Refusing the hands that tried to confine her in his embrace, Reibella held her head high and smiled at the Duke. As he reflexively curved his lips softly, Reibella felt reassured and turned her gaze toward Royan.

Like father like son, Royan too was glaring at everyone with a sullen look. His tightly clenched fists were trembling with anger.

‘Brother.’

When she called him silently, Royan remarkably sensed it and turned his head to look at her. The moment their eyes met, his displeased expression instantly softened. His sharp eyes melted gently, turning into an adorable eye-smile.

At that moment, the nobles watching from below took shallow breaths.

The two impressively handsome men smiling warmly seemed to have delivered such a shock that they could barely breathe properly.

After Reibella calmed Royan down, the Duke of Vicheravali finally addressed everyone.

“Thank you for attending to celebrate my son’s birthday. This is my son, Royan Vicheravali, who turns 10 today. I declare that as of today, he has become the official heir of Vicheravali.”

As if they had been waiting, countless cheers erupted, filling the large banquet hall. They were voices celebrating the birth of the legitimate Vicheravali heir.

Responding to their welcome, Royan stepped forward one step. Then, as if there had never been any commotion, the surroundings settled into silence.

“I am Royan Vicheravali.”

As his neat voice echoed to every corner of the quiet banquet hall, once again, nobles’ greetings congratulating him burst forth without pause.

After a while, as the applause and cheers gradually subsided, Royan continued speaking.

With a rather serious expression, he gazed at everyone with his purple eyes that sparkled in the light of the chandelier. His voice had a low and gentle resonance unlike that of a child.

“Father said that I have become the official heir today, but I don’t think so.”

……Huh?

At his sudden statement, question marks filled the eyes of people in the banquet hall.

It was a reaction of ‘what are you saying?’

Royan, who had been observing everyone’s reactions with the elegant posture of a leopard, proudly declared with a face that seemed to have been waiting to say this.

“I am willing to hand over the position of heir immediately if my sister, Reibella Vicheravali, grows to be more excellent than me.”

……What?

At this unexpected statement, Reibella stared at Royan with wide eyes.

She wasn’t the only one. As soon as Royan finished speaking, everyone inhaled sharply and turned to look at the Duke of Vicheravali with eyes stained by shock.

Is this true? Is it real? Is this for real?

Their gazes demanded answers.

Meanwhile, Royan just smiled brightly at her as if asking, ‘I did well, didn’t I?’

Reibella looked at the Duke of Vicheravali, hoping he would quickly resolve this incident, but he too merely nodded as if finding it interesting.

……No, why on earth are they acting like this?

* * *

“Royan!”

As soon as they finished the host’s greeting ceremony, which had been colored with shock and horror, Reibella came outside and called Royan loudly.

Royan, who had been following cautiously, approached her side as if he had been waiting.

“You should call me Brother. We’re real family now.”

“……Brother.”

When Reibella glared at him while calling him in a voice laden with suppressed emotions, Royan brazenly stroked her head.

“I wasn’t just saying it. I meant it.”

“Don’t say such nonsense.”

“Why not? If it weren’t for you, I could have been dragged away by the Marquis and died.”

“If you had been alone, you would have escaped well.”

The reason Royan had been in danger then was because he had been carrying a powerless burden. Moreover, the fact that he had been in danger before the Duke of Vicheravali came to rescue them was, in fact, due to Reibella’s poor condition caused by the poison given by the Emperor.

His fault couldn’t be found anywhere.

When Reibella pointed this out, Royan countered:

“The problem was that I ran away saying I was leaving home. And it was also wrong to keep someone around who tried to feed you strange food.”

“……”

“Rel. You became my family from that day. What does blood matter? If we’re talking about blood, who could be more precious than you?”

“Royan is more precious. The most precious in the world.”

After all, he’s the male protagonist of this world.

“Then you’re the precious sister acknowledged by me, the most precious person in the world.”

How did that prickly character become such a sister-doting fool?

Reibella pretended to be stern as she stood close to Royan and retorted:

“Still, what’s not right is not right.”

But truthfully, she was a little happy that he thought of her this way. She had always been beaten in front of everyone, never protected.

She was truly fortunate to have become family with them.

“Are you going back to the banquet hall now?”

Reibella, not yet old enough to enter society, had left immediately after a brief greeting, but not Royan. From now on, he needed to receive birthday gifts and hear numerous congratulations.

Even more so because he hadn’t received them from the Marquis all these years.

But Royan looked completely annoyed.

“Forget it. Those unpleasant fellows. They probably didn’t come to see me anyway.”

“They did come to see you. The Duke, I mean Dad, even reduced his victory ceremony because of you, Royan. Go back quickly.”

She had heard that the Duke of Vicheravali’s victory ceremony had been extremely modest for someone returning from seven years of war. He probably wanted to emphasize Royan’s birthday, which he was facing after a long time.

“I just want to be with my sister.”

“I’m going to wash up and go to bed now.”

“Can’t we play a little longer? You’ve been busy with other things lately. You didn’t even come to sword training.”

Royan grumbled as he held onto Reibella’s sleeve. Looking at him, Reibella said as if doing him a favor:

“I can’t play with you…… but instead, I have a gift!”

“What is it?”

“Here.”

Then Reibella took out a letter she had been hiding and handed it to him.

Royan’s eyes sparkled.

“A letter?”

“You wanted one, didn’t you?”

While watching her write letters to send to dessert shops, Royan had made such a pitiful expression. She couldn’t miss it. Moreover, since knights frequently came to ask her to write Royan a letter with earnest pleas, Reibella had thought she should definitely write him a letter.

She had expected him to say something like ‘just a letter?’ But it seemed he really wanted to receive a letter.

Royan held the letter with both hands as if he had received the most important gift in the world, and sniffled with eyes dripping with honey.

So Reibella quietly stepped aside. To let him read the letter in peace.

Pitter-patter, joy was evident in Reibella’s steps as she walked away.

* * *

‘She said to go this way.’

Royan was running with the precious letter held close to his chest. This was because his absolutely adorable sister had asked him to do so in the letter.

‘I’ve hidden a gift, so you need to find it before the day ends! If you find it by 10 o’clock, I’ll grant you one wish.’

His cute sister had not only given him a letter but also another gift, and if he did well, she would even grant a wish. Could there be a happier birthday than this?

‘What wish should I make?’

Should he ask her to follow him around from morning till night like before?

Back then, not knowing how fun it was, he had pushed Reibella away and only spat out mean words.

Even now, it was such a black history for him that he would sometimes bolt upright while sleeping.

‘This time I’ll answer well during lessons too.’

Previously, he had been so nervous about Reibella laughing at him that he couldn’t answer properly even things he knew. Reibella, who still called him “Brother” affectionately even when he was stupid enough to deserve having all affection cut off, was an angel incarnate.

‘This time I’ll only show cool sides of myself.’

To become a proud older brother so she would never regret becoming family.

After deciding on his wish, he became even more excited about the gift Reibella asked him to find. Of course, even if it were a pebble, it would be an extremely special gift to him.

‘It should be around here.’

Royan, who had been running for quite some time, gradually slowed his steps. Then he looked around, turning his head this way and that.

‘She said there would be a hint.’

She said I’d know when I got there. That I couldn’t miss it.

‘Is it that person?’

In the distance stood a child wearing a robe. The black robe with star-shaped patterns was unmistakably Reibella’s robe.

She pretended to go back, but is she waiting here?

‘The gift is Reibella.’

My sister is so cute.

With a glad heart, Royan ran up to the child in one breath. And as he reached out to touch the shoulder, he hesitated.

The child before him had a slightly larger build than Reibella.

Just as he was about to step back wondering what was going on, the robed child suddenly turned around.

The face he encountered was…….

“Have you been well?”

“……Your Highness?”

Erina Curtis Rastel. The Empire’s princess.