Chapter 56

"Aww, come on!"

"Ether could do it too…"

"Honestly, you both know it's not happening, right?"

"Hmph."

She could've smoothed it over, but no meant no.

"Hold Mommy's hands instead, one on each side."

Patter patter.

The two kids moved in perfect sync and clamped onto Iberin's hands.

"When I'm big, I'm gonna carry you everywhere, Mommy."

"Me too."

"For now, this is good too."

"I'd rather be the one holding her. You can just hold her hand later too."

"Don't wanna! Ether's gonna hold her!"

"You just said you liked holding hands!"

"I like that too!"

It was a deeply strange-looking arrangement, but all of them seemed satisfied — sort of.

They turned the few steps' walk into something thoroughly complicated.

And when Iberin saw the crops they'd planted, she was stunned.

She'd figured there was nothing left that could surprise her — but no.

"…Did somebody hit these with a growth potion?"

"No, we just left them alone, and then…"

They'd grown like crazy.

To a genuinely shocking degree.

At that rate of growth, even eating to her heart's content every day there'd still be leftovers.

"We've already done a harvest."

"Really?"

"Yes. After what the castle uses, we've still got more than enough boxed up."

"What do you think — if we did bring in residents."

"There'd be no problem keeping people fed."

That was clearly true.

The flat ground that had been choked with undergrowth was now packed with other crops.

The current worry was actually how much was about to go to waste.

Even with the staff consuming as much as they could, supply was way too high.

"It's just…"

"You're wondering if anyone'll come."

"Yes."

It really did seem like no one would, at least not anytime soon.

They couldn't sell any of it elsewhere either.

Because it was produce from the Forest of the World Tree.

If anyone knew where it came from, even she wouldn't want to buy it, prejudice and all.

But looking at this, you had to wonder if the place was really cursed.

Strip away the Holy Empire's preconceptions, and this could just as easily be called blessed land.

At minimum, the people wouldn't be going hungry.

"You never know with people, though."

"True."

"By the way, we're here — aren't you going to put me down?"

"…Won't your legs hurt?"

"As I keep telling you, my two hands and two feet are perfectly fine."

The instant Iberin set her own feet on the ground, Rotte came up and bundled a shawl around her front and a blanket around her back.

She even did a fever check, in case it spiked again.

Iberin let out a sigh.

---

"The world's ending."

"Is that really true?"

"Who in their right mind would abandon a perfectly good territory to move to Lecashe."

"Off their rocker, that's who."

The Gelta region nobles were gawking at one another over the absurd news.

A few days earlier, the Lecashe estate had announced it would be accepting residents.

The entire southern social scene was in an uproar over it.

"The world's gone completely mad."

Alketa and the other five nobles, who'd been hauled up to the capital over the lawsuit and put through the wringer, kept letting out incredulous laughs.

Ever since the lawsuit, their already tight circle had grown tighter still.

Each of them had been knocked down a title, stripped of their fortunes, and was now being looked down on by the surrounding nobility.

Outright shunning, no — but they got plenty of casual snubs.

"Look, the Gelta Six are all huddled together again."

"Probably because nobody else will deal with them."

"Pathetic. I hear they're completely broke now."

Grrr—

Viscount Alketa ground his teeth and glared toward the gossiping ladies.

They flinched and looked away.

Watching jumped-up types who used to grovel at their feet now strut around with their chests puffed out made him want to wipe every last one of them off the face of the earth.

"This time it's that uncouth Grand Duchess again, no doubt."

"Hah…"

But all they could do here, huddled together, was complain about their lot.

Thanks to the emperor, they'd been cut off at the wrists and ankles, just barely playing at being nobility.

"How on earth did we end up like this."

"You said it."

The territories themselves, mercifully, were still intact.

Which meant they still had a shot at clawing their way back.

"We're going to have to grind that lot harder for more taxes."

Viscount Alketa muttered.

"How much higher do we have to push the tax rate to live the way we used to?"

"To bounce back fast, you'd need to take at least 80%, wouldn't you?"

"That's what I thought. We haven't raised the rate yet, though."

"Baron Roman's already pushed it to 85%, I hear."

"What? And the peasants aren't kicking up a fuss?"

"They are, but where would the likes of them go even if they did?"

"True enough."

Viscount Alketa stroked his chin, considering.

"We've become a laughingstock in the south. I think we'll have to ease off on the parties for a while."

"…So that's why Baron Roman and Viscount Hooka didn't come?"

The four nobles who'd at least managed to show up exchanged bitter smiles and dropped their heads.

These days, even if only out of fear of the emperor, they couldn't lay a finger on Lecashe.

"You don't think we'll have any idiots actually defecting to Lecashe over the tax hike, do you?"

"One or two, even if it happened, what's the harm?"

"Right? Right?"

The assembled nobles laughed it off with cheerful complacency.

Their situation wasn't exactly something to laugh about, of course, so the mood sank again quickly enough.

---

Just as everyone had predicted — and snickered about — there was no immediate change.

But no change was fine.

It wasn't as if she'd done it expecting something dramatic right out of the gate.

They just harvested the crops a little harder than usual and went about their normal days.

"By the way, you three look like you've gotten really close."

"Us?"

"Yes. I feel like you're all running around together without me lately."

"Us?"

"Yes, you guys."

"You're imagining it."

Rozelia was so straightforward and friendly that being easy to bond with was a given.

The real surprise was Ether and Lyssel.

"Fine — I'll bend over backwards and say I'm imagining it. But Ether."

"Yeah?"

"You and His Highness have gotten close, right?"

"…Close?"

"Right? Right?"

There'd already been a sense the two were drawing closer when Ether got back from his stretch alone in the capital, but something subtle had shifted since.

"Earlier I caught you grinning the second you saw him and running down the hallway."

"…That was…"

"Because you were happy to see him, right?"

"I was happy. That's true, but, why's that make you so glad?"

Ether tilted his head, genuinely not getting it.

"It's nice when everyone's close. Because we're family."

"Family?"

"Yes, we're family."

Iberin had always wanted the two of them to get close.

Which made this all the more joyful for her.

"We were always family, though."

"You think all families are the same kind of family? Did our family used to feel like this?"

"That…"

In the past, they'd been on a downright dismal level — less than strangers.

"You're right. So we're really a family now?"

"Exactly. Your Highness, you feel that way too, right?"

"As Master Ether said, we were always family. But the definition Iberin means seems to be a different one."

"Right."

"Certainly… if you ask whether it's the same as before, it's different — so I suppose we've only just become real family now."

Iberin wanted to scream.

The two of them had finally, openly admitted they were each other's family.

"Let's stay together as long as we possibly can."

Even if she died, she hoped they wouldn't easily let go of each other's hands.

That was when —

Rozelia, who'd been watching quietly from the side, mumbled,

"Am I the one being left out? If you're gonna leave me out, pay me."

"Rozel, what are you talking about. You're family too."

"…But we're not blood-related?"

"Does family have to be blood?"

"It doesn't?"

"It doesn't. I already think of you as family, and Ether probably does too. And His Highness… probably?"

Honestly, Lyssel was hard to read, but with how unbothered Rozelia was around him, he clearly didn't dislike it.

"You can be family."

Lyssel answered Iberin's question quickly.

She broke into a huge smile and turned back to him.

"You think of her as family?"

"Well… we're getting along, aren't we."

He'd phrased it vaguely on purpose, but no one could mistake that for no.

Rozelia must have felt it too — her expression visibly lightened.

Ether broke into a bright smile and stuck out his tiny hand.

"Right. Big Sis is family too, so come hold hands."

Rozelia hesitated for a second, then carefully reached out and took it.

"Now that we're holding hands, Big Sis is our family!"

"Hmph. I'll let you have me as family, for free. You should be honored."

"Hehe."

Iberin, knowing about the original-version Ether's one-sided crush, did add one thing.

"And, if you two ever fall in love with each other, you can get married!"

Before she'd even finished, both kids made faces of pure horror and physically peeled apart.

Were the two of them actually turning into real siblings? Was that just her imagination?

---

Lately, Iberin had been thinking the people at the estate were acting strange.

"Why's everyone so desperate to shove you and me together?"

"…I wouldn't know."

Lyssel said it with an awkward expression.

It was definitely not the face of someone who didn't know.

He absolutely knew something.

"You really don't know?"

"I don't."

"There's more than one strange thing."

"What else is strange?"

"They keep watching us and grinning at us with these conspiratorial little smiles."

"Cough, cough."

Lyssel choked mid-sip and coughed.

Iberin jumped and quickly held a tissue out to him.

"Are you all right?"

"…Yes."

"You really haven't noticed?"

"I haven't."

"Even now, normally Ether and Rozel would be having tea with us."

They'd suddenly gotten busy and slipped away.

Until recently, those two had been the last to budge — they'd drop anything to stay glued to her side.

Plus, how busy could two little kids actually be?

At most: backed-up studies, training, and that was the list.

"It's weird…"

"Is it that strange to be alone with me?"

"Ah — no. I didn't mean it like that."

"…Then can we please just have tea together?"

"…Sure. But it's seriously not that I don't want to be alone with you!"

"Is that so?"

"Of course not!"

"Then shall we drink it together every day?"

"Huh?"

"You just said it was fine."

She wasn't sure how she'd gotten here, but it wasn't actually unwelcome, so she nodded.

She made a mental note to set up separate tea times with the kids.

---

The whole getting Lyssel and Iberin together thing had started, of all places, with one extremely casual question from Rozelia.

"How come you and Lady Iberin use separate rooms, mister? You're husband and wife, right?"

"Married couples have to share a room?"

"Well — most do, don't they?"

"Most?"

Lyssel didn't know about most.

"And you two get along — wouldn't sharing a room be even nicer?"

"What's nice about sharing one?"

"You don't even know that?"

"I don't."

"You get to be together all the time. And sleeping next to someone you like puts you in a good mood."

"Sleeping next to someone puts you in a good mood?"

Lyssel asked, not following at all.

"You two haven't slept together?"

"No."

"Then how did you have Ether?"