WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Copy Skills with Affinity! ◈
Chapter 51: Outing
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This felt awkward all over again.
Perhaps because this was the first time they had met “personally,” with nothing to do with the contract.
“...”
“...”
Noel and Aiden faced each other in silence.
Aiden had dressed a little more neatly than usual, but Noel had clearly put her entire heart and soul into dressing up from head to toe.
...Wasn’t this the person who had simply worn her uniform to an imperial banquet?
‘Stay calm.’
Aiden took a deep breath and spoke.
In any case, Noel looked far from calm right now.
She was utterly dazed because she could not even comprehend what on earth she herself was doing.
...Or perhaps she was nervous as hell.
Either way, he needed to keep his head straight.
He had thought about this before.
The more goodwill someone held toward him, the more cautious he had to be.
The closer they became, the harder it would be to handle things if he slipped up even once.
“Is there somewhere you’d like to go?”
At that, Noel snapped back to her senses and struggled to speak.
“W, we could go to a movie theater, or eat something good... Isn’t that what people do on dates? I’m not sure.”
“...Then shall we at least have a meal first?”
“W, wait a moment, please! I have a list prepared!”
“...”
Aiden was left speechless as Noel pulled a notebook from inside her clothes and rapidly flipped through it.
Well, he had looked up a few basic things to do too.
But it seemed nothing compared to the lists covering Noel’s notebook, handwritten and filled with circles, crossed-out marks, and notes.
Just how much preparation had she done?
Overwhelmed by her thoroughness, Aiden followed her without complaint to a restaurant. Once there, he looked around with a slightly pale face.
“...Lady Noel.”
“Yes?”
“...Isn’t this place a little too nice?”
But the place she had dragged him to was clearly far too expensive to bring someone like Aiden to.
When he opened the menu with trembling hands, it was packed with prices high enough to make him want to leap from his seat and flee.
To Aiden, who had seen the household finances strained day after day in the small home where his father and younger sister lived,
“...”
the sums alone looked enough to give him an arrhythmia.
“Shall I bring everything on this page?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“...”
And Lady Noel had no trouble ordering it all.
‘...Again.’
He had felt it countless times before.
Even in little things like this, the difference showed.
Noel and Aiden lived in different worlds.
“You don’t look well. Is there something making you uncomfortable?”
“...No.”
And it was even stranger that someone like her was more nervous than he was, carefully watching his reactions...
Being here already made him uneasy, but something else made it worse.
‘...What is she doing over there?’
He could feel Katia’s gaze constantly boring into his back.
She was doing her best to hide her presence, but Aiden was sensitive enough to notice other wielders of Divine Power. That meant she remained within his awareness.
She had secretly followed them all the way here and was watching from afar.
“...”
Honestly, this was more than enough to keep Aiden on edge.
Whatever happened, Katia’s current Bond Form toward him was Obsession. If he let anything unnecessary slip, there was no telling how she might react.
It would be best to keep the conversation as natural as possible without hurting Noel’s feelings, while walking a very narrow line.
Honestly, he had no idea what Katia might do if things went wrong.
“You’ve seemed busy lately. Are you all right?”
The simplest topic was official business. Katia would not react much to something like that.
“Actually, you have been harder to deal with than being busy, Aiden.”
“...Pardon?”
“There were many things I wanted to say to you, but isn’t it difficult for us to be alone? Her Highness Katia has no tact and would not even give you any private time...”
He could vividly picture sparks flying from Katia’s eyes behind him. He could feel the piercing gaze on his back without even turning around.
Aiden hurriedly changed the subject.
“That’s fine with me, so you don’t need to worry about it. Anyway, you’ve been summoned to the imperial palace often lately.”
To be honest, Aiden had been curious as well.
The Prince and the Minister of Administration intended to keep their heads down and stay quiet for the time being. They might be moving actively behind the scenes, but they were in no position to openly cause major trouble.
Yet Aiden had frequently seen Noel summoned directly by the Emperor for discussions lately. Even as an outsider uninvolved in state affairs, he could easily guess something was happening.
Noel let out a deep sigh.
“The Aslan Ducal House is causing trouble.”
Aiden’s brow twitched at the name.
‘...The Aslan Ducal House?’
It was a house whose name he knew well.
The shield that supported the Empire against the Void Zone in the north. One of the Empire’s foremost military houses.
Lionheart was the strongest warrior in the entire Empire, but everyone after her was lined up from the Aslan Ducal House. That alone proved its influence.
Aiden also knew it for another reason.
‘The main characters of Chapter Two.’
It was the house that served as the main stage of Act One, Chapter Two, Night of the Hunt.
“...Has something happened there?”
“Well... There have been rumors about Grand Duke Aslan’s health for some time. The problem is that every one of the heirs is ambitious. It has long been widely known that the young lord and young lady do not get along. It is a common succession issue.”
“...”
Again, it was information that differed from the original work.
‘...Grand Duke Aslan is sick?’
Originally, Chapter Two was a quest where one cut off the source of the magical beast disturbance in Grand Duke Aslan’s territory together with the Grand Duke. Yet things had been twisted from the roots again.
‘I have a bad feeling about this.’
And if the household was already fighting over succession like that, it was the perfect environment for the Prince and Minister of Administration, who could not step forward openly, to get involved.
Since Chapter Two led directly into Chapter Three, Grand Duke Aslan and the Grand Duke’s territory were major factors in the Scenario.
What Noel had just said was not information he could easily dismiss.
“More importantly, Aiden.”
“...Yes?”
“Right now, that is not important.”
Then Noel cleared her throat, cutting off Aiden’s thoughts before they could continue.
“Here, right now, um...”
Noel looked around as she spoke haltingly.
The way she kept fidgeting made it seem as though saying this required every bit of courage she possessed.
“I would like us to talk about just ourselves.”
“...”
“There are many things we do not know about each other. We are going to become husband and wife, after all.”
“...That’s true. Is there something you want to know about me?”
There was nothing strange about what Noel wanted.
Aiden and Noel were bound by a contract marriage, but they knew almost nothing about each other. Wanting to have a conversation was not that strange...
“I think I would prefer a son to a daughter. What do you think, Aiden?”
Aiden’s body went rigid.
Katia, who was surely watching them from behind, must have looked much the same.
“...Was that a strange question?”
“...Quite.”
It was certainly not a question to bring up during a first date.
Especially when an unwelcome guest who hated even seeing the two of them together was listening nearby.
Noel’s face turned slightly pale. She looked like she was racking her brain to think of a better question...
“Then should I ask how many children you would want to raise instead?”
“...”
Please.
No.
Thinking about it again, this person truly seemed incapable of moderating herself when it came to topics like this...
“...Shall we talk about something else, Lady Noel?”
“What kind of childcare products should we use?”
...Please let her thoughts move away from children.
As Aiden twisted himself into knots trying to escape questions that could hardly come up on a first date, Katia’s gaze grew sharper and sharper.
It felt as if his blood were drying up in real time.
“...”
Please.
Save me.
Someone save me from this hellish situation...
Just as Aiden squeezed his eyes shut with that thought, a savior burst into the restaurant.
“Get on the floor!”
“Put your money in here! Now!”
...In the form of masked men pointing guns.
“...”
It was sudden, but considering they had gotten him out of this situation, calling them saviors was not entirely wrong.
Robberies had become fairly rare these days. Especially robberies in such a classic form, with masked men brandishing guns.
There were people everywhere who could shatter rocks with their bare hands by wielding abilities, so the number of brazen people who dared to do such things had naturally declined.
In fact, two of the strongest people among them were inside this restaurant right now.
“Get down! Move even a toe, and I’ll blow your head off!”
“Take out all your wallets! Put everything in the bag!”
Seeing the men shout while waving their guns, Aiden’s feelings were clearly directed somewhere other than fear.
While the other customers fell to the floor in panic, his gaze moved back and forth between Noel and Katia.
“Haah.”
A thick vein stood out on Noel’s forehead as she sighed.
Ki so refined it seemed to have vaporized into white mist pulsed beneath her breath.
“I finally managed to muster up the courage to arrange this, somehow...”
“...”
Aiden broke into a cold sweat as he looked at Noel, whose eyes held a terrifying glint. The knife and fork in her hands crumpled.
“And these damned criminals have to come in without a shred of awareness...”
It was a little funny that her anger was directed less at the threat to the public and more at having her date interrupted, but still.
Behind him, Katia kept a smile on her face as she scraped her fork across her plate. Scrape, scrape. She did not look nervous in the slightest.
Instead, Aiden gradually began to tense up.
‘...What are these people about to do?’
Mostly because of that.
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