Ch.296Side Story: The Final Preparations

In truth, there could have been other options besides specifically choosing one person. It’s not like I’d only be visiting my parents for that one day; there would be plenty of opportunities later.

I could have used disguise magic to change someone’s appearance, utilized the Necklace of Transformation created by Archmage Valera, or even borrowed one of Io’s artifacts.

More drastically, I could have called upon the power of celestial or demonic gods. If they could restore a human’s youth by reversing time by nearly decades, changing one’s appearance would be a simple task.

But my girlfriends didn’t seem to think that way.

“I’ll do my best… young master.”

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have put Beatrice first instead of one of themselves.

I stared at Beatrice with a mixture of shock and confusion as she fidgeted shyly in a flowing white one-piece dress, quite different from her usual neat maid uniform.

“Beatrice? Why are you…?”

“Um, young master. It’s because—”

“Wrong, Beatrice. What did I tell you to call Mira?”

“Hnng… Y-Yuseong…”

Beatrice squeezed her eyes shut as she called me by my Earth name, then stood there awkwardly. Laura nodded approvingly.

“That’s right. Once we arrive on Earth, you are Mira’s lover. It’s only natural for lovers to call each other by their first names. Also, remember that your name isn’t Beatrice but Jung Da-in.”

“Y-yes… I understand… I under… understand…”

“Oh dear.”

Beatrice kept repeating herself nervously until finally, under the pretext of needing more training, she was dragged away by Rosaria and Priscilla, each holding one of her arms.

“What’s going on?”

I asked once the three of them were out of sight.

“As I mentioned in our chat, we had difficulty reaching a decision. We couldn’t agree on who should go first. Eventually, I realized we might not make it in time at this rate, so I changed our approach. If we couldn’t reach a conclusion among ourselves, why not send someone else? That’s how we dramatically came to an agreement, and Beatrice was selected.”

“Why Beatrice of all people?”

“Initially, we considered sending Karna… but having lived her entire life focused on swordsmanship, and having spent nearly a decade as an assassin, she’s familiar with the etiquette of a knight meeting someone in private, but quite unfamiliar with feminine manners. She declined herself, saying there wouldn’t be enough time to completely reform her ingrained habits.”

Indeed, it would be difficult for Karna to act like a normal person right now. Not only has she wielded a sword since childhood, but she’s also a Royal Guard, the first direct disciple of the Sword Saint, and has experience as an assassin.

While her disciplined movements might be excused as those of a hunter, she would need education about Earth’s customs from scratch.

“In contrast, Beatrice not only has impeccable manners but has also visited Earth once before, so we can teach her sufficiently within the time we have. Even if not perfectly, she’ll be convincing enough not to raise suspicion with your parents. Above all, isn’t avoiding any strange impressions our top priority?”

“…Are you sure this is okay?”

I asked cautiously. Beatrice might be fine in this world, but on Earth, she’s a complete outsider. Even if they couldn’t reach a decision, I wondered if it was really okay to concede such a role to an outsider.

“I knew you’d ask that.”

Laura smiled wryly.

“We’ve reached our own compromise. None of us were willing to give up being first, so what could we do? We decided to hand it over to someone objective and fair, and then determine the second and subsequent visits by random lottery. If we hadn’t narrowed it down this way, we’d still be arguing until the day of the visit. Unless you’d prefer to choose one of us? That would eliminate the need for any dispute.”

“…”

When I hesitated, Laura gave me a knowing look.

“You see? You wouldn’t love any one of us more or less than the others. That’s why we came to this conclusion ourselves. Don’t worry about jealousy—we all feel plenty of that. It’s just that our desire not to put you in a difficult position outweighed our jealousy, so we each took a step back.”

In summary, that was it. They felt jealous and wanted to take that position themselves, but their feelings for me were stronger, so they each compromised.

In that context, I couldn’t argue further.

“If you appreciate our consideration, make sure to use plenty of energy when we return to the mansion. Erestica has raided my father’s treasure vault once.”

Laura whispered softly.

“…”

“Anyway, we’ve already reached an agreement among ourselves, so I won’t accept any objections. Everyone was fine with Beatrice. There was a suggestion to entrust this to Aria at one point, though.”

“To Aria?”

I asked in surprise. Even though she had been forgiven, I never expected her to be mentioned for something like this.

“It was merely one suggestion, so don’t be too surprised. And even if it had been seriously discussed, she would have declined. Someone who barely comes outside wouldn’t agree to such a thing.”

“…True, you’re right.”

Aria had secluded herself in one of the annexes of my family’s main mansion. She only occasionally met with Leona for brief conversations.

Since Leona kept those conversations strictly confidential, all I could do was hope their relationship was improving.

I hadn’t asked Aria directly. She was deliberately avoiding me. According to Leona, she still had the same feelings toward me and was avoiding me because she didn’t know how to handle them.

Originally, she had been obsessed with me because I was the “real person” she had been looking for, but now that there was no reason to consider only Aria and me as real people, only those feelings remained.

“We’re back!”

“Welcome back.”

Shortly after, Priscilla and Rosaria returned, dragging Beatrice along. She was still being held by the arms, fidgeting nervously.

“Come on, say it.”

“Just do what we taught you!”

Urged by the two, the hesitant Beatrice began to speak.

“Yu-Yuseong… Yuseong… Yuseongseongseongseongseong…”

“Ah, she’s broken.”

“…”

I wonder if she’ll be able to pull this off.

Despite my concerns, Beatrice performed her assigned role almost perfectly once we arrived at my home. The warning that I would be suspected if she didn’t do well seemed to have had a significant effect.

My parents took quite a liking to Beatrice.

They seemed to approve of her being an ordinary person without special abilities, rather than a hunter who could die at any moment despite the high average income. The fact that every one of her movements exuded politeness was also a plus.

There were minor incidents—occasionally using overly formal speech out of maid habit, almost calling me “young master,” or being too eager to help with household chores—but these were truly minor issues.

My parents found it cute, attributing it to her nervousness. They even thought her calling me “young master” was just a slip of an affectionate nickname she usually used.

Being good at household chores was a plus if anything, certainly not a minus.

“Hey, why is your maid here?”

Of course, Kang Yuna, who had seen Beatrice when visiting the other world, was completely shocked. Someone who had clearly been working as a maid was suddenly pretending to be my girlfriend.

And that meant leaving behind all the people who were usually by my side.

“They couldn’t agree on who should come. So Beatrice came instead. Did you do your part properly?”

“Of course I did. What do you take me for? But there wasn’t much to teach her. That unni is super smart. I just had to explain a few things, and she figured everything else out.”

“Unni?”

“What? She is an unni, isn’t she…?”

Yuna tried to defend herself under my meaningful gaze. She seemed to feel guilty about something.

Her actual age was indeed that way. At minimum, she was in her late thirties or approaching forty. Beatrice’s age had always been a mystery.

“Didn’t you remember we introduced her as twenty-three here? She’s six years younger than you, and you’re calling her unni? Really?”

“Ugh… I won’t do that in front of mom and dad anyway…”

I heard her grumbling. To be fair, her help wasn’t entirely useless. It was thanks to Yuna that Beatrice knew how to act in ways that would please my parents.

If she hadn’t scored those points in advance, the formal speech and title issues might have been seen as strange rather than quirky. That alone was worth all the trouble.

“Um, young ma— I mean, here you are…?”

Beatrice, who had been separately engaged in conversation with my parents, suddenly appeared and linked her arm with mine. Her face showed a mixture of embarrassment and joy, while her hands and feet trembled slightly.

“Yes. What is it, Da-in?”

“—!!!!!!”

Beatrice made such an intense face that I almost thought I heard a flat sound, then shortly after, she staggered as if her legs had given out. As she was about to collapse, I put my arm around her waist and pulled her toward me to support her.

Kang Yuna watched the scene with disbelief.

“…You’re really something, aren’t you? How many times have you done this to be so nonchalant about it?”

“I’m not being nonchalant; I just couldn’t let her collapse. Besides, we’ve done far more when we were younger. Though it was initiated by her, not me.”

Since Beatrice was the one who took care of me on behalf of my parents, it’s fair to say she’s seen everything there is to see. This level of physical contact wasn’t an issue between us.

“No, that’s… never mind. You’ll understand later.”