CH 256

Visiting Ms. Anne

“…Co-come in.”

“Excuse me.”

As I thought of such things, Ms. Anne seemed to have finished preparing to greet me.

And so I opened the door and stepped into the room.

…I nearly tripped over myself due to being nervous, but I took a deep breath and pretended to be calm.

“Are you alright, Ms. Anne?”

“I did not expect to hear such words coming from the person who rejected me.”

“Hahaha. That’s true.”

While the positioning of the furniture was a little different, Anne’s room was similar to my own room in size.

And since they were in the same part of the mansion, they were probably rooms that were prepared for guests.

Perhaps the guards that Mr. Ekenhart brought were also staying in similar rooms.

But that wasn’t important right now.

Ms. Anne was sitting on her bed and looking at me with a suspicious expression.

“You seem quite well now? I was a little worried when I heard you had shut yourself up here.”

“There is nothing wrong with my body, I can assure you. I was just contemplating on what transpired.”

“All this time, for a rejection?”

“Of course. Everyone I know would have jumped at the opportunity… And I understood the way that they thought. But I have never met someone like you.”

“Well, I am not really like most people.”

It was no surprise, since I had been born and raised in a different world.

This whole system with nobles… It was a mystery to me in many ways.

In any case, while Ms. Anne might have been troubled over it, there was clearly no need to worry about her…

That being said, she hadn’t put much thought into her appearances, and her hair rolls drooping sadly and nearly touched the floor.

…I suppose it was because her hair was originally straight?

“And now you are seeing me like this… Nothing good has happened to me since coming to this mansion…”

“Hahaha! That’s because you didn’t prepare yourself and come out of the room.”

“You are one to talk. Since you are the reason I couldn’t come out…”

“Me? Hahaha! I thought it was because you were too scared of Leo.”

“That’s not it! Even though it may be a Silver Fenrir… It is ridiculous to assume that I would cower in fear of a monster!”

“Is that so… Well, perhaps I should call Leo right now? I think she would love to have someone to play with.”

“Th-that won’t be necessary!”

Ms. Anne said frantically.

I had already known that I was the reason. That being said, it wasn’t something I should apologize for…

That being said, if Ms. Anne was going to insist that she wasn’t afraid of Leo, then calling her might be a good idea… It would be best for her to get used to being around Leo.

Mr. Ekenhart had been afraid at first… It made me all the more impressed that Ms. Claire and Ms. Lyra had been fine from the beginning… Of course, Ms. Claire had been attacked by orcs when we helped her.

“Well, you can play with Leo later… But I don’t think that staying in your room all day will solve anything.”

“…And why is that? It has always been my way to be alone and think. Everything I suggested to my father came from me thinking alone.”

“Hmm… So that’s why you thought of such things… It makes sense.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Nothing… Even if you are smart…it’s probably because you were alone and shut up that you thought of such things…”

Using magic tools to infect wine and spread diseases.

At the same time, buy all of the herbs in advance so you have a monopoly on the market. Raise profits by diluting the product… If she thought of all of this by herself, then she probably wasn’t stupid.

But being alone all of the time meant you weren’t connected to other people.

You would stop thinking about how people will be affected, and only care about profit.

Besides, in this world, they did not have tools to talk with people who were outside, or ways to gather information like you could with the internet.

Even if she had servants to take care of her, she was still ultimately alone.

Obviously, it wouldn’t be the case with everyone, but that is what I felt when I looked at Ms. Anne.

“You are saying it is wrong to stay in your room? But don’t you know that it is a good way to avoid taking in unnecessary information and helps you focus?”

“That’s true, but… I think you should interact with more people as well. Or you will just come up with terrible ideas again. Only this time, it will be you that Mr. Ekenharts crushes, not your father.”

“…Interact with people… That does not seem very important to me.”

“Yes, I suppose it wouldn’t…”

While I sounded self-righteous now, it also sounded a little familiar to me.

I never made suggestions like Ms. Anne did, but there had been a time when I only thought about work and had few connections with other people. That’s how feel now, after coming to this world and interacting with Ms. Claire and the others.

Through having connections with friends, lovers, parents, siblings, you are able to care about other people… That’s what I thought.

But if you are always alone and never involved with others, and just think about yourself, then instead of caring about others, you might come up with ideas to hurt people.

When I thought back on what Ms. Anne had said before, while she did have contact with her father, she tended to talk about him as if they weren’t related…

I don’t know if I would go as far as to say she didn’t consider him to be her father, but she clearly looked down on him.

“As long as you are reliable and have authority, people will obey you.”

“Hmm. Perhaps that is one way to look at it, but if you stay like that… I guess you’ll just have to get used to being rejected then?”