29 Prelude to the Birthday party

A/N: Sorry for not uploading a chapter yesterday. I didn't feel like opening my laptop and writing. So, here's a relatively longer chapter as a sort of compensation. Almost 2.6k words. And probably a bit cringy. Forgive me it was unnecessarily long and cringy. I was not feeling as motivated today either.

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We spend a little more time talking amongst ourselves and then the archbishop. It was mostly my mother who did the talking with him, just some formal talks and stuff. After that, we left the Church and headed for our home.

The journey back was uneventful. The same old scenery and the same old fanship that we experienced along the way. It was truly strange to be on the receiving end of such a thing. I wondered if this is how it feels to be a child of a celebrity. No wonder they lock us in our mansions and keep us surrounded by guards when we rarely head outside.

…

Coming back to the mansion, we were greeted by the rows of maids, led by our head maid, Laura.

"Welcome back, madam. I hope everything went well in your endeavor."

"Yes, it went well. I'm happy to have got it over with. Anyway, how are the preparations for 'that'?"

She asked the head maid in a hushed voice, trying to seem all mysterious and stuff.

We had already gotten permission to enter the mansion and we were doing that, but my enhanced ears caught their conversation.

"It has been mostly done, madam. All that's left is to accept the guests."

"Wonderful. I was worried we didn't give you enough time. I tried to delay our arrival as much as I could."

'Is that why she was chit-chatting with the archbishop so much?'

Still, it was weird seeing them plan everything before me. I mean, they weren't all that discreet about it. But I guess it wasn't that big of a deal. Everyone including me knew there was a big birthday party planned for my 15th birthday.

Speaking of, my last birthday wasn't like this. It was just a small party with only the household members and maids, and that too not all. My eldest sister and my mother's parents didn't show up for the party—my father's family had long passed away, that's why only us 3 lived in this large mansion. Or anyone outside our family did. It was a private party. There was a reason for that. It was because my mother wanted to introduce me to the nobility on my 15th birthday when I became an adult.

However, that wasn't why Olivia and my grandparents didn't show up. Both parties seemed to have been occupied in their respective places at that time. And so, by some strange series of coincidences, I had yet to meet the overly loving oldest sister of mine since my reincarnation. Good thing too. Because now I think I'm fully prepared to handle her… if she still tries to do 'that' with me. Will she, though? I wondered if she might have changed in the past 2 or so years and maybe she had realized her mistakes. But, we won't know until we meet her.

Anyway, today was finally the day when I make my debut in the nobility, formally. Of course, I was there on Emma's 15th birthday when she made her debut, but I was mostly hidden from the crowd, due to the previous Alexander's shy and timid personality. And because at that time, Emma, the genius of the family, was given all the spotlight. But this time, it's my turn.

It would be a lie if I said I'm not nervous at all. This whole thing sounds rough and taxing on my being who has enjoyed a fairly solitary life for the most part. But I'll work it out, somehow. I have my knowledge and the fundamentals teacher's strict lessons to help me out. That strict old woman was quite annoying at times, but she did teach me manners and how to behave in public.

Of course, that's not visible because why the heck would I show those manners inside the comfort of my home? I can be relaxed here since my mother doesn't force us to act "noble-like". Even Laura doesn't pester me that much now.

Meanwhile, my mother and Laura kept conversing.

"Rest assured, madam. I and the maids have worked hard to ensure everything is up to the mark. I am aware of how important this event is for the young master. I wouldn't want to ruin his big day due to some issue in preparations."

"I'm glad to hear that. I know I can rely on you for these things. Emma's 15th birthday was a success because of you."

"It's my honor, madam."

The conversation continued, but I had walked too far to listen to it even from my enhanced hearing. But I did know that they soon entered the house as well.

…

I was taken, along with my sisters, to a secondary room with sofas and a table.

The maids who had offered to "guide" us took us to that room while making sure we didn't get close to a certain area. It was where they were going to hold the party. It was a large hall, resembling the large dining hall we ate in but much bigger, on the other side of the mansion. It was made to host such events.

"Would the young master and young mistresses like some refreshments?"

One of the maids asked as the other brought a small trolley filled with snacks and beverages.

Alice accepted, obviously since it had sweet things among those. Emma selected some light snacks and drinks and I took a few interesting-looking things of my own liking.

The maids then put the trolley aside, ready in case we wanted another serving, and stood near the door, giving us our personal space and relax and do whatever we wanted. We weren't allowed to go to our rooms, since it was situated in the section where the party hall was.

'Hmm, what to do now? There's still an hour or two before the party starts. They'll come to pick us up in an hour to change our clothes, again, for the party.'

I already had a special 'noble's attire' custom-made over a month ago for this occasion. My mother had been planning the party and sending invites for a fairly long time. It's quite complicated to host parties in nobility. You need to prepare quite in advance and send posts to invite people and wait for their reply.

Even though they had a fair bit of technology in this world, the nobles acted unnecessarily "traditional" and didn't like using a lot of modern items in general. Which was utterly stupid, in my opinion.

I mean, I get that you want to send and receive perfumed letters written by a fancy quill and ink in pretty handwriting because it's so fancy, but it's so much easier to use the bloody magic telephone to call them and invite them verbally.

Yes, they had a bloody telephone, at least most nobles and other administrations did, but the nobles only used it for non-official work. This was somewhat understandable since the telephone was very basic and wasn't viable as a long-distance means of commination. At least not the one they made for commercial purposes. But still.

Anyway, for the next hour or so, I spent my time chit-chatting with my sisters. Alice talked about her lessons with my fundamentals teacher. The same teacher taught all 3 of us siblings, at different time intervals. We occasionally had combined classes, but mostly separate ones.

Emma and I listened to her talk about how the teacher praised Alice for scoring perfect marks on all tests. It was mildly surprising, but this cute little sister of mine was a prodigy of sorts. At least in terms of studying and stuff, she beat both me and, obviously, Emma's scores. And I actually did quite well after I got hang of the subjects here. My developed brain helped me a lot with basic subjects. I only struggled a bit in unique subjects that I never had in my previous world's schooling. Emma… well, let's just say my teacher was not amused with her, at all.

Emma grunted hearing Alice's subconscious boasting. Emma struggled quite a lot in her classes. She would at times tell me how tough it was during classes. Heck, I even tried to give her personal tuition to help her score better, but I gave up quickly after one or two classes.

I think she might have her brain replaced with muscles or something. She was dumb as hell. Maybe she had a brain with six-pack abs, kind of like what she had on her belly. That training maniac. She was trying to challenge me in terms of muscle, but thanks to my cheat— ahem, I mean hard work and dedication, I had better muscles.

… Maybe I was getting affected by her.

I praised Alice for her good work and patted her head.

"Good job, Alice. You're a smart girl."

"Ehehe."

She showed such a brilliant smile that my heart melted.

'Agh, what is this cute thing? How is she so dang adorably!'

I hugged her and kept patting her more till she melted in my embrace.

Needless to say, I was spoiling her quite a bit, and for fair reasons. She was just too cute.

"Stop spoiling her so much. What if she became too spoiled? Even Mother spoils her so much. Everyone spoils her."

Emma humphed as she looked at us with an unamused gaze.

'Hmm? Why is she getting so annoyed?'

Checking her status, she was annoyed and… jealous? Uhh, what? Did she want head pats too or something?

"What? Do you want me to pat your head too? I can do it if you want. Want me to praise you for your progress in swordsmanship?"

I asked casually while smirking a bit. I mean, if she was jealous for such a silly reason, I didn't mind resolving her issue. I was all for head pats.

"W-What?! Who would want head pats from you?!"

Alice giggled at her embarrassed reactions. She was blushing quite a bit.

"I'm not a little kid, like a certain someone."

Emma commented with an annoyed look at Alice.

Surprisingly, Alice didn't like that comment as she stopped giggling and gave her an annoyed stare herself. She then something even more surprising. She pulled out her tongue and showed it to Emma.

Emma was surprised to see such defiance from the usually shy girl. Alice had never given her such a reaction before. Her frown came back immediately as she stood up from her sofa seat and came to our sofa where I was sitting with Alice now cozily sitting on my lap, still receiving pats. She reached her hands towards Alice's face and then squeezed her cheeks.

"Oww! Uuu, dath hurrs!"

"You little brat, don't think you can act like that with me. I'm not Alex or mother who'll let it slide. This is the last time I'll tolerate it. Got it?"

She stretched her cheeks a bit more, making her teary.

I watched it all with an amused expression. Classic sibling fights. I used to do the same to my younger brother in my past life. That little shit was quite annoying at times. He would rat me out to mom if I hit him even a little bit. Little rat bastard. I missed him, a bit.

I decided it was enough and was about to stop Emma from turning Alice's face into stretched marshmallows.

But then, Alice begged.

"Biig bwudaar! Pwease shop herr. It hurrs!"

Hearing that plea, I couldn't not interfere.

"Alright Emma, don't bully Alice so much. Look at her cheeks. They're swollen and red."

I removed Emma's hands and pulled her wrist to make her sit beside me.

"What are you doing?!"

She yelled.

"Nothing. Now, don't fight. You do know that today's my birthday, right? You wanna fight like that on my birthday? That'll make me sad, you know."

I held back an amused chuckle as I spoke those words. I was just messing with her. But she didn't realize as she looked away and quietly muttered.

"No…. And it wasn't a fight. No way I'll fight with the likes of a little frail girl like Alice."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

She humphed once again as she turned her face, yet again.

'The Tsundere is strong with this one.'

Meanwhile, Alice turned to me. Her cheeks were a little pink and swollen, not necessarily from being pulled, but because she was pouting. She was teary.

"It hurts, big brother. Big sis Emma was mean to me."

"It did? Don't worry, I'll heal it with my magic."

I rubbed her cheeks a bit and alternated it with the head pats. Soon, she was back to her relaxed self and she hugged me.

Obviously, I didn't use any magic—I couldn't, yet— but we both knew that. It was just a manner of speech anyway.

I kept patting her with one hand as I held her with the other.

She had grown a bit in the last 2 years, but I had grown more so she was still quite small compared to me. And she still acted as cute as she did 2 years ago when she and I started playing together. She cuddled to me like a koala and kept smiling as she basked in the soothing sensation of the warm touch on her head.

I looked at Emma staring somewhere, still sulking a bit.

'This girl. She's 17, but sometimes doesn't act her age.'

It was quite funny that she actually listened to my words, even though I'm 'younger' than her. All those months of slowly grinding Affec./Obe./Rep. points had led to it.

Emma's points looked like this–

[Affection/Obedience/Reputation: 82/60/80]

The last time I had checked, it was something like this–

[Affection/Obedience/Reputation: 65/25/70]

Note that she didn't act like this most of the time, only when I was involved. At least that's what I had observed. Quite sus, if you ask me.

And if you're wondering about Alice's, well, it's pretty crazy.

[Affection/Obedience/Reputation: 98/100/100]

It was… hopefully, a good thing. Yeah, it was a probably good thing.

'I mean, what could possibly be wrong with having such high scores with her? My mother still has 1 point more in Affection. And I like Alice, quite a lot. She's a very good younger sister. And she likes me a lot.'

I didn't think too much of it back then and was happy to have someone grinded up to such high points.

.

.

.

I was naïve.

…

I put my other hand on her red hair and started caressing her hair as I wondered about the possibilities.

She turned to look at me, surprised and somewhat annoyed.

"What are you doing?"

"Your hair is pretty. Short hair looks good on you, but I wonder if long hair will suit you more."

If the late game Emma was any indication, it certainly did.

Once again, she blushed and humphed.

"Long hair is annoying."

She replied but didn't say anything about me stroking her hair, let alone trying to remove my hands.

And so, there I was, under the warm gaze of the maid, spending some quality time with my sisters.

It was a calming experience. I was ready for the party.

***

A/N: It was probably cringy and too mushy, but forgive me. I wrote whatever came to my head. I'm still fairly a noob at this stuff.