Chapter 110 - Special Report! Dinner on the Road 5: Preparations for the Road <Anna's Case>
“Is she your granddaughter?”
Once again, a shopkeeper—the umpteenth one—saw them off with that question.
“Yes, she’s my pride and joy.”
Edward, who seemed to have completely gotten used to it, smiled back with the face of a genuinely kind old retiree.
“You’re a lucky girl, having your grandpa buy you things.”
This time, the shopkeeper turned to Anna and said with a cheerful smile. Anna had learned her lesson at the very first shop that denying it would only make things awkward, so she decided to go along with it and smile brightly.
“Yes.”
After leaving the glass-fronted store and closing the door behind them, Anna let out a big sigh.
“Is this really okay…?”
“It’s fine. If I were to say you’re a friend’s companion, they’d just look at us suspiciously. It’s written all over their faces.”
“But it feels like we’re tricking them…”
Anna hated lying to begin with. Yet for a while now, she had been pretending to be a granddaughter to her grandfather in front of numerous shopkeepers.
Besides, Edward wasn’t someone who should be so casually pretending to be a retiree.
After all, just a few days ago, he was a king filled with an astonishing amount of dignity.
Perhaps sensing what Anna was thinking, Edward smiled gently.
“We are not tricking them. While we may not be related by blood, I would be happy to be your grandfather.”
“That makes me very happy, but…”
With Lef having gone off to meet some friends who worked at the port, the two of them were out shopping like this.
Starting today, Franz was supposed to be getting an intense workout from Ritz. Thinking about it made her feel a little sorry for him, but considering the journey ahead, all she could say was, “Do your best, Franz!”
The two were mainly buying food, seasonings, and alcohol. It was better to buy these things here than in the Royal Capital, as they would last longer.
In fact, at the first shop, the moment the clerk said, “What a cute granddaughter you have,” Anna had replied, “I’m not his granddaughter. We’re companions.” The atmosphere in the shop had instantly turned awkward.
Edward, who had been watching silently, must have realized it was a bad idea, because he put a hand on Anna’s shoulder with a smile and said to the clerk, “I do apologize. My granddaughter has taken a liking to this little game recently.”
When she asked Edward about it later, he explained that to the general public, an old man and a young girl calling themselves companions had a hint of criminality to it, but Anna just couldn’t understand why.
“I still don’t get it.”
“Anna, sometimes a white lie is necessary.”
Edward said the exact same thing Ritz did, and when she looked up at his face, he was trying to persuade her with the same kind of expression Ritz would use.
When it came to this, she had no choice but to give up and accept that adults have their reasons.
“I don’t mind being seen as your granddaughter, Ed-san. But being called ‘little girl’ feels a bit strange.”
Her true feelings slipped out like a complaint.
“Does it?”
“Yes. I wish they’d at least call me ‘young lady.’”
Ultimately, the source of this strange feeling was her age.
Anna was already thirty-one. By age alone, she was a full-fledged adult. But everyone treated her like a child more than necessary.
If she believed her adoptive father, Anna’s growth was about twice as slow as a human’s. That meant that to others, her actual apparent age was between fifteen and sixteen.
People who knew that treated her accordingly, but people who didn’t know her real age treated her terribly. At best, they treated her as if she were twelve or thirteen.
Sometimes, it was even worse, with people treating her like, ‘Oh, you’re doing the shopping? What a big girl you are,’ and giving her candy. Just how old did they think she was?
At times like that, she’d accept it with a “thank you,” but it was a secret from her companions that she would later go back to her room, look in the mirror, and feel down, thinking, ‘Do I really look that much like a child…?’
Her close friend Joe had told her this:
‘Don’t worry about it. I get mistaken for being way older all the time, but I don’t let it bother me.’
Anna was certain it was better to be seen as older, but Joe insisted that it was more advantageous to be seen as younger.
Another thing that had been irking her about her age was Ritz’s attitude.
Ritz, who should have known her better than anyone else in the group, had started treating her like a child even more since they arrived in the Royal Capital.
Franz’s attitude hadn’t changed at all. He was a man of few words and didn’t make small talk. Fundamentally, Franz’s attitude was ‘I am me, and others are others.’
So whether Anna was young or mature beyond her years, it probably didn’t matter much to him.
Compared to him, Ritz was blatant. He treated her so much like a child that she had once half-seriously accused him of being the parent who had abandoned her, which had caused Ritz to collapse onto the table in defeat.
Joe had laughed so hard at that, he’d pulled a muscle in his stomach, and even Franz had given Ritz a cold look and made a rare joke, saying, ‘If that’s the case, you should own up to it.’
“What are you thinking about?”
A gentle voice brought her back to her senses. She had been lost in thought. When she looked up, the face she saw was not that of a kind old man, but of Edward, Ritz’s best friend and their companion.
This man was incredible, able to change his expression and even his personality in an instant. It was something Anna could never hope to imitate.
“Ed-san, do I really look that young?”
She voiced the thoughts that had been on her mind, and Edward tilted his head.
“To be mistaken for my granddaughter when we’re together seems only natural, given our age difference, don’t you think?”
Come to think of it, if Anna stood next to Edward’s real grandson, they would look about the same age. But that wasn’t the point.
“But… I don’t think I’m at an age where people should be saying, ‘What a cute little girl.’”
She said it in all seriousness, but Edward burst out laughing.
“Did I say something funny?”
“No, I just never expected to hear the words ‘I’m not at that age’ come from your mouth, Anna.”
“Huh? Is that strange?”
“That’s something people say after they’ve passed twenty.”
Edward looked at Anna, his face still full of amusement. Feeling this was completely unfair, she pouted up at him.
“I’m… thirty-one, you know?”
“I told you before that you age at half the rate of a human, Anna. In that case, you should save those words until you’re past forty.”
Edward’s expression grew serious, but he was still smiling faintly. There was some logic to what he said, but emotionally, something felt off.
“Hmm, I’m still not convinced.”
“There’s nothing to worry about. It’s a settled matter that it’s far better to stay young forever than to look old when you’re young.”
“That’s true, but…”
Edward was saying the same thing as Joe. Of course it was better that way. But she still wasn’t convinced.
Come to think of it, when she told Patricia about this before, she had said with a beautiful smile, ‘Don’t be silly. It’s always better for a woman to be young. If you’re treated as young, just smile sweetly, say thank you as charmingly as you can, and everything will work out.’
She understood that much. If it was a stranger in a shop, it couldn’t be helped. She would resign herself to being treated like a child.
“But still, don’t you think it’s not right to be treated like a complete child even by your companions?”
“…Ah, you mean Ritz.”
Seemingly finally understanding the reason for Anna’s dissatisfaction, Edward clapped his hands together.
“He treats me like a massive child, doesn’t he? Franz never treats me like a little kid, and neither does Lef, you know? Even you don’t, Ed-san.”
“Ah, well, I suppose so.”
Edward, who was usually so articulate, gave a vague reply. He was probably being considerate, worried that agreeing would hurt Anna’s feelings.
“I want to show him that I’m not that much of a child anymore, but…”
Her words trailed off, and Anna let out a big sigh.
“I can’t think of anything~.”
For the most part, Anna had never even considered the idea of getting back at someone, so let alone coming up with a good plan, it was difficult for her to even think about what she could do to impress someone.
Her basic philosophy was, ‘The results will follow later. Just do what needs to be done now,’ so it couldn’t be helped.
But for some reason, this principle didn't apply when it came to Ritz. She had wanted to make Ritz acknowledge her for a long time now, but she couldn’t think of a single way to do it.
She took a deep breath, trying to turn her thoughts back to shopping, when Edward placed a hand on her shoulder.
When she looked up at his face, which was a little shorter than Ritz's, he was smiling cheerfully, as if he had come up with an idea.
“You said you didn’t like being treated like a child by the shopkeepers, right?”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t like Ritz treating you like a child either. Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
For some reason, Edward looked happy. And it was a mischievous kind of happiness. Anna was beginning to understand what Edward was thinking when he made that face.
Edward had probably thought of some kind of prank.
And it was specifically for Ritz.
This man was very kind to Franz and Anna, and to Lef as well, but he was merciless when it came to Ritz.
Anna thought that friendship was supposed to be something more heartwarming, but Edward’s plan sounded interesting, so she found herself listening intently.
“In that case, I have a good idea.”
“What is it?”
She looked up at Edward excitedly, and he smiled brightly.
“Let’s go buy you some clothes.”
“Huh?”
She froze at his words. It was a completely unexpected turn of events.
“If you buy a beautiful, mature-looking outfit and show it to Ritz, he’ll be surprised. He won’t be able to treat you like a child anymore.”
“But… we can’t afford that.”
Financially, of course. If she bought something like that, she couldn’t even imagine how angry Franz would be. And it was definitely not necessary for this journey.
“Don’t worry about the money. I’ll buy it for you.”
He said it so casually that Anna’s eyes widened. A beautiful, mature-looking outfit was bound to be expensive.
“You can’t do that!”
“Oh, it’s no trouble at all.”
“It is trouble! We don’t need it for the journey!”
“That’s fine, isn’t it? It won’t be that bulky.”
“But… it’s expensive, you know?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
At a loss for how to refuse, she fell silent. Edward looked at her with a smile that brooked no argument. Troubled, she looked up at him with pleading eyes, and he winked.
“You see, I was the king until just the other day. I have a little extra money to spare.”
Anna let out a long sigh and looked up at Edward. Once he was like this, he was as stubborn as his wife, Patricia.
Seeing her predicament, Edward said with a slightly more serious expression,
“Consider it a thank you from me for accepting Patty’s staff and granting her wish.”
After being told that, there was only one thing Anna could do.
“Alright. In that case, please buy it for me.”
“I will gladly do so.”
Somehow, it was becoming unclear who was buying something for whom.
“When we go into the shop, make sure you tell them you’re sixteen. Then say that people treat you like a child, so you want them to pick out something age-appropriate. They’re professionals.”
“Okay.”
That way, she could avoid being treated like a little girl by the shop staff and be seen as an adult.
Even if she was seen as Edward’s granddaughter, she wouldn’t be treated like a ‘little girl.’ It was amazing how Edward could think of something like this in an instant.
“Shall we go, then?”
“Let’s go!”
How this would be a prank on Ritz was the only thing she didn’t understand, but she was sure it would surprise him.
Led by Edward, Anna entered what looked like a very expensive adult clothing store.