“…Um, I’m sorry. It’s true that I felt resentful and hated you, but that doesn’t mean I wished you weren’t my family, Sister. If I really felt that way… I wouldn’t have cared at all. I would have acted as if you didn’t exist.”

They say that if you’re not interested, you don’t even say bad things, right?

His words, recited in detail, were almost heartbreaking. In other words, it looked somewhat servile.

“…I’m sorry, my explanation was too long.”

“No, it’s refreshing.”

Serena burst into laughter and said.

The apology from last time seemed to make her feel worse the more she heard it, but this apology made her feel stranger the more she heard it.

She didn’t know that the unfamiliar younger brother who used to yell at her could make such an expression.

“Pardon?”

“Hmm, it’s nothing. You’ve apologized, so you don’t need to worry about it anymore. It doesn’t bother me at all.”

Serena said, shaking her head lightly. She let out a short sigh.

“I’ll try hard too.”

“……To be honest, I don’t really know what I should do. When I was young, I thought I had to do well on my own, so I’ve been doing that all this time……”

“……”

“Now, there are people telling me not to do that. Even if they tell me to start something, I don’t know what to do or how to do it.”

When Serena spoke honestly, Nocturne Lavernia’s eyes widened. He never thought she would be thinking like this.

“Why……”

“Why?”

“Why… did you try to do well on your own, Sister?”

“…Because that’s the kind of child I was.”

After blurting that out, Serena pondered for a moment. Then she shook her head and opened her mouth.

“No, honestly, I think I wanted to be praised. Everyone praised me when I acted mature.”

“Ah……”

“So that’s how I’ve lived… but now I don’t know who to expect what from or how.”

Even if they tell her to speak up when there are difficulties, Serena has also become able to solve those difficulties.

If she thinks and ponders alone, she can somehow find an answer.

So, she no longer needs to rely on anyone or stamp her feet in frustration. Without even looking around.

“So even though Father said we should start over from the beginning…… I don’t know what to do or how to do it, and even when I hear what you say… honestly, I don’t know what to do.”

At her honest words, Nocturne quietly closed his mouth.

It’s not that she doesn’t want to try, but she doesn’t know where to start.

It’s similar to how you might aimlessly wander when you first start a job without any guidance on what to do.

Serena was the same.

If someone gave her clear guidance, she had the ability to follow it well, but just being told ‘try this’ didn’t make her think of methods or give her confidence that she could do it well.

“Just……”

“Just?”

“Maybe we could start by meeting often, having conversations, and spending time like this.”

At Nocturne Lavernia’s words, Serena slowly nodded.

It was rather comfortable when such guidance was provided.

Because she just had to do as she was told.

“It seems… you were lonely too, Sister.”

At Nocturne Lavernia’s words, Serena hesitated.

Was she lonely?

There were times when it was somewhat difficult. When things that a child couldn’t do no matter what came up right in front of her.

Serena shrugged.

“Well, maybe. I don’t really remember now. It’s an old story.”

A lot has happened in the meantime.

“Y-Young Marquis!”

Slay knocked on the door and came in. Nocturne Lavernia slowly turned his head.

“What is it?”

“Well… there’s an intruder outside in strange attire, he keeps saying he’s Lemerun and asking if we don’t know him, he seems crazy…… Should we chase him away?”

Nocturne Lavernia furrowed his brow.

Of course we should chase him away, he didn’t understand why the story was brought all the way here if that wasn’t the case.

He nodded slightly with a short sigh.

He didn’t want to be interrupted when he was having a normal conversation within a perfectly normal range with his sister for the first time in a long while.

“We couldn’t possibly know such an unidentified person. Chase him away.”

“Yes, understood.”

“No, wait. Lemerun?”

Serena raised her hand and stopped Slay as he was turning around.

“Sister?”

“Did that man really say he was Lemerun?”

“Yes, he said he was Professor Lemerun… he kept yelling at us asking if we didn’t know about the academy in Gosteina……”

For a moment, Serena’s eyes sparkled. She turned her head to look at the two rabbits sleeping on the bed.

“And that promise. It will be kept soon.”

She remembered the words the child who was Darkness had said just before parting. He clearly said the promise would be kept soon.

If that promise was about Lemerun coming?

That is, the very first promise… the condition of the contract. Serena stood up abruptly.

“I’d like to see that person.”

“Sister? Do you know him?”

“Maybe……”

Serena trailed off.

If asked how she knew him, she would have to explain in detail, and she didn’t have the confidence to do that.

Anyway, if Lemerun was really the Lemerun she was thinking of, she would have to take him in since he had nowhere else to go.

It didn’t sit well with her conscience to let him wander, and she didn’t want to see someone with that level of intelligence die either.

Of course, with that brain, he would probably survive somehow anywhere.

“…Hmm, guide us. Slay.”

Nocturne Lavernia said as he stood up. Serena furrowed her brow.

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“I can’t let you go alone to meet someone you don’t even know, Sister.”

“Is it really necessary…?”

“Please consider this as me making an effort too, Sister.”

She didn’t need to ask what kind of effort it was to understand.

It must be about starting over from the beginning, as he said. After saying that much, Serena couldn’t say anything more.

She quietly nodded in response.

“Do as you please.”

“Yes.”

With a subtle sensation, she rubbed her nape once and followed Slay out, where she saw a quite familiar face being held at the main entrance.

“Ugh, you fools! Listen when someone is talking!”

A quite familiar old man was there.

Whether he had used magic or not, the old man who had instantly subdued the soldiers and was sitting on top of them was as arrogant as ever.

“Wow……”

It really is Professor Lemerun.

“Huh? Who are you people? Where on earth is this place?”

“Who are you to ask that?”

Nocturne Lavernia said slowly as he drew his sword. The short, stubborn-looking old man tilted his head with his arms crossed.

“Tch, I asked for an introduction first, didn’t I? Do you all walk around with bugs instead of brains that you can’t understand what you hear?”

“Professor Lemerun.”

“Hmm?”

Serena said with a somewhat emotional face.

At that, Lemerun opened his eyes wide and tilted his head while looking at Serena.

Eventually, the man narrowed his eyes and examined Serena from various angles before tilting his head.

“Who are you?”

“Haha, to think we’d meet again like this……”

Serena said, brushing her mouth once.

“Sister, do you know this person?”

“Yes, I know him very well.”

Serena nodded. Lemerun had an expression that said he didn’t remember at all.

“Who are you? I don’t know any child with such a vicious face!”

“I’m pretty sure I said I’d kill you if we met again…… Don’t you remember?”

Serena asked as she approached Lemerun.

“Hmm……?”

“Sister! Don’t get too close.”

At Serena’s words, Lemerun’s expression became subtle. He tilted his head with a puzzled look, and then finally opened his mouth wide.

“You……?”

“……”

“Are you Kiel?”

“Kiel?”

Nocturne Lavernia, who had approached Serena’s side, frowned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but Sister is the Duchess, not someone with such a strange name.”

“The Duchess”

“Yes. That means she’s not someone the likes of you can look up to so casually.”

Nocturne Lavernia said, blocking in front of Serena.

Lemerun looked up, then looked at Serena again and frowned once more.

“Could it be Levin? Or Ordia? Dilvanin? It doesn’t seem to be Dorothy or Pelton……”

“……”

Names kept popping up endlessly.

Lemerun tilted his head with his arms crossed.

“Who else was there that said they would kill me?”

Lemerun, with his arms crossed, muttered with a very serious face.