Chapter 20: Chapter 20 – Check Up

On the day Arlea injured her head, a physician was summoned to examine her and concluded that nothing was wrong. The physician said that all they had to do was to wait for Arlea to wake up, then make sure she took a good rest.

However, how was this ‘nothing was wrong’?

The moment Arlea woke up, everything about her changed. Upon further investigation, she said she forgot her mannerism. At least, she didn’t seem to be faking it as she relearned the necessary mannerism. This clearly showed that there was a problem with her, right?

With that in mind, Allen finally decided to summon another physician to take a look at Arlea.

“Tomorrow will be your day off,” Allen said that night when he was having dinner with Arlea.

“My day what?” Ann couldn’t believe what she heard. She had never gotten any day off before, she even started to forget what ‘day off’ was.

“No lesson tomorrow,” Allen affirmed.

Ann blinked her eyes rapidly. Was she hallucinating? Did her ears mishear it?

Though it was unladylike, Ann used her fingers to clean her ears.

“...What are you doing?” Allen was surprised silly looking at Ann’s gesture. They were even in the middle of dinner!

“...Can you repeat what you just said, slowly?” Ann asked.

“Tomorrow is your day off. A physician is going to examine you,” Allen finally explained in details.

“Oh...Is that so?” Ann finally understood the reason Allen was so generous as to give her a day off.

But wait...a physician?

 

“Are you worried about me?” Ann suddenly asked...without a tiny hint of embarrassment.

“What?” Allen couldn’t believe what Ann just asked him. Indeed, it seemed like he was a concerned husband. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, but it still caused Allen to be embarrassed that the tip of his ears turned red.

“It’s my role as a husband,” Allen said as he turned his face away from Ann’s staring.

“Pfft, haha. Indeed, there is nothing wrong with that,” Ann laughed at Allen’s shy conduct. Allen was indeed a cold person, but he was pure and kind deep down. That made her like Allen more...

“Thank you for worrying over me,” Ann casually said.

Allen never expected to get this response from Ann, so he shily said, “Like I said, that’s my obligation.”

“Haha, sure,” Ann said.

Having someone who was concerned about you...it felt good.

Ann’s heart was warmed.

But that warm moment only lasted for a while.

For Ann suddenly remembered.

Wait, what would happen if somehow, they find out that I was a different person altogether from Arlea? Were they going to resort to exorcism...? Or like the legendary witch hunt, where I would be hanged then burned?!

Ann shivered. No matter what, she had to make sure that the others were convinced that she suffered from amnesia instead of it!

Even a simple check-up was a warzone for Ann! As expected of transmigrating to another world, there was no way one could have leisure days, huh?

 

Allen was about to open his mouth to say something, but he then closed his mouth again.

Perhaps it was better not to tell her anything about it. It would be another ‘test’ for her.

Allen silently thought.

 

***

 

The next day, Ann finally embraced what it meant to be at leisure. She deliberately overslept.

“Wake up, Arlea-sama,” Faye was a bit at a loss of words when she found out that her mistress couldn’t wake up at any cost. She didn’t even response to her words.

“Arlea-sama,” Faye shook Ann’s body.

“Mmm?” Ann woke up a bit due to it.

“Arlea-sama, wake up. Breakfast--,” Faye repeated her words.

“Wrong person...,” Ann muttered as she jerked the blanket to cover her head as well.

“Huh?” Faye tilted her head in confusion.

What did Arlea-sama mean by ‘wrong person’? Was she dreaming that she was someone else?

In any case, it seemed that Ann created a cocoon of herself, so it didn’t seem to be plausible to wake her up...

With that, Faye reported to the other maids that Ann would be skipping her breakfast. The friendly gardener was a bit surprised not to see Arlea’s figure as she helped him at the same time as she was having exercise.

 

Ann woke up some time before lunch, with no recollection of what she said when Faye was trying to wake her up. In fact, she didn’t even remember that Faye was trying to wake her up at all! Faye was amazed by Ann’s difficulty to wake up when she didn’t want to. But the mysterious thing was that if Ann wanted to wake up early, then she could do it just fine. Faye just...couldn’t comprehend this.

“Arlea-sama, allow me to accompany you when the physician comes,” Gwen, the head of the maids, said.

“Ah? There is no need for that. You can work,” Ann was surprised to hear that. She felt like Gwen shouldn’t accompany her and focus more on her own work, so that she could have more leisure time to enjoy.

But Ann’s thoughtfulness was interpreted differently by Gwen. Gwen thought that Arlea was up to something with the physician, causing her to be more alert and insisted on staying with Arlea.

Ann sighed at Gwen’s insistence and it never crossed to her mind why Gwen was so zealous in insisting that she’d accompany her.

 

The physician arrived some time after Ann was done with her lunch.

When the physician arrived, Gwen widened her eyes in surprise and came to understand why Allen ordered her to observe Arlea’s attitude during the check-up.

The physician that arrived was a female. In this world, most physicians were males. There were only a few female physicians and they were underestimated by most people due to the prejudices they had. There was this prejudice where male physicians were more expert than female physicians.

Allen was about to inform Arlea that the physician that he managed to get for her was a female physician. She was a young physician on top of it. However, he changed his mind and asked Gwen to observe Arlea in order to see if Arlea would ill-treat the physician and displayed contempt just like the past her. If she displayed such a behavior, then her recent behavior was most likely a pretense. And it would be frightening for her to have such a high-level acting skill.

 

“This way, please,” Gwen came back to her senses in seconds as she led the physician into Arlea’s room. As she knocked and called Arlea, Gwen anticipated Arlea’s reaction upon seeing this female physician.

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Would her pretense finally crack?

When Gwen entered with the female physician, Gwen immediately shifted her eagle eyes to observe Ann’s every expression.

As for Ann’s reaction...obviously, as a modern person, she was accustomed to seeing female doctors, so she didn’t even bat an eye from seeing the female physician. Even the physician’s youthful appearance didn’t cause her to bat an eye, for she had seen many young experts in the modern world.

Appearance could be deceiving, so it wasn’t wise to judge a book by its cover.

 

“Good afternoon, Madam. My name is Brighid. Duke Schwartzen contacted me the other day to do a physical check-up on you. Please treat me well,” Brighid said as she bowed deeply to Ann.

“It’s nice to meet you. Just call me Arlea, please,” Ann said as she felt uncomfortable being called as ‘Madam’.

“Then, Arlea-sama, it’s nice to meet you,” Brighid said.

Ann was relieved to hear that Brighid was willing to change the way she addressed her.

 

“I’ll start with the examination, then. If you will excuse me...,” Brighid said as she began to instruct Ann.

Meanwhile, Gwen gestured Faye to make some tea for Brighid, so Faye left the room.

Unbeknownst to Ann, Gwen stared at her fixedly to not miss any single reaction.

 

Actually, Brighid was also nervous when she came here. Not because she felt her skills were lacking, but it was because she had to brace herself to be underestimated or even be seen with contempt. The nobles she served so far showed an underestimating look to her. Therefore, she was very cautious in examining and treating nobles.

As she examined Ann, Ann noticed how diligent and detailed Brighid was. Meanwhile, Brighid noticed how obedient Ann was, and there was no trace of contempt in her face. She even felt like Ann was looking at her with a respectful gaze. Yes, there seemed to be admiration in Ann’s eyes. Brighid even questioned herself if she was seeing things right.

“So...did you find anything wrong with me, Doctor Brighid?” Ann asked after Brighid seemed to be done with her examination.

“Eh? Doctor...?” Brighid was surprised to hear that.

“? Yeah, you’re a doctor, right? So I should call you that, right?” Ann tilted her head with her questioning look.

“You can even call me just Brighid...,” Brighid said, a bit touched that this noble patient of hers was willing to take the initiative to call her ‘Doctor’. Though she was a doctor, she was a commoner, so most nobles would just address her with her name or ‘you’.

Brighid’s evaluation of Arlea just took a dive upward. Meanwhile, Gwen couldn’t believe what was unfolding before her.

Yes, Gwen was expecting Arlea to show contempt or at least an underestimating look...but what she got was Arlea’s respectful attitude towards the young female physician.

“Thank you,” Brighid said.

Huh? For what?

Ann couldn’t comprehend this.

Brighid then added, “There is nothing wrong. You are very healthy, Arlea-sama.”

Ann heaved a sigh.

“However,” Brighid added.

Oh come on, don’t give me such a suspense!

Ann protested in her heart.

“Is it true that you can’t remember some things?” Brighid asked.

Ann nodded very strongly, “Yes, I can’t remember some things.”

Brighid put her hand on her chin as she thought loudly, “Although I heard that you injured your head the other day, the physician at that time and I just confirmed that your head was just fine. But the fact that you don’t remember some things...Is it dissociative amnesia? Is the cause psychological?”

Ann started to feel bad for Brighid, taking the matter so seriously when she actually knew what was going on...But she definitely couldn’t reveal the fact that she ‘possessed’ Arlea’s body...

“Anyway, don’t worry about it. I heard that amnesia would be resolved by itself as time went on. I think your memories will return in the future, so there’s no need to be stressed over it. Stressing it will just make your condition worse, so I wouldn’t recommend that,” Brighid explained carefully. She carefully picked her words so that Arlea would feel relieved.

Ann caught Brighid’s carefulness and appreciated that.

“Thank you very much, Doctor,” Ann said as she bowed.

Brighid was a bit flustered upon seeing a noble bowing down to her first. This was definitely her first time seeing such a unique noble.

“No, the pleasure is all mine. Feel free to call me again, I’ll be happy to help you,” Brighid said as she bowed. She then realized that she was moved by Ann’s conduct that she even offered her help again. This was something she never really did as most nobles would prefer to call for male physicians first. Did she cross the line this time? How would Arlea take it...

“Sure, I will!”

Ann’s bright answer dispelled any anxiety that was budding in Brighid’s heart. She sighed in relief before excusing herself. Now, she was off to write a report to Allen.

Unbeknownst to Ann, she just took another person to her good side again.

 

***

 

[Report: Attached here is the medical record for Arlea Pristine Claritianta. In conclusion, I saw nothing wrong with her. The cause of her amnesia is unknown, but it’s hypothesized that her memories will eventually come back to her as time passes by.

PS: Arlea-sama was such a wonderful person and I would be more than happy to serve her next time.]

Allen stared at the report he just received from Brighid. His eyes couldn’t leave the PS note that Brighid wrote, which destroyed his idea of revealing Arlea’s true colors by Brighid’s visit. The Arlea that was currently in his house seemed so unfamiliar.

If things were to escalate to this, and there was no problem found in her health, should Allen resort to summoning the Claritianta family? Perhaps there would be some clues there. Or perhaps that would trigger Arlea’s memories back?

But...having her old memories back...

Arlea’s earnest figure and her teasing face flashed in Allen’s mind.

...Why did it seem like he was reluctant to let Arlea go back to how she was?

 

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