And right on cue, voices from House Ordo came drifting in to replace him.

“Rose!”

“Say something if you’re safe!”

“Rooooose!”

Anton and Piar’s voices rang out through the western forest of Hilude.

“Oh, if you die, your old mother dies with you! My daughter, my Rooooose!”

“I didn’t expect Mother to come too.”

Rose shuddered as she pulled her dress on over her still-damp chemise.

That had been dangerously close.

“You’ll need to be more careful, Miss. If that Camelot lackey had left even a little later, it would have been a catastrophe.”

Terra shook her head and rubbed the goosebumps on her forearms.

“It would have been a scandal if any respectable family’s son had been caught bathing with you, Miss, but if that man turned out to be a Camelot dog? Our lord would pick up a sword for the first time in thirty years. That day would be the end of the continent.”

“……Could you please not phrase it as bathing together, Terra?”

“And if he were to find out that you’ve already seen that man’s ripe red pepper in all its glory……!”

“Ripe? And I don’t think it was ripe so much as……”

“Rooooose!”

“I’m over here, Mother.”

Anne came crashing through the undergrowth with her two nephews in tow, stumbling and frantic.

“Oh, my Rose! My darling baby who I could put in my eye and it wouldn’t hurt!”

“I’m sorry. The monsters caused a bit of a commotion and the horses were startled, so I……”

Rose pulled the tearful Anne into her arms and walked her through the whole story, step by step, the way she would read a picture book to a small child.

From the strange phenomenon in the fog forest to the defeat of the wolf monsters, all suitably adjusted.

The part involving Jade Camelot, of course, was cleanly excised in its entirety.

❀❀❀

The announcement of an upcoming ‘Ordo versus Camelot summit for a righteous war’ turned out to be a wonderfully effective way to keep Anton and Piar in line. Whether the summit would actually take place was a secret known only to Rose.

In any case, the warning to stay out of trouble until the meeting with Camelot was arranged had its intended effect.

“For now, I’ll discuss the Camelot situation with Father. I’ll find the right moment after the regular court session.”

“You really will? You’ll handle it and speak to the lord yourself?”

The heir consulting with the head of the family on a serious matter was perfectly reasonable.

Even if the direction she had in mind for that consultation was rather different from what the two brothers were hoping for.

“Until then, you two just breathe quietly and stay out of trouble. If you cause a scene and put Father in a bad mood, you know he won’t let you so much as utter the word Camelot, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, we know! Don’t worry, Rose!”

“What do you take us for, a couple of troublemaking kids? We’re older than you, you know. Ha ha!”

Anton and Piar’s nostrils flared with anticipation at the thought of finally getting to prove themselves.

Experience had shown that Camelot’s men, for all their imposing size, tended to come off worse against Ordo’s men in a fight, so the brothers were naturally eager to settle things with brute force.

“Good. Then I’ll look into how to arrange a meeting with Camelot’s heir. Jade Camelot is such a free spirit that I’m not even sure I can get word to him, but I’ll try.”

Rose could only hope this particular bait would keep her brothers’ hands and feet tied for as long as possible.

The plan was to drag things out until the whole matter quietly fizzled away to nothing. Then she would cook up some new bait. That was her modest method of household management.

What she hadn’t expected was for this particular bait to work better than anticipated.

The brothers began disciplining the household staff as they prepared for the great undertaking. The male servants, who had always taken after their young masters and stirred up petty trouble, threw themselves into military drills with genuine seriousness.

“Take up your swords! Every man who serves House Ordo has the right to become a knight! Any man who distinguishes himself will be appointed as a sworn knight of the family!”

“We will crush Camelot with all our hearts!”

“Hah! Hyah!”

Under the brothers’ command, not only the knights but even the gardeners gathered in the training yard and beat at bundles of straw. It was quite a sight.

Rose felt a complicated mix of emotions watching her brothers finally abandon their idle troublemaking, though it had taken the prospect of war to do it. Still, she told herself it was far better to have them beating straw dummies in the courtyard than wandering around hitting people, and that settled her mind.

“Dad is bullying the straw man, Aunt Rose.”

“Oh, my darling daughter came out for a walk! Dad isn’t bullying the straw. Dad is fighting the monster within! Hyah!”

“A monster?”

“Nothing to worry about! When a monster appears, your brave father will rescue you, Shu! Tah!”

Apparently reluctant to bring up war in front of his sweet daughter, Anton puffed himself up and rambled on about monsters instead.

“But the monster might be……”

Shurelli pursed her lips into a small circle, thought hard about something, then spoke with great resolve.

“You have to tell Shu first before you punish the monster, Dad. It might be a prince under a spell.”

“A prince? Hyah! I don’t know what that means, but if it’s your wish, I’ll gladly grant it! Tah-hah!”

Innocent Shurelli declared that her father was a wonderful dad for wanting to protect the family, and planted a kiss on Anton’s cheek.

Moved by the warm sight of father and daughter, Piar announced that he too would find a wife this year and redoubled his efforts at physical training.

Anton and Piar didn’t stop there. They even visited the library, to everyone’s astonishment. They were seen earnestly reading books they had always despised, claiming they needed to study the art of war.

“Why are your brothers suddenly like this? It makes me uneasy, honestly.”

“Oh, Mother. They’re twenty-three and twenty-six. Isn’t it about time they grew up?”

“You’re right, my nephew-sons really are good boys at heart.”

“Look at how thick Piar’s arms have gotten, my lady! At this rate he really might find a wife!”

How long had it been since House Ordo had looked like a proper knight family?

The way the people of the domain looked at them began to change. The Ordo men, who were usually off gambling and picking fights, were now seen training with swords in their free time, shirts off and focused. The women of the domain didn’t seem to mind, waving warmly whenever the men passed by.

In all twenty-two years of Rose’s life, she had no memory of a day like this.

“War……”

Maybe it really would be better to just fight Camelot once and settle things. A modern duel with a notary present and k*lling forbidden…… even Rose nearly fell for the temptation.

“That would be madness.”

But she had the intelligence to remember the past and learn from it.

“It can never happen.”

Anton and Piar’s impulsive outbursts were one problem, but as Rose recalled, Camelot also had a few rabid dogs of their own who would lose all reason the moment the leash came off. Underestimating the troublemakers on both sides was dangerous.

There was no such thing as a safe duel. If both families had the kind of people who could accept the outcome without bitterness and move on, they would never have ended up in this state to begin with.

More likely than not, an accident would happen during the duel, and the relationship between the two families would deteriorate further and spiral toward something irreversible……

“War is something I have to prevent by any means necessary. No question.”

If only they would spend the rest of their days beating straw and reading books like sensible people.

If only the Ordos could always be this steady……

“Don’t hate anyone, Miss.”

Living by Siset’s dying words, Rose thought she might be able to go through life without hating anyone.

“Forgive them.”

Yes. Perhaps she could even learn to forgive.

“Please, Miss. Forgive your family.”

Would the day come when she could forgive even the Ordos of that day, the ones she still could not bring herself to forgive?