Chapter 9: 9

Volume 1 Chapter 9: A Rather Extreme Parent-Child Reunion

In the northern reaches of the kingdom was the territory of House Luthorburg, and their domain had been one of the largest in the country.

But due to the failed vetures from two generations ago, House Luthorburg had sold off most of their land, and nobles in the capital ridiculed their poverty, calling them “House Luthorbroke.”

House Luthorburg eventually resolved their debts over the course of several decades since, but the path to rebuilding and prosperity remained an arduous task. Despite the bleak outlook, the current head of the household, a leader considerate of his citizens despite his own financial hardship, could count on the support of his people.

The people still remembered the poor harvest of the past year, when the Count had personally rebalanced the books and compensated for the financial deficit, keeping the taxes bearable and the citizens from starving.

Such was the character of the current head, Count Hughes Luthorburg, a man who followed the tenants of Honorable Poverty.

Count Luthorburg was a man who worked tirelessly to correct the mistakes of his predecessor and to restore his territory, and his citizens and family respected him for it.

And then the dedicated efforts of the Count finally reached a turning point.

His management skills had caught the eyes of both the Prime Minister and their assistant, and they assigned Count Luthorburg a position at the highest level: the Office of the Prime Minister.

By coincidence, his daughter Luciana would soon be attending the Royal Academy, which was also in the capital, and so the family made plans to relocate to the capital. When some unexpected troubles had arisen delayed the family’s departure, the Count had sent Luciana ahead on her own as admission procedures for the Royal Academy were strict and inflexible.

Of course, the Count could not have known what had happened to the Luthorburg estate in the capital.

“Wh-what in the world…”

And so, a month after Luciana, Count Hughes Luthorburg has finally arrived at the family estate in the royal capital, and his first reaction was of absolute shock.

The Count looked quite unseemly: a handsome man with brown eyes and blonde hair staring in amazement with his mouth ajar.

“Is this… really our mansion?”

The state of the estate has also flabbergasted Hughes’s wife, Marianna.

Like her husband, Marianna was also frozen in amazement, and her hanging, open mouth clashed against the beauty of her brown hair and blue eyes.

Their shock was fairly reasonable; the mansion they had arrived at was extremely beautiful, not a home that a supposedly ruined noble family would reside in.

“We have been eagerly awaiting your arrival, master and madam.”

What’s more was the young and charming maid greeting them at the door… Hughes recalled they had employed an older maid for the residence, so the unexpected appearance of a younger maid confused him.

“You’re both finally here! Father! Mother!”

” “Luciana!” “

The sound of a familiar voice snapped the couple out of reverie; it was Luciana who had called out as she jumped towards them. Hughes caught his beloved daughter in his arms, beaming happily, while Mariana, although in shock from Luciana’s behavior, gave a relieved smile.

Of course, the two had been exceptionally worried over having sent their daughter alone to the capital, but seeing Luciana as she was had resolved those fears.

“It has been some time, Luciana. You seem quite lively. It’s good to see everything is just fine.”

Luciana responded with a silent smile, and she carefully stepped backward still smiling. She began reaching over behind the shoulder with her right arm — and swung her arm down with blinding speed.

“There wasn’t anythingi that was ‘just fine’!!”

Supaaaan!

“Buhh!”

“Hughes, dear?!”

A sudden impact slammed the Count down to the ground; something had hit his head, but, although the strike sounded powerful, it seemed the Count suffered no real damage.

Hughes got back to his feet and began complaining to his daughter, tears in his eyes.

“What kind of stunt are you trying to pull all of a sudden, Luciana!”

“Th-that’s right, Luciana! How could you hit your own father like that?”

Luciana calmly stood her ground against the complaints of her parents. Rather than fear, Luciana faced the confused couple with cheeks puffed in displeasure.

In her right hand was the weapon she used to knock down the Count, and it looked like… a bundle of paper.

On closer inspection the bundle was actually a sheet folded in a zig-zag pattern, but what kind of weapon could it be? The couple had never seen anything like it before… Wait, could you really call this a weapon?

“…Luciana, what is it that you are holding?”

“This? Its called a “harisen“! It’s a sort of torture device that can punish people without causing injury!”

“A torture device?! Luciana, why do you have such a thing…”

“Don’t worry, mother, it’s like I said: this doesn’t cause injury. After all, I don’t want to hurt father, but I do want to let loose some complaints I have been holding back!”

“What complaints? What do you mea–…”

“It’s obviously about the mansion! It didn’t bother me how badly off our family was, but this mansion was too much for me to handle!”

“What do you mean? What don’t you like about this mansion? Its such a beautiful — Oof!”

Another satisfying slap resounded as Hughes experienced the harisen a second time; the time Luciana had spent practicing with the harisen finally bore fruit, and Melody, who oversaw the training, was watching the scene in satisfaction..

The training had happened after the tea party do-over; to fulfill Luciana’s request to “be able to express dissatisfaction towards the parents using both words and actions,” Melody had suggested learning something called a “harisen tsukkomi“.

If she were to use a harisen, Luciana could go all-out without injuring her parents! When she received her harisen, Luciana grew excited and exclaimed “this is it!”, and she immediately took to learning common rebuttals from Melody.

“Earlier, when you asked if this were really our mansion… father, you really had no idea what kind of condition the mansion was in! How could you have sent off your only daughter to such a run-down house!”

“‘Such a run-down house’ you say… What part of this is a ‘run-down house’?”

Hughes looked around to be sure, but as far as he could see, nothing around them qualified as “run-down”.

“He’s right, Luciana. In fact, this mansion is so nice that it is hard to believe it belongs to our family.”

“It’s ‘so nice’ because Melody fixed everything! If not for Melody, we would be living in that haunted, decrepit mansion!”

“Melody? Who is this Melody?”

In response, Luciana pointed behind herself; there stood a black-haired maid about Luciana’s age, and she gracefully bowed with a gentle smile.

“This will be the first time we have met, master and madam, and it has been a pleasure taking care of the young miss. I am the all-works maid, Melody, and it is my pleasure to finally meet you both.”

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The sight of Melody montarily took the breath away from the noble couple; they had not noticed her charm and beauty until they paid closer attention just now. Of course, their daughter Luciana was still the most beautiful girl, but this Melody was just as beautiful…

“…Hmm, has Luciana always been this beautiful?!”

“It’s a little late to be noticing that now!”

Unable to keep up with the situation, the Count finally noticed how much Luciana’s appearance had improved.

And it was towards this insensitive father that Luciana feigned swinging her harisen again.

Hearing the harisen cut through the air, the Count gave a small shriek; the earlier blows may have left him traumatized.

“By the way, Luciana, that dress you are wearing, where did you get it?”

Luciana’s sparkling blue dress had caught her mother’s eye, but there was confusion as Marianna could not remember her daughter owning such beautiful clothing; the dress itself looked brand new.

“Mother, this is the old dress you gave to me half a year ago.”

“Huh?! That dress was nowhere near as beautiful as this one!”

“This dress was also something Melody fixed. If it’s fine with you, we can ask her to fix your dress later, too. Could you take care of that, Melody?”

“Of course, my lady. It would be my pleasure to mend the madam’s dress.”

“Just what is going on…”

“My lady, lunch is ready to be served.”

“Got it. Father, mother, I shall explain everything that has happened as we eat. And father? I hope that you properly reflect on what you did wrong after learning!”

“Uh, yeah… I understand.”

“O-of course, we are getting hungry as well.”

And so Melody led the family to the dining room. Along the way, the Count suddenly remembers something he had forgotten to ask.

“Come to think of it, there was another, older maid that worked here. Did you hire Melody to help her out?”

“That maid retired because of a back injury, and Melody is her replacement.”

At Luciana’s words, the noble couple became confused: if Melody was the old maid’s replacement, that meant only a single maid was working here.

…So who could possibly be preparing lunch?

“But if Melody has been with us this entire time, who is preparing lunch?”

“Why, it is obviously Melody.”

Luciana’s answer confused them even further. As they said, Melody had been with them the entire time, so it should have been impossible for her to also prepare lunch… right?

“She hasn’t had to use ‘that’ recently, but I asked her to do so today to help explain things.”

“What do you mean?”

Luciana’s explanations continued making no sense, but the group finally arrived at the dining room. As they enter, something new shocks the Count and his wife.

” “…Huh?” “

“Master, please take a seat over here.”

“Madam, please take a seat over here.”

“My lady, please take your seat here.”

The two could not believe what they were seeing: Melody was also in the dining room — three Melodys, in fact. Each of the three Melodys, standing by a different, even shared an identical face.

“…A-are they triplets?”

The Count made a reasonable guess, but Luciana just boldly smiled.

“…You will understand soon enough, father.”

“What in the world are you tal–.. ack!”

Again, Hughes tried to have Luciana explain properly, but again, another surprising event occurred.

—Pirorin! Wine-serving Melody appeared! Dinnerware Melody appeared! Appetizer Melody appeared!

A Melody appeared, then a Melody appeared, then a Melody appeared, then a Melody appeared… you know the drill.

Girls with the same face appeared one after another; one Melody, two Melodys, three Melodys, four Melodys, five… and some more…

“Gahhh!”

“Kyaaah!”

Luciana covered her ears to mitigate the screaming; as it turned out, seeing all the Melodys together has driven the Count and his wife far beyond what their minds could handle.

The screams continued for some time, but eventually the two reached their limits and fell over unconscious.

” ” “Kyaaa! Master! Madam!” ” “

In a repeat of the first day with Luciana, the Melody clones cry out and act in perfect sync, rescuing then carrying the couple to the master bedroom.

Soon, the only ones that remained in the dining room were Luciana and the real Melody.

Melody had stood around growing pale as she watched her clones whisk the Count and his wife back to their bedroom, while Luciana, still covering her ears, snuck in a quick remark.

“Father and mother are quite a matching couple… they screamed until they fainted at the same time.”

“…It should actually be a matching parent-child set than just a matching couple set.”

Although Luciana should not have been able to hear Melody’s quiet words, she still laughed with a small smile.

This was, after all, just a minor incident on an ordinary day, one week before the entrance ceremony at the Royal Academy.

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