The Reincarnated Thirty-Something Woman’s Otherworldly Reform Life
[A Stormy Birthday - Part 1]
Translated by: ME
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A mass of muscle, likely over two meters tall, was trembling uncontrollably before Magnolia's eyes.
She was awed by the robust muscles that surpassed even the exaggerated builds of shounen manga, but his dark brown eyes were gentle, and though his face was probably stern by default, it was now twisted with anguish.
(...Ah, this person truly has a loving heart...)
Even if people try to cover it up well, their true feelings often show through surprisingly clearly.
Whether for good or ill, the stronger the feeling, the harder it is to conceal completely.
At the very least, he held no hostility towards her.
Unconsciously, Magnolia let go of the hammer-axe she had been gripping.
She let out a small, held breath.
The head servants, seemingly having resigned themselves, quietly detached themselves from Servas and stepped back a few paces.
Servas slowly knelt before his small granddaughter.
「...Magnolia...?」
A hoarse voice.
Perhaps he knew how his large frame might appear to a small child. Hesitating slightly, he cautiously, slowly extended his thick, large right arm.
「...You are my grandfather, yesh?」
She took a step forward, looking straight into her grandfather's face, which was still above her eye level even though he was kneeling.
Over and over, silently, Servas nodded.
He probably couldn't find the words.
He nodded, clenching his back teeth.
After a while, Servas finally managed to speak in a small voice.
「Yes. I'm your grandfather.」
His voice, uttering that simple, commonplace phrase, was filled with a myriad of emotions.
All the servants present uniformly lowered their gazes.
「I am called Magnolia. Pleashed to meet you, Grandfather. Pleashe be kind to me.」
No sooner had she finished speaking than she was engulfed in a hug by thick arms.
「MAGNOLIAAAAAAA!!!!」
「Guh-heh!?」
A sound like a stepped-on frog escaped Magnolia's throat simultaneously with the loud voice right by her ear, which rang with a high-pitched *Kiiiiin*.
I-I can't... br-breathe... G-g-gluurghhh...!!
*Tap tap!!*
She frantically tapped his arm (He, still caught in his heightened emotions and rubbing his cheek against hers rapidly, didn't notice).
And her cheek was getting scraped raw...!!
「Lord Servas, the young lady is about to be crushed, you know?」
「Father!! If you hug a small child like that, she'll suffer complex fractures!」
At Gai's relaxed voice and Claude's panicked one, she was peeled off with a *schlllp*.
(I... I was almost done for...!)
Complex fractures.
That ominous word, glimpsed in the corner of her consciousness that was fading away, made her feel the terror of Gilmore's foremost, legendary knight.
*Kuwabara, kuwabara.* (A Japanese charm against lightning/misfortune)
***
「...Are you alright?」
As a wilted, exhausted Magnolia watched a flustered Servas, Claude spoke to her with a sigh mixed in.
「Y-yesh. Claude... Uncle? Big Brother?」
He looked momentarily startled, as if caught off guard, then smiled somewhat awkwardly at Magnolia's words.
「I'm technically your uncle, but you can call me whatever's easier. I'm Claude Allen Gilmore.」
He said this and extended his right hand.
Magnolia shook it with her small hand. However, his warm, overly large hand practically engulfed hers.
(...I know him...)
What was this feeling? The same sensation she had when she first recalled her father and Brian.
A feeling of knowing someone she shouldn't know.
Not that she knew *what*, specifically... but it felt different from just having seen a portrait.
(It's so fuzzy...)
Shaking off that feeling, she stared intently at the young uncle before her.
He was incredibly handsome. A level of beauty she hadn't seen in either her previous life or this one.
It should be considered a visual feast, but he was so beautiful it was slightly unsettling.
「I'm Magnolia. Pleashed to meet you. ...You've changed quite a bit, haven't you...?」
「Hm?」
Hearing Magnolia's inadvertently leaked mutter, he raised one eyebrow.
It was quite a picturesque sight.
***
The him she saw in the portrait was a slender, pretty child like an ice fairy.
His black hair, cut short in a childlike style back then, was now grown out casually, falling over his shoulders and back.
His almond-shaped eyes, which had retained a childlike roundness, now seemed to have gained a lustrous quality fitting his age.
His thinner cheeks compared to the painting, his high nose, his firm mouth—though 'pretty' suited him better, they held a masculine, rugged quality.
Though, perhaps due to being only nineteen, he still retained some boyishness.
Most notably, while not as tall as his grandfather, he still stood well over 180 cm, making Magnolia think she might topple over backwards looking up at him. His shoulders were broad too.
「In the portrait... you were cute, like a girl.」
「A girl... Cute?」
Claude, having been told this, wore an expression and tone that seemed unconvinced.
「Oh? Does the young lady dislike handsome men?」
「Hmm. Handsome men tend to have various troublesh, you shee.」
At Magnolia's words, spoken with a grim expression—reminding them of Claude's usual post-social-event grumpiness—the Azenda trio exchanged wry smiles.
***
After things calmed down a bit, Servas and Claude looked around the room.
The room, furnished with white furniture, was beautiful, but it looked nothing like a child's room, let alone a little girl's.
Incidentally, this furniture was what Servas's wife, Lunaria, had used when she lived here previously.
「...There's not a single piece of child-sized furniture...」
Gai had confirmed that, due to Wisteria's reluctance to procure child-sized furniture, items had been selected from those stored in the shed and brought in by the servants.
Apparently, the reasoning was that it was bothersome to change furniture multiple times, these were good quality and should be sufficient.
Claude's brow furrowed slightly as he saw the crude stepping stool for reaching the chairs and the cushions piled up to adjust the height.
「Magnolia, aren't you going to change clothes for your birthday?」
When Claude asked this as if it were natural, Magnolia looked blank.
「...Birthday? Whose birthday ish it?」
Servas and Claude held their breath.
「...You don't know your own birthday?」
「Ish today *my* birthday?」
She looked up at the questioned Claude, then shifted her gaze to Servas.
「...U-um. What kind of clothes would be good? I only have similar onesh, though.」
Saying this, she guided the two frozen men to the room with the closet.
Seeing the opened closet, the two were speechless.
「Are there... other clothes?」
「There are not. There ish one more fluffy dressh, but it'sh out for washing.」
Two dresses that were likely the wrong size, and three worn-out cotton and linen dresses in total. One cotton blouse.
They hung in the sparsely populated closet.
「「…………」」
***
Gai watched his speechless masters intently.
Both Servas and Claude had been raised as sons of good families.
They were always respected, their persons treated with care.
They probably never had to use chairs that were difficult to sit in as children.
Even if their clothes got tattered on the battlefield or during encampments, when they returned home, they wore high-quality, clean garments.
That was something to be truly grateful for. Both of them understood that fully.
But even if they understood logically, these things were a given, something they hardly ever thought about normally.
They didn't worry about materials either; they weren't particularly concerned whether it was cotton or silk.
They often wore cotton shirts that absorbed sweat during training or practice.
And there were always plenty of them, with multiple items of the necessary quality available for any occasion.
The same went for the luxurious formal wear needed to maintain the dignity of high nobles.
They were by no means wasteful.
But even valuing simplicity and sturdiness, they were always amply provided with what was necessary, their needs met.
Both materially and emotionally.
The same was true for Gerald, who wasn't here.
Even if constantly facing danger on the battlefield, they were never treated poorly or regarded as a nuisance at home. They were loved, treated carefully and preciously, and respected.
***
Gai had deliberately not told the two in detail about her treatment. Of course, he had reported the situation fully.
He reported fragmented facts like: 'There is no child-sized furniture, she struggles with adult-sized furniture,' 'She is only given shabby clothes,' 'She is ignored by her family.'
Hearing it, they probably thought it was pitiful for a young lady.
And in their imagination, they likely hadn't envisioned treatment this poor.
It was better for them to see it for themselves, to feel it.
Even low-ranking nobles, even if using hand-me-downs, would make every effort to provide furnishings suited to the child's growth. Both furniture and clothes.
Excluding dresses, what she had wasn't even fit for a wealthy commoner, let alone a noble, but rather that of a not-particularly wealthy commoner.
***
Magnolia, in her characteristic lisp, apparently told the laundry maid, 'Everyone washes them so carefully, so I can always wear them clean, I'm grateful.' And 'Thank you for always doing the laundry.'
The maid, who had never been spoken to—let alone thanked—by the other three, quietly teared up.
Nobles do not bow their heads.
Being served is a natural right, and speaking familiarly with those beneath them or bowing their heads goes against noble etiquette.
***
Magnolia apparently accepted a shabby sweet given to her by a maid with rough hands, thanked her for it too, and drank weak tea with her without complaint.
The next time they met, Magnolia apparently placed a fruit she had picked (saying the gardener gave it to her) into those same rough hands.
"'For the young lady's sake, for the house's sake,' he says. But honestly, I don't see the need to go that far,"
the maid had said.
She did the same with the kitchen staff, the cleaning women. Even the guards standing outside on hot days. She would greet them if she saw them, bow politely, and express appreciation for their work.
(Well, for the young lady, it was probably also to gather information and get close to them. But she didn't necessarily *have* to do that, you know.)
Servants, commoners—they're human too.
It seems Magnolia, though still young, understands that.
Was it her innate character? Was it because she hadn't received proper noble education yet? Or had she already learned a different common sense?
***
The world, life, is unreasonable.
Lord Servas, having seen various things trampled in war, probably knew that all too well.
Young master Gerald, involved in territorial governance since childhood, and young master Claude too, must have been aware of the darker aspects of territories and people.
—Well then. What would they do when it happened to their own family, not to strangers?
How would they settle it if they themselves had caused it?
To avoid unnecessarily increasing the number of unhappy children in the future.
What is the form of Gilmore, the guardian of the nation?
***
「I see.... ...Magnolia, here.」
After muttering as if chewing on the words, Servas placed a heavy lump into Magnolia's hands.
Sensing she couldn't hold it in her palm alone, a flustered Magnolia hugged it, looking back and forth between the carelessly wrapped bundle and her grandfather's face.
「Happy birthday, Magnolia.」
Though one's eyes were drawn to his ruggedness, looking closely, her grandfather's face was surprisingly well-proportioned.
He smiled with gentle eyes and celebrated Magnolia's birth.
The stunned Magnolia, belatedly, understood that this was a gift prepared for her, and that now, for the first time, a blood relative in this world had celebrated her birth.
Warmly, the words and emotions seeped into her heart.
「Thank you very mush.」
She curtsied politely. Then she blinked several times, looking at the heavy bundle.
「...May I open it?」
「Of course.」
Gai was grinning, and for some reason, Claude asserted with a face like he'd bitten a sour bug,
「Open it and be surprised.」
「?」
Opening the package... There were countless black lumps...
(What's this? ...Smells like spices?)
Claude informed her shortly, along with a sigh.
「It's dried meat.」
「That's great, little lady! For 'adventures,' food and water are important!」
Magnolia obtained food (dried meat).
—Dried meat for a birthday... Well. It happened in my previous life too, I guess.
I once received expensive alcohol and beef jerky from a former friend whose name I can't remember now. I think.
(I mean, a lump of jerky for a little girl...)
Magnolia gave a mental wry smile.
「...Thank you very mush!」
I'll take it with me when I run away, as Gai said, as preserved food. I'll do that.
It should surely fill both my stomach and my heart.
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