CH 14

Even so, there was still something she couldn’t understand.

“Here, brother.”

Haa, I don’t know. If I don’t know, I should ask the person in question!

“Why didn’t you answer me all this time? You don’t want to hear me?”

“That— Uh…”

“Brother, when you talk, look into my eyes!”

“You! You stay further away and talk.”

“If you answer me, I will.”

His red eyes looked at every other object besides her eyes. 

“Why didn’t you answer me? Was there a reason?”

“That— that’s because I stutter!”

“Ha!… Ah?”

Laiya was taken aback by her brother’s confession, she was left in a state of utter bewilderment. 

“But you didn’t stutter at all, did you?”

“Sometimes.”

“Oh.”

It reminded her of the days when he had answered her with short answers.

“Err, yes, so, err, what…?”

You mean that was the reason? 

Somehow, Laiya found that this truth left her powerless.

I mean, I was so embarrassed by this young brother who never gave me a second glance, but now?

Feeling her blood pressure rise for no reason, Laiya felt the need to sit down. 

Then, her brother reacted suddenly as if startled. 

“Ah! Does it hurt?”

Laiya jumped in surprise at his question, thinking that there was a new misunderstanding. 

Trying to take a step back, she didn’t expect Roy BlackWinter to follow with a step forward. 

“Your hand!”

“Huh?”

“Your hand…”

The little girl stared down at her palm.

Is he talking about this? Ah… 

There remained a small scratch on the back of her little hand. A small scar that was left behind when Roy had smacked the book from her hand. 

“Hey, your hand—”

“It’s alright now, it was better after I put a little spit on it.”

[T/N: Kinda gross, but a lot of kids think wiping spit on the wound magically heals it.]

“Why would you spit on it?”

“Little kids don’t have to know why.”

Roy tilted his head, his gaze was glued onto her scar. 

“…Oh, but you are the younger one. Does your hand really not hurt?”

“Nope, it doesn’t hurt at all.”

Well, now I just want to know, has his attitude taken a entirely new turn. The changes are like summer and winter. 

If I look deeper into this, maybe my brother’s personality has been like this from the start and I didn’t notice it. 

In fact, Laiya had not had much interaction with others, so she wasn’t so sure she was the best judge of character.

But still, she couldn’t believe she was so far off the mark. 

“…I thought it was a little kitten, but turns out it was a black puppy.”

“What?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Well, at least I’ve seen his true personality now, so now I know. 

She felt pleasantly refreshed. 

If it’s true, does this mean I’ve successfully made third brother fond of me?!

The little girl opened her mouth. 

“Then, can I come and see you everyday now?”

“You’re body…”

“I’m already fine now. Can’t you tell I’m fine as I’ve come out?”

She held Roy’s hand and pounded her chest with the other.

“I’ll come today, and come tomorrow. The day after tomorrow too. I’ll come everyday!”

“…There is no benefit for you even if you get close to me.”

“I know, but it is the same for my brother.”

She added strength to the hand that held his, giving him a comforting squeeze.

“Even if you get close to me, third brother has nothing to gain.”

No, actually you will change over time. 

For me to live, you will, and I hope for you too, so that you live a better life too.

“But if I put my brother and I together, there are two of us like this.”

Let’s not walk the path of hating others and killing ourselves with an inferiority complex.

“Brother, two people can do more than you think.”

When the little girl smiled brightly, Roy stared at her for a long time.

His lips twitched, but they never took on a curve that matched his sister’s in a smile.

Instead, his cheeks dyed a deeper red.

Nod.

He nodded slightly.

Episode 15

* * *

A few days later.

Despite the fact that it was raining hard, today is a very nice day.

“Princess, are you planning to go out?”

“Huh?”

Laiya BlackWinter stood up and looked through the glass with unfamiliar eyes.

…It’s been a few days, but I can’t believe it.

Surprisingly, my request to make Yuri my exclusive maid was accepted.

The next day, she was officially approved and came to Laiya’s room.

It’s rare. I’ve never been given what I want.

Or, I don’t know if it was resolved by Rover, the butler, before reaching my parents’ ears.

It had happened before.

She learned quite a bit in these few days.

“Aren’t you going to wear ribbons?”

“What?”

“There are so many pretty ribbons!”

“…”

“It’ll be full of dust when you come back.”

First, Yuri was more talkative than Laiya thought, but it wasn’t a bad experience.

Because I always wanted someone to talk to me like this.

Of course, it was rare to have someone like this next to Laiya at all, so it was still awkward.

“I will be back.”

“Yes, I’ll be here Princess!”

Still, when I come back, the feeling of someone waiting in the room for me isn’t bad.

“…Are you here again, Princess? I was waiting for you.”

And the second thing I learnt— No, should I say that this has changed.

The head chef in the kitchen now prepared the picnic basket on his own.

“I’m glad to see you.”

Laiya blinked.

…What do you mean by waiting?!

The problem is that you’ve gained quite a lot of confidence and have gotten kinder all of a sudden. 

The large middle-aged man with a handsome beard nodded. 

No, so why are you nodding proudly?

Except for the chef, the other staff still looked at her awkwardly.

If you look closely, the chef’s smile still has a hint of awkwardness.

It wasn’t bad that there was one more person who didn’t look away as if I wasn’t there.

“I will eat well.”

When she smiled brightly, the chef flinched and quickly lowered his head.

“I’ll see you next time, Princess.”

…No, so what the hell are you talking about? 

Laiya tilted her head, but just waved it off in the end and walked away.

I still have a few things left to point out about everything that has happened, but it’s no longer important to mention them.

Because Laiya found the person she was looking for right away.

“Third Brother.”

And the most important thing she’d learnt was about this boy, her brother.

“…Ray.”

“Yes, good morning! Let’s have lunch together!”

…Nod.

There was only a black puppy nodding innocently with raised eyes.

She wondered where the boy who had been mean to her had gone.

The roughness that I felt like a cat at first was actually not rough from the beginning, but it seems that it was the characteristic of a fearfully stray dog ​​that had already been abandoned once.

When his true face was revealed, it was not a cat, but a black puppy with a docile appearance.

Like a puppy, it was captured in an instant as soon as it let down its guard.

To the extent that you want to spend time with me. 

“Ah, I’m going to eat well like this! How have you been patient all this time?”

She truly didn’t mean to scare him as he was eating.

While they were eating a sandwich together, Roy was startled by her exclamation and threw the sandwich that was about to reach his mouth.

“M-I’m sorry!”

“Ahh, no, sorry! Keep eating and listening.”

“Yes.”

Roy nodded softly.

As soon as he was given permission, her third brother quickly grabbed another sandwich. 

Why do you like it so much?

For the past few days, light conversations took place as they ate.

The head chef loved that the basket returned empty.

“Did you read the will I gave you?”

“Yes.”

The most important thing the little girl learnt was not that the cat-like boy had become a puppy.

Of course, this is also a surprising discovery but…!

“Read it once. Then second.”

[T/N: His sentences are short like this.]

The most surprising thing was that this brother of hers read and understood all the books she’d given him.

“You read it a second time? Does it make sense? Really?”

“Understand.”

Oh, of course it’s not difficult to read the book and know what it’s about.

However, the important thing is that the book I gave you was not an ordinary book, but a textbook, and not an ordinary textbook at that.

It’s the swordsmanship textbook I gave you, ‘The will of the hero Rance’.

On the surface, it looked like a diary or a novel with esoteric content written down, but in fact it was a strict textbook with basic knowledge on swordsmanship.

The problem is that in order to understand it, the reader had to find the pattern in the content.

In the contents of the novel, the main character said that he found a gugyeol between the teeth of the book, and he said that you need to know the sword to understand it.

[T/N: Gugyeol is a system for rendering texts written in Classical Chinese into Korean.]

Maybe that’s why I didn’t understand even after reading it?

I read a few pages, but it only hurts my eyes.

It’s full of unconnected sentences, so it’s hard to read.

However, after reading it once, her brother understood the first part.

That is amazing? Even though he only learnt the first part, it was still the first part of an extraordinary swordsmanship technique. 

“…Wow, how is this even possible?”

As far as I know, the main character who first saw this took longer than this?

It turned out that my brother hid his power! What kind of genius character was this?

No, he is a genius. The problem in the novel was because he became a disgusting villain with an inferiority complex toward the main character.

Then, if you didn’t harbor an inferiority complex…