It took Tenard quite a while to calm down the frozen girl by the door. After a bit of whispered persuasion, she sauntered over ekly and sat beside him and across from , keeping her head low.
Now that I had a better look on her face, though I could see it clearly even when she was at the door, I realized she looked familiar.
If I’m not wrong, she is my…
With a quick adjustnt to his glasses, Tenard cleared his throat. “Allow to introduce you to my daughter, Ranette.”
Tenard confird my suspicion. This girl was my “cousin”. As for her looks, she looked pretty much the sa as her father with her ssy green hair and dark red eyes behind round glasses. Her outfit, tailored and regal, clashed with the awkward way she hunched beside her father.
As similar as she was to her father, At least she didn’t adjust her glasses every two seconds.
“Oh, so you’re Rannete?” Mother said, flashing a rare gentle smile. “You have grown so much I barely recognized you. It’s nice to see you again, dear.”
“I-I-It’s nice to see you again… Your G-Grace…” Ranette said through stutters.
“Long ti no see, Ranette! Co on, let your uncle give you a hug!” Father spread his arms wide.
“N-No thanks. Y-Your Grace…” she shot him down.
Like father, like daughter.
I guess I should give her a proper greeting too.
“It’s nice to et you, Ranette. I’m Carin—”
“I-I know that…” she cut off, her gaze locked to the floor.
“I-I see…”
I… didn’t know how to react. Why didn’t she return my greeting? Was she afraid of ? Or bitter because I was the heir and she wasn’t?
Seeing as I’m in the political world in this life, that has to be it, no?
Ranette lifted her head slightly and glanced into my eyes for a mont. But she imdiately tensed up and hid her face in a scramble, her ears red.
Now I was even more confused. I wasn’t so dense as to believe her blush ca from a fever or such like, but why was she so embarrassed if she was scared to death by monts ago? Make up your mind!
“Ah, this is a good chance, Carine!” Father turned to .
“What is it, Father?” Sohow, I had a bad feeling about this.
…
I was standing at the main estate’s library. Believe it or not, it was larger than the estate at the capital… Agh, who am I kidding, of course, you would believe it! This house was so over the top I could sell it and have enough money to stave off world hunger for a few years.
I should be thrilled to be given access to this treasure trove of information for to learn. But there was just one small hiccup.
A jittery girl was vibrating in place right beside .
It was Ranette.
Father told to visit the library with her, and Tenard agreed wholeheartedly. He believed it was a good way for us “cousins” to bond together after a long ti no see.
The problem was, I didn’t know if Ranette would even want to be with . She kept turning her head around frantically, looking around as if she was unsure whether to fight or fly.
However, the longer I left her alone, the later I got to read the books. If anyone was going to start the flow of conversation, it had to be .
“It has been quite a while since we’ve last seen each other, hasn’t it, Ranette?”
“Ack—!” Ranette jumped back and grabbed a nearby book to hide her face from .
I was starting to believe she really saw as a dusa.
It would be better for if I could solve whatever caused her anxiousness as soon as possible.
“Forgive , is there anything wrong?” I gave a direct question. “Was it sothing I did?”
Ranette tensed even more, if you can believe it. She slowly peeked over the book and said in a ek voice, “N-No, you didn’t do anything wrong, Lady Carine…”
Then why are you taking further steps back?
She was willing to talk to at least. But now I didn’t know what to do. Ranette was still obscuring half of her face and these books were just begging for to read them.
Oh right, books!
I faced Ranette with the best smile I could muster. “Tell , Ranette. Do you like books?”
Ranette stiffened up… again. I was starting to see a trend here.
“I often spend the free ti from my training to read books in my library. It’s the only thing that keeps my mind calm nowadays.” I approached one of the shelves and scanned through the spines of each book on display, my fingers gliding through them.
“This library has quite a handful of books, though. Many of them I haven’t even heard of. It’s to the point I don’t even know where to start.” I turned to her. “Do you have any recomndations, Ranette?”
Ranette lowered her book even more. “Y-You’re asking ??” Her voice was higher than before and I could hear her properly this ti.
“Well, I did call you by na.”
“A-Ahaha… haha…” she gave an exasperated chuckle, raising her book with every ‘ha’.
It was less of a “Haha, that’s funny…” and more like a “Haha, I’m in danger.”
It wasn’t like I forced you to be here, y’know? I wanted to tell her that but I realized that would only make things worse between us. Besides, I wanted to get close to her. As I said before, she was the closest thing I had to a sibling in this side of my life.
Well, if she was that afraid of . I shouldn’t force her to speak, I guess. I tried to focus on the books again, looking for any titles that interested .
But then, a sudden voice caught off guard. “B-Blue cape…”
I stopped in my tracks and turned around. “Forgive , did you say sothing?”
“‘T-The One With The Blue Cape’... It-It’s my r-re-recomndation.”
Oh lords above, she was actually talking to ! If my face hadn’t been so dead, my jaw would’ve been on the floor.
Is this what parents feel when their babies talk for the first ti?
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