CH 148

Warren tilted his head and gazed at the purple star girl who kept silent and stared at his chest.

“Sophie-sama?”

“—Eh? P-please excuse me! Err, we’re talking about Lorenzo-sama, right?”

Sophie realized she was staring hard at “it” so she hurriedly apologized.

She tried to get back to the earlier conversation, but Warren noticed Sophie’s gaze and was curious about what she was incessantly staring at.

“Is there dirt stuck or anything?”

“No, there’s no such thing!”

There was no dirt stuck on his glossy back robe. Sophie shook her head hard.

“But…”

“There really isn’t any garbage stuck there!”

Not only was Sophie distracted in the middle of a conversation, she even prioritized her curiosity, which was a boorish act that was unfitting of a lady.

But there was no way she could claim there was nothing after what she did, so Sophie decided to ask the thing she was wondering to Warren.

“Since we first met, I’ve been curious about the insignia on Warren-sama’s black stars.”

“Insignia… is it?”

Warren paused for a brief moment, but Sophie continued to ask what she found weird.

“Yes. I just found the insignia was a little different in design compared to Gerald Forsius-sama’s three black stars, so I had been curious about it all this time.”

“My insignia shouldn’t be any different from his insignia though.”

It should be the same design, said Warren as he picked up his own insignia.

Designs of stars differed according to what type of star they were, but the black star had the design of two swords crossed together with roses surrounding it.

“Ah, I guess it is a faulty expression to say the designs differ. To be more exact, the number of rose petals drawn on the insignia has one petal less than Gerald-sama’s stars.”

Warren’s eyes went wider than usual when Sophie corrected her remark. It was just a subtle move, but it was the first time Warren showed astonishment to Sophie.

Since Sophie thought he was a person who was good at hiding his true feelings, she wondered if she asked something surprising since he was that astonished, which made Sophie panic instead.

“Is that a rude question?”

Sophie asked, but Warren immediately denied it.

Then after staring carefully at his own insignia, he bowed his head to Sophie.

“I’m terribly sorry. I had forgotten about it until Sophie-sama pointed that out. Certainly, I have heard the number of petals increases by one by every time the craftsman changes to the next generation.”

“Oh my, so that’s how it is.”

That was right. Gerald’s insignia was new while Warren’s was old.

Contrary to Sophie, who was relieved to realize she didn’t ask something bizarre, Warren had an expression as if he didn’t expect that.

“It’s amazing you manage to notice such minute differences.”

After all, the insignia size was less than two fingers combined, about the size of a newborn baby’s palm.

Moreover, the main design of the two swords with roses was only there to decorate it, so it wasn’t something noticeable at a glance.

More than anything, when someone looked at the insignia, the thing people paid attention to was the number of stars, not the design.

How many stars lined under the two swords?

Sophie, who was completely uninterested in what most people were interested in, replied with loose cheeks.

“The rose is my favorite flower, so I got curious.”

To be more exact, it had been that way ever since she met Christina.

It was a gorgeous and beautiful rose that was suitable to a similarly gorgeous beauty, and it was also Christina’s favorite flower. That was why roses were so special to Sophie.

“To think you love the national flower the most, that’s a wonderful interest.”

Warren squinted as he smiled. Sophie responded with her own smile while inwardly chilled.

National flower? Now that I think about it, it is indeed the case.

Sophie had completely forgotten that the rose was the national flower of the Orlando Kingdom.

For Sophie, the rose wasn’t linked to the national flower, but to Christina instead.

In the first place, the reason Sophie noticed the difference in the number of petals between Gerald’s insignia and Warren’s insignia was because of an emotion similar to envy as she thought, “Why is there no handsome tax for the handsome? I’m really dissatisfied!” so she instead counted the number of petals to calm herself down.

The reason she counted the number of petals was her attempt to pass her feelings to her beloved elder sister Christina, who was like a rose fairy.

Although it was something Sophie found out due to not a praiseworthy reason, Warren instead praised Sophie in admiration of her eye for detail.

It might be just a courtesy, but such excessive praise hurts my conscience…

For Sophie, who chose to focus on the insignia as if she tried to burn it with her gaze every time she confronted Gerald, she just happened to notice the petals in Warren’s insignia happened to be less than what she remembered. It was definitely not a praiseworthy thing like an eye for detail.

There was no way Sophie could admit such an unladylike reason, so Sophie smiled awkwardly instead, all while hiding her cramped right cheek using her delicate fingers.

The feeling of being unable to stay put was similar to what Sophie experienced when talking to the golden lion who bore five golden stars and the genius of the generation who bore five silver stars, then she noticed something after what just happened. 

Now that I think about it, I don’t know who bears five black stars.

Sophie knew the name of the bearer of five stars for gold and silver stars since she was interested in their fields to begin with, but since she never had such interest in the black star, she never heard about the name, surname, or even the pedigree of the bearer of five black stars.

Sophie still wasn’t that interested even now, but considering she was the bearer of the purple star, having that information was expected of her. If she stayed as she was, she would be branded as an ignorant human being.

“Um.”

Just as Sophie was about to ask Warren about the black star, the chime that signaled noon rang and drowned out Sophie’s voice. Sophie was also distracted by the sound of the bell and the thing she wanted to ask disappeared in her throat.

Aah, so it’s already this hour, thought Sophie as she looked at the desk clock placed on the shelf in front of her and Warren also followed suit. After checking the clock, Warren took a step back and thanked her for her hard work.

“I deeply apologize. I shouldn’t take away more of Sophie-sama’s precious time. I will be leaving now.”

“No, it’s okay.”

After seeing Warren leave the room without any wasteful movements, Sophie recalled the topic of Lorenzo wasn’t settled yet.

To be honest, neither the topic of exercising the power of the purple star nor the compliment regarding the insignia was something Sophie wished to be extended further, so Sophie felt she was saved by Warren leaving, but she wondered what Warren thought about it. Considering Warren’s atmosphere and tone when he talked about the purple star, Sophie doubted that was the end of it.

If the topic continued as it was, he would keep convincing Sophie until she finally invited Lorenzo to the academy.

Besides, Warren did leave while saying he wouldn’t take away more of Sophie’s time, but it wasn’t like Warren stayed long to begin with.

“Warren-sama’s expression when I asked about the insignia seemed a little off, didn’t it?”

It was a trivial thing that didn’t matter much if it wasn’t noticeable, but she felt Warren’s attitude was a little weird.

“Is it because I talked about the insignia?”

Perhaps the topic of the insignia wasn’t something that Warren wanted to discuss?

Sophie had such thoughts for a moment, but it was hard to think that Warren would be troubled by the minor difference of a single petal, so she continued thinking as she stared at the closed door.

“That was a weak excuse…”

Warren sighed as he walked on a red carpet with gold embroidery.

Warren left using the ringing bell as the excuse, but perhaps such an exit was unnatural?

He hoped that the intelligent girl didn’t find it weird.

Warren never thought the difference in insignias would be pointed out, so he ended up lying.

He stared at the insignia on his palm again and Warren groaned.

“I guess it was my mistake to bring my old one. As expected, I should have requested a new one to be made.”

A bearer’s insignia would be returned to the kingdom’s administration officer and replaced with a new insignia made whenever the number of stars a person bore increased.

However, just because it was returned, it didn’t mean it would be reused for others. Unless the bearer of the star died or was stripped of their stars, the insignia was tightly controlled in the kingdom’s vault.

For this mission, Warren took back his old insignia from the vault.

He completely forgot that there was a change in the past, a difference of a single petal—

That was completely his fault.

Warren didn’t tell Sophie a lot, but originally, even if the generation of the craftsman changed, that didn’t mean the design of the insignia would change, and the number of petals wasn’t planned to be changed either.

The new craftsman made a mistake and ended up making one more petal.

Because of how minute the difference was—be it the craftsman, the officer who checked, or the bearer of the insignia who hung it on their chest—none of them noticed it.

Things changed after one day, and after over a decade since the change, there was someone who pointed out the difference and the mistake was revealed.

Since things already continued for over a decade, with many insignias passed to bearers of black stars, the old ones with one less petal were collected back and all of them were unified on the new design.

In other words, Warren’s insignia was considered non-existent for the current bearers of black stars.

But really, would anyone notice it normally…?

No matter how many times he stared at the beautifully drawn rose petals, he couldn’t help but wonder how a person could notice such minute differences with their bare eyes.

Even if old and new insignias were lined together, how many people out there would notice the difference?

Even the bearers of black stars themselves, who maintain the condition of their insignias every single day, couldn’t notice the minute difference until it was pointed out, but to think the purple star girl noticed it that quickly—

“It’s been a while since anyone could notice the difference with their bare eyes since that person.”

That person was the person who first noticed the change in the insignia in this nation.

Warren never thought there would actually be another one.

Even though she was still the age of a girl, her seriousness seemed similar to “him.” But the same could be said for her somewhat weird atmosphere.

A/N:

It was late, but on January 16th 2020 this work of “I Was A Man Before Reincarnating, So I Refuse A Reverse Harem” was published by Earth Star Novel. (/・ω・)/Fooooooooooo

I also wrote side stories there. (/・ω・)/Fooooooooooo

“Side Story” “The Young Lady Named Sophie Linear~ a secret talk at a certain salon~

“Side Story” “The Young Lady Named Sophie Linear~ Bart’s Sigh

“Side Story” “The Young Lady Named Sophie Linear~ Creto’s Choice~

“First edition limited bundle expression” “Diary of Sophie Linier”

“Toranoana” “Sunny’s purpose of life”

“WonderGOO” “Dear Tenma, It’s Incident”

“Melon Books” “One more custom was born”

By the way, there’s Morishita’s best recommendation with plenty of Lilina on the back cover, so if you found it in a bookstore, you could see that without buying! (*’▽’)

T/N:

I’m sorry to inform you, but I won’t be translating any of those side stories above.

I have no access to them, and it is something that came from a paid transaction instead of freely available like the web novel version, so I’d like to refrain from causing potential problems to the translation group.

For those who can read japanese, please support the author and buy the book to read them yourself!