Here’s another chapter. This one was somewhat shorter. Enjoy!

 

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Such a lifestyle continued throughout the week. Lilia learned many things from Sakura. Naturally, not everything could be learned in just the span of a week. It was just that, staying absent from school for any longer would be bad. From now on, she would plan to continue her studies in the few moments she can spare in the morning and night before turning in.
Lilia got dressed in her school uniform for the first time in a while. It was a sailor uniform based in white.

—I’ve been wondering since before, but since when have these uniforms existed from?

“According to the history, these uniforms have been the tradition here for over a hundred years.”

—Hmmm… So that means there has probably been people other than me before huh…

Lilia frowned at Sakura’s words. She seemed to be implying that there have been existences similar to Sakura that have appeared in the past. In fact, it was impossible to completely deny that such beings have existed in the past before.
After all, Lilia couldn’t even confirm Sakura’s own existence.
After getting changed, Lilia headed off towards the dining room for breakfast.

In the dining room, the rest of the family had already gathered. They turned their gazes to Lilia as she entered, and seeing her in her uniform, their eyes widened in surprise. Feeling ever so slightly pleased at garnering such a reaction, Lilia took her seat at the table.

“Lilia. You’re going to school?”

The one who asked was her father. Lilia answered with a nod.

“Yes. I’ll be heading to the dorms today. I apologise for the worry I’ve caused.”

As Lilia said so lowering her head, her father’s mouth fell open, completely stupefied. While she was questioning in her mind if such a thing was really that unthinkably surprising, she noticed Sakura snickering away and her head flared up a little.

“But being so sudden the preparations for a coach to get there is…”

“Please rest assured. It would not do for me to trouble Father for such things, so I have already had them prepared. Though the ones who actually carried everything out were Alisa and the servants…”

“I–is that so… But at least giving a report would be… No, I suppose that’s fine but…”

Her father’s shoulders fell. All of his normal air of authority leaving his figure. While thinking what a strange sight it was, the food was laid out on the table and she didn’t give it any further thought.

“Well then, let’s dig in. Before that… Klaus! Put away those papers already!”

At her father’s exclamation, Klaus only gave a small shrug. Beside Lilia, though there was actually quite a distance between them, looking at her elder brother – he had been intently reading through some sort of documents the whole time.

“Klaus!”

Lilia’s father shouted angrily once again. Her brother only gave a slight glance, and with a small click of his tongue put away his papers. Thinking her father would show some reaction to the rude tongue click, it seems that it did not actually reach his ears. As if it had nothing to do with her, Lilia thought about how noisy these people were right from the morning.

“Well then… Let’s eat.”

Completing their before meal prayer, Lilia reached out and took a piece of the bread laid before her.

During breakfast, Sakura was in a great mood. Now that she knew that Lilia was the type to listen, she was humming all the time. It wasn’t as if the humming was completely tone deaf and grinding on the ears, so Lilia didn’t pay much attention to that part. But she was questioning why Sakura was so happy.

—Tasty food.

It was a short but easy to understand answer. With their senses shared, it seems that whenever Lilia ate delicious tasting food Sakura would also feel great and become happy.
Thinking those carefree thoughts, it suddenly happened.

“Klaus! That’s enough!”

Once again Lilia’s father shouted angrily. Thinking that they were such noisy people, she turned to look towards her elder brother. He once again had those documents in his hands, with wrinkles between his eyebrows.

“How many times do I have to tell you to at least stop working during mealtimes!”

“I must say, Father. These are things I must urgently take care of. If what these documents show is true, that person is improperly using our family’s finances. Shouldn’t the meal wait until after such a thing.”

“But it should not become a problem during just one mealtime.”

“That is naive, Father. Regarding improper actions, we should take care of such matters with haste.”

It was about making an example out of it as a warning to others.
At her brother’s concluding words, her father made a grimace. It seems that the father and son had different ways of thinking.

—Well it has nothing to do with me after all.

—Lilia. You won’t stop them?

—Oh my. Should I be? If you say so, Sakura, I’ll give it a try.

Even though she asked so, Sakura’s answer was obvious. If Sakura judged that she should stop them here, Lilia would have received such instructions before she had to ask to confirm for herself.

—I won’t say that. Even if you did speak up, they would probably just tell you that women should stay out of it or something.

—That’s right huh. It’s easy to imagine what would happen.

—Yep. We’ll just continue our preparations for school. And after that’s finished we’ll study as much as we can.

—Yeah yeah.

Lilia glanced at her father and brother, before changing her gaze to her mother. Noticing Lilia’s gaze, her mother gave a wry smile as she understood Lilia’s intention and nodded. Giving a light bow towards her mother, Lilia got up from her seat. The duo engaged in their oral combat remained oblivious.

“Elder Sister. I will go as well.”

Her younger brother Theo timidly held on to Lilia’s sleeve. As she frowned ever so slightly, with a warning from Sakura, Lilia hurriedly plastered a smile on her face. Even she herself believed that her artificial smile had improved over this one week.

“Alright then. Shall we head off?”

“Yes.”

Theo also left his seat, and on their way to the door the documents on the table came into view.

—Gosh… Aren’t the problems here on a different level than what they’re arguing about.

Expenses, and their sources, were the things written on the documents. The entries had bad spacing and were hard to distinguish, rendering the contents to be quite complicated to look at. It was like the thing was just asking for miscalculations to happen.
In fact, the one who made this document and her brother who confirmed it were both mistaken and at fault here.
Since it couldn’t be helped, Lilia let out a small sigh, and opened her mouth to speak.

“Elder Brother.” *TLN: Actually “Onii-sama”, but my style’s already set :(

“What is it. Women should stay out of this alright.”

At the abrupt disregarding attitude Lilia reflexively knit her eyebrows. Her father also looked like he was uncomfortable with her brother’s words, so before he could raise an objection and she gets caught up in the argument as well she quickly gave an evasive response.

“As I am a busy person myself, I’ll just say one thing. Here, here, and here. The calculations are wrong.”

“What are you talking abou-…”

Her brother looked down at the documents. After falling silent for a while, his eyes went wide with shock.

“Well then, I will be taking my leave.”

Saying so Lilia lowered her head, and headed for the dining room door. Having no more interest in something like her father and brother’s quarrel, she took Theo along and just like that exited the room.

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