Seeing Brother Rubert glancing at her furtively, she nodded at him with a smile.

Though she had helped him with the formula, it was a signal that he didn’t need to worry about it. 

 Whether he understood her meaning or not, he shook his head at Father. 

 “I meant that I succeeded in completely understanding and solving that formula.”

At that, Father’s and the brothers’ eyes widened.

Brother Rubert was only 19, an age considered too young to perfectly understand a formula that even adults couldn’t properly solve.

Of course, she had perfectly solved this formula when she was 17. 

 Rubert brought over a fountain pen and paper from the corner of the dining room and began scribbling something intently.

After seemingly writing out the entire solution process, he handed the paper to Father, who looked at it and then stared at Brother Rubert in shock. 

 “You’re saying…… you figured this out all by yourself?” 

 At that question, Brother Rubert seemed to hesitate for a moment before turning his gaze to her. 

 “Rowenloa……” 

 She looked at her brother with surprised eyes at his words. 

 She had naturally assumed he would say he solved it from the beginning by himself…… 

 Father’s gaze shifted to her after hearing Brother Rubert’s words, and she put down her fork and spoke. 

 “I saw Brother Rubert solving it and tried solving the problem alongside him. And then…… we figured it out together.” 

 Father frowned, and Brother Rubert seemed about to say something after hearing her words but then closed his mouth. 

***

 Father told her and Brother Rubert to come up to his office for a moment, and dinner ended.

It was almost the only dinner where Leila’s story hadn’t been the center of conversation since she had become close with the Masipacius family. 

 After dinner, Leila and the other siblings headed outside saying they would take a walk in the garden to help digestion, leaving only her and Brother Rubert in the dining room.

Just as they were about to head to Father’s office, the butler opened the dining room door and entered. 

 “His Grace has urgent business and orders you to wait together until he calls for you. Please wait in the reception room near the office.” 

 So she and Brother Rubert headed to the reception room near Father’s office.

The reception room had a fireplace that, while not as large as the one she had seen at the Posilia duchy, was still fairly big and was warming the room as it burned wood.

She and her brother slumped down onto a sofa near the fireplace. 

 An awkward silence fell between them, and Brother Rubert was the first to break it. 

 “You basically solved most of it, I’d say.” 

 She shifted her gaze from the burning logs in the fireplace to him.

He was looking at her with a strange expression. 

 “That formula. Once you can properly solve that part you showed me, the other parts weren’t that difficult.” 

 Hearing those words, she wore a faint smile.

Rubert was certainly smarter than her other brothers. 

 In her previous life, she had tried to explain that formula to her other brothers.

But Brother Bershua and Brother Rembro were too busy dismissing her, saying such formulas were nonsense.

Thinking about it now, they probably got angry at her because they couldn’t understand it. 

 Certainly, once you properly understand that part she explained, solving the formula isn’t that difficult.

But how many 19-year-olds could properly understand that part she had simplified?

Brother Rubert, while he didn’t like to stand out like her other brothers, was definitely intelligent. 

 “That’s not wrong but…… it would have taken others at least a day to understand this part? It’s only been 2 hours since I gave you that paper. I was too exhausted solving that part to figure out the following formulas.” 

 Hearing her words, Brother Rubert nodded with a somewhat sour expression as if agreeing. 

 “Still, I can’t say I solved this alone.” 

 She nodded at his firm tone. 

 “Then, let’s say we did it together. It’s not wrong since I couldn’t solve the latter part either, right?” 

 This time Brother Rubert also accepted her words.

Afterwards, she and her brother continued talking and properly matched their stories.

Then the butler entered the reception room saying His Grace was calling for them, and we followed his guidance to Father’s office.

Entering Father’s office, they found him buried in piles of documents.

Father seemed so focused on the documents he didn’t even notice they had entered, only looking up from the papers and noticing their presence after hearing the butler’s “ahem—” 

 “Ah……” 

 Father looked between them and the clock before putting down the documents in his hand and sitting on the sofa in front of his desk.

He gestured for us to sit as well, and the butler bowed saying he would leave first and closed the office door. 

 Eventually Father looked at the paper he had received from Brother Rubert earlier and handed us pens. 

 “Explain how this formula came about, each in your own way.” 

 So she and Brother Rubert began earnestly scribbling formulas, and we handed Father papers showing solution processes that reached the same conclusion but had slight differences in the process.

Seeing how he had modified the process of deriving the formula somewhat, it seemed Brother Rubert had put quite a lot of thought into it. 

 Father looked at the papers with interest before nodding.

“There’s a party being held at Count’s mansion this time for people doing business with us during the debut season, do you know about it?” 

 Since they did know, she and Brother Rubert nodded.

It was always a gathering that only the first brother was allowed to attend. 

 “You’ll come along. I think we might be onto something discussing the process of deriving this formula.” 

 Well, there would be nobles who had studied quite a bit gathered there. 

 Brother Rubert’s eyes widened at those words.

Seeing him secretly pinch his thigh as if he couldn’t believe it, she had to desperately hold back her laughter. 

 Leaving only shock for Brother Rubert, Father returned to his mountain of documents, and the two of us left Father’s office. 

 “Then I’ll be going now.” 

 She gave a light greeting to Brother Rubert who was blankly staring out the window and turned her steps toward her room.

Just as she was about to head to her room, her brother urgently grabbed her shoulder. 

 “Um…… want to go to the garden together?” 

 She tilted her head at his words. 

 “……Me?”

“Leila and the other brothers should be taking a walk in the garden right now…… thought you might want to join.” 

 Hearing his words, she let out an involuntary hollow laugh “ha—” 

 What is this brother saying to me right now? 

 “Who there would be happy to see me if I went?” 

 At that, Brother Rubert made an “oh” expression before speaking again. 

 “Still…… if you tried to improve relationships with the other brothers like Leila……” 

 At his words, she irritably swatted away his hand holding her shoulder.

He looked at her with a surprised expression. 

 “Try to improve relationships……? What exactly did I do wrong in this relationship?” 

 Having gotten heated, she headed straight to her room leaving him standing there with a bewildered expression.

When she glanced toward where he had been standing from the stairs leading to her room, Brother Rubert was staring blankly at the spot where she had left. 

 ***

 Thanks to Rowenloa whom I didn’t particularly like, I received praise from Father.

He said he would take me to the party he usually only took the first brother to. 

 After leaving Father’s office, I thought Rowenloa might not be as bad as I had thought. 

 So I tried to take Rowenloa to the garden together to help improve relationships between her and other family members.

But Rowenloa asked me what she had done wrong in this relationship. 

 ……Both myself and first brother and second brother, we all looked at Rowenloa unfavorably.

First brother especially disliked Rowenloa. 

 But what exactly did Rowenloa do wrong in this relationship?

Why was I looking at Rowenloa negatively? 

 It was a night of many thoughts. 

 ***

 Brother Rubert’s behavior has been a bit strange lately.

The brother who usually stuck with Leila and the other brothers treating me like I didn’t exist has started constantly glancing at me these days.

Whether eating meals, talking with other brothers, or even talking with Leila, he kept stealing glances at me endlessly. 

 Honestly, I felt like I would choke when making eye contact with him during meals, and his gaze felt burdensome when going about daily life. 

 Why does he keep looking at me? 

 While I was hiding in my room reading books to avoid his noticeable gaze, Mylene rushed into the room saying Father was calling for me.

So I went to Father’s office. 

 “So, when do you plan to respond to the invitation from the imperial palace?” 

 Ah, I had completely forgotten about that, being distracted by Brother Rubert lately. 

 I gave Father, who was staring intently at me, an awkward smile. 

 “Ah…… yes. When should I go……” 

 Perhaps finding it strange that I was speaking with such uncharacteristic uncertainty, Father tilted his head before nodding as if he understood why I was hesitating. 

 “Yes, that’s how it is with the imperial palace. You might want to visit once but when it actually comes time to go, fear takes over.” 

 No, that’s not it.

Father, I think you’re making quite a misunderstanding right now……