5 Years Old – Q of Hearts (Part 1)

“…How weeeeird~”

I turned five. In other words, two years have passed since then.
But despite that, I still haven’t woken up from my dream.
Since it can’t be helped, I’ve been continually enjoying and experiencing this world. At the end of the day, it’s a place like the country of magic that I’ve longed for.
It’s a dream, so no time will have passed when I wake up… right…?

Camille’s father’s, the Marquis Rhodolite’s, love for magic has been growing more intense, and he’s been working at his current job.
But because he’s a genius, he pays no attention to things outside his interests(magic).
I can understand the feeling of being uninterested in what doesn’t interest you, but… it’s a situation where he really is neglecting the matters of his household.
It seems his daughter Camille had a lonely childhood.

Up until now he’s been immersing himself in his beloved magic, and was a marquis who was completely ignoring his family and was unqualified as a father, but lately his daughter has started to show interest in magic, so he occasionally comes home.
Their parent-child relationship has been changing for the better… At least that’s the rumour that’s been whispered amongst the servants lately.

Now, when the marquis isn’t busy with his job, he teaches magic to his daughter Camille.
It’s one of the few times that the parent and child come into contact with each other.
As for things unrelated to magic, he’s still the same as ever, though…
Rather than being indifferent to his daughter, it feels more like he doesn’t know how he’s supposed to deal with things outside of magic.
When he actually does teach magic, he’s a very kind father. He’s probably a clumsy person.
By the way, when he’s busy with his jobs as the marquis, he even sends his subordinates to the estate to teach magic.
Despite being five, I’m receiving a gifted education.
Fortunately it seems that I’ve inherited my father’s ability in magic.
As expected of my dream; the setting is really convenient.

Now then, today I’ll be asking a question that I’ve been wondering about for a while now.

“Father[/Otousama], is there a magic for straddling a broom to fly, or a magic for riding a broom to fly, or a magic for hanging off a broom to fly?”

“It’s all brooms, huh… There’s magic to fly… but, why brooms?”

It seems that even the idea of flying on a broom doesn’t exist in this world.
Speaking of which, even in games there’s nothing but cool spells for attack and defence, huh. Is it a matter of appearance?

“Wouldn’t flying on a broom be cool?”

“That’s an amusing way of thinking, isn’t it? …If you used a spell that made things float, you could probably do it… But… doesn’t a broom look too shabby?”

My father answers even my foolish questions seriously, so I love him.

“I’m shocked by your growth in magic, Camille. As expected of my daughter.”

At this rate, won’t I be able to go to a magic school like the protagonist of that certain film?
●●●warts, I’m always ready for your invitation.

＊

“Camille-sama, it’s about time to get down.”

In one corner of the marquis residence, father’s subordinate Viscount Soleil Jade, called out for me from below.
With long, light blue hair and a gentle demeanour, he’s a man of about father’s age.
With a kind looking face, and a slim figure, though it isn’t as much as father, he’s my type. Guhehe.

Soleil teaches me magic when father is busy, and acts as my private tutor(magic coach).
Right now I’m taking his class, and in the middle of flying above the estate on a broom.
Thanks to father and Soleil, I’m able to fly quite stably.
Even when I’m by myself, I straddle my broom and fly about the garden.
Once I went outside the estate, but father got angry at me super seriously.
I guess it can’t be helped that as a five year old, my actions are limited, huh…

“Okay, I’m coming downnn!”

The broom slowly descended, and I landed on the ground.

“Still, you’ve really been thinking, haven’t you? Using a broom as a intermediary makes it easy to handle, and most importantly, you can fly quickly while stable, huh.”

The one who came up with it wasn’t me though~

For a five year old, I’m picking up magic exceptionally quickly.
Besides flying in the sky, I can create a light or fire, and I can blow leaves with wind.
If I put these to use, it feels like I can do even more. It’s incredibly interesting.

Soleil who was looking at the little me with eyes narrowed in affection has a son about my age.

“He’s a really intelligent kid, you know?” he always brags.

He’s a stupidly doting parent, but the way he is is very heartwarming.

“Is he that cute a kid? It sounds like he’d be a pleasure to meet~”

He’s probably like Soleil, huh~

“It’d be nice if I could show him to you. I’ll ask Marquis-sama.”

※

Soleil who had taken my half lip service “It sounds like he’d be a pleasure to meet~” seriously, had decided together with my father to let their children meet.
And so, today I’m at their workplace… I came to the royal castle.

I found out after I asked father about it later, but Soleil’s second son who I’m meeting today is actually the child of his mistress.
Geez, Soleil. Even though you have such a harmless looking face, you sure get busy, huh!
Right now he’s taken custody of that son from the mistress, and is raising him at his house though.
Since it’s Soleil, I think it’ll be fine, but it often happens that the son of a mistress feels ashamed, something like a template in stories, huh? I’m a little worried about that kid.

If I remember correctly, there was a character like that in the game too, huh~
A character who used his past of being oppressed as the son of a mistress, as mental fuel to climb up in the world, and was attending the same school as the heroine, as the right hand man of one of the love interests.
In the game, the heroine accepted that character’s past, and through consolation, a friendship budded between the two of them.
And then following the orders of the K of Hearts, he was the ringleader behind annihilating the Q of Hearts(right now, me).
It was horrible treatment, enough that you could say to him, “You didn’t have to go that far.”
The players who enjoyed the game through the heroine’s perspective were all cheering “Nicely done!” though…

But well, that has nothing, nothing~, to do with me, though~♪ …Probably.
I’ll probably wake up from this dream before that.

I entered the break room that my father uses during work.
A job being a job, the workplace isn’t somewhere a child can just wander about randomly.
Mn, I understand! I won’t do something so childish! I have the intellect of an adult, after all! (Even if my brains are chu2)

But I’m curious about what kind of job involves magic…
When I stealthily peeked outside the room, I saw some people who looked like magicians working at the castle.
Everyone’s walking around busily, but unfortunately they don’t seem to be using magic.
Perhaps it’s a magician’s uniform, but everybody is wearing a sleeveless robe thing.
The colours are varied, and at a glance, there seem to be three types; black, red and blue.

I’m curious about the clothing too, but what I’m even more curious about is that they have something like a tattoo running from their face to their arms.
In fact, my father the marquis has tattoos on his arm and back as well.
I accidentally saw them when he was changing. Let me just say that I was definitely not peeking!
At that time, I was like, ‘whoa, you sure can’t judge people by their looks‘… and backed away a little, but perhaps a magician is an occupation that requires tattoos. I’ll ask him next time!

And while all this was happening, father and Soleil brought a small boy into the room.
He has caramel brown hair and cobalt blue eyes, and is a bishounen with an insanely beautiful face. His kind features are a little bit similar to Soleil.
He’s dressed in navy blue clothes for going out, in the style of a young noble boy, and it suits him quite well.
And my clothes are similar; grape-coloured going out clothes for the daughter of a rich family[/an ojousama].
Reflecting my tastes, it’s a design with not too many frills, and is neat and cut knee-length.

Soleil pushed the boy forward.

“This is my son, Achille, the same age as you, Camille-sama.”

The boy met eyes with me and smiled.
But it seems that it wasn’t a smile from the heart.
It kind of feels like the kid in front of me is interested in my reaction. Even though he’s a little brat, he’s evaluating me? How cheeky…

“It is nice to meet you, Camille-sama. My name is Achille Jade.”

Ahh… I know those eyes…
They’re the eyes of a person who behaves with confidence that he has the good will of females.
Outrageously, an arrogance, of not believing there to be the slightest chance that a person of the opposite sex would hate him, is just barely hidden.

And right now he’s dealing with me in a way that he’s calculated to be the most attractive to me.
A little five year old girl with no resistance would probably be bewitched.
However, I can see through him. After all, there were men like this around me in the world outside of this dream as well.

Handsome men who were not only aware of their own facial skills while approaching you full of confidence, but egocentric as well.
They’d thoughtlessly call out to me, who was a not bad looking girl, and on top of that, treated me like a sitting duck; one in a line of convenient women who they could use to keep up their reputation.
For some reason I would often get approached condescendingly by flashy-looking, handsome boys.
But because I’m that on the inside, let me state that if they made me accompany them, I’d have suffered quite a bit.
To begin with, the moment they tried to pick me up as a candidate for casually playing around with, it was already compleeetely out of the question.
I’ll refrain from such fruitless relationships.

But still, this Achille boy… For him to be able to use his appearance to maximum effectiveness as a kid… He’s not going to grow up to be a decent adult you know!
However, I won’t be done in by the likes of a kid. Don’t look down on not-bad-looking high school girls!
Hmph!
And so, I got worked up about a five year old child.
Of course, I didn’t say any of this aloud.
Well, he’s still a five year old child, and the fact that he’s been seen through by the likes of a faker like me is kind of cute, though.

“It’s nice to meet you. My name is Camille Rhodolite.”

I pinched my skirt, and did a little curtsy.
However, I decided not to use the pretty face I have in this dream.
It’s a bother, and to begin with, I can’t do something so skilful.

“She’s an extremely lovely girl[/personage], isn’t she, father[/Otousama]?”

Achille looked up at Soleil and spoke. Soleil looked at his son fawningly.

“We’re going out for work, so please play together in this room.”

That’s right. Today was a day that Soleil was working, to say nothing of father who holds a supervisory position here.
He should be busy today as well.
Father and Soleil left the room side by side. Only me and this precocious brat were left in the room…

※

Being left in the room with only Achille, I was troubled.
In these situations, what am I supposed to talk about? …Honestly speaking, I’m bad with children.
Perhaps because he noticed I was fidgeting, Achille called out to me.
What are you gunna do if you make a five year old child be considerate for you, Me!?

“I have heard from my father that you are skilled in magic, Camille-sama. That you have already progressed to intermediate magic, for example…”

Achille talked to me with that affected smile from before.
He’s unnecessarily close, huh. As expected of a precocious brat.

“Just Camille is fine. I mean we are the same age for once, and I’m not going to kick up a fuss about your manners, so don’t worry about it…”

It’s a pain, so I asked to stop with the keigo.
I wonder if I’m acting unbefittingly for a lady.
But I don’t wanna be stiff and formal with a kid, and it’s just the two of us anyway, so it should be fine.

“I heard from Soleil that you’re really smart, Achille. Do you like studying?”

Achille looked a little troubled, but seemingly accepting my proposal, he immediately changed to an informal tone.

“Yeah, I basically do nothing but study. I was told not to come out of my room too much, so…”

As expected, it seems that as the child of a mistress, he can’t be too bold in doing what he wants.
Going out today might be an exception amongst exceptions.
If that’s the case, I want him to be able to enjoy himself a little…

I suddenly caught eye of a few brooms for cleaning in the corner of the room, and my worthless head came up with a stupid idea.

“Since it’s been so long since you’ve been allowed outside, wanna go all out and play?”

“Eh…?”

I straddled a broom, and beckoned for Achille to come over.
It’s just the sky, so they probably won’t blame us for anything, and even if they do find fault with me, we’re both children so it’ll probably end with just a light lecture.

Most importantly, it’s boring to just stay still in this room.
It feels like my mental age is steadily being pulled down to this body’s.

“Get on.”

I forced the bewildered Achille to sit behind me, and I kicked off the ground.
The broom lightly floated in the air, and moved towards the outside of the window. I could tell that Achille had caught his breath behind me.

The broom vigorously flew out the window. The speed is steadily increasing.

“Achille, hold onto the broom tightly!”

Unlike the marquis residence, the castle is wide so flying seems worthwhile.
You can see the Magician’s Building that my father works in below us. The Magician’s Building is something like a circular tower.
Behind the Magician’s Building, you can see lots of plants growing in the fields, and they seem to be growing medicinal herbs used for magic.

“Camille… Where are you planning on heading?”

Achille who had calmed down again called out to me.
Geez, it would have been nicer if he showed a more shocked expression. How uncute.
And even though I told him to hold onto the broom, why are his arms wrapped around my waist?

“Mn~, I haven’t decided. For now, maybe we should fly a wide lap around the castle.”

“I see. Then let’s try going near where the important people live. If we come too close it feels like we’ll be targeted by the people guarding, so let’s fly a little distance away, okay?”

“That sounds interesting… But just where is it?”

“Isn’t it further in?”

We headed towards where the living quarters for the important people seemed to be.

---

“It sounds like he’d be a pleasure to meet~” is actually “I want to meet him, huh.” except this is a very common phrase in Japanese. In Japanese, you’d recognise this as lip service, but in English it sounds like an actual request, so I had to make up something that sounded like lip service.

Soleil (soh-lei-yyh)
Achille (ah-shil)