So I noticed I made a couple of mistakes in the past, firstly I confused ‘otome game‘ with ‘galge‘ and apparently Langlease’s attendant is actually called Eldor and his grandfather’s name is Sebastian. Sebastian being the butler of the Duke.

I will address these problems in the previous chapters. Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Used people

Avoid the bad ends and defend your sister and family. This is the new goal I have set for myself, but even after a few weeks, I was not able to do anything else than lying on top of my bed. I"m not sure why, but I have not been able to get up for these past few weeks. It might be because my sister"s magical power was too strong or perhaps it is an after effect of regaining my memories of my previous life&h.e.l.lip; it couldn"t possibly be caused by my weight, right?

Even though I set a goal and steeled my resolve, I was unable to do anything yet. My 11th birthday was celebrated while lying in bed and I was not allowed to step out of my bed. That said, even if it was allowed, I wouldn"t be able to get out anyway. After a while longer, I was finally able to walk around a little inside of my room even though my movements looked a little awkward.

"Having no strength is really frustrating."

This thought hovered around in my head while looking at my plump hands. I loved to run in my previous life and this eventually resulted in me joining the track team at school. I had a thin and slim figure, I wasn"t flat like a board since I did have some subtle muscles. I guess you could have called me a jock. This is why the contrast of my previous life clashes hard with my current one, with the body shape of this 11-year-old Langlease kid. Truth be told, I would love nothing better than to sc.r.a.pe all this fat off right now that causes me to even be short of breath with the smallest of movement. So rather than avoiding a bad end, my goal, for now, is getting out of this bed.

The door is knocked. I don"t have to ask who it is since only my cute little sister visits my room every day.

"Onii-san, are you awake?"

"Yes I am, Eldor will unlock the door for you."

As always, Eldor immediately unlocks the door so she can enter the room. I could unlock the door myself, but I"m still far from my usual condition. Even that small distance from the bed to the door exhausts me. Even though muscles and fat are both types of meat, I would prefer muscles over fat any day right now.

An elderly maid opens the door of the room for Fortuna. Fortuna enters after her with a flower bundle in her hands. She brings flowers with her every day.

"Nii-san, we picked Roselia"s in the garden today."

"Did you pick them yourself? Doesn"t that flower have thorns?"

"I picked them very carefully."

The bouquet instantly spread a pleasing fragrance across the room. If you look carefully at it, you will see that all the thorns were cut off and you can feel that she was concerned for my well being.

Next to my bed stood a cabinet that was now filled with several books and vases. The vases are decorated with flowers that Fortuna brings with her. The flowers are beautiful and they warm up the room, but Fortuna who brings me these flowers and caring about me fills my heart with warmth.

"I feel a lot better compared to yesterday. I really feel like I could take a bath by myself today."

I"m pretty sure that this world is in the middle ages. Here the n.o.bility and aristocrats have power over the commoners. The buildings and clothes around me are luxurious and the clothes Fortuna is wearing are mainly beautiful ruffled and frilled dresses.

In the middle ages, hygiene was easily neglected, but since there is magic in this world, it appears to be as clean as modern j.a.pan. "Processed magical jewel ores" or more commonly known as "Demon Jewels" can store magical power like a battery. Those magic jewels could be used for many different things, such as boiling water when you want to take a bath or even cleanse the water itself. Once the magic power inside runs out, the jewel breaks.

There were no electrical appliances in this world, but it did have magical products that were able to do the same. In most cases, they can use demon jewels or it will use the user"s magical power. These magical products include a magic air conditioner and a magic washing machine, to just name a few. (TN: Really? That"s convenient.) If you have a sense of modern j.a.panese people, you would know that they love to take baths every day. I was disappointed that I couldn"t take a proper bath all this time. Nonetheless, this magical world isn"t half bad.

"Nii-san, please don"t frighten me with things like bathing alone. If you black out in the bathtub&h.e.l.lip;"

"Don"t worry, I only pa.s.sed out the other day because I was tired of walking around the room. I need to take care of my body after all."

Fortuna being worried is understandable, I blacked out when she came to visit me yesterday. That was a big failure on my part. I only blacked out for about half an hour, but the first thing after waking up that entered my sight was Fortuna in tears. Looks like I have to make sure not to black out in front of her again.

"Nii-san makes no sense most of the times, so I"m very worried."

"I"m sorry for making you worried. Also, you don"t have to force yourself in coming here every day, I know your busy. You surely have magic cla.s.ses, etiquette lessons, and general studies today?"

Unlike me, Fortuna is serious about her studies. She tries to make time for me between her cla.s.ses, all the socializing with other aristocrats, tea ceremonies and so on. To think she makes time for me between all that warms my heart. But still, the Duke’s house is as big as a castle and our rooms are pretty far apart so I don"t want to force her.

"I have not been forcing myself, I like being next to my brother all the time."

Fortuna cutely grabs my hand. I wish I could stay with her forever like this, but an elderly servant gives me a nod hinting me that Fortuna has her next cla.s.s.

"Fortuna, it"s time for your magic lessons with Professor Credil."

"Is it already that late? But I want to stay with nii-san&h.e.l.lip;"

"Go, you shouldn"t let your teacher wait."

I reluctantly yet gently release Fortuna"s hand. I can"t let her be late for her studies.

After Fortuna and the elderly servant left the room, I lie down on my bed again. Eldor will end up worrying again if I don"t rest properly.

I wish I could quickly heal my poor physical condition with magic, but magic is not omnipotent. Through curative magic, they were able to cure my fatigue somewhat, but it"s unable to cure me in one fell swoop. Even nutritional supplements don"t seem to help much, which isn"t that weird since they are usually only used when you"ve been struck with a disease or if you have external injuries.

Even though I"m lying in bed, I try to keep myself busy. I reach out to my bedside cabinet. Next to the vases are several magic books and a couple of children books. I don"t remember asking for those though, Eldor must have picked them. Since the covers look new, he probably bought them for me in the city of Jack Berry.

Eldor appears like a child, however, he looks serious most of the time with an expressionless face. Even though he has quite a beautiful face, he usually gives out a cold look. Initially, I thought it was because he was disgusted at working for me.

But that is clearly a misunderstanding from my side. Back when I spilled tea on my hand, Eldor ran with all his strength to get me a cold towel to cool it. Even though Eldor is just a commoner, elegance and etiquette are always sought for in people who serve n.o.bility. But seeing me injure myself, he threw all those to the wind and ran like a madman.

He even gave these books out of kindness. Eldor found me in the library on numerous occasions after leaving my room. I wasn"t particularly interested in books, but I liked the library since it was a quiet place and I could not hear the people talking behind my back. But since I was in the library anyway, I picked up a book from time to time. I guess from Eldor"s perspective that looked like I was interested in books.

I pick up a book that Eldor brought me. Even though I"m a teenager trapped inside the body of a child, I"m interested in the book. Probably because they give me a nostalgic feeling. The book has large bright letters and many beautiful ill.u.s.trations. It looks like the story is about a couple of children that boldly confront dark magic that is threatening the world. After picking up another book and browsing through it, I realize that this book is similar in that children are fighting for a cause. These books look like fun. Unexpectedly, my preferences seem to match the expressionless Eldor. When I reach out to my bedside cabinet for the third time, my door is knocked. It looks like it"s lunch time already.

—

"Seems like a vegetable dish today."

As I lightly breathe in the aroma of the meal that has been delivered to my room I notice that the mouth of the servant twitches upward a little in a disgusted smile.

Looks like I"m really disliked by the people here. Only Fortuna, Sebastian, and Eldor(?) seem to truly care for me in this house. It"s my own fault though. Before I got my memories back of my previous life, I abused my status as the child of a duke as much as I could. So I don"t blame them for disliking me.

"This is to strengthen your body Langrease-sama, please enjoy it."

The words spoken are polite, but there are no signs of them actually worrying about me. It"s like they"re reading the text of a script, the words are there, but there"s no emotion in them at all. It"s not surprising though, although he is the third son of the Duke, he is neither cute nor gentle. I guess it"s impossible for them to be worried about him just because he has a higher status than them. If I were to be in his shoes, I would probably do the same.

The dish seems to have plenty of vegetables, but there"s no meat at all. The Langlease before regaining my memories seemed to dislike vegetables. His likes and dislikes weren"t limited to just vegetables, but it looks like he truly hated vegetables the most.

He disliked the green of green peppers. The color of eggplants gave him a nauseating feeling. The softness of mushrooms was useless in his eyes. The oak lettuce tasted disgusting. Verona"s bitterness was the worst and last but not least, the acidity of tomatoes was horrible!

"&h.e.l.lip; This kid really seemed to dislike vegetables, huh?"

I finished my meal and ate all the vegetables. I like vegetables, this is probably influenced by the healthy life style I lived in my previous life.

The dish was a bowl of salad with peppers, different types of lettuce, tomatoes, cuc.u.mber, pearl mushrooms coated with paprika and eggplant.

The vegetable dishes from the previous days, which had vegetables that came from the home garden were delicious, but the vegetable dishes that are lined up in front of me right now are also superb. I guess it can be expected from the kitchen of a Duke’s house. Both the chefs and the ingredients are top notch.

However, no matter how much you like vegetables, you can"t endure on just vegetables. You need meat from time to time. This is some trivial knowledge from my previous life and I"m not an expert, but I know for a fact that you need the nutritious from meat for a healthy life style. At this rate, I won"t be able to properly heal and regain my strength.

"I"m feeling very well today and would love to eat a little more, could you bring me a meat dish?"

Since they have only been trying to hara.s.s me by feeding me vegetable dishes and I have never asked for anything else, I wonder how he will respond. Sure enough, the servant tries to come with an excuse. "But young master, your body won"t be able to handle it&h.e.l.lip;" Thought so. However, could I even call this child hara.s.sment? The servant in front of me looks to be around twelve years old. He has bright brown hair cut to shoulder length. He tries to look like an elegant adult, but he clearly has a youthful face. Since he usually has a disgusted smile on his face when attending me, I don"t bother remembering his name. It would be easy to order him to bring me a meat dish, but I would rather not use my status to oppress people anymore.

Looks like it"s no use, I guess I will have to give up meat dishes?

At the time that I gave up, the sound of the door being knocked on echoed throughout the room. I urged the person to enter, seems like it was Eldor(?) and he brought a small wagon with him. After entering the room, a smell envelopes the place.

"Eldor, what is that&h.e.l.lip;?"

"It"s a young chicken soup."

After Eldor ordered the young servant to leave, he offered me the young chicken soup. The moment I open the lid, a fluffy steam rises from it and my cheeks soften after smelling the appetizing aroma. The chicken soup has a soft texture in my mouth and the meat in it is so tender that it nearly melts on my tongue. This also means that my digestive system will have less problem digesting it. But why did Eldor bring me this?

"Is there something on my face?"

I stop my hands from eating the meal and gaze at Eldor with a questioning gaze, he returns a blank gaze as always.

"Why did you bring me this dish&h.e.l.lip;?"

"It is per my grandfather"s arrangement&h.e.l.lip; A mistake was made earlier and it seems like Langlease-sama"s meal deviated from the original plan."

Eldor lowers his head in an apologetic manner. Looks like Sebastian noticed the staff"s hara.s.sment with the meals. No, since we"re talking about Sebastian, he should have known for a while now. Probably holding my condition in consideration, he decided to do something about it now. So for the foreseeable future, I should be able to enjoy a couple of meat dishes. I wonder if it will return to vegetable dishes once my condition turns for the better though.

When I finally felt relieved, high-pitched laughter from the servants can be heard outside of the room.

"I want a meat dish."

"I really love meat."

"I wonder if him eating meat is like cannibalism?"

"A pig wanting to eat pigs."

I wonder if they"re aware that I can hear what they"re saying. Their laughter and remarks left a bad taste in your mouth.

How would any normal child be able to bear this? If it was actually aimed at a child, it would definitely leave a scar on the child"s heart.

To be honest, it doesn"t bother me at all and I only bitterly smile at the situation. I remember from my previous life that until I turned sixteen years old, nearly every elementary school child had a bad mouth. They didn"t really mean anything with it and just went with the flow. I"m not happy with the current situation, but I decide to leave it alone. But after a while, Eldor stands up.

"Wait."

Looks like even the expressionless Eldor couldn"t sit still in this situation, but he still stopped heading towards the door after hearing what I said.

"Why are you stopping me?"

"Because I do not particularly care, besides this chicken rather than pork, so it can"t be called cannibalism." (TN: So he identifies himself as a pig?)

"But&h.e.l.lip;"

"It tastes good, having a meat dish after such a long time makes me want to cherish it even more. I want to thank you for bringing it to me. And there"s also these books, thank you for everything."

"&h.e.l.lip; even though I only brought them&h.e.l.lip;"

Eldor"s expressionless face is showing a little confusion and frustration.

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A new translator trying to learn the ropes. Please be gentle with me.

Aww. It’s only on teaser status. Still, thanks for the hard work on the chapter part!

Thanks for the chapter!