“And how exactly do you intend to propose that to the margrave?” Rex asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Yeah, uhh, that’s kind of my problem...”
“Shall I mention it to him?” Behind me, the door slid open just as a new voice joined the conversation.
“Oh, so you speak like this with your valets, but when I point out the way you talk, you get mad at me?” another new voice added.
Why are my brothers both here?! This was my bedroom, not the living room or tea room where we tended to gather as a family. What boy thought it was all right to just barge into a lady’s room without warning? I had been caught completely off guard.
“So you get along better with your valets than with brother and me,” Alan said, face drooping with sadness.
I jumped to my feet, frantic. “Th-That’s not true!”
“It’s because you don’t trust me, isn’t it? I wonder why that could be?” Chris pushed Alan into the room and then closed and even locked the door behind him.
Oh god, he’s terrifying when he’s mad.
“How long were you there for?” Brad was frightened for a whole different reason—he was an ex-assassin and yet he hadn’t even detected their presence.
“When your lady-in-waiting left, I told her that there was no need to close the door as we would be going in,” Chris openly admitted.
How long ago did Cynthia leave the room again? Either way, they’d definitely overheard me saying I wanted to renovate the annex.
“Naturally, that’s not all.” Chris held out his palm, beckoning his earth spirit, while Alan’s hands also glowed green. “Earth spirits are proficient in defensive magic, right? I experimented with it and ended up figuring out some magic to hide my presence.”
“And wind spirits help carry voices far,” Alan added.
My brothers were living cheat codes. I’d never imagined there would be people more overpowered than me, someone who’d come here from a different world. Aren’t they only nine and six years old? That’s crazy!
“It appears you all still lack an understanding of the situation Deir has been put in,” Chris declared, “so how about we have a nice little chat, hmm?”
“Sorry, Rex, do you mind making us some tea as well?” Alan asked apologetically.
I could only watch, dumbfounded, as my brothers walked straight past me to the sofa on the other side of the table and sat themselves down.
“Deir, don’t stare at us like that. Sit down before you faint.” Usually, in moments like these, Chris would pretend not to notice my expression because he knew I didn’t like it, but it seemed I wasn’t getting away with it today.
“Chris, um...”
“I was intending to approach this discussion a little bit more peacefully, but knowing that you aren’t acting like a child in front of your valets naturally annoys me.”
“I think your attitude toward those outside your private circle is much worse if you ask me,” I fired back. “I’ve been hearing some odd rumors about you.”
“Yes, and I wonder who told you about that.” A corner of Chris’s mouth lifted as he sneered at Brad. He was onto us.
“But after that, Brad told me that you two spoil me and really love me!”
“I will admit I was the one to bring up the rumors concerning you,” Brad stepped in. “But after I saw you together with your family, I corrected my judgment of you to someone who treats family and staff differently.”
“That isn’t quite right,” Chris countered. “I treat those whom I trust and who are good at their jobs with respect.”
“Um, but is it also true that you’ve fired a number of your servants?” I asked.
Chris gave a light nod of thanks as Rex served the tea and then looked back at me. He always made sure to uphold his courtesies, at least.
“That is true. The shortest time someone has lasted under me is twenty minutes.”
“Well, no wonder there are rumors, then.”
“Deir, who do you think sends me candidates for the positions of retainer or valet?”
Well, given there were no job boards for that sort of thing...
“Do nobles within our domain introduce them?”
“Precisely. There’s someone behind each and every servant in this castle. Ah, well, not everyone. We’re slowly increasing the proportion of staff hired directly by either father or myself. But I’m still young, right?”
“What?” Brad blinked.
“Huh?” Rex looked just as surprised.
All right, you two, don’t look so shocked. My valets didn’t get many opportunities to speak with my brother, so they were both in shock at the maturity of his speech and bearing.
He’s not normal, right? He’d totally be in Mensa if he’d been born in my world.
“It’s only natural I immediately fire those who are being blackmailed by their backer, or who are incapable of doing their work properly, or have a problem with their attitude.”
“Excuse me.” Brad spoke up then. “May I say something?”
“Please, go ahead, Brad.”
“Not everyone can know what to do from the start. Have you never considered training them yourself?”
“Oh, please,” Chris scoffed. “Why should an adult need to be trained by a nine-year-old boy?”
“That’s a good point. Honestly, I’ve started to forget what age you are...” Brad muttered.
“The biggest problem with that is that, if I did manage to train them well, then that would be fine. But say I kept them on even though they weren’t good at their job—by the time I’m an adult, they’ll have accrued years of working for me, even if only on paper. They’d end up higher in the hierarchy than those newly hired, even if they were worse at their job. Dealing with the fallout from that would be troublesome.”
Oh man, I really am just an ordinary office worker. I hadn’t thought of it from that angle at all. As our family’s successor, Chris had to think well into the future to make sure he could keep a leash on the nobles and protect our people and our borders. In comparison, I was very much taking things as they came. I was constantly winging everything. That was how I’d ended up standing out so much that the Spirit King and the imperial family had noticed me and gotten me involved in this mess.