Chapter 58: Dear Anne, Please Control Your Social Butterfly Tendencies

Lu Xing sat down opposite the Duchess.

According to what Annie had told him, the Swinton family's ancestors came from the south, but their fief was in the north. Having lived there for many years, their bloodline was closer to that of the northerners.

Lu Xing had met Duke Swinton. The man was exceptionally burly, sported a beard, and had white downy hair on the back of his hands. Rather than looking like a duke, he looked more like a golden polar bear.

However.

Annie's appearance took after her mother, who came from the southern provinces. Her mother did not have the towering, bulky frame of the northerners, and her facial features were much softer. Annie was even more petite than her mother, with a pure and lovely face; the only thing she inherited from the Swinton family was their golden hair.

Just like Annie, Madam Bridget was dressed in an elaborate gown adorned with numerous jewels. Lu Xing had seen her four or five times, and each time she wore a different outfit paired with different accessories, her level of luxury by no means inferior to that of wealthy and beautiful female CEO Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu also possessed a thirty-square-meter walk-in closet, and that was just for the clothes in one of her apartments.

"Madam, you seem to have many questions you'd like to ask me."

Lu Xing took the initiative to speak, smiling as he said, "Please feel free to ask whatever you wish. Annie is here too, and she can answer your questions as well."

"Ah?"

Madam Bridget was somewhat startled. Setting aside her formalities, she hurriedly asked him, "I heard from Annie that she and you, the esteemed Mr. Lu Xing, exchanged souls, and that she went to a mysterious and interesting place... Is she still inside this body?"

Head Maid Janvina and Maid Catherine both looked over.

If Annie's soul was still inhabiting the body, it would be no different from demonic possession.

"No, Annie went to my world and is currently sightseeing. To be precise, she is on her way to school."

Lu Xing smiled.

"She went to an academy to study?"

Madam Bridget wore a look of astonishment, then smiled and said, "Her father and I were planning to send her to the Imperial Capital only next year, to let her interact more with the nobles and outstanding commoners of the southern provinces. How is it that she went already?"

"To be precise, she is going to school in my place, just like how I went to class for Annie last time!"

"I see. Are you a noble as well, Mr. Lu Xing?"

"Not at all. There are no nobles where we are—at least, not in our country. It is a society where everyone is equal."

"Everyone is equal...?"

Madam Bridget and the two maids were encountering such a concept for the very first time, and for a moment they were quite perplexed.

"Are they elves?"

Janvina recalled, "I read in a book introducing the Elven race that elves have no nobility, and they hold Council of Elders meetings to discuss matters."

"No, no, no, Earthlings don't have much to do with elves!"

Lu Xing smiled and said, "When I say everyone is equal, I mean that every person is born equal; no one is noble and no one is humble, and officials are selected through examinations and promoted step by step."

He stopped there and did not delve deeper.

Even so, the concept of the imperial examination system still astonished Madam Bridget.

Lu Xing could actually understand their amazement. This world was quite different from Earth; the elves, dragons, and deities here were naturally noble, born with powerful magic and even race-specific spells of their own.

"What a miraculous realm! I imagine there must be a benevolent deity protecting that land!"

The Duchess broke into a smile.

Lu Xing did not explain too much; the differences between the two worlds could not be made clear in just a few words. Simply saying that most people in Huaxia did not worship deities would be enough to frighten them.

Here, there were those who forsook the gods, but hardly anyone was an unbeliever. Even if you committed murder and arson, you could still find an evil god to worship in the netherworld of hell.

"Mr. Lu Xing, are you chatting with my mother?"

At that moment, the young noble lady's voice rang out in Lu Xing's mind.

Lu Xing smiled slightly and said to the young noble lady's mother, "Madam, your daughter is sending you her regards."

"Annie?"

Madam Bridget's expression turned pleasantly surprised, and she said to him, "Could you please help me reply to her, Mr. Lu Xing? Tell her I am well and currently chatting with you. And if I may trouble you further, Mr. Lu Xing, please ask Annie what she is doing on Earth right now."

Lu Xing acted as the bridge for the mother-daughter conversation. After asking on behalf of the Duchess, he relayed Annie's reply:

"Mother, I'm walking right now! I'm on my way to Mr. Lu Xing's school for class. There are so many cars on the road, even more than during the Divine Grace Festival in Rowinsche City! Fortunately, Mr. Lu Xing taught me how to cross the street, and I've also learned how to go out and about here. Mother, please don't worry, Annie can take care of herself just fine. Annie is super capable!"

The last sentence was especially childish and cute, brimming with a daughter's spoiled coquetting; even Lu Xing blushed slightly just speaking it out loud.

Yet to Madam Bridget and Janvina, "Annie" at this moment seemed all the more strange.

Her appearance hadn't changed, and her voice hadn't changed either, but her tone of speech was different from the usual Annie. And yet, the things she said sounded precisely like something Annie would say.

"There are many carriages on Earth? Won't it be dangerous?"

The Duchess immediately asked with concern.

Lu Xing still relayed the words to Annie.

"Don't worry, Mother. Earth is very safe! Mr. Lu Xing is an adult man and is very strong. There are no assassins here, nor will anyone be attacked by magic, and nobody casts curses either. The only thing to worry about is that Annie doesn't understand the laws here very well. I was worried about triggering them before, but not anymore. With Mr. Lu Xing here, he will help Annie!"

"Do you have money to spend over there?"

"Yes! A young lady named Xiao Yu gave me tens of thousands of yuan... A fist-sized meat-stuffed bread here costs only four yuan, and a commoner working for a day can buy fifty such breads. Isn't that amazing?!"

"Even the commoners on Earth are so prosperous?"

Madam Bridget was extremely astonished and asked a few more questions.

As Lu Xing eavesdropped on the conversation between mother and daughter, he could only think that she truly lived up to being a noble with a fief.

The areas they cared about were different from ordinary people. For instance, after arriving on Earth, Annie had specifically asked Xiao Yu about the salary of an ordinary worker, the tax revenue of a city, the size of the army, the number of armor sets produced in a year, and how ordinary people made a living.

Annie even went so far as to care about how many homeless people there were in Haicheng, where they slept at night, how many people lived in the slums, and where the city's water source was located.

Although many of these questions fell into the category of laughable nonsense in the modern world, one had to admit that even if she were sent to Earth to serve as a mayor, she could handle the job with ease.

Of course, the Duchess also cared about another matter:

"Do you need a maid to wait on you when you go to school?"

"My dearest Mother!!"

Annie replied in an exaggerated tone:

"I am already grown up! I don't need a maid taking care of me all the time! I can dress myself, call for service myself, order food at a restaurant, pay the bill, and eat by myself—I've learned how to do everything!! I'm no dummy."

When Lu Xing translated this, he tried his best to imitate Annie's tone, but he only managed to capture thirty percent of it—especially the tone that mixed exaggeration with a hint of grievance and a dash of smugness. Lu Xing simply gave up on the acting and relayed it verbatim.

Fortunately, everyone present knew Annie quite well and could easily imagine the tone of voice she used when saying those words.

"Very well, my dear daughter really has grown up."

Madam Bridget smiled softly, then added:

"It's about time to start looking for a fiancé."

Lu Xing relayed this to Annie word for word.

"Annie doesn't... doesn't want to find a fiancé."

The young noble lady must have been blushing. After stammering out those words, she hurriedly said: "Mr. Lu Xing, please tell my mother that I've arrived at the school and am getting ready to attend class with my classmates. I don't have classes this afternoon, and I want to go find Miss Zhao Qianqian from International Business to chat about Earth cosmetics!"

Lu Xing: "..."

Dear Annie, please control your social butterfly tendencies. I do not wish to become the universal male best friend for all the girls in the entire school!