He held my hand in both of his with a serious expression on his face.
“I want to make every one of your wishes come true, but I can’t allow you to sail there. It’s far too dangerous. The moment your ship leaves the coast, the God of the Sea will call forth a storm to take you to his palace in the depths of the sea. Your brilliance charms gods and demons alike, and I’m sure the inhabitants of the deep sea with their scales and fins will clutch you with glee. The sirens will be enraptured by your sweet singing, and after they learn to imitate you, how many more sailors will they bewitch? Soon, there won’t be a single ship afloat in the world—an alarming state of affairs, truly.”
“Oh brother! You’re incorrigible!”
And you’re blowing things a little out of proportion, don’t you think? How could my wanting to travel to another country lead to all the ships in the world sinking? The damage he was envisioning was just excessive. Your imagination really knows no bounds, brother.
“The God of the Sea would never make a storm rage just for me,” I said with a soft smile. “Still, I was mistaken. While I’m curious about foreign lands, there is no place I’d rather be than by your side, so I won’t go.”
“Ekaterina...” Alexei said, his voice shaking.
From the corner of my eye, I could see the surprise on Dmitri’s face, but I tried my hardest not to perceive it.
“About the glass pens,” Dmitri said after a long pause. “May I order another set? My wife would like to present her royal father with some. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the gift, especially if I have my second son deliver it in person.”
I was delighted. “Oh, certainly! A present from his beloved daughter living in a faraway land, delivered into his hands by his grandson—of course, he’ll rejoice!”
“Please come again to meet my wife, Ekaterina. Everything in her pavilion follows the customs of her country. If you wish to have a taste of a foreign land without leaving the empire, that is the best place to visit. Since I can’t invite Alexei there, it’ll have to wait for next time, though.”
“Thank you very much for your kind offer. It would be a great honor to meet the princess of a faraway land. Brother, may I?”
Alexei seemed pleased at my request. “Of course. I’m glad to see you create connections worthy of yourself. It’ll also serve as a fine opportunity for your workshop. Having your glass pens sent as a royal gift is a great honor. People are sure to desire them all the more.”
“The birth of an object everyone craves in the empire is a boon for my house,” Dmitri said with a chuckle. “You’re wonderful, Ekaterina. I’d love to have you here more often. You can meet the rest of my family, including my sons.”
For some reason, Alexei frowned at this.
The three of us chatted a bit longer before Alexei and I took our leave.
“Send my regards to Little Halil,” Dmitri said as we were bidding each other farewell.
My eyes widened at the unexpected nickname. “If I may ask, how do you know Mr. Halil?”
“I’ve known him since he was a child. He’s the youngest of the Kamal Trading Company. Even back then, he was sensible and quick-witted. Magdalena liked him so much she offered to take him under her wing, but Duke Sergei lured him in with an advisor position, stealing him from under her nose. Magdalena was frustrated for the longest time, but no one other than Duke Sergei would have dared to give such an important position to a teenager.”
So our grandfather and the empress had practically fought each other for Halil?! That was quite something! And Sergei truly had been willing to do whatever it took to secure talent, hadn’t he?
Alexei also said something that surprised me once we were back in the carriage: “Ekaterina, I worry you’ve been a little too busy recently.”
I always said that to him, but I hadn’t expected to have the tables turned on me!
“In comparison to everything you do, one could hardly call me busy,” I said.
“I’m used to it. And I have a system in place, so I truly don’t overwork myself as much as you seem to believe I do. Besides, I have the stamina to withstand it. You, on the other hand...” Alexei paused and extended his hand, brushing my indigo hair with his fingers. “You study diligently at the academy, go through great pains for the sake of your friends, work hard to learn how to conduct yourself as the lady of the house, and are in the process of building a new venture from scratch with your glass workshop. You’ve even created a new product and are expanding into markets the Yulnovas have never touched. None of that is easy, Ekaterina, and you’re doing it despite your delicate health. I can’t help but worry when I look at you.”
“Brother.” I beamed at him. “I’m very aware of my own limits.”
I’ve died of overwork once! I know what I’m talking about! I declared inwardly, keeping my smugness to myself. I knew exactly how much work I could do before I dropped dead, and I had no intention of crossing that line again. What I was currently doing was nowhere near that line. I was just living a full life, nothing more.
Well, perhaps my perspective was a little skewed. Maybe living as a corporate drone is an illness you can never really recover from...
“I have fun every day,” I said. “I also had a nice time chatting with Uncle Dmitri today. Maybe I ought to spend time with my peers and foster social connections in accordance with my rank, but to me, my peers and rank are the true challenge. I’m unfamiliar with young noble ladies my age, and sometimes that terrifies me. This work I’ve been doing gives me an excuse to be with you, just like today. That puts my mind at ease and makes me happy.”
Alexei’s eyes narrowed like he was looking at the sun.
“Ekaterina.” He took my hand in his and squeezed it. “You’re always so wise, and you have a fitting sense of responsibility and pride as the lady of the House of Yulnova. I’m glad to have a sister like you. But that’s exactly why I can’t help but worry. I don’t want to lose you. Please promise me that you won’t take on any more roles.”
“I promise. If that’s what you want, brother, I shall do exactly as you say.”
You really love me too much!
In truth, my “work” for the glass workshop was practically no work at all. I just blurted out what I wanted, and others made it a reality. I didn’t lift a finger myself.
It hadn’t been like that in my past life. I remembered a time when, even after I’d found the one and only good way to save a dying project, I’d still had to run around getting approval from the client, getting my ideas reviewed again and again by the person in charge and then by my boss—and then again by the client’s boss! At every stage, I’d had to fight to get people to give me their time and listen to my explanations. They’d nitpicked the most unimportant things, like the size of the font on my proposals, forcing me to reformat and resubmit them. I’d done all that, and in the end, I’d had to start again from scratch anyway because of someone’s whims in the very last meeting. Actually, that had happened more than once...
The actual work’s done outside meeting rooms, guys! I couldn’t count the number of times I’d wasted precious time attending pointless pre-project meetings before I could even get started. Let me try something, and then we can talk, you idiots.
The projects that’d found their way to me had always been at critical stages, and yet they’d always wasted my time all the same!
Just thinking of all that annoys me so much that I feel like I might start throwing up blood. Let’s stop. I’m happy in this life!
My boss now was my supertalented brother, and his advisors were equally capable. A few words were enough to get the ball rolling with everyone on the same page. If anything, everyone else moved way too fast for me to follow sometimes.
That’s no good. I should get to the level where I can follow them!
Despite the House of Yulnova boasting a four-hundred-year history, decisions were made swiftly, and leadership was adaptable. I wished the big clients who’d drowned under the weight of inefficient bureaucracy in my past life could learn from them. Having competent people supporting me made all the difference. This was the best workplace in the world!
I really didn’t need Alexei to worry about how busy I was. He just didn’t want me to take on any more roles, right? I didn’t think that was likely to happen. I’d acquired the glass workshop through a very irregular process, and it’d grown much faster than I’d expected. Right now, we were completing orders from incredibly important people, one after another. Of course, none of that could have happened without Lev’s genius. Such crazy coincidences wouldn’t occur again!
Okay, that left my student life... Well, I was simply enjoying myself to the fullest there.
I was still a little worried about the doom flags looming over us, though.
Regardless, the one thing I could say was that there was no need for Alexei to worry about overwork flags on my end. I’d been through all that! In fact, Alexei was the one I had to worry about. Whatever he said, he worked much more than I ever could.
No matter what happens, I’ll protect you from the dangers of overwork, brother!
The weekend ended, and I returned to the Magic Academy.
As always, I cooked lunch with Flora every day. We were in the middle of carrying our usual baskets to my brother’s office when we turned a corner and ran into Lydia. It was the exact same corner and the exact same time as the last few times we’d run into her, so I was assaulted by a sense of déjà vu. She was once again holding a small basket.
“Oh my, Lady Lydia.”
“Good day to you, Lady Ekaterina,” she said with a smile. Then, she cleared her throat and looked at Flora. “G-Good day to you too, Lady Flora.”
“Likewise, my lady,” Flora replied politely, a gentle smile on her face.