CHAPTER 10: FLUVIA MEETS THE MYSTERIOUS PATIENT

A petite woman with soft, fluffy blonde hair lying loose on the pillow looked at me with a curious smile from the bed.

Small, round shoulders and cute hands; although she’s petite, and although she’s been ill, you can see that she still has rather prominent bust and hips.

She’s exactly the current trends’ ideal, unlike my tall, thin, less-than-curvy mother.

A childish form you want to protect, with the exception of having the full assets of a mature woman – the men of this world are too demanding, don’t you think?

Well, the men of this country, anyway.

“Welcome, Lady Dellarose. You are the daughter of the Earl?”

Although she gave off a fragile air, what with the recent fighting for her life and all, the woman had an elegant voice that seemed to have a hidden strength within.

“Yes, I thank you for giving me the pleasure of making your acquaintance. I am Young Lady Fluvia Dellarose, the daughter of the Southern Earl.”

One of the armored women seemed displeased with my introduction.

I thought I did it well, though… in the first place, I’m a 5-year-old child~.

“When giving your name, is it not customary to stand in the presence of –“

“Oh dear, Frannie, did you forget that we are currently incognito among the sickly?”

The woman on the bed laughed gracefully, but cut off the armored woman who was beginning to lecture me with some sternness in her voice.

The armored woman, ‘Frannie’, which must be a pet name, blushed bright red.

“F-forgive me. I see, the chair with wheels is because the Young Lady cannot stand. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.”

The woman lowered her head.

Ah… I see.

Although I thought that kicking a patient out of their wheelchair was rude, come to think of it… if you don’t know about wheelchairs, coming in a chair with wheels in front of an important person is actually pretty suspicious, huh?

Like, what is this contraption and what is your intention in coming in with it – or something like that?

Well, I understand the security detail’s concerns, but they totally just gave away exactly how high up this woman is.

A person who would require even the daughter of an Earl to rise and address is quite high up indeed.

Although it’s also just good manners among the nobility to stand and introduce yourself regardless of the other’s status, for a guard to actually get offended and reprimand a noble if she doesn’t definitely narrows the possibilities of the Lady’s status.

At the very minimum she’s the commander of a unit of the military, but in all likelihood she’s at the rank of Countess, Minister or wife of a Minister, or Royalty.

I mean, even as the daughter of an Earl, I was prohibited from bringing our own maids for my use into the House of Healing, no matter how much Mother fussed.

It’s a precaution to keep the healthcare given by the attendants consistent, since personal maids would be far more likely to follow their master’s instructions rather than the healers’, but this woman was permitted four maids, plus three guards.

“There is nothing to apologize for. This chair is a trial product, so it’s understandable that it looks suspicious.”

Although I said that, I had initially been judging you. Sorry, armored Nee-san.

“Fufufu. What an understanding child. It’s hard to think that you’re as old as my own children.”

Wait, you’re a mother?

No way. You look like you’re 19-!

Although 16 year olds are adults in this country, the gender roles are actually pretty diverse so that even noble women are often doing other things in their youth rather than popping out babies.

Just look at my own mother, Estella Dellarose.

She almost missed her window of fertility … ah, that situation is a little different, though.

Anyway, most women wait until their early 20s to retire their trade and focus on having kids.

Certainly, women born as nobles may start a little earlier, since often times their ‘trade’ is to become a wife of a noble, but even then they are usually schooled at LEAST until the age of 16 before being married off.

For the Lady to have a 5-year-old child already means… she’s definitely older than she looks.

Well that explains her byoin-ku-byoin body, at least.

Because she’s petite it’s easier to mistake as younger than she is, I guess, even if she has a ridiculous hourglass figure.

Are the men in this country loli-cons…

Although I had that kind of thought, I dismiss it since big breasts and wide hipsare added to the desired traits of petite and dainty.

“Lady Fluvia, it is a pleasure. I am… let’s see. You may call me Lady Ria, I suppose.”

It’s definitely a nickname, but that’s to be expected.

Like Healer Martin has recently taken to doing, Lady Ria also swaps out the ‘Young Lady’ title, used for noblewomen under 16-years-old, for ‘Lady’, the title used for noblewomen who have already made their debut into society.

It means that they are treating me, a 5-year-old child, with the same respect as an adult.

It also means that they have expectations of me, a 5-year-old child, that they would hold for an adult.

It’s a little intimidating, even if I actually AM an adult – inside.

Lady Ria smiles and says,

“I would like to thank you for your efforts in my recovery. I hear that without your aid, they would have been unable to keep me alive.”

“Please, Lady Ria, direct your thanks to the cooks instead. They have worked very hard to come up with your menu.”

I had already decided to downplay my role.

Healer Martin and I had discussed my otherworldly (quite literally) knowledge, and I reconfirmed that being too knowledgable as a 5-year-old was definitely unusual.

So when can I release everything I know? 7? 10-years-old? If I have to hide it forever, I might as well just be a 5-year-old oddball!

Although I had those thoughts, I did feel that it was true that a 5-year-old calling the shots is downright strange.

Of course I’m not going to completely give up the credit, but if the important people think that it’s just a 5-year-old’s ideas that the cooks considered and then did all the hard work on, then it would be better.

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But…

“Fufufu. Don’t underestimate my instincts, Lady Fluvia. Although I am indeed deeply indebted to the cooks of the House of Healing, I am quite aware of who it is I have to thank for my life.”

You… you even still LOOK like a person overcoming illness. Can you really trust your instincts to that degree in this state?

“Healer Martin was even saying that it could change how many things are dealt with in the House of Healing, after all.”

Lady Ria laughed gently into her hand.

So it was his fault.

And just who was it who was telling me that I would be better to act discretely, huh? Healer Martin-san-?

Forget it.

I can feel Mary giving off a bit of a weird aura from behind me, so I think he’ll be getting a talking to later.

“And so, once again, I am grateful to the Lady Fluvia, who helped make it possible.”

Lady Ria smiled pleasantly at me from her bed.

As a person of a higher standing, it makes sense that she wouldn’t lower her head to me.

Or rather, I was pretty worried about what to do if she did.

I feel that it’s impolite not to accept someone’s deep feelings of gratitude, even more so after I became a single mom in the previous life, but in this country you don’t lower your head easily to someone of lower standing.

Ah, but she’s hiding her status… nonono, it’s impossible to pretend not to know that she’s high-class, even in this situation.

For the next ten minutes the conversation turned to small talk about the House of Healing, but as expected, I wasn’t allowed to stay for long.

Never mind about my own condition of being a recovering patient, Lady Ria’s condition is still pretty poor.

She was beginning to get tired towards the end of our conversation, but for some reason she was unwilling to send us away, so I had to make a suitable excuse to leave.

Seriously, I’m just a 5-year-old kid. If you’re the adult, please be the responsible party!

Although, right before Mary wheeled me out, Lady Ria requested that I come to her room for tea every few days.

… Is she just bored?

No, well, I understand that feeling, I really do, but Lady Ria can only just sit up on her own.

Isn’t it better to stay in bed and recuperate in silence?

“You’re not one who can say that.”

Mary had retorted.

Hm? I don’t think I’m THAT bad.

—

A few days later, there was someone else who was more restless than Lady Ria and I put together.

“My dear dear dear Fluvia!”

Mother ran into my room, bawling.

Aah… that’s right, the ban of visitors and roaming around the House of Healing has been lifted.

There are now armored guards standing outside Lady Ria’s room in exchange, though.

“Even though I did everything I could, they would let me come see you!”

M-mother, you didn’t try a ‘Do you know who I am?!’ kind of a tactic, right? Right?!

I’m too scared to ask, because that would be right up my easily-prone-to-hysteric-fits mother’s alley.

Ah, Mother’s maid, Beth, has a stiff I didn’t see anything face.

Perhaps I should fast forward my reformation plans for my parents.

You’ve endured quite a lot, Beth.

Mother melodramatically flung herself on my bed with heaving sobs.

I met Beth’s eyes, and she just smiled awkwardly.

“I’m sorry for worrying Mother.”

“It’s not your fault, my dear Fluvia. Just who does that special patient think he is? We’re the Southern Earl’s house, the EARL’s! To think that they dare bar the EARL’s household!”

Ahahaha… like I thought.

“Hm… I made friends with that Lady, though. She’s very nice…”

I’m not really sure how to explain Lady Ria’s status, since she’s incognito.

Even though I’m not 100% certain exactly who she is, an Earl’s rank is definitely far below her, so I would rather Mother refrain from courting death and saying dangerous things.

“H-hmph…”

Oh? Instead of spouting on and on in anger, Mother is pouting instead.

Although she’s already 43, Mother often acts like a spoiled young girl.

It makes me relieved that she’s just pouting instead of heaping insults on someone we really can’t afford to offend.

“… Well, if that patient treats my dear Fluvia well, it just proves she has good taste.”

Strike that. Mother is just an oya-baka after all!

I feel tired all of a sudden.

As Mother fusses over me, I glance over and see Beth and Mary exchanging information.

Un, the maids of this world, or maybe it’s just this country, are excellent.

Although Mary is technically not a maid.

“… B-brother?!”

Mother lifts her head in surprise at my sudden yell.

What’s this?!

Behind Mary, looking bored, was Brother, but… was he Brother?!

Even looking at him this closely, there was no signs of the round ball with the lock of red hair.

E-eh?

No, now that I think about it, there were signs of him getting skinnier, but all of a sudden, in the weeks where Mother and Brother were banned from visiting, he became human-shaped!

Ah, sorry, that was rude.

Brother looked a bit sulky as he said,

“What?”

“B-brother, you look so cool… so tough…”

I quickly make up something on the spot to avoid saying, “You’re not fat anymore!”

Brother puffed his chest out.

“Hmph! I’m going to definitely become a Magic Knight, so of course I have to look cool!”

I want to roll my eyes, but instead I clap and continue praising him.

“Instructor Dale informs Milady that Milord Fedor has become quite zealous in his sword studies and thanks Milady Fluvia for her influence…”

Beth says, a bit quietly.

… I think Brother has Mother’s temperament. The easily excitable, overly obsessive kind.

Uuun… It would be good if we can get him hooked on being obsessed about the right kind of things, like fairness and hard work, and not the kind of things that would be courting death, like status and women.

“Oh, that’s right, Milady Fluvia, Lord Dellarose has also passed the message forward that he will be arriving at the Capital in a few days.”

“That’s right! My dear Fluvia, I heard that you’ve helped a lot here! As expected of my brilliant, beautiful daughter!”

“O-oh, I see.”

I’m really not used to the fawning from my mother and the cheekiness tinged with a desire for approval from my brother.

In my former life… well.

Even 4-5 years of the doting of my silly parents in this life weren’t enough to erase the sterile familial relationships of my past life.

My former parents were good to me in their own way, but it was far from a warm relationship.

Although Mother can be a bit hysterical and Brother is as selfish as any noble child can be, I just can’t see how they turned into the ill-natured, oppressive people of the Dellarose Household in Yabukoi.

At the worst, if they’re like this, they should only be a normally arrogant noble family that might make faux pas in public but they would have more of the aura of … rich country bumpkins bumbling around.

From Father and Mother’s natures, although they’re quick to toss around their name around commoners, they’re just as quick to withdraw in the face of other nobility.

Also, Father shies away from things he doesn’t understand much about.

But then, what’s with the Dellarose Household in Yabukoi?

In Yabukoi, ‘Dellarose’ was exactly the kind of greedy nobles who enjoyed tormenting the commoners and bullying other nobles regardless of rank.

Father forced his way in everything, even sticking his nose into things he didn’t understand, like the military, and bribed officials in all sorts of places.

Mother enjoyed trampling other women of all classes and seeing their misfortunes.

Brother was a “I want it, so I will have it” nouveau riche.

Currently, only Brother has even a hint of the ill-natured Yabukoi’s Dellarose family, and even that is just to the normal degree of a child that has yet to be well-disciplined.

I honestly can’t see how Mother, who is already well into her middle-ages, and Father, who is just about begin his, could have changed so much.

It seems that I, the new Young Lady Fluvia, am going to have to be on guard against any external factors that would have a bad influence on my dear Mother and silly Brother.

Just when I had newly resolved myself, there was a knock on the door.

Mary quickly walked across the room.

“Who comes to the Young Lady’s door?”

“The Lady Ria has arrived.”

“The Lady of the Dellarose House is in attendance.”

“… … The Lady Ria requests permission to enter.”

There was some whispered discussion before Lady Ria’s maid requested permission to enter.

Although it might seem like Mary was being considerate of Mother, in actuality she’s being considerate of the Lady Ria, since Lady Ria is trying to remain unrecognized.

Well, I guess since she’s okay with entering while Mother is here, she’s not that concerned.

I did hear that her health rapidly improved within just a few days.

I’m jealous.

Although she was so ill, because she hadn’t been ill for a year like me, her body bounced back so easily…

The door opened, and Lady Ria was … wheeled in?

So another wheelchair was made for Lady Ria.

I suppose that makes sense.

It looks a bit more stable than my wheelchair, and also ridiculously more ornate.

Well, mine’s just a prototype, so I don’t mind that it’s been improved on.

Before I could give my greetings, Mother, who had been glaring at the person who was interrupting her mother-daughter time, stood straight up and her face went pale.

“Y-your Highness!”

Ah. As I thought.

Lady Ria, or rather, Queen Henrietta, smiled pleasantly, looking up at Mother with a hint of a mischievous smile on her lips.

“Y-your Highness, to w-what do we owe your presence for?”

Mother stumbles over her words and messes up her statement.

Ah, yeah, Mother and Father do this quite often, in my memories.

Seriously, how they got to be those arrogant people in Yabukoi is beyond my understanding.

Lady Ria – Queen Henrietta laughs delicately, covering her mouth with her hand.

“Greetings. I had initially come for tea with the Young Lady, but upon hearing that Lady Dellarose has arrived, I have come to give my greetings and appreciations for the Dellarose House rearing such an extraordinary Young Lady.”

“Th-thank you.”

Mother…

After exchanging trivial words, with my Mother being stiff and awkward, the Queen graciously excused herself.

“F-fluvia dear! When did you make acquaintances with Her Highness?!”

As I explain the circumstances, I can’t help but think… they let the Queen out onto the battlefield?

The few times I’ve had tea with her, the cute, petite, and seriously sexy Lady Ria had recounted all sorts of tales of subjugating small-time rebellions that made me seriously question whether a woman like her was just pulling my leg.

Or like, she only enjoyed talking about those kinds of things…

The small-time rebellions were never anything other than a small-fry nobles’ personal military trying to expand their territories, and are pretty rare, so all in all we live in a peaceful time.

Is it really okay if we have such a bloodthirsty Queen…?