NOVEL NEXT Chapter 29 – Hot Potato
Ann and Faye went out to downtown using the carriage as planned. It was Ann’s first time riding on a carriage like this, and she couldn’t help but marvel at this new experience. Though it wasn’t exactly on her ‘to-do-list before I die (again)’, it was still nice to get an experience she wouldn’t have been able to gain otherwise!
As expected, their travel time in the carriage was a short one. Upon going down the carriage and looking at the fine horse leading the carriage, Ann’s mind raced. She never rode on a real horse before! Could she be able to ride one in this world?
The carriage driver was getting uneasy by the mistress’ intense staring at him…To be honest, Ann was staring at the horse beneath him, but her scorching gaze felt like it was directed at the driver…The driver couldn’t help but started sweating, wondering if he did something wrong? Should he beg for her forgiveness?
The driver slowly turned to look at the mistress’ face and almost fell from his seat. Ann was actually staring at the horse intently with speculating mind—speculating whether or not she should try and if she could or not…but in the driver’s point of view, Ann’s staring was as if she was thinking what kind of punishment should she get for him!
Determined, the driver went down from the horse in one go and knelt on the road.
“I beg your forgiveness, Mistress!” The driver bowed his head until it touched the ground.
This all happened in a split second, catching both Ann and Faye off guard. Ann was the most surprised person here. She didn’t say anything to the driver at all, heck, why was he prostrating himself in front of her?!
It was lucky that they weren’t in the crowd, but there were still people passing by the road, looking at them and whispering…HEY, DON’T YOU DARE START ANY RUMOUR!
Flustered, Ann quickly said, “Mister Driver, what…” the heck are you doing?!
“Ahem, I don’t understand what you’re getting at, but can you stand up first? You’re making me feel uncomfortable here…,”Ann said with a low voice.
Feeling like he just offended the boss even more, the driver hurriedly stood up in fright.
Ann sighed in relief upon seeing him stand up as she said, “Now, can you explain to me what’s the matter?”
“…Aren’t you going to punish me, Mistress?”
“Ah? Who said that? Why would I punish you anyway?”
“But your intense look earlier…”
“…,” Ann felt like she was having a headache.
“First, I am not punishing anyone. Second, I was staring at the horse, not you. Understand?” Ann asked.
“Yes, Mistress! Understood, Mistress!” The timid driver saluted her.
“…,” Ann was still speechless with how the driver treated her, but she decided to pay it no mind. If she were to linger here for so long, it would only decrease her precious dressing-up time! Oh, she meant—shopping time, yup!
Ann wasted no more time as soon as she finished dealing with the odd driver. She immediately took Faye’s hand and led her enthusiastically. Faye was taken aback as she was helplessly pulled around by her mistress.
Faye thought that her mistress was so enthusiastic about buying new clothes for herself and it was proven right for a few moments. Ann knew which clothes she already wanted, and so she quickly went and get them. Some of them were still there, but some were already replaced by new ones. She quickly skimmed the new clothes and took some that she liked.
Still, Ann couldn’t turn into a spendthrift right away, so she only bought the clothes she really, really wanted. She would sometimes ask for Faye’s opinion, just to be sure that her fashion sense wasn’t way too off for this world. She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw how Faye had never shot her a look of disgust or disapproval. It seemed like her fashion sense was quite good, nice!
Ann never knew that her fashion sense was too modest for a noble woman, though…
It didn’t take long before Ann was satisfied with her catch. She then led Faye to the children’s section and…
“Eh, Arlea-sama, this is children’s section…,” Faye wanted to let Ann know. Little did she know that her mistress would turn around to look at her with an excited look.
“Uh…Mis…tress?”
Why did it feel like she was a prey being cornered by a hunter…?
“Faye, Faye, try this one!” In an instant, Ann took out several cute children clothes and pushed them all to Faye.
“Huh…Me?” Faye was dizzy.
“Yup, or do you think I can try these out?”
“No, but I’m just…”
“Just try them for me, please?” Ann said as she ushered Faye to the fitting room.
Left with no choice, Faye was resigned to her fate and was dressed up with various clothes. Meanwhile, the mistress she admired so much was suddenly turned into a frenzied lady…! In modern world’s term, Ann was fully in her fangirling mode.
“Oh my, Faye, this looks so nice on you!”
“Oh gosh, cute, angellll!!”
“Kyaa, you look like a very cute loli!!”
“You look like Barbie doll so much!!”
Furthermore, Ann was spouting words that she couldn’t understand what…
Still, Faye obeyed her mistress and put on the clothes she picked for her…
And finally, Ann decided to grab some of the clothes—which were still a lot—and moved to the store clerk when Faye had a bad premonition…
“Wait, Mistress, what are you going to do with the clothes?”
Ann halted and turned around to look at Faye with her ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ face and said, “Of course I’m buying them for you to use.”
Faye had goosebumps instantly.
“M-mistress, that wouldn’t be appropriate to do! I am but your maid!” Faye desperately clung to Ann’s clothes, pulling her so that she won’t be able to walk the opposite side.
“Eh, isn’t that fine? You’re my maid, so I’m just buying you something as reward.”
“But Mistress, this is too excessive…”
Ann put her index finger on her chin as she looked at the piles of clothes she was holding on to. Her fangirling mind was put on halt, while her rational side returned to herself.
Wait a minute…Faye’s words made sense! Buying her a ton of clothes would surely be weird as she was only a maid. If the other maids were to find out about it, wouldn’t that incite jealousy and Faye would be the one at disadvantage? Nooo, she couldn’t let that happen to her precious Faye!
Alright, Ann’s mind finally cooled down.
She decided to put back the clothes first and continued her train of rational thoughts.
For one, Faye was indeed her maid, and she was the mistress. Buying her nice clothes and a lot of them on top of it, would only be detrimental to both of them.
She looked at the clothes that shouted ‘high quality!’ and put them back at once. These clothes would be too conspicuous.
Ann started eliminating the clothes one by one and decided to only buy Faye a few of them. In the end, she decided on some cute clothes that was of good quality but wasn’t that apparent that they were made of high qualities. Only upon closer inspection that people would find out that these clothes were of fine qualities.
Still, Faye tugged on her clothes after that.
“What’s the matter? I already decided on a few of them, this should be fine, right?”
“Eh, but would that be fine…?”
“Of course, this much wouldn’t be a problem. Sometimes personal maids get gifts, right? They also represent their masters. You don’t have many good outfits. Look, you can change into this one right away,” Ann said as she looked at Faye’s really simple clothes.
To go out, Faye wasn’t wearing her maid outfit. But since she had nothing from the beginning, there were only clothes that the other maids gave her, and they weren’t really good clothes. Some were the clothes that the old maids’ daughters wore during their childhood, but the nice and good clothes would of course be saved by them to hand over to their relatives.
“Represent their masters…,” Faye reflected on Ann’s words and thought that she couldn’t make her ashamed!
Then, Faye nodded.
“If that’s the case, then thank you very much, Arlea-sama! I definitely won’t let you be ashamed!” Faye bowed deeply to Ann.
“Ay, my child, there’s no need for such formalities to me, especially when it’s just us and not in some high society setting,” Ann said as she hugged Faye tightly.
Mm, Mistress’ hug is so warm…
After paying for the clothes, Faye changed into a cute lolita styled pink dress with a simple white inner shirt. She looked so cute that Ann couldn’t help but squeeze her into a hug for quite a while before letting her go.
“Alright then, what time is it…OHMYGOD IT’S WAY PAST LUNCH TIME! Baby, Mama is so sorry, you must be so hungry, right?” Ann asked in concern as they wandered on the street.
Faye only looked at her mistress in surprise.
Baby…Mama…?
Her Mistress was too young to be having a child her age! At most, she would be called as her little sister, right? Did her Mistress have a loose screw on her head…?
As Faye was still dazed, Ann was…suddenly being bumped by an unknown stray child!
“Ouch!”
OHMYGOD, THIS CHILD IS SO STRONG! IS HE THE REINCARNATION OF AN OX?!
Ann tottered back a bit as she tried to regain her footing. At the same time, she felt an odd sensation on her hand…
Just as she was about to call out to that unknown child, the child was already running without stopping at once…with his status box still popping out…She didn’t even get to see what was written there…
Ann: “…”
In the end, Ann decided to let that child go. Hmph, be grateful that he was just a little child! She was too kind and benevolent after all, alright?
But the problem in her hand was…yes, literally in her hand…There was a small paper! Could this be…a hidden message?! To her?
Ann was having a bad feeling about it. Not to mention that there would be Allen’s people hidden, monitoring her…What if she was accused for her being fishy?
“Mistress, are you alright? That kid…!” Faye said in anguish.
Hey, you’re also a kid yourself, alright?
“I’m fine…Eh Faye, let’s go to toilet first,” Ann said. It wasn’t like she was going to pee or poo. She only wanted somewhere with privacy to check just what that child put inside her hand. Just to be safe.
“Oh…sure,” Faye followed Ann to a toilet.
Inside the toilet room, Ann hurriedly opened the piece of paper in her hand and…She almost threw the paper away.
Written in the paper was…
My dear beloved daughter,
Three days from now, come alone to the small hidden passageway next to the Winheart Tailor. Follow the road until you find a T-section and turn left to the dead end. I will be waiting for you.
From your dear father
HOLY SH*T! This is definitely a secret message that contains scheming, okay?!
What to do with this ‘hot potato’ in her hand? Should she eat it…or should she throw it away? If she were to eat this hot potato, troubles will surely come knocking on her door. But if she were to throw it away, some people would definitely blame her for wasting food.
AAAAAH, what should she do? She’s waiting online for answers!! Right now!!
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