The Noble Lady of Lust

Chapter 310: Tristan’s problem

’Whew, I made it in time.’

I went back to where the girls were, where the topic seemed to be me. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but it seemed the conversation had veered toward finding out my secret.

And it all, I imagine, started because of what dumb Tristan said.

Well, in the end he didn’t say anything that anyone else didn’t know. They all know that Seraphina and Christian are related as mistress and servant, so there’s no problem, beyond Aurora misunderstanding it and further complicating the ideas she’s getting about me.

Although, by the time I got there, the conversation was already at a point where they seemed to be talking about me having a secret.

But I know that none of the girls who know will say anything more, although I was worried that Cordelia might be insistent, but I still interfered before she went any further. Beyond that it doesn’t matter if they know I have a secret.

Who doesn’t have them? Even Elena. In addition to her love of candy, I know she likes cute things...and cats. Things I had been keeping well guarded and discovered by pure coincidence.

It’s something I discovered recently, when I was using Shadow Assimilation. She didn’t notice me, and I saw how, when no one was around, she took Selene and started playing with her and pampering her.

She played with her as if she were a real cat, even said things like ”nya this”, ”nya that”, and Selene didn’t resist at all; she seemed to like being pampered and played with like that.

I watched as Elena reminded Selene to keep it a secret when they broke up. It seemed it wasn’t the first time it had happened.

Even Alice once left her storage bag lying around, and when I picked it up, she got nervous, like she was hiding something. I won’t lie, I was curious, but I respected her privacy.

Although, because of that, I found a method to tease her: I would steal her storage on the condition that she would give me a kiss in return, and I too would take the opportunity to make requests that embarrassed her.

It was fun to tease her, whatever she was hiding in there.

”Okay, girls, now, now, let’s go back. The one before that was Chris’s father. Well, he’s like my personal guard since I was a kid. He was just so happy to see me after so long.”

I threw out a quick excuse to those who didn’t know him and we continued on our way back. Aurora obviously looked like she wanted to say something, but held back. Still, it looked like she would ask me later.

I was considering ending this and just telling her, but she always seems so determined and tenacious in finding out on her own, giving me her increasingly creative theories, that I keep putting it off.

One characteristic I understand about Aurora is that she is persistent and determined. I feel like she has taken this thing about my relationship and my secrets personally, and wants to figure it out on her own.

Well, although I don’t know what exactly she has in mind, all I know is that she is no longer afraid of me, and things are going decently between us. I think we’re on the right track.

I won’t hesitate to tease her though, as it’s really funny, how badly she’s doing trying to figure me out on her own.

Honestly I’ve even blurted out some key information that would make things easier for her.

But maybe she takes it that I am talking nonsense to disorient her, her problem is that she is someone very logical and my secrets and such are out of this realm, so even though she is very cunning and smart, this time it is playing against her.

Oddly enough, with her, rather than nervousness about telling her my secrets, I feel anticipation to see how she will react when I tell her everything and she sees that I haven’t lied to her even once.

’well, now regarding the Tristan thing, let’s see, I have to meet my father, although I wanted to avoid it, I don’t want him to embarrass me in front of the girls. But if I find an opportunity....’

by another , I understood Tristan’s problem. Apparently, the poor guy, ever since I started making a name for myself as ”Chris”, or basically since the entrance exams, my father - who obviously has ways of getting information, and even more so when it comes to my surroundings - started to investigate.

After a short inquiry about Chris, ... he got to my so-called father, Tristan, whom he immediately questioned.

But due to contracts, he could not say anything. That caused my father from that day on to intensify his training as a gentleman, which was more like harassment.

Truth be told, I overlooked it. I hadn’t seen Tristan since I entered the academy, and of the times I met with my father, he never questioned me directly about Chris.

He only asked me if I had any special relationship with any boy. I immediately understood that if I said a name - any boy - and it wasn’t important enough, like a prince, he would probably disappear.

Well, I answered honestly anyway that I had no relationship with any man.

That was the constant question when we saw each other, of course extorting money and information from him was also a constant.

But he never brought up the subject of Chris, which I was unconcerned about. But apparently, behind the scenes he had been harassing Tristan, stepping up his training with the excuse that someone who had earned my trust had to be of a high standard to repay my trust.

I understood right away that it was just my father’s jealousy, because Tristan knew something he didn’t know about me, and he was just taking it out pettily on him without even asking me any questions.

Tristan tried to defend himself, saying that I had tricked him and semi-coerced him into collaborating with me, and that only I could talk to him about Chris-related matters.

But it backfired, and all he succeeded in doing was earning my father’s scorn for ”selling me out.”

That only made him increase his training even more, now being more intense as punishment for being a disloyal gentleman to his mistress — the one he betrayed and sold out without hesitation.

His situation made me feel guilty, and in fact my father was being unreasonable to the extreme, but at the same time it was all silly, I mean, he tried to defend himself with the truth and ended up worse, that sounded so silly that I laughed at the irony, making him burst into tears, making me feel bad again.

In a manner of speaking, he was trapped in noble conflicts, unable to do anything.

He was so desperate that he ran away from his job as my father’s escort and, since he seems to know me and what I would do, he ended up hanging around here and actually found me.

Well, in the end I promised him I would talk to my father and at least make sure they stopped harassing him, with that Spartan training excuse.

I won’t say anything to my father about Chris, but I will tell him to stop bothering Tristan. I may have to call him ”daddy,” but I know that will do it.

Besides, it’s true that it’s my fault. I’m going to make it up to him, even give him a paid vacation and lots of compensation, for all the trouble.

even so , I have a lot to say to that old man who dares to harass my accomplice behind my back.....

Rustle!

”Hey, Tristan, is that you again?”

Again I heard the sound of someone moving over the walls of the labyrinth and thought it was Tristan again, but....

”My princess!!!” (Dante)

”Ugh, damn, old man, now it’s you!”

He appeared, the person I didn’t want to see, but the one I had to meet to find justice for Tristan.

”Nooooo! My baby! Since when did you act so cold? Call me daddy.” (Dante)

But he immediately started, as always, to complain about the way I called him, and to hug me loudly while he was complaining.

Elena always tells me to keep up the family image, but every time this old man acts like that, I feel like I’m not the biggest problem here, and I wonder—what family image, exactly?

Well, with him here, the situation was becoming more difficult, and I wanted to meet him alone—not now, not while he was with the girls.

Yes, I didn’t want to do this in front of the girls, but....

”First of all, why do you have Tristan unconscious?”

Yes, the old man had appeared, and the moment he jumped over the wall towards me he released an unconscious Tristan who I had made sure to reassure a few moments ago, promising him that my father would not harass him.

Now because of this old man I had failed in my promise.

”I met him on the way, he left his duty as a guard, besides I’m going to sentence him for blaspheming me and talking nonsense about me...” (Dante)

”You old fuck! What do you mean you found him on the way? You were obviously listening to my conversation with him..., Well, since you listened, stop harassing him, or really... mmm, I’ll call you an old fuck as a default.”

Luckily I remembered that during my conversation with Tristan, we talked more about what my father was doing to him and said, nothing, compromising about who Chris really was.

’Really, not extend my senses is a pain in the ass.’

”Noo!!, My little girl! Since when did you become like that? Noooo! Tell me daddy.” (Dante)

”No.”

If I really didn’t have Seraphina’s memories, this old man would have tricked me, and I would have started calling him daddy so that the change wouldn’t be noticed, when I took her body.

The ”old fucker” came naturally to me, because she thought that way about him and said it too, just like me.

No, she was even worse than me, she just annoyed me, because she would take every opportunity to force me to call him”daddy”, which I personally didn’t like to do, but she meant it.

I won’t deny that we had some similarities in the way we acted, she didn’t hesitate to call him ”daddy” to manipulate him and get what she wanted, just like me, although she did it on a whim, and I did it when it was necessary.

She could also behave relatively decently in front of her parents. And I say relatively, because he wasn’t a paragon of virtue either.

But her way of thinking about them was so unique, that even with all her memories.... I still don’t understand her at all.

From my point of view, the original Seraphina had some kind of strange mental illness because of the way she thought about her parents, although they obviously loved her.

Not to mention that her erratic behavior was also due to that strange way of thinking and seeing the world, she was very strange.

To the point that I feel that, as divine punishment, she truly earned having her body taken away from her. Perhaps Aeloria wanted to kill two birds with one stone when she had me take her body, among millions of her believers.

So, to begin with, that ”when did I become like this?”... is something the original Seraphina also heard over and over again.

In fact, even though I act the way I am, without holding back or pretending anything, for those around me, including my parents, it was an improvement in their personality.

So much so, that no one ever had any doubts about me and my acting, everyone seemed happy that I improved as a person.