Anoseka Volume 2 Chapter 2

This is MTL. So, I cannot guarantee that the translation 100% contextually accurate or appropriate.

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Chapter 2 "Count Offley"

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Part 1

Leon and the others were having a good time in Bartfalt territory.

In the girls' dormitory at the school, Olivia was sitting in her room with her knees on the bed.

The curtains are closed, and even though the sun is high outside, it is dark inside the room.

Olivia, with a blanket over her head, is shivering.

The room was much trashed.

This was because the girls who remained at the school trashed it when Olivia was not there.

No matter how many times she cleaned the room, whenever Olivia left the room, they would come back to trashed the room.

The room is supposed to be locked, but they are using a master key or something to break in.

She spoke to the teachers and the dorm manager several times, but they would not take her seriously because of her special position of being from a commoner background.

The reason for this is Olivia's background.

Originally, a school was a place to educate and train the children of nobles.

However, Olivia, a commoner, is allowed to enter such a place as a special student and study together with the children of the nobles —— it is not only the students who cannot accept this.

Some teachers also treated Olivia badly.

Although they don't do anything publicly, there is a part of them that overlooks the harassment of Olivia that the students do.

Olivia speaks to herself in a dark, trashed room.

"It's okay——I'm still okay——"

Olivia, muttering to herself, had dark circles under her eyes.

In her hand, she holds a letter from her hometown.

"My family is supporting me —— so I have to work very hard —— and if I fail, I will be sorry to everyone."

Seeing a letter from her hometown brings tears to her eyes and causes her to speak in dialect.

For now, this letter is the only emotional support for Olivia. (TLN: My heart aches)

The truth is, she wanted to go back to her hometown.

The reason she can't go back is simply that Olivia has no money.

A reasonable amount of money would be needed to return to her hometown on the airship.

It was not an amount that Olivia, who was from a commoner background, could easily afford.

Since she is a scholarship student, she does not have to pay any fees at the school.

However, the school does not even take care of the cost for her to return to her hometown.

That was the reason why she was spending her summer vacation at the school.

Olivia was prepared to not be able to return to her hometown for a while, and it was not a problem.

The problem is the situation.

——Originally, she had planned to use this summer vacation to spend her days immersed in the study so that she could keep up with the students around her as much as possible.

However, reality was ruthless to Olivia in every way.

Wiping away her tears, Olivia gets out of bed and stands up to clean up her room and study.

Then there was a knock at the door.

Knock-knock! The knocking sound is a little rough, causing her body to jolt.

"Hii."

She almost screams and puts her hand over her mouth, and a staff member calls out to her from behind the door.

That voice sounds slightly hateful.

"——Olivia-san, the Crown Prince is waiting for you in front of the student dormitory. Please get ready immediately."

Saying that, the staff member grumpily makes loud footsteps and leaves.

It must be unbearable for the teachers that the crown prince [Julius Rafa Horfalt] is so concerned about Olivia, a commoner.

Olivia just stopped crying a few minutes ago, but the tears are coming out again.

"Why won't he leave me alone? Why——"

Olivia, who spends her summer vacation at the school, is frequently visited by Julius and other young nobles.

But their actions were causing Olivia to suffer.

Seeing them visit her often, the girls become extraordinarily dissatisfied.

It's a problem for Olivia, too.

After all, the five frequently invited her to play with them, and Olivia was unable to find time to study.

While the sun is still up, there are few female students at the school, which is a precious time for Olivia to concentrate on her studies.

After evening, the girls return to the school.

When it happens, she cannot study because they bang on the door of Olivia's room and get into trouble when she comes out.

——Precious study time is taken away by five people.

"I wish I could study more."

She really wanted to decline the invitation.

But from Olivia's point of view, Julius' invitation cannot be refused.

She behaved rudely when they met, but now she knows that Julius is the crown prince.

As a commoner, she cannot refuse an invitation from the Crown Prince.

It's the same with the other princes.

From Olivia's perspective, they are all nobles —— individuals who are above the clouds.

Olivia has noticed that they are kind to her.

That said, if she gets along with the five of them, the girls at the school will now resent her for it.

Olivia had fallen into a vicious cycle during her summer vacation.

"What should I do? What should I do?"

She wishes she could honestly say it was annoying, but if she did, Olivia would have no place to go.

The other party is the crown prince, His Highness Julius —— the next king of this country.

She won't know what will happen not only to herself but also to her family back home.

Olivia stands up and wipes away her tears as she prepares.

If Julius sees her crying when he meets her, he will worry.

It would have been better if she could have said that she was being harassed by the girls there.

But there is a reason she can't say it.

When Olivia left the room, two female students were waiting for her outside.

Behind them are also the exclusive servants who are well-built beastmen.

When Olivia turned her eyes in surprise, the two girls grinned at her, perhaps thinking she looked funny.

"I envy you commoner woman, you are so good at flirting."

"I wonder how His Highness Julius liked her?"

One of the girls comes up to Olivia, who is looking down and unable to say anything, and whispers in her ear.

"I heard that your hometown is a floating island in the outskirts of the kingdom. I hear it's just rural countryside?"

"Eh? A-Ano?"

"I looked it up. You know, I thought it would be a good idea to let you know that we know your hometown."

How could the person in front of her know about her hometown?

As she was thinking that, the other girl said.

"I know I've warned you before, but don't you dare tattle on us to His Highness and the others. Or else——I could wipe your hometown off the map."

Olivia understands the meaning of those words and looks down as she imagines it.

Seeing Olivia nodding with a tremble, the two girls laugh and leave with their exclusive servants.

To the commoner, the nobles are —— military power.

Especially in the Kingdom of Horfalt and in this world, the nobles have flying battleships with cannons and weapons of war called armor.

Even if the commoners had taken up arms against them with farming tools and hunting rifles, they would have been no match for them.

Olivia learned when she came to the school —— that nobles are absolute rulers.

Even though there were nobles in the countryside, they were only dispatched as magistrates.

These magistrates will be replaced in a few years.

When she was in the countryside, she was not that conscious of it, but now that she came to the school —— to the royal capital and saw the greatness of military power, the nobles seemed more frightening to Olivia.

"If I don't endure, everyone back home —— will be killed."

Olivia was clutching the hem of her skirt and desperately trying to stop crying.

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Part 2

As the end of the summer holidays approaches.

[Kara Fou Wayne], a member of the regular class at the school, was spending her summer vacation at the Offley family estate instead of returning to her parents' home.

Kara, with long dark blue hair, is dressed in a frilly shirt and long skirt.

Not too flashy, but not too poorly dressed either.

As a follower of Count Offley [Stephanie Fou Offley], she has been told to dress in a way that will not embarrass her.

The two of them were walking through the corridors of the luxuriously built mansion.

Stephanie is walking in front of Kara.

She has been in a very bad mood since this morning.

"It's so disgusting to have shitty brother show his face at breakfast. He usually wakes up during the daytime, but today is the only time he shows his face, is it harassment?"

Stephanie had an older brother who was the heir.

However, the relationship between the siblings is the worst.

Stephanie, the younger sister, hated her older brother [Ricky Fou Offley].

He is over 30 years old.

He has a mushroom-cut hairstyle and a very plump figure.

The reason for the age difference between him and Stephanie is that Ricky is the child of a previous wife and Stephanie is the child of a later wife.

The fact that they have different mothers is another reason for poor sibling relationships.

But most of all, it's Ricky's personality.

In front of the strong, he is quiet, but when he deals with the weak —— especially the poor, he looks down on them and makes fun of them.

He likes to bully the weak and was said to have caused many problems while at the school.

Although he was such a problem child, it seems that he used the power of money to cover up his many problems.

In addition, after graduating from the school, he holed up in the mansion and never really worked, which only made him fat.

Ricky was the worst of the worst, both inside and out.

From Kara's point of view, he is a despicable person, but when it comes to the heir of her parents' master, she has no choice but to laugh and agree with Stephanie, choosing her words with a wry smile.

"Ricky-sama is troubled, as well, isn't he?"

(The cruelty inside is the same as you, though.)

The reason she spoke ill in her mind is because Stephanie is as bad a person as Ricky is.

In the first semester, it was Stephanie who tried to use the sky pirates to get Marie out of the school.

Because of that memory, Kara was terrified of Stephanie.

Since she cannot disobey, she cannot return to her parents' home and obey her obediently.

(But why can't I be the only one to go home for the entire summer vacation? It's not fair that all the other kids are returning to their parents' homes.)

For whatever reason, Stephanie kept Kara by her side.

Her parents were pleased with the carefree letter, saying that "their daughter was liked by the young lady".

Unaware of Kara's feelings, Stephanie verbally abuses her older brother.

"I wish he would just die. I'm sure Otou-sama will be able to find a replacement for him in no time."

The Offley family consists of four people, parents and a brother, and sister.

Stephanie was, in a manner of speaking, saying that "the head of the family has an illegitimate male child other than the heir."

Kara breaks into a cold sweat.

(Don't blabber such secrets in front of me!)

Perhaps she was relaxed after returning to her parents' house, but Stephanie was increasingly speaking out about her secret in front of Kara.

——Kara had not thought deeply about the meaning of this.

Part of the reason was that she had no time to spare, but another reason may have been that she was less interested in Stephanie personally.

Stephanie is irritated.

"He's over 30 years old, can't get married, and is living lazily in the mansion, I'm so embarrassed. He's a disgrace to the Offley family. Kara, you think so too, don't you?"

Kara is asked for her agreement, but in her position as a follower, she does not want to go that far in making a statement. She tries to let it slide softly, but her attitude suddenly changes when she sees Stephanie's face.

"No, not that far——N-No, I think so!"

"Right. It's very embarrassing for me, and it makes me angry just to be told that we're family. Why doesn't he just get married."

Stephanie has a valid point, but the Offley family has special circumstances.

Ricky himself has not been able to marry because of his personality, but the biggest reason is that the Offley family is a family of upstarts.

A merchant spotted the fallen Offley family and took it over almost as if to usurp it, and this is the Offley family today.

It is an inelegant family that has built itself up using methods that the kingdom's aristocrats despise.

There are no nobles willingly associated with such an Offley family.

But Kara's position is not strong enough to point this out.

"If Ricky-sama had at least been a little more decent, he could have gotten married."

She wanted to settle this issue as a problem using the person in question.

But Stephanie looked otherwise.

"Because of my family's situation, it's not easy for him to get married. But I've often thought, If only he were a little more decent. It's embarrassing just to be with him."

Seeing Stephanie biting her thumbnail in frustration, Kara gently turns away.

(I said, don't talk to me about that! I'm having a hard time responding!)

As Kara was at a loss for a response, Stephanie suddenly looked as if she had come up with something.

She smiles wickedly and asks Kara for her opinion.

"Marriage——come to think of it, there was a house that could easily fall over with money, right? Don't you think it's good too?"

Kara had a quick guess as to what Stephanie was going to say.

After all, it was she who investigated the house that could easily fall into the money.

"But they're in huge debt."

Stephanie seems pleased with Kara's perceptive response.

"It's okay. If that shit brother is going to get married, it will take a lot of weight off Otou-sama's shoulders. He won't like the debt, but I'll persuade him. ——Besides, they're nobles, even if they're rotten. There are plenty of ways to use them."

What are you going to do after the marriage? ——No doubt she is thinking of something bad.

Kara confirms in a cold sweat.

"Then, Ricky-sama's partner would be——"

Stephanie says with a smile, the corner of her mouth turning up.

"——Of course it's her. She's the perfect match for shitty brother. Plus, it's a good way to pay back Bartfalt."

As Kara is thinking, "This is getting troublesome," the person who is the topic of conversation walks up to them.

As soon as he saw Kara and Stephanie, he came up to them and looked down on them.

"Stephanie, are you still taking your poor pet around with you today? Are you having fun playing friend?"

Stephanie, who had turned her head away, glared at Ricky.

"It's none of your business."

Ricky seems to be enjoying watching Stephanie get angry, and he doesn't stop teasing her.

"Oh~ I'm scared. If you have such a personality, you won't be able to make friends forever~"

"Shut up, you bastard piece of garbage!"

Watching the unfriendly sibling quarrel, Kara was waiting for the time to pass, turning her head down behind Stephanie, hoping that it would be over soon.