I’m Not Even an Otome Game Mob Character - Chapter 10

“We can’t.”

Lydia was refused by the Head Chef and puffed her cheeks.

“Why? After all, Zac is…”

“Zac? Aah, the lad huh. Ojou-sama, you’re different from the lad.”

The Head Chef scratched his head while the daughter of his employer looked up at him, as if he were at a loss.

“it’s alright if he gets a little hurt or experiences some pain, but that can’t happen to Ojou-sama. If, by any chance you get burnt, I will be scolded by the maids.”

Lydia was miffed, but she understood that asking him any further than this would only trouble the Head Chef more. She lowered her shoulders. It took courage to call out to the largely built Head Chef, but talking to him wasn’t that scary. At least she learned that the Head Chef was an unexpectedly kind person.

“I understand…”

“But Ojou-sama, for you to want to make sweets for the boy is quite commendable.”

“That’s not true! I’m returning a favor!”

The brawny Head Chef smiled, to which Lydia blushed and denied with all her might. Her shoulders which had been relaxed were now enraged, but it seemed that the Head Chef didn’t find her intimidating. His smile didn’t disappear.

“I will excuse myself.”

Lydia turned heel, unable to withstand the warm eyes of the Head Chef.

But she remembered something she had forgotten, went back to the kitchen and peeked her head through the door.

“I’m sorry for saying something unreasonable. Your food is always delicious, thank you for that.”

Vestiges of her wrath still remained so she couldn’t say it with a smile, but she could at least say it. Then she left that place without checking the Head Chef’s reaction.

She had heard from the Gardening Apprentice before that greetings, thanks, and apologies were important. And when she observed her Father, he would always give thanks, even to the employees. He was very busy. But it seemed that despite that, he would even go to the servants himself just to thank them. She was frustrated with herself because she had never noticed such a wonderful attitude from her parent since she had never been told.

She was mimicking the actions that she should learn from her parents, but it was more embarrassing than she thought it would be to pay mind to something that she hadn’t until now. Sometimes she avoided their eyes or hung her head, or left before they could say goodbye like just now.

The day when she could gracefully smile and convey gratitude like her parents was still far away. But still, it’s great that she said it, said the Gardening Apprentice in praise of her. Sometimes, she would fail to say things properly and be disheartened, but she would always find a way to continue it.

But how could she repay him…?

Lydia closed the doors to her room and sighed.

If she couldn’t do the same thing, how could she give him his just desserts?

The other day, the boy gave her cookies, saying that it was an apology for the tea party. They were just plain cookies in a paper bag, but each piece was bigger than what Lydia usually ate. When she asked why, he said that they didn’t have any actual cookie cutters so they used a mug for it. She couldn’t eat it back at the mansion, so she ate it once he gave it to her. It had a simple and delicious taste.

The fact that he made it despite not even being a patissier made her angry for some reason, and she started hitting him without thinking. Even when she did, the gardening apprentice boy only made a troubled face. She got even more frustrated that he didn’t seem to be in pain. Then she decided in her heart that she would definitely pay him back.

But no other plan for revenge came to mind, and Lydia was troubled. What on earth could she give the gardening apprentice boy aside from food that would make him happy? He always seemed to be happy to help with gardening work, even with simple tasks. But she didn’t know what thing he wanted.

If she had to say what she knew about him, it would be that he liked gardening work and that he respected his father. He also seemed to be happy whenever he ate, and that he wasn’t good with flashy things.

…I do not know what he likes.

She was flabbergasted at the fact she had just noticed. The information she knew about him was too little.

Thinking back, she would always talk about herself, and so she got almost no chances to hear about him. He himself wouldn’t talk about it unless he asked her for starters.

Zac is in the wrong.

Lydia puffed her cheeks, thinking that it was his fault for not talking himself that she didn’t know much about him.

“Lydia-sama, is something the matter?”

The maid Katherine was quiet within the room. She called out to her when she seemed anxious. After entering the room, Lydia had not moved from the door at all, and she was making different faces. She was worried about her.

She asked her if she wanted tea to calm herself down, but Lydia’s face that had been hung down was lifted up with great force.

“I will take a small walk.”

Lydia made to leave as she said she would, but Katherine stopped her flusteredly.

“Please wait…! The sunlight is strong so please carry a parasol!”

Katherine handed a white-laced small parasol to Lydia. If she went out as she was as summer was truly beginning, then her painstakingly preserved white skin would get burnt.

“Thank you. I will be going!”

“Please take care.”

Katherine bowed at the door and saw her Master off. Then she slowly raised her head, and seeing her Master’s back shrink and disappear over the distance, breathed a sigh of relief.

“Was it about Isaac-kun?”

Then it’s okay. Katherine smiled because her worries about her Master were unfounded.

Before long, Lydia saw the Baumgartner Father in an area with many fences. It seemed that he was doing work relatively close to the mansion today. And he was talking about something, which was rare.

Lydia approached, curious about what the quiet Dennis was talking about.

When she was about to call them, the gardening apprentice boy looked to her first, and she stopped walking in surprise. He usually wouldn’t look at her until she called.

“Ojou.”

On top of that, he was dashing here with a broad grin. He would usually refuse and go back to work. Lydia’s comprehension didn’t catch up with the situation and she reflexively clenched her hand on the parasol.

“Come. Is this alright Dad?”

He grabbed Lydia’s hand and asked for some sort of approval from his Father. After seeing him nod, the gardening apprentice boy started to walk with Lydia’s hand in his.

“Eh!?”

As she was being pulled away, Lydia looked between the gardening apprentice boy and his Father, who was becoming farther and farther. She couldn’t read his Father’s expression, and he didn’t know why he was leading her excitedly, either.

He was walking without reservations on grass and not pavement where Lydia usually walked, so she felt uneasy.

The distance between them expanded. He was matching his pace with Lydia’s, but she hesitated because of the sensation of grass and dirt on her feet.

Why did this happen?

She was only going to see the gardening apprentice boy to gather information.

Next thing she noticed, they were in a place with tall trees with light filtering through their leaves. It was as if they were in a forest. She no longer even knew where she was or where she was going. But the gardening apprentice boy kept advancing without any hesitation. It was the area of her own home, but the gardening apprentice boy knew more about the garden than Lydia.

“Where are we going…?”

“We’re almost there.”

She asked, panicked, and he replied like that. His eyes that were on their destination were filled with joy and overflowing with color. Lydia understood that he wouldn’t tell her until they arrived and came with him, not being able to do anything about it.

Now that she thought of it, she didn’t realize this since she was in panic, but she had been holding his hand the whole time. When she noticed, she felt strangely embarrassed and wanted to separate, but if she did that now then she would get lost, so she somehow endured that urge.

After becoming conscious of it, her eyes went to their linked hands. When she saw it like this, she understood the meaning of him being different from her. His skin was usually completely exposed to sunlight. Below his hands that were usually covered in gloves was skin that was somewhat white, but markedly darker than Lydia’s. It wasn’t smooth but unrefined. She knew well that her own father had bigger bones, but his skin was smoother.

It’s this different…

He could probably put more force into it, but he was gripping her gently with room to spare. He wasn’t forcing her to go. She could choose. These sorts of things felt unfair.

As she worried about whether to squeeze his hand back, Lydia got a little annoyed.

Not noticing that, the gardening apprentice boy turned around and called out.

“It’s just up ahead.”

“Hey… that’s…”

He encouraged her to pass under the shrubbery that was acting as a fence. Sure enough, Lydia hesitated to make a passage that would be difficult with her dress. But when she saw his eyes that said he wanted her to see, she folded her parasol and went under with him.

When they made it through the wall taller than themselves, she was attacked by sunlight and forced to close her eyes. As her eyes were closed, she felt a tinge of loneliness from how the warmth on her right hand was gone.

Feeling her eyes adjust to the light on the other side of her eyelids, she gently opened them.

The boy was there, bathed in sunlight with his arms stretched wide.

“This is mine!”

He declared with a broad smile.

She didn’t understand, openmouthed and befuddled. What was reflected in Lydia’s eyes was a clearing with nothing but grass surrounding a fountain with stone owls sat on it. The place was small enough to make her question whether it should be called a clearing. An adult would take several dozen steps to reach the edges from the fountain. It was surrounded by trees and shrubbery like a forest, and light only fell around the fountain. It would likely look like a circle had been gouged out from above.

She understood that the lighting from the sun was good, but there was nothing here. Aside from the fountain, only the bare minimum had been prepared. She didn’t know why he led her here so happily. In the first place, this spot should be within her territory.

“What do you…?”

“Father told me that we could practice here!”

When Lydia asked, the gardening apprentice boy started to explain excitedly.

“Both Dad and Grandpa would practice here when they were apprentices! He told me that I could use this place!”

In other words, it seemed like this place was the Baumgartners’ place to practice landscaping from generation to generation. He was helplessly happy to be able to make his own garden.

“If I wanna try something, I could save pocket money and buy seeds.”

As if he was planning out this empty place, his eyes glittered as he looked around.

“…Is, it okay to tell me that?”

“Yeah.”

Nobles wouldn’t usually enter places that had no streets leading to them. Lydia herself would not have known of a place like this if she hadn’t been invited by him. So the Baumgartners had been using some of the Ernst family’s territory for self-practice without permission.

After being asked, the gardening apprentice boy noticed that he had exposed a Baumgartner secret to a member of the Ernst household and hardened his expression.

While looking at the boy with a hard expression, Lydia took out her parasol which had been folded. Then he showed a reaction. When Lydia noticed that he had come beside her, he bent forward enough so that their eyes would be level and clapped his hands together.

“Ojou, please keep this a secret!”

After being begged from by distressed, upturned eyes that were a little lower than hers, for a second Lydia lost her words.

“…There’s no helping you.”

“Thanks, Ojou!”

“I, In the first place, why did you tell me!?”

“I mean, I wanted to show you…”

When she pointed out his foolishness, he said such a thing as he reflected. From the boy’s point of view, he just felt like he wanted to show his secret base to a friend. There was nothing weird about it and his actions were pure.

“…!?”

He seemed like a puppy who was sad after being scolded. Lydia felt heat in her cheeks at his words. Thinking it was out of rage, he furrowed his brows further. Then, when he noticed a blade of grass that had stuck to her skirt, he knelt on one knee without excuse.

“Sorry… Ojou wasn’t interested…”

“…From now on, you said?”

Lydia couldn’t help but open her mouth. She had made the boy change his expression from the happiness he had a second ago to sadness. Reacting to her voice, the gardening apprentice lifted his face.

“From now on, Zac, you will change this commonplace garden, will you not? If that’s the case, then please try to make it a garden I will be delighted with.”

Hearing Lydia’s words, the boy showed a smile as bright as a sunny spot.

“Yeah! I’ll make a good garden so look forward to it!”

Even though she was under a parasol, Lydia felt brightness from the way he looked up to her and turned her back to him.

“I mean, this is the best birthday gift I’ve received.”

After his energy returned to him, he continued to pick up leaves and muttered. But this time Lydia’s expression hardened.

She waited to some avail as he turned his eyes back to her while basking in his wholehearted joy. Her face was stretched from shock.

“Just now, what did you…”

“Eh? As I said, my Dad gave me this gift late since he said it was because I showed results as a gardening apprentice…”

“That’s not it! When on earth was your birthday!?”

“It was in May, though…?”

The gardening apprentice boy tilted his head in confusion. He didn’t understand why Lydia raised her voice.

It was over a month ago. This man really wouldn’t say anything if she didn’t ask him. Lydia was upset. Didn’t this mean that she had to give him something even better?

She endured her urge to strike him with a clenched fist on her parasol.

“…Zac, what can be done to make you happy?”

“What’s this all of a sudden?”

“Just answer!”

“Eh. Um…”

Pressured by Lydia’s vigour, the boy started thinking about his answer. After a few beats of thinking he said.

“I’d be happy if you smiled.”

The boy smiled thoughtlessly with his raw feelings.

“!? That’s not it!!”

Lydia’s face was dyed in pure red anger at the answer that was completely different from what she wanted. She didn’t want him to say things that were not only irrelevant but would also catch her off guard.

“Eh. But to be happy is…”

“I’m asking what you’d be happy to receive! Answer with a thing!”

Lydia asked a straightforward question herself. She didn’t think that he would throw a curveball and force her to explain what she meant.

After seeing Lydia raising her voice and breathing heavily, the young gardening apprentice understood what she wanted. Then he smiled kindly as if something was funny.

“You don’t really have to pay me any mind.”

“I do.”

Seeing Lydia mad, the boy’s smile grew deeper.

“I’ve already gotten a lot from Ojou, so it’s fine.”

“I have not…”

She hadn’t given him anything to be happy about. That’s why she came to him today. But what did he mean by getting a lot?

“That stationery. I was really happy.”

It’s the only thing that Lydia had written and given him with her own hands.

“I treasure it.”

He said that something that wasn’t given with that kind of intention in mind was important.

She had been thinking that she couldn’t give anything to him, who was so different from her. That wasn’t true. He wasn’t fair for denying it so easily. She was bothered because she had only been receiving.

Her cheeks were hot. Surely, it’s because she was frustrated from being cheated.

Her gradually rising emotions did not turn into words, and silence fell upon them. How did she look in his eyes as he smiled so kindly?

She had to say something so she looked for words. She arrived at what she had missed her chance to say.

“…Happy birthday. Zac.”

“Thank you. Ojou.”

Was she smiling well?

Even if she had failed, it seemed like he understood. The boy returned a smile that made her think such.

TN: Loved this chapter. Gonna move to a new site soon, likely tomorrow. It should be linked on NU when I do, and I’ll also make an announcement on this site. See you there!