Chapter 18: A Letter from Brother Ben

Translated by: chocolalaProofread by: lil-valley

The next day. The agenda for the whole day was finished, and it was almost tea time when that came. 

“Urschel-sama, a letter’s arrived for you.”

One of the maids stopped me.

“A messenger arrived just now, saying this is for you.”

Then, she handed me a letter. My eyes lit up when I saw the sender’s name. 

“It’s here…!”

I received the letter and immediately went into my room to write a reply. 

I opened the letter, which was filled with Brother Ben’s handwriting. I had been exchanging letters with Brother Ben for the last week or so. 

Of course, Father didn’t know about it. If he found out, he would interfere, and I wouldn’t be able to see Brother Ben. Thus, he went to the trouble of sending me the letters under a pseudonym.    

Really… I’m sorry for having such a troublesome parent. 

The letter specified a specific date, time and place for our tea party. The date and time were, let’s see, on this day. The designated place was a café called Abalana in Natcheil that catered to the high nobility. Abalana was a salon of some sorts—a place to talk about politics and literature over a cup of tea. There were also people who used the place just to have tea, like Brother Ben and I.   

Moreover, one’s family background must exceed a certain threshold to enter the shop, and anything that happened within the shop would be kept secret unless something serious occurred.

Father could not know that Brother Ben and I had agreed to meet here.

“I’m looking forward to it so much!”

Thinking that it had been a long time since I last met Brother Ben like this, I couldn’t wait for that day to come. What should I talk about with him?! I couldn’t tell him about Theodore because of the thing with Carlos, but I’d like to talk about my work, the latest news, and other things. 

I wrote a proper reply to the letter and handed it to one of the maids.

Then, I went straight to the place where today’s teatime was to take place—a garden terrace. Because Theodore was there. I didn’t tell my father about Brother Ben, but I told Theodore.   

Why?

…Um…Because I didn’t want him to misunderstand?

Brother Ben was indeed my first love, but now I had Theodore. I didn’t want to cause a misunderstanding, you know? I’d hate it if he thought I was cheating on him. I didn’t want that idea to enter his head and hurt him, and, definitely, I’d be in pain too. 

“Theodore! Listen here! A letter has arrived.”

There was a pause before he responded, “…Oh.”

…Whenever I mentioned this matter, Theodore would make a displeased expression. Anyway, I had already told Theodore, and only Theodore, why I was having this meeting with Brother Ben…

“Oh, don’t make it so obvious that you don’t like Brother Ben. I only have Theodore in my heart.”

“This… is not the same thing. Even though I could agree with your statement, I still don’t like him… You don’t like it when I go out with someone else, do you?”

“…That’s true…”

I’d dislike it. In fact, I hate it; I might do everything in my power to stop him from going out with another person by using techniques directly taught by my father…

“…Uh, I understand.”

“It’s good if you do. So, what did the letter say?”

“About that, let’s see… Information about the date, time and place of our meeting.” I told Theodore about the contents of the letter. I also told him exactly when I would come home. 

Then, it occurred to me.

“I’ll properly part with Brother Ben at this exact time! Oh, by the way, what will Theodore be doing that day?”

“I think I’ll be writing a report at the Ministry of Magic…?”

“Until what time?”

“Usually until late afternoon…”

“Well then, when you’re done, let’s meet up somewhere and go out for dinner! Without Father!”

“Oh, that’d be nice.”

We spent the rest of teatime discussing where we would eat dinner on that day.

Yay! The day I’ll meet Brother Ben will be a really happy day!

A few days after that tea time with Theodore it was finally the day of my meeting with Brother Ben—two months after our previous coincidental reunion.   

“Long time no see, Brother Ben!”

“Urschel, it’s been a long time…”

On that long-awaited day, Brother Ben and I met.

chocolala: Does anyone smell an impending crisis? I felt this chapter is short, n it’s indeed short, lol