herself quickly, but she"d relent if Liam said it was okay.
In the first place, Liam himself didn"t keep that many people around him.
Because of his unique upbringing, he only kept those he trusted by his side.
–or so that"s how the surroundings perceived it.
In reality, it"s not strange for those with the position of Count to keep multiple servants by their side.
This was a universe where almost anything could be done by machines.
So to show off one"s luxury, it was quite popular to have professionals take care of your needs instead.
Some aristocrats even competed to see who could gather the most servants.
As a result, many n.o.ble children had their every need taken care of since birth, turning them useless as they grew older.
The elementary school was made to educate such children on how things really worked.
(Lord Liam is too humble. If considering his position, it"d be better if he indulged himself a bit more.)
As Marie thought so, Rosetta came out of her room,
“I-I"m sorry to have kept you waiting…”
Seeing Rosetta"s timid att.i.tude, Marie straightened her back and responded,
“Lady Rosetta, you shouldn"t act so subservient with those who are below you.”
“O-of course, I"ll be careful.”
While Marie was troubled by Rosetta"s demureness, she led her to the vehicle parked in the hallway.
“Now then, over here please–”
–The mansion was too big, so there were vehicles stationed in the corridors to make them easier to traverse.
Rosetta couldn"t understand it.
“Why are there vehicles in the hallways? Can this even be considered a hallway anymore? Aren"t these already streets?”
It was weird to drive vehicles inside of a mansion!
-Those were Rosetta"s true feelings.
“You"ll get used to it.”
After Marie led Rosetta into the vehicle, she proceeded to give her a tour of the estate.
For Liam"s knight order, this wasn"t a job their second of command was supposed to be doing.
However, Marie felt quite the affinity for Rosetta.
Looking at her, she fell into thought,
(That fool turned me into stone and made an example of the Claudia house. Lady Rosetta is my companion in that regard.)
She was a fellow victim who was tormented by the ruling emperor of two millennia past.
Liam had saved both herself and Rosetta from such torment, making them both very precious to her.
“Today I"ll be showing you the mansion"s hospital.”
Rosetta burst out in surprise,
“There"s a hospital in the mansion?!”
“Of course there is, we had the room for it.”
“But I heard that the Banfield house already had hospitals equal to those of the imperial capital!”
Did you really need a hospital in your mansion if your already had ones of that caliber in your territory?
Rosetta couldn"t understand this.
“…please prepare yourself for when we arrive. The people who receive treatment there aren"t normal.”
Those who had been captured by pirates and had suffered terrible fates were sent there.
“I"ve heard about this before. The head knight told me that I needed to have a deeper understanding of Liam– my husband* to become a suitable wife for him.”
A blue vein popped up on Marie"s forehead, but because she was in front of Rosetta she forced herself to smile.
(That minced-meat b.i.t.c.h! Don"t preach around so bossily! Next time I see you I"ll cut you back down to the chunk of meat you were!)
“It"s only been a decade or so since Liam"s knight order was founded, so disregard anything that lady says, the head knight will be changing soon anyways.”
“I-is that so? It"s only been ten years, but it already looks like there are plenty of excellent knights here.”
To this universe, a decade was a short amount of time.
To be considered a historical knight order, they"d need at least five hundred years of experience to them.
“Oh yes, why "husband"?”
“D-does it sound funny?”
“No, it"s just that I"ve only heard Amagi refer to Lord Liam that way.”
“Amagi… she"s that android, isn"t she?”
“I"m worried that Lord Liam might mind, so let"s consider other names so you can differentiate yourself from her.”
“Huh? I should call him something else? Like a nickname or something?”
Marie went into deep thought for a moment,
“What about "darling?"”
–that suggestion was happily accepted.
After returning to the mansion, I indulged myself in luxury first thing in the morning.
“It"s definitely luxurious to start the day playing in the pool!”
The wave pool was cleaned last night and filled with water.
It"d be nice if there were lots of girls in swimsuits here too, but I didn"t have any beauties at the moment.
The only ones in their swimsuits here were Amagi and Brian.
Amagi"s was a modest pareo-type.
It perfectly suited her adult charm.
I specifically had Thomas prepare a high-quality swimsuit made of the best materials for her.
I got angry when he asked me if I wanted to prepare a risqué swimsuit and shouted, “ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!” back then.
Amagi wasn"t an exhibitionist.
There"s no way I"d make her wear something risqué.
Brian on the other hand was wearing a swimsuit that covered his knees and elbows.
…I didn"t care about that though.
“Lord Liam, would you like some fruit for breakfast?”
“Is it a fresh and high-cla.s.s one?”
“Of course! We"ve prepared for you the finest goods grown in your territory"s soil!”
–what a waste of expenses!
They actually flew in fresh fruit directly from the fields.
When I tried them, they were fresh and sweet.
While the fruit juices smoothly went down.
“They"re delicious!”
They went so far just for my breakfast.
Being an evil lord is the best!
Amagi proceeded to cut the fruit indifferently,
“To eat what was grown locally, you sure are amazing, Master.”
“Are you being sarcastic? Please don"t be angry. I"m doing this because I didn"t get to enjoy these luxuries while in school.”
As I thought, home is best.
There was n.o.body here who could resist me, and I was treated like a king.
I was an evil king though.
Brian brought out the next product,
“Lord Liam, next we have some yogurt for you.”
“Is it a luxury item?”
“Unfortunately it"s not, this Brian here made it himself.”
“You know you don"t have to do that, right? Well, I"ll still try it since you made it for me… oh, it"s actually pretty good.”
I kind of hated how unexpectedly delicious it was.
Wallace was watching Liam.
He was eating breakfast by the poolside first thing in the morning.
“Liam sure is modest. Isn"t everything he"s eating grown from his own territory?”
Aristocrats who owned land like Liam usually had their meals imported on s.p.a.ceships from abroad.
But these fruits were prepared from his people"s fields.
If compared to the common sense of Earth, it was as if he was eating what was grown in his backyard garden.
In this universe, what was considered "luxurious" among the n.o.bility was completely different.
They"d spend ridiculous amounts of money just for a single cup of coffee.
The best water would be prepared.
They"d gather the best beans.
All of it processed using the best tools and the best professionals.
In any case, that"s just how things were.
So from Wallace"s perspective, Liam was being exceptionally frugal.