Chapter 4
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Unlike Taer, who was distinctly sluggishly picking at her plate, the steward turned out to be a good fellow. When he got the invitation, he didn't flinch, and in a minute he was already eating something, and there was enough food on the table to feed a crowd of hungry students, and the three of them would certainly not manage it until late at night.
The snack had been going on for about an hour, and I wondered, philosophically, whether eating that pastry now would be hunger or greed. Suddenly Barra's face became serious and focused, his right palm pressed to his ear, which appeared to have a communicator headset speaker.
"When will she be here?" Hearing the answer from the unknown person, my 'Chapaev' frowned and got up from the table:
That's how 'Chapaev' looks like. So the steward looks about the same.
Последний бой Чапаева. Как на самом деле погиб легендарный ... [https://aif-s3.aif.ru/images/017/907/658c141b48e349532c684dcea481a023.jpg]
"My lord, Baroness Rionale has learned that you have recovered and is on her way here to check on you. The servants can no longer stop her, so she'll be here in about a minute and a half," Barra managed to speak and command the droids as they cleared the dirty dishes from the table and put out new ones at the same time.
"And who is this?"
"She is a distant relative of yours."
"And what is she doing here?"
"When you had your accident, almost all your relatives came here to support you."
"And to be close in case the distribution of the inheritance suddenly begins," Taer added with a sweet smile.
"Well, that's the way it is," I snatched the pastry as a moral reparation for my impending contact with my family. Then the door opened, and I almost choked on the ill-fated pastry.
The girl who walked in was so beautiful that she reeked of something unreal.
The loose, night sky-colored long dress emphasized her height, and the wide sparkling belt accentuated her slimness. Her shoulder-length black hair glistened with interwoven jewels. Her perfect white skin, which seemed to glow from within, contrasted with her almost completely black eyes. She walked forward and sat down in a chair carefully pushed aside by Barra. A wave of freshness gradually enveloped the room, the scent of her perfume reminiscent of a summer garden after a thunderstorm.
"Alessie, I'm so glad you're all right! Can you imagine how worried I was about you? I was gone for two years, and before I could even fly in from the Capital, you were already lying poisoned!" The Baroness's voice was melodious, with velvety notes.
"Er... Thank you for your attention, Baroness. I'm very happy I've recovered as well."
What the hell am I saying? Calm down! Haven't you seen pretty girls?
"I guess I wasn't fooled about the memory lapses. When did I stop being Kay and become a Baroness?" She arched an eyebrow meaningfully.
Wow, looks like we were close friends. Or maybe even more than friends. A very interesting theory, I cheered.
"Yes, Kay, I do have a memory lapse. I don't remember anything," he smiled and shrugged guiltily. The Baroness smiled back. The effect was amazing.
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A couple more smiles like that and I'll melt under the table. Come on, get it together! Maybe it's a childhood friend and you have a fond and undefiled brotherly bond... or sisterly?
"Nothing at all?" The girl asked with a playful wink.
"Well, thou... you are absolutely impossible to forget," I tried to pull my chivalry together, but it wasn't coming out so well. "And there's something in my heart when I look at thou... you're admiring. I think it's trying to awaken my memories of you..."
"Tell me you've been bored for two years," she laughed.
"Horrible, just now realizing how much I've suffered all this time and you weren't there!"
"Well, I'm sorry, you know I've been called up to the onstum twice in a row," the Baroness said.
"I don't know, I've forgotten everything," I said. "I don't even know what onstum is or why you were summoned there... I don't remember."
"Onstum is the Emperor's annual call for the most worthy nobles to serve. They are summoned to court and serve the Emperor for a year," Kay recited as if reciting from a textbook. And then she added after a moment: "Well, serving is an overstatement... it's just some sort of courtly sinecure."
"So you spent the last two years in the Emperor's court?"
"Yes, imagine that, twice in a row! In theory, it's a great honor to be at court and be given a court position, so they try to make sure that there is an equal number of representatives from all the powerful families, from every house, so as not to offend anyone. Either there was no one else in our family, or someone in the Imperial Office liked me so much, but I was honored twice. I had to be bored for two years in the capital!"
"Well, you could not go, If everything is so bad."
Hearing this, Baroness Rionale looked at me like I was insane. I'm exposing myself without a break. But then she seemed to remember that I was, indeed, insane (well, at least memoryless) and softened.
"Alessie, it's onstum! The Emperor's call cannot be denied!"
Then I was flirting with Kay, and she was flirting back and telling the court gossip. Barra, who, as it turned out, could become completely invisible by disappearing into the setting, made sure the glasses were always full. Taer, on the other hand, looked at us with those surprised eyes as if I'd grown a second head. She apologized a little later and then walked out, claiming she was busy.
The Baroness and I had been chatting for about forty minutes when I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. My head felt like it was filled with lead, and it was hard to think. I could see reality as if through a gray film. Kay's voice was distant, asking me something, and I was so apathetic that I wanted to agree to everything just to get away. I tried to pull myself together and get back to reality.
Then, after muttering some vague apology, I went to the bathroom.
After three minutes of struggling with the tap, I finally stuck my face under the icy water. It helped, but not much. That doesn't sound like me. I've gone completely off my head. Has there been a relapse into poisoning? The water treatment did not bring tangible relief but spurred my mind enough to remember that I had a specially prescribed chemical in my pocket, which was supposed to help. Fumbling for the jar, I scooped the capsules onto my palm. The little blue spheres sparkled on my wet palm like glass. I crinkled my nose and popped the first one into my mouth. It didn't have much effect. After the third, my thoughts started to run faster, and the gray shroud fell away. After two more capsules, which were chewed up just in case, my thoughts became unnaturally clear and sharp, and my memory sharpened so much that I seemed to be able to remember what was happening at any given second. The sensation was quite unusual. The world seemed brighter and clearer as if I had switched to an HD widescreen.
Feeling ready to socialize again, I found a mirror and cleaned myself up. In the mirror, my wet but satisfied and slightly flushed face looked back at me. Yes, that’s a thing after all! And where were that Professor Ayuyun and his chemistry when I was studying for my exams? Tidying myself up, I thought about what could have caused such an attack while at the same time replaying the conversation with Kay in my head. And something was wrong with it, something familiar about it that shouldn't have been there, like the tune of an old song being sung in a new arrangement.
I remembered again what the Baroness had told me and how she had said it, which was no problem now, and stood in front of the mirror with my mouth hanging open in amazement. During the conversation, Kay was quite professionally anchoring me to her name in a positive way. Damn NLP! But that didn't make me feel so bad, did it? Something was not right. I was almost drooling at her. Why would she put positive anchors on me as well? Or was it just a coincidence? Eh, no, a normal person wouldn't twist words like that. Okay, screw the anchors. It's not the anchors that make me sick, maybe, she used some dope to fortify the result. Why not? They seem to be big fans of poisoning around here.
I'll have to hint to Taer to check the food. I walked out of the bathroom with that in mind, vowing to be vigilant and not to relax at the sight of pretty girls. The security specialist appeared to be standing in the corridor that connected the dining room with the bathroom, leaning against the wall and folding her arms across her chest, her face serious and preoccupied with something.
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