14

 

Me and Thoma called the free-roaming horse and returned to the estate.
I received my bag from Thoma at the entrance to the mansion.

“Thoma, thanks.”

“Nh, it was nothing, don’t worry about it. Well then I’ll be dropping off this bag at my dad’s so ..”

Just as I was also trying to enter (the mansion) in order to hand over the medical herbs to Mother:

” .. Say, Ririina.”

Thoma called out to me.

“If something happens tell me about it. I’m not very smart but I do have some power .. I’m sure there are things that might be hard to discuss but .. we’re childhood friends, so there!
I’m sure something must have happened at the royal capital but as for me .. I for one am happy that Ririina has returned here.”

Is what Thoma said while ruffling his head.

“Maa, in any case, it’s that. That, don’t go worrying about things on your own! Me and Sana are your allies, after all.”

Having said so Thoma entered the mansion.
As before, he was still that hot-blooded man that was thinking for his friends and comrades.
But that was one of his good points, after all.

Thoma may have said something sounding like I was worrying about something, but there really wasn’t anything in particular that I was worried about.
Well, it’s true that there were several things that I was a bit curious about, but none of those were of the level of worrying about them.
If looked at from the outside was there anything that could look like it would be worrying?
Should I think about that for a moment?

・ Leon-sama had broken off my engagement.
・ I redrew to our territory.
・ My life was being targeted.

Nh?
Are?
Perhaps .. wasn’t this a surprisingly grave state of affairs?
If any other young noble daugther had found herself in this situation ..
that would be quite a big problem, wouldn’t it.

Isn’t it bad that I was merry about the breaking off the engagement and had my heart snatched away by the prospect of going monster hunting?
Thus I started to worry a bit after being told by Thoma to consult with him if I had any worries.

“For now let’s bring these herbs to Mother ..”

This time for sure I entered the mansion.

— 2 days after

In the blink of an eye the day of the scheduled return of Grandfather and Grandmother arrived.
Because of the first return of the previously lording couple in a while the mansion was filled with restlessnes.
In the morning a letter arrived stating that they would be arriving around noon.
Right about now the head chef must be in the middle of a whirlwind of business.
For once even I did up my hair in order not to show a shameful appearance to my Grandparents that I was seeing after a long time. ⁽¹⁾

As I was thinking that they should be arriving any time now a the sound of a knock resounded through my room.

“Ririina-sama! The lord couple have arrived.” ^[1]

“Understood, Sana. I’m coming now.”

Since I was notified by Sana I too was now hurrying towards the entranceway.
As I began to descend the stairs I heard voices coming from the entrance hall.

In the entrance hall there were Mother, Grandfather, Grandmother, and also ..?
As I was thinking about that Grandfather and Grandmother noticed me and embraced me with big smiles on their faces.
H-how happy but, h-how constricting~

Mother noticed that I was struggling and stopped them while smiling.

“Fufu, Father, Mother as well, let’s leave it at that, would you. I understand that you’re happy after seeing her for the first time in a while but Ririina is getting crushed.”

The two, noticing my predicament upon those words, became flustered as they released their grip.
Fuu~ Mother! Thank you!
I was about to lose consciouss from their passionate greeting.

“Iya~ sorry, Ririina!”
“We’re sorry, Ririina.”

The two apologized simultanousely.

“Not at all, it may have been a bit painful but I too am happy that I got to hug you after such a long time.”

Hearing that the two had some very reliefed expressions on.

“We were thinking what to do if you disliked us after meeting us after such a long time.”
“We already made plans to leave on another journey of heart-breaking grief right away if Ririina had come to dislike us because of this.”

Heart-breaking grief you say ..
I’m sure you two are planning to leave on another journey very soon anyhow, is the feeling I get.

By the way, it seems we sort of forgot about the existance of one more person here during the emotional reunion, is that alright?
Although a bit late as I was directing my glance at them they met my eyes spot on.
Are? Could it be that they have been looking over here from the beginning?

The one standing there was a tall .. man, isn’t it?

All the time while I was looking at him he responded with a nikoniko
expression ^[2] and finally
opened his mouth.

“Do you remember who I am?”

Eh?
Could it be someone I am supposed to know?
But among my aquaintances there wasn’t any beautiful man like that .. ⁽²⁾
As I simply continued to think about it without answering Mother gave me a hint while laughing.

“Ririina, do you not remember? You have been shown his bow shooting figure often in the forest, haven’t you.”

?
!!
Eh!?
Eeh—-!

“Ch-chri-chris-sa..ma?”

As I was staggering out that answer that person responded to his name with a smile covering his whole face.

“Thank goodness. You remembered my name, haven’t you, Ririina.”

Hi-hie—!
Ch-Chris-sama is male!
My goddess was a god!
As I was repeating silly thoughts like that in my mind Chris-sama said to me.

“Ririina is as interesting as always, isn’t she. If that’s the case it doesn’t seem like I’ll get bored.” ⁽³⁾

Won’t get bored, you say.
I am not a toy, you know.
Or rather, what is he even doing here?
As if responding to my thoughts Grandfather said:

“He will be staying at the estate too for a while. Ririina, I’ll be depending on you.”

Wha-what did you say~
I have been depended on despite still not having gotten over the fact that Chris was actually a male.
My head was spinning as there was too much to think about.
But the final blows just kept coming.

“Ririina, let us get along well, you hear.” ^[3]

And there was I who felt a pain in her chest in response to Chris-sama’s words.

 

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Translator’s notes

 

[1] lord couple – the grandlord-samas, but lord couple sounds .. less imposing and just the right amount of silly.
[2] Think of it as a sort of annoying smiling face : 私がジッと見ている間中ずっとニコニコしていたその人が口を開いた。
[3] Not sure about the ‘you hear’ part, but Chris got this habbit of adding unnecessary [and sorta condescending imo] ‘ne’s’ to most his sentences which is kinda like a subtle ‘I’ll be depending on you agreeing’. Basically, it’s the amount and placement that makes it irksome.

(1) Because your usual appearance is totally shameful after all, right, next-in-line-for-Queen? Not sure about hair terminology in either language though, so I just translated it literally as doing up her hair whatever the heck that means. Is that even an expression in English? I have no idea.
(2) Think of it as the non-burly, feminine kind of male beauty.
(3) Uhwa. Everything about your words and descriptions oozes with unfounded arrogance. More apparent in the original so you may not notice it as much.

Don’t read if you don’t want my view on the story to influence your view on it ; )
So anyway, the single most obnoxious character has been fully introduced.
He does portray a popular stereotype rather well so I do understand his appearance in this sort of story. I just can’t agree to it, for that stereotype is incredibly annoying.
Don’t let me scare you off liking him, that’s not my intention, but the impression I get of him is essentially that, while he is interested in our awesome heroine, he does not actually treat her as an equal and neither with full earnesty.
It’s the pattern of thinking of the heroine as a sort of entertainment, a dense and slightly stupid therefore cute .. thing. Not as an actual person, is what I want to say.
Obviously, this being the sort of genre it is, that sort of male character is quite popular and very standard.
Point still stands, Chris, I can’t stand people that don’t treat others with earnesty and as equals. Scheming and tricks, regardless of how shallow, ain’t gonna cut it when you want to win the affections of someone else.
Or hey, maybe I’m just overthinking things. What I wrote down was my opinion when I had read ahead about another ten chapters or so from this point on – currently I’m at around fourty more chapters and know a bit more about him. As a general rule, I’ll only ever write my impressions in the notes from when I first read the chapters.