Palimony
Chapter 81 – We need more allies
After retreating from his highness’ office, me, lady Liren and lady Vanette decided to rethink our strategy while drinking tea.
“Ma is a strong enemy.” Lady Liren commented.
“Is it even possible to make him look at me in a romantic way…?” Lady Vanette wondered.
That’s no good, if lady Vanette’s defeatist attitude ends up making lady Liren give up, then we’ll have no chance of success.
To solve this problem, what we need is… “We need more allies.” I told them.
Just the three of us can’t do it. Let’s get some help.
Neither lady Liren nor lady Vanette disagreed with the idea, so we went to the second floor of my store, Aliad.
And of course, I asked my store’s manager, Olga, to not let Michael see us during the meeting.
When we entered the second floor of the building, lady Liren’s eyes lit up, “Oh, if isn’t Mathilda!”
“Lady Liren! I haven’t seen you in so long!” Mathilda replied.
I was a bit surprised that they knew each other, but then I remembered that Mathilda was his highness’ nanny, so it shouldn’t be strange for her to know the person that blessed his highness.
“Are you acquainted with teacher?” Banache asked lady Liren.
And then, Mathilda immediately forced Banache to lower her head, “I apologize for her discourteousness.” Mathilda said.
“I don’t mind it! Instead of worrying about that, let me introduce you to my daughter, Vanette.” Lady Liren replied.
“Lady Liren’s daughter!? How wonderful! My name is Mathilda, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Mathilda did a curtsy towards lady Vanette.
“Mathilda, we’d like to ask for your help in regards to lady Vanette’s love life.” I asked her.
Mathilda smiled at that statement and said she’d be glad to hear us out over some tea, so she went to the back to brew it. Once she finished it, she served some for each of us, then said, “Alright, then what are we dealing with here?”
“Lady Vanette has a crush on Michael.” I explained.
Mathilda spit out her tea when hearing that.
“Teacher! That’s dirty!” Banache hurriedly grabbed a rag and started cleaning the table.
“She likes Michael…?” Mathilda asked lady Liren while she wiped her dirtied mouth.
“So, about that…” Then, lady Liren started explaining the story.
By the end of it, Mathilda was holding her head with her hands… And Banache was failing badly at holding back her laughter.
“I’ll kick you if you laugh, stupid disciple.” Mathilda told Banache.
“Please excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom!” Banache hurriedly said that, then ran to the bathroom… And right after that, we started hearing her laughter echo through the room.
“I’ll definitely kick her once she’s back.” Mathilda said that, then took a deep breath, and continued, “Well, for now, lady Vanette should abandon the old lady look. I understand that you like the children of the orphanage, but we need to get Michael to look at you as a woman, and not as a grandma!
“Do not worry, for nobody knows more about Michael than me! And I’ll definitely do my best to support you!”
Lady Vanette was a bit flabbergasted at Mathilda’s sudden enthusiasm.
“By the way, I forgot to say it before, but Mathilda is Ma’s mom.” Lady Liren suddenly commented.
Lady Vanette went pale at those words.
Seeing lady Vanette’s reaction, Mathilda decided to soothe her a bit, “It’s honestly complicated to give advice to someone who has a crush on my son, but I really do want to support you.
“You see, my family always had issues of having our partners die long before us. I don’t know how long dragons live, but my mother is 297 years old this year, and she’s still quite healthy, so… I think Michael would be a lot happier with you as his partner than with a human.
“So, for the sake of his happiness, I’ll do everything I can to help you, lady Vanette.” She ended her words with a calming smile… It was a relief to have Mathilda on our side.
I was actually worrying about this too, so I was glad to hear that from her. I was quite used to consulting with Mathilda and Banache about love by now, so they were still my first choice for help, but… I suppose asking a mother for help in courting her son is a bit of a messy proposal. It’s quite relieving to see that Mathilda decided to become our ally in this endeavor.
… And as soon as we finished this conversation, Banache came out of the bathroom, so Mathilda immediately kicked her… I decided to not comment on it.
And from that day on, lady Vanette stopped changing her appearance to that of an old lady. Though in order to not cause suspicion from the people that visited her home to get some medicine, we ended up deciding on an excuse that the old lady went out on a trip, so her granddaughter would be taking care of the house in the meanwhile… With the granddaughter just being Lady Vanette’s younger appearance, of course.
However, Michael’s behavior didn’t change in the slightest even after that… Taking this into account, I decided to work on getting our next ally.
I asked his highness to meet up with in an isolated place during the academy’s lunch break.
Then, once we started eating, I asked him, “Did your highness realize that Michael’s feelings towards lady Vanette aren’t of love?”
“Huh?” He asked me back.
Figuring that he didn’t understand the circumstances properly, I explained everything to him… By the time I stopped talking, he was holding his head in the same way that Mathilda was.
“Your highness will cooperate, right?” I asked him.
He nodded to my question, then said, “Yeah. I think Michael just hasn’t realized the way that lady Vanette looks at him. If he understands that, I think he might fall for her too.”
“To hear that from Michael’s younger brother is quite relieving.” I told him.
He started pouting at that comment, “I don’t think the younger brother role fits me… I mean, Michael is older, but still…” I giggled at those words, “Hey, it’s not funny!” I didn’t stop giggling though, “Yulias…”
“I’m sorry, it’s just that your highness was too cute.” I told him.
“’Cute’ is not a compliment…” He said that, but he was averting his gaze. I don’t think he meant what he said.
“Of course it is a compliment. I’m dying of love for your highness right now.” I told him.
After hearing my words, his highness looked around for a small bit, then hugged me, “You aren’t thinking that anything you do can be forgiven just because of your cuteness, are you?”
“But your highness is really cute too?” I asked him.
“I’m not happy to hear that…” He said.
“But your highness is cute. Very cute actually.” I told him.
“That’s harassment.” He murmured.
I laid my head on his chest, “I really love you.” I told him in a really small voice.
“That’s cowardly…” He whispered at my ear.
My heart started pounding a bit too fast from that… It was embarrassing.
Without saying any other words, we just kept hugging each other like that… Until the bell rang that is. It was a shame, but we had to part.
“It always gets in the way at the worst moments.” His highness said that, but he was smiling quite a bit.
“We can always continue it later.” I told him. My smile was surely as big as his now.
“I won’t forget those words.” He replied.
And like this, his highness also became our ally.
——
Translator’s Note: Yulias mentioned that she often came to Mathilda and Banache for love consultation, but this isn’t really something that was shown in the Webnovel for the most part. It’s probably a reference to context exclusive to the Light Novel, as the author did say that Banache had more scenes in the Light Novel… I haven’t read the Light Novel though, so this is mostly me guessing.