Sprawled beneath a tree in the mountains that stretched far and wide behind my house, I clutched my foot in desperation.
I had just twisted my ankle after I tried to climb the tree and fell. My ankle was throbbing and I couldn’t walk properly. As if that weren’t bad enough, as I lay there, the sun was steadily setting. This was my own fault for coming here to practice climbing trees by myself, but there was a reason I’d done so.
I grew up with two older brothers. Partly due to the fact that my eldest brother was a lot older than me, he was always kind. The problem was my second eldest brother. This brother and I were always treated as some kind of pair, ever since we were little, but because he was born a few years earlier, he always achieved things well ahead of me.
That was even true of climbing trees. Although my grandpa had taught me how to climb first, my brother—having started later—got really good in no time at all. Before I knew it, he was scampering up trees like a monkey.
Wanting to be like him, I practiced climbing, but never seemed to get any better. He teased me about it too. That really irked me.
While I reflected on all this, dusk gradually descended on the mountain, and I started to worry.
What if nobody finds me? What should I do?
Though this mountain was not especially big, and I had never heard anyone mention bears appearing there, my grandma had told me that when night fell, wild animals began to roam. I started to shiver.
Thinking to myself that I needed someone to find me soon, I called out loudly for my mom, my dad, my grandpa and grandma, and then my eldest brother. But no one came. Then, though it pained me a little to do so, I finally called his name.
“Big Brother —!”
“Hey.”
No sooner had I called my brother than I saw him pop his head out from the other side of a nearby bush. I froze up in shock.
Then, with an air of aloofness, my big brother spoke.
“You were taking so long to get home that mom told me to come look for you. Hm, what’s wrong? Did you injure your foot?”
He asked this after looking down and seeing that I was clutching my ankle.
“Yeah... I think I sprained it. I can’t walk properly, so go and fetch a grown-up,” I responded, without mentioning anything about the tree I’d been climbing.
“I dunno... If I go back home to fetch someone, the sun will set in the meantime.”
“Urgh.”
The sun was indeed very close to setting. Seeing how worried I looked at the thought of being left alone again, my brother made a counteroffer.
“C’mon, hop on,” he said, turning so that his back faced me.
“Eh? But...”
If a grown-up had offered to give me a piggyback ride, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but considering that my brother wasn’t much bigger than me, I hesitated.
“Unlike you, I work out, so don’t worry about it. Hurry up, it’s nearly dark out,” my brother insisted.
I decided to take him up on his offer and climbed onto his back.
“All right, let’s get going,” said my brother before proceeding to smoothly descend the mountain’s slope.
I was amazed that he was able to walk back down the mountain so smoothly while carrying me, despite the fact that we weren’t that different in size.
My big brother really is amazing, I thought, though it pained me slightly to admit it.
Though he really wasn’t much bigger than me, I decided to trust him and held on tight.
When we got back home, my brother lowered me down in the entryway as soon as we were through the front door.
“We’re home! — twisted her ankle!” my brother called out down the corridor.
“What, really?! Are you all right?” My mother came in a hurry. After seeing us, her eyes widened and she let out a cry of dismay. “And what happened to you?! What’s with all these scratches?”
Following my mother’s gaze, I saw that my brother’s legs had certainly sustained enough injuries to warrant her reaction.
“It’s just one or two little scrapes. They’ll heal as long as I clean them,” said my brother, in spite of the blood oozing from the scratches that covered his legs, before hurrying deeper into the house.
“No, there’s nothing ‘little’ about that. You need to properly disinfect those,” my mother called out to my brother as he retreated. Then she turned back to look at me. “It was a twisted ankle, wasn’t it? Can you walk on it?” she asked.
It looked like I could walk, albeit slowly, now that I wasn’t on a precarious mountain trail.
“I’m okay,” I answered, then recalled the sight of all the scratches on my brother’s legs.
He must have had trouble moving as he normally would have because he was carrying me, which caused him to scrape his legs on the trees and bushes around us. He acted like it was no big deal, but I bet that his injuries actually hurt a lot. I suddenly felt quite touched.
“Come on then, let me help you up. I’ll take a proper look at your foot once we get you situated somewhere more comfortable,” my mother urged me, so I rose to my feet.
I felt like the pain had subsided slightly compared to earlier. At this rate, my brother’s injuries might turn out to be more severe than mine.
“Now then, were you two playing together today? Don’t I always tell you not to play dangerous games? Be more careful.”
“Eh? Weren’t you the one who told him to come look for me?”
“Eh? What are you talking about?” My mother wore a perplexed expression.
Wait, that must mean that, when my brother noticed it was getting dark outside and I still hadn’t come home, he decided to come and look for me all by himself.
Though he was never honest about how he felt, and teased me so often that he sometimes seemed like a bully, I knew that deep down he was extremely kind.
“Thank you, —.”
“Wake up... Please wake up. It’s morning.”
At the sound of this voice, I lifted my leaden eyelids to find a familiar ceiling above my head.
I lay in my bed in a vast room filled with luxury furniture.
Ah, that’s right. I’m no longer —. Instead, I’m...
“Lady Katarina, are you awake?” Peering down at me as she called my name was Anne, Katarina Claes’s personal maid.
“Morning...Anne,” I replied.
My head was still a bit fuzzy, and my eyelids remained heavy even as I rubbed them, but Anne forced me to get out of bed.
“You still have to go to work at the Magical Ministry today, you know. Now then, let’s get you ready.”
I surrendered myself to Anne as she briskly dressed me for the day. In the blink of an eye, I was ready for work. I really felt grateful to have her. When I still lived an ordinary life, in my past life, I never could have imagined living like this, with my own maid to take care of getting me dressed in the morning.