Volume 4 Short Story – Marie’s Day

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I’d imagined a luxurious lifestyle while studying abroad. Even in my past life, I’d always fancied the idea of studying abroad and learning new languages. However, reality tended to be very cruel.

In a certain marketplace in the Alzer Republic, Marie was haggling with a portly middle-aged lady.

“I’ll buy everything in one go, so please give me a discount!”

“No can do.”

Almost every day in the Alzer Republic, Marie dragged Kyle and Carla along with her to buy groceries. It was already a common sight to see her haggling for discounts in the marketplace. Everything was for the sake of feeding a bunch of gluttonous adolescents (herself included). Her hard-learned Alzerian also ended up being mostly used for haggling in the marketplace.

“Got it. I’ll buy eight of them!”

“Geez, I guess it can’t be helped. Alright, I’ll make it this price just for you.”

“Thanks, Missus!”

“Call me Miss!”

The middle-aged lady looked at Marie exasperatedly while she stuffed the eight fruits into a bag.

“Goodness, young lady, it isn’t good to be so stubborn. Is everyone from the kingdom just like you?”

Marie replied to the middle-aged lady while receiving the fruits.

“I’m living on a shoestring budget. Please pity me and give me a slightly bigger discount next time, kay?”

“Someone who truly needs pitying wouldn’t be so persistent.”

Although there were still some rough edges that needed to be smoothed out, Marie was using Alzerian in her everyday life. After all, if she hadn’t learnt how to speak the language, she wouldn’t even be able to survive. Just as she was about to head to the next store, Kyle who was carrying a huge pile of groceries, called out to her.

“Master, what are we buying next?”

Marie tilted her head upwards and pondered the list of items that she still wanted to buy.

“We’re running low on bread. Ideally, I’d also like some pasta but we still have some left.”

As if a lightbulb had just turned on in her head, something suddenly came to Carla’s mind, prompting her to speak to Marie.

“Speaking of which, Lady Marie, I don’t think we have enough seasonings left! Greg-san used it lavishly since he said there wasn’t enough flavour.”

Marie felt like facepalming but was unable to since her hands were pre-occupied with groceries.

“That idioooot!”

Starting from Julius, all of them were firstborn sons of noble families. The five of them were raised well, but it appears they were used to being supervised and had led stuffy lifestyles. As a result, they now led carefree lifestyles in the mansion and did whatever they wanted. It was all well and good that they were having fun, but Marie wasn’t having fun in the slightest.

“Ugh… I’d be happy if even just one of them decided to help out…”

However, Kyle decided to dash her dreams.

“Can those guys even do any housework?”

Carla’s face creased into a frown.

“I’m pretty sure they’ve always had everything taken care of by servants. I imagine housework would be impossible for them.”

Marie also understood the point she was making. She couldn’t imagine Julius or any of the other boys doing housework at all. It was the same in the game. They were ideal men, but at the same time, all of them were from wealthy families. Marie recalled that in the game, there weren’t any opportunities for them to help with housework.

“—Where exactly did everything go wrong?”

They’d come all this way to study abroad, but the only thing Marie had learnt was shameless haggling techniques. Although it wasn’t like she had zero interactions with Alzerian students, she had to take care of five blokes which meant she always rushed back to the mansion right after school to begin preparing dinner. Even after dinner, she was busy with reviewing her class material and preparing for the following lesson. There was no time to play. The studying abroad that she’d dreamed of should have been a more dazzling and fulfilling lifestyle. Yet, despite that, every single day the only thing on her mind was what to make for dinner. She was always thinking about how to cut down on expenses while filling the stomachs of a group of hungry boys.

(What am I even doing…?)

She’d gotten the privilege of reincarnating into an otome game but was unable to enjoy it since she was too busy. As Marie pondered where everything had gone wrong for her, they came across Leon who was being dragged along by Noelle.

“Ah, it’s Marie-chan!”

“Are you guys shopping as well?”

Marie thought to herself as she looked at the two who seemed to be getting along with one another.

(Sh*tty bro! Why are you nonchalantly going shopping with the potential protagonist!? Did you forget about the crisis endangering the world? Or rather, shouldn’t there be a bit more distance between the two of you? Why are you sticking so close together!? I’ll tell your fiancées that you’re cheating on them!)

Marie started to grow irritated as she watched Leon acting frivolously. Noelle was blushing next to him.

“Ahh, was Marie-chan also aiming for the bargain sales? I was also thinking the same!”

Marie felt a sense of kinship with the commoner protagonist Noelle.

“Noelle, so you also come shopping here. Isn’t this place great? Everything’s so cheap!”

“Right~?”

As Marie started hitting it off with Noelle, Leon interjected with a statement showing he clearly was unable to read the mood.

“I just buy everything from the closest shops, so I dunno about this complicated stuff.”

Marie’s expression turned blank.

(Doesn’t Big Bro live in a really upclass neighbourhood? If he buys from there… This is why I hate rich people!)

Marie’s internal evaluation of Leon plummeted. That very same Leon was now talking to Kyle.

“You guys sure bought a lot.”

“It looks like a lot but all of it will be gone in a few days’ time.”

Seeing Leon nonchalantly speak his thoughts such as “Sucks to be you”, Marie frustratedly retorted back at him.

“We’ve been having it hard every single day. Unlike you who lives by yourself. Come on you two, let’s get going. We need to buy those seasonings.”

Just as Marie was about to leave, Leon proposed a certain idea to her.

“W-Wait. There’s a lot of things I’d like to buy but since I’m living by myself, I wouldn’t be able to finish everything. If you guys accompany me when I’m shopping, I don’t mind sharing some of it with you.”

In Marie’s eyes, that proposal made Leon look like a divine being.

(Big bro, you’re wonderful!)

“Geez! If that’s the case, then you should’ve said so sooner. Leave everything about this market to me. I’ve already thoroughly researched where everything is sold.”

In response to Marie who was oozing confidence, Leon could only apprehensively say “S-Sure”.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep