Chapter 286 Celebrating My Thirteenth



Wheeee~ It's my birthday today~

Everything was set up at the manor in the outer district of the city and I was prepared to receive the guests coming this evening.

The manor house was a two story building made of a combination of bricks and stone painted a cheery red on the outside. The windows had no glass and only had simple wood shutters to cover them up to block the wind and rain.

Despite that, this was supposedly the standard for buildings located this far out from the centre of the city so it did not diminish its worth at all.

Outside was about ten acres of land that was used as a combination of a vineyard and a tea plantation. Which I believe was where Mother would get her tea and wine from.

There was a cellar underneath the manor with its own wine press too, and the storage shed across the main building housed the drying racks for the tea leaves so everything was produced in house.

For this event, we would be making use of the first floor of the manor where a large dining room, a sitting room and the hall would be used as the venue of the party.

I even went ahead to invite most of my classmates that I felt comfortable enough to at least call them my acquaintances, though I was warned by Katsuki to expect uninvited guests as well.

I wondered why and she explained that this was the perfect opportunity to find out where I lived and for those nobles to figure out my family situation.

"Wouldn't they figure out who this manor belongs to if they were to search for information about it?" I asked.

Katsuki shook her head, "Not at all, Mistress. This manor was bought using a seventh  party intermediary and even then, the official owner is not directly related to our family so there are no traces of it. At most, it would look like it was something left to Mistress's current family through inheritance."

I'm not sure how that works but if Katsuki says so, then there shouldn't be a problem. But there was one other problem though…

"Wouldn't this mean that they would start sending marriage proposals to this house as well?"

Katsuki nodded, "Unfortunately, that would happen as well, Mistress. But you do not need to worry, we will sort through and reject the messages on your behalf. Unless you are actually interested in some of them?"

"Oh no, definitely not. Reject them all please."

"Of course, Mistress. You might like to know that this should also reduce the number of people approaching you directly as well."

Oh that's even better! Seems like it was the right idea for me to have this party after all~

Meanwhile, I decided to go around the place to familiarise myself with the building first.

The kitchens were what I expected them to be. It obviously wasn't as well furnished as the mansion and the equipment were what you might expect from a small manor house like this.

Still, the quality of the food stored here seems to be comparable to the main house, which I suspect was done on purpose just for today.

The dining room and living room were also much more simply furnished but both still had a bit of the luxurious feeling to it.

"Is this all necessary for a manor like this to have?" I asked, pointing to the expensive looking paintings and furniture that had exquisitely carved patterns on them.

"It is indeed, Mistress," Katsuki assured me. "To an untrained eye, these would let this place look like the family was quite well off and let them think that Mistress belongs to a relatively important family. To the other nobles who have learned to understand these kinds of subtleties, they would know that we are either quite high up in the nobility rankings or are friends with one that is."

Ughh… More politics stuff…

Moving to the second floor, I was quite surprised to find fully furnished bedrooms, including one that I was very sure was made for me.

I could say so because the design of the room was very similar to how I would like mine to be, including the colour of the walls and even the number of pillows I prefer to have on the bed.

Katsuki seemed to realise my surprise at the state of the room.

"Mistress, the Madam had given the order that any of our properties that were able to should have a room set aside for your use. Thus, places like this would have rooms designed for your tastes in mind should you ever need to stay in them. In addition, it would be hard to explain if someone were to come up here to the second floor today and find none of the rooms looking like they were ever used."

"I see… What about the other rooms down the corridor?"

"Those rooms are also similarly furnished, Mistress, including a room for the Madam as well."

They're really serious about this huh? Well I suppose they do have the tendency to be especially thorough in what they do.

Mother would also be attending my party as well, so it makes sense that everything here to be done with the utmost care. Speaking of which, Mother should be preparing inside her room right now, though what she was preparing for she did not tell me.

Another difference about this place was that the bathroom was not located within the manor house but in a separate building near the well, which was also located beside another building that functioned as the servant quarters.

Now that I was sure that I knew where everything was, all I had to do was to wait for the guests to arrive to get this party started!

It didn't take long before the first guests showed up.

"Wahahaha! Happy birthday, sister Aster!"

'Happy birthday, Aster! :D <3'

"Odeta! Delmare! Come in, come in!"

I welcomed the two of them enthusiastically, both of them having arrived from the main house while waiting for my party to be ready before they made their way here.

Odeta immediately brought out her hands that she had been hiding behind her back to reveal a bouquet of flowers in them. Within the bouquet itself was a variety of flowers of different colours and species, some I have seen before while others were flowers I have never seen before.

"Ahaha~ I spent a few days gathering this for you sister Aster! I thought you might like this!" She grinned at me.

I took the bouquet from her, "I love it Odeta~ It's so beautiful! Thank you!"

"Wahaha! I guess it's worth the effort to find them after all!"

I felt a tug on my arm and I turned to see Delmare had written something else on her sketchbook that she's also using to cover her face shyly.

'I made a new song for you, Aster. I'll sing it to you later when we're alone, ok? >_<'

That's so cute~ Of course I would say yes to listening to her song!

I let one of the servants show Odeta and Delmare into the manor while passing over Odeta's bouquet of flowers to Katsuki for her to put into a vase.

No sooner had they left, I heard another knock on the door and I turned back to open it.

"Asteeeerrr~~ Happy birthday!!" Lisa squealed, lunging towards me to pull me into a hug.

"He… Hello, Lisa~ I'm glad to see that you made it~" I giggled, hugging her back.

"Mnnnn~ I missed you so much~ Haaa~ I missed this~"

"Didn't we just see each other in class this week?" I pointed out.

"Ahhhnn~ But you don't come to my Alchemy class that often anymore… And I can't do this in my Lumenmancy class either…" She whined.

I reached up to her and pushed her back softly, separating us from our hug.

She looked confused until I slid my hand to her cheeks before pulling her in for a kiss.

Lisa was surprised at first but quickly melted into the kiss, even moaning into my mouth.

We held the kiss for a minute before separating, my Infrid blushing up to her ears while she used her hand to cover part of her face in embarrassment.

"Mnnn… I… I love you, Aster…"

"Ehehe~ I love you too Lisa~ Thank you for coming today!"

"I… Of course I would come~ Ehehe~ I wouldn't mind coming more later on if Aster wants me to~"

I gave her a wry smile before Katsuki suddenly appeared beside me, "Miss Lisa, welcome. Allow me to show you the way in, please."

Lisa gave me a knowing look before following Katsuki in.

I remained at the front door and welcomed any new guests that were also arriving for my party, receiving their congratulations and well wishes with each new group.

There were classmates from my Lumenmancy class, my Alchemy class and even a few from my close combat class and Iatromancy class.

I had also intentionally invited girls only since the males were a little problematic with their marriage proposals right now. A few of them were futas as well but since I have yet to receive advances from other futas aside from Lisa, I felt that it was alright to invite them.

Actually, the only reason why I know they were futas was thanks to my [Screened] that displayed their genders, otherwise I would have mistook them for females as well.

Since they were still children, they were all accompanied with at least an adult when arriving here. Some of them had chosen to stay while most seemed content to leave them here and return after the party was over to pick them up.

I had already accounted for the adults accompanying the children so there were no problems in them staying for the party too.

Just as I was starting to think that I didn't need to worry about uninvited guests, another knock came from the door…

"Ahem, you are Aster, correct?"

I opened the door to see a middle aged man standing beside that boy whom I had initially challenged to bend a metal bar in the library which he failed spectacularly.

Ugh… Why are you here… I didn't invite you…