Naturally, spouses are family too.

Leticia remained silent at Chamuka’s innovative proposal to “become a new type of family.”

Perhaps she shouldn’t have honestly answered his previous proposal, “I like you, let’s date,” with “I prefer our current family relationship.”

How much must he have racked his brain thinking about these words?

“…We’re already family, is there really a need to become spouses?”

“But there’s no need to not be spouses either. Marriage is simpler in procedure than adoption.”

Who gets married for such a reason?

“Tan is still young, and Kalia is a girl. Marrying me would be the quickest way for you to become part of Basilinte.”

“Is there really a need to make it happen quickly…?”

Even if the official procedure was delayed, the relationship between Basilinte and Leticia wouldn’t change, so why bother?

“But Leti, you don’t like the Borba surname, do you?”

“I don’t dislike it either. It’s not so bad to keep my current surname a bit longer.”

Sir Borba, who gave her the surname, was the worst person, but thinking of it as a name shared with her brothers and sisters from the troupe, it wasn’t so bad.

“….”

However, after a moment of silence at that answer, Chamuka paused before speaking again.

“I don’t like it. Your current surname is also held by that person you call your brother.”

“….”

“I feel like I might lose you to your past. Even though I know the past is something no one can change, it still bothers me.”

“I’m going back to the Grand Duchy. That’s where my present is.”

“But you’re not coming back to me.”

Leticia calmly tried to persuade Chamuka.

“Are those two different things? There’s no need to distinguish them. You’ll become the next Grand Duke, and that place is your home too.”

“But I want to distinguish them, Leti.”

She suddenly recalled ten years ago, when Chamuka had asked for her name.

“I want you to come back to me, not to Basilinte.”

Leticia couldn’t find words to respond.

Chamuka was always honest, and Leticia vaguely realized she couldn’t avoid that honesty forever.

But how exactly should she answer? It would be nice to be a family where no one needs to get hurt or worry. Continuously, for life.

She needed consultation.

Not with Basilinte, but with someone who had some common sense.

***

The high nobles of the Empire naturally didn’t reside in the capital.

Most typically lived in their own territories, only coming up for major imperial events.

Sometimes families sent their children as attendants to prove their loyalty to the imperial family, but this wasn’t very common.

Especially the higher nobles didn’t particularly like going to the capital.

When they could live like kings in their own territories, commanding their vassals, no noble wanted to go to the capital and bow their heads to the Emperor.

Within the Empire, there were many families older than the Herta imperial family, which was only three hundred years old, and the Emperor generally respected their stiff pride by not summoning them to the capital frequently.

“Inviting this many nobles just for a prince’s debut is unprecedented. Especially when the prince is not the crown prince but the sixth prince.”

Luka said, waving the list of noble families attending Prince Sion’s debut ball.

The extremely thick list fluttered in Luka’s hand.

“More importantly, Luka, how much sleep have you missed…?”

Leticia looked around the room full of document piles with a disgruntled expression.

Luka’s house near the imperial palace had long since become something like an operations base.

In short, it was no longer fit for human habitation.

The small house he had acquired, thinking he only needed a place to sleep,p was now overflowing with people coming and going and documents.

Leticia quietly drew the curtains by the window, seeing Aina and Nathan sleeping tightly curled up against each other on the bed, which was also occupied by piles of documents.

They were sleeping almost like corpses, undisturbed by the morning sunlight.

Yes, it was morning now.

Morning, not the middle of the night.

“Sleep is for when you’re dead.”

Leticia remained silent at Luka’s solemn words. Might he actually die at this rate?

Luka looked at Aina and Nathan sleeping on the bed with hollow eyes and clicked his tongue.

“Weaklings. Succumbing to mere sleep.”

“Brother. You don’t seem to be in your right mind, so shall we talk after you get some sleep?”

“I am in my right mind. Luka.”

“Luka is your name.”

This person is not in their right mind.

Leticia took the documents from Luka’s trembling hands as he tried to continue working.

“Brother, you don’t need to go this far. Master-”

Before Leticia could finish, Luka cut her off.

“I know. That I don’t need to go this far.”

He got up, pressing his head firmly, and took the documents back from Leticia’s hands.

“Leti, thanks to you, I can now pursue a revenge I couldn’t even imagine before, and I know I don’t actually need to work this hard. You or—yes, your family has the power to proceed even if plans go slightly awry.”

Luka added somewhat self-deprecatingly.

“In fact, it wouldn’t be much of a problem even without me.”

“That’s not true, Luka. You’re being plenty helpful right now.”

Luka ruffled Leticia’s hair and smiled tiredly.

“Reality is like that, regardless of how you feel. That’s why, Leti. I’m just trying not to be a burden on you.”

“What do you mean by burden? We’re family.”

“Just. Seeing your amazing new family makes me feel more… Never mind. Just forget it. I can’t speak properly from lack of sleep.”

“…I was just happy that you were alive. Aren’t you?”

“But when this revenge is over, you won’t stay with me. You’ll return to the Grand Duchy.”

Because that was now her home.

Leticia thought of returning to the Grand Duchy as natural. But Luka murmured with evident sadness about that fact.

“If I were a Grand Duke or something, maybe. I can’t give you as much as those people can, so asking you to stay with me would be too much. I know that, but still…”

Luka didn’t continue. Instead, he slumped down in a chair and deliberately turned his attention to the documents.

As if he knew that asking Leticia to stay together after the revenge was complete would burden her.

“….”

A rather long silence followed.

Perhaps due to extreme fatigue, Luka had fallen asleep during the silence.

Well, if he hadn’t been so worn out with fatigue, he wouldn’t have revealed such inner thoughts to Leticia.

She felt like she’d come to consult about one worry only to gain another.

Leticia sighed as she cleared the documents from the sofa and laid Luka down.

Soon, only the sound of wheezing breath filled the room.

As she was wondering whether to rescue Aina, who was being held so tightly in Nathan’s arms that she might suffocate, the door clicked open and Astrid entered the room.

“Leti?”

Discovering Leticia, Astrid smiled brightly and quickly ran to her side.

“Did you come to see your master?”

White lies were always necessary in life. Leticia nodded readily.

“Yes. I missed you, Master. I haven’t been able to see you lately because I’ve been so busy.”

Of course, Astrid wouldn’t be much help with the actual problem she came to solve.

She could predict that consulting with her master about Chamuka would only result in answers like “If you don’t like Chamuka, I’ll dispose of him cleanly for you.”

“Shall we go outside to talk more, Master? Everyone here is sleeping.”

Only then did Astrid look around at those sleeping like corpses and clicked her tongue.

“Weaklings. Succumbing to mere sleep.”

“…People die if they don’t sleep, Master.”

I thought Luka’s speech habits had gotten worse, but here was the source.