“Master Reytan, we’ve reached a stream. How about taking a short break?”
One of the knights from the Second Order, serving as our escort, rode up beside the window and spoke.
After sitting in the carriage for so long, it was about time for a brief stretch.
“Let’s do that.”
With dad’s permission, the carriage came to a halt by the stream.
Our group consisted of fifteen people: ten knights on horseback, dad, Theon, myself, Anne, and the coachman.
There were two carriages—one for us to ride in and the other loaded with luggage for the journey.
Theon stepped out of the carriage, picked up a pebble, and skipped it across the water, creating about five rings before it sank. If the stream had been wider, it likely would have skipped even further.
“Wow, you’re good at that. Five skips!”
“Want to give it a try?”
“Should we make it a competition? I’m pretty good at this!”
Just as I was rolling up my sleeves, ready to challenge Theon, a commotion came from the luggage carriage.
“Let go of me!”
Simultaneously, someone rushed past Theon and me. It was Anne.
In the sudden chaos, Theon and I exchanged glances.
“Let’s go check it out.”
I signaled to Theon, and we moved toward the front of the luggage carriage, where an unexpected scene was unfolding.
“My apologies, Master Reytan. It seems this little one has been hiding in the luggage carriage all along, and we failed to notice.”
Dad stood there, and next to him, a knight was holding a young boy under his arm.
“Let go of me!”
The boy struggled to break free from the knight’s grip, revealing triangular, thick ears peeking out from his reddish-brown hair.
“…I think I know him.”
“Yeah.”
Muttering to myself, I held Theon’s arm. Why was he here? Well, at least he seemed healthy.
Anne, who didn’t seem to know what was going on, looked just as puzzled.
“I’m so sorry! He’s my younger brother…! Oh, my goodness, Jeffrey! How did you get here? What happened to the person Master Reytan assigned to you?”
“Sister?”
Jeffrey perked up at Anne’s voice, raising his head. His eyes met mine, but oddly, he didn’t look away.
“Huh?”
“……….”
Everyone’s gaze shifted to Jeffrey’s tail. The fluffy reddish-brown tail, which he couldn’t hide, swayed gently. As Theon subtly stepped in front of me, Jeffrey’s tail stopped moving.
Jeffrey, facing Theon, wrinkled his nose and growled.
“Liar. I told you, you can’t fool my nose, right?”
“Can’t fool your nose?”
“…….….”
I tilted my head in confusion, and Theon remained silent.
“This boy, this boy!”
Anne gave Jeffrey’s head a light smack as he growled at Theon.
“Why’d you hit me!”
“Young Master Theon is my savior!”
“I know that!”
Jeffrey protested loudly to Anne, then turned to face Theon and me.
“He’s my savior, too!”
So why are you growling at him?
Anne was at a loss for words, baffled by Jeffrey’s contradictory words and actions, and dad merely rubbed his temples.
“Anne.”
“Yes, Master Reytan!”
“…Take your brother and come with me for a moment.”
It was clear this would be a talk.
The moment Jeffrey’s eyes met dad’s, he folded his ears back, looking subdued, as though he hadn’t just been throwing a tantrum.
Once the knight gently placed Jeffrey down, he clung tightly to Anne’s leg.
“Sis….”
“Quiet. When did you sneak into the luggage carriage?”
“When we passed through Hispoth Town.”
“You really are something….”
Dad gestured for them to follow him to a large tree by the stream. Anne and Jeffrey quickly trailed behind him.
***
The talk ended not long after.
It seemed dad had sent a knight to the Evening Primrose Inn to keep an eye on Jeffrey, but given that he had managed to escape, sending him back to Hispoth Town was no longer a viable option.
“He said he’ll just run away again….”
Anne looked exasperated as she relayed her brother’s resolve.
“Dad, does that mean Jeffrey is coming with us?”
“There’s no other choice.”
With dad’s permission, it was decided that Jeffrey would join us for the remainder of the journey.
After reaching this conclusion, the adults gathered to discuss the upcoming plans. Since Jeffrey wasn’t allowed to participate in those conversations, he timidly walked over to where Theon and I were sitting.
“Is it alright if I stay here?”
He seemed either intimidated by dad’s stern expression or perhaps chastised by Anne.
The growling Jeffrey from earlier was nowhere to be seen.
“Of course!”
“Sure.”
We don’t turn away kids who have nowhere else to go.
Theon and I exchanged a nod of understanding.
We found a wide, flat rock by the stream and sat down. Jeffrey was quite the chatterbox.
“So, how did you manage to hide in the luggage carriage?”
Puffed with pride, Jeffrey began recounting his little adventure.
“The person Master Reytan sent to look after me turned out to be a knight! So I ran away, and then I spotted Master Reytan’s carriage by chance. So, I jumped on board!”
“Huh? If dad sent a knight, it was probably to protect you. Why did you run?”
“I didn’t want to be alone with a knight.”
Jeffrey gave a slight shiver as he spoke.
“The knights dragged that little thing out and threw it hard onto the ground! I saw it with my own eyes!”
The innkeeper had indeed said that.
‘Is your body feeling better?’
I observed Jeffrey’s complexion closely.
Scabs had formed over the cuts on his lips, and though the bruises hadn’t entirely faded, they were much lighter.
He still needed a few more days of eating evening primrose leaves to fully recover from the symptoms of the moon-disease. Perhaps due to his mixed wolf-blood heritage, Jeffrey immediately reacted to my gaze, locking his amber eyes on mine and flashing a playful grin, baring his fangs.
“I ate it today too!”
“Ate what?”
“The herbs you and he brought me.”
“Heuk.”
So that’s what he meant when he said he couldn’t be fooled by Theon’s scent. Theon had been to the Evening Primrose Inn when he escorted Anne.
“Did he figure it out the other day?”
I whispered to Theon beside me, even covering my mouth to make sure Jeffrey couldn’t see my lips.
Jeffrey chuckled.
“I can hear everything you’re saying.”
“…So he figured it out the other day? Theon? And that I had two snacks?”
I broke into a nervous sweat.
If Jeffrey knew we’d brought the evening primrose leaves, telling Anne might not be a big issue. After all, dad was seen as Jeffrey’s healer in Anne’s eyes.
The problem was that bringing the leaves was a ‘dad-doesn’t-know’ matter, and there was also the fact that Anne had received that strange note while in the punishment room.
‘No one can find out, especially not dad…!’
For a seven-year-old to know a rare cure for an obscure illness and to have knowledge of an escape route that even the family’s direct descendants didn’t know… It would be hard to explain this away without raising dad’s suspicions.
Dad’s doubts about my actions would be disastrous, as I was secretly using my knowledge of the future to boost his achievements and secure his top position in the battle for the second annex.
“Hmph.”
Unintentionally, I pouted.
Theon must have misinterpreted my expression, thinking I was upset because of Jeffrey. He turned to Jeffrey and said,
“Don’t call her ‘you.’ Berry is seven years old, so you should call her ‘’big sister’.”
“Really?! But she’s so small! I thought she’d be taller at seven! I thought she was my age.”
Oh, a jab at my height.
While it might be an acorn-measuring contest, I was still definitely taller than Jeffrey, even if only by a centimeter.
I straightened up to sit a bit taller and addressed Jeffrey.
“I am seven, so call me big sister, just like Theon said.”
Not to mention the fact that there’s a class difference between nobility and commoners. Even though Jeffrey was six and I was raised as a commoner, it felt easier this way.
Jeffrey nodded.
“Alright, big sister Berry. So is big brother Theon also seven? Big sister Berry calls him Theon.”
“We’re friends, so it’s fine.”
Theon replied immediately, but Jeffrey’s words had startled me.
Come to think of it, Theon was three years older than me. Because he was an apprentice knight when we first met, I’d simply called him ‘Theon.’ I glanced at him.
Ever since I found out he secretly avenged me with a bullfrog, he’s occasionally felt quite dependable.
“Should I call you big brother?”
“…That might sound weird.”
“Okaaaaay!”
Rejected without hesitation.
I wondered if Theon thought I was incredibly cheeky.
“Haha, that’s funny.”
Jeffrey’s tail wagged happily, seemingly delighted by the exchange.
Though slightly wounded, I consoled myself, reasoning that calling him ‘big brother’ would indeed sound odd since I’d always called him ‘Theon’ from the start.
Meanwhile, Theon glanced over at the adults, who were still deep in conversation, then lowered his voice and asked Jeffrey.
“You didn’t mention the herbs to anyone else, did you?”
