Chapter 15: Has He Met This Rich little Girl Before?

Hall looked at the person approaching. The girl was shorter than Himan by a head, but she was truly beautiful.

Her hair was rose-colored, just like her dress. The ribbon on her hair was also rose-colored, and her pupils were a strange rose gold. Originally, a full rose-colored outfit might look a bit tacky on an ordinary girl.

But on her, the rose color was so romantic and beautiful. Her skin, as if bathed in milk, looked very alluring in this ambiguous color.

This girl seemed to be born for the color rose.

Hall also knew clearly that her nickname was “The Rose of Saint Louis,” and her name was Leticia Child.

The head of the largest commercial family in the entire Papal State—the Child family, and she also held the title of Duchess.

It was said that her family controlled one-seventh of the wealth of the entire Western Continent. If she wished, she could easily cripple the economy of any Western Continent country except the Papal State. The phrase “wealthy enough to rival a nation” was practically made for her.

But she was only seventeen this year. Her face, as smooth as porcelain, still carried a childlike innocence that thirty-year-old women envied immensely.

Leticia wasn’t really suited to be a family head.
She became the head purely because she was the only daughter of the old man of the Child family.

In the game, this character was also one of the selectable heroines at the start, and one of the easier ones to complete.

Because this little princess had a female knight order that protected her secretly from the beginning.
Every time a Bad End was about to occur, this female knight order protecting Leticia would break through.

Therefore, players who disliked Hall and preferred a more relaxed playthrough would usually play Leticia’s route.
It was difficult to get into trouble unless you challenged Demon King-level bosses.

But even so, Hall had encountered Leticia a few times during her route.

Usually, the game text would read, “You coincidentally met Hall in XX location,” and then the option “Would you like to go up and say hello?” would pop up.

Why the hell would he say hello?
With her built-in cheat, did she need Hall?

But there were also players who chose to go up and say hello.
Then, there was a certain probability of triggering a plot where Leticia’s level increased significantly.

When such an accidental plot was triggered, if the player then recruited Hall into their party and used him to replenish mana with other heroines, Hall would be killed.

There was even a probability in the greeting plot that Hall would be directly executed by the female knight order secretly protecting Leticia.

Then the female knight order would report that Hall intended to do something inappropriate to Leticia, and was therefore eliminated.

Therefore, Hall was extremely flustered to unexpectedly encounter Leticia at the entrance of the Black Knights Order today.

This girl greeting him meant that he might be secretly executed by the female knight order protecting him!

It wasn’t that Hall was being alarmist.
There were indeed such voices within the Child family now.
The young lady seemed to be very interested in the second son of the Faxtius family, thinking it would be better for Hall to just die.

After all, whoever could possess Leticia could also possess the wealth of the Child family.
Her biological father had cleared all obstacles for her before his death.

She only needed to live a stable life, and at the end of each year, she would review the ridiculously large family accounts.

Just as Leticia only needed to go to school for one day each month, and her instructors would mark all her course evaluations with “A+”.

Little did anyone know, Leticia wasn’t very interested in going to school.
She liked quiet.
But as soon as she arrived at school, it wouldn’t be quiet anymore.
Countless people would flock to hit on her.

Since the day her birth mother brought her back to the Child family from the countryside of the Kingdom of Ireland when she was six years old, Leticia felt that her life was far from the one in her memories.

Until four years ago, one day, tired of being harassed, she went to the depths of a garden covering dozens of hectares on the mountain behind her middle school.
There, she saw Hall.

That black-haired boy was sitting alone by the pond, reading a book.
Before this, Leticia had rarely seen a boy with this hair color, let alone such a quiet presence.

Boys her age always flocked to her when they saw her.

But even though he noticed her arrival, he only glanced at her faintly and still showed no reaction, just sat there quietly.

From beginning to end, until Hall left, he never looked at her a second time.

On the contrary, Leticia’s gaze followed his retreating back as the young man left.

He exuded a maturity that she found irresistible at the time.
A soul that seemed to be hidden within that thin body, a soul that didn’t belong to his age, made her heart race.

She was wondering what his name was, and why he was reading an ancient book bound in sheepskin with an unknown cover.

“Duchess Leticia, is there something you need to talk about?”

Hall was still wondering why Leticia was striking up a conversation with him?

According to the timeline, this shouldn’t be the time he met Leticia either.

But since she had initiated the conversation, he had to find a way to quickly wrap it up.

However, this time he couldn’t be as dismissive as he was with Christine.
If he showed any signs of being dismissive, the female knights secretly protecting her might really make him dismissive.

When searching Leticia’s home in the game, a mysterious note could be found.
It read, “If Hall Faxtius were not the son of an Admiral, his corpse would be sunk in the Fay River tomorrow.”

What kind of deep-seated hatred was this?

“…”

Faced with Hall’s reply, Leticia was a bit unsure how to answer.

She had specifically come to the Black Knights Order today to stake out Hall.
Because her family didn’t like her going to see Hall, and Hall had a bad reputation.

So the Rose of Saint Louis, as this young lady was called, came up with a plan.
She used the excuse of sponsoring the Black Knights Order, saying that she wanted to select a few talented core members from the Black Knights Order to work for the Child family in the future.

The Cardinal Conference initially refused, stating that the Black Knights Order was a new organization that the Papal State had included in its key development plans over the past twenty years.
But unfortunately, Leticia gave them too much.

In this matter, the elders of the Child family did not object either.

The Black Knights Order had indeed gathered a group of very talented young people.
Most of these people were not even of noble birth.
It wouldn’t be difficult to have them work for the Child family in the future.

But if those old men knew that their little princess had paid a sky-high price just to create an opportunity to meet Hall, they would probably be so angry they’d spit blood.

But if Leticia insisted, no matter how much they objected, it would be useless.
Her butler, who had served the previous family head and now only served Leticia, was the real person in power.

Seeing her silence, Hall suddenly felt a little panicked.

‘Is something big about to happen?’

It was really outrageous that he was inexplicably branded as a traitor to the West last time.

However, Leticia’s question after a long time made him truly bewildered.

Because the girl said.

“Hall, do you remember our first meeting? What book were you reading then?”

They had met before?

When they met, he was reading a book?

After repeatedly thinking, Hall felt a strange pain in his head, but he really couldn’t remember.

In any case, for his own safety, he had to keep his distance from her.

So he asked.

“Duchess Leticia, have we met before?”

At that moment, hearing the respectful address again, Leticia showed a somewhat sad expression.

She was thinking.

Either Hall had amnesia.

Or Hall was still the same as before, always treating her as air.

Or perhaps Hall was truly a scumbag as the rumors said, and was deliberately saying he didn’t know her.

If possible, this rose heiress wanted to believe the first one.