After a month full of training in water magic, I am finally getting a break.....that's what my father said, but in reality here I am attending the Villainess's birthday party.
Rather than a party, it's more of a social gathering of relatives and close friends.
Contrary to my expectations, nobles of this world do not celebrate their birthday extravagantly every year.
Big birthday parties are mostly held only on the first birthday, of course there are exceptions.
I came here with my mother who also wanted to meet her dear friend.
But now I regret coming here!
Because I realized that this place is mostly filled with girls!
After reaching the mansion of the Mizo family which is in the 'Murlin City', we were received by Marchioness Adelia along with Elena.
As you would expect from a woman who said to rival the beauty of Nightingale of East, she is like a traditional asian beauty with a mature charm.
[Author: let's just speed run this whole filler episode from here]
We congratulated Elena, then I was dragged by her to meet her younger cousin sisters Ava and Mia, twin daughters of the Marquis's younger brother.
They should be around 4 or 5 years old.
Ava has very short hair while Mia has long hair which makes it easier to differentiate between them.
Then I was surprised to meet another character from the game, the heroine's love rival in one of the routes, 'Crystal Saffron'.
Crystal is the eldest daughter of the Saffron Marquis family of Kanchen which is the coldest region in the Yona Kingdom.
According to the game, she should be a year older than me and Elena who are 8.
She was a second year student when the heroine entered the academy.
Apparently Crystal is Elena and Allia's second cousin from their grandmother's side.
There is also Crystal's younger brother Blaze Saffron who is the same age as the twins.
Surprisingly Blaze is a very genial kid or maybe because he is able to finally ease after seeing that there's another guy?
Well he is having a quarrel with Ava then it should be the later case.
The party went smoothly after that, there were not many guests to begin with.
Elena played a Piano in the party.
I did know that pianos exist in this world as well but it was my first time seeing a live performance.
I thought I would be able to return home the next day but because of Mother who met her friend after a long while and wanted to spend more time with her.
I had to stay for two more days.
Of course I was dragged by Elena to help her in 'Wind Dance' during the stay.
She also showed me around the nearby areas of Murlin City.
....
The next 18 months went peacefully...
At least that's what I wanted to say!
But after that, my interaction with the villainess just kept increasing.
Elena accompanied Marquis Mizo in the next meeting.
She also sent me new year greetings by a letter so I also had to reply by sending a letter as a form of courtesy.
Mother also invited the Mizo family on my birthday, then again Elena's birthday then again new year letters.
Really I can only see unnecessary flags rising everywhere.
*sigh*
And now finally after the end of this summer the time for the first event of the game is about to arrive.
The tenth birthday party of the main capture target, second prince Lucian Ripon.
In the Royal Family it's a custom to hold a grand party on the tenth birthday of a prince and princess to make it their debut in the noble society.
The invitation has already arrived and we are preparing to leave two days later.
We will be staying at the mansion of my uncle, honorary Count Simuka Cama.
He is my mother's younger brother and the head of the information department in the Royal capital.
[Author: don't mind my naming sense, I was studying history and randomly picked the name for side characters]
Now back to the present, we are enjoying tea in our garden while Mother was reminding me what to pack for the trip.
"By the way, thanks to your suggestion the problem of orphanages is solved"
Mother brought the topic of orphanages, now that I remember the incident occurred a few months ago when we caught the director of an orphanage who was trying to sell a female child as a slave.
My body almost went numb when I heard about that.
Although I was born a noble in this life, I always think that what if I was not this fortunate? What if I had reincarnated as a commoner or even an orphan?
I am no genius or specialist.
I was just a highschooler in my previous life and if I had reincarnated as an orphan then my condition had been no different than those kids.
After hearing about the incident, I came up with an idea and told it to my mother who takes care of welfare related work.
I suggested that we should hire survey officers to monitor all orphanages by frequent visits and checking the report prepared by the orphanage staff.
I also suggested making a cycle according to which the same officer will not be visiting the same orphanage twice in a row.
By changing the visiting officer frequently we can keep a check on corruption as well.
Surveillance officers are pretty common in the modern world in my previous life.
Like education officers, excise department and income tax officers but such posts are very undermined here.
This new management was established last month and after finishing all the necessary work, Mother is finally free to tag along on the trip.
Otherwise I had to go only with the servants and knights.
since my father is also busy due to the recent sea monsters appearance in the coastal area near the city and is currently investigating that.
"This will be a really big occasion for you, since at the first prince's tenth birthday you were too young"
"Yeah, that was four years ago. At that time I went with Father, but it's not a big occasion for me, it's prince Lucian's big occasion"
"Aren't you at least a bit excited for the party? You know I received Adelia's letter and she said that Elena is very excited about it, so act your age and show some excitement"
That's because it's her first time going there.
Elena didn't attend the first Prince's birthday party.
Allia is the heir of the family so Elena who was just around five years old at the time didn't attend.
But I am not gonna spell it out, let's just act like a nine year old excited kid.
This 'event' has nothing to do with me anyway.
I sipped my tea while thinking about the details of the 'event'.