CH 37

“Potential friend candidates…?”

As I managed to shake off the embarrassment of being watched in a fierce pointing game with Connie, I asked my mother a question.

“Yes, that’s right. We’re going to meet some of the kids your age from the families who are close to us. Then you can choose the ones you think will be good friends.”

“I hope you find someone that you can feel especially comfortable with so that you can have a long term relationship with them.”

Hoho. As expected, if it’s the Marquis family, it means that I’ll be on the side of choosing.

First of all, I should form a nice group and then choose a trustworthy person from that group.

If I chose a timid girl to be my companion, then it would be like having the ‘villainous lady’s cronies’ trope.

By the way, because I had fallen asleep right after my debut at the tea party, I was currently pretty much a loner.

I feel like there might have been a girl I got to know, but she was only 3 years old at the time.

I only had vague memories of people outside other than my family and the Virgil family.

“Well then, let’s meet my children for starters, shall we?”

“Sister’s…Um, Brother Onyx and Sister Athena, right?”

When I managed to give her the name I had managed to remember, my sister nodded.

“Yes. Onyx is a bit bossy but kind, and Athena is a timid but good at learning.”

“I see. How old are those two now?”

“Onyx is ten years old now and Athena is seven. Athena is one year older than Alice.”

I see. If we’re close in age, then I might be able to get along with them.

“Onyx is solidified as next head of the Heimer family, right?”

“Yes. However, I just don’t know who he takes after, with him being so bossy.”

……I think the general consensus of the moment was that Onyx definitely took after Sister Thulite.

“I think Athena-chan was quite a shy girl, but how is she doing at the academy?”

When mother said that in a worried manner, Sister Thulite cowered her shoulders.

I’ve trained he well, so that’s something. However, there is still a weakness in her temperament, so I’ve told her to develop her strengths and increase her weapons.”

“I see…”

Mother breathes in as if she is relieved.

Come to think of it, being Uncle Oedipus’s daughter means that she was a blood niece to my mother. Does that bother me?

“I’ll have to decide on my aides as well.”

“Yes, you’ll have to make a decision well before your birthday party.”

Come to think of it, they had been saying for a while now that I’d be deciding on my aides as well.

I’m not quite sure what kind of people they are specifically, so when I asked, I learned that “aides” in this world indicated an existence akin to both a servant and a guard.

For my father, his aide is Alphonse-san along with a few people who are currently working hard in remote territories.

For my mother, her aide was Maria-san, who had been entrusted with the role of chief maid, along with a few people who had been entrusted with work in the territories just like father’s.

By the way, it seems that most male aides for girls are dismissed as soon as she gets married.

Well, that means my aide might be a knight.

And it seems that the people who become aides were usually the children of lower to middle-class nobles other than the eldest sons.

As aides, they acquire skills and connections to find another job, or remain in the mansion as servants, or are given a business by the master they serve to make a living.

Even in the same aristocratic class, their lives change quite a bit depending on what rank they were in the family and what number child they were (like the eldest or the youngest).

I thought about that vaguely.

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T/N: Just a short chapter today, but the next will be much longer (they really do seem to vary in length)!