Your Majesty, Please Don’t Kill Me Again!

Mother once told me that a lady shouldn’t ever laugh loudly, and in response, I told Lehan that the opposite applied to a man when they laughed.
Lehan had removed his palm from his mouth and laughed without worry.
He took my childish insult as a fact.
After that day, Lehan never covered his mouth again when he laughed.

I didn’t notice until it was too late.

He had shown me a fake smile to reassure me when Father was being taken away.
He couldn’t stop his lips from trembling.

Lehan died when he was seventeen.

He was tangled in the conflict between Bellua and the Imperial family, for reasons I haven’t been able to figure out yet.
He died earlier than me just because he was the eldest son.
I didn’t have any connections with the political world, so no one viewed me as a threat.

He never became an adult like me.

I kept on thinking how this time, I’ll properly let him grow up into an adult.

“Give it to me, please.”

He grabbed my bag and took the plant I was holding.

“It’s not heavy at all.”

“It looks bad.”

In an aristocratic society, it’s unacceptable for a woman to stand next to a man and hold her own luggage.
It wasn’t for the women; rather, it was a ritual to protect the pride of men who were drunk on old-fashioned chivalry and romance from the past.
However, even before having the male aristocrat carry the luggage, there were servants who would carry everything for them both.

But Lehan was too young for such good manners.
His polite and serious expression made me burst out laughing.

“What? You’re acting like a knight.”

“A knight-in-training is still a knight.”

“But you’re still not yet a knight.”

I wondered when Lehan had learned such manners, but I gave him my bags and complimented him for being a good child.

“Now tell me.
How have you been?”

“I’m good.”

I wasn’t sure how to react to Lehan’s polite but dry answer.

What else should I ask?

I’m not a person who likes to talk a lot, and neither is Lehan.

It was a bit awkward.
I didn’t know what to say to my younger brother because I haven’t seen him in a long time.

Actually, at this point in time, I don’t know much about Lehan.

I didn’t see him for two years after he left for the military academy.
After that, he kept on avoiding me.

“Are you enjoying the food here?”

“Yes.”

Lehan laughed as he raised an eyebrow at my question.

“Is training hard?”

“I can work it out.”

“Did you meet a lot of people?”

“Just enough.”

Lehan’s straightforward answers made me laugh.
Lehan, who was looking at my happy face, walked over to a nearby bench and put his coat down.

“Take a seat.”

“Wear it.
It’s chilly.”

“It’s midsummer.”

Now that I think about it, this sunny day might be too warm for a thick uniform coat.
I sat down on Lehan’s coat and looked at the sweat dripping down his forehead.

No use acting like the formal nobles.

“Did Mother and Father worry a lot?”

“Yes.”

Lehan answered without hesitation, and I took a deep breath.
I frowned at the look in his eyes that scolded me for being wrong, as if he was treating me as a younger sister instead of his older sister.

“I thought…”

“Why did you leave the house without thinking?”

Lehan outright scolded me.

I really have no excuse.
I lowered my head to avoid looking into his eyes.

“Right now I can’t say, but there are reasons.”

“I know.”

“Huh?”

“My sister would never do anything so reckless.”

I gave a big smile at Lehan’s understanding and clung to his arm.

Oh, I like young Lehan too.

While I was chasing after Rupert, who was always harsh and didn’t believe me, my brother’s strong faith in me was very comforting.

“Uhm… Did our father ever tell you anything about the Imperial Family?”

“Why do you want to know that?”

“Because of how things are currently going.”

I tried to take advantage of Lehan’s beliefs.
When I looked at him with bright eyes, my younger brother backed away as if it were too much.

“Nothing.”

“Are you sure there’s nothing?”

“Why don’t you just ask Father?”

“I can’t come back to Bellua right now.”

Lehan pursed his lips as if thinking, and when I grabbed his sleeve, he reluctantly opened his mouth.

“I’ve heard that there’s no good candidate for the Emperor’s position… Father told Mother.”

“When?”

“It’s been about two years.”

There’s no Emperor candidate.

This means that Father didn’t like either Rupert nor Arnulf.
How can Father judge that when he’s just a mere Count? I tilted my head because that didn’t seem like Father at all.

“Did you not hear anything else?”

“All of that is about the royal family.”

There was a hint that he knew more about the Imperial Family, but Lehan kept quiet as if he wasn’t going to say anything else.

Anyway, today’s purpose was to see his face, so I didn’t ask any more questions.

“I see.
Thank you for telling me.”

“Anything else?”

“I’ll let you know if there is… Anyway, Lehan, congrats on getting into the academy.
Our parents must be so proud of you because you’re already a freshman and a representative at that! … Write to them sometimes, hmm?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Lehan denied it by waving his hand.
I knew that he didn’t like compliments, so I wanted to tease him more, but I looked up and saw the sky was turning red.
It was getting close to sunset.

Evening training was also required of Lehan, and I had to go back to the Imperial Palace.

“I’ll come back when I’m allowed to go outside.
If something bad happens, please let me know.”

“Are you leaving already?”

“You need to go to school.”

“I don’t have to.”

Lehan’s bold comment made me raise an eyebrow.

“How can you be like this on the first day of school? Are you trying to make me mad?”

“No…”

Lehan grinned when I widened my eyes to intimidate him.
It wasn’t a face that was afraid of being scolded by me.
I was a little annoyed, but I ended up smiling too.

Lehan’s dark brown hair was in the way of the setting sun.
As I ran my fingers through his hair, which was dyed in the light to look like burning wood, I said the words I had only promised myself.

“I’ll protect you for sure.”

Even though those words came out of nowhere, Lehan didn’t ask any questions.
He didn’t do anything but nod and put his hand on his head as well.

“Are you going?”

“I need to leave.”

“I guess you must.”

“Yes, so take your hand away.”

“Alright.”

He replied well and did the opposite of what I expected.
I looked up at Lehan’s tight grip on my wrist and raised my head.

Lehan’s eyes, which had always been tight, relaxed a little without any sign of flinching.
It looked like he didn’t want to let go of the wrist he was holding.
What will he do with it now?

“I’m going.”

Shouldn’t you let go?

I was surprised and started to laugh.

I thought he would just tease me over and over again, but maybe it’s not that…

Lehan just left Bellua as well, so maybe he’s feeling a little down as well.

My heart hurts a little because of what I’m seeing right now… Lehan’s face bathing in the red sunset.
He looks young because of his haircut.
I ran my hand through his hair a few more times using the hand he wasn’t holding. 1

“You have to let go.”

“No…”

“You’ll get in trouble if you keep it like that.”

Lehan didn’t answer, but soon he slowly let go of the strength in his hands.
I thought he was going to let go, but when I moved, he grabbed it quickly again.
I let out a big sigh.

“Hmm… How can I go if you act like this?”

“Sorry.”

It was a funny way of speaking.
I gave him a shy smile and took his hand off my wrist.

“I’ll be back.”

Lehan let me go after I promised to see him at least twice a month.

Lehan was walking down the street in the dusk with the slow, stiff gait of a soldier, but he kept stopping to look back.
In the end, I started walking first and left my brother behind, because it seemed the only way Lehan would return to the academy was if I disappeared from his sight.

The parking lot was empty as the other people had left.
I didn’t expect the elegant streets of the Capital at sunset to be so beautiful, so I drove the carriage slowly through them.
Even though the evening in the Capital didn’t smell like farmland like Bellua, it had its own scent.

On a street with a lot of red roofs, the bright yellow sun is dripping down the street.
The number of stars in the night sky at Vellnelni was so few that it would be dark soon.
Even though man-made lights make the city look like it has stars instead of lights, that didn’t mean the bright road was safe.

I passed the market near Fifth Avenue, where I had met Rupert for the first time.

It wasn’t hard to find a street stall where we fought over one dumpling, but I didn’t see the kind man who even took out extra dumplings to stop our fight.
They didn’t come from the same vendor, so they probably won’t taste exactly the same, but there were a lot of stands selling steaming hot dumplings.
I went to the stall that looked the cleanest and bought three dumplings.

I don’t know why the Imperial family loved street dumplings so much.

If I had a lot of money, I wouldn’t eat food like this.

In any case, it’s worth the ten kopis (the lowest amount of money) for me to look good in Rupert’s eyes. 2

I looked around the well-organized market while a man with a thin beard wrapped some dumplings in paper.
It’s late at night, so lots of people are closing up their stalls.

How many of these people will be able to keep doing business until the end?

Raspereich I, also known as Emperor Rupert, didn’t crush merchants at random.
However, he did get rid of a lot of companies that were protected by the families he got rid of.

I know of such a terrifying future, where this red Capital will be dyed a deeper crimson.

Lehan’s making begging puppy eyes when looking at Lari. ↩️

Kopi = lowest amount of money, then silver, then gold. ↩️