episode_0135

“What do you think?”

“Boo.”

“Of course, it would be better to ask why, right?”

“Buu buu.”

“Well, even when I asked on the spot, I didn’t get a proper answer, but maybe it was because Amelia and Elsie were next to me.”

“Boo… … .”

“Am I meddling too much?”

Adele, who was muttering while lying on the bed and looking at the ceiling, slightly raised her head and saw Alexander sitting on the perch.

Thanks to the faint moonlight shining outside the window, Alexander could barely be seen. I heard that birds of prey are nocturnal, but Alexander’s eyes did not shine like those of a cat. However, as he often goes out in the middle of the night through a slightly open window, he can see clearly even at night. It seemed like he was doing it.

“Boo.”

“… … .”

I wonder if she understands and responds to words, or if she just cries regularly. In fact, Elsie said she doesn’t ‘talk’ to animals, so Adele had no way of knowing.

There’s no way Adele could know something that even the druids don’t know.

“After all, I shouldn’t care?”

“Boo.”

But I felt a little uneasy about not saying anything. Still, it was much better to have someone who would look after me and at least give me an answer than to worry about it alone.

“Diane is… … Well, he’s usually harsh to me, but now I think of him as a friend. And he doesn’t just have a bad personality. If you look at how he treats animals… … Well, that doesn’t mean that you have to be unconditionally obedient to animals if you treat them kindly, but it does mean that there is still a good side inside.”

Moreover, even though Diane was making such a fuss, she was secretly helping Adele.

Teaching her how to ride a horse, sparring her hard, etc. Of course, the purpose itself may not have been a very kind purpose, but at least until now, she has never openly harassed Adele.

It’s not ‘overtly’, it’s just that the teacher quit, or something like that if you think about it, but at least since we started seeing each other more often, the frequency of such behavior has dropped significantly.

And above all, while Diane herself was saying various harsh things to Adele, her face turned pale when she heard what other people were saying. That means that what she said was not particularly sincere.

Diane’s ‘bad words’ that Adele had seen so far were closer to the tantrums of a child trying to win over an adult.

Didn’t your face turn blue after saying that again today?

Did he happen to like Elsie’s older brother? That’s why he was talking happily and seemed close… … .

Hmm, I don’t think that’s true either.

“Boo.”

I saw Alexander at the sound.

“Yes!”

And suddenly a thought crossed my mind.

“Let’s write a letter!Alexander, you know the geography of this city, right?”

“Boo.”

I wasn’t sure if I understood what Alexander said exactly, but seeing him raise his head and puff out his chest while answering like that, it seemed like he was answering “To put it another way, it’s nagging.”.

“Do you even know where Diane’s mansion is?”

“Buu buu.”

It was a confident cry… … Of course, it may just sound that way.

“Well, there’s nothing to lose anyway.”

Adele muttered to herself and nodded.

If she couldn’t find the mansion, she would come back anyway. The only thing Adele had to lose was a piece of paper.

Thinking that, I jumped up from my seat and sat down in front of the desk, but—

But, you can’t tie parchment to your legs, right?

Adele suddenly had this thought, so she opened the desk drawer and rummaged through it.

And then I found a piece of cloth. It was the leftover cloth I used when I worked part-time making dolls to help my father. To be exact, it was the cloth I used to practice attaching doll eyes to.

Thanks to this, there were a lot of needle marks, but there was still room to write. Anyway, my skill at making dolls has grown to the point where I don’t need to practice, so I won’t need this cloth anymore.

“Okay, then.”

Adele picked up the quill and dipped it in ink—

I was worried about what to write.

… … How should I start speaking?

Although Adele had been educated as a noblewoman by a good teacher and knew how to write letters, she had never actually written a letter to anyone else. To be precise, she had no friends to exchange letters with.

Even though nobles are of the same rank, there is a big difference between nobles who can make decent money and those who cannot.

Nobles are people who spend money to maintain their rank. Not only did they have to pay attention to the taxes they had to pay regularly, but they also had to pay attention to the clothes they wore and the luxury items they often displayed in front of others.

The problem is that all the other kids her age know that Adele is ‘working’ to make money.

And that alone was reason enough not to join the group.

For the reason that ‘Adele doesn’t have time to work’, they secretly keep Adele, who is ‘low in class’, away from them.

That’s why Adele didn’t have any real friends until she met Amelia and Elsie.

That’s why Adele didn’t want to lose even one of her current ‘friends’. Even though they didn’t usually have high-quality conversations and drink tea comfortably, Adele liked Diane just like that.

“… … Is it really necessary to follow the ‘form’ in the beginning?”

And speaking of forms, of course I only knew the form that started with ‘Dear’. That was the first method I learned when I learned how to write a letter.

Of course, there were many cases where people who exchanged letters really frequently, especially close people, did not adhere to such a format, and wrote mischievous or slightly embarrassing things in the letters… … In some hostile cases, there were times when the content was openly insulting, but of course Adele didn’t know much about that.

Anyway, other than the letter I wrote to my father on his birthday, this was the first letter I wrote to someone else.

“… … Dear Diane… … .”

After writing that down while muttering to herself, Adele shuddered for no reason.

The meaning of the word ‘dear’ gave me a strange tickling feeling. Of course, I knew it was an ordinary greeting, but… … .

“Well, okay.”

Trying to hold back the shame she felt for no reason, Adele muttered that and stuck the quill into the ink tank again.

“Ah.”

As I pulled out the quill, which was filled with a lot of ink, with some force, the ink started to splatter onto the fabric.

… … Well, it doesn’t matter, right?

It’s not expensive stationery either. It’s just something I use on leftover fabric.

It felt a bit out of place to write such a formal letter on such cloth, but I couldn’t erase what I had already started writing.

Adele convinced herself of that and played with her quill under the pouring moonlight.

*

Dear Diane,

I’m still worried after seeing Diane today. Did you get home and rest comfortably? I can’t say that the relationship between Diane and I is deeper than Diane’s relationship with Amelia and Elsie, but if I were to explain in front of them why Diane behaved the way she did today. If you are having a hard time, you can always talk to me privately. Or you can write a letter like this.

If the reason you were mad at me was because you saw Elsie’s brother, then it’s okay to rest assured. I’m not interested in him as a member of the opposite sex! I’m really just interested in swordsmanship. If Diane has a crush on him, please help them connect. I can help you, of course, assuming I can help.

You may think it is presumptuous to send a letter like this, but since it is addressed to Alexander, I don’t think anyone at home will read it.

I hope this letter gets to Diane properly. I hope Alexander, who flies every night, finds his way.

Sent by Adele Kalins.

PS Even if Alexander asks for food, there is no need to give it to him. No matter how much I think about it, I don’t think Diane would buy and store fishing bait separately.

*

After reading the letter, Diane blinked a few times, rubbed her eyes with her hand, and read the letter again.

Dear Diane… … My heart skipped a beat when I heard these words. Of course, it may have just been to preserve the format of the letter, but if I didn’t have feelings of closeness in the first place, I wouldn’t have sent a letter like this.

I can do my best to help the two of you connect… … So, that means Adele has no rational interest in Elsie’s brother! Enough to lead him to another woman!

The reason Diane didn’t jump around on the bed was probably because of the education she had received since childhood about how to behave like an aristocrat.

Adele wasn’t very upset about what happened today. Rather, she was worried about Diane.

But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to do the same thing again. Rather, it’s closer to something I was able to tolerate at least once because I felt familiar with Diane’s behavior before.

“… … .”

After calming down and reading the letter a few more times, Diane wrote the letter neatly and placed it in a drawer.

I’ll have to think about a better place to hide it tomorrow. If possible, a place where it’s easy to take it out.

Even though the maids basically didn’t go through Diane’s personal belongings, they still needed to be careful.

and… …

Diane read the other letter again.

[Sometimes it’s better to be honest]

… … Being honest is better.

I know what it means, but… …

How can I be honest?

Diane never learned how to be honest.

“Tweet.”

Looking up at Ulysses who was crying, Diane smiled slightly.

“Okay. Let’s just sleep.”

It would be okay to take a little more time to think about it.

Diane turned off the bedside light and lay down on the bed again.

And unlike before, he quickly fell asleep looking very relaxed.