I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 75

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 75
It was then that Bennett first understood that a nobleman and a commoner could truly be friends.
And Olivia actually proved she meant what she said.
“You should watch her carefully yourself, senior.”
“……Disrespectful child.”
“Olivia really is a good friend!”
Bennett said this with a broad smile.
Olivia had already disappeared somewhere, but the time had been worthwhile and meaningful in its own way, and Bennett was satisfied.
Panya seemed to feel the same; she stood beside him with a nod and a thumbs-up.
“I still can’t trust her.”
Luca’s answer was firm. But there was less force behind it than before.
“I’ll judge for myself by watching.”
“Then do that, senior. We did the same.”
Watch long enough and you’ll understand. Just how good of a person that ‘noblewoman’ really is. After all, sometimes accepting something required quite a long time.
Bennett smiled at that thought. Luca’s face clouded with unease.
* * *
Having set his mind very firmly, Luca kept Olivia in constant work.
If what Aiden assigned to Olivia was a kind of ‘training’ that pushed people to their limits, yet in the end couldn’t be entirely separated from conditioning, what Luca gave her was different.
“This. Go wash it, would you?”
“Pardon?”
“I said wash it. Don’t you know how to do laundry?”
Chores, pure and simple.
Mostly it was washing the training clothes the senior members had left behind, delivering mail, or running personal errands. She was occasionally given tasks related to the Slums, but it was very little—mostly it was just chores.
So was this harassment? Olivia pondered.
Splash!
“So why am I doing this with you?”
“Well……. I said I could do it alone. Panya, you too.”
“How could I let you do all this alone? There’s a mountain of it!”
Panya spoke irritably, wringing out water-soaked training clothes and slapping them against the surface.
“Luca really is stubborn. Why does he keep tormenting people like this?”
“Hmm. Well, I said I’d manage it.”
“A difficult mission would be better! This is just pure harassment!”
So it does look like harassment to other people too, then. Olivia nodded at that thought.
But the strange thing was it didn’t actually feel like harassment to her. Olivia wasn’t angry at the work he gave her. It was useful work, in its own way.
“Aiden’s training is actually better. For a while there he at least acted like he was watching to see how things would go, but lately what’s gotten into him?”
“No, Panya. Senior is doing all this for me.”
“Are you actually insane?”
I’m not insane. Olivia closed Panya’s gaping mouth and shook her head.
“Panya, listen.”
“I get scared every time you start talking like this.”
“These clothes here. Do you know what they are? Training clothes.”
“Who doesn’t know that?”
“Training clothes leave traces. The habits of whoever wore them—those stay behind.”
The clothes the members wore every time they trained. Since they were worn for the longest hours of any garment, the training clothes were filled with their small habits.
Olivia was learning all of that as she washed them.
“This is all part of learning. It’s something I need to do. Look here. This is Senior Nick’s uniform, see how the bottom is a bit worn? What that means is—”
“……Does something like that matter?”
“It matters. I want my seniors to not lose to strange people.”
Olivia’s skill wasn’t yet developed enough to beat all the members of the Lux Knight Brigade. She might have had the fundamentals down, but she still needed more time to catch up to what the seniors had accumulated through experience.
But if there was one asset she possessed that was most remarkable and important, it was her Observational Talent. Even Yugin had whistled in appreciation at that talent.
Olivia was steadily accumulating information on her seniors. When she thought of these chores as just a process to gather that information, everything became very rewarding and gratifying.
A sincere smile played across Olivia’s lips.
“……And the mail delivery?”
“Mail contains more information than you’d think.”
“Goodness, you opened the letters?”
“What nonsense. Who it’s being sent to, where it’s being sent……. That’s what I mean. I wouldn’t open someone else’s letter without manners. That’s uncouth.”
For example, Luca had recently sent a letter to a merchant named Jeff. And Olivia knew what kind of person that merchant was.
Reading someone else’s letter went against propriety, but remembering the address and recipient’s name necessary for dispatch wasn’t wrong. If they wanted to prevent that, they should have delivered it themselves.
In any case, even such simple information could become a hint for someone to gain crucial knowledge. Luca and the other members needed to understand that point better.
“I think, honestly, seniors are a bit naïve.”
“I think you’re just genuinely a strange kid.”
Olivia simply nodded and laughed shortly. The sunlight pouring down on her head was blinding.
Just then, the last load of laundry was done. The final training clothes belonged to Sena.
They were also the garments of the person here with the most conspicuously unremarkable ‘habits’. Olivia shook them out once and folded them neatly.
Panya, who had been watching Olivia, suddenly seemed to remember something and spoke lightly.
“Come to think of it, when will Aiden come back?”
Splash.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“No……. It’s fine.”
Olivia, who had contracted a condition where merely thinking of Aiden set her blood boiling, dropped the last piece of laundry to the ground. Panya hurried over, wrung it out again, and put it back in the basket.
“His leave was until tomorrow, so he should be back tomorrow.”
“He took a leave for this?”
“That’s what I heard. Wait, but……. Panya. Why do you keep asking me about Aiden?”
Olivia asked Panya with genuine curiosity. Now that she thought about it, Panya seemed to have been saying some meaningful things lately, and maybe……?
Suspicion took root in Olivia’s mind.
“……You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Never mind. It’s better if you don’t know.”
“So better if I don’t know what?”
“I just asked because you and Aiden have been doing missions together and seem to have gotten closer. Don’t mind it.”
Panya dodged the question. But somehow, the way her eyes looked at someone so oblivious, the slightly twisted posture—everything seemed a bit off.
In any case, it wasn’t a very important matter. Olivia looked at Panya with suspicious eyes for a moment, then nodded.
“Fine. Then let’s head back to Headquarters. Luca must be waiting—”
“Olivia, Panya! You were both here!”
“Bennett?”
Bennett stopped before them, breathing hard, his face drained of color.
“What’s wrong?”
“Something terrible has happened!”
“Then tell me what it is. Calm down and explain.”
“Those madmen came back. They came back and—”
Expression drained from Olivia’s face. Panya, standing beside her, grew visibly grave.
Bennett grabbed both their sleeves and pulled.
“A fight’s broken out!”
“A fight? With whom?”
“It’s Kunta! But no matter how I look at it, the situation seems serious. The captain’s gone, and Aiden isn’t here either, so there’s no one to step in!”
Olivia sensed it at once. This would clearly take on a different character than the previous clash.
The three of them ran toward the Headquarters.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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