CH 3

´⛧ ⛧ ⛧ ´

Before going to Julian’s room, Heidi dressed me up.

“This is the hairpin that Lord Julian gave you during your last birthday.”

Heidi picked out a hairpin with a large emerald from the jewelry drawer. It was a hairpin that I didn’t use often because it was precious.

“If Lord Julian looks at this, he might suddenly remember Lady Rosie.”

“…Is that so?”

“Why not? If it’s Lord Julian… he chose every gift to you himself with great care.”

“Then let’s choose clothes from the ones my brother bought for me.”

After dressing up, I asked for paper and a pen and wrote a document. It was an essential document to protect Julian from the upcoming crisis.

“My dear treasure, Rosie, I hope you grow up to be a really bright and confident child.”

The voice of Julian which had said those words before lingered in my ears.

‘Brother.’

Including the time before the regression, it had been too long since I had met Julian.

‘I’ll live as Brother wanted, as a confident child.’

I grabbed the papers, took a deep breath, and stood up.

‘Of course I’ll be confident towards you.’

With such firm determination, I went to Julian’s room.

Indeed, Julian had regained consciousness. It was the same as I remembered; the last I saw of Julian before the regression.

Although his whole body was covered with bandages, his good features stood out.

Julian’s narrowed green eyes looked at me suspiciously.

“Who is this kid?”

He must have heard a rough explanation of the situation from his close friend and aide, Schulva. Nevertheless, it seemed he was very suspicious of my existence.

“Are you kidding me? She is my sister? Ah…”

The atmosphere was very ferocious because of the already bad and gangster-like impression.

Before the regression, I turned around and ran out at just this exact scene. It was because Julian, who was looking at me with such cold eyes, was so unfamiliar.

‘And after that, I never saw him again…’

I shut my eyes, gathered my bearings, and opened them.

In the 10 years I was imprisoned in the temple dungeon, I had regretted this moment over and over again.

‘If I want to change the future, I have to act differently from here on out.’

So instead, I calmly sat down by Julian’s bedside and nodded.

“Nice to meet you, Brother. Our fathers are different, but we’re siblings anyway.”

Then, Julian squinted and asked.

“…How old are you now?”

So I replied nicely.

“Ah. When Brother was 12-years-old, your mother left the house. It was because she had an affair with another man and got pregnant with me.”

“What…!”

Julian tried to get up, but because of his injury, he grabbed his waist and slumped down again.

“What the heck is my mother doing? She was born in a house like this but ran away at night?”

For 17-year-old Julian, it was the circumstances of his mother’s escape at night, which he had only recently come to know.

He sighed in anger, a frown evident on his face.

“And damn it, did some thoughtless mouth tell you all that? To a little girl who doesn’t seem to have to know about this dirty situation yet!”

I looked at him silently and kindly answered.

“You told me about it yourself the day we first met.”

“…Huh?”

The expression of Julian, who had become a thoughtless mouthpiece, became blank.

I spoke calmly.

“Our mother died long ago, leaving me at an orphanage. The person who brought the orphaned me here was also Brother.”

Julian’s expression morphed into shock. 

I patted my chest and said,

“Brother really cared for me and loved me. You said you would take care of me.”

At those words, Julian wrapped his hands around his head with a complicated expression. And he let out a deep sigh.

“Hah…”

“Anyway, that’s why I have a 12-years age difference with you. I told you to make it easy to remember. I hope this helps.”

Julian groaned lightly instead of answering. And he muttered slowly as if he was in pain.

“Damn it, I can’t even take care of myself right now… All of a sudden, there’s even a kid I need to be responsible for…”

It was then.

Julian’s aide, Schulva, was startled and covered his mouth.

“Ugh!”

“Lady Rosie, don’t worry too much!”

Schulva fidgeted, and words poured out like a rapid-fire cannon.

“This guy doesn’t know what bullshit he’s talking about… Seriously, this bastard, no, Lord Julian is out of his mind right now…”

I had never seen Schulva so flustered, so I said with a smile.

“Eh, Schulva. Can an aide block his master’s mouth like that? With my brother’s personality, I don’t think he will stay still.”

“I’m doing this because he’s not the type to sit still.”

Schulva sighed heavily.

“When he gets his memory back later, he will make a fuss and say ‘Why didn’t you cut off my tongue when I said something hurtful to my baby?’”

And he added very seriously, without a change in his expression.

“When this stupid brother finds his memory, he will stop eating and drinking and wail all night, saying he is sorry for saying such harsh things to our Rosie.”

“What?”

Julian blinked. He appeared incredulous. Then he shouted as if he would never lose.

“Oh, so what? To say that I’m a nobleman, that I was the strongest person that everyone counted on, does this make sense? Huh?”

“Hmm, I don’t have anything to say…”

Despite my muttering, Julian burst into anger.

“I don’t know what an aristocratic life is! It’s scary! I don’t need it! I’ll just go back to the butcher’s!”

He raised his finger and pointed at me, his thin, slit green eyes flashing.

“I don’t have anything in my head, so I don’t know what to do from now on! Including you! …Huh?”

A moment of silence passed.

Sulva sighed and shook his head.

Julian… He didn’t care and showed his temper in front of me.

And whined that he would return to the butcher shop because he was afraid of living as an aristocrat.

Really… It was something I could never have imagined before.

The words Julian had said in the past came to mind.

“If you saw me back then, would you be frightened? A ferocious black flame dragon, I was hopeless… What will you think?”

I accepted that fact once more.

Julian Noart, who took control of the cruel and bloody County of Noart, leisurely suppressed his relatives and stood up to the temple, was no longer there.

While silence flowed, the atmosphere in the room was as calm as if cold water had been poured over it.

After a few screams, Julian flinched and glanced at me.

“Hey, hey! You, there… that is… me, I… uh…”

And when Julian finally got restless and sent me an apologetic expression.

“That’s right.”

I spoke slowly and somberly.

“Brother doesn’t have anything on the head right now. You’re really a hopeless kid. Seeing it in person made it even clearer.”

At my words, not only Julian, but also Schulva, hardened.

“But the County of Noart is not an easy place for a child without knowledge to survive… Especially since our grandfather is absent now.”

“…What, what?”

“I can’t help it.”

With my small hands, I thrusted the document I had prepared earlier in the room forward.

After confirming the contents, Julian’s mouth fell open.

The contents of the document, written in crooked large letters, were simple.

Julian Noart transfers all the property under his name to Rosie Noart.

“Brother.”

While Julian was checking the documents, I habitually took out the seal from his desk drawer and smeared it with ink.

Then I put the seal directly into Julian’s hand and said with a very sad expression.

“Stamp it, right now.”