Chapter 28
Of course, a pink-tinted romance? A green light?
Nothing like that at all.
‘How should I put it… It feels more like watching the first sprout push up after planting cherry tomato seeds in a garden for the first time.’
Is it getting enough water? Enough sunlight? Did some wild animal dig it up? Could the wind blow it away?
It’s that kind of feeling where you fuss over it with all sorts of unnecessary worries.
Not that Claude is actually fussing over me, of course.
Anyway, Claude was looking at me as though I were some fragile little lifeform.
‘Since when was he like that?’
It definitely wasn’t at our first meeting.
Back then, he was more suspicious—gauging whether I could be trusted with Estelle.
By the second meeting, he at least recognized me enough to greet me and ask how I was doing.
‘So when did it change…? Ah, could it have been then?’
That first lesson day—when Estelle and Claude chatted during the break and then came back.
Before the lesson started, Claude suddenly asked me this:
“Are you, by chance, the sensitive type?”
“Huh? That’s… uh, well, it depends on the situation?”
“Then let me rephrase. Do you tend to be self-conscious about others’ eyes on you?”
“I’ve never really thought about it… but probably not?”
“A vague answer. Very well, I’ll leave it at that.”
The question had been so out of the blue that I’d been completely thrown off.
To make it worse, Claude’s gaze silently pressed me to answer, so I couldn’t even take time to think it through.
In the end, I just gave a half-hearted, evasive reply.
But looking back now, I think that might’ve been the moment when Claude started to take notice of me.
‘Not just Claude, either. Even Cain has been acting different.’
Claude’s aide, Cain.
The first time I met him, he hadn’t looked pleased with me at all.
And no wonder—me, a mere commoner, was teaching the future master of the Xenopesia family.
But these days, it’s different.
Now he greets me warmly, smiles, asks if I need anything, if I’m uncomfortable in any way.
‘It’s strange. I’m still teaching Claude the same as before. Why the different reactions now?’
There’s clearly something I don’t know.
Dignity: 13 (+1)
While I was lost in thought, a status window suddenly appeared before me.
Estelle’s dignity had increased by one.
Startled by its sudden appearance but also delighted by the positive change, I quickly turned to look at Estelle.
‘Knew it!’
Just as I expected.
Now that her dignity was up a little, she wasn’t fiddling with her hands anymore.
Nor was she kicking her feet.
‘At this rate, she’ll recover her old dignity in no time!’
My heart thumped with excitement, and I had to force my lips down to keep from smiling too wide.
‘Well then, let’s check Estelle’s full status window for the first time in a while.’
The season of fresh spring breezes had passed, and now the hot sun of summer shone over the world.
I’d first met Estelle during the spring festival in March—so it had already been four months.
‘Less than half a year left until next year, huh.’
For some, half a year is plenty of time to reach a goal. For others, it’s not nearly enough.
For me too, it could mean either a relaxed half-year, or a frantic one—depending on what her stats looked like.
Taking a deep breath, I whispered inwardly:
‘Status window—open.’
[Estelle]
Age: 14
Birthday: September 15
Stamina: 84
Intelligence: 117
Dignity: 13
Morality: 36
Trust: 80
Faith: 4
Farming Skill: 30
…
A long list floated up before my eyes.
Normally I only checked whichever stat had gone up, but seeing them all at once like this stirred something in me.
‘Thanks to her part-time jobs, her stamina’s really grown. Oh my goodness! Her intelligence is already in the triple digits? I knew it—our Estelle really is smart.’
If Claude weren’t here, I’d have hugged her tight and ruffled her hair endlessly.
Too bad I couldn’t, and it left me frustrated.
I forced myself to continue scanning downwards.
‘Hmm, Fame isn’t listed, even though it’s an important stat. Must be zero, since any unacquired sub-stats don’t show up. …Wait. Hold on a second. What’s that?’
As I was confirming her stats one by one, I suddenly froze.
Stress: 95
Warning
Stress is dangerously high.
If Stress exceeds 100, the chance of status ailments will rise.
Please take caution.
‘How did her stress get this high?!’
Her Stress stat had climbed without me realizing it.
I blinked and checked again and again, but no matter how many times I rubbed my eyes, the warning and the dreadful number didn’t change.
‘W-when did it climb this much? The last time I checked was… oh no.’
As I dug through my memory, the realization struck me dumb.
The last time I checked her Stress was the day I sent her on that sugar errand—when she got mugged.
‘…’
That was quite some time ago.
Which meant I hadn’t checked her Stress at all since then.
‘This is my fault! I’m an idiot!’
There was no excuse. I knew full well what Stress could do.
And I hadn’t bothered to keep an eye on it.
Now there was even a warning.
This was entirely, 100% my negligence.
“Reina?”
“Y-yes?”
“You look startled. What happened?”
I must’ve looked too serious, because Claude had come closer and was peering at me, one brow raised.
‘Wh-what do I say?’
I couldn’t exactly admit I was looking at her status window.
Panicked, I bit my lip and rolled my eyes around. Then I spotted a little dust bunny in the corner.
I quickly pointed.
“Uh—dust! I just saw some dust drifting around—it looked like an insect moving, and it startled me, haha…”
“Dust?”
Claude turned his head toward where I pointed.
His eyes narrowed and he clicked his tongue.
“It’s true. I’ll have to tell the steward to make sure the cleaning is done more thoroughly.”
…Sorry, whoever cleans this room. I threw you under the bus.
But I had no choice.
Stress: 95
Looking at that number—practically a ticking time bomb—how could I not react?
‘I can’t just leave it like this.’
I had to come up with a solution immediately, or else she could fall into status ailments just as the warning said.
Illness, delinquency, all sorts of bad endings—even death routes!
If I didn’t stop it now, it might be too late before I even realized it.
‘Right. And it’s summer now, isn’t it?’
The moment I recalled the season, a single idea popped into my head.
A way to slash that Stress down dramatically.
If I did this, I could probably solve the problem in the near future.
* * *
In Raise Your Daughter, there are two major ways to drastically reduce Stress.
Free Activities—and Vacations!
First, Free Activities don’t lower Stress by much.
But the big advantage is that Estelle can do them anytime she wants.
They’re great for keeping Stress stable, or preventing it from building up.
It’s just that lately, Estelle’s been too busy with studies and part-time jobs to even think about going out.
‘That’s why her Stress piled up like this.’
In times like these, the other method is best.
Vacations.
Unlike Free Activities, Vacations come with a restriction.
Only once per season—four times a year total.
But that doesn’t mean they’re worse.
On the contrary: because you can only go four times a year, they reduce Stress much more than Free Activities.
‘At least 20 points, sometimes as much as 100, if I remember right.’
And it didn’t have to be anything fancy.
Whether it was a trip to the seaside or a quick jaunt to a nearby valley—
As long as the purpose was rest, it counted as a vacation.
