They made their way back into the mansion. Adeline walked silently behind them.
"Have you had your snacks?" Wilson asked.
"Yes, Papa. I have." She replied. To Aristia, it was stressful to talk a lot to people she wasn't close to, but she had to because she was in the body of the couple's child.
That was why her answer wasn't short but wasn't long either. It was detailed but not lengthy.
[Come to think of it, does it mean I killed their daughter?] Guilt gnawed at her chest at the thought, but she pushed it to the back of her mind.
She hadn't chosen to come here and she wouldn't be responsible for something that was out of her control.
[And besides, I will return to my world tonight. Then their real daughter, wherever she went, will return.]
Wilson continued the conversation. "What do you think about your teachers?"
Aristia thought about it a little before she replied, "They teach exceptionally well. I haven't met the rest of them, yet. That will be tomorrow, but you already know that."
[Tomorrow, your daughter, not I, will meet them. I hope she remains friends with Vasily.]
Wilson looked at her with amusement swimming in his eyes at her reply.
Just then, a maid walked up to them with a short bow.
"Master, the young prince has just awoken from his nap." She informed.
Nodding his head, Wilson dismissed her.
He then turned to Aristia, "Tia, I shall return to m—" He needed to return to his bedroom and take a bath himself and thus was about to ask Aristia if she'd like to go see her brother when she beat him to it.
"Very well... Papa. I will be in Al's room." She interrupted and waved, and before Wilson could utter another word, she was gone.
Wilson just chuckled softly and went in the direction of his room.
***
"Tia!" A dressed up Alaric yelled the moment he saw Aristia come into his room. It was said that children could tell who truly liked them and who didn't. It was true in this case, and Alaric could tell that this big sister of his liked him a lot even though he was just three years old.
"Hello, Al," Aristia scooped him into her arms, or tried to since the body she was occupying was small and chubby. She sat on his bed and settled for holding his hand instead.
[When you're in the body of a child!] She wailed internally. She couldn't do the things she was used to doing as an adult.
"You're in my room," Alaric stated with a tilt of the head.
[Aristia has not been in his room?] Aristia thought, perplexed.
"Do you want something to eat, Al?" She asked instead.
Alaric nodded his head in reply.
Aristia smiled and turned to his nanny, Cassandra. She was the same maid who came into the dining room earlier with Alaric. She was a brunette with brown eyes and looked to be around twenty five years old.
"Cassandra, please prepare some snacks for Alaric. Linny, could you assist her?" She addressed Cassandra and Adeline.
The both of them bowed and then they exited the room to carry out her orders.
As they waited for the snacks to be brought, the siblings laughed together, mostly Aristia making funny faces in order to get Alaric to laugh.
Aristia thought of the children games her parents and brother played with her when she was little and decided to play it with Alaric.
"Hey, Al." She said to catch his attention. When he looked at her, she picked up his pillow, covered her face and then dramatically pulled it off her face, yelling 'Peek-a-boo'. She did this a few times and Alaric smiled widely.
She switched to saying, "Now you see me, now you don't", while showing him her face and then covering it with the pillow. Then after she did that, she again dramatically pulled the pillow off her face again only to yell 'Peek-a-boo'. This got Alaric giggling happily.
"You're silly," Alaric said with a chuckle. "You look so silly."
"Do I, now?" Aristia laughed.
That was the sight Adeline and Cassandra witnessed upon entering the room. They placed the tea and snacks on the table.
They were very surprised at the suddenly harmonious relationship the siblings suddenly shared.
Aristia couldn't tell what they were thinking.
She thought their surprise stemmed from the fact that the majority of the children in nobility did not share a good relationship with their siblings.
If the children were boys, they would be busy competing for the family title, and if they were mixed genders, the boy would not want to associate with the girl with the thought that she was just a girl and chose to focus solely on training to receive the title, while the girl on the other hand would not want to associate with the boy with the thought that she was a girl and for that reason, should not interfere in the matters of the boys.
In a nutshell, it was just a case of sexism and misogynistic thinking, where the males had severe superiority complex and the females, a widely accepted inferiority complex.
It wasn't the fault of the female race though. That was what they were born into and told was the rightful thing. It was the norm. They didn't know anything outside of that, which was why it wasn't uncommon to see them insisting that other females followed the norm, even going to the point of showing disdain to those who went out of line with what they believed.
Aristia knew how backward they were in their thinking and sighed inwardly when she thought about it, while taking a bite out of the snack.
[Am I eating too much?]
***
After spending some time with Alaric in his room, Aristia decided it was time to leave when she yet again felt bored. Deciding to leave the building that was the mansion altogether, she held Alaric's hand as they left his room.
Even before she left the mansion with Alaric, they were informed of the Grand Duchess's return.
When they reached the outside of the mansion, she met the Grand Duke who seemed to have also been informed of his wife's arrival.
There was a footman standing at the side, but when the carriage the Grand Duchess rode in stopped, Wilson went forward himself to help her alight the carriage.