“I see… Speaking of which, where’s Medea?”
“Ah, she’s inside making lunch with Iris. We didn’t know when your carriage would arrive, but she was here up until just a moment ago.”
Saying that, Patrick nodded with a ‘hmm’.
“Iris huh? I read the letter but, adopting her, huh? The letter wasn’t detailed, but just why are we adopting somebody…?”
He was probably talking about a letter that Medea sent.
It was a letter that she sent regularly, that detailed the things that happened in the village, and the conditions of the family and estate.
It took a week at the least to reach the capital, but it seems that this time it had arrived relatively quickly.
But even so, it seems that she hadn’t had time to write about it in detail.
“Iris herself said that she’d be fine being a maid but… Mum[Okaasan], you know…?”
Luru’s tone suggested that he had some things he wanted to say about it, so Patrick made an astonished expression.
However, it seems that he wasn’t exactly against it, and asked Luru a question.
“Medea is being unreasonable again, huh… Well, that’s fine though. Are you all right with it as well, Luru?”
He was probably indirectly asking to see if Luru was in shock about a stranger suddenly becoming family.
From Patrick’s point of view, Luru was a small child.
It was obvious concern for him.
However, that was completely off the mark.
Iris was the daughter of somebody who had been like his family since long ago, and as for Luru himself, he had built up a bold enough personality in his previous life that he would be fine with living with a stranger.
That’s why there was no issue at all.
“I don’t mind at all. Iris is polite, and a good girl…”
It seems that Patrick felt something other than just simple approval from Luru’s manner of speech, so he stroked his chin and said, with his glasses glittering,
“My, my… Your girlfriend?”
Mixed into his words were a bit of teasing.
It was a bit of bonding between parent and child.
However, Luru had already passed the age at which he’d be taken in by such teasing in his previous life, and so it probably couldn’t be helped that he just replied in an astonished tone,
“A person who’s going to be my younger or older sister from now on isn’t somebody I’d be thinking of making into a girlfriend, right…?”
Not only that, but speaking frankly, she was the daughter of his friend.
The mental hurdle for making her his girlfriend was much too high.
However, Patrick rebutted with a reasonable argument.
“Marriage between non-blood related siblings is not forbidden by law, you know. Well, in those cases they become the adopted daughter of somebody else in name, though.”
It was the truth.
This was written clearly in the laws of the kingdom’s charter.
However, that wasn’t the problem.
That’s why Luru said,
“It’s not a matter of legality…”
And after all of this, seeing that Luru didn’t seem to be thinking of her romantically at all, perhaps Patrick finally understood because he said,
“Hm… From what I can see, the possibility is low, huh? It feels like you really see her as your little sister…”
They were some oddly sharp and insightful words.
After that, Luru took a few books off Patrick’s hands, and started walking towards the Cadisnola residence.
Patrick followed after him, and after a while, they arrived at their home.