Volume 7 Chapter 2 Part 2
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Translation by burnt.marshmallows
Editing by Team Foxsunes
「Edi, well then, should we get up soon? I’m sure Suzette must be waiting……」
「That’s right.」
「What?!」
In response to the voice that suddenly pierced through the air, I instinctively shouldered that man aside and faced the direction from which the voice came from with great force. I had been placed in a truly embarrassing predicament. With both hands on her waist, my wet nurse stood at the door, her eyebrows pointed firmly upwards. I had not noticed. I had not noticed at all.
「Sigh, here I was, thinking that you had not gotten up even at this time…… I’m sorry to interrupt your intimacy, but Young Master, Young Madam, it’s about time. 」
「I-I’m sorry Suzette.」
「It isn’t something that the Young Madam has to apologize for. It is great that this mansion is always hot as though it were springtime.」
My face became progressively redder as my wet nurse nodded with a smile on her face. This was the first time that I understood that getting teased by someone who I had known since I was young was much more embarrassing than getting teased by a stranger.
Ever since the celebratory party, my wet nurse had been staying with us at the Lancent household mansion. She was only staying here for a while, but she had kindly taken over all the housework from me. It really helped a lot. But, how should I put it, to be seen when we were, I guess 「flirting」, was still something that I could not stand.
Although I was still unable to find the correct words to say, and was still faltering, that man grabbed me by my shoulder and tugged me towards his chest. As I inevitably fell into those arms, he caught me without a problem.
「Jealous right?」
「Yes, truly. But putting that aside, here, the both of you. Breakfast is going to get cold, so please change quickly and come to the dining table.」
My wet nurse avoided that man’s shameless words and smoothly moved on. With a gentle smile, she bowed once and walked away, closing the door behind her. Left in the room were the only two of us, me with my face a bright red, and that man with a nonchalant look on his face. As I threw that man a look of spite, he glanced down at me with his sunrise-colored eyes.
「What?」
「……Nothing, nothing at all,」
In the end, that was the only way I could answer. I guess one could call this the weakness of someone who has fallen in love.
＊ ＊ ＊
After finishing breakfast and sending off that man who was going to the castle, I suddenly felt the urge to do housework and became fidgety. My wet nurse gave me a pained smile and advised me in the following way. She said: 「If you really want a breather that badly, why not go for a walk instead? If you come back before noon, I’ll close my eyes. 」
I couldn’t have asked for a better piece of advice. Elated that I had gotten permission from no one other than my wet nurse, it would be the first time in a while since I could merrily go out by myself.
Ever since I got pregnant, I have been blessed with many opportunities to go out alone. If I counted the baby inside my belly, I guess it would be more accurate to say the 「two of us」, instead of 「alone」. I was happy that that man was worried about me, but it was still a reality that he was so overprotective that I wasn’t able to move around at all. To be able to have my own free time for the first time in a while, I was in high spirits.
No, it’s not that I hated that man being overprotective of me. It’s just that, I wished that he would give me just a bit more freedom. But I’m sure that if I said something like that to him, he would just candidly advise me that 「What would we do if something really did happen because of us being careless like that.」
The winds that blew under the clear blue winter sky were chilly, but because of my high-quality dress coat I couldn’t feel the cold that much. I wanted to skip around while humming. But I mustn’t, I mustn’t. Not only would that be too unladylike, but it would also be too careless an action to take as a pregnant woman. I calmed down my fluttering heart and controlled those feet of mine that felt like they were about to start a rhythm.
Let’s see, what should I do now? I should use my time efficiently since I only have a limited amount of it. There was no end to the things that started to pop into my head that I wanted to do. No matter how much I’m told to not let my guard that, Dr. Lindeburg also said that it would not be good to lack exercise, so I should really make some time to go out like this again soon.
In the end, I decided to go to a craft shop first to pick up some wool yarn. After really carefully choosing, I ended up buying two types of wool yarn. One of them was a slightly hard textured wool yarn, which was especially dyed with a mix of bright blue and bluish-purple color. The other one was a soft, long, lavender-colored wool yarn. I bought the former thinking that I would make a scarf for that man, but I hadn’t bought the latter with anyone in mind. I just liked the kind-looking color and bought it before I could realize it.
I mean it wasn’t every day that I was buying wool yarn, and I could even try knitting a pair of socks for the baby using this wool yarn. However, my expected date was only in the summer. It might be a little too early for wool yarn socks. If so, I guess I would use this wool yarn for myself. Thinking that, I walked steadily in my comfortable low-heeled boots.
Since I had spent much more time than I expected to in the crafts shop, with great regret, my walk had to end here. Heading towards my house, I strengthened my grip on the paper bag that held my wool yarn. It was time.
「Excuse me, that lady over there! Could you possibly stop for a while?」
Having heard a voice from behind me, I subconsciously stopped walking and looked around. This was a path that did not have much human traffic, but for some reason, there was no one around. Maybe it was just the timing when the traffic went down. If that was the case, the 「lady」that they were referring to would no doubt be me. Having reached that conclusion, I turned my entire body around.
「Um, would you be referring to me?」
「Yes, my lady.」
I could not help but blink at the person who stood in front of me as I turned around. With his lanky body and sharp, slanted eyes, the man who stood in front of me gave off an impression of a fox that popped right out of a picture book.
The man gripped the brim of his red-brown hat and closed up to me in long strides. He peered at my face as if we were familiar friends, in a way that I could only describe as ill-mannered. I felt like learning backward at how eerily close he was getting, but controlled myself somehow. Without noticing how uncomfortable I feltーーactually, he appeared as though he wouldn’t care even if he noticed, he opened his mouth with his sharp vampire teeth peeking out.
「You’re Lady Filmina Von Lancent right?」
He said in a way that seemed more like he was trying to get confirmation rather than trying to ask a question. I naturally tilted my head at the strange situation. No matter how I looked, I had no recollection of this man whatsoever. There should be no reason that he could call me out by my name like that.
「You’re right, but, um, you are……?」
「I see. It’s just as I thought.」
It was a bit too late for him to notice that he had failed in explaining his identity normally. Ignoring the fact that I was obviously wary of him, he smiled confidently at me. Sensing malice from his smile, I tried to pull myself away from him. However, the moment I tried to move, he grabbed me by my arm and pulled me into an alleyway.
「W-what are you?!」
「I apologize for my suddenness. This is the sort of person I am.」
Having been suddenly thrust into the back of the alleyway, I stumbled a few steps. That man then proceeded to take a name card out of the inner pocket of his coat and handed it to me. My eyes glossed over the name card that he had forced into my hands. On it was the man’s name, and the name of a certain publishing company.
I wished that he would understand that it wasn’t strange that I would obviously furrow my eyebrows in confusion at the name card. The reason for that was, that the mass entertainment magazines that this publishing company published, consisted of such extreme coverage of certain issues and articles of fabricated stories, that one couldn’t tell if they were telling the truth or not. It was not a magazine that was quite infamous. What kind of business would a reporter from that sort of magazine have with me?
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