Back then, I was going to Deir’s room every day. Anytime anything annoyed me or I was getting tired from all my studying, her smile would calm me down.
She was only six months old, but she was already quite the unique child. For starters, her mana capacity was incredible. Father had said that he’d never seen a child gain a spirit so young before. She already understood how to use her mana and would move around the magic tool toys that hung above her cradle. She was also very lively, always kicking her hands and legs about.
“You’re excited again today, aren’t you?” I asked her.
“Ahh... Ara... Alaaa...”
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
Deirdre was opening her small pudgy hands as wide as she could, large eyes staring at me.
“Aaa...laaaa...n. Yaaa!” she cried.
“Wha? You remember my name?”
“Yaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
That was when I learned that even babies could look proud of themselves. It was really cute.
“Amazing,” I marveled. “You can say my name.”
“Aaaa...lan! Lan! Haaair...”
“Hair?” I repeated.
“Red... Petty!”
“P-Petty?”
“Pu...tty!”
“Putty?”
Deir shook her head and slammed her feet against the sides of the crib. She seemed to be trying to say I was wrong.
“Hair...pu...rettyyyy!”
My hair was...pretty. Because it was red?
I must’ve started being bothered by my hair color at some point without realizing it because Deir’s compliment made me so happy I almost cried.
“Thank you,” I said. “But how can you talk this much already?”
“Ah.”
Uh-huh. You might not want to cover your mouth with your hands like that—it’s so obvious you understand everything I’m saying.
I’d already realized by now that my sister was something incredible.
“What is going on here?”
Sebas was suddenly in the room, accompanied by a boy. Sebas was the chief steward of the Belisarios and Luther’s grandfather.
“Mr. Sebas, the young lady was moving these,” the maid told him.
“Oh my... All three?”
“Isn’t she incredible? Deirdre’s mana is so powerful.” They must not have realized that I was there because the moment I spoke, both Sebas and Rex jumped in surprise.
I’d heard from Luther that Rex would become Deirdre’s valet. He’d seemed like a normal friendly child to me, and I’d meant that positively. Even now, that opinion hadn’t changed.
“She seems to like you,” I said to Rex.
“Huh?” He blinked at me.
“Look after my sister for me.”
I didn’t remember this, but apparently, I’d stared right at Rex’s face as I said that. I didn’t remember that, but I did remember wondering what would happen if Chris learned that Deir had said my name before his.
I was proud whenever Deir complimented me. I wanted to tell Chris that she had remembered my name. That was why, even though I almost never went to my brother’s living quarters, I took Luther and a bodyguard with me to visit. Chris had said to me once before that I could go anytime I wanted, and even if me being there was a bother, I was sure he’d allow it the moment he realized I wanted to talk about Deir—he loved her a lot.
When I knocked on the door, the person who answered was one of my brother’s valets. Since my brother was a genius and a prodigy, he’d been assigned two adult valets, both sons of nobles.
The valet went back inside for a moment before returning and opening the door the rest of the way—he must have been asking permission to let me in.
“Please come inside.”
“Hello there, Alan,” Chris said as I entered. “It’s rare for you to drop by my room. Something wrong?”
Near where Chris sat on the sofa I spotted the children who wanted to become his retainers. There were the three boys from before and another new boy who looked to be a little older than Chris. The new boy looked at me curiously, but his expression didn’t particularly change. The other three were a different story.
“Is it really okay to let this kid in?” one asked.
“We gotta make sure he understands the difference between the oldest and the second son,” another chimed in.
“What are you all talking about?” Chris asked. Despite the way my brother was looking at them, the three boys continued sneering at me. I held Luther back before he could step forward and approached Chris myself.
“So these three boys are really in the running to become your retainers?” I asked.
“Do you know them?”
“Yes. They said some quite hurtful things. If they may become your retainers in future, should I take that to mean their opinions are also your own?”
Chris glared at the boys standing near the sofa, and after giving a sign to his valets, turned back to me with his usual kind expression.
He’s terrifying.
All he had to do was tilt his head slightly for his expression to look entirely different. And he made sure that I could see both the expression he’d turned on them and the one he’d turned on me, while the boys had only seen the menacing look.
There were only two people in this world I would never want to make enemies of: my brother and my sister. There was the fact that they were both precious to me and that them becoming my enemies would make life horrible to live, but there was also the simple fact that I definitely could never win against them.
The empress? The crown prince? I wasn’t scared of either of them. Even if they became my enemies, my family would still be on my side, so I’d find some way out of the situation. That wasn’t to say I would ever actively try to turn them against me—I liked Azelia and I wanted to join the imperial guard.
Anyway, my brother was really scary at that moment. Chris told me later that he was already plenty angry that they had said something so horrible to me, but speaking as someone who thought we weren’t very close at that point, I thought it was impressive that those three boys hadn’t caught on to my brother’s anger.