***
Scribble…
scribble…
The only sound in the expansive library was Sez’s quill scratching across the paper.
After checking her homework, Rayton had Sez do a simple composition.
Then, he just sat in front of her and stared out of the window.
Sez glanced at Rayton after writing down a few letters, wrote a few more lines, and then returned to glancing at Rayton.
He wasn’t talkative or friendly in the first place, but today he seemed different somehow.
He was colder and quieter than usual.
Maybe because he’s in the place he hates?
Lisette said Rayton doesn’t like this library, which could explain his bad mood.
Sez was curious but didn’t dare to ask, so she just kept looking over him.
But her damned tummy decided to pipe up at that very moment.
“……”
Rumble.
Sez’s earlobes turned bright red as her stomach growled.
It was so loud that one could easily mistake it for a boat horn.
Sez was sure that Rayton heard it too.
Embarrassed, Sez quickly took a peek at Rayton.
He was looking at her like she was pathetic.
“Um, I couldn’t eat breakfast, so…”
“……”
“I-I’m not usually this.
Really…”
Rayton let out a snort and called a maid over all of a sudden.
In less than five minutes, an array of tasty cakes and cookies were laid on the desk.
Sez’s eyes widened, surprised that Rayton was being so considerate.
“Eat.”
“Oh, thank y…”
“And stop being noisy.”
‘Oh, so you weren’t worried about me, you just didn’t like the noise.
Of course…’
Sez realized once again that it wasn’t like Rayton to care about her hunger.
But right now, the reason wasn’t what mattered, it was the result.
“Thank you, brother.”
Sez began to consume her share of the hot cocoa and cake.
It was delicious.
The quality was in a different league from what she usually ate, it didn’t take a gourmet chef to know that.
The large strawberry on the cake was incomparable to the bean-sized ones Runa sometimes brought her, and the cookies brought as a side dish were full of large chunks of chocolate.
The privileges of being a favored mistress were better than Sez expected.
It was a bit random, but Sez realized just how poorly she had been treated.
The food she ate before was practically trash compared to the spread laid out in front of her.
“Aren’t you going to eat, brother?”
Sez pretended to care for Rayton a little too late after she’d already consumed around half of the cake.
“Take care of yourself.”
But he responded just as she had anticipated.
‘Don’t eat then… I’ll eat it all.’
Sez was munching on the cake as she looked down at the teacup in front of Rayton.
It was filled with black coffee.
‘Black coffee…
wow, look at you, you look like an adult!’
‘Oh, he is an adult…’
Sez suddenly remembered his age.
In the Den Helder Empire, people reach adulthood at seventeen.
Rayton was eighteen, so he was definitely an adult by now.
In her past life, right before being decapitated by the adult beside her, Sez had reached adulthood too.
She was barely seventeen, but still an adult.
She had never been to a debutante ball, which was considered a rite of passage for every noble lady, but technically it still counted.
Yerna tried to marry Sez off to an old duke as she reached the prime age to become a bride.
Back then, Sez was busy looking for an excuse to leave the palace.
Partly because she was in danger of being sold to an eighty-year-old man, and partly because nothing was holding her back since she became an adult.
‘Of course, our dear prince over here chopped my head off and ruined everything… anyway!’
Sez wasn’t planning to go through that again.
‘Yes, learning Kazarkish is just a red herring…’
Sez asked carefully after finishing off the cake.
“Brother, what do you like?”
“What?”
“I’m just curious.”
She knew it was random, but she once read a book that ‘know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.’ Of course, she was not planning to fight him, but she needed some information to at least win his favor.
She wouldn’t have dared to ask him this before, but now things had changed so she mustered up all her courage.
At least he wouldn’t tell her to piss off again.
“Well, for example, I like cake and hot cocoa.
I also like reading books…
how about you?”
“……”
“Food… or hobbies…”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“I don’t like anything.”
Mission failed.
She didn’t expect this.
Sez desperately tried to come up with something that would make Rayton talk, but Rayton continued before she managed to.
“There’s nothing I enjoy in this palace.”
“……”
“Nothing.”
Rayton closed his mouth and stared at nothing with empty eyes.
Sez had no idea why he looked so lonely.
Sez hesitated.
“…But wouldn’t life be a little more fun if you found something you enjoyed?”
“…….”
“You’ll be excited for your meals if they make your favorite food, and you won’t be bored if you pick up a hobby…”
“Why should I do such a thing…”
“…….”
“…In a place full of people who hate me?”
Sez pressed her lips together at his firm words.
She knew what he meant.
Living here was probably like hell for Rayton.
Nobody liked him, and everyone was either scared of him, avoiding him, or they hated him.
No one cared for him even when he had those large bruises on his stomach.
Sez could hold out because she had Runa, but Rayton had no one.
She felt sorry for him once again.
“Change out your cotton ball.”
“What?”
“Nosebleed.”
Only then Sez realized that the cotton ball in her nose was close to its demise.
‘Why does my nose keep doing this?
Maybe I really should call the physician this time…’
Embarrassed, Sez took another cotton ball out of her bag.
Rayton just stared at Sez.
“……”
Even Sez wasn’t brazen enough to shove something in her nose under someone’s gaze.
‘Like…
can you look away at least?’
Sez smiled awkwardly as if asking him to turn away, but Rayton didn’t comply.
Then, he suddenly plunged something into her nose.
“Ugh.”
Sez let out a noise of surprise.
Her nose felt numb.
“W-what are you doing?”
“Lodging cotton in your nose like that won’t help, you idiot.”
“Eh?”
Sez made another nasally sound and stared at Rayton with a dazed expression.
“Why, do you think I poisoned you?”
“I….
didn’t say that.”
“You don’t seem to believe me.”
“No, it’s not that.”
Rayton snorted and tossed a small package that he took out of his pocket toward Sez.
“It’s…”
“Cotton balls, dipped in medicine to stop the bleeding.
Change it every three hours, then it’ll stop completely after a few days.”
Sez snuck a look at the package.
She could see some cotton balls tinged with a greenish color.
He’d probably plunged one of those into her nose.
‘But I didn’t think he would…
take care of me like this…’
“T-thank you…” Sez spoke with a truly grateful expression.
‘My goodness, I can’t believe Rayton actually helped me!
That Rayton!
I can’t believe it!’
“I knew you cared for me!
In your own way…”
“What?” Rayton frowned.
“I’m returning the favor for the bandages, so cut that crap.”
‘Oh, yeah, that’s the real Rayton.’
“You seem to know a lot of things.
Like about this medicine right here.”
She tried to sugarcoat it, thinking she’d been a bit too straightforward.
“Because I have to use these a lot.”
“……”
“If you’ve finished eating, open your book again.”
“…Okay.”
Sez quietly opened her notebook, and the tutoring continued as if nothing had happened.
While solving the problems, Sez pondered over what Rayton had said.
‘I bet he had to use this medicine a lot because he always gets beaten up.
No one cares if he returns to his room dripping with blood, so he has to deal with the injuries alone.
That must be the reason why he’s so fond of medicine.’
Rayton also said he didn’t like anything because he couldn’t attach himself to the palace.
Everyone hated him and ignored him.
Sez thought she would act the same if she was in his shoes.
She wouldn’t want anything out of this palace.
Sez thought it was a bit…
sad.
“You’ve memorized a lot of words and learned about grammar too, so I think you should be able to do a composition now.”
Sez jerked her head upward in surprise.
“Write anything.
That’s today’s homework.”
“H-how much?”
“Whatever.
You wouldn’t be able to write a long one even if you wanted to.”
Sez thought he could’ve worded it more gently than that.
She pouted.
“Return by yourself today.
I’m going to see my mother.”
Rayton stood up from his seat as if he had nothing more to say.
“Hey, wait a minute!”
Sez called after him, but he didn’t even look back.
Left alone in the huge library, Sez sighed.
She stared at her empty notes, her mind racing.
***
Rayton made a fool of himself.
He paid a visit to his mother, only to hear that she was asleep.
Marie said that he’d better go back, but Rayton ignored her.
He went inside the room quietly and stared at his sleeping mother for a while.
She was always like this when she returned from a night with the emperor.
It wasn’t just because she had difficulties sleeping in a different bed.
‘Maybe it’s because of this…’
Rayton stared at the vials on Lisette’s dressing table with vacant eyes.
The purple liquid in the transparent glass vials gave him chills.
After standing up slowly, Rayton covered Lisette with the bedsheets and left the room.
He thought that he might break those bottles with his own hands if he stayed there any longer.
That wasn’t what Lisette wanted.
His entire life, Rayton had not once defied Lisette.
It was the same for that drug.
Even if it was eating away Lisette’s life, Rayton couldn’t resist her will.
Marie caught Rayton, who was walking away from Lisette’s room.
“Princess Sez asked you to stop by the library quickly.”
‘Stupid brat.
You can’t go back on your own, can you?
This girl seems to have a talent for bothering people.’
Rayton went back to the library, looking irritated.
But there was no one there.
Instead, there was a notebook left on top of the desk.
Rayton read the open pages.
[I did my homework in advance.]
The sentences were written in messy Kazarkish handwriting.
[My name is Sez.
I am twelve years old.]
‘All that tutoring in vain…’
Anyone who looked over a textbook only once could write at this level.
Rayton let out a snort and quickly scanned the rest of the page.
[I like strawberry cake, warm milk, and hot cocoa.]
‘What are you, twelve?
…Yeah, you might actually be twelve but how childi….’ Rayton squinted at the next sentence.
[I like my brother Rayton too.]
[I want to study with my brother and eat cake together.
I like eating with people that I like.
I like the feeling of it.]
‘…You stupid brat.’
Rayton murmured.
With what confidence did she write that she did her homework in advance?
I like, I like, I want, I like.
All she did was write some boring, repetitive words.
‘There’s no progress.’
Rayton shook his head.
He picked up notes and walked out of the library while thinking to himself.
‘I’ll have to be a little stricter from tomorrow.
Well…
I’ve got to teach her about speech, too.
Well, the student is stupid but at least she has a good teacher.’