North x Northwest

“Are you feeling bad?”

“What can I say?”

Lil rested her chin on her knuckles and smirked, turning her eyes to Courant’s table. Ed unintentionally followed her warming gaze. Courant was wiping the corners of Mellie’s lips covered in stew.

“You look happy.”

“Who wouldn’t be delighted to see a kid like Courant serving as a great older brother?”

Ed glanced back at Lil, before opening his mouth.

“Why, was your broth… Ahem, um… What brother isn’t like that?”

“…There are a lot of bad brothers out there…”

Lil mumbled, before clearing her throat.

“…”

“…Well, I’ll bet you weren’t like that.”

Ed could feel Lil’s eyes full of contempt piercing his cheek. Ed objected, upset that he was yet again misunderstood.

“I’m an only child. Besides, the Captain seems to be misunderstanding something. If I were to be an older brother, I’d be the gentle and caring kind.”

“…”contemporary romance

Ed smiled at Courant’s younger sister, who had been staring at him for a while now. When she was caught, her eyes widened in embarrassment and her face, sprinkled with her cute freckles, turned red. She quickly hid behind her bunny doll. Lil snorted, not knowing what the scene meant, but Ed cut her laughter short due to his hurting pride.

“Why are you laughing at me? Don’t you acknowledge my looks?”

“Bullshit.”

Suddenly, Ed recalled something he had forgotten about because of the many distractions. He touched his chin and shook his head.

“Now that I think about it, I need to shave. Walking around like a beggar isn’t the courteous way of sharing the beauty given to me…”

“It’s said that if someone listens to nonsense long enough, his ears will rot. Because, pus will fill the ears that have been abused…”

When Lil noticed that Ed had finished eating, she raised from her seat and pulled him up. Ed, who was still caressing his cheeks, had no choice but to be dragged along. Lil grabbed the patient by his armpit and climbed the stairs as they did before.

“Oh, Captain! Don’t be so rough! I’m still a patient!”

“Shut up”

“That’s too much.”

“Seeing that you talk so well, it seems like you’ll fully recover soon. I’ll owe you nothing when you’re healed. The debt has been from you to me and from me to you. Once you get well, this ridiculous sense of responsibility… will disappear. Leave before that, it’s a warning.”

“Hey, what happened to the ‘I can’t kill someone I saved with my own hands’?”

“I changed my mind when you kept babbling nonsense.”

Ed complained, but Lil didn’t listen. She let go of him at the end of the stairs on the second floor and walked down the remaining hallway alone. She ignored what Ed said from behind and opened the door. After entering the room, Lil walked toward the window to open the closed shutters. The road in front of the inn was visible through the raindrops.

After finishing their meal, Courant and Mellie left the building. When Mellie, who was running, fell, Courant carried the child.

Lil stared at the back of Mellie’s tiny head, which could barely reach Courant’s shoulders. She remembered the time when she was just as small. Courant was also about the same age as her brother at the time.

“…But he hadn’t been good to me…”

When Lil was even smaller than Mellie, her brother treated her like any other brother would. He wasn’t very fond of her, but it didn’t bother him that much either. It was after some realisation that he began to be disgusted with her. Lil could still vaguely recall how terrifying it had been for her younger self.

‘My brother was the first to notice that I was different.’

The sound of a little girl’s heels echoed in her head…

———- Flashback ———-

– Tip. Tip. Tip. –

Footsteps run through the luxurious hallway.

“Brother!”

A girl with a bunny doll on her side stood in front of a colourful door and knocked. There was no answer. A little hesitant, the child pushed the door and stuck her head in. On the bed was her brother, covered in blankets. He wasn’t visible, but she could hear his low sobbing, so she knew. The child, who was pacing in front of the door without doing this or that, finally made her way to the bed.

“Brother?”

Liloa walked up to him and stepped on the little stair next to the bed. When she lifted the blanket a bit, she saw a red face covered in tears.

“Go away!”

“Oh!”

With his slender arms, the boy nervously pulled up the blanket again. Liloa looked around and noticed the books stacked on the bed. Some were spread out at random, some were torn, and some were thrown upside down. Liloa sighed and patted the blanket. She understood how upset her brother must be now.

The noble families of the empire frequently hosted or participated in salons. One of those salons consisted of a small event organised to showcase the successor’s talent by publicly attending their lessons. The guests were mostly nearby nobles, peers, and those who had studied under the same teachers. Despite the fact that the spotlight was on a young child who has not yet come of age, it was an event that had to be carried out without neglect, even if it seemed minor, as it was related to the family’s dignity. That was the reason why numerous academic lessons, excluding archery and horsemanship, were held in preparation for this public gathering.

The lesson presented this time was a history lesson by Viscount Bombre. However, Liloa’s brother had never been a serious student and he didn’t change his lax attitude when preparing for this event. He had a habit of causing trouble or skipping classes. The Viscount, resentful at it, publicly humiliated him by putting up difficult questions. Her brother, who was asked a question he didn’t know, was embarrassed in front of the 20 people watching. As time passed and he still couldn’t answer, their father kicked his chair back in anger and left the hall during class. It was only natural for the boy to retreat to his room, trembling in shame. Furthermore, their father ordered him to find out the correct answer by evening. As he was forbidden to ask for anyone’s help, it goes without saying that her brother was deeply troubled.

Looking at the state of his room, it seems that he still hasn’t found the answer. With dinner less than half an hour away, Liloa knew how she could help her poor brother. That’s why she ran to his bedroom while trying to avoid their father’s eyes. She whispered the answer close to the blanket like she was sharing a precious secret.

“Brother. The answer is Mehquis Ulami.”

There was no answer from the boy under the blanket.

“Brother. Viscount Bombre seemed to ask for an object, but the answer is a person. Mehquis Ulami!”

Perhaps her older brother couldn’t hear her, so she bowed down further.

“Mehqui…”

He suddenly took off the blanket and asked sharply.

“How do you know that?”

“I read it in the library.”

He raised the blanket again as if he didn’t trust her answer. Liloa examined the backs of different books that had fallen around the bed and eventually picked one up. She carried the heavy book to the bed, opened it, and found the desired page.

[ “The king consulted the Sage Basseur to conquer Özen. ‘Wise servant, where should I set foot on?’ Basseur said; ‘Retrieve the Spear of Glory… The day of light will spread gold across Özen’…” ]

The boy jumped up and snatched the book Liloa was reading. She groaned as the book was ripped out of her small hands, but he didn’t care. Her brother, who had been staring intently at the pages, soon threw the book away.

“In which part does it say something about Mehquis Ulami? The King couldn’t solve the riddle after all!”

“The Spear of Glory is not a weapon, but a person’s name. The last remaining King’s Spear, the glorious knight Mehquis Ulami, was imprisoned for treason! He had already spent 15 years in prison before the conquest of Özen began, but because of his sentence the King couldn’t reinstate him, so they changed his name. In the next chapter, there’s a part alluding to General Triumph… Yeah! There. If you read that, you can tell that it’s Ulami.”

The boy, who had his spirit raised, looked at Liloa with curious eyes. In response, Liloa rolled her eyes innocently.

After that, for a while, her brother called Liloa and asked her questions whenever he had time. When she answered correctly, he praised her and gave her candy. Whenever she answered a very difficult question, he gave her a beautiful headdress or doll she’d never seen before. Ten-year-old Liloa, so intoxicated with the recognition of her only brother, forgot that it was about the content of a book she’d read secretly, and enthusiastically boasted of her knowledge.

– – – – –

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