Chapter 2: The Actual Toughest Flag (実はいちばん手強いフラグ)
It took me three days to merge the personality of the villainess and the corporate slave.
On the first day, I went into a deep sleep after talking with my brother and relived the two persons' lives in my dreams. It was really tiring.
On the second day, I got up because I was pretty clear-headed. But I got surprised by something and fell down. It's like the heart of the two souls thumped at the same time, freezing the body. The right foot and the left foot tried to move in different directions. In any case, it was unpleasant.
On the third day, Alexei was so worried that he begged me to lie down, so I tried reading a book. Reading the characters that I had never seen was kind of creepy, but I could normally read it. I got slightly nauseated, but as I read on, the dizziness decreased.
And when I realized it, the discomfort in my heart had disappeared.
I'm tired, but adapting in three days is pretty fast.
Even though they had merged, 'I' only retained the speech of the villainess and leaned more to the corporate livestock in terms of personality. The length of my life was almost doubled, but Ekaterina spent most of her life in confinement. So this outcome was only to be expected.
Anyway, it's time for the corporate slave disguising as a noble lady to appear onto the scene!
On the morning of the fourth day, Alexei came to visit me. I confidently said with a smile, "Brother, I have worried you. But I'm alright now," but he was still worried. Like it's natural for him not to trust me.
"Nevertheless, you have to rest today. For you to have collapsed so many times must be because your body is very delicate and sickly. You shouldn't force yourself."
A tsundere. This man was the authentic pioneer of a tsundere.
According to what I heard a long time ago, 'tsundere' originally pointed out to the character of 'being cold to other people, only being affectionate to certain people.' But I couldn't guarantee the authenticity of my source.
Anyway, Alexei didn't act hostile towards Ekaterina. He was just affectionate. He looked like a very cool beauty, but he was warm towards only one person in this world, to the point of blind overprotection... And I was that person! What a great life!
"I'm really alright. It's the first time I've had such a refreshing morning. It's like I'm reborn. Also, I have an important reason why I don't want to rest," Ekaterina said, her expression stiffened. "Brother, it's less than a month away before my enrollment in the academy. And yet, my scholarly ability is too meager!"
Boom!
Right. Ekaterina, who had been imprisoned until half a year ago, didn't have the opportunity to receive education as a noble lady.
The typical noble family started the education of their children at the age of five with a tutor... probably. However, Ekaterina was neglected until she was fourteen years old. She remembered that her mother tried to get her a tutor, but they all eventually disappeared. Probably that shitty grandmother interfered. She never liked what her daughter-in-law did anyway. Why did that old lady shitty lady never get her punishment?
Ekaterina's mother taught Ekaterina to some extent, but she couldn't do much with the lack of teaching materials. Plus, she eventually became bedridden. Her brother had hired a teacher for her since half a year ago, but she hadn't studied much since she was in her rebellious period.
Therefore, I don't think I can attend classes at the academy with my current knowledge.
"The reason Brother took me to the imperial capital one month earlier before the enrollment was that you were worried about that, right?"
"...But your health is much more important than anything. I'll make sure anything will go smoothly. Even the public's evaluation on you at the academy."
Eh, hey hey hey hey!
Did Ekaterina in the otome game ride the coattails inflate her figure with the power of the Duke lineage?
"But I would like to study. The history book that Brother lent me yesterday was very interesting."
I could say that sincerely since it was the truth. In the first place, I was a young woman interested in pre-Edo history until I got a job and I changed my profession into a corporate slave.
To be honest, I liked history novels more than serious history books, but the book he lent to me was interesting. I really wanted to know more.
"I finally have something I want to do. I have to learn a lot to achieve that."
"Something you want to do? Hmm, may I know what is it?"
"I will study a lot to reach the point where I understand everything about law... Then I want to help Brother's work."
Alexei widened his eyes in surprise.
In my previous life, I didn't really react much when I saw the setting of Alexei becoming the Duke at the age of seventeen.
However, I realized it after I think carefully in these three days.
Being a Duke is extremely exhausting work, isn't it!?
If we compare it with the world of my previous life, it was at the same level as the president of a general trading company who also worked as the prefectural governor, right!?
Alexei tried to stay as close to Ekaterina as possible for the past three days, but he kept getting chased to finish the documents and make decisions. It was insane.
From what I could understand, he had to consider the production of the mines (amazing!!!) in the Duke's territory, the exemptions of taxes in some villages that suffered because of landmines and signing the compensation letter to another country that imported foods with awfully bad quality.
Above all, I unintentionally heard about a complaint of a huge dragon appearing in the forest that spreads over the territory. Because of that, the woodcutters couldn't enter the forest to cut down the four-hundred-years-old black dragon cedar. It was important to make the custom made item ordered by an important figure. That's why they requested for additional budget to strengthen the security and signed a letter of the delay to the client...
The fantasy feeling of 'a dragon suddenly appears!' combined with the everyday feeling of 'report' and 'additional budget' was very surreal...
Anyway, Alexei seemed to be extremely busy.
But he managed to do well!
Maybe he had memorized everything in the Duke's territory. Just with the name of the village alone, he could smoothly recite the location of it in the Duke's territory, the terrain, the main products, the number of population, and so on.
Not only knowledge but his coping skills were also amazing. He promptly issued instructions to every problem. He handled the documents and commanded a ridiculously wide range of tasks. And fully understood everything.
What a perfect man! Able to do such a thing at the age of seventeen... wasn't that already cheating?
Uesugi Takayama, a wise ruler in the Edo period, became a feudal lord at a similar age. But Alexei was amazing enough to be able to compete with that famous figure.
Then the corporate slave suddenly thought.
This... I'm raising the overwork death flag, right?
I should gather with talented people when working!
I decided to break the destruction flag, but now I could already see the overwork death flag (last boss).
Stop it, me!
How could I break that flag? This was tougher than the destruction flag!
That's why I declared that I wanted to help him. Not replacing him.
Well, Alexei only smiled... He definitely didn't take me seriously. But I guess that's normal.
"You're a kind girl, Ekaterina. You don't have to worry about work."
"Yes. First of all, I have to acquire the normal level of academic ability," Ekaterina immediately replied, unwavering. "I promise not to overdo it. Therefore, please arrange a good teacher, Brother. ...I'm scared to enroll like this. Please."
Okay? I slightly tilted my neck to look like a cute child. The siscon brother readily nodded and told me that a tutor would come here starting tomorrow. Yay!
...I think only Brother will be shy when faced with the villainess who acts cute by pretending to be a helpless girl... I'll be careful not to do it to other people. They might be disgusted with me.
Anyway, I'll do my best starting tomorrow... Only as much as everyone else, though~
T/N: Hi, translator (mii) here! I have something I want to ask to the readers... This novel sometimes change from first-person narrative to third-person narrative out of nowhere. Most side stories (like ) are in third-person narrative and I'm going to leave it that way, but what do you think about a chapter that starts with first-person narrative, then suddenly changes to third-person narrative in the middle out of nowhere? I wonder if it'll be too jarring... But is it rude for me to change it all to first-person narrative...? (; ;) Or maybe dear readers want to wait until we reach that kind of chapter (chapter 4 onwards) first to see if it's that weird...?
By the way, feel free to point it out at the comment section if you spot any typos or grammar mistakes! I'm not a native English speaker, so I'm not very confident in my translations... A constructive criticism is also OK!