CH 49

What’s more, Carl, who remembered the pandemonium that arose in the bivouac during the war period, said coldly,

“Woah, you’re too much.”

Ather, who had made such a big fuss over nothing saw Beatty who was blankly watching the two’s comical talk, winked as he said.

“To think that such a cute Lady like this is your younger sister. It’s fascinating, you know?”

“Don’t you dare think about anything stupid.”

“Eyy, if she’s your younger sister, then she’s surely like my younger sister.”

Regardless of Carl’s reaction of ‘What kind of nonsense is that’, Ather simply turned to Beatty and sent her a smile.

“Because I wish I also have a younger sibling whom I could be affectionate to.”

At the words that seemed to be mixed with bitterness, Beatty tilted her head.

‘Doesn’t he have a younger sibling? Ah. Sure enough, since the younger sibling is the Ritter bastard.’

Since he’s a bastard who wouldn’t hesitate to stab you with a knife even after spreading all kinds of sugar, saying that ‘I’m your only friend’, even at his half-older brother, that bastard must have done something to blow the back of his head.

Beatty, who had talked behind Ritter’s back inside, was flustered by the words that were directed at her and belatedly raised her head.

“I’m late to express my gratitude, but thank you for accepting my invitation. Lady.”

“Yes? Ah, yes.”

Carl opened his mouth discontentedly.

“I told you to just ignore this bastard, didn’t I?”

“No, but even so, he’s His Highness the Prince…”

Although she intentionally spoke like a common kingdom’s citizen who felt sorry, Beatty actually had a plot in mind.

‘I mean he might be a helper to screw that Ritter bastard over.’

If she succeeds in settling at the Duke’s Castle, which was her present goal, she would be able to safely spend her time until she became an adult, but it would have been difficult to be able to affect the Ritter bastard who was at the Royal Palace.

‘Because His Highness the First Prince is also not exactly in a good relationship with that Ritter bastard, there is a possibility!’

Instead, she was looking for someone who’ll take revenge for her.

The special discount of regression knowledge. The weakness that will turn the Second Prince bastard inside out was the warehouse release.

Beatty said as she sent a sparkling look at the revenge helper candidate.

“I surely can’t do that to Your Highness.”

“You can do that.”

‘Huh?’

However, the faithful kingdom’s citizen cosplay was stopped by Carl at once.

“That’s right. If it’s the Princess of Aslan, you can do that.”

For even the Royal Family party to agree, it’s indeed the Aslan Family.

As expected, of the Aslan Family, even the Royal Family gave up to them!

When Beatty was admiring the unexpected greatness of the family.

Ather, who was interestedly watching the girl’s face which was changing to a rolling expression, spoke with his eyes bent in a smile.

“We’re an acquaintance, right, Lady?”

“Yes?”

While Beatty opened her eyes wide at the sudden topic, Carl muttered next to her.

“No wonder I felt crappy last night.”

Crriing.

Beatty freaked out at Older Brother who took out a sword before she knew it.

“You’re the one who went to visit Tail Fur’s room? When and how did you go visit it?”

“Older Brother Carl! You can’t with the sword!”

‘To think he would try and commit an assassination of a Royal Family member!  He’ll definitely be arrested right away!’

Moreover, isn’t the circumstances of the inspection too obvious?

Carl paused after he saw Beatty who was desperate to prevent Older Brother from going to prison.

‘She’s a person who got sick just by getting hit by water droplets. If she sees human blood, she’ll faint right?’

In front of Carl, who was learning self-control for the first time for Tail Fur’s health, Ather asked back, pretending to not know who was the visitor last night.

“What are you talking about?”

“You… I’m sure you’ve been told to not do anything, even briefly, on Tail Fur’s floor, though.”

“That’s exactly why I’m asking. I’m talking about when I met Lady in the forest, though?”

“Forest?”

What are you talking about?

Unlike Carl, who raised one eyebrow, Ather made up an indistinct expression as he said.

“A Lady who would feed me poison, she was surely the first.”

“What are you talking about!?”

Beatty was appalled and chimed in.

“That time, at that time I had explained everything, you know! And you’re saying that while you’d tried it!”

‘Such misleading words!’

It was beyond unfair from her standpoint who already worked hard explaining and even showed actual proof of why Tuberosum was not a poisonous herb.

As Beatty, crack, beckoned, and elucidated, Ather watched her with a smiling face. He then saw Carl who was blankly next to him and asked.

“Aren’t you surprised that I, your close friend almost got poisoned?”

At Ather’s words who kept mentioning poison, Beatty gritted her teeth and corrected it.

“I’ve said it’s not poison.”

“Of course, of course. I don’t misunderstand.”

Beatty glowered at Ather, who still jokingly responded back, with sharp eyes.

“….”

Looking at his younger sister and friend’s eye contact disapprovingly, Carl responded as he blocked the two’s distance.

“Since you’d misunderstood, ate, and was fed poison, Tail Fur must have been like that.”

“You’re too much.”

Entirely ignoring Ather’s words of ‘to think that he said it’s okay even if I ate a poison, what am I going to do with my cold close friend’, Carl requested Beatty.

“If that guy pulls a trick on you, you can feed him with a thrust of a sword, not poison.”

“That’s a little…”

To Carl who asked ‘Do you want me to teach you the dagger technique in advance?’, Beatty shook her head.

‘By any chance, is this also equivalent to an assassination scheme? He’s not going to report Older Brother for lese majesty blah blah blah, right?’

When she glanced, slightly worried, the First Prince who made eye contact with her smiled.

“?”

Why is the Prince like that?

Bursting into laughter when he saw Beatty blankly staring at him with her eyes becoming wide open, Ather stretched the silly snickering corners of his mouth as he said.

“She’s a cute younger sister that doesn’t suit you.”

Passing by Carl, who was making a ‘hmph’ expression, Ather approached Beatty’s front and bent his waist forward as he reached out his hand.

“Lady, will you allow me the honor of kissing your hand?”

“Yes?”

Receiving such a nice greeting with a polite knight-like gesture for the first time, Beatty froze with her cheeks red.

“How dare you court her in front of my eyes?!”

“Sheesh. Let me introduce myself.”

The short-tempered Carl pulled out and held a sheath from his waist and swiftly shook it as if chasing a bug.

“Get lost.”

Even though the attack seemed to be randomly swinging, it flung exactly to the vital points. It was Carl’s excessive prevention of trying to block the chatting towards his younger sister.

“I’ve already encountered her several times now, but does it make sense that we still couldn’t even exchange names?”

However, the bug this time was formidable.

After lightly avoiding Carl’s chatting prevention, which was even mixed with swordsmanship, by turning his body several times, Ather naturally held Beatty’s hand as if it was on top of his palm and said with an attractive smile.

“My name is Ather.”

‘Ather? It’s a name that’s similar to Atel.’

(t/n: For those who aren’t familiar with the Korean alphabet pronunciation system (if there are any), 아테르 [a-the-reu] = Ather and 아텔 [a-thel] = Atel have the same last consonant ㄹ which could be translated to either ‘r’ or ‘l’. Often, if the ㄹ is the first consonant in a new syllable/between two vowels, it’s translated/pronounced as ‘r’ (like a-the-Reu) and if the ㄹ is as a final consonant (batchim/the ones below) in a syllable, it’s translated/pronounced to ‘l’ (like a-teL). So, Dragon Boy actually made up his nickname ONLY by shortening his name ‘Ather’ by one syllable, from three syllables to two, which makes the ㄹ are pronounced differently, from the first consonant into the final consonant. That’s why Beatty said Ather and Atel are similar. I hope you get what I mean :”)

Are there many similar names like that in the East Continent?

‘I heard that the First Prince’s mother was the East Continent’s Imperial Family, though, I guess the Prince’s attendant must have been also brought from the same origin.’

Tilting her head, Beatty recalled the First Prince’s background and understood on her own.

“Would you call me ‘Older Brother Ather’?”

It was seen he was sly, winking an eye, as he spoke formally only on the requesting part.

Beatty was bewildered, since encountering such a character was the first for her.

Shaking off the man’s hand that was attached to his younger sister’s hand, Carl opened his mouth with a harsh voice.

“Why would she call you that?”

“Why what?”

“Her older brother is me.”

“Eyy, does ‘older brother’ only apply to real older brothers?”

Carl pulled out his sword in response to Ather’s sly question

“Ha ha. Don’t act so sensitive.”

Lightly avoiding Carl’s attack, Ather blurted cheekily.

“If you continue shielding her suffocatingly like that, don’t you think you’ll hear that it’s annoying from your younger sister?”

“!”

Having never even thought of such a possibility once, Carl staggered, a little shocked by the image that came to mind for a moment.

Seizing the opportunity of the wavering sword attack which came rushing, Ather got out of the attack trajectory and approached Beatty while Carl couldn’t come to his senses for a while.

“Will you leave your suffocating older brother and play with me, Lady?”

“….”

Seeing Ather speak with a consistent grinning smile from beginning to end, Beatty thought,

‘What is with this shallow person…’

She was rendered speechless by the personality she had never encountered even once throughout her life before and after regression.

***

On one side, at the same time, the Duke was looking at an uninvited guest who entered the office with sinking eyes.

“Duke! To think that you called me like this…. As expected, the misunderstandings are all resolved now, right?”

It was Firina who didn’t hide her excited look on purpose and shook her fan.

At the annoying voice that talked as it liked, the Duke’s forehead furrowed. He then opened his mouth coldly.

“You said that there was a remedy that’ll cure the child’s illness.”

“…Yes. In the first place, I came to deliver this to the Niece kid.”

Tak.

Firina took out the bottle that was filled with ‘very effective medicine’ and put it on the table.

“How much my heart hurt when I saw Niece who was weakening every winter during those times…. It’s something that I obtained at the end after I wondered if there was any solutions and had put all my effort into every way that I could.”

Pretending to evoke and shed tears, Firina particularly emphasized ‘my efforts’ as she pointed to the bottle.

“This is the ‘very effective medicine’ of His Highness the Second Prince who awakened his power this time.”

At the word ‘very effective medicine’ that Firina mentioned, one of the Duke’s eyebrows went up.

“As you know, the noble snake of wisdom can either have the power of poison of punishment and medicine of healing.”

Just like how the whole Aslan Family had physical abilities beyond those of humans, it was also known that the Astrum Royal Family could awaken the special abilities of either a very effective poison or a very effective medicine.

“Fortunately, I was able to get it after much difficulty because I am acquainted with Her Majesty the Second Queen.”

“…The price.”

“The unfortunately returned previous engagement offer—!”

Flinch.

At the murderous energy that rose from the Duke, almost instinctively, Firina couldn’t finish her words and hurriedly sorted her words out.

“…I-it’s certainly not only because of that, as they also just asked me to see it as a token of gratitude that is sent to the loyal Guardians of the North!”

Firina peeked at the Duke’s murderous energy that gushed out for the first time and held onto her thumping heart before stepping back.

“Viscount said that you’re concerned about the child’s health.”

“O-of course. Didn’t I obtain such precious medicine like this thinking of Niece?”

“Then, you could have taken it out immediately as soon as you arrived at the Duke’s Castle.”

Firina’s shoulder flinched at the sharp criticism.

“What’s the ultimate motive of coming and taking it out only now that you’ve been kicked out from the Castle?”