Chapter 45, A Day at the Fortress – Morning

Translator: Lizz

 

“Good morning, Lady Sylvia. The weather’s lovely again today!”

Gina cheerfully greeted while opening the curtains.

Mumbling sleepily, Sylvia rubbed her drowsy eyes and slowly sat up.

Then, after a big yawn,

“Good morning,” she replied to Gina.

 

Gina helped Sylvia wash her face and tie her hair. She wanted to style it in various ways, but Sylvia’s hair was so fine and smooth that even tying it was a challenge. No matter how she tried, the hair ornaments kept sliding off, so she gave up on those.

“I wish I could make it look cuter… It’s really tricky.”

Today again, Gina lost her battle with Sylvia’s silky hair and settled for the usual twin ponytails.

 

After getting dressed, Sylvia headed to the breakfast room with Gina.

“Good morning, Lady Sylvia.”

Edward, who had arrived ahead of them, greeted.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, Edward.”

Sylvia and Gina each replied.

 

Currently, Sylvia was in the midst of learning the bare essentials of aristocratic etiquette.

In her case, verbal explanations didn’t work at all, so Edward had taken to demonstrating the behavior and having her mimic it.

She was able to imitate well enough, so this method was working.

 

Edward thought to himself that Sylvia wasn’t so much lacking comprehension as she was lacking imagination.

She couldn’t visualize what was described verbally.

As long as he showed her through demonstration, she could understand, so it wasn’t a serious issue for now.

With diplomatic exchange growing between neighboring countries, they were teaching her the basics of social interaction, but it had only been six months since she arrived. There was still plenty of time to teach her slowly and thoroughly.

 

Despite being completely unable to grasp verbal explanations, Sylvia mastered new languages faster than anyone else. Calogero and Edward had each taught her the languages they were fluent in, and while her phrasing was a bit off, she was able to start speaking them almost immediately.

“…Is this one of those ‘language is essential for daily life’ situations?”

“It’s essential.”

Sylvia replied firmly.

 

After the meal, Edward gently patted Sylvia and said,

“You did very well today, Lady Sylvia.”

Sylvia puffed out her chest and flared her nostrils with pride.

“This was an easy task for me.”

It was just so Sylvia to avoid showing delight that Edward stifled a chuckle, while Gina beamed and showered her with praise: ‘That’s our Lady Sylvia, as expected!’

 

After finishing her meal, Sylvia headed to the stables.

The livestock had also finished eating and were lounging around lazily, but when Sylvia appeared, they all stood up.

In addition to the grass grown through Sylvia’s magic, the animals’ feed now also included processed products supplied by local livestock farmers.

 

To Sylvia, her first subordinates weren’t Edward, but the animals that had been raised at her family home.

So even now, she played with them every morning.

“Kyaa!”

Sylvia cried out with a smile as she chased after the livestock, who ran around just fast enough to avoid being caught.

An elderly couple, hired as caretakers, watched over them warmly.

Thinking it would be better to have dedicated caretakers, Sylvia had hired the couple who had handed their farm over to their son.

The couple adored Sylvia like a granddaughter, so when she played with the animals, they’d come by to watch over her and occasionally help out.

After all, Sylvia looked and acted like a pure and innocent young girl.

Moreover, being sent away from her parents at such a young age to a fortress that was practically isolated was unthinkable by normal standards. Rather than being seen as a noble daughter of a duke, she was viewed more like a pitiful young girl subjected to misfortune, garnering sympathy.

 

After that, it was study time.

Edward and Calogero took turns teaching Sylvia various subjects.

When the two couldn’t make time, Gina would teach in their place.

Since she hadn’t received any education at all, they were starting from the very basics, but Sylvia listened without showing any resistance.

Still, there was some concern about whether she actually understood.

They tried to break things down as simply as possible, but…

Sylvia could memorize everything she was told or shown, but often didn’t know how to apply it.

Since she was still very young, the idea was to help her gradually understand through hands-on experience.

 

Today, Gina was teaching arithmetic.

Since sewing work was closely tied to math, Gina was quite skilled at it.

After all, if someone said, ‘Please make it 1.2 times larger than last time’ and she couldn’t calculate it instantly, the work would suffer.

 

“Lady Sylvia, you have such a good memory, so you’re great at arithmetic! Now, here’s a problem! A lady comes in and says, ‘My waist has grown by about three mel. Can you alter this for me?’ The current waist of this garment is 62 mel. To be safe, let’s add another 2 mel beyond the customer’s request. What should the total waist size be?”

[Author’s note: One mel equals one centimeter]

“67 mel.”

Sylvia replied flatly. Gina clapped her hands in joy and showered Sylvia with praise.

“Brilliant as always, Lady Sylvia!”

 

…As he passed by, Edward overheard Gina’s question and thought to himself how typical it was of her to pose a problem drawn directly from personal experience. He did his best to suppress a laugh.