Summer Vacation Second Half – Q of Hearts (Part 4)

Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.

In Japan, just being older raises your status. For two normal people in a non-job context, the older will be the superior simply by merit of age.

In Japan, each school/university has it’s own exam. You can roughly know how difficult a certain school’s exam will be, especially the high ranked schools, and because sometimes the dates overlap, people have to choose their exams carefully, usually with advice from teachers on what their grades/abilities will realistically get them into. However, some people still take exams to hard places just because they have nothing to lose; 記念受験(kinen juken, ‘memento exam’/’commemoration exam’).

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Since then, it seems that Claire’s condition has been gradually recovering. It doesn’t seem that she’s about to say anything yet though.
I hear that the earl is lively as usual. Even though he’s stuck in a cell, there are no signs of him thinning.

Oh, right right. I should go visit the Q of Clovers while it’s still summer break.
I straddled the quill, and visited the Jade family’s villa.

“Is Aurelia in?”

The maid who received me with a surprised look flusteredly went to call for Aurelia.

“Ah-, the little miss from that time. You’re gettin’ married to Achille, aren’t ya?”

“Right! Thanks for that! …There’s a little something I want to talk to you about, but can we speak alone?”

“Talk to me? Ya don’t ‘afta worry; I’m not gunna make eyes at your fiancé yanno?”

“That’s not it…”

I pulled Aurelia outside into the villa’s garden.

“Aurelia, I might be asking something strange all of a sudden, but… could it be, aren’t you actually from another world?”

“Eh-…”

I worried about revealing my true self by talking to Aurelia about this, but decided to put it into action. I felt that if it was Aurelia who was a commoner and the young daughter of a doctor, it would be okay.

“Before you came here, didn’t you live another life? Didn’t you suddenly get moved to this body?”

“…Why do… ya know…?”

Aurelia looked at me with shock on her face.
The fact that she doesn’t know my face nor Achille’s means that she might be the same as Mei, and doesn’t have knowledge of the game.

“Because I also, lived in another world.”

“Eehh-!”

“I was a high school girl before.”

“…I suuure didn’t think that I’d ‘ear a word like ‘high school girl’ in this world.”

Aurelia narrowed her eyes in nostalgia. She might be thinking back on her old life.

“Really… I was also livin’ in a different place before. I look like this, but I ‘ad kids too.”

“Kids?”

“Right. I mean, in my old world, I was fifty-five yanno!”

“Fifty-five?”

“I divorced with my ‘usband, and I ‘ave experience of workin’ to raise my children by myself as well.”

It seems that Aurelia is a lot older than how she looks now. Because it seems that she’s quite my superior, I’m at a loss now as to whether it’s okay to speak to her casually.

“Then, your children?” [← polite]

If she suddenly disappeared, what would happen to her children…?

“It’s fine. They’ve already left the ‘ouse and are workin’.”

“I-, I see so that’s how it is.” ← monotone AND polite

“That’s no good. The daughter of a marquis’ family doesn’t need to watch her words with me!”

Aurelia burst out laughing, seemingly finding it ridiculous. Since she was kind enough to say that I didn’t have to use keigo with her, I decided to speak normally.

“Ah-, oh yeah. Aurelia, you took the entrance exam?”

According to what Beatrix said, she took the exam and failed.

“Aahh, that.”

Aurelia answered with a smile.

“It was one of those; a ‘memento exam’!”

“…”

Eh-, a memento exam?

“I wanted to see what kinda place an elite magic school was! I was thinkin’ that if I got in by some mistake I’d attend, but as you’d expect I failed.”

“Ehhhhh-…”

I felt exhausted. You went to school for a reason like that? It seems that it wasn’t anything to do with the love interest characters.
What’s left is… I have to make sure to find out if she has knowledge of the game.

“You knew about the magic academy?”

“It was famous after all.”

“…Umm, do you recognise my face?”

If she’s played that game, then there’s no way that she wouldn’t know about that nasty slut Camille.

“Mn? I’ve met with ya once before, right? At Déborah’s wedding reception.”

“…Did you ever play an otome game in your old world?”

“Maiden? Game? My daughter played all sorts of games, but… I’ve never played played it before.”

So she really doesn’t know about the game, huh?

“Ahh, but I’m happy. To find someone else who also has ‘memories’ like me in this world where noone knows about my birthplace sure is a good thing.”

Aurelia’s mouth spread in a wide grin, and for a while looked like she was thinking about something.

“Today I came to thank you for the other day, but I wanted to ask you about that as well… Well then, I’ll be going before Achille finds me, okay?”

I handed over my thank you present to Aurelia before straddling my quill.
Today I came to talk to the maids without an appointment, but it’s probably already been revealed by that sharp-eared Achille. I’ve gotta run before I suffer another lecture.

“Ah-, wait a bit.”

Suddenly, Aurelia called out to me.

“Mn, what’s up?”

“It’s nothing but a rumour but right now you’re a noble ojousama aren’t ya? That’s why I was thinkin’ of givin’ ya a little warnin’…”

“Warning?”

After shifting her gaze to confirm that no one was around, Aurelia told me in a quiet voice.

“Lately, the number of commoners with anti-noble sentiments has been increasing ya see, and one of the radical groups is even beginning to move it seems. Not that long ago, a person who got wrapped up in that and injured was carried into our clinic, ya see.”

“Anti-noble sentiment?”

“Yea. “An institution that does nothing but ignoring the circumstances of the commoners, and fighting amongst themselves is unnecessary” they say.”

I paled.
It’s a line that I’m familiar with after all.

“…The revolution, end.”

Living this all too peaceful lifestyle, I got too wrapped up in my own business and carelessly forgot. Forgot the existence of that ending.
I was thinking that I’d avoided the social obliteration end, and the coup d’etat end, and the war end didn’t seem likely either, so… Because this world was moving in a completely different way than the game, I ended up underrating the concern that these presented.
This world is a reality different from the world of that game, but it has the elements needed for incidents in the game to occur… All it was was that we didn’t take the actions necessary for them to happen.

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Dominique Jade
The Jade family’s eldest son. Sweet tooth. Weights 0.1 tons.
Because he was raised being spoilt, he’s a selfish young master who acts high and mighty with the weak.
He hates his younger brother who is better than him. The only thing he wins in is borrowing the power of his position, and curses him as a “Damned illegitimate child!”.
He himself is aware of the complexes that underly his behaviour… but he can’t stop himself.
Actually possesses a glass heart.

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TL note: I still haven’t solified Aurelia’s ‘accent’ yet. Once I’ve hammered it out, I’ll go back and edit all her dialogue.

 

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