6 – Blind Date
The conversation among the family members was coming to an end.
“So, it’s time for the protagonists now~”
Without missing a beat, Maria jumped in with her concluding remarks.
“Betty, let’s get up.”
The Duke stood up first.
Following him, the Anderson mother and daughter also stood up.
“Tom, come back to the mansion we saw earlier when the conversation is over.”
There was a separate mansion of the Duke in the aristocratic area of the kingdom.
“Yes ma… mother.”
I almost called her Maria and quickly corrected myself.
She alternated between looking at me and the young Duke with anxious eyes.
Probably in case I made a verbal blunder.
My true identity is a secret only known by the king, the Andersons, and the Duke.
I gave her an awkward smile to reassure her, but she seemed to lose interest in me and stared at the young lady.
Or more precisely, at the salad in front of her.
Hmm? Is she worried it might spill again?
“Brother!”
Christine assumed a cute fighting pose.
Everyone left, and only Yeong-ae and I remained.
Now something needs to be said…
Embarrassingly, I was not sociable enough to carry a smooth conversation at our first meeting.
The silence painfully envelops me.
She too is blushing and hesitant, showing no signs of starting the conversation.
I remember the painful memory of my first blind date almost a decade ago.
To buy some time, I took a bite of the salad that was served as an appetizer.
Chewing a mouthful of salad, I tried to think of a topic but nothing comes to mind.
What could I converse about with an inhabitant of a fantasy world?
Just when the salad was about to turn into pulp in my mouth, I finally surrendered.
“Um… what are your hobbies, Beatrice?”
That very question my well-experienced friend had warned me not to ask on any occasion.
But it’s the only thing that pops in my mind right now!
“Ha-hobby? Um… I like to swing swords…”
Yeong-ae responded as if her voice was creeping out.
Though she looks confident externally, she seems a bit shy.
“Ah, I see…ha ha”
An awkward reaction slips out.
Yeong-ae is looking down, her face resembling disappointment.
“Swing…swords? You mean practicing fencing?”
In a hurry due to her expression, I carelessly threw the question.
Conversely, her face lights up and she raises her head.
And a quick-fire response begins.
“No! Fencing and swinging swords are entirely separate training. Fencing is like a physical chess with an opponent! Practicing fencing is mainly about fighting against others! And all of that comes from the most basic cutting and stabbing. Among them, the fencing I mainly use is specialized in cutting, so the swinging movement is the base. The fundamental parts are the most important. From the day I first held a sword, I’ve been practicing daily… Eek.”
In the middle of an excited explanation with gestures, she suddenly seemed aware of me and stopped talking.
“I’m… I’m sorry…I got carried away…It wasn’t interesting, was it?”
She slightly bows her head and looks my way in a glancing attack.
But instead of seeming cute, it struck me as a threatening mix of her sharp eye corners and three hundred eyes.
“No, it was interesting. It seems you really like swords, Beatrice.”
I quickly comforted her.
“Betty…”
Again, her creeping voice.
Her answer to the question, “Do you like the sword?” was out of the blue.
“Pardon?”
“Please call me Betty. Drop the honorifics, too.”
“…Alright, Betty.”
I hesitated for about two seconds, but I agreed. If the person in question wanted it, a slight difference in courtesy would be fine.
Oh right, I also had a nickname given by Christine.
“Then please call me Tom.”
“Okay, Tom. hehehehe.”
A slightly sinister laugh followed, her mouth twitched as if she didn’t know how to handle it.
After that, our conversation flowed easily.
If it was a field of her interest, she was enthusiastic and went on explaining for a while.
Men feel best when they are acknowledged, after all.
In this reversed world, that principle should apply to women as well!
“I really admire you. Practicing with the sword three thousand times every single day, wow. I don’t think I could keep up.”
It sounded a bit exaggerated like reading a language textbook when trying to praise her.
But she looked very happy.
She proudly flaunted her knowledge like a flooded dam.
The initial awkwardness was gone and she seemed to enjoy our time together, her cheeks slightly flushed.
‘She’s cuter than she looks’
Time flew by.
“I talked too much about myself. I hardly heard anything about you, Tom…”
She made a slightly apologetic expression.
“It’s fine. We have more days ahead, I’ll tell you about me next time we meet.”
Thus, our time together came to an end.
As we left, it got late and the weather was a bit chilly.
The climate of this country was similar to Korea, hence the large diurnal temperature range as fall approached.
“H, here… use this.”
She hesitantly held something out to me.
It was the cloak that she had taken off indoors.
“…”
I pondered about her intentions for a few seconds.
It seemed like two months wasn’t enough time for my existing values to change.
“No, I’m not that cold. You wear it.”
I waved my hand.
Her cheeks puffed up a little.
“As soon as we went out, you rubbed your arms as if you were cold.”
Do I have such a habit?
If I refuse any further here, she might think it’s strange.
I had no choice but to accept her cloak.
I felt strange, receiving a coat from a girl whose head barely reached my chest.
When I looked at the cloak, it looked as though it was barely hanging on to my shoulders due to our vast difference in stature.
If I looked in the mirror right now, I would surely laugh.
“Thank you. It’s warm.”
First, I expressed my gratitude. It had indeed gotten warmer.
But only one side of my body.
The corners of her lips twitched.
Was she holding back laughter?
No, was she delighted?
“T-then, shall we go now?”
She suggested to me with a composed face.
Where? I had to go to the Viscount’s mansion now.
When I showed a puzzled expression, she informed me.
“I’ll escort you to your home.”
This is a world that I really can’t adapt to.
————————————
Betty found it hard to control herself from constantly sneaking glances at the man walking beside her.
He was a man who seemed even more rustic than in the portrait.
Among women, she was towards the large side, always looking up to her towering height,
A body size that could drape the handed-over cloak.
She wondered if all men with dragon’s blood were like this.
Why did her heartbeat quicken and why did she feel so good simply by being by his side? She had no idea.
Was it because his appearance matched her taste?
Was it because he was the first man to treat her kindly?
But wasn’t that kindness due to her illusion magic?
After a marriage proposal was made, Betty ceased her beloved sword training for a month and concentrated on mastering illusion magic.
She didn’t want to face rejection at their first meeting.
Her model was her mother’s portrait from her academy years.
In the end, she succeeded, and delightedly, she managed to secure a promise for another meeting.
She was happy, but she couldn’t help thinking,
‘If it was my real appearance, he would definitely have rejected me.’
‘He wouldn’t have been so kind.’
‘He must have been attracted to the image of my mother in her youth.’
She unknowingly clenched her chest.
Occasionally resenting and clutching her large chest was a habit of hers.
“Are your hands hurting?”
He looked at her with concern.
“Huh?”
Startled, she looked down to find her hand tightly clenched in the air.
It looked as if her hand was stiff and twitching.
She hastily dropped her hand.
“Ah, hahahaha. Perhaps, from holding the sword too often, it’s a bit…”
“I see. You’re truly remarkable, to have worked so hard.”
He always lifts her spirit up.
Ordinarily, after training, one would be advised to rest a bit or get treatment, but he simply gave her respect.
And that was why her heart ached even more.
Because she assumed that all his kindness was solely due to her fake appearance, which resembled her beautiful mother.
‘Would they have worried for me like this if it were really me?’
The thought cast increasingly dark clouds over her mind.
‘They would have definitely looked at me with contempt as I rambled, talking about things in which they weren’t interested.’
She felt a twinge of pain on one side of her chest.
‘Yes, they would look at me like an unattractive, pathetic woman…’
Suddenly, she felt a tingling sensation down her spine,
“Oh…”
Surprised by the sound that unwittingly escaped from her mouth, she quickly covered it with her hand.
“Are you in a lot of pain? Can I take a look at your hand?”
Those worried eyes were too comforting.
But the cause of the surprised sound Betty made was not that kind gaze.
She felt a glare, like an observant gaze from above.
Merely imagining such a gaze was enough to make her involuntarily moan.
“It’s fine, really. I’m really okay.”
At that moment, she noticed an inn ahead.
“We’re here! Today was fun! I’ll look forward to seeing you again next time.”
“Y-yes…”
Betty took the cloak he offered her and quickly left.
From Noble mtl dot com
‘What on earth happened to me?’
She had something to sort out once she got back to her dormitory.