LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 51 — In which compliments are exchanged
Chapter 51 — In which compliments are exchanged
“Uh? Please wait a moment!”
Tangeri, who was looking out of the window, suddenly opened the door of the moving carriage and jumped out.
The carriage moved slowly, so it wasn’t dangerous, but Saffra double-checked if the girl was okay.
Looking how she was running down the street, she seemed okay.
After a quick thought, Saffra turned to Mimosa, who was sitting at her side:
“Let’s turn the carriage and follow her.”
“Okay.”
Mimosa agreed without hesitation, and after some instructions, the drivers turned the carriage and followed after Tangeri.
Saffra’s lady-in-waiting didn’t run off far away.
They soon found her excitedly explaining something to a young woman, about Tangeri’s age.
“Ah, this is…”
Apric seemed to be acquainted with Tangeri’s conversation target.
Saffra took a better look at the young woman.
… But the woman was extremely ordinary. Even her expression seemed ordinary.
Too ordinary. Saffra had a weird feeling like the woman didn’t know who Tangeri was and was just indulging her by listening.
“Do you three know each other?”
Tangeri was acting as if she knew the woman…
“Yeah. Well, I’m just acquainted with her. But it’s one of Tangeri’s old friends. But she didn’t live here before… is she visiting someone?”
Apric tilted her head in thought.
Currently, they were in Apric and Tangeri’s hometown and were heading to the inn operated by Apric’s parents.
‘Hmm…’
Saffra decided to open the window a bit.
For one, the carriage was getting a bit too warm, and for two, she wanted to hear what Tangeri was talking about.
“… And that’s how I ended up working at the General’s manor together with Apric as a lady-in-waiting. Ah, Our Lady is a true delight. She is beautiful, talented and beyond kind. A few days ago she even gave me such magnificent gift… Um.”
Suddenly, Apric paused her rant about things that she really shouldn’t be saying that loud, and took a second look at her listener’s face.
“Monachra, you do recognize me, right?”
“I’m sorry, but…”
The woman spoke up for the first time, but hesitated on how to finish her sentence.
“Ah! I knew that this hairstyle makes me look different, but to think it renders me unrecognizable. I’m Tangeri!”
“Aaaah…”
Monachra’s face changed, but Saffra had trouble figuring out if she remembered who Tangeri was or not.
But Monachra nodded, so it seemed she did.
“I remember now. Sorry for not recognizing you. That hairstyle is truly lovely.”
“Really? I thought you didn’t like twisted buns.”
“Haha… Preferences can change, can’t they?”
“Of course. By the way, are you here to visit someone?”
“Oh no. I’m living here.”
“You’re living here? Since when?”
“I moved last year for my job.”
“What job?”
“At ‘Eternal Happiness Foundation’. I work as an accountant for them.”
“Ah… Is that so?”
The face of Tangeri, who was cheerfully chatting until now, suddenly darkened.
But it only took a split second.
The shadow on her face was gone as quickly as it appeared.
And Monachra didn’t seem to have noticed.
They chatted for another minute and then parted ways.
Tangeri waved to her old friend until she disappeared from her view.
Then her face turned dark… but it was quickly replaced by shock, when she turned around and saw the carriage.
“Did you guys teleport here?!”
Saffra just smiled.
But in her mind, she noted down the name.
‘Eternal Happiness Foundation, right?’
*-*-*
“Ah! It truly is…”
“Lady Mimosa! Young Lady Saffra! It’s truly an honor to meet you.”
Apric’s parents welcomed them at the doorsteps with wide smiles.
“It’s my pleasure to meet parents of someone as excellent as Apric. Please, I’ll be in your care from now on.”
Saffra returned their greetings.
But Apric’s parents, who heard her words, almost burst into tears.
They mumbled:
“Ah, Young Lady is as beautiful and kind as Apric described her.”
“Truly, if Young Lady descended from the sky in the sun’s golden chariot, it would all the more proper. For such being to be but a mortal walking this earth…”
Saffra didn’t know what Apric told her parents about her, but it seemed to be some sort of misunderstanding.
Still, she couldn’t disappoint the fine elders’ expectations, so she did her best to smile like someone who descended from the sky in a golden chariot.
“Thank you for the undeserved compliment.”
“Ahh….”
“That…”
“Young Lady…”
“Our Lady…”
But it seemed that she did it wrong, because everyone looked at her as if they were struck by lightning.
Even Mimosa and Craya, who always managed their expressions well, slightly opened their mouths and looked at Saffra with shock and wonder.
Saffra really wished she had one of those fans Am gave her right now.
But she didn’t, so she just borrowed Mimosa’s umbrella and opened it, without a care that they were indoors.
“Huh?”
“Um.. Young Lady?”
From behind the umbrella, some sounds of confusion came.
But Saffra decided to wait a few seconds to make sure it was safe.
“Huh? What is happening?”
“Are you making an umbrella show?”
Two new voices suddenly appeared.
Saffra carefully looked out.
Two other elders were stepping down the stairs from the second floor.
‘Huh… those people are—‘
Before Saffra could finish her thought, Tangeri gave the expected answer.
“Mom! Dad!”
And what followed was another chaotic family reunion.
It was very similar to Apric’s family reunion.
It seemed that the two girls not only resembled each other, but their families also resembled each other in many ways.
“Mom, Dad. This is Lady Mimosa, and this is My Lady Saffra.”
“Ah, it’s an honor to meet the two distinguished ladies.”
Saffra closed the umbrella and bowed slightly.
“I can only appear so thanks to your daughter’s help, so it’s my pleasure to meet you.”
“Huhu, Young Lady is truly like an incarnation of light itself.”
“Perhaps when Tangeri said that Young Lady descended from the heavens, she meant that literally.”
Saffra just opened the umbrella again.
*-*-*
After a savage praise war, which centered on Saffra and concerned the parents of two ladies-in-waiting, and at some point Mimosa, trying their best to compliment her.
The things finally calmed down, the rooms were allocated and servants got to moving things and attending to their duties.
In the meantime, the parents of the two ladies-in-waiting acted as hosts and invited Saffra and Mimosa for dinner.
Apric and Tangeri’s families belonged to old noble houses, but they were always small ones, who didn’t do anything outstanding, besides their first founders making some achievements for which they were recorded in the Book of Merits.
Maybe because of that, the atmosphere around them was light and carefree.
There was no air of stuffiness that many high nobles had.
But maybe it was because the parents were as chaotic as their daughters.
“Mom, Dad. What are you actually doing here?”
Tangeri asked as she put a red smoked pepper on her plate.
“Ah, we live here now.”
Tangeri almost dropped the pepper.
“What? Did you lose your house!?”
“WHAT? Don’t shout, girl, I can’t hear you when you shout.”
“We didn’t lose the house, dear, we’re preventing those guys from losing their house.”
Tangeri’s parents pointed at Apric’s parents, who both blinked as if they had no idea what Tangeri’s parents were talking about.
Apric looked at them with suspicion.
“Did you almost get scammed again?”
“Dear, why are you jumping to such a scary conclusion?”
“We just had a talk with a really nice young lady…”
“Mom..!”
“Ah, no, no. Nothing happened. Don’t look at me like that. And you dear, do you want a baked eggplant?”
Apric’s mother avoided her daughter’s knife-like gaze and started to offer Craya a pile of baked eggplants.
But it seemed that Craya liked them very much, as she happily accepted that treat.
On the side, Saffra caught a glance of Tangeri’s parents putting full spoons of red chilly stew with chocolate on Citrie’s plate and the man doing his best not to look scared by the ever-growing mountain of spiciness.
Saffra was left alone, but that was because her plate was already filled by some unknown, but very fast power (Mimosa).
The dinner was pleasant and full of laughter, and everything tasted delicious.
In that atmosphere, Saffra, for the first time since waking up with her memories as Saffaron, felt she could relax a bit.
*~*~*