episode_0119

Surprisingly enough, the shame came a beat late.

Actually, at first I wondered what the big deal was about wearing that dress.

I’ve already done a bunny girl outfit. It was an outfit that almost completely exposed my upper chest, and in fact, if you think about it in terms of shame, it was an outfit that most people wouldn’t even think about wearing. So, I thought it wouldn’t be too embarrassing to wear a dress that people usually wear a lot.

It wasn’t revealing her chest, nor was it even revealing her shoulders. It was just… …an ordinary outfit that any other noble lady would wear.

Even the skirt part was much longer than the school uniform I usually wear. That’s natural. To be honest, since it’s a game where pretty girl characters are one of the main contents, the school uniform skirts were on the short side compared to real school uniforms. So in terms of ‘shame’ level, there was no objective reason for me to feel embarrassed about wearing this.

Alice, who saw me in the morning, was a little surprised, but she didn’t seem to make a big fuss.

But I didn’t realize it until I went out for breakfast.

Shame is not determined by ‘objective exposure’, but by the reactions of those around you and your clothes.

When I was dressed as a bunny girl, Alice was next to me, and honestly, it was quite embarrassing, but Claire’s reaction when she saw the two of us was close to ‘absurdity’. Plus, there were reasons for this and that.

But this dress was something I took out and wore of my own free will.

And other people who saw this outfit focused on the fact itself.

“Wow!”

Claire’s face, which had been blank for about three seconds when she first saw me, brightened in an instant. Then she came to me with her hands clasped together and her eyes sparkling and spoke.

“Sister, you look great together!”

At the word ‘sister’, the Baroness’ eyebrows near Claire were seen to rise slightly, but she did not reveal her agitated feelings openly and instead approached her with dignity and spoke.

“The outfit I saw yesterday suited you well, but this outfit suits you even better now.”

“Is that so?”

And those reactions were, well, ticklish, even more so than when Leo blushed when he saw me in my bunny girl outfit.

Even Gregor’s reaction was similar.

Leo would normally have gaped open his mouth at the sight of me like this, but perhaps because he was at my house, or perhaps because he judged that we had become close after only knowing each other for a semester, he came to me with a ‘main character smile’ on his face and spoke to me.

“They really suit each other.”

And only then could I remember.

There was no character named Sylvia Pengriffin in the original, but if there was a scene like this in the original game, it would definitely be a ‘Sylvia Pengriffin’ relationship event.

I imagined an empty heart space under my name in this world, and one of those hearts was half-filled with pink, and goosebumps appeared on my back.

“Is that so?”

But what can we do? If we say ‘no’ here, it’s just a cliché.

I can think positively about the fact that my character is being well-received, but that doesn’t mean I want to feel like I’m being ‘under attack’. Even though I lived here for 10 years in a woman’s body, my soul is still that of a man.

“Obviously, the kids will be able to meet their older sister much more comfortably.”

Claire said that as if she had not noticed my thoughts at all. To be exact, everyone around here was like that. You wouldn’t think that this world was a game world… … In the first place, there was no such thing as a video game in this world.

Even if it existed, I wouldn’t be able to imagine it.

“Is that so?”

Alice was staring intently at me, who could only say, ‘Is that so?’ It was Alice who had given a long speech about having a soft shoulder line ‘like that of a noble lady’ before coming out from a little ahead.

Alice’s expression didn’t seem to show much, but for some reason I thought there was a sense of ‘satisfaction’ in it.

*

Still, Daniel blushed slightly in front of me.

I seriously wondered once again whether Daniel had recognized me.

I’ve never once thought of becoming someone’s first love in my life. The original me was… …well, I wasn’t that good-looking.

But Sylvia Black’s appearance is different.

All the children in that orphanage were pretty and pretty, but there weren’t many who grew up with the clear ‘pretty girl’ shape like Claire or me. They were all too young to be like that.

Besides, I was one of the few people who was kind to the children in that place that was barely even called an orphanage.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you had feelings of admiration for me, just like Claire did.

“Come this way… … #◦

The Baroness left my seat early after dinner. I heard she was busy, but I guess it was also partly because she didn’t want to disturb me while I was reunited with the other children.

“It looks like everyone is gathered here.”

“Oh, yes.”

As I followed behind Daniel and asked, Daniel nodded.

“They may not be in the same room, but since they have similar responsibilities, they end up living in similar spaces.”

That was certainly the case.

The space of the butler and the maid cannot be the same, and the space of the security guard cannot be the same either.

Besides, even though it was a small territory, it wasn’t a territory that could be guarded by two or three people. Assuming that there had to be someone guarding the area 24 hours a day, there would have been quite a lot of people, and if all the children from the orphanage had been hired, most of them would have become security guards.

Even if we assume that more than half of the children in the orphanage were girls.

“Here it is.”

The place Daniel stopped was an annex building located away from the main building. It was also one of the places he saw as he entered the territory.

It was a pretty good building to be called simply a ‘lodging’. If this was a lodging for the servants, then Baron Grace was really providing them with some pretty good welfare.

Daniel opened the door right away and went inside, holding the door open until we were all inside.

It felt awkward and uncomfortable for a boy who was shorter than me to do something like that, but I guess that can’t be helped because that’s how this world is. Even Claire, Leo, and Alice acted as if it was normal.

As we entered the building, the hot air seemed to have subsided a little. There seemed to be some kind of cooling system here, either a steam engine or magic.

The interior was surprisingly like a hotel. It didn’t look like an expensive hotel, but it was like an old, quaint inn that you might find in a rural area somewhere in Europe. However, there was no one at the lobby counter.

“Two people live together in one room. Those whom the princess wishes to meet are… … ”

As Daniel’s gaze turned to Claire, Claire nodded with a broad smile on her face.

“The kids who used to hang out with you and me.”

“Okay.”

Daniel looked at me again.

“Then… …I will call you.”

I nodded at Daniel’s words.

*

After sitting in the lobby chairs for a few minutes, one or two people started to show their faces in the lobby.

The number of children who escaped together at that time was twelve, including me, Claire, and Daniel.

The kids who came out one by one, hesitantly, didn’t seem to have a big age gap with Daniel.

However, most of them were bigger than Daniel. Whether they were girls or boys.

“Hello!”

“Sister!”

When Claire waved her hand, a lively-looking girl with short dark brown hair shouted out, but then quickly shut her mouth when she saw us behind Claire.

I see

It seems that all the children who ran away together at that time depended on each other and lived like brothers and sisters.

The child who was about to run towards Alice and me must have immediately judged us to be ‘nobles’. He quickly changed his pace and came towards us.

And then he gently grabbed her skirt and greeted her politely.

“Hello.”

“… … .”

I was struggling to remember the child’s name, so I didn’t have the energy to respond to the greeting.

Before the child could even say his name, other children continued to come out through the hallway.

Red hair, blonde hair, gray hair, blue hair… … Now that I look at it, there are so many different hair colors. Maybe the old woman’s criteria for buying children back then included hair color?

While I was lost in my own thoughts, all the children gathered around.

The number was nine.

Not a single person was left out.