Reincarnated as the mother of an otome game's villainess?!

Chapter 8. Feasting on the flowers.

—I left the tables, cases, and pots. I'll dispose of the trash you got outside, please tell me if you need anything else to stop existing.

—P-please excuse my brother, and don't say anything about this to Lady Dragonroot! —the woman pleaded.

—Ah, well, they say fire is the best sanitizer —I replied—, but about the other thing...

—Madame, Mr. Haggard has arrived, and as he had an appointment, I allowed him to come inside—Carmila said as she approached us, followed by the botanist.

—Good morning, Madame —Victor said, bowing his head towards me—. It is really an honor to be allowed in your house.

—I'm really thankful that you would take your time to come and help me —I replied—, we just finished cleaning the greenhouse, with the help of this group of adventurers.

I turned around to introduce them, finding out that both the old man and the young woman were shocked, their mouths open agape, while the young man was just as disinterested as he has been since he arrived. A few minutes later, we were all drinking tea under the gazebo.

—Ho ho, but to think that the fearsome head of the Dragonroot clan would be dressed and act like that, there are truly fascinating things to be seen if one lives long enough! —the old man said.

I had been wearing "working clothes" to help with the cleaning, so their confusion was not too hard to understand. Moreover, with the way I had been acting I probably looked more like the wet nurse in charge of Violett.

—Gramps, that's very rude! Apologize to her! —the young woman said.

Her voice was loud enough to wake up Violett, and she started to fuss and trash around. The woman covered her mouth and looked terrified, as if expecting me to burst in anger, but I didn't really mind it.

—Excuse me —I said, and went to pick up Violett, cradling her in my arms and hummed her song.

She went to sleep immediately, but I didn't want to put her back on the stroller just yet, so I took her with me to the table.

—Well, as unbelievable as it might sound, I am Rossane Dragonroot. There might be some rumors about me going on, but I would like to ask you to form your own opinion of me so we can get along.

—N-no, it was our entire fault for not paying attention, Madame. We'll accept any punishment you want to place upon us.

—She said it is fine already, so let it go —his brother said.

—You...

I think they had dealt with difficult customers in the past; a few nobles I had known would get offended but much less and would seek compensation, even if it would actually benefit them in any way. They just enjoyed stepping over others.

—I don't want to punish anyone. The three of you actually helped me a lot, and I will pay you the reward for the quest and a little more. But for the time being, would you be so kind to tell me your names?

—Ce-certainly! —the woman said, still sounding a bit scared— I'm Anna, and he is my brother Neil. The old man is our gramps, Marcus.

Curious. Since I recovered my previous life's memories, I had been meeting up people that were relevant for the game's plot, so I was expecting to recognize their names, even if it was from background characters. But none of them sounded familiar. Still, maybe I was just not remembering them, so I tried to prod a bit into their lives, using all of my noblewoman's charisma.

—What more can you tell me about you? —I said, totally not canalizing my inner office lady.

—W-well, we have been adventurers for 5 years already —Anna said—, we are still very low ranked, so we have to take on odd jobs and weird task like this to make ends meet. Ah! I don't mean anything bad about this job, we are really grateful that you let us work for you.