Chapter 1

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Prologue. I Am Aika. Aika de Valliat!
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#prologue. I am Aika. Aika de Valliat!

I am Aika de Valliat.

I have a mysterious ability.

* * *

I’d been on pins and needles for days.

But it was a seat I had chosen myself.

“Haaah…”

The frustrated sigh made me flinch.

“That old man must be out of his mind, telling me to take care of this.”

His menacing glare made me subtly turn my head to look out the window.

Even when I avoided his gaze, my cheeks tingled.

I wish he’d stop staring. If he’s going to keep looking, he could at least do it with kind eyes!

I desperately wanted to say it out loud, but I only screamed it in my head.

Because this was the scariest person Mom had ever told me about.

She even said he was more frightening than His Majesty the Emperor, the sun of the empire.

“Hey.”

“…”

Besides, I was sitting on the carpeted floor while he was all alone on a plush sofa.

He called to me with a delinquent air, crooking his finger.

I glanced at him, then slyly turned my head away, pretending I hadn’t seen.

It was the most timid act of rebellion I could manage.

Still,

what good is a handsome face? His personality is trash!

Ugh, Mom…

No, this isn’t the time for that.

I can’t forget why I came here.

I tried to smooth things over by showing him a cheerful smile, but it quickly crumbled.

“Hey, peanut.”

“I’m not a peanut!”

I finally lost my temper and shouted.

“Then short stack. Come here.”

“I’m not a short stack either!”

“Then what.”

Hmph, do I really have to spell it out for you?

I looked down at my body.

No matter how meanly he looked at me, I wasn’t only three heads tall.

Mom said I was the prettiest and coolest girl in the world!

“Four… heads tall?”

I’m at least four heads tall, right? I could live with that!

A snort of derision was clearly audible.

Huffing, I turned my body completely around and sat with my back to him.

“You should come when I ask nicely. You’ll regret it if I have to come get you.”

Grr, seriously.

His threats didn’t feel like empty threats.

I pursed my lips, puffed out my cheeks in a pout, and stood up.

Then I walked over and glared up at him with narrowed eyes.

Even craning my neck, I barely came up to his waist, but I wasn’t the least bit intimidated.

“I’m supposed to live with you from now on.”

“…”

“I have no interest in raising kids. So just stay quiet as a mouse, got it?”

“…”

Hmph, well I have no interest in raising adults either!

Ignoring him, I just clutched my doll, pouted, and stared sullenly.

“Answer me.”

He’s eighteen years older than me, but he’s so mean.

An adult eighteen years older was threatening someone eighteen years younger.

He’s vicious, just vicious.

Sigh. But it’s not like I have a choice not to live with him.

I really want to tell on him to Mom, but I can’t do that anymore.

“…Fine.”

A whirlwind of thoughts made my head spin, but for now, I answered obediently.

“If you get it, then go ask for some food. And stop loitering in front of me.”

“But I already ate…”

“Eat more. You look like you’re half-starved.”

He shot up from his seat and roughly ran a hand through his hair.

Then he carelessly shoved his hands in his pockets and strode past me out of the room.

“Whew…”

I slumped back down to the floor.

It felt like a storm had just passed.

If it weren’t for Mom’s last wish, I wouldn’t be living with him either.

Grandfather likes me way, way more.

He’s fated to die young without me, and this is how he treats me.

I’ll make him eat his words later!

When he finally regrets it and begs for forgiveness, I won’t give him any.

It’ll be too late even if he pleads with me to live with him then, hmph!

“Hmph.”

So, who is this brute who treats me so poorly? He’s the family I have to live with from now on.

Cassel de Valliat.

Um, my one and only uncle, that is.

* * *

The Mad Dog of Valliat.

That’s what they called Cassel de Valliat.

Also known as Cassel de Leguire.

I first met my uncle at my mother’s funeral.

It was a sudden accident.

My mom was a very busy person.

She worked more days than she had off, and she continued to work for the imperial family even after I was born.

There were plenty of days when I’d wake up to find she had already left for work.

She never told me the details of her job, but I knew my mom was the Chancellor of the empire.

“Chancellor, here is the report.”

“Please help us, Chancellor!”

I heard her subordinates call her that quite often.

Still, I was never upset with my mom. I was never sad about it.

Because she was the person who loved me most in the world, and I loved her most in the world, too.

I don’t know who my father is.

Mom never told me.

“Mom, what kind of person is Aika’s dad?”

Once, when I asked about my dad, Mom just said he was someone who had to do great things.

He’s never come to see me, so he can’t be a very good person.

After that, I couldn’t bring myself to ask again, afraid it would make Mom sad.

Anyway, my mom, who was always busy, had to leave the capital for a while to visit the provinces as an extension of her work.

She said she’d be gone for half a month, so I pestered her to let me go with her.

Normally, I was fine without Mom. I got along well with the maids and played by myself, so it didn’t bother me even if she was gone for over a week.

But that day, for some strange reason, I felt I absolutely had to go with her.

“Mom! I want to go too.”

“Aika wants to go with Mom?”

“Yes. I’ll listen to you and be good, so can’t you take me with you?”

“Hmm…”

“Just this once! Mom, just this one wish!”

After getting Mom’s permission, I went on a trip with her for the first time.

On the way back home, after Mom had finished her work safely.

We were in the carriage, and Mom was reading me a fairy tale, when we were suddenly attacked and the carriage overturned.

“Aika!”

Mom held me so tight I could barely breathe, so I wasn’t badly hurt, but I hit my head and lost consciousness.

And when I opened my eyes again, Mom was already gone.

Grandfather told me I wasn’t found in the carriage with Mom, but in a nearby forest.

But I have almost no memory of what happened right after Mom fed me the jewel.

The Imperial Palace said they were investigating the carriage accident, but there was nothing I could hear about it.

I only heard that the Emperor was furious.

I think I also heard he lost his composure.

I could guess why His Majesty the Emperor was so angry.

He and Mom were said to be old friends.

He was probably very angry because he lost a dear friend.

And since my mom was super smart and good at her job, he must have been very sad about that, too.

Mom’s funeral was held on a grand scale.

I was crying so much I didn’t really see anyone, but Grandfather later told me that almost everyone who worked at the Imperial Palace attended.

And other nobles, too.

And that was where I met my uncle for the first time.

“Mom…?”

He had the same red hair and golden eyes as Mom. His jaw was a little more prominent and his features were sharper overall, but his face was so identical I could have mistaken him for her twin.

I thought Mom had come back to life.

Instead of crying and grieving like the many others at the funeral, my uncle stared at Mom’s coffin and the people around it with eyes that looked like they could kill.

“Mom…”

I stopped crying and clung to my uncle, who looked so much like Mom, and didn’t let go for days.

But on the last day, while I was asleep from exhaustion, my uncle disappeared.

After that first meeting with my uncle, I spent the next few months living with my grandfather at his home.