I’m Not Even an Otome Game Mob Character - Chapter 3

After a few weeks had passed since I became a gardening apprentice, the Duke came with roses in the background.

No, really.

My dad and I were gathering in the rose garden, and the Duke came along from the exact spot where roses were blooming early.

His smile covered his whole face and he seemed quite happy. So much so that even though I knew it wasn’t true, I felt like he was making the roses bloom.

As I missed the timing to greet him from my surprise, the Duke spread both of his arms and hugged me tightly.

“Thank you, Isaac!”

“I eh!? Ah, wai, Milord, you’ll get dirty you know!?”

More than being hugged by a man, the first thing I was concerned about was that his indubitably expensive clothes would get dirty. A commoner wouldn’t be able to reimburse him for it.

Did he hear my warning or not? He tightened his hold on me. It doesn’t hurt but I can’t move at all.

I couldn’t do anything on my own so I asked my dad to help me with my eyes, but since he’s also in his work clothes he can’t touch the Duke. He judged immediately that words wouldn’t reach the Duke as he is now, so he was watching us. He gave up quick. Even though his son is troubled.

Ah, Butler-san is here too. Before I knew it. As expected, they won’t help me will they. He probably intends to prepare a change of clothes and follow up on it later.

In the first place, I have no memory at all of being hugged and thanked by a superior.

“M, Milord, did I do something?”

I don’t think I’ve done anything though. Aside of occasionally hurrying to meet the quota in time, which would disrupt my Father’s work and get him angry at me.”

“Dia is cute!”

“Ha? Haa, that’s right.”

He separated far enough for both of us to see each others’ faces and said to me. Of course a child with beautiful parents would be cute. More so if it’s his child.

“That’s not it! No, Dia was cute to begin with, but lately she’s been so cute that I can’t help myself.”

“Thank goodness.”

What, it was just him doting on her? This guy should be busy with work, but he went out of his way to the gardening apprentice to dote huh. What are you doing? My eyes ended up half-closed.

“It’s because of you, thank you!”

So he says as he hugs me again. I don’t get what he means.

“…Um-, what on earth do I have to do with Ojou…sama getting cuter?”

I shouldn’t have anything to do with it, I don’t want you to involve me.

But the Duke said that I played a big role. What does he mean?

“It’s been happening ever since the day you gave her advice. Dia said that she wanted to see me off everyday so she’s been waking up early, and Via also said that she’s come to follow her often. Recently we’ve been trying to eat at least one meal as a complete family everyday. Because of that I put in more effort at work so I’ve been able to finish it earlier.”

No, why is he reporting all of these good things to me as if I ordered them online?

Or I should say, he suddenly brought up someone else’s name, but that’s probably the other maiden in the family, the wife.

“This is just Ojou…sama doing her best, isn’t-”

“No, the one who gave her the push was you, Isaac. Besides, it seems like Dia has been consulting with you even after that. I’m sorry for giving you my gratitude this late.”

This is referring to that, how after a few days she came to me for some reason, and that reason was to tell me how she was able to reconcile with her maid, Katherine, and how her little sister was small and cute. I was only doing my work and interjecting to show that I was listening, so it was all the same to me though. I learned from my little sister in the previous life that when listening to womens’ idle complaints, you have to come up with your own answers, but when it comes to their dissatisfaction and worries, they more or less just want you to listen. So for now I could just listen.

What should I do? I’m being thanked even though I didn’t really do anything.

“Dia herself was probably able to become more honest because she was able to make a friend close to her age. Please get along with her from now on.”

“Of course, gladly.”

Not being able to go against my superior’s dazzling smile and words, I’ve accidentally become a yes man. Milord, if you grip my hands so tightly in my gloves they’ll get dirty you know.

Having finished his business, the Duke disappeared scattering jaunty flower petals around him. He was just scattering them with the wind like a normal person, but his timing was spot on.

Once I couldn’t see him, I joined both of my hands in a praying pose to thank Butler-san who followed him and to say sorry.

The grass made a sakuri sound as someone stepped on them. When I turned to its direction, my Father was just taking manure.

“Let’s continue.”

“Yes.”

We returned to our work which had been interrupted in front of the Duke. In work I’m an apprentice so I try to use honorific speech.

It’s still spring. The number of roses in bloom is low. Even so, my old man is tailoring them so that they contrast with green, so although it’s not flashy it’s pretty. The best time to view them will be at summer, so now we’re monitoring the state of their growth and making preparations for adding new ones.

I believe that the real pleasure of gardening is within these preparations. You could arrange things that have already blossomed, but it’s thrilling to place flower buds and do work while imagining them until they bloom. It depends on nature, so everything is more interesting than you’d expect. Gardening is just guiding their way a little bit. It’ll still take some time for me to be entrusted, but I’m happy to look at what kind of garden my Father will make alongside him.

The tasks he’s been giving me have only been odd jobs, but just being having this front row seat is enjoyable.

My Dad once showed me his work outside when I was even smaller. It was to arrange the promenades around the water fountain for different festivals. It was within our neighborhood so I knew the place well. The blooming and disarrangement of the flowers changed with the festival like magic, and I was very surprised.

I also had a time where I believed that my Father was a magic user.

By the way, there is magic in this world.

So the ?magic users? I’m talking about here refer to humans who have the qualifications to possess more than a certain amount of magical energy. They’re formally referred to as sorcerers, but for commoners it’s easier to call them magic users.

Most commoners can’t use magic. The quantity of magic power isn’t inherited, I seem to remember learning a while back, but by and large, the quantity of magical power was proportionate to social status.

My dad can use a little earth magic. He can grasp the state of soil so it’s suited to gardening. But he doesn’t use magic. It’s not because he doesn’t have a lot of magical power, but because in order to maintain the garden from here, what’s needed is not magic but skill.

So I’m also refraining from using water magic, which is my strongest attribute, to water the plants. The truth is it’s relaxing so I don’t want to do it anyway though.

With my memories from the previous world, I’d thought that I would have been more excited about being able to use magic. I read shounen manga and took famous titles in games after all.

But, it’s always seemed natural to me ever since I was born, so I wasn’t surprised or anything of the sort. The magical energy that fills this world is like the radio waves from the previous world. You can’t see it but it feels like it’s there, and it’s convenient to use.

Come to think of it, what’s Ojou’s attribute?

By the nature of magic, humans always have a single attribute they specialize in. Nobody has all attributes, and those with two or more attributes are quite rare.

The attribute of one’s magic manifests itself around five years old. We should know which attribute she has an aptitude for soon.

It feels like it’ll be strong.

She’s always wearing dresses that mainly use striking colors, so it gives the image of high offensive power.

Oh, that’s not easy on the eyes.

She has fluffy, light blonde hair and pale blue pupils, so she should go better with more gentle colors. Is she worried about her cat eyes?
(TN: Apparently in Japanese this could mean that the eyes are very round and cute like a cat’s. I came across the cat eye syndrome and got confused)

When her face is expressionless, her pale blue slanted eyes would probably look like water, but she’s very full of expressions.

“Isaac.”

The girl I’d just been thinking about came.

Judging by where the sun is in the sky, she’s just finished her afternoon tea and is now on her walk.

“Ou. What is it today, Ojou?”

Today she wore a big ribbon and a very pink dress. It wasn’t easy on my eyes.

I returned to my work of dethorning roses. The pink left my vision.

“I take after my Mother!”

“Why?”

“My magical power.”

I knew that something good had happened from how she was all smiles. It seems that she’s just found out her magical attribute.

“Really? That’s nice. What’s your attribute?”

“It’s thunder.”

I could tell from her voice that she was making a self-satisfied look and acting big.

Did she become a girl who can bring down real thunder? Let’s avoid angering her as much as possible.

Ah, I’m water so it’s my weakness.

“Although there are not many uses for it. And unlike Mother, my hair gets inflated when I use it.”

It seemed that Ojou’s Mother had completely straight hair. She mentioned that she was jealous of it.

“It’s convenient because it can power machines. You could make a killing in factories.”

Her magic isn’t mainstream, but there’s no way it didn’t have applications. The thunder and fire attributes are treasured in factories.

“I do not have even the slightest plan of working at a factory…”

“What about charging batteries?”

“Isaac, do you want to have me work in a factory so badly?”

I felt a tingling anger and apologized immediately. Weak spots are scary. Ah, I might have felt some static electricity.

“Sorry I said. I was just saying ways to use it that I thought of.”

I wonder why Ojou is often angry at things I normally say.

She’ll usually forgive me if I apologize. When she consulted with me on how she could fix her way of dealing with the maids, I told her that she could start by greeting them, saying thank you and sorry. She tried it and it seemed to work, so Ojou herself got a tendency to forgive the other party if they apologized.

From there, she started reporting to me about things that had happened to her recently that she was happy about. Before I knew it I had become like the barber from The King with the Donkey Ears. Well, I didn’t plan to grow any reeds so I wouldn’t leak any information. Ah, were the humans thinking reeds? Well, to begin with no one would believe that I knew the Duke’s Daughter.
(TN: The King with the Donkey Ears is a children’s story about a King who had donkey ears. He killed all his barbers because they knew he had donkey ears. Then he spared one, and the secret got out through some plant which was a tree in the versions I read. There seem to be variations in it but that’s the relevant part here.)

For whatever reason it seemed that Ojou would come to meet me whenever she had time for herself. She had reformed her relationships with the maids, but it seemed that she couldn’t tell them everything. So she comes to me for attention. We lived in a tofu seller in my previous life and both my parents were working, so when we were small my little sister often attacked me for attention. It’s the same thing.

“That reminds me. Why is Ojou so flashy?”

While she paused, I casually tried asking her. Come to think of it, why were her tastes like that?

“What do you mean, flashy?”

“Your dress. It always has strong colors and a ribbon so it feels over the top.”

“This is so I’m not looked down on.”

The Duke’s house has a high standing even among nobles, so even though she’s small she chooses colors and designs that have a sense of presence so that she’s not looked down upon, she says.

In other words, it’s because it makes her feel strong. What’s that? Is she an elementary school boy? I also wore red often in my previous life because it looked cool and made me feel strong.

Wait. I kinda got off-topic.

“…Does that mean it’s not actually Ojou’s tastes?”

When I turned back to look at her reaction, she averted her eyes a little awkwardly.

“What do you really like?”

I stared at her so she wouldn’t be able to make an excuse.

“…It’s not as if I don’t want to try the pale colors my Mother wears, but… it won’t match-”

“Why? It would definitely match you.”

She was looking down. As she was about to finish saying what she really thought, I denied her before she could finish.

She was astonished for a few seconds before her cheeks became red.

“Wha…”

“At the very least, it would be easier on my eyes so I’d be happy.”

“I, I’m not going to change for Isaac’s sake!”

“Yeah. Ojou will get a makeover according to Ojou’s tastes, for Ojou’s sake.”

“What’s that…”

She let her shoulders droop as if tired. Did she come here in a racewalk like last time?

“Besides, Ojou has been worrying about her dignity but she’d be alright no matter what form she takes.”

“How can you say that…”

“Ojou is pretty after all.”

“!?”

Ah, she’s completely red.

“Mannerisms? Your figure is always cool and upright. No one will make fun of you.”

Maybe it’s the result of her practice. Her back is always straight. No matter how emotional she gets her movements are always pretty. She likely did her best until she could pull that off naturally. She’s small but she’s amazing. I genuinely praised her.

There’s no way someone would look down on a Duke’s Daughter who tries this hard.

“Isaac, yo, you, what…”

It kind of seems like she she wants to get mad but she can’t with her face red. She’s making a weird face.

Even though Ojou seems like she’s used to getting praised, she lights up quite often. She has honest roots.

“I said the truth. Is there anything wrong?”

“…That’s enough.”

After having some kind of inner conflict for a few seconds, Ojou abruptly turned her face away.

“Then I’ll look forward to it. Ojou’s makeover.”

“I told you, it’s not for Isaac’s sake!!”

He didn’t know that a few days after, the first person who the Duke’s Daughter would come to see in her sakura-colored dress would be the Gardening Apprentice.

TN: On second thought, this is too sweet so I’ll slow down to a chapter daily so as not to finish it too fast. Let’s enjoy this together. Besides, I could really use the extra time to study. Still no promises that nothing will come up and prevent me from missing a day though.

P.S. Sorry for so many TN afternotes, I generally try to avoid them. I guess it’s par for the course since I’ve just picked this up.