Chapter 18 - Old and New Wounds

"A cat? Goodness, Alexander. What in the world were you thinking?"

Mother scowled at me disapprovingly, while my father refused to join the conversation. He kept eating with a face that clearly said 'I will have nothing to do with this'.

"Ahaha…"

I nervously stroked the kitten in my lap.

Yes, I had brought Floofbottom over to the dinner table. This was a bit of a gamble, but I felt that the chances of my parents agreeing to let him stay would increase if they saw how nice and adorable he was. The way that my mother looked at him with utter revulsion was discouraging though. Guess the rumors about her hating animals weren't exaggerated.

"Please get rid of that filthy beast this instant! Who knows what diseases it might carry?"

From across the table, Christine was smirking at me. She totally enjoyed seeing me get scolded.

"But mother…"

I raised the kitten up to chest level. He blinked at me in confusion, then just curiously looked around.

"Look, he's really well-behaved. I won't let him wander around the mansion unsupervised either, he'll be looked after by someone I chose. It's fine, right?"

"Mew?"

With perfect timing, Floofbottom let out an adorable mewl at my mother. I could see her eyes soften; looks like even she wasn't immune to this little guy's charms.

"Even if you say that, it's..."

"Please, mother? I promise that I'll take responsibility for him. If I can't even look after one pet, how can I possibly govern this duchy in the future?"

"…That is completely irrelevant, but fine. I suppose it can stay for now. But it goes the moment it makes a mess!" She finally relented.

"Wha-! MOTHER!"

Christine jumped to her feet, startling Floofbottom into hiding in my coat.

"You've never let me keep any pets! Why does Alex get to have one!? It's not faaair!"

Tears were welling up in her eyes as she complained.

I've always thought that she was strangely mature and cool headed compared to her in-game self, but finally, here was one of Christine Halesworth's famous temper tantrums. My sister pouted, stamped her feet, and glowered at me with incredible resentment.

"Enough, Christine." Duchess Halesworth sighed in annoyance. "I don't have the energy to deal with two selfish children in one night, and your brother will probably get bored of it eventually. Also, we can't let a dainty girl like you handle something so feral. What if it were to scratch you and leave a scar?"

"Mrow."

As if it understood the slight, Floofbottom let out a dissatisfied grumble.

"But it's not fair! I've been asking for a pet ever since I was a kid! How come Alexander gets to keep one when he didn't even ask for permission first!?"

"Look, I'm sorry. I admit that I was wrong to do that. But just think of him as your pet too sis. You can play with him whenever you want!" I offered amicably. Seeing mother about to speak up, I hastily added, "I'll make sure he doesn't try to bite or scratch you either."

That didn't help. Christine just glared spitefully at me, then went back to eating. She didn't say another word to me for the rest of the meal, no matter what I tried.

...Did I just make her opinion of me worse than before I reincarnated?

God damn it. This was going to be harder than I thought.

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Christine left the dining hall while choking back tears.

This was too much.

She thought that she had grown numb to their blatant favoritism, but tonight proved that notion wrong. Years of begging and bargaining failed to move them when the request came from her, yet tonight they pretty much gave in immediately. Even though Alexander - the disrespectful worm - brought that fleabag into their home as if mother's permission was an afterthought.

And her mother had the nerve to call her selfish!

Which of their children once set the kitchen on fire and caused hundreds of gold in damage!? Which one mocked and drove Count Elsinore's daughter to tears during last year's gala? Who was it that got drunk and made a fool of himself while vacationing in Mislan? Her useless fop of an older brother! But did mother and father care? No, of course not, they barely batted an eye, justifying his actions as the folly of youth.

Meanwhile Christine had never caused any such trouble. She strived to be the child they could be proud of and did her best to follow their wishes. Yet what was her reward? Disappointed scolding whenever she failed, demands to do better next time if she succeeded. And as the years passed she found it harder and harder to keep up with the weight of their expectations, so even the latter was rare now.

The two of them were treated so differently and their parents made no attempts to hide it. Why?

A bitter smile broke out on Christine's face. The answer was obvious to anyone with half a brain, but it didn't make it any easier to stomach.

Once again Christine felt an overwhelming urge to find someone and force them to listen as she cried out her grievances, but her mind drew a blank. There was no one she felt comfortable talking to about this. Her handmaidens? Polite and reliable as they were, they were ultimately strangers and she didn't trust them with such sensitive matters. Albert? Already asleep, and it's not like she could visit his room at this hour even if he wasn't.

...Her big brother?

Hah. Good joke.

As if she'd ever make that mistake again.

Wiping her eyes, the young girl trudged towards the ballroom with heavy footsteps.

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The next few days passed by peacefully. Every morning Emma would come to my room, help me make myself presentable, and then we'd eat breakfast together. At night we'd practice dancing with the help of a few manuals I found in the library. I didn't make too much progress, but at least I wasn't completely clueless now. Better than nothing, right?

And I might be terrible for thinking this, but it was always fun watching Emma devolve into a squirming puddle of stutters and blushes every time I took her hand. So. Freaking. Adorable.

Fortunately, I was also quickly acclimatizing to my new life and learning the 'common sense' of this world. Albert was very cooperative whenever I wanted to learn anything how nobility and society functioned, so that filled up a lot of my gaps in knowledge. Currently I think I can fake it well enough that the only risk of me being exposed would be at a gathering of other high nobles, since I barely knew any of their faces. It would be offensive at best if I didn't recognize someone of a comparable status to me, so I still needed to avoid balls and the like until I figured out a way around this.

My sister also continued to give me the cold shoulder whenever we met. She was still mad about me getting to keep Floofbottom. Whenever I borrowed the cat from Jordan and brought him over to her, she'd just stomp away while yelling "It's your pet! You play with it!", even though I could tell she really wanted to touch him.

I even tried asking Albert for help, but it was no use.

"She will not listen to me, young master. On the contrary, if I ever bring up how good of a student you are now, or if I suggest that she ask you about the parts that she finds difficult, she sulks for the rest of the lesson. It's quite troubling."

That's how it went. Honestly sis, please give your poor older brother a break. Let me make up with you! I just want to make sure you don't grow up to be all evil and petty!

There was some good news though. I was able to convince my parents that beating the servants was 'beneath' us. I said some rubbish about how serving House Halesworth was an honor, and if other noble families could discipline their servants without resorting to violence, we should be more than able to do it too. Thus, I and Mr. Hudson worked hard to come up with a fair demerit system to replace the punishments Ophelia was so fond of. Depending on the number of demerits one accrued, penalties ranged from getting stuck with the least desirable shifts up to docked wages and suspensions for more serious offenses. It wasn't perfect and still abusable, but it was much better than letting Ophelia play judge, jury, and executioner.

And maybe because of that, quite a few of the maids have been acting a little friendlier towards me recently. Before they'd just greet me flatly or even look scared, but now they smiled and said "Good morning!" to me with enthusiasm. I'm not sure why their eyes seemed to gleam whenever they did so, but I'm just glad that our efforts were paying off. When I mentioned these changes to Emma, she laughed hollowly

"All of them… idiots…" She muttered.

The hell was that about? I tried asking her, but she just shook her head while looking like she was about to cry, so I was forced to drop the subject.

Oh right. I ended up receiving one hell of a surprise on the third day. There were so many servants in the mansion that it's only natural that I haven't met everyone yet, but I can't believe I forgot about her of all people. Given her role in the game, it wasn't strange that she was already working here, though I don't know why she's not - wait, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself again. Let me explain.

To put it simply, I ran into somebody familiar.

Someone I 'recognized'.