Volume 1 Chapter 33, Part 2 Mean Villainess, Reunited with Brother
"So, Hans, what exactly is this request?"
"Well..."
Elder Brother glanced at me for a moment as he was about to say something, resting his hand on his chin.
He seemed to be considering whether he should tell me or not.
"Should I leave the room, Elder Brother?"
Aren't you going to tell me?
I asked with a pleading look in my eyes.
To make him feel sorry for abandoning me, I put on an expression full of despair.
"Uh..."
"If you want me to leave, Elder Brother, I will get out of this room right now..."
"No, it's fine. Stay there. But if you think you don't want to hear it, make sure to get out right away, okay?"
Elder Brother is cheap.
Before Elder Brother changed his mind, Rolus and I sat down on nearby chairs.
Seeing me like that, Elder Brother let out a small sigh and began to speak.
"The other day, I received a request to investigate a spell."
The sound of a request to investigate a spell felt indescribably fantastical, making my heart skip a beat.
But I wondered where Elder Brother, who was in a position to accept such requests, usually was and what he was doing.
It was a mystery, even though he was my brother.
"The client is a descendant of a noble family that fell from grace about a hundred years ago."
As Elder Brother said this, he took out a heavily sealed wooden box.
When I opened the wooden box, I found a worn out piece of paper wrapped in a very fine and soft-looking cloth.
"It's probably a letter, but I'd like to hear Mister Bruno's opinion"
Mister Bruno stares intently at the box that is handed to him.
Both Elder Brother and the teacher were looking at it with deadly serious expressions on their faces, but the words written there were not the kind of words that required such a serious look to read.
'Sushi, yakiniku, parfait, shortcake, donuts, cream soda'
Because that's how it was spelled in Japanese.
Just listing the things you want to eat is not enough.
"I'd like to hear more details"
The teacher said this as he looked away from the text.
"Yeah. They say the one who wrote that was a servant working in the mansion of a fallen noble. That noble, obsessed only with filling his own pockets, didn't even provide food for the servants, and one of them worked for a long time without eating or drinking, ultimately starving to death."
"Hmm."
"Right after the servant's death from starvation, the locals reported the noble's corruption, leading to their downfall. And it seems that this downfall triggered the deaths of several relatives."
"I see."
"The client is said to be the last descendant of that noble, who entrusted us with this spell-like thing, which has been hidden away as a disgrace to the family."
It was just a list of things they really wanted to eat.
It was more desperate than I imagined.
That servant probably had memories of a previous life, just like me.
Remembering their past life while being forced to work without food or drink, they might have written down what they wanted to eat.
"...How sad."
It slipped out of my mouth unexpectedly.
Since things like parfaits and cream sodas were written down, it might have been a young girl who wrote it.
"Elena?"
"It's so sad that they starved to death while others were indulging in luxury."
"...That's true."
I feel even sadder knowing the meaning of the letters on the paper.
The writing was trembling, and I can somehow imagine that the child was at their limit.
Despite thinking that, I shouldn't say that I can read the letters here and now, so I should steer the conversation away.
"Rolus, I won't make you work without food or drink, so... ow, that hurts!"
"Lady?"
"Ouch, ouch, ouch"
"Lady, where does it hurt?"
As soon as I turned towards Rolus, a pain ran down my back.
"M-My back..."
After I answered briefly, Rolus immediately patted me on the back.
"Are you okay, Lady?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks Rolus"
I feel like the pain has eased a little thanks to Rolus rubbing me.
"Elena, are you okay? I'm sorry, this might be the reason"
I don't think that matters.
It's not a spell or anything.
"I'm fine. Maybe the sudden movement caused my spine or back muscles to creak. Maybe"
Well, I don't think it was my bones or muscles that hurt.
"If Rolus pets me, I'll be cured..."
"Lady"
"Not only my back, but my stomach hurts too... my stomach...?"
"I can't just rub your stomach..."
Rolus is confused.
Not that.
I didn't intend to ask him to rub my stomach just because I thought it was painful.
That's the one thing I want him to understand.
"E, Elena, I'll rub your stomach for you...!"
In the end, Mister Bruno decided to copy down the list of food that was said to be some kind of spell and do his own research.
And if he figures anything out, he says he'll contact Elder Brother again.
Once we finished that discussion, we headed home.
"Elder Brother, are you coming over today?"
"Yeah. I guess I'll show my face to Mother too."
"I'm sure Mother will be happy. Of course, I'm happy too."
"I'm happy too! My Elena is adorable!"
That's too much of a siscon.
After a tiring dinner spent dealing with Elder Brother, I was reading the fifth queen's book I borrowed from Sven when Rolus called out to me.
"Lady, how's the pain in your back and stomach?"
"Yeah, I'm fine now. Rolus rubbed my back for me."
"...but I didn't rub your stomach."
That's true.
It did hurt a bit for a while after that, but now I feel completely fine as if nothing happened.
"No, but I didn't mean to be mean to Rolus, I just felt this knot in my stomach."
"No, I don't mean it. ...But now that I think about it, I once felt a similar pain when I was starving."
"What, when!?"
"Before the master picked me up"
"...I see. Then that pain was probably the result of imagining hunger after listening to Elder Brother's story."
"If that's the case, then you have a frightening imagination, Lady"
Yes, that's true.
That day, I went to sleep, vaguely wondering if parfaits and donuts had existed about a hundred years ago.
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