Chapter 10

"What? Doing?"

Iberin's brow furrowed.

She didn't think she was doing anything wrong.

If anything, it had to be the opposite.

But Lyssel clearly didn't see it that way.

"The way you're raising him is wrong."

Of course.

"Excuse me?"

His words didn't make any sense.

"A Lecashe must never know affection."

Must never know affection.

That seemed to apply to Lyssel himself, too.

"…Ether is still a small child."

"And you've abused him this whole time."

"…You knew? You knew about it?"

"Did you really think I didn't?"

"And you stood by anyway?"

"Reckless affection is worse than hatred."

"What— how could you—"

Iberin couldn't get the rest out and bit down on her lip.

"I'd think I've said enough for you to under—"

"NO!!!!"

Iberin's voice cut through before he could finish, and Lyssel just looked up at her, calm.

"…This isn't something to shout abou—"

Iberin chopped his sentence off, as if she didn't need to hear another word.

"I disagree with you!"

"This isn't an opinion. It's a directive."

"Then I'm refusing your directive!"

"This is going nowhere."

Iberin was puffing with rage, and Lyssel pressed a hand to his forehead with a look of pure horror and muttered under his breath.

Then Iberin shot up from her chair, jabbed a finger straight at him, and shouted,

"So you're going to start acting like Ether's father!"

Lyssel let out a stunned half-laugh.

"Have you lost your mind?"

"Do I look like I have?"

Iberin didn't flinch.

"Lyssel."

"Call me Grand Duke."

He drew the line, sharp.

"I lost my memory, so I've got no filter left. You can tell, can't you?"

"……"

"I'm going to try anyway."

"Try what."

"To raise Ether with love, and to get you on board with that, too."

Lyssel must've decided the conversation was a lost cause, because he finally stood up.

"Running away?"

Iberin called after the back of his head.

Lyssel walked out of the office without answering.

And once he was gone—

Iberin slumped face-down across the table and whined up at Rotte.

"It'll be fine, right? That wasn't that out of line, was it?"

Iberin didn't really know the Grand Duke's temperament yet.

She'd probably gone too hard at Lyssel—who'd neglected Ether and just criticized her parenting.

"……I'd say you were pretty out of line."

"Huh? Was I?"

"……More than enough."

"How do you think His Highness is going to react?"

"……"

"Please. Say something."

"He won't kill you. I've yet to see him kill a human."

"……Sorry? Kill me…?"

That last bit caught Iberin completely off guard.

"I'm sorry I'm not more help. You looked very impressive, though."

Rotte's attempt at comfort was no comfort at all.

A little while later, Iberin found out why the estate had been so chaotic when Lyssel got back.

After her forced(?) end to the conversation with the Grand Duke, she'd taken Ether out for a walk—and at the front gate she saw a mountain of monster carcasses piled high.

So that was what Rotte had meant about killing and all.

The cleanly butchered bodies almost looked alive.

She thought she met the eye of one in the middle of the pile, and a chill ran down her back.

The glassy stare told her exactly how vicious a creature it must have been before it died.

The servants were busy loading the corpses onto wagons to send to the capital.

"Whew."

Iberin let out a small breath. Yeah, picking that fight had been a mistake.

"Whooaa."

Ether, though, just looked fascinated.

"Ether, is this your first time seeing something like this?"

Mine sure is.

She'd asked reflexively because he looked so happy about it, but inside, Iberin was almost in tears.

"No. When I was up there, I saw 'em from the window. But it's my first time up close."

Up there?

She followed his gaze and saw the west tower—where Iberin had abused and confined him.

"Ether, doesn't the west tower scare you?"

It suddenly bothered her.

For a child that small, that place might be a concentrated lump of trauma, and keeping it in his sight every day didn't sit right with her.

Ether thought it over carefully, then said,

"It is scary…"

"Really? Should we tear it down?"

Just say the word, baby.

"…But then it'd be hard for everyone. They'd have more work to do…"

"My Ether's not satisfied with being a genius—he's gunning for sainthood too, isn't he?"

"Hehe. But I don't want them to have it hard."

"You sure you're really okay? If you don't like it, we'll tear it down, even if people have to put in the work. That's how Mommy feels about it."

But Ether shook his head, firm.

"I didn't like it, and it was scary, but it's not anymore…"

There was no breaking through Ether's stubbornness.

If anything, the longer they talked, the more Iberin couldn't stand the thought of leaving it there. Ether seemed to pick up on it—he trailed off, then added,

"L-let's decorate it together."

"Hm?"

"If we make it so different that Ether doesn't even recognize it, that'd be okay."

Iberin's eyes went wide.

---

A few days later, once the mountain of monsters had mostly been cleared.

The servants had been so swamped dealing with the carcasses that she hadn't been able to bring anything else up. With the wagon hauling the monsters having just left, now was her chance.

Iberin's so-called West Tower Renovation Operation (?) was a go.

Ether had spent most of his time locked up on the very top floor, so he said he didn't really remember the lower levels.

But a tower was a tower—there wasn't much in the way of actual living space.

Honestly, it was so pointless she couldn't even figure out why or who had built the thing in the first place.

It was more like a grimy gray block of a building sitting by itself for no reason.

The Grand Ducal Estate had a perpetual gloom to it thanks to the dark energy bleeding off the Forest of the World Tree, but nothing else came close to the west tower.

To be fair, aside from the main building, the whole Lecashe Grand Ducal Estate was pretty rundown.

The main building only got upkeep because people actually lived in it.

In short, the estate was all size and no substance.

Iberin figured if she'd drawn the sword, she'd better cut something with it, so she went to find Lyssel.

He was the Grand Duke, after all—she ought to get his permission.

And honestly, she needed some excuse to talk to him.

After that day, Lyssel hadn't so much as poked his head into the main building, where Iberin and Ether were.

He was holed up in the east wing, which Iberin had taken to calling the trash wing.

Because it was just that awful.

Anyway, the moment she'd thought through the west tower plan, she went to find Lyssel.

Knock, knock—

But no matter how long she knocked, there was no reply from inside. Iberin nudged the door open and peeked in.

Through the crack, her eyes locked dead-on with Lyssel's, who was sitting there ramrod straight.

She flung the door open and marched inside, shouting,

"What the—why'd you pretend you weren't here?!"

The words flew out before she could stop them, and she clapped a hand over her mouth.

"What now."

But Lyssel was unfazed.

"What do you mean what now? Anyone listening would think I'm in here every other day."

"Aren't you?"

"…You knew?"

The truth was, Iberin had been swinging by the east wing every chance she got to spy on Lyssel.

He was always cooped up in his bedroom and never came out, so she'd assumed he had no idea.

"Of course I knew."

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Was I supposed to?"

Well, he didn't have to, technically. But wasn't he even a little curious about why she kept coming?

Iberin grumbled under her breath and plopped down at the table.

"I didn't offer you a seat."

"I lost my manners along with my memories."

Either way, he'd known and let it slide, so she felt fairly sure he wasn't about to do anything to her right now.

But Lyssel apparently didn't even want to talk to her, because he stayed silent.

She was stuck.

Ether was still little and untouched by the world, so even though she'd been a violent mom, he'd melted into her arms with a hehe the second she'd been a little kind. But this guy was different.

He was a fully grown adult man, and the distrust looked like it ran deep.

How had she and this man even ended up with a kid?

"Lyssel."

"Call me Grand Duke."

"Oh, right. Didn't realize you were that uptight. Grand Duke. From now on I'll be sure to call you Grand Duke, Grand Duke. More importantly, I've got a question."

She didn't know what uptight meant in his world, but he must've guessed it wasn't a compliment—his brows shot up sharp.

"Stop wasting words. Say what you came to say and go."

"Um, if I get on your bad side—are you going to kill me?"

"Ha,"

Lyssel let out a dry laugh.

"If I were, you wouldn't be sitting here anymore."

He answered in the most matter-of-fact tone.

"Then, Your Highness—I'm the lady of Lecashe, right?"

"…."

"Which means I have full authority to manage this estate?"

Lyssel had been watching to see where she was going with this, and his expression collapsed.

So that was it after all.

"You couldn't sell this place if you tri—"

"Who said anything about selling?"

Iberin's sharp answer made Lyssel blink.

"…Then why did you ask about authority?"

Iberin was floored.

"Who'd come to this contaminated land? I'm not that dense. I asked because I want to make some changes to the place."

"Like what."

"It's way too gloomy. And you have to actually have money before greed even kicks in—the finances are a complete mess too."

Lyssel cleared his throat softly and looked down.

"Anyway, I have your permission, right?"

"Do as you like."

"Oh, right. Grand Duke."

"Yes."

"This is a present."

Iberin thrust out a small branch with a tiny flower on it.

There weren't any flowering trees near the corrupted Forest of the World Tree.

It was mostly tangled underbrush twisted into bizarre shapes, or massive conifers.

She'd stumbled across this flower in a corner near the east wing, on one of her daily Lyssel-spying expeditions.

Every other tree was huge, but this one was tiny.

She hadn't snapped it off on purpose—it had been lying on the ground, and she'd thought it might make a nice gift for Lyssel, so she'd picked it up.

"Pretty, isn't it? I'm gonna bring Ether by later to see it."

"……"

"Aren't you taking it?"

Lyssel was just staring at the flower she was holding out, with no apparent intention of accepting it, so she asked.

"I don't need it."

He answered, expression flat.

Iberin pulled her hand back with a sour twist of her mouth.

"Your Highness, since you said you won't kill me, I'm gonna say one more thing."

"……"

{"You suck."}(#fxe2qolqzypv)