7 - How to Escape the Reverse Harem Cliché
Chapter 7
As I gazed into Aiden’s eyes, he flinched, tore his gaze away from me, and turned it towards Adrian.
“You’ll have to tell Father eventually, anyway.”
“Just keep it a secret for now. I’ll tell him later.”
“Is this because you’re going to the National Academy next year?”
“Yes. Once I enroll there, I can buy myself some time. It’s a boarding school, too.”
Even so, it would be agonizing if I couldn’t receive Guiding. What on earth are you planning to do? But Aiden’s expression was so earnest that I couldn’t press him further.
“If I keep your secret, will you keep mine later?”
“Of course!”
“You promised?”
“Yeah!”
I offered my hand for a handshake as a sign of promise to Aiden, who nodded vigorously. Aiden quickly took my hand, shook it up and down, and grinned.
“Laila. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
“Huh? For what?”
“It’s nothing.”
He seemed to question my words, but the simple Aiden soon forgot and started rolling around in the snow again, leaving me behind.
Huh, Adrian was an Esper? I was dumbfounded.
Did the original work change, or was this something not described in the original? In the original, he was always sickly in bed, so why…
I had thought the catalyst was the fire incident. That a small spark born from the Fire Demon had consumed the young child and grown in power. I speculated that the unhealing burns and his congenitally weak constitution had made Adrian mentally and physically ill.
That’s why I protected that child from the Fire Demon and made Aiden strong, through all sorts of pathetic training like basic stamina exercises and even requesting a swordsmanship tutor from the Count.
If my own son, Aiden, was strong and smart, the Count and Countess wouldn’t have to rely on me, an adopted child. Furthermore, if Aiden was fine, even if I manifested as a Guide, I wouldn’t have to live disguised as Aiden.
The fact that Aiden was an Esper meant his body was stronger than an ordinary person’s, so it was a relief that it didn’t seem to deviate much from the original setting. But everything else was the worst.
I sent my favorite character to an academy specializing in Espers to hide the fact that I was a Guide, but Aiden, who lives in the same house, manifested as an Esper? This was by no means good news.
I thought things were going according to my plan, but looking at it now, it seems I’ve fastened the wrong button.
Aiden wasn’t the right button.
“Laila! Come here! Let’s make a snowman together. Huh?”
I gazed at Adrian, who was waving at me from afar.
Plan A was to live the rest of my life playing and eating in this wealthy Pascianne mansion, but it seems I need to change my strategy.
It would be best to secure funds and leave this place before I turn seventeen and manifest as a Guide. Aiden and I cannot coexist in the same place.
I started slowly formulating an escape plan, rolling snow into balls and then into larger spheres on the ground.
\ \ \
The plan I devised to escape Pascianne before turning seventeen was quite thorough and detailed.
I had run simulations multiple times alone, mapping out all sorts of possibilities.
Aiden’s unexpected Manifestation was fortunately resolved when he successfully enrolled in the National Academy and left the mansion. It’s a boarding school, so Aiden won’t be coming to the mansion for a while.
All that remained was to persuade the Count and Countess, who wanted to send me to the same academy, to let me stay at the mansion citing illness and gather funds, but…
Damn it. I can’t help but curse.
“Laila. Are you alright? You have a high fever.”
“I-I’m fine…”
“Should I call a physician…?”
“No! Mother, please don’t call a physician. Please…”
“Laila. You should call a physician when you’re sick.”
“No. I think I’ll get better if I sleep soundly. Please don’t call one…”
Seeing me shed tears, the Countess looked at me with a pained expression. Then, as if something occurred to her, she placed her hand on my forehead and asked cautiously.
“Laila. Are you perhaps feeling aches all over your body and a burning sensation in your chest?”
How did she know? How could she describe the symptoms so accurately…
Through my vision, half-obscured by her palm, I realized the Countess was looking at me suspiciously.
Could this be Manifestation Pain…?
No way. Is this really Manifestation Pain? It can’t be… I still have a lot of time before I manifest as a Guide.
“Laila. It’s better to be honest with your mother, you’re a good child.”
“N-no… It’s not that…”
“Nurse.”
“Yes, Madam.”
“The medicine?”
“It’s here.”
Suddenly, she interrupted our conversation, called the waiting nurse, and forcibly sat me up by putting her arm behind my neck.
Leaning my back against the headboard, I gasped for breath.
This is driving me crazy. My heart feels like it’s burning. I can’t even breathe properly.
No. It can’t be. I still have two years until Manifestation…
But why does it hurt so much? It hurts so much I can’t breathe.
“Eat this, Laila.”
“…What? What kind of medicine is this?”
I couldn’t help but retort sharply to the Countess, who was offering me a suspicious-looking pill. I wasn’t thinking straight because I was in pain.
“It’s medicine to lower your fever. Eat it quickly.”
“But…”
“Are you talking back?”
“…”
“A good child doesn’t do that.”
Ugh, my head hurts so much, really. My heart felt burning hot, and my mind was as cold as if it had been plunged into a freezer.
Would I die if I ate it? Thinking this amidst my confusion, I opened my mouth, and the Countess, as if she had been waiting, put the white pill into my mouth.
After I swallowed the medicine, she laid me back down on the bed, pulled the blanket up to my chin, and patted my stomach with her hand.
“Sleep well, my baby.”
Her voice sounded like a lullaby.
The drowsiness that suddenly washed over me made me close my eyes.
Perhaps due to the sleepiness, my burning heart seemed to be returning to its normal temperature, and my frozen mind gradually began to thaw.
It seemed it wasn’t Manifestation Pain after all. Manifestation Pain wouldn’t subside so quickly.
Right, I’m only fifteen, so I still have about two years left. It was just unnecessary worry.
Thinking it might have been a simple cold, I closed my eyes with a sense of relief and fell into a deep sleep.
\ \ \
After that day, my fever dropped significantly.
The feeling that my energy had been subtly leaking out recently also stopped.
I thought, indifferently, that fever reducers existed even in this era, and rolled the white pill the nurse had given me earlier on the vanity with my index finger.
She had told me not to forget to take it, but when I checked my forehead with my palm, my fever had already subsided.
I wasn’t the type to take medicine for a mere cold anyway, so I felt conflicted about whether I really needed to take this medicine now.
There’s no need to take it if I’m not sick, right? My fever has already gone down.
Besides, the fact that my fever dropped immediately after taking it was suspicious. Medicine that shows immediate effects is usually quite potent, so would it be okay to keep taking it?
After much deliberation, I put the pill into a piece of paper, rolled it up, and placed it in a drawer. I’ll take it later if I get sick again.
“More importantly, I think I need to create an alias or a fake identity…”
The most basic way to increase wealth, whether in this world or that world, is real estate. It would be good to buy land in advance, but the problem is that I still don’t know this world well.
Wars break out here almost daily, so stable land doesn’t exist. Even if a place seems like a good spot now, it could be attacked by Monsters or enemy forces at any time, making investment practically meaningless.
Perhaps doing business would be better then.
Compared to the days I worked multiple part-time jobs to earn tuition, the service industry isn’t that difficult, but I’m completely clueless about management.
People like me are meant to just earn a steady salary and do our assigned tasks well, but how can I utilize this?
I gazed at my small hands, spreading them open. My smooth hands, which had never known hardship, somehow made me feel more bitter.
The Count and Countess raised me like a precious gem, and seeing me like this, they were clearly planning to raise me like any other noble lady and marry me into a good family.
So, the thing they regretted and lamented the most was the burn scar on my lower back. They must think my value has decreased because of this palm-sized mark.
“I don’t want to end up being sold off like this.”
As someone raised in a democratic country, I couldn’t adapt to this hierarchical society. I was still uncomfortable with superior-subordinate relationships. With that thought, I clenched my spread-out hand tightly, then opened it again.
Guiding…
If I manifest as a Guide, should I extract and sell my Guiding? In the original work, it was illegal but happened occasionally.
Whether an Esper or a Guide, it was the law to report their Manifestation to the Empire and enter a specialized academy for education and training, but that law was hardly followed.
Look at Aiden in my own house; he’s been hiding it and attending the National Academy, hasn’t he?
Aiden was even keeping it a secret from the Count and Countess. It seems he’s been illegally supplementing his lack of Guiding from somewhere, and I considered asking him but changed my mind and pretended not to know.
In any case, since such things are commonplace, perhaps I could live reasonably well by making a living that way after I manifest.
Of course, this is a last resort. Someone with my strong sense of justice couldn’t possibly do something so audacious… Besides, the burden of being dragged to the academy if I got caught was significant.
Therefore, I need to find a way to survive even if I’m kicked out of here immediately. For now, the priority is to scout for a suitable territory where a woman can live reasonably well on her own.
