CH 13

The season is in the middle of autumn.

Trees turning red are decorating the city, and a section of the garden of the Archelaus Mansion here near the center of the imperial capital are also colored in yellows, oranges and reds.

But I couldn’t care less about that right now as I was currently facing myself in the luxurious full-length mirror again.

“Seriously…I’m almost unnervingly pretty.”

That right. I was examining myself after my reincarnation.

Right after my reincarnation, my family was so shattered that I didn’t have time to think about my new self.

After the Rouge Purge incident that happened in the beginning of the fall, my parents’ marriage was back to normal.

By the way, by back to normal, I mean flirting and being sickeningly sweet. So much so that even just the two of them standing next to each other might give me diabetes.

It seems that they are always together, wanting to close the distance between their hearts that had been separated for two years. Yes, good, good.

Now that things are back to normal and are peaceful, it’s natural to worry about myself.

After all, a tired twenty-nine year old woman who was completely overworked, was suddenly reincarnated as a beautiful, young girl. I’m positive it’s not a dream at this point after so many days. It makes me want to study it.

The only way to describe myself was… an icy and expressionless noble girl’s look?…It’s funny when I say it myself, but I don’t look very friendly.

Thus, after settling down and looking again, I saw that my facial muscles were expressionless and fixed.

If I didn’t consciously try to smile, my expression would remain stiff.

In addition to my stiff expression, I also had silver hair and golden eyes, neither of which are very inviting colors. Basically, they’re a cold colors, or rather, a color that looked like precious metals. My whole look gives off a noble aura and a ‘don’t touch me’ vibe. 

On top of that, my skin is pure white. The only thing that’s left are my cheeks and lips, which are rose-colored, but that’s a normal color if you’re alive.

“Hmm…I look hard to approach.”

In my personal opinion, that’s how I feel about it.

By the way, my body, which was always staying in bed, is slender, thin and weak. I find it difficult to walk for a long time.

But on the inside, I am a company employee who had been tortured by the waves of society.

I had experienced both the sour and the sweet in my own way, and had the courage to do so, so at the very least I still have my inner strength and strong will. I’m sure my facial muscles would start doing their job sooner or later.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to exaggeratedly pronounce vowels as a face exercise in my morning routine to strengthen my facial muscles.

“Also, my mental health was surprisingly not damaged…Am I just heartless…?”

After the most obvious examination of the outside, the next step is to observe the inside.

I was brought up in Japan by normal parents with a normal upbringing. I had friends, and I fell in love. I had seniors whom I adored, and juniors who I loved.

And yet, even though I was in a situation where I was sure I would never see them again, I wasn’t distraught.

No, rather, I’m close to not feeling anything.

It seems strange.

I realized that I just couldn’t remember the faces and names of my past self and the people around me, but it seems that aside from that, some other, less tangible, things have been closed off to me as well…

Because I loved my family and friends. I was a person who was so busy that I felt like I was going to die of overwork, but I was happy as long as they were healthy and alive.

And now, those memories were like a vague memory of yesterday after I woke up from a sound sleep…as if behind a thick glass.

“…No more of that! Let’s move on!”

I switched gears and declared.

Cowering and worrying about issues that I can’t even do anything about about won’t change the situation. It’s best to forget about them.

If I’m being honest, when I was examining myself, inside and out, there was one ridiculous thing that I found that worried me…But it’s not something that I have a way of properly checking.

Even if I could look into it, it’s not something that I could do anything about.

Then in that case, I should work on the things I can controls and make things better now. The more I can do and the more solutions I can come up with.

As for the first problem, it’s been a little while since the Rouge incident, but I basically haven’t been out of the mansion, and I don’t have any physical strength.

Just staying awake for a day makes my body tired. I even slept for a whole day after that grave visit.

So, I want to build up my stamina in preparation for going out of the mansion. For now, walking seems to be the best.

As I grabbed the doorknob and was pushing the heavy door, Connie, the maid who was waiting outside, opened it for me.

“Oh, Miss, are you going out? I hope you’ll allow me to come along for the ride.”

Saying that, Connie happily offers to accompany me.

This Connie, by the way, is the good maid who rushed to my father’s place first when I woke up.

She kept quiet about my condition, and kept it to the letter. It was because of this that I was not suspected by Rouge, and we were able to capture her that night.

She has dirty blonde curly hair and brown eyes—a standard color in this country. She gives off a lovely, freckled, fluffy vibe.

I can feel my heart being healed bit by bit every time I see her soft and flowery smile

“Sure. Where should we g?”

“Hmmm, yes. How would you go to the sunroom and bask in the sun a bit?”

“That sounds nice…”

It’s a tempting proposition, but perhaps she’s looking out for my lack of stamina. I don’t think I’ll ever get stronger that way.

“Is there something more active we can try?”

“Hmmm…”

Connie and I tilted our heads together, but we couldn’t think of anything.

“Well, miss, let’s look around the mansion for something interesting to look at!”

Connie suggests with a squishy smile.

“Sounds good! Let’s go, Connie!”

When I held out one hand, Connie smiled at me and took my hand happily.

“Alright, lets go!”

“Yeess~! Right!”

***

With that, we formed the Archelaus Mansion Expedition team, and were poking around in the appropriate rooms for now.

Because the private rooms are on the third floor (the third floor is the top floor of the private room building), we go downstairs from there and work in order.

When Alice was 3 years old, she had not been allowed to enter the mansion alone, except in designated areas, because didn’t want her to break anything, as was the case in European-style culture

For that reason, I didn’t know the inside of the house that well. After the Rouge incident, I was almost a recluse, so it goes without saying.

But now, as a modern Japanese woman, I couldn’t help but find it interesting to see a purely Western European-style aristocrat’s mansion, even if there was nothing unusual about it.

***

I can’t remember the detailed room arrangements, but the structure of the house I vaguely remember is as follows.

First there is the private room section: bedrooms, living rooms, and tea rooms, and etc used by our family.

Then there is the public room section: mini chapel, office, library, dining room, servants’ quarters, and etc. used by the public.

There is a courtyard that separates the private and public sections.

The backyard section is behind the mansion and has a greenhouse, an herb garden, and an English-style garden. There are also separate stables and storerooms nearby.

Finally, there is a small plaza in front of the main gate.

It feels like a grand scale, but all the residences near to the capital are more or less like smaller mansions, especially when compared to the castles in the territories. Nevertheless, it is still large from the sense of modern people. A comparison of it is about the size of a fairly small elementary school, isn’t it?

By the way, I had only been to our territory’s castle when I was much smaller, so I didn’t remember it.

“I heard that the Archelaus Mansion is quite interesting though.”

Connie tells me with a cheerful laugh.

“You remember the little chapel that we have? And how there is a tower attached to it? No one seems to know when or why that tower was built. Isn’t that rather mysterious?”

“Oh, that’s so interesting! How can you not know exactly when it was built? Is it that old?”

“I wonder why? Let’s just go for now~”

Connie tilted her head and gave a vague reply while she walked away with me.

As I trudged along the red carpet in the ground floor corridor, I saw a maid carrying tea in a wagon to the sunroom.

“Oh? Master and Mistress must be having brunch.”

Connie says happily.

Even in this world, aristocrats have a culture of eating breakfast in their private rooms, but apparently my parents are in the mood for a date this morning.

When I peeked my head in, my father was Ahh~ing at my mother in an attempt to feed her.

Yuck.

I was frozen in place at the sight of them getting along like a teenage couple, when my father noticed me and said, “Alice!” His face lit up.

I can see glitter effects in the background.

My mother noticed me too and said, “Well, you’re feeling better today, aren’t you? Come here~!” She beckoned me seemingly in a good mood as flowers bloomed in the background.

“Good morning, father and mother.”

“Yes, good morning. My dearest treasure, Alice.”

As soon as I come up beside them, my father pulls me in his arms in a hug, and strokes my head while place me on his lap. Hohoho, I’m quite embarrassed.

He’s a ridiculously handsome man, even for a father (I think he is about 28 years old?). I’m embarrassed whenever he picks me up in his arms and whispers his love to me so blatantly, even though it’s a parent-child relationship. I’m embarrassed, but I endure the it because my parents seem to be happy with it.

“Alice, you had a slight fever yesterday, how are you feeling today?”

My mother asked me in a voice that sounded like honey dissolved in worry and love, so I told her the details of my day to reassure her.

“I woke up very refreshed in the morning with no fever! I wanted to move around, so I ate a proper breakfast and then explored the mansion with Connie.”

…Yes, that sounded like the reply of a cheerful little girl, right? Hearing that, my parents smiled as if they were relieved.

“Oh, good, so you were exploring, huh? Alice is a very clever girl, so I don’t mind you going into any room with a maid.”

Father gives me permission with a proud face.

From the other day’s fight with Rouge to the visit to the grave, I had slowly been exposing them to the more grown up side of me. I had stopped trying to use a childish voice or being careful not to use big words.

It wasn’t that I was lowering my voice or anything, but I used a more polite, ladylike tone of voice that fit a young noble woman’s status.

However, I didn’t know the proper noblewoman language that well, so I was just using honorifics with respectful tone of voice.

I was worried for a while about how my parents would perceive their daughter’s sudden adult-like speech, but to my surprise, they interpreted it like super idiotic parents, blinded by their love on a cosmic level.

Although he put on an earnest facade while claiming that it was because I’m so clever that he trusts me, all the while smiling like an overly doting parent, I knew that behind that adoring expression, Father had a different theory in mind for my sudden change. I had overheard him talking to Mother about it the other day.

“When Alice found out the truth and was trapped by that poisonous woman, she was suffering for two years, but it may have started a kind of enlightenment that led to her training. She must have observed her surroundings accurately, accumulated knowledge, and unconsciously acquired the power of deep reasoning. Then she awoke at the edge of death with the help of ancestral spirits or God, and the rest is as we know it…It must be the saintly wisdom that she acquired through deep suffering…”

That’s what I overheard.

I was worried that my father would be caught up in some new, upstart religion. My mother, who nodded her head in tears when she heard and accepted all of it, was also worrisome. Are you sure the mind controlling magic was really dispelled??

But I decided it was okay thanks to my parents’ deep love for me. It’s thanks to that that I can live like this as Alice.

When I turned my attention back to my parents, I have an unamused look on my face as I see my mother now Ahh~in my father to feed him.

I feel like I’m going to puke rainbows, but the childish part of me also raises my hand vigorously.

Yes. I want to join in too!

I couldn’t help but feel that way, so I opened my mouth with a snap towards mother, who was about to feed father a grape.

“Ahhhh~”

My father and mother both froze at the sight of me.

Was that a bad idea? I think.

But then my parents’ faces melted.

They literally melted into a puddle as if they just saw the cutest thing in the world.

And then, very slowly, making sure that I won’t choke, Mother places the grape in my mouth. And after that, father takes a tiny piece of sandwich and does the same. 

Even though I’m not hungry, since I’ve already had breakfast, I’m so happy in this moment that I let them keep feeding me until half of the sandwich is gone.

As I puffed up my cheeks and munched on the sandwich, my mother said, “Come on, Alice, you want some tea too, don’t you?” She lifts the cup to my lips. I’m thirsty from the sandwich, so I happily drink a little bit of it.

As I drink it, I realized that my father and mother have weird expression, as if a mysterious switch had been flipped.

…That kind of switch…

It seems like they are both the type to be excited by the thought of taking care of someone, of someone depending on them, so they were both staring at me with absolute adoration. They’re both huffing and puffing a bit too quickly, and their eyes are focused on me too much. Yikes.

I had a hunch, so I slipped out of my father’s arms and announced,

“I’m going to go exploring with Connie! Thanks for the meal!”

When I gave them a big salute and grabbed Connie’s hand, my father and mother said goodbye to me as if they were sorry to see me go.

By the way, they were giving Connie a very unreasonably jealous look…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

T/N: Lmao, nobody can resist Alice’s moe attack.