Chapter 185, Meeting of the Lords (aka Drinking Party)_4

Translator: Xini

Proofreader: Silavin

 

Everyone turned around to look at us after Gen and Sumi raised their voices , so we had to assure them nothing was wrong and apologize for being loud.

 

“To be honest, when I heard you adopted Gray I thought you had no plans of marrying but still wanted a kid… or that you were into boys…”

“Yeah, Did you know I also suspected that you preferred boys at first?”

“I can’t believe that’s what you thought of your own brother. Then why did you think I also took Apricot under my wing?”

“Well, don’t you often hear stories of homosexuals marrying the opposite sex to hide their sexuality…”

“That’s true but what the heck?!”

 

So basically… These two, my own Siblings, thought I was like Bligh or Principal Noel. They weren’t sure but certainly had their doubts.

 

“I mean, you never dated anyone even when you were at the academy and you refused to meet with any of the girls our parents tried to set you up with when you were a kid.”

“Yeah, you didn’t show any kind of  interest even when you were introduced to cute girls.”

 

My mind had also regressed in age when I was a kid, but I still understood the implication of such introductions and I did not want to take any romantic interest in the opposite sex, given my mental age, because that would just be weird.

Besides… after seeing my parents’ relationships in my past and current life, I did not have a good impression of marriage.

 

“You’ve always been a little different. You’d say strange things sometimes and even after Father forbade you, you’d hide from him and sew clothes.”

“Yeah, stuff like, ‘Why do I have to think about status and avoid playing with Commoners when I just want to have fun?’ But thanks to you, Father and Mother did not cloud our minds with their prejudices.”

 

… Well, I was still getting used to being a Noble back then.

They make me sound like one of those adults in comics from my past life that transmigrate to another world as children and suddenly display intelligence and logic beyond their years.

 

“But the only subjects he was good at were language, both local and foreign.”

“And even then, speaking came naturally to him but he was terrible when it came to performing in tests. He was fast at simple calculations but…”

“He’d give up as soon as math got a little complicated.”

“…Well, sorry I wasn’t good at academics.”

 

Yeah, I was a poor student. Though I did often get reprimanded for being too high-spirited.

I don’t mean to make excuses, but I only received basic education up to middle school in my past life, after which I attended a technical school, so I didn’t possess any knowledge outside of making clothing that would resonate with this world.

For what it’s worth, knowing languages like Japanese, English, French and German made learning the national or imperial language easy. But since I learn languages by instinct and not by the book, I did poorly in tests.

Basically, it was all I could do to keep my grades up. Even with Magic all I could learn were the basics.

 

“Anyway, I always felt like you were aloof from everything. So seeing you married now… is making me very emotional.”

“It happened four months ago. We’re in the fifth month now.”

“That’s not recent.”

“Why did you never let us know?”

“Well, I did send you guys a letter…”

 

I also sent a begrudging letter to my other Siblings, Raven and Royle soon after I got married.

But Gen and Sumi insisted they never received any such correspondence. I wonder what happened to the letters I wrote.

I did find it weird that I didn’t receive a reply to them even after quite some time had passed. Even the letters they sent later didn’t touch on the topic so I was wondering if they were under the impression that the Valentines had forced me into the marriage, but maybe…

 

“Maybe it’s because I sent you the letters while under surveillance… they must have disposed of it in fear that it would expose her location.”

“Surveillance?”

“Dispose?”

 

Though no one knew about the letters I did send them during the period when we were still being closely monitored.

They did it to isolate Lady Violet so she would not hold out any hope for people like Mr. Burnt or Ms. Amber, who favored her more than others did, taking her side.

I thought I had ducked them but it’s possible they intercepted the letters somewhere so Lady Violet’s location would stay hidden.

 

“Because she stepped out of line, they made it their mission to punish her further by not letting her gain any supporters. Just what kind of parents treat their Daughter that way?”

“Not good parents, that’s who. But… seeing how far they went, is she from a fairly high-ranking Family?”

“Oh right, what’s her name? She’s my Sister-in-law after all. I don’t know anything about her, but I’d like to know her name at least.”

 

I felt the subtle change in their tone. Somehow it was one of caution.

Many among the Nobles are aware of details of my past transgression but a whole lot more are aware of the bad reputation that guy (the Second Prince) attached to my name by adding whatever lies he could.

And Lady Violet happens to be that guy’s fiancee who ‘messed up’. My Siblings are probably going to be concerned that she’s terrorizing me because they’ve likely heard rumors of her fiery temper. They really are good to me. But their worries are unwarranted.

 

“She’s called Violet. Maiden name, Valentine.”

“Oh, so it’s Violet. What is she li…ke…?

“Valen…tine?

“Yeah.”

“From the Ducal Family?”

“The ex-fiancee of the Second Prince?”

“Yeah, the one and only.”

 

Ah, their voices were caught in their throat this time.

They looked bewildered. I guess anyone would be surprised if a Baron’s Son got married to a Duke’s Daughter out of nowhere. I was taken aback too.

 

“The sky… is so blue. I feel all my worries slip away looking at such clear skies.”

“It’s after dark now, Gen. Not to mention, the skies are overcast.”

“Wine…  you can tell if it’s good by how easily it goes down your throat.”

“I think that’s something people say about beer, Sumi.”

 

Gen and Sumi were staring off into space.

… Fine, I guess I’ll give them some time to take it all in.

 

◆

 

“… I think I’ve wrapped my head around it. I thought she was shut up somewhere… who would have thought she was married to you…”

“Well, I heard she’d become a nun god knows where to repent for her sins.”

 

After they had somewhat regained their composure, I explained to them the circumstances that lead to my marriage to Lady Violet and they finally accepted the fact, well, more or less.

It’s true that neither of us had any choice in the matter. There’s way too much of a difference in our ranks that unless she had screwed up really badly, we would never have come together. She did, in fact, do something extreme though.

 

“I heard she was selfish and provoked His Highness to a duel, but did that really happen?”

“I don’t want to talk about that. Not that I know much to begin with.”

 

According to Mary, the whole incident apparently played out like it did in the ‘game’, so I technically do know the details.

But I wouldn’t be able to explain myself if anyone asked me how I was privy to such information, so I’d rather not say anything.

 

“I can’t say I’ve heard many good things about her… is everything alright? Maybe she has a nasty personality…”

“She’s so nice that she’s too good for me. She helps me with my work and she’s also accepted Gray as her Son.”

 

Gen’s voice was full of concern but after hearing me out, he paused and pondered.

 

“…I see.”

 

I could hear the relief in their voices and they took it all in.

It looks like they’ve come to the conclusion that I wasn’t lying or forcing myself to stay in the relationship but Gen also has this expression on his face that he makes when he thinks I’m lying.

I know Lady Violet has a bad reputation. Everyone sees her as the Daughter of the Valentines that tarnished her Family name by acting recklessly which resulted in her engagement to the Second Prince getting broken off.  And I can’t deny that.

But she was still a Duke’s Daughter and had a degree of influence to exert. Are they worrying if she’d use influence to make me do something I don’t want?

 

“We’ve got a good marriage. If I had to give an example–”

 

Alright, I just have to tell them what a good relationship we have.

This way I could probably clear their suspicions about me not liking women.

 

“Like what for example?”

 

Huh, but what should I talk about?

If I talk about what happened when I put a ring on Lady Violet’s finger, I feel like I’d also have to tell them what I told her back then. I’d feel embarrassed to repeat my story of confessing to her before my Family.

If I talk about when we rescued Gray, then I’d have to tell them about the orc (with His Highness’s face) and that is one long story. It’s also likely to give them different concerns.

I also don’t really want to talk at length about our kiss to my Siblings. Besides, if they learn that it took us four months to finally kiss, then they might suspect that our marriage was on the rocks.

There’s also the time when we nursed Gray back to health together and when we visited a popular store in the city. Maybe I should talk about that?

But if there’s one story that would ease all their concerns, it would be what happened on the way to the party, when Lady Violet leaned into me because she was worried I may be cold. She was so cute back then and her arm–

 

‘Haa, haa… arm, muscle, balance, flex… I want to stroke your face…!’

 

“Urk?!”

“What’s wrong, Clo?!”

“Why are you holding on to your arm all of a sudden?!”

 

Shit, my mind has associated my arm with memories of that day. This is bad. It may have only been for a few minutes but too many things that pervert did came creeping back into my mind.

Calm down. Perverts also existed in my previous world. Almost all of the designers at my company had one kink or another. This is no different. So forget about it…

 

“So, you are pushing yourself after all?”

“You know you don’t need to act tough in front of us, right? C’mon if you can’t tell us anything here, let’s go somewhere more private. I can pamper you all you want like I used to when you were a kid.”

“I don’t remember ever acting like a spoiled brat.”

 

I mean it doesn’t matter.

What’s more important is that Gen and Sumi were seriously worried about me after my attempt at trying to recall what happened and the pained expression on my face as I held my arm back.

I just have to think of something else to tell them. Right, the hot springs. Though Cyan practically pushed us in, our family all got in together–

 

‘There’s not a single aspect of my body that I’m ashamed to show. Why would I hide any of it?’

 

“Dammit, go away you pervert…!”

“What happened? why are you holding your head, Clo?!”

“And what was that about a pervert? Did you do something to Violet?!”

 

No. The real pervert is Ms. Schwarz who didn’t cover herself even in front of me. My first encounter with her is what my mind has associated with hot springs. Because that encounter really was mind blowing…!

But I have bigger issues. Because what came to mind now was the time when Lady Violet mistook me for a pervert. This is really bad.

 

“Clo, I’m your Big Brother and I‘ll take care of you.”

“You’re right, Gen. We can’t let our Little Brother suffer.”

“No, you got the wrong–”

 

–idea… before I could finish they slapped me on my shoulder as if to say, ‘It’s okay’. It was their way of reassuring me that everything was going to be fine.

 

“Sumi, I’m all good to go. What about you?”

“I’m with you. I just need to let my Husband know and I’ll be free for the next few days. So, let’s go.”

“Where are the both of you going?”

 

I don’t have a good feeling about this.

 

“To Shiki. To meet our Sister-in-law!”

 

I don’t know if this is the right decision. But I’m starting to feel like it’d be way faster if they see for themselves what kind of person she is.