Episode 4
Still, I didn’t have any good feelings toward Khalid.
In addition, as my father nagged me, my antipathy toward Khalid only grew.
No, why? Why on earth should I be the only one working hard? Why only me.
“Are you here, matriarch? And Lady Renata.”
The head deacon, Kaya, was waiting for us in front of the front door decorated with golden leaves.
She bowed her head and immediately opened the door.
“Master Renak just returned about an hour ago. “I asked you to prepare a meal. Would you like to eat it together?”
“I have someone to meet, so I just need to change my clothes and head out right away.”
“What about you, young lady?”
“I don’t have much appetite.”
Actually, I ate half an apple this morning too. It wasn’t intentional, it was because I really didn’t feel any appetite at all.
I know in my head that I need to eat well in times like these, but it is not easy to put into practice.
I took off my thin black gloves and handed them to Kaya.
“Have some simple soup. Then you get hurt.”
“are you okay.”
Rather than doing that right now, I wanted to quickly go up to my room and rest alone.
But since I heard that Brother Renak had returned, I had no choice but to go see him.
My father, who had been watching Kaya and me silently, soon left with the waiting attendant first.
I quietly watched my father’s broad back as he walked away.
Then, after a while, I climbed the stairs. Renak’s room was on the second floor of the mansion, at the end of the eastern hallway.
* * *
I knocked two or three times, but Renak was not in the room.
I could hear the sound of water from time to time, so it looked like someone was washing in the bathroom across from me.
I opened the door handle and went inside. As expected, Renak’s room was empty.
“Ugh, I’m so crazy… … .”
Several books and documents were spread out messily on the bed and on the floor around it.
I picked up the piece of paper that caught my toes and looked at it, but quickly lost interest and sat down on the soft sofa nearby.
As I was playing meaninglessly with my hands, with my jet-black hair that reached down to my waist, a few minutes later, I felt someone coming from outside.
I could hear a short conversation going back and forth.
A few minutes later, Renak appeared, wiping away his wet black hair with a towel.
“You came first. Even so, I was planning on going to see it from my side.”
He said, blinking his red eyes and smiling slightly. Water was dripping from his neatly cut hair.
Renak walked towards me, adjusting his dark blue robe.
“You must be tired, whatever.”
“Looking at your outfit, it looks like you went to a funeral. “I guess I’ll just have lunch and then go right away.”
“It’ll be okay if you go slowly. “I’m sure His Majesty will understand.”
Renac Carnelluti. He is two years older than me, and according to the family register, he is my older brother.
And he was adopted into the family by my father when I was 7 years old.
Even before receiving marriage talks from the imperial family, my father had the ambition to marry me into a noble family of at least a duke.
So he needed a child to succeed him.
However, no matter how much time passed between my father and mother, there were no children other than me, their only daughter.
The father, who was worried, eventually brought the son of a distant relative who lived abroad.
It seems that the relative was very poor economically even though he had the surname Carnelluti.
Her father paid for a mansion belonging to a relatively well-off nobleman in the imperial capital and registered Renak in the family register.
However, that relative was so distant from o ur family that he had almost no interaction with us. Therefore, it could be said that Renak and I were strangers.
Still, after living in the same house for 15 years, I felt like he was my family.
“Well, it’s you, not me, that His Majesty likes.”
“But you know that my brother lives such a busy life that one body alone is not enough.”
“Wouldn’t Your Majesty be happy if I make a lot of money?”
After graduating from the educational institution Varkilia, Renak has been traveling around the continent and devoting himself to trading in order to take over his father’s business.
Therefore, recently, seeing Renak’s face was like picking a star in the sky.
If it hadn’t been for Izar’s death, he probably wouldn’t have returned home so early.
“ha… … “How long has Izar been dead, even you say that?”
“… … “Because we have to distinguish between public life and life?”
Renak tilted his head and scratched his cheek. Anyway, father and Renak, don’t they have feelings?
I couldn’t bear to do that in front of my father, but I cried without hiding it in front of Renak.
It felt like the tears that had stopped would burst out again.
Even now, if I close my eyes, I can picture Izar’s face as clearly as a painting.
The kids who took after my parents and labeled me a fake nobleman and ostracized me, and myself, who couldn’t fit in with them no matter how hard I tried.
But whenever I was alone somewhere, Izar always came to me first.
And he smiled sweetly and held out his hand to me. In the flood of memories, I struggled to separate my lips.
“… … “My brother wasn’t close to Izar, so that’s why you can say that.”
“That’s because we didn’t have many encounters. … … So I told you my sister. We’re not married yet, so don’t get too close. “You never know what will happen in the world.”
Renak was only two years older than me, but he sounded like an old man who had lived the whole world.
He belatedly noticed the area around my eyes that were sore from crying and bit his lip as if he was embarrassed.
“I heard that this is why war is scary. “I hope a peaceful world comes as soon as possible.”
Renak cleared his throat and said.
Then, unlike Izar or Khalid, who grabbed a sword whenever they got the chance, he only grabbed a pen and tapped my cheek with his long, thin fingers.
“By the way, I heard that the cause of Prince Izar’s death may have been magic.”
“… … What are you talking about? “I’ve never heard anything like that.”
“That’s because the imperial family must have stopped him from joining. “I just heard this from someone I trust.”
Didn’t wizards no longer exist in this world?
That’s how I was taught, and I lived my life knowing that it was like that. So I couldn’t believe the cause of Izar’s sudden death mentioned by Renak.
But at the same time, there was a memory that came to mind, ‘Now that I think about it.’
My father said that Izar had left no trace, as if he had evaporated on the spot.
However, without magic, it was close to impossible with current technology.
So, does that mean there was a wizard in the war that Izar participated in? But what on earth is that?
One way or another, the fact remains that Izar is dead… … .
“Relax your expression. “It was news related to the crown prince, so I told you about it, but it made you cry even more.”
This time Renak made a groaning sound. He suddenly felt thirsty and quickly drank the glass of water that was on the table.
widely. Cold steam formed on the surface of the glass water cup that Renak put down. I looked at the cup blankly.
My insides were just burning black. Just thinking about those two words, Izar and death, made my heart tingle painfully.
I still wasn’t ready to accept that Izar was dead. Before I knew it, I was overcome by the urge to cover my ears and close my eyes.
“Looking at you with that face, I guess you’ve already heard what your father said.”
“… … that’s right. “He told me to do well with Khalid.”
“Hmm, I’ve already heard that, so I’ll shut up.”
That means that Renak also shares the same intentions as his father. Oh my, these people are like cold-blooded animals.
When Renak and my father often looked like this, I felt unfamiliar with them, as if I was seeing them for the first time.
Living among inhumane people, won’t I someday lose my humanity like them?
The question arose that perhaps I was being too emotional.
I don’t know. Everyone else is calm, but I am the only one who is agitated, and now I feel like I am strange.
‘Oh, no. Wrong. It’s these people who are strange.’
It wasn’t even a short period of time. I have been with Izar for 12 years.
So it is absolutely not strange to feel sad about losing him.
It seems like even his judgment is becoming clouded due to the shock of Izar’s death.
I couldn’t bear it any longer and got up from my seat. Renak’s eyes followed me as he was about to drink another glass of water.
