CH 24

I felt a bit sorry for Harun, so I opened my mouth to make an excuse. But Harun had seemingly gotten over it, and smiled as he spoke to me again.

“Well, Shushu is charming no matter what she does. Your older brother loves even your annoyed look!”

“……..”

Harun went right back to grinning widely and teasing me. At this point, I wondered if Harun was sick. I just about kept goosebumps forming on my skin. If I didn’t pay attention, he went right back to sticking to me.

“Get off, it’s hot.”

Even as I shoved Harun away, who was still trying to hug me, he continued to smile.

“Shushu, I can only cling onto you like this because you’re still young. When you grow older, your older brother will probably be pushed to the side by your suitor…… Ah, thinking about it makes me sad.”

I gave up resisting and just pat his head a few times.

“Even without suitors, you’re pretty low on my list.”

Harun didn’t even pretend to hear me.

“Our Shushu is so lovely, people aren’t going to let you off easily. Your older brother is so worried.”

I shot him an expression of disgust. What was he saying?

“How am I going to live when you get a boyfriend? If you get a lover, you need to bring them to me. Got it? I’m not going to let you date without my approval! There are so many people who look flashy on the outside and are rotten on the inside! I’ll figure it out for you.”

Instead of responding verbally, I just gave him a rotten smile. I didn’t know how many times I’d heard this before. What Harun was worried about was never going to happen. There had been nobody who had even shown any interest or good feelings towards me in my past life, and it was even worse in this life. My looks, my personality, and my place in the novel made sure that I wouldn’t have any dating life in this life.

“I’m going to live alone.”

I could feel someone looking at me at my words. When I looked up, I saw that Hestia continued to look at me. When our eyes met, Hestia slightly averted her gaze.

With wriggly fingers, Hestia looked at Harun and smiled slightly.

“You heard, right? Shushu said that she’s okay being alone so don’t worry. Shushu won’t have any boys coming her way.”

I was hugely affected by Hestia’s sudden words. Whose fault was it that I was going to live alone forever…………

“…….Hestia, that’s so mean.”

Harun comforted me, but I shook my head.

Forever…………….with Harun…………

“………I don’t want that.”

“Whyyyyy?!”

When I responded with all my heart, Harun grew angry. Hestia watched Harun and I and laughed loudly.

After a long time in the carriage, older brother Harun and I arrived at the West mansion. The familar faces of the West household maids were crowded in the front. As if everyone was meeting all at once, it looked like all of our employees were outside.

As soon as Harun and I got off the carriage, the employees who came out to say hi cheered loudly.

“Lady, young master, welcome! You did well in the academy this semester!”

The maids took Harun and my luggage and came back to welcome us back. I was awed at the brighter than usual maids. Was today some sort of special day? There were so many maids who were out greeting us. At the scene in front of him, Harun blew air out of his mouth and began to stroke my hair.

“Shuraina, you really are popular. When I was going to the academy alone, nobody greeted me like this.”

Our household maids crowded around me and gave me handmake cookies. I hugged each of the maids who seemed so excited to see me. I didn’t know what was going on, but the maids screamed in joy. They kept petting and told me that I had gotten cuter.

With a confused look on my face, I barely separated myself from the maids. I could see a young boy with light sky blue hair running towards me.

As if he was running as fast as he could, he was breathing heavily.

“Shu nuna*! Nunaaaa!”

That lovely boy was the youngest of our West family, Karim. Karim ran out of our home and welcomed me.

Karim, who had difficulty with sports, was running towards me as fast as he could. It looked like he was going to fall at any moment.

Karim fell once, but just shrugged it off and continued to run towars me.

“Shushu nunaa!”

Karim held out his hands ran at me. I hugged him. I almost fell backwards, but I didn’t want to seem like I couldn’t even catch my cute little brother. I barely balanced myself.

“Nuna’s here, Karim.”

Karim hid his face in my arms. He looked up at me with watery eyes.

“I really really missed you, Shu nuna! Really, really!”

“Me too.”

As Karim welcomes me, Harun waves his arms around and tilted his head.

“Kariiim? Hey, do you not see your Harun hyung* right here? Don’t you want a hug from your Harun hyung?”

“Uuuuum, not really…..”

At Karim’s firm statement, Harun’s eyes grew round. He pouted as if hurt, then turned around.

“Hmph, fine. I’m going to not like you guys from now on. I”m going in first, don’t catch me.”

Harun started to stomp towards the mansion, but kept checking where we were between every few steps.

“You’re really not going to catch me?”

Karim and I watched Harun, laughing quietly. Then, whenever Harun met our eyes, we tried our best to look relaxed.

Harun saw us laughing secretly and immediately turned around and ran towards us. It looked like not hugging Karim really got to him.

Harun ran over to us and hugged Karim and I at the same time. I’d heard he was practicing with the sword recently, but he really was strong. My breath caught in my throat and I coughed once.

Karim and I both pushed away Harun at the same time.

“Let’s abandon Harun oppa* and run away, Karim.”

“Leda made apple pie. Let’s eat the whole thing, even hyung’s portion!”

“You guys! Not with apple pie!”

Karim and I looked at Harun, who was angrily chasing us, and burst into laughter again. He looked funny chasing us. The air that I breathed in as I ran tasted sweet. It was good to be back home.

It had been a while since I had a meal with my parents. Our parents greeted Harun and I, not having seen us for a long time. They seemed to be in a good mood: there were expensive items on our table that we usually never saw. I was happy to eat delicious food, but at the same time, I felt uneasy seeing all of these expensive foods.

That wasn’t it. In the short time that I hadn’t seen her, my mother seemed to have gotten new clothes and jewelry. Moreover, her skin looked really good, which meant that she had probably poured in a large sum of money to get her skin cared for.

“Hoho, our Shushu has gotten so pretty while I haven’t seen her! Do you want to go shopping in the city once?”

But I decided to let her excessive purchases go in the face of her affectionate care.

After our meal, I went into my room to take a bath.

I remembered the rose bath salts that Hazel gave me, so I decided to use it.

Maybe it was because it was the first time I had gotten to relax like this in a while, but I spent a long time in the bath. I didn’t want to leave. My body was too relaxed.

“My lady! You haven’t fallen asleep in the bath, right?!”

Within the small group of maids who worked for us, that was definitely Emily’s voice. She kept telling me that she would give me a massage, which I hesitated about at first, but she told me that it was good for growing taller so I accepted.

After that, Emily seemed to wait for me to get out of the bath. With sadness, I finished my bath and left the bathroom.

When I came out, Emily started to gently touch my small feet. Then, with her gaze on my feet, she began to loosen the knotted parts of my feet.

“My goodness, my lady, you’ve gained so many muscles…….”

“I don’t have a lot on my toes.”

“No, I’m talking about your legs.”

“Aha.”

Emily had discovered the bunched muscles on my legs while she was massaging my feet. She moved her hands to my calves, then began pressing in at the hardened areas.

“We’re going to get rid of all of these!” Emily said, smiling scarily. I made a disgruntled face and tried to take my legs back, but Emily had a tight grip on them.

“Anyway, Emily, not much happened while I was gone, right?”

I asked Emily, who was massaging my legs so hard that it was like she was trying to pass through them. Emily stopped massaging my legs and looked at me.

“Much happened.”

Emily rolled her eyes upwards as she paused to think, then began to speak.

“For one, young master Karim made a ruckus because he missed you so much, and me and the rest of the maids were waiting for you to come back until our eyes were sore/”

Hearing that so many people were looking for me made me feel shy. Emily didn’t stop there, and continued to shower me with compliments and embarrassingly sweet statements. I hurriedly changed the subject. The conversation was going away from what I wanted to talk about.

“The………. Was mother’s purchases excessive while I was gone?”

At my words, Emily’s hands stopped massaging. She quickly resumed.

“Th, this. I, it’s out of my jurisdiction…..”

“Emily?”

“I can’t tell y…..”

“Looking at your reaction, it looks like she spent all the money that she had.

Emily smiled sheepishly at my words.

Mother was the child of a duke. Because she grew up in a lavish household, her purchases were a bit too much. When she received any money, she immediately returned it back to society. She used money so fast that it made me think that she hated it. She was a great person who contributed excessively to our kingdom’s economy. I wanted to applaud her.

I sighed. I had expected this somewhat.

Then, a chill ran down my spine as I suddenly thought of something.

“…..did she touch the money that I had taken out so she couldn’t use it?”

Emily went silent for a long time at that question. When I kept looking at her, Emily couldn’t go against my look and began to speak.

“The West family’s finances have been cared for by young master Karim.”

That sounded right, I had asked him for help before.

I stood up at Emily’s words.

Even when I told him he didn’t need to, Karim always helped me. Because he had helped me from a young age, Karim was excellent with numbers. Recently, I had asked him to take care of our household finances because of it.

Our father just earned money and didn’t take care of it. And mother only spent money and didn’t take care of it.

Recently, I had been dreaming of the novel and how tragedy had befallen our home. The West family declared itself bankrupt, and were sold off to rich commoners…..

I just put on my pajamas and a nightgown and left my room. I had to go to Karim and ask him how much our family’s purchases had increased while I was gone. If Emily was floundering that much, it wasn’t going to be a small sum. I was too nervous.

I reached Karim’s room in just a few steps. I knocked on his door.

T/N: Nuna is an honorific used for older sisters by males.

Hyung is an honorific used for older brothers by males.

Oppa is an honorific used for older brothers by females.