“Dad asked you to?”

“Yes.”

But weren’t Vicheravali and Felicity like oil and water?

How……?

“Before I went to the fifth war, I saw a small baby. A child not even 100 days old.”

The Duke of Vicheravali continued calmly.

“The man who brought that child told me. That a daughter should be held preciously like glass, and treated with care. Then he placed his child in my arms.”

His eyes deepened as if lost in the past.

“Usually babies burst into tears when they see me, but that baby smiled. She grabbed my finger with her five tiny rice grain-sized fingers and smiled. Seeing that, the child’s father said. She seems to like you. And if anything happened to him, he asked me to take care of his daughter.”

……Dad.

“Reibella.”

The Duke of Vicheravali’s voice was gentler than ever before.

“I didn’t want to fight meaningless wars anymore. I also didn’t want to leave Royan alone. But after meeting you, I thought that perhaps standing on the battlefield would be meaningful if it was to protect you.”

“……”

“I will protect you.”

Suddenly. Tears burst forth.

Unconsciously from sorrow. Feelings of sorrow, loneliness, and hardship poured out.

In the end, she began crying aloud like a fool.

“From now on, I, Royan, Vicheravali will be by your side.”

To Reibella who was sobbing profusely, the Duke of Vicheravali continued to tell her.

That they would be together in this world. That he would protect her.

That he would definitely protect her.

* * *

She must have fallen asleep from crying.

When she came to her senses, she was lying in bed in an unfamiliar room. Moreover, her hand felt very warm. Looking down, there was Royan, sleeping while firmly holding her hand.

From their clasped hands, she could feel his stubborn determination to never let her go anywhere.

Seeing his feelings for her so clearly, Reibella felt like she might burst into tears again. After staring at their joined hands for a long time, Reibella whispered like a sigh.

“Can I really become family?”

“……If you call me brother.”

An answer came from Royan, whom she thought was sleeping. He raised his head slightly and continued.

“If you call me brother properly from now on, I’ll be your brother.”

The word ‘Brother’ seemed unfamiliar and awkward to him. Even as he asked her to call him that first, Royan’s face turned a light pink. As she watched quietly, he lowered his head in embarrassment and buried his face in the blanket.

Seeing this, Reibella swallowed her laughter and said.

“I hate that.”

“What? Why!”

As if he had never been hiding his face in embarrassment. Royan raised his head sharply in agitation.

Reibella answered as if it were obvious.

“Royan isn’t as good at studying as I am.”

“……I’ll do better from now on.”

Royan grumbled as if wronged, as if betrayed. Yet his hand still held hers firmly.

The hand holding hers was very small. Nevertheless, that small hand felt reliable. So reliable that she wanted to lean on it.

“Be my family, Brother Royan.”

The moment she painfully uttered those words, Royan smiled an incredibly bright smile.

“Of course.”

He answered, looking truly happy, as if he had waited so long, and placed his hand on Reibella’s head.

As Royan ruffled her hair, he shouted loudly toward the door.

“Father! We have a new youngest in our house!”

As if they had been waiting for this moment, the firmly closed door opened with a crash. At the same time, people tumbled in like a waterfall.

Their whole bodies were telling her they had been listening with their ears pressed to the door.

“Ugh……”

“Hey, who’s that. Your scabbard is stabbing my thigh.”

“Ah, that’s why I told you to go to the back!”

After groaning and muttering for a moment,

“Miss! Congratulations!”

Led by someone’s shout, everyone began to cheer excitedly in unison.

“Congratulations!”

“Miss!”

The overwhelming flood of congratulations and cheers shook her ears. As Reibella stared at them in a daze, suddenly a small scream began to echo among the voices of the celebrating people.

The cause was Charlotte, who was stepping on the sandwich-like pile of fallen people as she made her way over.

After gracefully climbing over everyone and entering the room, Charlotte knelt before Reibella and bowed her head. Then in a solemn voice, she declared:

“Charlotte Debussy. I will continue to serve you faithfully, Miss.”

“Me too!”

“I will serve with all my heart!”

At the resounding voices of the people once again, Reibella couldn’t help but laugh.

She felt so overwhelmed with happiness that it seemed to reach the edge of the sky.

* * *

“……You failed?”

Marquis Pueblo frowned slightly and muttered quietly, then suddenly scowled and roughly swept across the desk. The sound of objects shattering noisily echoed.

“How! How could you fail at that!”

Bang, the Marquis rose, planting both hands on the desk, then approached the man bowing his head before him and grabbed him by the collar.

Then he shook the man, who was a full span taller than himself, with all his might while shouting.

“Didn’t you say you could succeed, that I should leave it to you!”

“……I’m, I’m sorry.”

“Damn it!”

The Marquis spat out in irritation, pushed the man away again and kicked him with all his strength. The merciless violence continued until his breathing became rough.

Even though the man was silently enduring the beating, the Marquis, still not satisfied, threw whatever he could grab onto the floor.

Along with the harsh noise, fragments splattered onto the man.

“Damn it.”

The business operated by the Marquis’s family was gradually failing.

The cause was obviously the Duke of Vicheravali. It was a problem that had arisen since that man’s return.

‘I should have cut off the bud from the beginning!’

At first, it was just a small loss. As tiny as a grain of sand, not worth paying attention to.

But gradually the grains of sand increased little by little. They gathered to form a handful, and before he knew it, they filled both hands and began to overflow.

By the time he came to his senses and tried to resolve it, it was already too late. The mastermind behind it all was revealed to be the Duke of Vicheravali. The Duke, who revealed his identity as if he had no intention of hiding it, acted as he pleased, as if mocking people.

But that was only for a while. Their mischief stopped. So at that time, the Marquis thought that the Duke had merely given a small warning about what he had done to his son.

Well, he had bullied that kid a bit.

‘If that brat hadn’t caught the old man’s eye, why would I need to bully him? It’s all the old man’s fault.’

The old man who used to sing about how he should have passed the family to his daughter at every opportunity, now had his grandson’s name constantly on his lips since the child his daughter gave birth to came to the family.

‘Royan. You are so brilliant. You should have been born in our family.’

‘You’re not even half as good as Royan. If you were, I wouldn’t be so frustrated.’

‘You fool. I think it would be better to pass the family to Royan’s child when he has one, rather than pass it on to you.’

He could assert that there wasn’t a single person in the world who wouldn’t resent that kid who not only won the old man’s heart but also inherited Vicheravali.

Since it was such a trivial matter, he believed that the Duke would stop at some point. He thought it was over now.

Without his knowledge, the representative of the merchant group led by the Marquis had changed, the trading ship he had invested in was suddenly attacked and sank, and problems arose even in the territory that was his last source of funds. Two days ago, the agent managing the territory was found dead.

The foundation of the Marquis’s family collapsed in an instant. That venerable family was swaying like a reed at a single breath from Vicheravali.

To resolve this situation, he absolutely needed the Duke of Vicheravali. But the Duke wouldn’t meet him even when contacted, and attempts through close associates had also failed.

As if the Marquis didn’t exist, he was consistently ignored, so the only option left was Royan.

So he tried to bring him in for negotiation……

Not only did that fail, but the Duke of Vicheravali found out about it.

“This is no time to be sitting around. I need to flee quickly. Before that bastard comes.”

Having directly targeted the child, there was no doubt that the Duke of Vicheravali would move personally.

When the Duke’s wife, who had been the Marquis’s sister, died, if the previous Marquis hadn’t stopped him, he would have certainly stormed the Imperial Palace—he was a ruthless man when enraged.

Even though the Marquis was in the capital and the Duke of Vicheravali was in his territory a month away from the capital, that man was different from others. With his overflowing wealth, he would surely use plenty of magic stones and could reach the mansion quickly.

Contemplating what he needed to take immediately, the Marquis called for his butler.

But the butler, who should have entered the office immediately, didn’t respond. He called for the butler again, but there was only silence.