Chapter 48

"It just said your sins are forgiven, though?"

Apparently the sword had two personalities.

For the moment, Iberin couldn't read it smoothly yet — she had more studying to do.

She'd thrown herself into the language with the goal of getting through history books, but now that she was thinking of reading to Ether, it was twice as fun.

"Ahaha — how dare you defy me?!"

Once she started reading, she added a full performance — and Lyssel looked a little out of his depth.

"That's just how you read to kids — you have to sell it. You try it, Your Highness."

"…Me?"

"We agreed to read together. You take the holy sword. I'll be Alfecitor."

Alfecitor was the founding emperor of the Aleta Holy Empire in the storybook.

Iberin tapped a line with her finger to suggest where to start, and delivered the first one.

"You wicked fiend. I shall pass judgment on you with my own hand. Licanto!"

"…In the name of love and justice, I will not forgive you — bear, bear the will of my master Alfecitor…"

Lyssel's face looked ready to burst.

The dialogue was wince-inducing even to Iberin's ear, but somehow, coming out of Lyssel, it actually worked.

It's all about the face.

In the end the face was what finished it.

Iberin clapped solemnly.

"All right, perfect! Just a little more practice and you're there!"

"…More practice?"

"Onwarrrd!"

Some kind of fire had caught in her.

---

Once Iberin was done with imperial-language study, Rozelia stepped in for her training.

The girl claimed she had so much demonic energy — holy energy — that she didn't feel tired, but that wasn't a reason to take her at her word.

After all, she was now doing things she'd never done before, and her days had gotten busy.

"So, on that note — Ether, what should we do that His Highness would like?"

"Hmmm."

She and Ether put their heads together.

The man had no real likes or dislikes to speak of — anything they did was likely to land with the same neutral look.

"Bake cookies?"

"Cookies?"

"Yes. Ether likes it when he eats sweet stuff…"

"Aww, my Ether likes eating sweet stuff? You like cookies?"

"Yes. Wouldn't His Highness like them too?"

"You're not just trying to give His Highness things you like?"

"That part too."

For a second Iberin wanted to put her head through a wall, but she restrained herself.

She'd never really seen Lyssel reach for anything sweet, but if Ether wanted to give them to him, and they made them by hand for that personal touch, it couldn't really go wrong.

And on top of that, the Lecashe estate didn't have so much as a high street unless you crossed into another territory — buying anything was off the table.

Cookies really were the best option.

"All right, then — let's make cookies!"

Iberin rolled up her sleeves.

A short while later, Rozelia and Kal came out of training and joined in, and the four of them learned cookie-making from the kitchen staff with great enthusiasm.

"You add the butter here."

"Rozelia, want to mix? Ether, you can chop these up."

Compared to most five- and seven-year-olds, plus a nine-year-old, the three kids had a slightly grown-up air about them — but they were giggling and shrieking with such delight at the hands-on cookie-making that it really was something to see.

Even Kal looked happier than she'd ever seen him.

Iberin smiled, struck by a quiet kind of pride.

The kids seemed to love mixing things and squishing the dough.

"The color changed!"

It was Rozelia's favorite color — blue.

What had started as creamy white shifted the moment she added the food coloring.

Iberin dipped a finger in the cream and brought it to the corner of Rozelia's mouth.

The girl licked it off on instinct, eyes lighting up at the sweetness.

"Tasty?"

"Yes. So good."

"Mommy. Ether wants some too."

She dipped some cream for Ether — then dabbed it on his nose at the last second.

"Hey-y."

Rozelia, watching, caught the mischief bug and scooped up a giant glob in her palm to slap onto Ether.

"Whoa."

The scale of it was on a whole other level.

"Aaagh! Don't come over here!"

The next target was Kal.

Kal bolted in panic, Rozelia cackled and gave chase, and in seconds the kitchen had become a battlefield.

---

Through a thousand twists and turns, the cookies got made.

She'd thought of giving them to Lyssel — for working so hard, thank you — but the kids ended up more excited about it than she was.

Rozelia's face was much brighter than it had been when she'd first met Iberin.

She seemed to be settling in, and that put Iberin's heart at ease.

"Can we make them together again next time?"

Rozelia tilted her face up at her.

"Of course. Anytime, you're welcome."

"Next time, how about chocolate? Big sis, you like the ones with fruit in them, right."

"Yes, I love those."

"Kal big bro too."

"Sounds good."

Sometimes they bickered like they couldn't stand each other, and sometimes — like this — they looked out for one another.

Iberin started to think the future really might end up completely different.

The future sub male lead and female lead had met and were making memories together.

Even Kal — who in the original might have lived out his whole life as a hypnotism doll — was part of it.

She'd had her self-interested reasons at first, but Iberin really did love Rozelia by now.

There was no way to dislike a child training this hard with the goal of sharing her holy power.

If anything, it made Iberin feel guilty.

She stroked Rozelia's hair and smiled.

Rozelia had quietly become part of her make-Lecashe-happy plan.

Oblivious to Iberin's musing, Rozelia was already nagging at her.

"Come on, let's go!"

They'd made the cookies and figured they'd have a tea time with them — and since the cookies were for Lyssel, naturally Lyssel had to be there.

So they were heading down the corridor to fetch him.

"Oh — Your Highness."

Lyssel happened to be coming out of his office, just finishing up.

"Your Highness!"

"Mister!"

"I greet the Grand Duke."

Ether and Rozelia burst out at him without warning. Only Kal stayed properly mannered.

Lyssel showed no flicker of surprise at the swarm; he just stood there, blinking, and looked over at Iberin with the cookie basket.

"…What's this?"

"What do you mean, what is it? Come have some tea with us, Your Highness."

Iberin gave the basket a little shake.

"We made these!"

"For you, mister! Let's eat together!"

"For me?"

"Yes!"

"Ether said he wanted to give them to you, mister. Because you have so much work and it's hard."

Rozelia delivered it crisply, and Ether nodded along, chiming in.

"Fighting."

"Ah…"

Just composed a moment before, Lyssel suddenly looked thrown by the unexpected cheering.

"It's not really that hard, though…"

He was clearly fumbling for the right response, picking words as they came.

It did punctures the mood a little.

But she knew he simply didn't know how to deal with people, so she was just going to laugh it off — except Rozelia exploded.

"Then eat these and work harder!"

"Yeah-h, that'll do it~"

"Pffft."

Pure Rozelia, that one — but Ether just nodded right along.

Iberin burst out laughing, and Lyssel nodded gravely.

"Understood. I'll work harder."

"All right, all right — let's go try them already!"

Led by Rozelia, they all made it to the back garden and unpacked the cookie basket.

Honestly, the shapes weren't all that pretty.

The taste, obviously, didn't compare to the head chef's.

"Ether made this one!"

Ether held one of his own up to Lyssel's mouth without ceremony.

Lyssel took the bite as naturally as breathing.

Crunch.

A nice, satisfying snap.

At the same moment, a soft smile spread across Lyssel's mouth.

"Good?"

"Yes."

"Now try mine!"

Rozelia, who'd clearly been waiting for the chance, snatched up one of hers.

Standing out from Kal's and Ether's, by a wide margin.

The one that was darkest and shaped the most bizarrely.

She didn't seem to have much talent for cookie-making.

"Ah."

Still, when she held it out, he bit into it.

Pff.

But unlike Ether's, hers practically disintegrated the second his teeth touched it, scattering into crumbs.

"…."

Every subsequent one she handed him crumbled to dust the same way.

"Pffft!"

Kal and Ether finally lost it, and Rozelia, fuming, shouted,

"Why are only mine like this?!"

---

Time slipped by quickly.

Rozelia was training with all the diligence she had.

She'd succeeded in feeling her holy power, but using it was still beyond her.

Back at the temple, she'd tried for what felt like a thousand days without ever feeling it; the day she did feel it, no one could describe how thrilled she was.

That was when the study door creaked open and a small round head poked through.

Iberin lowered her book, gave a glance over on instinct, and broke into a smile.

"Ether — come to play with Mommy?"

"No. I just wanted to see you, so I stopped by. Are you reading, Mommy?"

For all the work she'd put in, Iberin could at least handle reading without much trouble now.

Which was why she spent most of her time in the study.

"Yes. Want to read with me? Where's Rozel?"

"Big sis Rozel's at the training yard, she said she's training. Ether's gonna go practice swordsmanship too. But I wanna read too…"

Ether's eyes rolled to one side.

"Come when you're done with training. Mommy'll still be here then."

"Hehe. Yes! I'll go and come back fast!"

Ether swung his practice wooden sword, eyes sparkling.

For now he was still all cute and harmless — but he was a Lecashe.

The demonic energy he carried was probably already eating its way through him.

He had to vent it, which made swordsmanship a necessity, but it was a relief that he enjoyed it and wanted to do it.

"All right, Ether. Show Mommy sometime."

"Yes! I'm gonna work harder!"

He waved as he ran off, calling back that he was leaving.

"Be careful not to trip!"

Iberin's voice followed after him.

"Yes!"

He'd actually caught it mid-sprint and even called back a proper answer.

It was a beautiful thing — the memories of past abuse fading bit by bit, leaving only this bright version of him.

Lately he was even starting to pick up a hint of Rozelia's blunt, unfiltered way of talking.

The brief visit had made her smile, but she turned her eyes back to the book.

After a long stretch of flipping briskly through several volumes, Iberin frowned — apparently she hadn't found what she was looking for.

She'd been reading history books and texts about the current state of the empire lately, and one question kept catching at her.

"Why doesn't anyone know the god's name?"

In the original story, the god's name had definitely been there.

She'd combed through nearly every book in the study these last few days, and the only conclusion she'd come up with was the same one: nobody knew.

Iberin tilted her head.

"Am I misremembering something?"

If no one knew the god's name, how was the Holy Empire even being held together?

Knock, knock.

Just as the question was settling in deeper, someone tapped at the door.