My Stepmom is Too Pretty, and It’s Troubling Me – Chapter 87

“Do you not need any information?”

“Anyway, I won’t be running any business for a while.”

I vaguely sent a letter in a new name to Alexandra and sat down to just relax.

It was cold outside, and it had been a while since I visited the Information Guild, so I had a little bit to do.

“Hmm… So you really did wrap up your business, huh?”

“Isn’t it weird to wrap it up fake?”

“Hmm…”

A woman showing some interesting reactions.

Well, I wasn’t particularly surprised since most of the time, she acted like this.

In a room where the lighting wasn’t very bright, I sat across from her, just quietly looking at her, and she was looking back at me.

Honestly, I had no idea what she was thinking.

“Why did you close your business? Everything was more or less making a decent profit, and most of the businesses seemed too valuable to sell right now.”

“Did you do a background check or something?”

“That’s what we do at the Information Guild.”

“……..”

Well, that’s true.

But her boldness was quite ridiculous.

In reality, there was no denying that was exactly the kind of thing the Information Guild did.

“But seriously, why did you close your business? I see… aside from a really big magic stone mine, you’ve almost sold everything?”

“Uh…”

It seems she knew what I did with my background check.

But the fact that she didn’t know the reason behind it was a bit amusing.

Does this person not know my age…?

Logically, there are only about three or four months left until I enter the Academy, so it seems stranger to leave the business as is instead.

It’s common knowledge at the Information Guild what my age is…

“…I’m twelve years old. Of course, I should be entering the Academy next year.”

“Ah.”

“…?”

“Oh, I get it! Right!”

“…Did you just forget about it?”

“Yeah!”

“………”

Honestly, I never got the feeling of her being normal every time we met.

She definitely doesn’t feel normal.

“Yeah… Speaking of which, I was still quite young…”

“Yes.”

“Wow… then at just twelve years old, how much wealth do you have?”

“Isn’t it more than most Marquess families?”

“Ohoho…”

I never really knew the exact wealth of other families, so I couldn’t be sure.

But I had a feeling I probably had more than most families.

Since this time, after finishing up the businesses to some extent, the gold entrusted to the bank or Information Guild was quite a lot.

Surely I had more gold than a certain degree of families, right?

“Are you not going to invest in stocks anymore these days?”

“No. I don’t have any plans to touch them for a while. I wouldn’t have the time anyway, and it’s hard to go look at stocks at the Academy.”

“That’s true! So until you graduate from the Academy, you won’t be doing any investments or anything? Do you know how much money has piled up in the Guild under your name!?”

It was indeed true that there was an impressive amount of gold in my safe at the Guild.

Just that alone would likely allow me to buy over a hundred buildings easily.

“Anyway, enough about that; should we talk about something else?”

“What is it? I’m super curious about what you want to talk about. In the past, you suddenly asked about a count family that went bankrupt, and before that, about some cult… hehehe…”

“Well, it’s not that grand. I just have some curious questions to bring up.”

Seeing her shake her head and body sideways, looking pleased… was really… kind of silly.

Of course, despite these actions, she did handle her tasks efficiently.

We had met often at the Information Guild and while we weren’t particularly close, I had become fairly accustomed to her.

She was one of the ways I got information.

“Please investigate any recent rumors or evaluations about our family, the Leonhardt family.”

“Eh?”

“I’m entering the Academy soon, and I think it wouldn’t be good to be completely oblivious. Besides, I’ve collected quite a bit of information about other families already…”

“Then why are you asking about your own family? Don’t you already know?”

“While the main structure shouldn’t change, I was wondering if anything has changed in the past year or two. There could be new talks.”

I don’t think much would have changed, but still, I asked for it before entering the Academy for some self-awareness.

In fact, I had already received a fair amount of information about the nobles and ladies who were entering the Academy next year.

I never had much interest anyway.

“Anyway, please. You can do this for me, right?”

“Honestly, it shouldn’t be too hard… Asking about the Leonhardt family, even the local beggars would probably say it’s those rich strange folks?”

“……..”

“Nobles would probably say… the head of the family is so fat that if he fell down a hill, he’d just roll down?”

…Hmm.

That’s a fact.

Hearing such evaluations didn’t really leave a good feeling for self-awareness.

But since it was based on fact, I had no argument against it.

“Anyway, please look for something new. And make sure to send that letter well.”

“Already leaving?”

“There’s nothing more to do. It’s about time I head home.”

“Heh…”

It was the same response as always.

“If anything comes up while you’re doing my request, make sure to contact me separately.”

“Okay, you’re coming back again, right?”

“I think so. It seems like I’ll have to visit the Guild a bit more before heading to the Academy.”

I might have to come by due to contacting Alexandra, and also could come whenever I needed information.

“I hope you have a lot of information stored by the next time you come.”

“I’ll try to make an effort for you?”

“Could you stop calling me ‘you’?”

“Heh…”

“Who calls a twelve-year-old like that?”

This person really was strange every time I saw her.

*

For the moment, I had finished the important things I needed to do before heading to the Academy.

I wouldn’t be getting any contact from Alexandra right away, and I didn’t really have anything else to do…

“So, what should I do?”

It really felt like I was out of options now.

There was still time left until I went to the Academy… what should I really do?

I thought about it myself, I had been contemplating while wrapping up my businesses, but the conclusion was always the same.

Knock knock.

“Mother, may I come in?”

In the end, my conclusion was always spending time with Rosalyn.

Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything better than just hanging out with Rosalyn.

After all… it was obvious I wouldn’t get to see her for a while soon.

I planned to spend as much time as possible with Rosalyn before then.

Anyway, I knocked on the door in front of Rosalyn’s Room, and hearing her say it was okay, I went inside.

“What are you doing?”

“Ugh… stretching…?”

“…?”

In Rosalyn’s Room, as I walked in, Rosalyn was… doing something… extending her waist.

Thanks to that, her chest seemed more pronounced than usual in the dress she was wearing…

“Ugh, uh…”

…In many ways, it felt a bit inappropriate just to watch.

It didn’t look like a very ordinary sight.

“Ahem…”

For now… I took a suitable seat.

Rosalyn was sitting alone at her desk, and there were more chairs over there, but… it didn’t feel right to go there.

I decided to sit at one of the chairs around the long table.

“Ah… finally feels a little refreshing…”

“Why are you stretching all of a sudden?”

“Just sitting still for too long makes me feel really tired, you know? So I thought I’d give it a try. Anyway, there’s still time, right?”

“Ah…”

After finishing her stretching, Rosalyn sat next to me.

There was a seat directly across, and there was a place of honor too, but… she chose to sit beside me.

“Is Camellia still too young to feel this?”

“I don’t really know.”

“Well, when you’re young, everyone is like that. I used to run around outside all day when I was Camellia’s age.”

“…I usually don’t go outside.”

“That’s true… Camellia is too well-mannered, so she doesn’t often go out and play like kids her age.”

In reality, my outings were… probably almost nonexistent, except for when I went to the businesses or the Information Guild.

I rarely went to Niesista, while Ella would often visit our territory.

“Hmm… It’s been really chilly these days to take Camellia out anywhere.”

“?”

“Hmm… if I ask Camellia to go out now, she’d probably refuse, saying it’s cold and bothersome…”

“Mother…?”

Rosalyn suddenly started talking to herself.

I couldn’t understand why she was saying all this to me.

Of course, the weather getting colder did make it really unpleasant to go outside, but… I just didn’t understand why this conversation was coming up all of a sudden.

“How can we have fun with Camellia together?”

“That’s true…?”

Then, suddenly, Rosalyn looked at me smiling.

At her question, it felt a bit awkward to answer.

Well… I didn’t really have any hobbies to speak of, so…?

“What should we do…?”

Honestly, I had no real hobbies, so, answering Rosalyn’s question wasn’t easy.

Lately, it seemed my activities mostly revolved around teasing Rize.

“Hmm… how about we take a bath together for the first time in a while?”

“…Huh?”

“Since you don’t like going outside, we could just chat while we take a bath together and spend some time. How about it?”

“Suddenly…? Didn’t you already take a bath in the morning?”

I was struggling to keep up with the sudden flow of Rosalyn’s words.

This wasn’t suddenly bath time, nor was there really a reason for it…?

“Don’t you like it?”

“Not that I dislike it but…”

Sure, it was true that I came to spend time with Rosalyn.

But I really didn’t expect things to unfold this way…

I just muttered a vague response.