A Sudden Return of Memories
I suddenly remembered something one day.
More precisely, it was the memories of my previous life.
It wasn’t anything particularly important.
It was simply that in my previous life I had been a man living an ordinary life, and then I had been hit by a truck and died.
But because I remembered my childhood memories, I started acting a bit more like a man.
Not fully like a man—wearing pants or anything—but I acted somewhat like one.
“Mom, I want meat.”
“What kind of nonsense is that, Sophia?”
“I want meat!”
“You little brat! You should be eating vegetables while you live, too! How can a person only think about eating meat?!”
“Waaah!”
Actually, it had been more like acting like a kid than like a man.
It was as if my mind had followed my young body and grown up together.
“Last time I almost broke Evan’s arm because he was blocking the way while I was running!”
“No! You were the one running, and Evan was trying to stop you!”
“You’ve been yelling at Mom lately!”
“I wasn’t—”
“If your mother yells at you like that again, what do you think will happen?”
“…”
“What do you think will happen?”
“You’ll be sent to the boarding school.”
“Really? I have to go?”
“Wait—!”
“Husband~ Send her to the boarding school we already applied for.”
“Mom, no!”
....
If I hadn’t yelled at my mother that one time, I would never have ended up at the boarding school and spent my youth as a failure.
And I would never have spent my most enjoyable teenage years that way.
Following my parents’ plan, I was sent to the elite boarding school.
It wasn’t an ordinary school—it was an extremely famous boarding school that trained only the elite.
I still have no idea how my parents managed to get me into a school that only elites attended.
What I do know is that if I hadn’t gone there, my life would have been completely different in many ways.
Because that school was so famous, and graduating from it made it incredibly easy to find a job.
Although magic exists in this world, only a small number of people can actually use it.
Of course, I wasn’t among those few.
Still, graduating from the boarding school was proof that I stood out in some way.
I don’t know why I stood out, but if I hadn’t attended the school, I wouldn’t even have been able to try to get a good job like I have now.
“Um… You graduated from Elesia Boarding School… and you also worked as an adventurer for a while?”
“Yes! I graduated at sixteen and worked as an adventurer for two years, so I have some experience!”
And now I was in the middle of an interview.
It wasn’t at some huge corporation, but at a grand ducal family.
The country I lived in was the Dextrin Empire.
The northern region, Eristirol, which sat at the very top of the empire, was ruled by the Eristyrol family.
Before coming here for the interview, I had been traveling around the capital and the provinces, enjoying my life as an adventurer.
After staying at the boarding school for a few years, I got bored, so I started working as an adventurer two years ago and had become a gold-rank adventurer.
It wasn’t an extremely high rank, but I was still within the top thirty percent of adventurers.
I was living by catching monsters and completing quests, but I had started to feel a bit tired of it.
After all, I hadn’t properly settled down—I was always moving between suitable inns, and whenever I got a quest I had to travel to other provinces.
Then, suddenly, I heard that they were looking for a tutor in the north, Eristirol.
And it was only for a woman.
In my previous life I had been a man, and even now my identity was a bit fluid, but I was probably someone with a slightly higher male ratio.
Still, if I laid out the cards like this, I had to use the drawn cards.
And now.
“Hmm… Top grades at the boarding school. Not bad combat experience as an adventurer either. Appearance…”
“?”
Ah, since it was a tutor position, there might be things shown to others, so maybe they wanted me to hide my appearance?
But it was no problem for me.
I was pretty!
It might sound like self-praise, but I really was pretty.
I was only eighteen, still a teenager, but I was incredibly pretty.
If I had had this face in my previous life, I wouldn’t have been called a face bestowed by the gods, an idol born once every thousand years, or a face that could topple a country.
The man conducting the interview carefully examined my face.
Well, he couldn’t say anything bad about the face anyway.
Ah, except that I looked a little young.
After all, it was cold outside, so I had worn a coat and he couldn’t see my figure.
Even so, evaluating the figure too was too much.
“Wait a moment.”
The interviewer left the interview room with me for a moment.
What?
Was it some kind of test?
No way.
Was it like those movies where suddenly water rises from the floor and you have to escape?
I sat on the chair as instructed and waited.
After about five minutes, the door opened from behind and the interviewer came in.
And a young boy holding his hand.
The boy looked timid, but his appearance didn’t match that at all.
Snow-white hair and bright, clear sky-blue eyes.
And most of all, a face that would make girls his age die from happiness if they got to play with him.
…It really did look exactly like the eldest son of a grand duke.
“Eh?”
Wait a minute, they’re looking for a tutor in the northern Eristirol.
They’re conducting the interview at the northern grand duke’s castle.
…
Actually, had I been a huge fool?
No matter who looked at it, it was the position of tutor for the eldest son of the northern grand duke.
It was a position that seemed too burdensome and dangerous.
If I made one mistake in my words, my neck would be cut off, right?
“This person is the eldest son of the Eristyrol family… Prince Kyle.”
Kyle Eristyrol.
Eldest son of the northern grand duke’s family.
Why were they suddenly showing me the eldest son?
“…Prince, how do you feel about this woman in front of you becoming your tutor? She is a person with good experience and ability.”
The interviewer introduced me to the eldest son and asked the eldest son about me.
Ah, I see.
Since they were looking for the eldest son’s tutor, they naturally asked the eldest son’s permission.
If he didn’t like it, he would be fired. If he did, he would pass, right?
From my memory, the eldest son’s age hadn’t been particularly young.
Was it around twelve when I saw it in the newspaper?
But he looked a bit smaller in build than his age.
Exactly, he was shrinking his body.
“…Okay…”
A very small voice.
It was the voice of a child who hadn’t gone through puberty yet.
That voice approved me becoming the prince’s tutor.
And the interviewer sent the prince back and started the contract with me.
“First, you need to know a few things.”
“Eh?”
“You need to know a few things about the prince and sign a confidentiality agreement about that story.”
“Eh….”
What kind of story would require a confidentiality agreement?
Was it that the prince used violence or killed servants or something psycho?
“First, listen. After listening, you can refuse to become the tutor.”
“Eh…”
If there was no problem with listening, it was fine.
If it was forced after listening, I would have run away immediately.
“The prince… last year, he almost got assaulted by a male servant.”
“Eh?”
Did I hear it wrong now, or did the interviewer in front of me say something weird?
A male servant?
The eldest son?
“Wait a second. A male servant?”
“Yes, exactly, the prince’s direct servant tried to assault the prince. Fortunately, a maid who was entering at the time prevented him from fully doing it…”
…
It was a completely different story from what I had thought.
It wasn’t the eldest son who caused the incident, but the eldest son who had been the victim of the incident.
That was why he had said that to me.
The story of the eldest son of the Eristyrol grand duke family almost becoming a victim shouldn’t spread.
So he was telling me to sign a confidentiality agreement.
Because it was such a prince, he gave me the right to choose.
“After that, he became afraid of men except for a few male servants who the lord and I knew from when he was really young.”
“Ah…”
So that was why they were looking for a female tutor and servant.
Yeah, of course, it was a story worthy of trauma.
A direct servant, exactly a man larger than himself trying to assault him, how could it not be scary?
“That’s why we are looking for a female tutor and servant. We are not forcing anyone. Sophia, after hearing the story, will you become the prince’s tutor?”
The interviewer’s question.
If I said no here, it would end there.
But I had no such intention.
The prince wasn’t the perpetrator, and I didn’t need to be afraid.
Rather, I had gotten a good job so easily.
And money would be given a lot.
Why?
Because it was a tutor position—if I did the tutor job well, I could eat and sleep in this good place for a few years without being fired?
Compared to living by going back and forth as an adventurer for two years, it was the best.
Outside it was cold, but inside the castle it was extremely warm.
“I’ll do it. Tutor.”
“Then, let’s sign a confidentiality agreement about the story that just came out.”
The interviewer brought a table and started casting magic on it.
With some strange language I didn’t understand.
He muttered something I couldn’t make out, and a paper with a striking green border fell onto the table.
“Sign here. Then the contract will be concluded.”
I read the contract first.
I had to read any contract carefully.
The contract I read had no problems at all.
The content was basically: You will keep secret about the incident of the eldest son of the Eristyrol family.
I immediately signed with the pen next to me.
And when I finished signing, the paper suddenly burned with green flames and disappeared.