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“Oh, brother. I have one more thing to tell you.”
When I looked at my brother, who had finished his meal before me, he was getting up from his chair, so I called his attention. I’ve been trying to think of ways to start the conversation, but it seemed that time was running out, so I’ll just have to ask him directly. I thought this and acted as if I had just remembered something.
“What is it, Anastasia?”
Hearing that I had something else to say, he sank back into his chair. As always, brother was sweet towards Anastasia. I guess it was hard to say no when someone stared at you with this pretty face. In the past, Anastasia was always attached to her brother from a very young age, and no matter how fierce she became, she wouldn’t forget the past.
“…First things first, let me check. From now on, will you be angry if I ask you for something out of the blue?”
“What are you talking about? Your out-of-the-blue requests are always the same, so I don’t think I’ll be too surprised.”
Yes, yes, of course, but I was so afraid that I had to ask. My brother’s wrath scared the whole estate. The people who rarely got angry were the ones who were the more difficult to deal with when they did. This was what I meant.
“So, please don’t ever, ever, ever get angry with me. Swear to God that you won’t get angry.”
“…Hah, alright.”
“Let me get straight to it then. Please give me… Lloyd.”
“What?”
I looked at him straight in the eyes as I said this, his surprised voice reaching my ears. And then, my brother’s mood somehow became worse. Liar! You promised not to get angry with me! To make my point, I looked at my brother with teary eyes, but he just said, “Go on,” with a shaky voice. It’s kind of cute. This chapter was copied from novelping . com without permission.
“Since I was poisoned, you know? I’m sure you’d like me to have a servant who would never betray me by my side.”
“…You have Nina.”
“Nina’s a maid, which means she’s a girl, right? What if the other party attacked violently! What if Nina got hurt! In the first place, Nina has no chance of winning if her opponent was a man!”
I spun these words around, eventually getting a reply from my brother, “That’s true too.” In most cases, my brother would hesitate because he was also taking into account the royal family’s rules on things like these. Oh, and I don’t like Lloyd being far away from Anastasia’s side. He also looked stronger.
“I want a loyal servant who would never betray me! If this is the case, don’t you think Lloyd is the perfect man for the job? His magic is impeccable, and… with Lloyd, you don’t have to worry.”
“…You could find a new servant at the royal palace.”
“I don’t want to do that… Are you sure you want a strange man protecting me?”
When he heard me say this, his gaze clearly wandered. He didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t the one by Anastasia’s side, but he seemed to make an exception for William-sama… Well, maybe he didn’t count because he didn’t want to be around me in the first place. No, definitely not.
“But Lloyd is…”
“Isn’t Lloyd my servant in the first place? I don’t know what brother doesn’t like so much about him… but I like Lloyd. There’s nothing else for me to say other than I want Lloyd to be by my side.”
When I saw my brother’s eyes moving away, I decided to give a final push. If you want to get what you want, you mustn’t miss the opportunity when people’s feelings waver. Yes, you must take advantage of the moment and deal the coup de grace. That’s just normal common sense.
Brother simply didn’t give in… I had to counter him with a good argument. If confronted with a solid argument, it would be extremely difficult to break through it, as expected of the duke. Even if the other party was your beloved little sister, you were relentless. Somehow… I felt our purposes were misaligned, but I didn’t mind.
(If your opponent was right and you were not, it would be much harder to win… Yeah, I guess I’ll just have to push forward.”
It has to be Lloyd, I think it was possible to convey such feelings. However, I think it was also okay to use my secret technique now? Anastasia was beautiful regardless of her previous life, and besides, the other party loved Anastasia dearly. Yeah, I could do this.
“――Brother.”
I slowly dragged my words for now. I observed my brother’s eyes and could see that he had no intentions of backing down no matter what. Yeah, this was not a legitimate way to win.
“I need Lloyd’s help. If brother won’t let me have Lloyd by my side, then… I’m going to hate you.”
I then looked at my brother, he appeared to be frightened. Anyway, Anastasia was a beautiful girl even back then, so it couldn’t hurt for her to do something so pretentious. Actually, Anastasia was doing this kind of thing on a daily basis, so it was deeply ingrained in her body.
“…But.”
“No buts. I’m just saying that I want Lloyd to stay by my side to protect myself. I had no idea that brother was so narrow-minded.”
I didn’t know why these words came out of my mouth so easily and just pretended to wipe my tears away until my brother quietly said, “…Okay.” It looked like the plan was a success. Great, at this rate, my brother would be doing all the explaining to the royal family as well.
“Oh, jeez! Alright, alright. I’ll… give you Lloyd. And while I’m at it, let me handle the explanation to the royal family. I’ll be your accomplice for now since I have quite a hold on the royal family’s weakness.”
“Wow!”
So reliable… but wasn’t it also scary. My brother has the weakness of this kingdom’s royal family. So scary. But, I have the strongest ally I could have. With these thoughts, I just stared at my brother with a dumbfounded expression.