Chapter 1. My Brother Brought the Villain Home

“Arno, come sit here.”

Putting on my most serious face, I patted the seat beside me.

“Anes, are you still upset? No matter how much you fuss, there’s nothing to be done about this one.”

“Can’t you please just not go? There are other academies too! Does it have to be Hyelrn?”

“Kiddo, you just don’t know yet. There’s nowhere with a reputation as high as Hyelrn.”

“You insufferable academic snob! What a rotten world!”

“Where on earth do you pick up expressions like that?”

Like she’s been sneaking around back alleys or something…… Arno shook his head lightly and muttered to himself.

“So you’re really going to abandon me and enroll at Hyelrn?”

“The way you say it makes it sound like I’m actually dumping you in some gutter and running off to the academy.”

“You ARE leaving me here alone!”

“My dear little sister, does my leaving upset you that much?”

Arno ruffled my hair lightly, and I slapped his hand away.

“This isn’t about being upset or not. Listen carefully from now on! You must never get close to someone with black hair and red eyes! Understood?”

“Anes, judging people is wrong. And half of the Empire’s citizens have black hair. Red eyes are rare, but……”

“Just say you understand. If you want to make it to the academy safely tomorrow.”

I ground my teeth and issued the threat as though this was the one thing I refused to budge on.

“What’s gotten into you? Did you dream about someone with black hair and red eyes eating you alive?”

“Listen carefully. If you associate with someone who has black hair and red eyes, you’ll die young.”

“What?”

Arno’s face crumpled in disbelief. Paying him no mind, I grabbed both his cheeks with my hands and turned his face toward me.

“Repeat after me! I will not associate with someone who has black hair and red eyes.”

“……”

“I. Will. Not. As-so-ci-ate. With. Some-one. Who. Has. Black. Hair. And. Red. Eyes.”

“……I vill nod asso-shiate vith zomeone who haz black hair and red eyez.”

Oh, for the love of……

“Say it properly!”

“I will not associate with someone who has black hair and red eyes. Happy?”

“Did you just make a promise with me?”

“Fine, I got it.”

Arno heaved a reluctant sigh and nodded.

“If you break this promise. You’d better be prepared to be struck from the family register.”

“Yes, yes. As if I’d ever.”

After barely managing to extract the promise from Arno, I stayed up through the night, cradling my lingering unease.

It wasn’t as though I was wary of black hair and red eyes for no reason.

The owner of that black hair and red eyes Arno would meet at the academy was none other than……

‘Cesar Valdeon.’

He was the final villain of the original story. A slaughterer with neither blood nor tears.

Cesar, the sole legitimate heir of the Valdeon Grand Ducal family, would one day incite a rebellion against the imperial family, and Arno, who had sided with him, would lose his life during the war.

The shock of it would send Father into a slow, wasting decline until he too passed away, and our Franteia Marquisate, having so senselessly lost both its head and its heir at once, would fall into swift and steep ruin.

That kind of tragedy must never be allowed to happen!

I didn’t want to lose a single thing from our family, our household, as it was now.

“That idiot brother of mine should have listened to me properly.”

The next morning, whether or not he had any idea how I felt, Arno left for the academy with a bright smile.

❀❀❀

Four months later.

Summer break had begun, and it was the day Arno was coming home, so I waited for him in the garden with a heart full of excitement.

At last the carriage arrived, and Arno stepped out with a wide grin.

“Anes! Why have you gotten so chubby?”

Good grief. And that’s the first thing out of my brother’s mouth.

“Look who’s talking. Academy life must suit you quite well. That shirt is straining at the seams.”

While Arno and I were bickering like that, the carriage door opened once more and someone else stepped out.

‘Is there someone else coming besides Arno?’

“Who……”

Turning my head with a sense of suspicion, the first thing I saw was the top of a man’s head. The wind stirred through neatly swept-back black hair.

Wait, black…… hair?

The tall man slowly raised his face, and in the sunlight, eyes like rubies glittered.

On top of that. Good heavens, red eyes?

Reeling from one shock after another, I stood there gaping at the man like an idiot.

The man had elegant facial lines, the kind that could be displayed in a gallery just as he was without a hint of incongruity, like a sculpture crafted by a god with great care.

Black hair and red eyes, and a face impossible to forget once seen.

Every single clue pointed straight to one person.

“Anes, say hi! He’s a friend I made at the academy. He’s agreed to stay at our house for a little while during the break. Valdeon, this is my sister Anes.”

And so the very name I had tried so hard to avoid finally tumbled from Arno’s lips.

This wretched brother of mine.

He actually did it!

The family register……

Where did I put that family register?

“……”

Standing there in silence, lips pressed shut, glaring at Arno, it was Cesar who spoke first.

“So you’re Arno’s sister. I’m Cesar of the Valdeon family.”

Staring up at him for a moment, I answered reluctantly.

“……Anes.”

“I look forward to the summer.”

“……”

My continued silence made Arno knit his brows slightly and shoot me a look.

“Cesar. Sorry, my sister tends to be a bit guarded. Please understand.”

“It’s fine. It’s only natural to feel uncomfortable when a stranger comes to your home.”

“Let’s get the luggage sorted first. Butler! Please show Cesar to his room.”

“Yes, Master Arno.”

“And Anes. I’ll see you separately later.”

Arno gave me a light flick on the head and disappeared into the castle with Cesar. In stark contrast to my sunken heart, Arno looked absolutely thrilled to be home after so long.

Oh, this is a disaster!

What a useless housemate!

All of this is for his sake. But what can I do, I have to be the one to save that fool.

❀❀❀

It wasn’t as though I had been born with memories of my past life from the very start. Tracing back my first recollection of those memories takes me all the way to when I was ten years old.

In the Artines Empire, a child’s tenth birthday was called Lucia’s Day and was celebrated accordingly.

Since I had to receive a baptism at the temple early that dawn, I was dragged to the temple first thing on the morning of my birthday, still barely able to peel my eyes open.

“In the name of the goddess I bestow this baptism, may all sins of the past be forgiven, and may you walk only in the light.”

The archbishop presiding over the baptism met my eyes, and I blinked in the awkward silence.

“Ahem.”

Having dozed off during the explanation earlier, I had no idea what I was supposed to do and just kept rolling my eyes around helplessly. Arno, watching from beside me, pointed at the golden tray set before me and whispered.

“Anes, you have to dip your head in the holy water!”

“Oh!”

Only then did I belatedly plunge my face deep into the tray. With such force that the holy water splashed out in every direction.

“Oh my, that precious……”

The horrified gasp of a watching priest rang out vividly.

Paying no mind, the moment I submerged my head into the holy water with all my might!

A flood of alien memories from a past life surged through my mind. And it took truly no more than a few seconds to realize that this place I had been reborn into was the world of a novel called ‘To Win Your Love.’

“Faithful Anes, please raise your head now.”

“……”

“Faithful Anes?”

“……”

“Faithful Anes! Please raise your head at once!”

“Anes!”

No matter how many times they called, I kept my face buried in the water and refused to lift my head, so Arno pulled me out with urgent hands.

“Puhah……”

Half out of my mind from the rush of chaotic memories flooding in, I barely managed to collect myself and let out a ragged breath. Arno was looking down at me with a face twisted in distress.

“What in the world is wrong with you?”

“This can’t be real……”

I muttered with a blank expression.

Right then, I had no capacity to spare for an angry Arno, a startled archbishop, or the other people around me staring strangely.

‘This world is inside a novel?’

Murmuring that in a daze, I lost consciousness right there in Arno’s arms, and when I opened my eyes again it was the early dawn of the following day, just as the sun was beginning to rise.

My hands felt strangely constricted, and I found that Father was holding one and Arno was gripping the other, both asleep. Sensing my stir, Arno’s eyes snapped open.

“Anes! Are you alright? Does anything hurt? Is your head hurting? Or your heart? Or your stomach?”

“I’m not hurting anywhere. More importantly, my birthday present……”

You promised to buy me a dress from Madame Durel. Even in the situation of having just collapsed and woken up, my first words were about a present, and Arno froze with a blank look on his face.

“You…… you…… right now! Do you have any idea how frightened I was, and the first thing out of your mouth after waking up is your birthday present—? Ha!”

“Anes!”