I rarely stayed long with Sister Shia.
I usually travelled there on the morning train, boarded the night train home, and returned the following morning.
“…So you’re back.”
“Father.”
Father was the one who greeted me that morning when I returned from the royal capital as usual.
He was probably just about to leave for work.
“Did you go to Shia again?”
“Yes.”
“…Sigh. That girl is troublesome. Still fussing over a clod of dirt.”
“……”
He called his own son a clod of dirt.
He was as cold as ever. Still, I was grateful merely to be allowed to stay in this house. Father probably didn’t want to keep me here.
Sister Shia was one reason I had been permitted to remain.
“Even so, Sister Shia is talented.”
“Yes, she is. That girl is exceptional. For her sake, I’ll say nothing more. Don’t get in her way.”
“Of course.”
“…You’ve always been like that. It isn’t a bad thing, though a child who’s too obedient is unsettling. You give me no grounds and no excuse to drive you from the house.”
“…Father?”
I already knew that he intended to seize upon any mistake I made as a reason to banish me.
But was that really something he should say to my face? I had every intention of clinging to this house for the foreseeable future.
“Pay it no mind. I was talking to myself. You’ve been conducting business, have you not?”
“Yes. I’m grateful to have permission to use the name of House Willard.”
“It’s been well received. Not bad. Continue your efforts.”
“As you command.”
Amazing—Father had acknowledged me.
I had risen from someone he would drive out on any pretext to someone whose presence wasn’t actively harmful.
While I celebrated inwardly, Father finished what he had to say, turned his back on me, and climbed into the carriage waiting at the main gate.
“Have a safe journey.”
After seeing him off, I shifted my thoughts and crossed the mansion’s needlessly large courtyard toward my room.
“…Hm.”
On the way, a stone flew toward me.
“…Brother Ryuk.”
I avoided it by stepping back, then looked in the direction from which it had come.
“Hah. Don’t dodge, you clod.”
The boy standing there was a little taller than me and resembled me in appearance. He was Brother Ryuk, the second son of House Willard.
He held another pebble in his hand.
“Stand still and take your beating. You’re getting impertinent.”
“…I wish you would grow up a little.”
My brother was already thirteen.
In terms of my previous life, he was a middle-school student. I wished he would mature—but perhaps this was what middle-schoolers were like.
“What? You think a clod like you can talk back to me!?”
“I apologize.”
“Tch.”
Brother Ryuk clicked his tongue when I obediently bowed my head.
“…Did Father speaking to you just now go to your head?”
“No, nothing like that. Father was the same as always.”
“Hah! Of course he was! A defective creature born with the earth attribute is worthless!”
Brother Ryuk swung his arm. Wind magic activated, and a blade of wind sliced through a thin layer of skin on my cheek.
“This is magic—the power of the nobility. The power a noble is supposed to possess, and which you don’t.”
“Impressive.”
Brother Ryuk’s skill with magic wasn’t bad.
Sister Shia was better, however. If he seriously injured me, she would fly into a rage, so he never left a conspicuous wound.
That made standing silently in place the best response.
Including my previous life, my mental age was over thirty. I wasn’t going to lose my temper over a middle-schooler’s behavior.
“Tch… Acting so aloof.”
If I remained quietly in place, it would end.
These exchanges never lasted long.
“Lord Ryuk!”
As usual, a servant came running toward us in a great hurry.
“Lord Ryuk, it’s time for your lesson.”
“Tch…”
Brother Ryuk clicked his tongue at the servant’s announcement and turned away without another word to me.
“What a nuisance.”
He obediently returned to the mansion.
“…Excuse me.”
The servant gave me a small bow, then hurried after Brother Ryuk.
It was the usual scene.
“I owe Sister Shia a great deal.”
Even before moving to the royal capital, Sister Shia had strictly ordered the servants to intervene whenever they saw me being bullied.
She hadn’t been satisfied with even that, but it was more than enough for me.
It was impossible to eliminate the bullying entirely.
Father called me a clod without hesitation. Influenced by him, the eldest son looked down on me as openly as Brother Ryuk did.
Sister Shia was the only member of the family who defended me. In this male-dominated world, it was impossible for her to force her wishes through completely. Protecting me as much as she did was the best she could manage.
“Her protection makes an enormous difference. Sister Shia really is remarkable.”
Her overprotectiveness often exasperated me, but it helped me far more often.
That was precisely why I wanted her to stop devoting herself to me, marry someone good, and find happiness of her own.
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