ALL NOVEL Chapter 21 – Family Visit
Several days later, Simone told Ann that she ‘did a great job’ and ‘deserved a holiday tomorrow’, which caused Ann to tilt her head in confusion.
What kind of food did Tutor Simone eat today? What kind of ghost, no, angel possessed her body today?
Ooh, could I be dreaming?
“...Arlea-sama, this isn’t a dream,” Simone suddenly said.
Ann was very surprised she almost jumped in fright. She thought that Simone could read her mind!
“You were pinching your own hands, I know. It’s not like I can read your mind,” Simone explained, but Ann was looking at Simone with eyes of distrust.
Lies! You just read my mind that I thought you could read your mind!
Ann slowly retreated, causing Simone to not know whether she should laugh or cry looking at Ann like this. Ann sometimes would reflexively wear her heart on her sleeve, which caused Simone to think that she was such an innocent young lady.
Really, being with this Arlea-sama was so amusing. If she knew this sooner, she’d definitely offer herself to tutor her faster. That way, she’d get a great entertainment quickly!
...Oops, it seemed like she had ulterior motive to teaching her now...
In any case...the ‘holiday’ she gave to Arlea was actually a ‘holiday’ that Allen requested, but Arlea shouldn’t be told anything about it. Since it would be a surprise to her.
But anyway...
“The frequency of your lessons will be reduced from now on. Congratulations, Arlea-sama,” Simone decided to spill the ‘grand news’ right away.
“Wha—really?!”
As Simone expected, Ann was so happy that the smile on her face grew wider. Simone even felt like Ann was like a little rabbit...How cute.
The clueless Ann felt so happy she could finally laze around again! Or could she go downtown to look and play around? Hmm, for tomorrow, she should just laze around, though. First on her to-do list tomorrow would be...sleeping until noon~!
Beauty sleep, here I come~!
Little did Ann knew that Allen actually predicted this behavior of hers correctly...
For he summoned the Claritianta family in the afternoon for lunch.
Ann woke up just before lunch, and she was done with bathing just in the nick of time for the Claritianta family to arrive.
“Arlea-sama, Allen-sama is requesting your presence in the house’s living room,” Faye said after assisting Ann to take her bath and change her clothes to a simple yet elegant indoor dress. Though it could be said that Faye mostly helped with trivial stuff such as giving her the clothes and helping her dry her hair.
Ann actually could use her water magic to quickly let her hair dry, but she just loved the sensation of Faye’s little hands wiping her hair with a dry towel, so she indulged herself with that.
“Huh? Allen isn’t going for work?” Ann blinked.
“Apparently, he’s taking the day off,” Faye said.
Of course he would be taking the day off, for Arlea-sama’s family was visiting. Allen-sama told me he wanted to surprise Arlea-sama, so I shouldn’t tell her about this.
“Alright, let’s go there, then. I wonder what business he has with me?” Ann pondered as she obediently went to the living room, with Faye next to her.
Right after opening the door to the house’s living room, Ann froze in spot.
Sitting on the opposite side of Allen were three unfamiliar faces. A pair of middle-aged couple and one young man slightly older than Arlea.
The middle-aged man had brown hair with the same brown mustache, while the middle-aged woman had beautiful blonde hair that was the same as the young man. From the looks of it, the young man was definitely the middle-aged couple’s soon.
“Oh my, Arlea!” The middle-aged woman let out a cry as soon as she saw Ann standing before the door.
“You look different,” The young man commented.
I...did a complete make over when I first transmigrated here, so of course.
“Come over here,” The middle-aged man asked.
Ann was so overwhelmed by the sudden-ness of everything that she couldn’t think straight.
First of all, who were these people? They seemed to know her...and was quite familiar with her...
Unbeknownst to Ann, Allen noted her every behavior and sensed Ann’s genuine obliviousness towards the people that were supposed to be her maiden family, the Claritianta family.
“Arlea, come sit here,” Allen added as he pointed at the spot next to him.
In any case, Ann decided to obey Allen’s request. She sat next to Allen and looked at the strangers again.
Sensing Arlea’s unfamiliar gazes, the three guests were taken aback at first.
“She injured her head before and she seems to suffer from amnesia. The reason I called you here is to let you talk with her, perhaps that will trigger her memories,” Allen said.
Ann turned to look at Allen at disbelief.
This cold-looking man could talk so many words at once! As expected from a duke? He was usually stingy with his words though...
“I-is that so?” The middle-aged man stuttered.
“Arlea...You really don’t remember us?” The middle-aged woman asked, still in disbelief.
“Uhm...You are...?” Ann asked, her tone of voice was very unsure. She had some guesses, but it wouldn’t be good if her guesses were wrong...or rather, won’t her ‘amnesia’ be deemed a lie if she were able to guess them correctly? If that was the case, would it be better for her guess to be right, or wrong?
Ann just didn’t know.
“Arlea, they are Marquis Claritianta, Marchioness Claritianta, and the next-in-line, Davis Ronald Claritianta,” Allen introduced.
A light bulb appeared in Ann’s head. They were really the Claritianta family!
Well, in the game, they were nothing but mobs whose presences were overlooked so easily...
Wait, the Claritianta family?
Which meant...the person before her would be her father, mother, and elder brother...?
“Ah...,” Ann wasn’t sure what to say in front of her ‘current family’.
In the next moment, Allen and the Claritianta family discussed about her amnesia in a more detailed fashion. Ann decided to remain speechless as she didn’t feel the need to talk.
Hmph, Allen was normally so stingy with his words, so I’m going to let him do all the talk right now while I’m playing the role of a mute!
Ann crossed her arms and listened to them talking when Marquis Claritianta suddenly requested.
“Excuse me, Allen-sama. May we speak privately to Arlea as a family?”
Allen’s gaze turned sharp, but he had predicted this too.
“Sure, you can. I’ll leave you alone,” Allen answered before readily leaving the room.
But before he left the room, Allen’s sharp gaze landed towards the corner of the room for a split second.
Just right after Faye brewed some tea for them, Marquis Claritianta waved his hand, asking Faye to retreat.
“Is she your new maid? We have a private matter to discuss, get lost,” he said impatiently.
However, Faye didn’t bulge as she was waiting for Ann’s instruction instead.
The first thing that appeared in Ann’s mind was how rude the marquis was with her maid. Ann connected the dots and concluded that perhaps Arlea’s rudeness and contempt towards those lower in status than her—or towards most people—were things that she learned from living with this kind of family?
But for the time being, Ann decided to let it slip and not lecture the marquis and his family. It would just be digging her own grave...
Next, Ann hesitated. She hoped Faye would accompany her, but it seemed like her ‘family’ wanted Faye to leave.
Amidst her hesitation, Ann recalled how Allen’s gaze lingered on the corner of the room before he left and another light bulb popped in her head.
That’s it! Allen must have stationed one of his employees there in order to spy on us! With how things were, it made sense. Beside, it’s plausible to have a spy, since this was a world of fantasy and magic even existed.
Thus, Ann felt relieved instead and dismissed Faye. ...She should be feeling irritated because of Allen leaving a spy in the room, but she felt relieved instead. If Allen knew this, he would be in tears. What kind of wife would be relieved when her husband let someone else monitor her? This had happened before when Ann went out to downtown...
“Arlea, tell me you’re faking it,” Marchioness Claritianta suddenly said as her intense green eyes were directed to her.
“Uhm...No, Mother, I am not...,” Ann hesitated.
She did fake things, but it was because she wasn’t Arlea...
“Arlea, did Allen do something to you?” Marquis Claritianta asked.
...without honorifics.
“No, Father. It was I who injured myself...perhaps...I can’t remember...,” Ann’s voice turned smaller.
“Father? Call me like usual, Arlea. There’s no one here, just us,” Marquis Claritianta asked in concern.
Just us? Damn, this ‘father’ of hers was quite dull for not noticing Allen’s conduct of installing a spy. But then again, that was why in the original game, they were headed easily towards their downfall...
“...Dad?” Ann tried.
Marquis Claritianta’s face turned even more concerned.
“Daddy!” Ann cringed inside her heart when she noticed that it felt so wrong calling the marquis like that. But her mouth acted faster than her mind, and so she couldn’t retract her words.
Marquis Claritianta’s face twisted.
“...Papa?” Ann tilted her head.
Marquis Claritianta’s face turned even uglier.
Geh, it seemed I was wrong...Did I scare them? Ehehe...
“Hey, are you serious?” Unable to keep silent, Ronald asked.
“Yes, elder brother,” Arlea said.
“No, call me like usual,” Ronald said.
Ann’s face contorted. She seriously didn’t remember how Arlea used to address them, okay?
“Big bro!”
“No!”
“Yo, brotha!” Ann retried.
“What?!” Ronald’s face turned weird.
“Nii-chan?” Ann tried again.
Ronald shook his head.
“Nii-nii!!! No, Keke?” Ann was quite confident.
Ronald’s jaw was opened.
“...Oppa?” Ann tilted her head and said it like how a Korean fan would address their bias.
At this point, Ann was playing around with the Claritianta family. Teasing people had become Ann’s favorite thing to do when she transmigrated to this world, for some reason. Yes, seeing others’ weird reactions was quite addicting!
“No, it’s Ron!” Ronald couldn’t take it anymore as he stood up and told Ann how she used to call him.
“Oh...Ron,” Ann muttered.
Ron as in Harry and Hermione’s friend? Aaah, now I could never reread or watch them...
“Ron, restrain yourself!” Marquis Claritianta scolded his son.
Ronald’s face paled a bit before he apologized, “Sorry, didn’t mean that.”
“...There’s no need to apologize. Rather, it should be me who apologize, for I do not remember...,” Ann bowed slightly.
“No, no, don’t! We can’t receive your bow!” Marchioness Claritianta said in a fluster.
Ann tilted her head a bit. She felt guilty yet...she shouldn’t reveal anything at all and carry on with her oblivious pretense. That way, she wouldn’t be courting death sooner than its schedule.
“This is disaster. This is bad!” Marquis Claritianta exclaimed.
“Isn’t there anything we can do so she can regain her memories?” Marchioness Claritianta asked.
“I know, let’s bring her to a famous doctor—”
“Ah, I already saw a doctor,” Ann quickly rejected the idea.
In any case...her ‘memory loss’ was not something that could be cured. Unless the real Arlea suddenly popped out of nowhere and chased her soul away...
“...Let’s leave it at that, then. We will discuss about it more in our residence. For Arlea...,” Marquis Claritianta said as he turned at Ann, “just take a good rest and try to recover your memories as soon as possible. It won’t be good for you to not have any memories of the past at all.”
Ann could only nod, “Alright, I will.”
“In any case, we are family after all. You don’t need to act restrained in front of us. Just do as you like and if you are having any hardship, you can call us and we will do all in our power to help you,” Marquis Claritianta said.
“Thank you...Pather?” Ann’s tongue slipped as she was unsure whether to call him ‘Papa’ or ‘Father’.
After that, Allen and Arlea had a lunch together with the Claritianta family before the Claritianta family excused themselves.
Later on, Allen’s spy returned to Allen’s side and reported the interaction between Arlea and the Claritianta family, noting that there was nothing wrong with them. Allen received the report and became even more convinced that perhaps this Arlea was telling the truth when she said she couldn’t remember anything...
Meanwhile, the Claritianta family had a discussion when they returned to their residence.
“What should we do about her?” Ron asked, his voice full of frustration.
“Could she be lying to us, as part of her pretense?” Marchioness Claritianta proposed.
“It can be, but...she seems really clueless it’s worrying me,” Marquis Claritianta said.
The three of them sighed, not knowing what to do with this sudden development that they didn’t desire nor did they predict it at all.
“Shall we try to contact that person to make sure of it?” Marquis Claritianta suggested.
“Dear, you couldn’t mean...?”
“But that’s the only thing we can do for now. Let’s notify that person,” Marquis Claritianta decided.
Thus, another storm would be coming to Ann’s way, with her being oblivious of the matter...Later on.
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