I wasn't sure if it was okay, but since they said it was, and I was all ready anyway, I decided to board the carriage as planned.
My second older brother, who had been blankly staring at the ground beside me, seemed to snap back to attention as I took a step and came over to escort me.
“Here, watch your step…”
My brother, who was helping me into the carriage, suddenly hesitated. Feeling a slight tremor in the hand holding mine, I looked up curiously and saw him staring into the carriage with stiff eyes.
‘What is it?’
Is there something inside? I peeked in, but there was nothing. To be precise, only Ari and Ray were there.
And my brother's eyes were fixed on the two of them.
As the two, sensing his gaze, looked at my brother, I felt his breath grow heavy. And an inexplicable hostility.
‘No way…?’
Is my brother jealous of my friends right now? I couldn't think of any other reason for him to harbor such hostility, so I couldn't hide my disgusted expression.
I know my brother cherishes me, but this was crossing the line.
It seemed he was acting this way because I hadn't spent much time with him lately, busy meeting my friends. Ah, so 'that' was the reason for what he said earlier!
‘Wait, but why wasn't he like this with Pedro?’
Somehow, I ended up thinking of that guy again, but I couldn't help it.
‘These two are much better kids than Pedro, so why!’
Ugh… Unbelievable. How could he harbor hostility towards such nice kids?
‘Unforgivable.’
“…Ack!”
Just as he had taught me before, I clenched my fist tightly and struck my brother’s side. As I jabbed deeply into his side with the knuckle of my middle finger raised, he recoiled as if shocked or electrocuted, startled.
“L-Lovie?”
“Hmph!”
I shook off my brother's hand I had been holding and turned my head towards the carriage haughtily. Seeing the two inside wide-eyed at the sudden sibling squabble unfolding before them, I gave a slight smile.
“Lovie…”
My brother called pitifully from the side, but I ignored him as if I didn’t need his help. When I held out my hand towards the carriage, Ray smiled softly and took it.
Grasping his hand, I was easily pulled up into the carriage by the gentle force.
“Lovie…”
My brother was still calling me pitifully, but I turned my head away sharply and shut the door.
I caught a glimpse of my brother's crestfallen face through the small window, but I completely drew the window curtain.
Inside the carriage, now dim as the light was blocked, the two glanced cautiously at me, sensing my bad mood.
‘He’s so tactless. Really.’
My brother was the one in the wrong, so why am I the one feeling embarrassed? I looked at Ari, who was watching me with concern.
‘I’m learning a lot in this life.’
First brother’s ambition, second brother’s jealousy… As family, I love them, but these things were unacceptable.
Although my second brother is tactless, he’s a knight, so I trust he wouldn’t do anything truly bad, but situations don’t always turn out well.
“Guys.”
“Uh, uh huh…”
“Y-yes? What's… wrong?”
“Make a fist.”
Seeming nervous at my solemn tone, the two clenched their fists as I had. Ari, petite, cute, and lovely, had fists like tiny chestnuts, but Ray was a bit surprising.
‘His bones are quite thick.’
Even though he was still young, unlike Ari, his hand felt distinctly masculine.
I realized that although we had surely held hands often, this was the first time I had looked at his hand so closely.
“…Like this, Seiana?”
“Uh, uh, yes. Let's refine it a bit.”
I had been unconsciously fiddling with his hand and snapped back to reality at Ray’s questioning voice.
Acting nonchalant, I adjusted his awkwardly clenched fist, making sure the middle knuckle was firmly raised, just like mine had been.
“If my brother approaches you, hit him here with this fist.”
I tapped my philtrum with my fist. Because you can train everywhere else, but not the philtrum. My words made their eyes tremble slightly.
“H-Hit Sir Heillo…? Why?”
Ari asked, but I was too embarrassed to want to answer. How could I tell them to their faces that my own brother was ridiculously jealous of them, so they should be careful? He was even a knight! An Imperial Knight, no less! But I couldn't just gloss over it either.
“I think my brother harbors some disgusting jealousy towards you guys.”
That was the most refined way I could put it. Bewilderment spread across their faces.
Naturally. Even if they were all minors, the idea of a man who would become an adult next year being jealous of young kids was hard to believe, even for me.
“That can't be right.”
“No. His eyes said it all. He looked like he wanted to punch you, I tell you!”
“I don’t think so…?”
Even though I spoke seriously, the kind Ari kept defending my brother, while Ray burst into laughter. It seemed both of them thought I was joking, which was frustrating.
“Ugh, you're both so naive.”
As I muttered in frustration, they just looked even more bewildered. I unconsciously thumped my chest with my fist.
Anyway, after forcing Ari to promise she'd be careful around my brother, I finally felt relieved. Honestly, a little anxiety remained, but I figured it would be okay as long as I stuck close to them.
“…But isn’t this carriage too dark?”
The windows were small, limiting the light, and closing the curtain to avoid seeing my brother made it even darker. It was so dim I could barely make out their faces, and I was debating whether to just open the curtain.
“Is it dark? Just a moment.”
As soon as Ray touched somewhere on the carriage wall, the interior suddenly brightened.
“Whoa…?”
The oppressively closed roof of the carriage had vanished. Astonished, I looked up at the sky, then back at Ray, who smiled.
“The roof didn’t really disappear; I just made it transparent.”
He stood up and reached towards the roof. *Tap*, his palm made a sound as it hit something solid.
“It filters the light coming in, so the sunlight isn’t hot either.”
Although it was past noon, the sun was still high in the sky, visible slightly diagonally above us.
If the light had come straight through, it would have felt like walking under the scorching sun, but the magically treated roof seemed to filter out the heat, letting only the light inside.
It looked so small and plain, like something you’d see at a carriage rental place, yet it housed such technology.
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
At my admiration, Ray showed off the carriage's other features. When he pressed something else on the wall, the seats folded out, transforming the carriage interior into something like a bed where one could lie down.
Simultaneously, a pleasant, gentle breeze wafted in. The carriage had felt a bit stuffy being closed on all sides, but just that faint breeze made it feel refreshing.
“Wow… But why weren’t you guys using these features?”
Wouldn’t it have been more comfortable if they had used them since coming to the Count's territory? When I asked out of curiosity, the two shrugged.
“Why bother?”
“Didn’t feel inconvenienced?”
“Even if it's bright, all I see is her/his face anyway.”
They started bickering again. They always got along so well.
* * *
“I think my brother harbors some disgusting jealousy towards you guys.”
The moment Aries heard those words, she didn't know what expression to make. Should she laugh? Look bewildered? Raymund felt the same, so they both gave a wry internal smile.
Seiana certainly wasn't unobservant. However, she had a fixed idea about something and couldn't conceive of anything outside it. In other words, she only saw what she wanted to see.
When her eyes met Heillo's, Aries had seen fear in them. And simultaneously, a surging revulsion.
It was the kind of gaze she usually received from others, so she was about to ignore it when she saw Heillo's expression change.
It was a look that said he wouldn't flee, even though he was afraid.
‘This is why I hate knights.’
Aries scoffed internally at the absurdity. Heillo wasn't the first to show such a side in front of her.
Knights mistook recklessness for courage and tried to overcome the instinctive fear felt towards those with special abilities. Yet, none had ever succeeded.
Countless knights initially tried to force themselves to endure, only to end up mentally and physically exhausted and quit. That's why Aries disliked knights.
Normally, she wouldn't care if some knight who didn't know his place broke down or not, but…
‘This is troublesome.’
The fact that Heillo happened to be Seiana's brother bothered her. If he pushed himself too hard and ended up breaking, Seiana would be sad.
So, she was contemplating how to cut it off when, fortunately, Seiana stepped in. And then she said such ridiculous things.
“That can't be right.”
She didn't mean to defend Heillo. It was just such an absurd statement that the denial came out naturally.
Nevertheless, Seiana thought she was naive for not knowing and grew frustrated. Though Aries felt she was the one who should be frustrated.
‘…Still, it’s better than being seen as a monster.’
Aries decided to think of it that way as she obediently listened to Seiana's self-defense lecture.
Heillo's reputation might suffer because of Seiana's misunderstanding, but that was none of Aries's concern.
Seiana had no idea that a single gesture from Aries could turn Heillo into a bloody pulp. She focused on teaching how to strike and where to aim.
It was comical. Since Seiana, like Aries, wasn't trained in martial arts, she must have learned this self-defense technique from Heillo, yet here she was, teaching Aries how to hit him.
After the lecture, they discussed the carriage's features. Aries's current goal was to sleep in this carriage with Seiana at night, watching the stars.
With Heillo watching intently, it was something Raymund could absolutely not do, which made Aries look forward to it even more.
“Are there no teleport gates from here on?”
“They haven’t been built yet.”
“…Yet, I see.”
Their travel destination was not near the capital but in the countryside, so teleport gates were not yet available.
Teleport gates, made with the era's cutting-edge technology, were convenient but also very expensive.
Unless it was a strategically important location for the Empire, most territories with teleport gates were wealthy enough to bear half the construction cost.
In rural territories focused merely on livestock or farming, they hadn't been built yet.
Seiana's surprise at this seemed a little odd, but Aries and Raymund figured she might not know, having only lived near the capital.
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