Chapter . 131
I had nothing to say to Michelon’s question. Just how sharp was a dragon’s eye for reading people.
“I don’t know either.”
“So will you regret it after you kill your brother too?”
“No. If I kill him, then there will be a reason for it.”
“Punishing a criminal is also a virtue of a ruler. If the First Prince does something bad, our Prince won’t let it slide. Why don’t you know that, Michelon oppa?”
Nanette, who had been watching the fireworks from the balcony, turned back toward us and said it firmly. What Michelon called himself a dragon would have been magically altered in how she heard it, but still.
When Michelon became the Count of Petrafis, he placed the nanny’s and Nanette’s names into the count family’s lineage as members of the household.
That was why Nanette was now Lady Nanette of the Petrafis Count Family. A count’s daughter received the title of Lady from birth.
The nanny, too, became the first Countess of Petrafis when I granted her a noble title, and her grave was moved to Petrafis as well.
While it was rare for a newly founded noble house to bestow such honor as far as one’s parents, it was not unheard of for the mother, and moreover, it was I, a Prince, who had personally stepped in.
-Thank you so much, Michelon oppa. But I don’t want to become a noble all by myself while leaving my sister and brother-in-law behind.
Nanette said that sincerely, thanking Michelon from the bottom of her heart. Even when Vincent and I told her that it was something necessary, she teared up and refused to bend her will.
However, after Yolande quietly took her by the hand behind the curtain and then brought her back out right away, Nanette clamped her mouth shut.
We also kept silent about the fact that, through the shadow cast on the curtain, we had clearly seen Yolande wordlessly smack her little sister’s round head.
“You little brat, how dare you talk back to oppa like that?”
“But Michelon oppa always talks back to His Highness too. Not just talking back, you snap at him.”
“You insolent little thing!”
“Michelon oppa is more insolent. He’s top-ranked in insolence. I’m only second-ranked. Second is fine too.”
“Hey, get over here. And what do you mean Michelon oppa? Do you have another oppa besides me? Do you call Jerome oppa too? If that kind of old man is your oppa, then what does that make you? An auntie?”
“Jerome oppa isn’t an old man. If you live young, everyone is oppa. What matters is your mindset, not your age. If Michelon oppa says old-fashioned things like I can only have one oppa, then oppa’s heart is older than Jerome oppa’s.”
“This little—! This is all your fault, Leontes! You keep holding her and raising her, so she turned out like this!”
Then why did the one you carried on your back turn out like this?
“No. Nanette just likes me more than you, so she always takes my side whenever you and I fight. Kids are honest.”
“No, I don’t!”
“It’s true though?”
Nanette answered for me instead. She was just that kind.
“Get over here, now!”
“I’m coming!”
Nanette scampered over and spread her arms, and Michelon lifted her up in one smooth motion.
“If I smack your head once, you’ll listen better, right?”
“I’ll tell His Highness!”
Nanette stuck out her tongue and teased him. When Michelon pinched her puffed-up cheek, Harald, who had been sitting on my shoulder, flew off and landed on top of Michelon’s head, spread both wings, and screamed, “KAAAH!”
Harald had a perch of his own, yet sometimes he would sit on Michelon’s head like this. Michelon insisted it was because he was the tallest and Harald wanted to breathe the air up high, but to me, it seemed that unlike with Yolande or Jerome, Harald sensed Michelon’s mana and was drawn to it rather than afraid.
“Get off, will you?”
“Harald, did you come to save me? It’s okay, Michelon oppa always raises his voice, but he actually dotes on me. That makes him even cuter.”
“You little—!”
Michelon growled, but Nanette only tapped his cheek with her tiny finger.
“Oppa, when you grow a beard later, shave it clean. If you don’t, I won’t kiss you.”
“What are you saying? A good little sister should kiss oppa whether he grows a beard or not!”
“Oh right, oppa, let’s do phoenix burning too.”
Nanette begged.
“Everyone down there is having so much fun.”
Phoenix burning was a nationwide game held whenever there was a national celebration related to dragons.
People made phoenix effigies out of wood and cloth, then lit them with dragon-shaped firebrands they carried in their hands and burned them away. In many villages, they also burned mage dolls dressed in robes together with them.
It was a game commemorating the history of the phoenix, the divine beast of Roncer, and the dragon, the divine beast of Armatia, clashing in wars between the two nations, and it was always popular.
“That’s right! Dragons always beat phoenixes!”
Michelon wasn’t wrong, but unlike dragons, phoenixes did not truly die. If they burned to death in dragon fire, it just took a long time for them to revive.
“Even so, dragons that win against phoenixes often take heavy damage and become unable to fight. So generally, it’s better to avoid clashes between dragons and phoenixes—”
“Prince of Armatia, don’t kill the mood!”
At that moment, the door opened and Jerome came in.
“Your Highness, Sir Reinhard has arrived. He says he came to escort you, and it seems to be Prince Maximilian’s urging, asking why you still aren’t at the banquet.”
“The banquet runs continuously from last night until tomorrow at midnight, and they want me to come now?”
When I grumbled, Michelon said,
“I prepared about ten outfits, so you can change whenever you feel like it.”
To put on and take off luxurious clothes, whether man or woman, you needed attendants’ hands. And he prepared ten of them? Was I not supposed to sleep at all?
“You really don’t know what the problem is.”
“I’m not a weakling like you, so it’s no problem at all. Did I work you like the newly arrived knights or something? Do I have to consider even the troubles of a frail weakling who gets tired just from playing?”
While we were bickering, Nanette quickly climbed down Michelon as if he were a tree and ran over to Jerome.
“Jerome oppa!”
“Nanette!”
Jerome hugged Nanette happily too.
“I’ll transform into a wolf later. Do you want to pet my tail?”
“Yes, I’d love that!”
“Our Nanette really likes petting wolf tails!”
Jerome took great pride in that fact, but Michelon looked displeased.
“Then why don’t you cut it off? Make it into a scarf for Nanette.”
“Haha, when I transform into a wolf, I’ll catch an even more expensive fox, so let’s use that tail instead!”
“I said I won’t give you my tail, and you still call yourself an oppa?”
“Don’t bully Jerome oppa!”
“Now you’re boldly calling him that right in front of me? How many oppas do you have!”
“No, I have more. Nanette has a sister, a brother-in-law, and lots of oppas! I’m richer than Michelon oppa! An oppa-rich person!”
“What are you saying?”
“If Michelon oppa gets brothers too, you’ll be rich like me! Jerome oppa and Rolf oppa will become good brothers to Michelon!”
“Who says that? Did those guys say it?”
“Jerome oppa, even though Michelon oppa talks like that, he likes you. He’s just shy and doesn’t show it.”
“…You have a fever. Your cheeks are red, so you’re babbling from the heat.”
“No! They’re red because you pinched them!”
“It’s fine, Nanette, I believe you. Of course Lord Michelon likes me. I’ll live believing that.”
“Don’t be mistaken!”
“…Why do you talk like that, oppa? That’s why no one believes me no matter how hard I tell them how kind you really are!”
“I am a scary man. It’s enough if I’m kind only to you…….”
Nanette was genuinely angry now, and even as Michelon snapped back, he looked flustered.
“Michelon is kind to Nanette. Try being kind to me too.”
“Then become my little brother.”
“I already have more than enough brothers. I don’t need any more.”
“Brothers can’t be friends. But friends can become brothers. To you, who are pitiful enough to have no good full brothers, half-brothers, or cousin brothers, I’ll become your friend-brother.”
“Don’t talk nonsense! Argue about something that makes sense!”
While we were like that, Jerome quietly approached Michelon and extended his hand. Michelon, still arguing with me, grabbed Harald’s ankle with one hand and dangled him upside down.
“Hmph, after tormenting me like that, now you’re dangling helplessly in my hand as a mute beast. You look good like this. Should I pluck out all your feathers and blanch you alive in boiling water? No, throwing you straight into boiling oil would be better. Before that, I’ll slice your belly open alive, pull out your guts, and sever your limbs. I’ll chew your liver raw!”
As Jerome threatened Harald viciously, Harald’s red eyes rolled wildly.
“You villain! Bow your head in humiliation. Your life is in my hands now, wahahaha!”
As he said that, Jerome pulled out a pouch of feed from his clothes and fed Harald. Harald lowered his head and ate.
“Hahaha! Look at you! If I starved you, you’d die without being able to do anything!”
Jerome was delighted and fed him more. He wasn’t wrong. No one but Jerome fed Harald. If we fed him too, we were afraid he might burst and die.
Originally, I intended to give him the Graf territory as compensation. But Jerome said he didn’t want to be involved with Harald anymore and suggested entrusting him to Rolf instead.
At that moment, the door opened again, and that very Baron Graf, Rolf, came in.
-When I think about it, there is nothing I need to ask Your Highness.
The knight of mine who had said he would not ask the question I had permitted during the Montova siege.
-I do not know Your Highness’s secret, but I have personally seen, heard, and experienced what kind of person you are. It is knowledge more than sufficient to be a reason for my loyalty.
-Sir Rolf…….
-There is nothing Your Highness needs to explain to me, nor anything I need to demand an answer for. I wish to know after I have become strong enough to protect Your Highness’s secret.
-You are already strong. You do not know how much strength that belief of yours gives me…….
When I embraced Sir Rolf and wept, he held me tightly and cried with me.
Even so, I still could not confess to him that I was a mage. Even though he showed me the consideration of waiting. I felt as if I would not be able to endure disappointing someone who trusted me this much.
In the past, even if he withdrew his loyalty and left, I would have thought it unavoidable and remained detached. But now, it was not so.
Having one’s heart deepen toward people, having such people increase, was both a good thing and a frightening thing. Yet the unknown path that had unexpectedly opened before me was a fear I was willing to welcome with open arms.
Because it was the path of an ordinary life opened by ordinary people.
-Aren’t both of you idiots?
Michelon looked dumbfounded, but—
-Don’t say things like that. Lord Michelon is just jealous.
-Yolande, your words make even less sense. I have no secrets with Leontes, so why would I be jealous of Rolf, who doesn’t even know his lord’s true identity?
-Why wouldn’t you be jealous? I am jealous too. Our Prince used to never think about how others would receive his words at all, but the one who made him start caring is Sir Rolf. Ah, I’m jealous, Your Highness. Please care about me too.
-No, I care about you too, Yolande.
-Haha, I know. Of course.
-It’s because I’m the person Leontes is most comfortable with!
-Ah, yes, yes, of course. That must be nice.
-Then why am I not jealous?
-Of course you are.
-Be more jealous than of Rolf!
-Yes, yes. I’m most jealous of you, Lord Michelon. Satisfied?
When I smiled happily at Rolf amid those drifting thoughts, he smiled back. Nanette fluttered over to him like a skylark announcing my joy.
“Rolf oppa!”
“I’m not your oppa!”
“Our adorable Nanette!”
“She’s not your little sister!”
But Rolf steadfastly pushed through Michelon’s interference, lifted Nanette up with one arm, and spoke his business to me.
“Your Highness, Sir Reinhard is waiting.”
“Ah, I forgot. Let him in.”