I’m Not Even an Otome Game Mob Character - Chapter 31
She opens her eyes to the worried faces of her parents.
Confused and surprised, Lydia sits up on the bed.
She doesn’t remember when she came home.
“Father…? Mother…?”
“Are you alright? My angel, does it hurt anywhere?”
“Dia, you must have been so scared.”
Her father stroked her cheeks and her mother embraced her. Then she gradually remembered what happened before she fell asleep.
“I’m alright.”
She was truly alright. She could accept what has happened, maybe because she cried for a bit.
Lydia smiles to soothe her parents and sees how relieved they are. She realizes that she’s worried them that much and feels guilty.
“Father, mother, I’m very sorry. I forced Katherine to go with me so please don’t blame her…”
After quieting down, Lydia realized the possibility that Katherine would take the blame for her thoughtless actions.
At first she was upset to learn that the gardening apprentice boy had fallen sick, but as time passed she became worried. Thinking about it carefully, the reason he fell into the pond was because he tried to help her. That made her feel guilty.
Around the time she’d usually come meet him, her guilt got so bad that she told Katherine about wanting to see him. I just need to see his face to feel better, she insisted.
She didn’t think that it would come to that in the slightest. And she didn’t want Katherine to bear the consequences of her overlooking her own worth.
“No.”
Lydia’s chest got heavier with her father Gerald’s calm refusal.
“She needs to get a lecture from the head maid.”
Then Lydia looks up, shocked. Gerald winks and smiles at her.
“Katherine needs to reflect for us to be able to sweep this under the rug.”
Without any punishment she would blame herself too much. On the other hand, there was no reason to give her all the blame. That would only be for her self-satisfaction, her mother admonishes her. Lydia once again sees how lacking she is as a master.
“I’m very sorry.”
Gerald gives a strained smile at his beloved daughter who’s looking down from within her mother’s arms.
“I don’t intend to scold you…”
“Why not…?”
She deserved the blame. No matter how much her parents loved her, they couldn’t just ignore this incident. Lydia looks at her father in confusion. Her father’s eyes share her color, and they narrow lovingly.
“Because you’ve already learned your lesson.”
I can see it written on your face. Lydia is surprised.
The instant she saw the boy she’d left to see, he shouted at her. Once they were safe he reproached her. That surprised her because she’d thought that he’d only be relieved for her safety. She realized with shame that she was expecting him to pamper her.
Though Lydia didn’t want to be pampered, she realized that he’d been pampering her.
Which meant that she’d worried him enough for him to treat her like that. That’s what she got from the strength of his grip and the shakiness in his voice. She remembers the warmth of his hands and clenches her fists.
“There’s no reason to lecture someone once they’ve learned their lesson.”
“You won’t forget your lesson, won’t you, Dia?”
“No…”
She decided that she wouldn’t make him sad again. With that determination, she firmly agreed in her mother’s arms.
Then now was the time to celebrate her safety. Her parents hugged her.
After a few days, first prince Roy comes to visit Lydia.
There are many glass doors that overlook the garden. She guides him to a reception room from which one can see colorful tropical orchids. Even while we’re walking the garden looks like it came from a painting, Roy says, praising it with a beautiful smile.
Just like always, the maids prepare black tea and see themselves out. Roy takes a sip of it, breathes and smiles in a way that seems to melt the honey in his eyes.
“So then, is there anything you want? Lady Lydia.”
Lydia stares down those expectant eyes and opens her mouth.
“…You once told me to use you, did you not?”
“Yeah.”
When we discussed an engagement, Roy assents. In exchange for Lydia being limited by that engagement, Roy suggested that she’d have the right to use her position as his fiance.
“Then I will be using you.”
Lydia delivers those rude words with determination.
“So you’ll be engaged with me?”
She confirms Roy’s words.
“Yes. Currently there is nobody aside from Roy-sama who is fit to be my partner in marriage.”
“May I ask why?”
Roy asks not for the reason of her agreeing to this engagement, but for the reason of her determination.
“I want the power to protect those important to me.”
To not make anyone sad. If nothing else, she wanted a future where everybody within her reach kept smiling.
“To that end, I wish to know the world.”
She didn’t want to know everything the world had to offer. She wanted to learn her own worth. To see all the ways in which she could act, and to know the world that surrounded her. The world available to her just as a duke’s daughter was small. The fastest way she could think of to broaden that world was to get engaged into the royal family.
So she would use Roy. Even the limits that would be placed on her as someone bound to the royal family would be convenient for her as someone who cannot even protect herself by herself.
At Lydia’s determined eyes, Roy blinks and smiles broadly.
“Why, Lady Lydia is so dignified.”
“Please don’t talk like Zac…”
He used a word more geared towards women, but that sentence was just like when the gardening apprentice boy would praise her, calling her cool. She didn’t feel praised and her eyes became half-lidded. He and Roy were alike in strange ways.
(TN: The Japanese word that’s conventionally translated as cool is usually used for men though it can be used for women.)
Though unlike him, Roy apologized right away.
“Then our negotiations are complete. I look forward to our partnership, fiancee.”
Roy stands up from his seat, walks over and extends his hand to Lydia.
Lydia also stands and shakes his hand.
“Please take care of me. Roy-sama.”
Aah, and furthermore, Roy adds.
“Of course, we’ll call it off once either of us meets someone we want. So once that happens let’s not hide it from each other.”
“Understood… is there any such person for Roy-sama?”
Lydia asks because he spoke with the premise that such a person would come. Roy’s smile deepens.
“I don’t know yet.”
“Excuse me?”
“I have yet to meet her after all.”
As if meeting each other has been set in stone. Not knowing where his confidence came from, Lydia tilted her head. Roy only smiled back. It looked like he didn’t want to elaborate.
Then Roy brings up a certain possibility.
“Yours might come before mine.”
“I…”
Lydia could neither confirm nor deny his words. She couldn’t speak at all. What on earth was caught in her throat?
For a second she struggles to answer while Roy stifles his laughter. When she hears that and looks at him, he’s laughing.
“Roy-sama?”
“No… I realized that neither of us have our eyes on the other. It’s a bit funny…”
Lydia notices it too. They haven’t even considered the possibility of falling in love with each other at all in their talks about engagement.
Of course she didn’t hate him. She thought well of him, but that was only as friends.
“That’s true, now that you say it.”
It’s somewhat funny once she realizes. To be engaged with someone you’ll never fall in love with. Lydia’s humor rises until she’s laughing with him.
After sharing a laugh, they look at each other.
“I like you, Roy-sama.”
“I like you too, Lady Lydia.”
A smooth declaration taken without hesitation.
They could never fall in love with one another, which is exactly why they’ll never hate one another.
A corner of Lydia’s mind thinks that she’s just made a big decision. But curiously, she doesn’t think it’s a big deal that he’s the one she’s conspiring with.
Would she ever regret this decision?
She shakes away that thought.
Lydia has a premonition close to confidence that she wouldn’t regret this, but be proud of it.
The year closes. She and Roy formally announce their engagement at a new years’ party.
A few days later, Lydia is taking a walk in her mansion’s garden. There were many people at the party who made noise at the announcement of their engagement. Compared to that, her garden is quiet enough to make that all feel like a lie.
Only her own sounds resound in the winter garden.
She travels a path she’s not used to. Before she noticed she’d become able to reach her destination on her own. Maybe this could also be considered growth, Lydia entertains herself with her thoughts.
Just like the person who’d usually guide her there, Lydia unconsciously starts humming.
Then she sees the hedge, puts on her mantle with a hood and crawls underneath it.
The world she sees on the other side is filled with blooming Western Ivies coiling around a fountain and bathing in sunlight. The ivies don’t directly extend onto the fountain. Instead, there is a perimeter made from shrubs that surrounds them. Their roots entwine themselves around that perimeter.
(TN: You might not find any google results for western ivy. In the raws, it’s ????; the first half translates to western and the second to Japanese Ivy. You can imagine my confusion. I’m just assuming it’s fictional.)
The person who’s been taking care of and arranging this fountain is squatting by its side, working.
“Oh? Ojou.”
Once she looks at him, the gardening apprentice boy notices her and raises his head. There’s dirt on his cheeks. Maybe he wiped his sweat off there with his dirty gloves.
Lydia smiled at that. He didn’t seem to notice it.
“It’s not even finished yet.”
He mutters, disappointed that he couldn’t show it to her finished. Lydia walks over to him and looks at what he was working on.
“A rabbit?”
There was a rabbit with white fur made from Annual Marguerites and red eyes made from Kalanchoe.
“Don’t you think this’ll last longer than a snow bunny?”
There was only one rabbit situataed at the edge of the fountain looking outwards, but he did mention that he wasn’t finished so there might be more in the future.
“It’s cute.”
As if he didn’t have any coinfidence in his artistic taste, the gardening apprentice breathed a sigh of relief once Lydia told him her opinion.
Last year, she got sad that her snow bunny melted. Her father, Gerald even used magic to keep it in one piece. He probably based this off of that. He was kind enough to remember every little thing into the future. That kindness filled Lydia’s heart with warmth.
“I’d like to show it to Flora too once it’s done.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
She said that her little sister might like it, and he gave the okay. Lydia has another thing to look forward to in the near future.
He’s about to go back to work but Lydia stops him.
“Zac.”
“What is it?”
The gardening apprentice boy looks at her, confused and waits for her next words.
Lydia takes a breath of cold air and tells him.
“There’s no need to dance with me anymore.”
“Huh?”
“I’m engaged with Roy-sama.”
She somehow feels as if her heart got colder from the air she breathed in. Even though she’s just informing him.
The boy widens his copper eyes and seems to understand after a beat.
“Should I say congratulations?”
He anxiously asks and she smiles. Is he worrying about whether or not she really wants this? He really prioritizes her too much.
“I don’t know.”
“Huh?”
“Because I like Roy-sama, but I don’t.”
He’s like a prince from one of her beloved picture books. He’s also the best partner for the Ernst house. Why doesn’t she like him?
She doesn’t know, but there’s no helping it because that’s just how it really is.
The boy seems to think for a second.
“…You don’t dislike it, do you?”
He asks one last time, and Lydia smiles cheerfully.
“It’s something I’ve decided on.”
“I see. Ojou is so cool.”
He didn’t say whether it’s good or bad. He just gave his best compliment. She looks at him quietly smiling and feels that he really has grown up a bit.
“I’m not happy about that.”
“But I praised you.”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
She deliberately got miffed at him, and he responded with a proud smile. That smile makes her want to become someone he can be proud of.
“Would you give me one last dance?”
Lydia softly raises her hand. The gardening apprentice boy understands, pockets his gloves and takes that hand respectfully.
“Gladly.”
They both hum the tune of the Waltz and dance around the fountain.
Lydia will always straighten her back.
Because he gave her his finest compliment before anyone else.
No matter what comes in the future, she’ll look forward with a straight back.
TN: This marks the end of volume 2