“Umm… Ahem, uh-hrmm…” As I cleared my throat, Norn looked at me dubiously.
“Was there something I neglected?” she asked.
“N-no, not at all. Very nice tea.” I took another gulp from the steaming cup. The flavor wasn’t anything amazing, but it wasn’t bad enough to make me want to spit it out. It was ordinary, just like Norn. Good, but not great.
In other words, nice. But leaving that aside…
“By the way, Norn, how…how’ve things been lately, hm?”
“What things?”
“Well, your job, for example. How’s that?”
“Everything’s normal. A senior staff member is still teaching me the ropes…but I think I’m doing well enough. Of course, I’m sure Aisha would be doing far better.”
“You ought to stop comparing yourself to her,” I said. Norn nodded obediently. Aisha had her own work. So long as they weren’t doing the same job, comparisons didn’t do anyone any good.
“Now, this senior staff member…” I went on. “That’s a thing, eh? Cool, I bet?”
“Oh, very elegant. I think the two of you spoke once, Big Brother. Yes, you remember the deputy student council president from when I was president?”
“The… The burly beastfolk kid?”
“Not him. The woman.”
Oh. A woman. Right. The name wasn’t coming to me, but there had been someone like that. Actually, I had the feeling Norn had brought it up when she got the job. Something about how they were in the same department.
“A woman, eh… Don’t happen to be any men around, hmm?”
“Of course there are.”
“And are any of them…you know…cool?”
“Some are, some aren’t.”
So there was someone cool. This was big.
“Big Brother, what are you getting at?”
“Calm down, there, Norn. No need to rush to conclusions.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t look calm,” she countered.
Of course I’m calm! I’m always cool, calm, and collected. CCC Rudeus, that’s me. And none of those stand for crazy!
“Norn, uh… Just for example, um, this cool person… How cool do you think he is?”
“Are you asking if I like him?”
“Do you?”
Crap. I asked her straight out.
“No, I can’t say I do.”
Oh, screw it.
“So is there by any chance someone you do like?”
There was a long pause, then—
“Yes.”
There is! She told me there is someone!
“Y-you don’t say! There is, is there? Well, you are a grown woman. Of course there is. Nothing strange there. No, sir.”
“You, on the other hand, are being very strange.”
“What?”
I’m not strange. It’s everyone else! This world is strange, not me!
“So what’s he like, hmm?” I went on. “This person you like?”
“He’s…older.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I can depend on him.”
“Uh-huh…”
“And he always takes care of me.”
Take those three criteria, and you get…
“Do you mean me?”
“Is something wrong with your head?”
Sorry. Got carried away.
“He’s much older than you, Big Brother, and he never loses his cool in a crisis. He’s composed and dignified.”
“You know, lately, your Big Brother has also stopped losing his cool in a crisis.”
“I don’t think you get to say that considering how you’ve been acting.”
Oof…
But okay, she said much older than me and dignified? Damn…
“By much older…you mean, what, ten years older than me?”
“Older.”
“I…didn’t know you had a daddy complex.”
“A daddy…? Well, I do like older men.”
By “older,” I guessed she meant more than twenty years older. That would put him in his forties or fifties. Add “dignified” to that, and I was thinking of someone on the heavier side. With a lower center of mass, you get a real sense of gravitas. Not that I was anywhere close to “dignified” in my past life.
I was picturing something like an old man with a greasy face who was CEO of an evil trading company. I wasn’t about to criticize anyone over an age gap, but no matter how I looked at it, it sounded like she was looking for a sugar daddy.
I won’t stand for it, hell no!
But hold on. What if this guy turned out to be more sincere than I thought…? An age gap was nothing, really. You can’t judge people by their looks.
“But I’ve accepted that nothing will come of my love.”
“Oh… Is he married or something?”
“No… He said he lost his wife…”
Lost, huh? Maybe that was a convenient way of saying he divorced her. Or maybe she’d just slapped him with the divorce papers.
…I was working hard to avoid accepting the truth.
“Apparently, I remind him of her.”
Okay, in that case, it can’t be. Yeah, no way. He wouldn’t say something like that.
“That’s one of the oldest lines in the book.”
A man catching a much younger woman and telling her she looked like his dead wife? What else could it be? He was basically saying she was the sort of girl he could see himself marrying.
Hold on, though. It didn’t really sound like a pickup line when you thought about it. Something about how she was nothing like his wife, how he’d never met a girl like her before… That’d be a better line.
“…Are you asking if I’ve been seduced?” Norn put her hands to her cheeks, which were a little flushed. Was she happy about the idea? Oh, right. Norn liked him, not the other way around.
But Norn, he might be leading you on. There’d be a fight if I said anything right now, so I kept the thought to myself.
“Why all these questions all of a sudden, anyway?”
“Huh? Well, that’s…”
“You’re up to something, aren’t you?” Norn glared at me. It was a look that said she’d been honest, so now it was my turn. I hadn’t expected her to be so open. I’d have been happy to just gather she liked someone from her reaction.
“Well, I don’t want to bring it up right after what you just said…”
“Okay.” As I leaned slightly closer, Norn drew back in turn.
“The truth is, Norn,” I said. “I’ve had a sort of marriage proposal for you.”
For a few seconds, Norn froze. Her eyes were wide, and her lips pursed in a frown. It was like she was glaring at me.
“A proposal…” she repeated. “Very well. I accept.”
“No, I get it. Say no more. After what you said? Let’s pretend I never brought it up.”
“No, like I said, I accept.”
I stared at Norn, the doubt probably clear on my face. “But you…you already have someone you like, don’t you?”
“That doesn’t matter. After all, it’s never going anywhere.” Norn seemed to consider for a moment, then continued. “We aren’t nobility, but you have status, and my friends told me something like this might come along one day. Besides, ever since I found out that you have connections all over the world, I’ve expected to be used like this.”
“I didn’t say ‘use.’ I’m not going to make my family into pawns,” I said a little heatedly. Norn’s eyes widened, then she bowed her head.
“Of course… I’m sorry.”
Such a good girl.
“Norn, if you say you don’t want this, then we ditch the idea.”
“No… I’m not against it. The fact that you’ve come to talk to me must mean the other person isn’t a bad man, right?”
“Well, I guess.”
He wasn’t a bad match… At least, I didn’t think so. They’d seemed to get on well during the battle in the Biheiril Kingdom. Ruijerd was an honorable man.
“Only… Well, my heart isn’t set on getting married, but I’m not dead against it either. I would be grateful if we could pretend this never happened, Big Brother, if you’d do that for me. Of course, if the other person insists, then you should go ahead with it. You needn’t worry about me…” Norn looked away.
She didn’t seem to want it very much. She would do what I said if I asked, that was all. That might be convenient for me, but not for her.
“I haven’t run it past the other person yet, so it’s fine.”
“I see… Thank you.”
Sorry, Orsted, but if it’s what Norn wants, then we ditch this idea.
After a moment, Norn added, “By the way, what sort of person was it? Were they some sort of royalty? Or an Asuran noble?”
“No, nothing like that… But you know him, Norn.”
“I do…? Oh, do you mean Zanoba?”
“I don’t think he’s the marrying type.”
Zanoba was best left alone. Even with Julie blasting him with her love beam, he showed zero signs of interest in her, much less Ginger. He probably planned on spending his life with his figurines.
“It was Ruijerd,” I said, revealing his name.
Before I knew what was happening, Norn was leaning toward me, both hands on the table. There was an intense look on her face, which flushed bright red. She looked angry.
What was that about? Had I said something to offend her?
Norn did seem to have a lot of respect for Ruijerd, so it seemed she didn’t think of him in that way after all.
Right. Sorry, Norn. Your big brother messed up. You can stop glaring at me like that now.
“Hey, look, it was silly. Even setting aside that he’s a different species, the age gap is too big, and even you—”
“Please accept the proposal!”
Norn cut me off, her voice brimming with excitement and delight.