“I’ll see you later, then,” Chris said.
I turned to Deir. “How about we go to the training field?”
“Okaaaaaaay.”
Chris headed off with his guards and valets while I took Deirdre’s hand. The moment Chris and his servants were far enough away, the attitude of the ladies-in-waiting immediately changed.
“Lady Deirdre, let’s go that way,” one said to her.
“Yes, let’s,” the other chimed in. “Lord Chris is the best person to be with.”
“Did neither of you listen to their conversation? Lady Deirdre is going to the training field with Lord Alan.” When Luther stepped forward, the two women frantically grabbed Deir’s free hand and yanked her away from me.
“Eek, so scary,” one of the ladies cried. “We’d better tell Lady Belisario that he threatened us.”
“This is why commoners don’t belong here,” murmured the other.
“You’ll hurt Deirdre pulling her like that,” I warned them.
“Come no closer. We can’t leave Lady Deirdre with a child whose father we don’t even know.”
These two knew exactly what they were doing—they were disparaging mother with full malicious intent.
“You—”
“Noooooooooooooooo!”
Suddenly, Deir started screaming. The shrill voice of such a young girl could be heard easily from far away.
“Ow!”
Deir slapped the hands gripping hers as hard as she could, and when the ladies-in-waiting let go in surprise, she ran up and latched onto me.
“I hate those two! I’m gonna tell mother never to assign them to me again! They even said mean things about you, Alan!”
“Lady Deirdre, we’re thinking of you when we—” one of them tried to say.
“Go away. I hate, hate, hate people like you!” Deir screamed in return.
Even if no one else could hear mine or the ladies’ voices, Deir’s voice traveled far enough that staff from all over came running. All of them were looking coldly at the ladies-in-waiting.
“What happened, Deirdre?!”
The moment Chris came running back, Deir pointed an accusing finger at the two servants.
“Chris, they were being mean to Alan and Luther! They yanked my hand too! It hurt!”
I started to wonder if Chris had deliberately had these two assigned to Deir today. My brother was hailed as a prodigy, and there were many cases of newcomers to the castle looking down on me for my hair color. It didn’t help that at this point, the only one without a spirit was me.
On the other hand, at the training field, I was the popular one. When grandfather had returned home at the time of my birth, he’d spent two months giving extra training to the young knights and soldiers of the navy, border army, and knights’ order. Children who wanted to join our armed forces would also drop by for training. Now that five years had passed, those children trained by my grandfather had officially become knights and soldiers themselves.
To the soldiers who had been present when my grandfather—overjoyed that a Belisario child had been born with hair like his—had brought me to the training ground for everyone to see, I was the grandson of a cherished hero. Now that people had become aware of that, those who couldn’t figure out how to approach my brother or had been fired by him for being incompetent had begun trying to curry favor with me instead.
These ladies-in-waiting must have been trying to use Deir to cause a fracture between Chris and me. Had Deir been a normal child who would believe anything she was told, or had I been left to worry about my hair color enough to isolate myself from my family with only the knights and soldiers for company, these people might have managed to break our family apart.
“Send word to mother that they should lock these two in a room,” Chris ordered. “Do not allow them to contact anyone from outside.”
“Alan...”
Seeing Deir’s look of concern, I knelt down in front of her. “You might not have known, Deir, but my hair color is actually inherited from grandfather.”
“Grandfather?”
“I hear he’s traveling abroad right now, though he hasn’t returned here for five years.”
Apparently, our parents had met him several times in the capital. Even though he was making sure to visit his hometown occasionally, it seemed he felt that since Belisario was in good shape, he’d be better off staying away.
“I’ve never met him,” Deir muttered. “I don’t know him.”
Oh, this isn’t good. Deir sharply turned her head to one side.
“Why did he come visit when you were born and not me?” She pouted.
“I ask the same question all the time. Both grandfather and grandmother are very mean. I’ve already forgotten what they look like.”
“I can’t remember much from when I was born either,” Chris added.
Our parents ended up panicking when they heard later that their children didn’t even know what their grandparents looked like, even more so when they learned that Deir was angry about it.
“Right, of course,” mother said, turning to father. “We should have them come home at least once, right, dear?”
“Hmph, I don’t care either way,” Deir declared.
Mother attempted to placate Deir, who was still pouting magnificently. “Oh, don’t be like that, Deir. Your grandmother was overjoyed when she learned that she had a granddaughter.”
“Then why don’t they come visit?”
“They’re just having so much fun on their travels.”
“Maybe grandfather is just more comfortable at home,” Chris suggested.
I’d completely ignored the ladies-in-waiting being taken away, but I found it concerning that the target of their hateful gazes had been Deir.
“Let’s increase Deir’s security,” Chris whispered to me. I silently nodded.