Chapter 16
“Yaaawn...”
I slowly got out of bed in the early morning, still not fully awake, then washed my face at the basin and dried it.
In the mirror were my sky-blue hair and eyes, and the eye-catching shape beneath my collarbones.
Wondering what good it did to stare at that face, I hurriedly straightened my clothes and quietly fixed my hair.
It was nearly time for Aiden to wake up, so I needed to be ready for him before anyone else.
Creeeak—
As I quietly opened my door and stepped out, I met Melia’s eyes. She was walking by with towels and clothes in her arms.
“...Hmm? What brings you out so early? Did the sound of my footsteps wake you... though you look much too put together for that.”
“Ah, I woke up early. Besides, it’s almost time for the young master to get up, so I thought it would be better to get ready in advance.”
At my words, Melia’s expression turned a little peculiar, and she cautiously approached me.
“Um... Did His Grace ask you to do something like that, Miss Kana? For example, to wake the young master in the morning?”
“Hmm... He didn’t ask me to do that. Why do you ask?”
In a noble household, it was common to wake the young nobles at a set time and help them get on with their day, so I’d come out with the same idea in mind. But Melia’s expression as she watched me was rather peculiar.
It was as if she were asking why I would even think of doing such a thing, which left me more flustered than her.
“Um... Does no one usually wake him here?”
“No, we don’t usually wake him ourselves. He tends to get up on his own, and he doesn’t particularly like being woken.”
It seemed he’d said that because he could get up on his own and wanted to sleep as much as he needed, but...
Just in case, I quietly asked Melia.
“Does the young master have a time he needs to be up by? Before breakfast, for example. I don’t think skipping breakfast is particularly good for a growing child.”
“...He’s usually up by the time we eat, but if he really doesn’t get up, would it be all right if I asked you to wake him? I need to prepare breakfast, and Mr. Miguel is always busy tending the garden.”
I smiled at Melia’s request and nodded.
It was such a small thing, and it was quite common for children to have trouble getting up early in the morning.
“Yes, then I suppose I should wake him at least ten minutes before breakfast. Could I ask what time you usually eat?”
“Usually around 7:40.”
If breakfast was around 7:40, I’d have to wake him around 7:30 so he could eat right away. It was almost seven now, so I had about thirty minutes.
“All right. If he’s still asleep in about thirty minutes, I’ll go wake him.”
“Usually, I’d ask one of the maids to do something like this, but... if you take care of it, I can prepare breakfast more thoroughly, Miss Kana. May I ask you just this once?”
“Ah, no, well... There’s no rule saying a tutor can’t wake the young master, is there?”
And Aiden just after waking up—Aiden now that he was nine—would surely look incredibly cute.
Even yesterday, when we talked together in his room, I’d caught a glimpse of his childlike side.
If so, he’d surely look cute when he’d just woken up, when people were at their most defenseless.
I quietly imagined waking him, thinking it would be rewarding and might bring us a little closer.
“Well, if that’s what you think, I’d be grateful. Then I’ll be off to prepare breakfast.”
As I watched Melia’s back as she hurried toward the kitchen, I quietly made my way to the garden.
A simple walk before breakfast was something I’d never done before, but since coming here, I’d started to find myself rather drawn to it.
Besides, I’d heard yesterday that I could spend time anywhere inside the Grand Duke’s residence, as long as I didn’t go outside. And I had about twenty-five minutes to spare.
I slowly set off, hoping to make even a little more meaningful use of the time.
“Ah, good morning, Mr. Miguel.”
“Good morning, Miss Kana. What brings you to the garden so early?”
Hart Miguel, the head butler of this residence, was an elderly man with a head full of white hair. He welcomed me with a kindly smile.
“I was wondering what to do this morning, and this beautiful garden caught my eye. I thought I’d take a little walk.”
“A walk first thing in the morning? You’re quite a diligent person, Miss Kana.”
“Not as diligent as you, Mr. Miguel, tending this garden before I even came out. I don’t think I’d be alert enough to work right after waking up.”
I didn’t know whether I’d changed after getting this body, or whether I’d always been this way, but...
I felt a little more susceptible to sleep than I used to be.
Of course, I couldn’t get the coffee I used to drink here, and the lack of energy drinks might have had something to do with it, too.
One thing was certain: waking up itself wasn’t difficult, but I seemed to spend a little longer in a sleepy daze.
“Well, there’s a saying that beauties sleep a lot, so perhaps that’s it. You’re quite a beauty yourself, Miss Kana.”
“A beauty... Ahaha... You think so...?”
I’d been told a few times that I had a rather gentle appearance, but this was the first time anyone had called me beautiful.
I’d only recently started living as a woman, but even before that, I’d never thought my appearance was especially beautiful.
Besides, I wasn’t going to use this body to seduce men or think about dating anyone, and I always remembered that my first and foremost goal was to survive.
It was certainly a considerable advantage that my appearance could make a favorable impression on others, but this very appearance had made Aiden suspicious of me.
The lumps on my chest and my mature-looking figure weren’t doing me much good right now.
But regardless of my situation, Miguel’s words were simply a sincere compliment—or perhaps just flattery—so I didn’t let my feelings show. I merely smiled and nodded.
“You’re surely a good person, Miss Kana. If you’d lived a more ordinary life, you would certainly have had a good marriage prospect. I can’t help wondering why you came here.”
“Ahaha... It’s not that I didn’t have any good marriage prospects... marriage was never even brought up.”
To be precise, I was talking about my life in the past, not my life now. But I still didn’t have a family or anything, so it wasn’t entirely untrue.
Since Miguel didn’t know the circumstances behind my words, he looked at me with a curious expression, as if he were puzzled.
“I can’t imagine that no marriage proposals came to a young lady like you. I’d like to ask what on earth happened.”
“Hmm... Nothing in particular. I was just so busy with this and that that I never had enough time to discuss marriage. Besides, I’ve gotten on in years, so I’ve more or less stopped thinking about it.”
There was more I didn’t say, but just because I was in this body now didn’t mean I intended to be embraced in a man’s room or kiss someone...
I had even less intention of doing anything like that.
I might be living in a woman’s body now, but I was still absolutely not a woman.
I had no intention of marrying or dating anyone, or even of developing romantic feelings for a man.
Just because my body had changed didn’t mean the person inside it had changed, too. This was a matter of my convictions, and of how I viewed my own humanity.
“Hmm... Is that why you chose this path?”
“Hmm... That’s not exactly why I made that choice. I simply wanted to do this job. How should I put it... If fate really exists in this world, I suppose I was drawn here by it.”
In the end, I’d made that choice to twist my own fate.
“That’s a fascinating way to put it.”
“Oh, it seems to be almost time for breakfast. Aren’t you going to eat, Mr. Miguel?”
“I will, of course. But the butlers and maids eat separately, so I’m afraid we won’t be able to share a meal.”
“Hmm... That’s a little disappointing. I prefer everyone to eat together and talk, if possible.”
As we chatted, the aroma of breakfast began wafting through the air, so I turned and headed back toward the residence.
As I wondered whether Aiden might be awake by now and considered going to wake him, my first morning here slipped by.