fluvia 83: Fluvia and Childhood Friends

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Chapter 83: Fluvia and Childhood Friends

While our Mother’s are cooing over Princess Alette out in the pavilion, we children are also taking in the sights of the rainy garden.

Since there’s the Voice of the Sky, our gardeners have taken it as a personal challenge to make a garden that is beautiful both in fair, rainy, and cold weather.

It’s amazing that there are flowers that actually only bloom in rain and snow, as well as flowers that only bloom in the moonlight.

It really makes me think … ah, this is a world of magic, after all.

Of course, I’m against constant replanting of flowers, so the gardeners have had to figure out innovative layouts to accommodate all the different faces of the garden, but I think it turned out nicely.

Since the garden isn’t so cram-packed with flowers and plants at any one time, due to the ones that are lying dormant waiting for a different type of weather condition, it doesn’t look too busy.

While I’m happily admiring a one-of-a-kind garden I could have never imagined owning in my previous life, and somewhat wistfully wishing my daughter could see it, Mattias, Minister Wynchestor’s son, broke the silence.

“… It must be nice that everyone has younger sisters.”

Oh my.

It’s rare that Mattias is sulking, while gazing at our mothers playing with Little Alette.

“Eh… but you’ll get a younger sibling too, soon.”

Brother says, leaning back in his chair and balancing it on its rear legs.

Hm… I should scold him for it, but I’ll do it later so as not to make him lose face in front of the other boys.

The two Princes are also looking at Mattias with some confusion.

Lady Priscilla is pregnant, after all.

Good going, Minister Winchestor – is what I won’t be directly telling them, but it seems like the strange, cold period of the Minister couple has fully ended.

The result being that the Minister of Magic’s household will be welcoming a new baby boy in four months.

“…Even if I’ll be getting a younger sibling, it seems it’s a boy.”

Heh… So it’s going to be a boy.

Magic is amazing, to be able to tell the gender in a world without ultrasounds.

But it seems like Young Sir Mattias is upset that he’s not getting a little sister instead?

He’s even looking visibly displeased for once, glaring enviously at Brother and the Princes.

I don’t really understand what kind of things make Mattias ‘serious’.

“ “Heeh…” “

Brother and Prince Anthony are in sync, completely missing why Mattias is upset.

“… However, it’s not like none of us have younger brothers,”

I finally say, since Prince Alex seems deadset against bringing it up.

“It’s not like it’s at all reassuring if Prince Anthony’s the example.”

… … ahem.

I choose to just quietly avert my eyes from the Princes’ small dismay.

Mattias, it’s one thing to tell that to Prince Anthony, but you’ve even given Prince Alex a bit of a shock.

Even he thought himself to be a decent younger brother, after all.

Before the atmosphere can get too awkward, I tilt my head and look upwards at Mattias.

“Although he’s not younger, I am happy to have a brother. Are you … not happy that you’ll be similar to me…?”

“That’s-.”

Mattias flushed a bit red and became a little flustered before begrudgingly muttering,

“-It’s not that I’m that upset about it.”

Victory~.

Although you might say it’s cheating to use feminine wiles while in the body of an 8-year-old, I’ll take what I can get.

It would be bad if he hated his younger brother, after all.

I’m sure a smart and observant boy like Mattias hasn’t overlooked the fact that this younger brother of his was made from his parent’s love, while he might have been produced more out of their feelings of duty.

And even if he hasn’t yet, I wonder if he will in the future.

For now, I hope to alleviate his jealousy even if only by a little.

It would be bad if he got completely fixated on me, though.

I don’t want any part of the otome game after all~ well, more like I’m an eternally 20-year-old woman inside, so I just can’t feel romanticly for kids.

… I’ll worry about it when it becomes a problem, I guess.

“…Actually, recently, I’ve been kind of thinking… aren’t girls kind of a pain? Although Fluvia and Alette are fine … actually, what if Alette grows up to be more like those girls instead of more like Fluvia…”

… What kinds of things is the First Prince saying, sounding like a worried father with a daughter going through puberty?

Before I had to ask,

“There have been a lot of people bringing their daughters along with them to the Palace lately. ‘I just wanted to show my daughter the Palace, would the Princes keep her company’ – just like that. Although I’m not Brother, I also find it somewhat tiresome. It gets in the way of our studies and our free time.”

Prince Alex said all of that with a bit of a melancholy sigh.

Although he doesn’t seem as irritated about it as Prince Anthony, it seems like the nobles bringing their daughters into the Palace have been obstructing the Royal Family’s daily life.

Hm… even though they’re the Royal Family, it’s not like they can just refuse, huh?

Since they have to worry about their relations with the nobles and all.

“If they were at least as interesting as Lady Fluvia then maybe it would be fine, but they can’t keep up with the conversation, and they just agree with whatever I say. It’s really a waste of time.”

Prince Anthony complained, but … well, you and Prince Alex are our country’s Princes.

Can you really expect young girls to keep up with the kinds of lessons you’re given?

Or more specifically, the girls who can keep up with your lessons are probably not the ones who’d be frivolously popping in and out of the Palace to try to catch the Prince’s eye.

They’d probably be studying.

Furthermore, although Prince Anthony and Prince Alex are only 8, they are 8-year-olds who are growing up right next to all the pomp and circumstance of the Royal Court.

I don’t think any normal girl would know what to do when hit with the aura that the Princes naturally give off.

Perhaps us children of Earls would be fine with dealing with that kind of pressure, since we grew up somewhat similarly, but… I highly doubt the Earls are desperate enough to ship their daughters to the Capital to catch the Prince’s attention.

Since an Earl’s child holds just as much prestige as the Crown’s child for the debut season.

Because of that, the children of the Earls are often as heavily sought after as the Prince.

Although that’s only true for the Debut Season.

The coming-of-age ceremony, called the Blossoming Ceremony, is a different matter altogether.

But right now, pairing your daughter off to the Prince for her Debut is just for prestige.

Well, it’s something Brother and I don’t have to worry about at all~.

Since we’re twins of different genders.

“So give me Fluvia! It’s not fair that only Fedor gets to escort someone he already knows!”

Prince Anthony said, banging his hands lightly on the table.

“Hmph! That’s just how things are – it’s tradition for boy-girl twins to escort each other, you know~?”

Brother lifts his hands cheekily while smirking at Prince Anthony.

Which of course irritated the First Prince.

“Tch. You… you’re just acting like that because you don’t know how terrible it is to have to be in this position!”

For some reason, Mattias is also nodding in agreement.

It seems like it’s quite tough for debuting children of high status.

Not that I would know.

“Ehh… no, I totally get it~. It seems troublesome~.”

… Brother is supposed to be a fat, bad noble, mob-type character, but somehow it seems like he’s going to be joining the other boys as the athletic and airheaded capture target.

Prince Anthony has become something like a really-smart-but-tsundere capture target, Prince Alex is the always-smiling-gently capture target, and Mattias is the can’t-tell-what-he’s-thinking capture target.

Although Prince Alex and Mattias’s traits overlap a little bit.

I wonder if Prince Alex was originally a capture target.

Even though he seems like he’d be one of the most eligible bachelors in Valed, he was also in direct contention with the main capture target (Prince Anthony), so it’s just as possible that Prince Alex was left as a background character to establish the First Prince’s setting.

Being an eligible bachelor doesn’t always equate to being a capture target, after all.

Not that it has anything to do with us~.

I mean, Brother wasn’t a capture target to begin with, and how an otome game portrays people is completely different from real life.

I definitely remember the CVs of Prince Anthony portraying him as a much more severe, wounded lion type, but I just can’t imagine this tsundere bundle of energy turning into that any time soon.

I feel like it’s a pity that I didn’t learn much more about the game.

Of course I don’t plan on playing our lives out according to the game.

It just adds a bit of fun to my life when I look around and try to guess what archetype the guys in my life are, while remembering that this is actually the world of an otome game, and comparing the two in my head.

I’ll lose a lot of things if I take the Yabukoi scenario seriously, but … I mean, it’s a pretty normal thing for girls to talk about what type of guy the boys they know are in compulsory education back in Japan.

Although it would definitely be nice if I had more girls to play with than just me imagining slightly rude things on my own…

Even these boys, the Princes and Mattias, are only sometimes around since we don’t live in the Capital.

Playdates just aren’t a thing in Valed.

It was something of a miracle for us to be acquainted with the Princes and Mattias at our age, too.

Even though Valed isn’t strict about nobles’ children appearing before their debut, it’s very rare for nobles’ children to visit others’ houses and engage in friendly outings.

But I don’t think Brother could have adjusted to be able to consider others’ feelings without his small rivalry with Prince Anthony and Mattias.

Hah-!

Is that why there are so many spoiled brat nobles?

Fumu.

I wonder if it will be possible to popularize playdates in Valed…

…. And while I’m off thinking about my own things, it seems Brother and Prince Anthony have been bickering all this while.

“I kind of feel sorry for the girls who have to keep you company, honestly.”

… Brother’s too brutally honest.

Although I also feel the same way, it’s more just pitying the girls who are being forced to go along with their fathers’ whims.

It would be better if Brother learned to explain what he says a little more, but I suppose that’s also one of his charms.

Eh? N-no, I don’t think I’m spoiling him … to much.

And of course Prince Anthony doesn’t take it that well.

“Hey! I’m the Prince, you know? It would be more of an honor if Fluvia was escorted by me than her brother, right Fluvia?”

“What! No way, you prefer to be escorted by me, right Sister?”

I really wish the two of you wouldn’t default to me when you’ve reached an impasse.

I tilted my head, placed a hand on my cheek, and smiled.

“Rather than my preferences, I don’t think it would be a good idea to switch Brother’s partner for the dance.”

“ “Ah…” “

Prince Alex and Mattias simultaneously made that small noise after I spoke up.

“It does seem like it would be difficult to find a Lady who could match with Lord Fedor’s physical prowess.”

“Yeah… if it’s not Fluvia, I think Fedor’s partner would just get dragged around and get all dizzy.”

Even if it’s true, you didn’t have to be so blunt about it.

… Well, these are my childhood friends.

Even if it’s regrettable that our group is mostly boys, it’s nice that the boys at the top of the country are able to have a somewhat decent childhood.

Being able to laugh, fight, and make up with others your age is important in childhood development, after all.

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<a/n:
I guess it can’t be helped that Fluvia’s a bit of an outsider in their group of friends; inside is a single mother watching over them, after all. >