Chapter 57

Rozelia asked it like it was a real question, and Rotte freaked out, raising her voice — what kind of thing was that for a child to say.

"I'm not a kid. I know everything there is to know, okay?"

"Hold on now, that's still—"

"Adults have to sleep together to have a baby! That's what they said at the orphanage!"

"…Huh? At the orphanage?"

{"Yes. If you hold hands and sleep, the stork brings a baby. I know all about it."}(#qcyc8aacyerw)

Rozelia beamed, proud of herself, while Rotte's face drained pale.

"But if you sleep together every day, you could end up with over a hundred kids, so no hand-holding!"

Rozelia stressed it with a deeply serious face.

"Wow, big sis, you're amazing. Ether didn't know any of that!"

"If you don't know something, ask me. There's nothing I don't know!"

The praise went straight to Rozelia's head, and she puffed her shoulders up.

A bewildered Rotte let out a strangled laugh, but at the end of the day, the kids were cute, no question. So she went along with it and complimented Rozelia.

"So we're really doing the combining-rooms thing, then?"

"What's your view, Your Highness?"

It was something Rotte had been mulling over too. Setting aside Iberin having another child, which honestly amounted to a fast track straight to death's door.

"What matters is what Iberin wants, not me."

"By the way, Your Highness."

"Yes."

"I've been wondering this for a while — how much do you love Lady Iberin?"

Rozelia grinned, mischievous.

She hadn't asked because she actually wanted to know — it was a tease, pure and simple.

But Lyssel blinked at her with a blank look.

"Love?"

"?"

"?"

It was an odd standoff, neither one understanding the other.

"You don't love her?"

"I'm not sure."

If he was being honest, he didn't know. What love was. So he'd asked it back, and now he couldn't answer.

"Goodness."

Rotte's jaw dropped too as she stared at him.

She'd assumed, naturally, that the two of them had already confirmed how they felt and were happily basking in it. Because the Lyssel she'd known and the Lyssel of now were just that different.

But that wasn't the case?

"What's love, the way you think of it, Your Highness?"

"The feeling of cherishing and treasuring a person or being deeply."

"Not the dictionary definition."

"I don't know, then."

"…What about how you feel when you think of Lady Iberin?"

"How I feel?"

"Like, your heart races when you see her. Or you smile just at the sight of her."

"Yes, that. Because we're close."

Rotte couldn't help pressing her forehead.

By every measure, Lyssel had a lot of catching up to do.

---

Lyssel had to be taught his feelings for Iberin to understand them.

Ah — so this is what love is.

And so always wanting to be near her, wanting to protect her, hurting like he was the one hurting whenever he saw her in pain — that was what it had been.

"It's strange."

"What is?"

"Just — all of it."

When Iberin had first lost her memories, he'd assumed it would pass. He'd written it off as her running wild because she didn't know any better. He'd vaguely figured that once she fully understood her position and circumstances, she'd revert.

But now he didn't want Iberin to ever recover her memories. The thought of her going back to before frightened him.

Anyway — opposite to Lyssel finally recognizing his own feelings, the problem was that he had no idea how Iberin felt.

"From where I stand, My Lady clearly likes you too, Your Highness."

That was Rotte's firm position.

"Yeah."

Ether just chimed in. He was still too young to really grasp love and all that — he mostly looked like he wanted in on the conversation.

But Rozelia's read was different.

"I figured of course she loved him, but now I'm not so sure. Lady Iberin is equally kind to everyone."

That knocked the wind out of Rotte's certainty.

"True, but…"

"And if anything, she seems to like Ether more than mister."

There was no arguing with that.

Everyone knew Iberin's number one was Ether — that was just how it was.

"Then we just stick them together more so those feelings can grow, right?"

"No, shouldn't we sound her out first?"

After whispering back and forth for ages, Rotte and Rozelia reached their verdict. For now, Rotte would casually probe Iberin about her feelings, and they'd decide what to do based on her reaction.

---

The result was devastating.

"Lyssel's the type you need to look after a little. Of course he handles himself well, but emotionally there's a bit of immaturity. Not that I'm putting him down. He's like a slightly older Ether?"

Because it turned out Iberin saw Lyssel as someone she needed to take care of. That wasn't love.

Rotte asked a few more times, and the answers didn't shift. Grasping at straws, she even tried a direct question.

"You don't have any romantic feelings at all?"

"What's with the sudden interrogation, though?"

But Iberin just deflected, never giving Rotte the answer she was hoping for.

Worried Lyssel would be hurt, Rotte had stalled for ages, gauging the mood, until she finally laid it all out honestly.

"I see."

That was it. No reaction worth noting.

"…Are you all right?"

"I never expected anything to begin with. I'm satisfied with how things are."

He meant it.

He had no intention of pressuring her now that he knew his own heart. If Iberin one day told him she'd fallen for another man, he was prepared to let her go. He had no right to hold on to her.

Rotte seemed to catch on to what he was thinking. Lyssel barely showed anything on his face as a rule, but his Iberin-related thoughts occasionally slipped through.

Even so, giving up without trying anything was just too sad. The possibility wasn't even zero.

So Rotte ended up making a huge declaration on the spot.

"We're going to push you two together, hard!"

Rozelia thought Iberin was way too good for Lyssel, but it wasn't a bad match either, so she went along, more or less. As for the future — if Iberin one day liked someone else, Rozelia was perfectly willing to back that person instead. She hoped that person would be a decent human being, but she could work with it either way. She could always rough them up into shape.

"Rozel's in too, sure."

"Ether too!"

"…In on… what?"

"Just trust us!"

---

And the result of all that was this.

"Again?"

"…Yes."

At lunch, Ether and Rozelia hadn't shown up.

Iberin asked it back as if she hadn't expected any different, and just started eating. This wasn't the first time.

Whether it was teatime or lunchtime — the meals the kids loved most — they kept ditching.

Iberin narrowed her eyes and looked at Pons and Rotte standing behind her.

Ahem, ahem.

The two of them looked away, playing dumb. Nobody was about to spill.

Fine — she'd find out for herself.

Iberin's eyes lit up.

"Is the meal to your liking?"

"Yes. The head chef's cooking is the best, as always."

These days, egg made it onto the table almost every day. But the taste was different every time. The ingredients were piling up while the people to eat them were few, so they had to burn through as much as they could in as many different dishes as possible — which made the head chef the most stressed person in the house lately. He was still pulling it off beautifully.

Today's menu was a beef steak as the main, served with grilled eggplant on the side and an egg tortilla.

"Would you like to take a walk together after the meal?"

"I'd like to rest today. I'm feeling a little tired…"

Iberin trailed off as she said it.

"You're not unwell?"

Lyssel and the staff reacted violently.

"Fever!"

"Temperature check!"

"The physician!"

Mid-meal forgotten, everyone went into a frenzy.

Iberin had just been trying to carve out time alone so she could trail the kids.

"No, no! I'm not sick!"

"Still, just to be safe — get your temperature checked and let them examine you. Finish your meal first, though."

"…Haha."

I really am not sick.

Iberin smiled awkwardly and rolled her eyes. Saying no looked like it would only make things harder, so she just nodded for now.

She wrapped up a simple meal like that, got the all-clear from the diagnosis, and only then was allowed back to her room. Even then Tami kept trying to stay glued to her side, but Iberin insisted she was fine and shooed her off to her own work.

"…Mm — am I really going?"

"Go. I'm really okay."

"Then I'll stand outside the door. Call if you need anything."

"No, you can go further. It's fine."

"Mmgh…"

"I just really want to rest properly."

Tami insisted several more times that she couldn't, that she had to stay close, but Iberin's stubbornness won out.

Click.

And just like that, Iberin was left alone.

"Phew."

Even being alone was this much work.

Iberin shook her head, a worn-out look on her face.

"All right, now…"

In case anyone came in and turned the place upside down thinking she'd vanished, she went so far as to bunch two layers of blanket on the bed into a person-shaped lump. She listened for any sign of movement outside, then carefully eased the door open.

"All clear!"

Tami had really listened.

Iberin grinned, gently shut the door behind her, and slipped out.

---

The plan now was to spy on the kids.

After lunch, they had training together. Rozelia for holy power, Ether for swordsmanship and handling demonic energy.

The truth was Iberin had never once been to the training yard. Holy power was one thing, but demonic energy was harmful to her, so she'd been banned from setting foot in there.

Right now, though, nothing on earth was going to stop her. Well — okay, she was a little worried, but she was honestly curious what the kids actually did, and a quick peek wouldn't hurt.

She crept toward the training yard.

"Hold your stance like this here."

As she got close, she heard Lyssel's voice.

Iberin poked just her head out from the entrance to watch.

"Like this?"

"A little more to the left."

"Like this?"

"Now swing."

Whoosh—

"That one, a thousand times. Don't break your form."

"Yes!"

A thousand?!