The Main Family Is About to Die Out, so I, from a Branch Family, Am a Seed Provider (WN): Chapter 24

 

Episode 24: Events at my Parents' House @Girls Talk

 I was brought to the bathroom by an arrogant, selfish, blonde-haired, green-eyed young lady who snatched me by the arm, and under the sunset sky, I was transfixed by her white, beautiful, soft skin, even though I was of the same sex.

"What are you doing? Come on, you should get over here."

"Ah, yes."

 Fregrance Ritia.

 Elfie had told me a knowledge of the relationship between the nobles since I am going to be a concubine. The head of the family, which was taught to me that was on the highest rank. The first princess.

 And the daughter of one of the kingdom's five major nobles, whom I learned about through Elfie's education.

 But for me, it's not about that, it's about the only girl he ever had sex with.......

 I was chosen to help her bathe.

 I didn't understand what it meant at first, so I asked him about it, and although he was vague about a lot of important details, I was able to understand the general situation. I could, but he'll have to remember this for later......

 Lady Ritia, daughter of a great noble family, is staying here tonight. She will follow us in the war starting tomorrow. And why she had decided to go along.

 With something dark in my heart, I stood behind her on the chair with a towel in my hand.

 Her shoulders are gently sloping, with a reddish tinge, peeking out from between her wet blonde hair. And small, cute buttocks.

 Immediately, thoughts of that night between the two of them come to my mind, and even though I haven't been in the bathtub for very long, my face is burning up.

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

"Ah, no, it's nothing."

 A lovely voice like the sound of a bell. But it is the kind of voice that made one subconsciously think one had to be in awe of it.

 She seemed to be unaware of it, and after tilting her head, she turned her head forward again.

 She looks like a doll. I honestly thought so when I saw the noble lady's face reflected in the bathroom mirror in front of me.

 She had long eyelashes and big, round, jade green eyes.　

 Her soft, supple, white skin and small cherry-red lips. Her back, spotless, as I carefully washed it with a foaming sponge.

 Her dark honey-colored hair, which she had tied up in a bun to wash her body, was so smooth that when I secretly touched it with my hand, I was under the illusion that it did not feel like I was touching it.

 To be honest, I had felt it from the first glance, but I knew that I would never be able to match the innate cuteness, loveliness, and beauty of the young lady.

"Nhh... you don't have to put more force."

"Y-yes."

 As I was feeling defeated on my own, the young lady said to me.

 I have never washed a person's back before, so I gently adjusted the amount of pressure at her request.

 After I had washed her back, I tilted the wooden bucket and let the warm water wash off the foam on her body. I was in charge of washing her, and the other girl who was taken in with me ran to fetch hot water with the wooden bucket in her hand. I hope she didn't fall.

"By the way, your dress..."

"Eh? ah, this?"

 I receive a wooden bucket that seems to be overflowing with hot water, and pour it over the young lady's body.

 The young lady was concerned about my clothes as I help her bathe in hot water. Unlike the other one who ran out with an empty wooden bucket to the hot water again, mine was a bit plain.

 It is usually made of a thick fabric, like a loose white one-piece dress that is lightly transparent due to the hot water and sweat. When I first started working as a maid, I also wore see-through clothes and sometimes helped the now-deceased wife of the head of the family...... his mother, with her bathing.

 When I asked the wife why the translucent design, she laughed and told me, "It's so that if you like a girl here, you can have her as a mistress". No, no, we don't do that in the bath.

"Are you married?"

"......Well, we're still engaged."

 However, only unmarried women can be made a mistress. Once, a nobleman accidentally beckoned a married woman, and her husband, a knight, was furious. The knight was so enraged that he stabbed the nobleman to death in revenge.

 Therefore, married or engaged women wear a one-piece dress with a thick material to make it easily recognizable.

 It is said that it became a kind of custom to show their firmness, saying, "I will not show my bare skin to anyone except you, even if they are of the same sex".

 It seems to be known even in the noble society, and Lady Ritia thought I was married when she saw me wearing a thick one-piece dress.

"Engagement... what kind of person is it?"

 For a moment, she uttered the word "engagement" with a look as though she swallowed a bitter bug.

 According to Elfie's story, marriage is a special kind of event for nobles, not like us commoners that were free in love affairs, but more of a diplomatic one.

"The other person?"

"Yes, a commoner's marriage is because he or she has fallen in love with the person he or she is marrying, right?"

"That's right, I like him, but......"

"But?"

 My heart skips a beat when I am told. A nobleman's marriage is certainly unique, but my case is unique as well. No, strictly speaking, all three of us, including me, him...... and the young lady, is special.

 The only relationship my fiancée has had with the young lady in front of me is sex, and the fact that I am washing her body is as special as a noble marriage can be.

 But I don't know what kind of trouble I would get into if I told her that the man she was having sex with is my fiancée.

 But I would be considered disrespectful if I didn't answer, so I'm going to tell her in a vague way.

"He is usually a pain in the ass, but when the time comes, he is dependable, and he also hates to lose."

"He hate losing?"

"Yes, he hate losing."

 When I was a child, when I didn't know anything about nobles, knights, or commoners, I, a commoner, always got into serious fights with him, a nobleman, many times.

 He never laid a hand on me, and I remember that I was even angrier at that time because I thought I was being looked down on.

 He told me the reason why he never touched me was because he was taught not to touch women, he said, turning his face away from me.

 But then, he was quite a sore loser because he was fighting for a draw, even though he should have lost on purpose.

"Heh, that's funny."

 I didn't mean to say it, but I told Lady Ritia that old story, hiding the noble-commoner situation, and she smiled as if she were looking at something dazzling and turned her face back to the front.

"Um, excuse me, but does Ojousama have someone she liked?"

 It bothered me so much that I ended up saying something unnecessary.

"No, I don't"

 On the other hand, the young lady, in a complete change from the dignified noblewoman she had been a moment ago, mumbled a denial.

 But that was like implying that there was, so I casually probed it with the intention of having a love conversation.

"Is it Prince Lim, after all?"

 According to the commoner's knowledge of the noble in general, every girl from a noble family falls in love with a boy from a royal family. Because of their high status, they are more likely to be attracted to boys of even higher rank than themselves.

"I don't have any feelings of love or hate for the prince. I have only respect and lifelong loyalty to the royalty we serve.

 The answer was crisp and unabashed, and I knew I had made a mistake in my initial approach. It was supposed to be a love conversation, but the answer was unexpectedly serious.

 I finished washing off the soap from her body and washed the young lady's head, this time using the soap on her head, which I had lathered up again with the palm of my hand.

"That's true for everyone, but wasn't there something else? You know, admiration, or even just a little bit of liking."

"Not now."

 This time the answer was immediate. But from the way she said "now," it seems that she had such feelings in the past.

 Then, I tried to name various popular nobles using my poor knowledge, but she replied, "No," or "He has a nice face but a bad character," or "I've never even met such a bottom-of-the-barrel noble".

 The love conversation was about to end without any progress, as I received rather harsh comments. The last noble was so harshly criticized that I was afraid to mention his name.

"You are a commoner, but you should learn more about the nobility. You are a servant of this mansion, right?"

"Y-yes..."

 Moreover, she even gave me unwanted concerns.

 As I was about to give up on the idea of going any further.

"Is Ojousama with our young master, by any chance?"

 The person who was going back and forth to fetch hot water mentioned him with a sparkle of curiosity, or rather, a look of delight. Apparently, she was itching to join our love story. Since we don't have a hot water heater right now, she was smiling, as though she was happy to finally be able to join.

 But it shouldn't be the only thing that the young lady likes about that guy.

 From the young lady's point of view, he was just a guy she was forced to have sex with in order to have children, and there was no way she could develop romantic feelings for him. Not to mention the fact that he is a nobleman from a branch of a branch family, at the lowest level of their own faction, the nobility.

 They are not compatible with each other, and there is no way they can get married because of the relationship between their families.

 The moment I heard his name, the words of denial kept pouring out of my mind like that. Though they are uncertain and baseless, without any proof at all.

 And then, as if to dismiss my faintest desires, the moment she mentioned him, the mask she had been wearing up until that moment, that of the daughter of a great noble family, crumbled.

"N-no, it's wrong!"

 A deafening denial while making the person blush red from the neck to the ear at once.

 Perhaps startled by the volume and quality of her voice, the girl fetching the hot water freaked out and dropped the wooden bucket she had been holding in her hand, splashing the hot water on the spot after having gone to the trouble of fetching it back and forth.

"Ah, no, just now, it's wrong!"

 Seeing her hurriedly mending her act, the denials she had been piling up were shattered into pieces.

"Yes, in general, there's no way I could ever fall for a guy like that. He has no sense of delicacy, he is sometimes rude to me, and his honorifics are questionable to begin with."

"You don't have to say that much......"

 The complaints about him pour out like a raging torrent. However, the face of the young lady who continued to speak in abusive words looked somehow happy, and my bare heart ached as its walls crumbled.

"Then you don't mind if Ojousama marries another nobleman?"

 The girl with the empty wooden bucket says things that absolutely don't need to be said. The answer is obvious anyway.

"Yeah, yeah! I don't care who the guy is! In fact, I even feel sorry for the other nobleman!"

 A young lady who instantly turned into a sullen face while messing around with her wet hair with her fingers. But she made such a deliberate effort to be strong, and my heart squeezed even tighter at her predictable, almost picturesque response.

"W-well, I'd be happy to keep him by my side if he's not married, but I don't really care about that guy. Let's stop talking about this. Come on, let's finish this now!"

"Ah, yes."

 The young lady dismissed it then I spoke no more.

 Seeing off the other girl who rushed to round-trip hell again, I gave her hair one last rub.

 I think that Lady Ritia has fallen in love with him after all, or is on the verge of falling in love with him.

 And even though I've come to understand, or should have been prepared for it, I was reminded of it again.

 Becoming a wife of a noble meant that I have to live with so many unpleasant feelings.