“I’m going to take a break.”
“Very good, sir. Please give this to the lady in return for the pen she gave me.”
Whenever I mentioned taking a break, it had become a habit to head to the annex where my sister lived.
John was the elderly butler who had served our household since my father’s time. He’d handed me a small package—from the feel and sound, it was likely tea leaves and sweets. He seemed to have this kind of thing prepared so he could give it to me at any time.
Suddenly, a rumor the Academy girls had been discussing flashed through my mind. Recently, a certain famous shop had received a shipment of rare tea leaves imported from the eastern provinces, hadn’t it? Could this package possibly contain those very leaves? I’d only learned about this after my sister and I had gradually begun spending more time together, but surprisingly, John was quite adept at understanding women’s tastes. About seventy percent of the gifts I brought for my sister were chosen based on John’s advice.
John’s hair, once dark brown, was now half streaked with white. His eyes, a soft greenish blue, seemed to grow gentler with age. Until recently, John had served as my personal secretary and butler, managing only matters concerning me, including this wing. Several months ago, however, I’d dismissed most of the servants my mother had hired, citing embezzlement and dereliction of duty. Consequently, John now served as the chief secretary and butler managing the entire Robur estate.
This situation had begun when my father entrusted me with managing the estate and I’d started reviewing its accounts. This had been the result.
Regardless of my mother’s incompetent management, it became clear that she and her former foster daughter, Sienna, and even the servants she’d hired, had committed numerous acts of harm against my blood-related younger sister. I felt deeply sorry for my sister.
My father had transferred my mother’s management authority to me, but it seemed he didn’t intend to leave it at that. A few days ago, father had notified me that mother would soon be relocated to the townhouse farthest from the royal capital.
Upon hearing the news, I couldn’t help but think of my sister. She had undoubtedly cut our mother out of her life, but perhaps something might stir within her nonetheless.
Perhaps because my thoughts were on my sister, the image of her flying through the air with ropes wrapped around her lower body flashed into my mind. It had been an utterly shocking sight. My sister was supposed to be a lady, after all...
The day before that incident, Regulus, the head instructor who had been leading my sister’s team, had visited the mansion on his way home. He’d come to tell me that a high priest from the church had gone out of his way to visit my sister at her training site. With that worry in mind, I’d gone to pick her up yesterday. I’d never heard of a lady casually staying overnight at an orphanage...but, well, I was used to it by now.
But still, why on earth was she playing so happily with the church’s high priest and that other young lady who clearly had her own issues? She should have at least stuck with Team Peckish’s leader.
Her team leader would probably make sure my sister wouldn’t return alone from the frontier. He’d been forced into the “Lavi Protection Squad,” after all. Poor thing. There were A-rank adventurers among its ranks. For a team leader active as an adventurer, refusing was not an option.
Honestly, I didn’t fully understand the circumstances surrounding my sister. But the reason she was where she was now was because the commoners in the castle town had doted on her when she was young and continued to look after her.
Abused by our mother, she’d been looked down upon by the household servants year after year, eventually neglected even for meals. When I learned she’d been sneaking out of the mansion to barter and take odd jobs in the town to survive, I’d felt dizzy with shame as her brother. I was profoundly grateful for the kindness of those townspeople.
Despite how overdue my attempts at redemption were, my sister had chosen to stay by my side. Now she treated me to meals and had even given me a pen before John did. It was actually a set of two pens, each with superior features: one for correcting messy writing and another for erasing.
She’d also given me a short sword that cut easily—though it did have a tendency to misfire, putting my life at risk.
“Ah, I’ll pass it along,” I told John. “I’m heading out.”
“Have a good time, sir,” he replied.
I headed toward the annex where my sister lived, and the sight of the cute little gate in the distance made the corners of my mouth relax.
“Laviange!” But then a shrill scream pierced the air, and in an instant, wrinkles gathered between my eyebrows. The source of the angry voice was our mother.
The sound of clanging metal echoed again and again, and I felt the protective magic I’d placed on the fence surrounding the annex activate. I ran toward it.
“You good-for-nothing! You dare mock me! I won’t forgive you!” Her ugly form hurled curses and gibberish, throwing stones at the fence.
Rage welled up inside me. “What on earth are you doing?!”
“Mihail!” My mother paid no attention to the fact that I was glaring. She approached with a delighted expression and swiftly took my hand. “You locked that failure in this cage for your mother, didn’t you! How wonderful, my son! Of course you did! My dear Sienna was driven out because of that failure! And yet that good-for-nothing has the nerve to do as she pleases! I want to punish her myself! Let me into that cage!”
Locked up in a cage?! What was she talking about?!
Putting up the fence had been a decision I’d made after discussing it with my sister. She’d said she wanted to expand the fields, but wild dogs kept coming and destroying them. The point about a lady tending fields was brilliantly ignored, but that didn’t matter now.