T/N: This chapter is dedicated to my cookie donor, Andrianne ❤ Hopefully this is the story that you have been following! Sorry for the delay as well, but you are now officially on my Cookie Donor page ?
Even Though I"m Finally Home, My Servant Seems to be in a Foul Mood
We get two vacations during each school year. I ended up studying the first one away, opting to stay in the dorms to concentrate a little more on learning about magic, since my scores have been a little on the pitiful side there. While I can always achieve excellent marks in ethics, history and magic theory always seem to allude me, so that was mainly what I focused on. I also threw in a little practical magic practice for good measure, since I always seem to be just below average on that.
Although I cannot allow myself to excel in these subjects, since that would be too close to following the game"s plot and would therefore be like throwing myself heartily into danger, I can"t afford to be completely negligent in my studies. Just because I might escape my character"s fate doesn"t mean time is just going to stop there. I need to be able to survive in this world. Hopefully in the future I will be able to find a job or at least become a housewife…. But without a certain level of knowledge or skills, even those might become impossible for me.
I also will not allow myself, the daughter of a viscount, to bring shame to my family name. I may not be on the level of a villainess, but I still have that little bit of pride left in me. And that"s mainly why I chose to stay in the dorms and spend my precious first break on studying.
But to spend even my second break in this way, without returning home at all, is simply too much, even for me. That"s why, at this very moment, I am happily riding the carriage back to the estate. And once this break is over, I will officially become a second year, and Ashley will finally start attending the academy. So that means, the next time I have to make this trip back to school, I"ll get to do it with him ❤ I"m sure the carriage ride will seem much shorter with him along!
On another note, according to Ashley, Father had been very out of spirits during my last break because I had decided not to return home for it. And since Father is such a caring and gentle person, to the point where he can"t even voice these thoughts to me in worry that I might feel bad, I have long since realized that there is no way that he could have forced Mother to run away with him. It used to worry me, thinking that she was taken against her will, having lived with him for so long, I am now certain that was not the case, and I can look at their elopement in a much more easy and romantic light.
Besides, I know I am biased, since he"s my father and all, but even looking at him objectively I know that he"s extremely handsome. I"m sure Mother must also have been wooed and happily went along with him. He has intelligent eyes that look a bit sharp and even after all these years his face still looks very young and good looking. He"s also the sort of person who changes his demeanor completely when he"s working. It"s amazing seeing him acting as the cold and calculating lord one moment, and then in the next to have him donning that sweet and fawning smile. Honestly, it makes me feel like he and Mother really suited each other well. It"s really too bad I took after Father so much though. While his sharp eyes look great on him, on a girl"s face they look way too severe to the point that it"s become a sort of complex of mine.
And since Father has always loved doting on me, I"m a little scared to see what he might have prepared in celebration of my homecoming after so long…. But I needn"t have worried. When the coachman announces that we have arrived and comes around to open the door for me, I only see Ashley standing there with his head bowed.
“Welcome back,” he says politely.
“I"m home, Ashley. Would you mind helping me down?”
I say, extending my hand out of the carriage. Seeing this, Ashley smiles brilliantly and presents his own hand, lightly grasping my fingers in his own.
“Master also wanted to be here to welcome you, but it seems that some work came up that urgently needed his attention. He was extremely unhappy to be taken away by it.”
“What a shame. He missed out on the chance of being able to see you smile for once.”
I say as he hands me out of the carriage. Once I am firmly on the ground, Ashley takes the hand that had been holding mine and draws his fingers to his face. “I was smiling?” he asks, as if he can"t seem to believe it himself, before he forces his face back into its trademarked expressionless mask. I wish I hadn"t said anything at all!
“Oh how I"ve missed you, Ashley. Ooh, I think you"ve grown taller again!”
“Of course, I wouldn"t be able to suit you as your escort if I was too short.”
He completely ignored the fact that I said I missed him I see…. But I can"t let these sorts of things get to me. If I let them bother me each and every time, then I would practically be in a permanent state of disappointment. He"s never been the most affectionate person, so I"ve long since gotten used to this indifference of his.
“Have you eaten lunch yet?” he asks me, breaking me from my thoughts.
“Nope. But I am definitely ready for it now. We left so early in the morning that it"s already been hours since I had breakfast. What about you, Ashley? Have you eaten?”
“Not yet.”
“Then shall we eat together, just like old times? Pretty please?”
“If that"s what you want, then I suppose there"s no helping it this time,” he says, seemingly reluctant.
I call out to a maid who had been waiting on standby near the carriage and ask her to tell the kitchen staff to prepare lunch for us and to inform us when it"s ready, but she just shakes her head.
“Everything has already been prepared, Ojousama. Carlyle made sure that everything was ready in the kitchen long before he came out to welcome you.”
“Oh my…. Ashley is as perfect a servant as ever I see. He can still read his master"s intentions without even a second thought.”
It seems that our time apart has not lessened any of his capabilities. He"s still way more amazing than I"ve ever been. If I don"t eradicate some of my numerous flaws, Ashley is definitely going to get fed up with me.
As we walk into the mansion I notice that it seems to have undergone a few renovations during the year that I"ve been away. It seems to be just little things though, like the hallway that we were taking at present now seems to have lots of flowers and paintings adorning it.
When we reach the dining room though, I"m glad to see that one thing hasn"t changed: the food still looks great! I"ve been longing for this taste of home for so long, and it definitely does not disappoint!
“You not only predicted that I would be hungry after my long journey home, but also that I would request that you eat with me?”
I ask my ridiculously perfect servant as he is ladling soup into one of the two bowls that he had prepared for us. “Well, I have known you for a long time,” is all he says by way of an answer before he starts in on his own bowl.
Ahh, it"s been so long since I"ve had a meal with someone else like this seeing as I don"t have any friends. Oswell was certainly always an option for a companion, but I always did my best to avoid him, though he was sometimes frustratingly persistent. And Gray might have been interested, but I told him flatly that I want to have nothing to do with him when at all possible, and he has for the most part acquiesced to this request. Although whenever we ended up quarreling, or if I ever did anything to annoy him, he always made sure to get back at me by forcefully drawing me into a conversation in an area full of people.
Considering that we made a pact to cooperate, but still have yet to find out any new information on the hidden character, it feels like he"s doing more harm to me than good! And the same with Oswell as well!! It feels like all the guys around me are just trying to shorten my life span, either through death flags or stress.
“It"s so nice being able to share a meal with you like this.” Honestly, I can feel the stress from this past year just melting away.
“Actions speak louder than words you know. If you think this is so nice, then don"t you think it would have been better for you to come back home during the first break as well?”
Huh? For a moment there, I swear it looked like Ashley was pouting.
“You should be able to study just as well from home as you can in a dorm. I could even have helped you if you had merely deigned to come back.”
Even though Ashley"s manners are usually so impeccable, right now he is so irritated that he is actually clinking his silverware against his plate as he uses them.
“Hey, Ashley? Were you mad that I didn"t come back home last time?”
“I"m merely a servant, you know? I would never dream of doing something so beyond my station like getting mad at you, Ojousama.”
That"s what you say…. but your fork and knife seem to be clanging even more now, you know?
“So you aren"t mad?”
“Not at all.”
“Then can you meet me eyes?”
“…..Instead of just saying things like “I missed you” you should have just actually come back to see me.”
Woah, there"s the “dere.” It"s been so long since he"s said anything even remotely affectionate like this! When I got on the carriage to go off to school, literally all he said was, “Take care.” And in every single one of his letters? He didn"t let on at all what he was feeling. He should have said something!
But, at the very least, it looks like you were actually listening when I told you that I missed you, huh Ashley?
“I"m sorry. I just wanted to become a master that would suit you. You"re so amazing already that I have to do my absolute best to keep up! And I figured that if I stayed in the dorms, then my teachers would be right there if I ever needed help…..”
“Ojousama, you are just overestimating me.”
“No way! You really are an amazingly capable servant, Ashley.”
“You praise me too much.”
“…..”
It"s nearly impossible to find a fault in Ashley…. Of course I would end up endlessly complimenting him. It"s not like I can find anything to complain about! I suppose his lack of facial expressions could possibly be considered a flaw… but he still has his moments when that mask crumbles and he shows his true feelings, so I could hardly use that to criticize him.
“I"m not nearly as perfect as you seem to think I am, Ojousama.”
“Even so, I"m sure that once you start attending the academy, you are going to excel at everything you do.”
Since studying and magic have always been your specialties.
“I wonder about that.”
“You"ll be great. You are my servant, after all!”
“That"s why I"m saying you"re expectations for me are too high.”
“Jeez….”
And these are the words of the man who has raised my standards to a ridiculous level. It"s to the point where, when I"m at school, I find myself comparing everyone around me to him, and none of them can come anywhere close to Ashley"s level! I"m sure that once Ashley actually enrolls and has a chance to make his own comparisons, that he will finally realize just how peerless his skills already are.
But I"ll let this matter drop for now. I feel like if I continue to talk about this while Ashley"s in such a bad mood, I"ll only make things worse. And because of that, we eat the rest of the meal in silence.
＊＊＊
It"s been three days since I came home and I"ve already received a letter….
3 days! For a letter to come this soon during the break, shouldn"t the sender have just said what they wanted to while we were still in school!? Nothing could have possibly happened on that first day that warranted writing to me so soon!
Ashley and I had been studying together in the library when it was delivered, and we were both quite surprised when a visibly excited maid came to hand it to me. Even more surprising was the fact that it was not just one maid that came to deliver it. Nor was it two maids…. There was a total of six maids that came in, all blushing and staring at me with stars in their eyes as if watching a romantic scene right out of a movie.
Seeing this spectacle, both Ashley and I are dumbfounded. That is, until we take a glance down at the writing on the letter.
At the top of the envelope is written:
“To my beloved Cecile,”
and at the bottom, it"s signed:
“Gray Randolph“
Senpai, this sort of address is bound to create misunderstandings you know!
Finally unable to bear the suspense, one of the maids brings a hand up to her cheek and says in a slightly too loud voice, “Gray Randolph! Isn"t that the Duke Randolph"s son!? Ojousama, what is your relationship with him??”
And then, without even bothering to wait for a reply, the rest of the women rushed in with their own barage of questioning.
“To have personally sent a letter to Ojousama, his feelings must be very ardent for you, are they not?”
“Do you have a very intimate relationship with him?”
“Does Master know about him yet?”
“Are you planning to get engaged?”
“What do you like about him?”
What a magnificent misunderstanding to even make them jump to engagement in their heads. First of all, he"s far from pa.s.sionate. He"s not even the least bit enthusiastic! And whenever we interact he is always so sloppy and rude. So of course we aren"t close, and of course there was never a need to mention him to Father. And to top it all off, I"m not the least bit attracted to him!
But none of the maids could have guessed any of that given how the letter was addressed. Considering that Gray is well-known as the handsome, gentlemanly, first son of Duke Randolph, they must be thinking that there is some sort of amazingly romantic love story between the two of us, but they will be sorely disappointed.
“He"s merely an uppercla.s.sman that looked after me a little while I was at school. No more and no less.”
The moment I say this, all the maids let out a sigh and start grumbling about how that"s such a shame or that they can"t believe it. And then they start whispering conspiratorially with each other. “But that might not be the case for Randolph-sama.” “He did send Ojousama a letter after only three days apart.” They say, unable to completely accept my dismissal of our relationship. Seriously. Why did he have to write me a letter so quickly into the break??
Right next to me, a book is slammed shut, sending out a loud, definitive clap making me and the maids all jump.
“Ashley……?”
Ashley drums his fingers on the desk, his typical sign of irritation, and the atmosphere in the room instantly freezes over. When he"s like this, Ashley is quite scary, but he"s still so beautiful that I have trouble looking away. I never know how I should act when this fearsome, yet captivating side of him makes an appearance, but before I can say anything, he speaks instead. He addresses the maids without even bothering to glance their way.
“Ojousama has already denied having any such relationship with him, has she not? Don"t be rude by being so pointlessly suspicious and letting your imaginations run wild.”
It has already been ten odd years since Ashley came to this house. So, for these young maids who see Ashley every day, Senpai is the first man who has come into the picture that can even attempt to rival Ashley and so of course they would all be crazy about him. But that doesn"t mean they would want to anger Ashley over him. They want to avoid that at all costs, so hearing his chastis.e.m.e.nt, they immediately apologize for any disrespect they might have caused and flee from the room.
“Are you close with Duke Randolph"s son?” Ashley asks, turning his fierce eyes on me. He looks down on me from above, as if asking me if I dare to have gotten close to him. Even as a joke, they don"t look even remotely like the eyes of a servant looking at his master.
“Umm, well, you know, various things have happened.”
“Various things? Such as?”
“Umm, clandestine meetings?”
“As in a lover"s rendezvous?”
Wow, I could have definitely phrased that better.
“As in talking together every once in a while since we happened to share a hobby. That"s all.”
“Just the two of you?”
Didn"t you say that it"s rude to be suspicious like this?
“We aren"t even that close. We are literally on the level of occasionally talking to each other.”
“Then what did he mean by calling you his beloved?”
“Isn"t it just idle flattery? A little lip service, that"s all.”
Though I say that, it could be so easily misconstrued. Just how many young ladies has Senpai already led astray with that type of greeting I wonder….
“Then, would be okay to read it now?”
“….You"re going to read it too, Ashley?”
“Is there a problem with that?”
This is a complete breach of etiquette, though Ashley doesn"t seem the least bit inclined to honor what is considered proper manners at the moment. I"m sure the letter is either going to talk about the hidden character or discuss some other information Senpai has gathered about this world since it"s not like our relationship had developed to the point of wanting to send letters just to say, “The weather"s gotten a lot nicer, hasn"t it?” or “How have you been lately?” And besides, even if it had, somehow I can"t imagine Senpai is even capable of such a tasteful correspondence.
“Can"t we read it later?”
“Why? Do you have a guilty conscience? Is there something incriminating in there that I shouldn"t see?”
“……”
I guess if there is any information that Ashley shouldn"t see, I just need conceal it from him. As long as he doesn"t read any of that stuff, everything should be fine. I really don"t have the courage to say no to him right now, especially since he already looks quite angry.
So without any further hesitation, I break the seal and open up the letter… As it turns out, it looks like I needn"t have worried at all!
“What country"s language does this writing come from? I don"t remember ever seeing it before….” Ashley says, tilting his head to the side in confusion.
Good going, Senpai! It seems like it"s only in these rare moments when you do something praiseworthy. I guess your status as an honors student isn"t completely for show.
“Ojousama, can you read this?”
“Yes. Since I"ve studied this language a bit.”
In actual fact, I had no need to study it…. But yes, I can definitely read it.
＊＊＊
Dear Cecile Alldington,
Considering the negative consequences of this letter being seen by someone other than you, I decided it would be best to write this in j.a.panese. I figured that if it was you, then you should be able to read this just fine.
There are three matters that I want to inform you of. Firstly, about Ashley Carlyle, I know that you said that there is no longer anything to fear from the guy, but don"t completely let your guard down while you"re with him. Just because you"re feeling comfortable around him doesn"t mean there isn"t still a chance that he might go psycho and end up killing you. I can just picture you being way too excited about being home and throwing all caution to the wind, so I wanted to warn you about this just in case.
Secondly, I obtained some more information on Oswell Arkwright. Although I"ve had it for some time now, the break started before I was able to tell you about it. After doing some digging I realized that he grew up in a pretty complicated family environment. Since you told me that a character"s back-story is super important, I figured this brings him back to the top of our list of suspects for the hidden character.
The last bit of important news that I have is that my Father, Duke Randolph, adopted a child while I was away at school. I, myself, didn"t hear anything about him until I finally came back home, but he is apparently one year younger than you, and will start attending school with us as soon as the break is over. He is also exceptionally handsome. I may be overthinking this, but I"m getting this terrible feeling that this guy is actually our best contender for the hidden character, seeing as he is the adopted little brother of another capture target. This feels like a pretty considerable development to me, but I"m not exactly an expert on this stuff. The reason I rushed to write you this letter is because I can"t be sure of what to think about this new little brother of mine.
I"ll be waiting to hear your thoughts.
Gray Randolph
＊＊＊
“Ojousama? What did it say? ….You"re looking a bit pale.”
“My G.o.d…. an adopted child…..”
I haven"t heard of any other characters having that type of background. And furthermore, he"s in the same grade as Ashley?
“Ashley….”
“Yes?”
“Please, whatever you do, don"t just jump head first into danger, okay?”
It still hasn"t been confirmed yet, but in all likelihood there is going to be an extremely, unbelievably, terrifyingly dangerous person in the same year as Ashley….. And if that boy ends up in the same cla.s.s as him….. I"ll be living beside myself in fear for him.
T/N: I really enjoyed reading this chapter in j.a.panese, but in English it sounded a bit rambling…. So, sorry about that! I did my best to minimize it, but I don"t think it helped much… On a more fun note, I can"t tell you how many times I was screaming while I was reading XD First we have jealous Ashley. Then we have stupid Gray making a fantastic spectacle! I don"t know if he said, “my beloved” as a cover-up for why he sent her a letter or not, but I feel like he did it on purpose!! I was yelling at him while I was translating that bit hahaha. And then there was jealous Ashley going into interrogation mode. And finally there is a NEW CHARACTER ALERT! I was loudly fangirling a whole lot lol. I hope you all can have close to as much fun as I did!!
Also, I"m curious to see who you guys think is the hidden character, so I made a poll ? Feel free to leave your reasons in the comments!