I’m Not Even an Otome Game Mob Character - Chapter 26

Though the summer heat still remained, without letting it show the slightest effect on her, Octavia Ernst smiles relaxedly.

“Heey, Dia. Do you know about the pedestal boy?”

“Pedestal…?”

She didn’t know, but for some reason it sounds familiar to young Lady Lydia’s ears. She stopped her hand which had been raising a teacup.

Even as her almost one-year old little sister, Flora sat on her mother’s lap, she drinks her black tea gracefully and Lydia waits for her to continue. Wetting her throat and returning the teacup to the saucer, Octavia opened her mouth again.

“I heard that marriage proposals have been fluttering in for the young ladies who danced with the pedestal boy. Specifically, it seems that a baron’s daughter who hadn’t been getting many marriage proposals is now being courted by a marquis’ son.”

How wonderful, Octavia said. Lydia looked at her mother and knew that she was intentionally withholding which houses these people were from although she knew. Her mother, the very image of a lady, would never do something as thoughtless as believing a baseless rumor.

“…Why are you hiding his name?”

She understood that her mother was guiding her to ask questions, but Lydia asked anyway.

“I am not hiding it, it’s just that no one knows who he is. Nor his appearance.”

It’s strange that there wasn’t any information even on his appearance. The rumor happened precisely because he was the dance partner. Lydia tilted her head at this strange occurence.

“He does exist, right?”

“Yes. He seems quite charming to women, almost excessively so, and so they pay him much attention. It’s almost as if it’s Cinderella.”

Fufu, Octavia laughed at her reference to the fairytale character as Lydia’s expression tightened. A person who danced like that and didn’t like standing out at all came to mind. Probably as a side effect of the training he had received, the person in question would unconsciously make his dance partner bloom like a flower. Her father, Gerald, after seeing his dancing style, judged him to be a gardener through and through.

Octavia suddenly sent an eye signal to the maid waiting on her, and the maid brought a silver tray. Above the tray was a small mountain of envelopes that seemed like invitations.

“Yes, yes, these are tea party invitations for you Dia. Your dance must have been extremely beautiful. Almost all of these involve dancing, saying they want to learn from you.”

“…If possible, I’d like to refrain from dancing.”

She wasn’t of age to be invited to evening parties, so she could understand why they were inviting her to tea parties. But it’s rare for someone to dance at tea parties. Looking at the small mountain of invitations, Lydia felt like holding her head. Even after receiving Mrs. Era’s harsh instruction, she still wasn’t confident in her dancing skills. But she was having a hard time thinking of an excuse.

For a second, Octavia’s peach-colored eyes grew cold. Lydia felt like they grew even colder than her own pale eyes and remembered that just like herself, her mother had eyes that were slanted.

“-The ladies want to experience magic. Their parents want them to get marriage proposals from powerful people. It’s actually easy to understand. But be careful so you won’t have to worry about this later.”

Finally, Octavia narrowed her eyes as if she’d seen something interesting, and the mood calmed down like before.

“…I feel like he’s been getting worse.”

Lydia’s shoulders dropped tiredly. To think that he’d stand out without even being remembered. There should be a limit to strange things.

“My, isn’t this better than Isaac-kun getting stolen from you?”

“Wh…!? No! I only warned Zac to not say anything rude…!!”

Lydia got desperate in trying to resolve her mother’s misunderstanding. After they’d asked the gardening apprentice boy to act as her partner for the party, she remembered that he was the type of person to say his impressions at his own timing. Though ladies were used to getting complimented, him doing so without any warning could come across as rude.

Her mother didn’t misunderstand that she was worried about bothering others. Her request to help her dress up was also just so the boy wouldn’t stand out. It definitely wasn’t because she was worried on how he’d react after seeing other lovely ladies.

Octavia simply listened to her daughter’s claims with a soft smile.

She was glad that Lydia had been getting to express herself more often nowadays. Until recently, her admiration towards her mother was so strong that she’d hold herself back even when talking to her. It was lonely to not be depended on by one’s child as a mother. But she gave especially good reactions whenever she spoke about the gardening apprentice boy, so she was having fun right now. Her daughter continued to argue fervently, but as if she felt like she was giving excuses to her silent mother, the girl gradually quieted down and shut her mouth with adorable flushed cheeks.

“Heey, Dia.”

“Yes?”

“Possessiveness is not a bad thing. It’s perfectly normal to feel lonely if the child you get along with gets along with other children.”

“Eh?”

“It’s to a lady’s shame if you use that as justification to tie a person down. But there’s no use denying what you feel.”

How to deal with these feelings? Suppressing natural feelings would only hurt the person.

You’re free to feel, Octavia explained with a smile, much to Lydia’s surprise. But she understood. Her mother had never exposed her emotions outright so she was surprised, but she understood that she had a lady’s dignity precisely because she was able to cope with many kinds of emotions. Not expecting her mother to affirm such feelings, Lydia was befuddled for a second.

Then she got a little angry.

“…You don’t believe me, do you?”

“I do? But that’s not all, is it? Dia really is a shy girl.”

Right? Octavia tilted her head towards Flora to ask for her opinion. From her lap, Flora imitated her mother’s behavior and laughed in enjoyment. Not having gotten a yes or a no from her mother, Lydia bit her lip and stayed silent.

“It’s okay.”

Octavia continues speaking as she holds Flora close to herself and brushes her cheek.

“He’s a servant. Of Duke Ernst’s house. It’s silly to think that there’s any shame in using him for your own gain.”

She saw a mother who cared for her daughters. That should’ve been pleasant. But Lydia felt something cold in her heart.

“Indeed. But please accept a few invitations at least.”

“Why!?”

Lydia thought from the flow of the conversation that she’d be able to refuse them if she liked. Octavia, on the other hand, pouted her cheeks like a young girl.

“…I mean I wanna see Dia look cool too.”

Uuu, Lydia wailed. Tea parties weren’t the same as the prince’s party. Women sometimes hosted them, so there was nothing wrong with having one’s mother attend. So Lydia wanted Octavia to come. She was nervous about dancing in front of her, but she also wanted to show herself dancing in front of her. Besides, Octavia looks cute when she pouts. It was unfair.

“~I- understand.”

“Reallyy?”

Lydia saw her mother’s face shine with happiness and smiled a small and helpless smile.

“I’m looking forward to it. I’ve recently been hearing about how cool you look from the other adults.”

“Ah, that’s…!”

Lydia realized that her speaking out at the party had reached her mother’s ears and blushed. Octavia tilted her head and waited for her daughter to continue, and she muttered a few words with her head down.

“…I was just copying what you said.”

She just passed on the words that she had received from her mother before she attended her first party last year to the marigold girl. Lydia was embarrassed because she repeated her word-for-word. But those words gave her courage when she was feeling nervous for the first time, so she felt that they would be good to use there.

“You said that to her because you felt it was true right?”

Lydia nodded at the question.

“Then that child indubitably drew courage from a noble lady’s words. Be proud.”

“Yes…”

As her mother smiles calmly while bestowing her words upon her, Lydia blushes in a different way.

That tea party with her little sister and her mother let her forget about the summer heat with invigorating greenery, yellow senna flowers and the fresh scent of cherry blossoms. The next day, she set out to tell the gardening apprentice boy, who had been weed-whacking, that he was to act as her dance partner again.

“Pedestal boy? What kind of name is that?”

“…That’s you, Zac.”

The gardening apprentice exclaimed, she explained, and he tilted his head.

“Those ladies got infatuated because the guy was cute or handsome, right? Why would it be me? And why would I be like a ghost?”

Those ladies sure were mature, though. The gardening apprentice continues weeding out weeds as he admires them.

Lydia looks at him be completely oblivious to the effects he has on his surroundings and wonders what to do. Would it even be a good thing if he became aware?

“I do not know what a ghost is, but in any case your dancing has given us an opportunity. Zac, what on earth did you tell them?”

“Eh… I was mostly looking at you so I don’t really remember. I do remember that you were super pretty though.”

“That doesn’t matter!!”

He started talking about her right after she had asked about other people. Lydia pouts. She knew that he only meant that he was looking at her because he was attending to her and nothing else, but he said it in a misleading way. She did make sure to put on just the bare minimum of decorations on her person out of consideration for him, but she hadn’t thought that he was so weak against shiny things that he would only be able to look at her.

“Anyway, please remember what you said…”

Having been scolded by Lydia, the gardening apprentice boy furrowed his eyebrows and grumbled as he thought.

“I only did small talk to pass the time you know? Um… the Moth Orchid girl said that she wanted to hide her hair. I told her that was a waste because her glossy black hair suited her.”

“…And then?”

“The Calla lady was taller than the boys her age so she was hunching her back. I told her that in a few years she wouldn’t be able to hide her womanliness no matter how tall she’d get so it’d be better for her to stand tall.”

“…Then?”

“The Dahlia girl told me that she had harsh eyes and that they weren’t cute, but whenever she smiled the corners of her eyes would go down. So I told her it’ll be fine as long as she smiles more often… Ah, I probably said that politely.”

“That’s not it!”

Lydia voices her disapproval as he adds that last part, as if it was supposed to calm her down. They danced at the party at the order they called out to her. But after the dance, they seemed less tense and their postures more natural. Was it because of his words? Wasn’t he making a mess even though he said he hadn’t done anything?

“Ojou, did I do something…?”

His worried voice came down on her as Lydia held her head in her hands. When she looked up, his copper eyes were shaking in concern.

He didn’t know what he’d done at the party. Maybe he was starting to get a clue about the trouble he’d caused. But in the first place, Lydia asked him to be her partner and he only obliged, so it wasn’t his fault if things hadn’t gone completely as planned. It was unexpected, but a good thing.

Lydia didn’t feel like telling him off either. Or blaming him. She didn’t, but there were still a little ill feelings left in her heart.

“You did well Zac. Thank you for listening to my unreasonable request. But…”

“But?”

She hesitated to continue. As she paused, the gardening apprentice waited for her next words intently.

“…Um, the other girls… what did you think of them?”

“Ha?”

The boy was dumbfounded. Lydia couldn’t handle his dumbfounded gaze and suddenly found her shoes very interesting. She knew that she had just asked a strange question, so her cheeks heated up with shame, but she’d already said it so she just had to wait for his reply.

“Ah… the girls you danced with. There were a lot of cute and pretty ones at the party, right? Um, are they, I…”

Their ages were a match. He might’ve felt like he got along especially well with one of his dance partners. Thinking that, she felt mysteriously uneasy.

“Uh, there were but…”

As his words reached her ears, her heart made a reluctant noise.

“Ojou.”

She timidly raised her head to find the boy smiling at her kindly.

“Didn’t I tell you?”

“Eh…”

“I was mostly looking at you. I didn’t even remember the girls I danced with until you told me to.”

“But that’s…”

“Yes. I did that as your dance practice partner and your attendant from the Ernst House. So I’m lucky to be a servant here.”

“Eh?”

“I get to stay beside a wonderfully gorgeous lady and watch over her. Isn’t that a good thing?”

Lydia slowly felt hotter and hotter. Her ill feelings were all blown away. She unconsciously gripped her skirt. Why could he take care of her anxiety so well and so quickly?

The gardening apprentice boy smiled obliviously.

“What a weird thing to worry about, though. No way a servant can be with a lady.”

“I-I mean…”

Lydia accidentally tried to argue red in the face, then panicked and closed her mouth with both of her hands. The gardening apprentice boy tilted his head at her.

“Ojou??”

What are you trying to make me say? Lydia glared up at him with her mouth closed. She didn’t want him to hear the words she was about to leak, caught up in the moment. It wasn’t as if he had asked her to say them, but she was so embarrassed that she actually felt mad and got swept away in it.

He blanky looks back at her, ignorant of her heart.

He didn’t press any further than that himself, so they went silent for a while. Lydia was the first one to break it, buckling under his innocent gaze.

“I… It’s nothing.”

“Got it.”

Anyway, I get that I might have to dance again, the gardening apprentice nodded. That walk was unnecessarily tiring.

A few days later, Lydia was at her regular tea party with her friend, Tordelise. She sighed. Tordelise noticed and lowered her eyes in shame.

“I’m very sorry, Lady Lydia. I wanted to keep it as small as possible but…”

She looked like a bunny with its ears down. Lydia unconsciously smiled.

“No, please don’t worry. It’s because of me.”

Right now, Lydia’s table was drawing attention from all around. This teaparty was restricted to women. After the recent prince’s birthday party, Lydia’s admirers increased, and she was treated differently despite being in the same generation. She didn’t really want a lot of friends, but being revered even more than before left her completely isolated.

“Come to think of it, your attendant isn’t with you today, is he?”

She asked nonchalantly. Lydia was surprised. Her hand which had been raising a teacup from the saucer shook a little.

“He was just a substitute for the dance my father had picked. Besides, this is a girls’ party.”

“I see… I wanted to have a word with him. It’s a little disappointing.”

“Why…?”

Tordelise had told her before that she was bad at talking to men outside of her family. It’s rare to hear her want to talk to one. Lydia was curious about what had her interested.

“That person treasures Lady Lydia so I thought he’d be a desirable comrade.”

“T-Treasures…!?”

“Yes. At the party, he seemed to mellow out when it came to you, Lady Lydia.”

Tordelise smiled happily. Lydia didn’t know how to respond. She had her hands full in preventing her face from going red. Tordelise was only able to keep smiling at her because she was her friend. She had noticed what she didn’t need to notice. How nice would it be if she could go and hit him right now.

“Um, it’s been a while Lady Lydia.”

“Ara, it’s you.”

The voice that reached out to her was ever so shrill. When she looked, she saw familiar, curly, reddish-blonde hair. That girl bowed, though fearfully.

“I am called Zaskia Von Faito. Please forgive me for calling to you despite only being from a baron’s house. I wanted to convey my thanks by any means necessary…”

“I don’t mind. Rather than that, Zaskia, you’re engaged now, aren’t you? Congratulations.”

“Hm!? Um… not, yet… that person has graciously…”

Seeing Zaskia flushed and discomposed, Lydia and Tordelise felt a sense of happiness. She didn’t seem averse to the proposal.

Tordelise introduced herself. As they sat and had tea together, someone laughed. Lydia and her friends raised their eyebrows and looked to where that scornful laughter was coming from.

They saw a single girl fearfully looking down, peeking around herself. Though she was their age, her mannerisms were obviously that of a commoner pretending to be otherwise. It was rare for someone to not be familiar with the mannerisms of a lady by Lydia’s age.

Just from that, many speculations were born and passed around far enough for her not to hear. She was being ridiculed.

“…I can’t condone that.”

“Yes…”

“I’m coming!”

“”Yes.””

Just when Lydia was about to consult Tordelise, the host, on what to do, Zaskia declared with her eyes filled with fighting spirit. She must’ve felt especially angry because she was in that girl’s situation recently, but she acts even quicker than imagined. Considering what happened at the party, she might be the type to act before she thinks.

Zaskia calls out to the lady who looks as if she’s standing on a bed of needles and comes over to her as she declared. They’d judged that it would be more appropriate than the Duke’s daughter, Lydia, calling to her directly in this situation. Lydia greets her with a smile.

“I am Lydia Von Ernst. Would you like to have tea with us?”

“Ah… Ehh, I-I am Stephanie Von W-Witting…”

The girl bowed her head quickly in a non-ladylike fashion. That proved to them that she wasn’t born a noble, but something was strange about that name.

“Ara, was the house of Count Witting not childless…?”

“Um… this spring, my mother remarried with Count Witting, and I… er, I’m adopted.”

“I see. Congratulations on your mother’s remarriage.”

“Tha-Thanks…?”

Stephanie hadn’t thought that she would be congratulated. She widened her eyes and bowed to Lydia. Completely unlike the rest of the ladies who only gave her scorn when they found out about her commoner origins, the duke’s daughter in front of her looked at her warmly.

“You’re amazing.”

“Huh?”

Stephanie tilted her head at Lydia’s words of praise.

“To be able to attain such posture in a few months. You’ve done well.”

“Indeed. It’s hard to keep a straight back with a dress on.”

“Yes. You’re amazing, Lady Stephanie.”

“…!!”

She was only standing straight to make sure the dress she’d received from the count looked good on her, as per her courtesy training. But having that acknowledged, Stephanie’s eyes widened.

She had just been regretting her participation in the tea party because of the other ladies’ behavior. Maybe it had been too soon. She was even going to give up on making noble friends her age. To receive such kind words at such a time, she felt like crying.

Lydia smiled wryly as she watched Stephanie keep her tears down with all her might.

“But you should remember your courtesy for next time.”

“Co-?”

“A lady’s manners, Lady Stephanie.”

Zaskia explained courtesy to her. Stephanie’s eyes glimmered.

“I see. Yes, I will do my best to be even a little bit more like Lady Lydia.”

“!? Why me…?”

Receiving that declaration out of the blue, Lydia’s eyes widened.

“Because Lady Lydia feels exactly like a proper lady. I admire you.”

“Right!? I also want to learn after Lady Lydia and become a lady worthy of that person.”

“Lady Lydia is amazing.”

Lydia saw the two agree with Stephanie and took offense.

“…We are the same age. Why am I the only one being put on a pedestal?”

She didn’t think they’d hear because she muttered those words quietly. But somehow, the three stiffened as if they had heard. Lydia noticed that and blushed in embarrassment.

“””…Cu.”””

“Cu?”

“””Cute…!!!”””

The three said in one voice. Lydia jumped in place.

Then they approached her with their eyes shining.

“Lady Lydia is too cute.”

“To think you had such a cute side. You’re unfair.”

“If you’re fine with someone like me, please allow me to stand as a candidate for your friendship.”

“Eh? Eh??”

Lydia thought that they were disillusioned after hearing her talk like a child. But they seemed happy. She was shocked.

“How can we stop Lady Lydia from feeling lonely?”

“Hey… I’m not…”

“Indeed. This may be rather plebeian, but how about calling her by a nickname?”

“A nickname?”

“Stephanie is long, so my mo-mother and other people call me Fani.”

“Yeah. A pet name. Mine is Torde.”

“Please call me Kia.”

After exchanging nicknames, the three all turn to Lydia at once. Lydia flinched from three pairs of eyes looking at her expectantly. Then she opened her mouth slowly.

“Mine is, Dia…”

“””Understood, Lady Dia!”””

With some amount of shame, Lydia flushed and looked down. The three smile.

In the future, Prince Roy would come for a visit and realize that Lady Lydia was popular.