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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: The Antracse Twins
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“…Princess? Lilis? What does my princess have to be sorry for?”
I heard Dad’s bewildered voice.
Too scared to look up and see Grandfather’s terrifying glare, I couldn’t lift my head and just gripped Dad’s pant leg tightly.
“Father, please relax your expression. You’re scaring the child.”
“Be quiet.”
Grandfather’s reply was icy.
Soon, a shadow fell over me as I kept my head bowed low.
When I cautiously peeked up, Grandfather’s face was right in front of mine, his knees bent.
With a blank expression, he reached a hand toward me.
‘Is… is he going to hit me?’
His hand approached slowly enough for me to dodge, but I just squeezed my eyes shut.
‘…Huh?’
I opened my eyes again at the gentle warmth that touched my cheek.
‘What… what was that?’
A pinch.
Staring blankly at my grandfather, I blinked as his hand gave my cheek a painless pinch.
Grandfather remained still, his fingers holding a pinch of my soft cheek.
For some reason, he was trembling.
It was a very subtle movement.
“Ah…”
Staring into Grandfather’s blue eyes, which were just like Dad’s, I realized.
That look, and that trembling…
I know this!
This was the same reaction I had, my body trembling uncontrollably, when I saw the adorable kittens Jimmy’s calico cat had given birth to!
“Heh.”
I heard Dad let out a small laugh from above me.
‘Is… is Grandfather finding me cute?’
Finally regaining the composure I’d lost in my nervousness, I quickly cleared my throat.
“G-Gwampa!”
My tongue was developed enough to easily pronounce “Grandfather”…
But I deliberately slurred it to sound cute.
“I’m Wiwis! Seven years old!”
I greeted him shyly.
Grandfather swallowed hard. I could see his Adam’s apple bob significantly.
Smiling bashfully, I hesitantly approached Grandfather and burrowed into his arms.
“Gwampa… It’s nice to meet you.”
“……”
Stiff as a board at first, Grandfather eventually wrapped his arms around me and slowly stood up.
As tall as Dad, he held me and met my eyes from up close, saying.
“…Right. I am your grandfather.”
I swallowed a smile and wrapped my arms around his neck.
He smelled just like Dad.
* * *
Reunited after seven years, the three of them talked for a very long time, catching up on everything that had happened.
As if that wasn’t enough, Dad and Grandfather said they had things to discuss privately, so I left with my aunt.
We were now on our way to her room.
“Haaah.”
Holding my aunt’s hand, I did my best to keep up with my short legs, then stopped when she came to a halt.
“Oh, my. I’m so sorry.”
“Yes?”
“I was walking a bit fast, wasn’t I? I’m just so excited right now.”
“It’s okay!”
I looked at my gently smiling aunt in admiration.
‘Wow, she’s so pretty… She’s not a main character, but is this the protagonist-sibling buff?’
My aunt, Ordia, who had married into the Ducal House of Antracse, was a lady of elegant beauty, overflowing with grace.
She stared at me for a moment, then suddenly choked up and covered her mouth.
“Oh, Lilis. How can such an angelic child exist?”
“No, you’re way pwettier, Auntie, like a real angel…”
“What?”
My aunt laughed as I rubbed my cheek against our joined hands.
Then she murmured with a bittersweet tone.
“You know, I was actually more worried about you than Enoch. Such a small, cute, and fragile child…”
“……”
“…I can’t believe you’ve lived such a hard life. From now on, you’ll live in a nice place, wear only nice clothes, and eat only nice things. You must. You’re a Rubinstein, after all.”
Well…
My cozy life with Dad in our little mountain cabin wasn’t that bad.
This was all because Dad needlessly mentioned I did the laundry.
My aunt seemed to think I had been chewing on grass roots and doing hard labor in some backwater village.
“Oh, where is my mind. Let’s hurry, Lilis. I’ll introduce you to your cousins.”
“Cousins?”
“Yes. My two sons. They’re twins. They’re quite mischievous, which worries me, but they’re good boys. They were always begging for a younger sibling. I’m sure they’ll adore you.”
The moment I heard the word “twins,” I froze in my tracks.
‘R-Right. If they’re my aunt’s sons, they must be the young lords of Antracse.’
The twins of the Ducal House of Antracse.
Enoch Rubinstein’s nephews. One would become a paladin, the other a magic swordsman.
‘And…’
I stole a glance at my happy aunt and gulped.
‘…In this novel where people drop dead left and right, both of them are slated to die.’
The twins were among the few people Chessier, Dad’s adopted son, had opened his heart to.
That’s why Chessier nearly went mad when they, whom he had looked up to like real brothers, died.
“Hmm, though I am a bit worried about our Theo. He’s a little frail.”
“Ah, I-I see.”
My mind went blank at my aunt’s worried addition.
Theo. Theo Antracse…
That was the name of the one who died first.
“Boys, look who’s here!”
Arriving at the room, my aunt threw the door wide open.
Two boys, who had been slumped over a table in boredom, shot their heads up.
‘Whoa, they really look like they were copied and pasted.’
The novel often described them as impossible to tell apart by sight, so I had expected it.
They were identical.
“Wow! She’s really here?”
“What? She’s so tiny!”
They scrambled down from their chairs, came right up to me, and tilted their heads with wide eyes.
One tilted left, the other right.
‘They even act alike…’
Honey-blond hair and blue eyes, just like mine.
Dressed in fine clothes, the twins had the dignified air of young noblemen.
Though their faces were full of mischief.
“They look exactly the same, don’t they? It’s embarrassing to admit, but when they’re determined to trick me, even I, their mother, can’t tell them apart.”
My aunt shook her head and introduced me to the twins.
“Leon, Theo. Your uncle just returned a little while ago. This little darling is your cousin. Her name is Lilis.”
“Wow, Lilis? Nice to meet you. I’m Theo Antracse. I’m twelve.”
Theo, wearing a blue earring on his left ear, leaned in close with a rather excited expression.
‘So it’s you…’
Theo, the future paladin, seemed to have the gentle personality described in the original story.
Theo, who would get angry on Chessier’s behalf whenever someone picked on his uncertain origins…
Theo, who would uncannily notice whenever Chessier was down and delicately comfort him…
‘I would have looked up to him like a brother, too.’
That same Theo dies in the spring of the year after his knighting ceremony from a congenital rare disease.
Counting the years, he probably had less than four left.
“Nice to meet you too, big bwother! I’m Wiwis, seven years old!”
My heart filled with pity, and I grabbed Theo’s finger with my small hand and greeted him warmly.
“Ah… Ahem.”
Theo’s lips twitched, embarrassed but pleased, and he glanced at our aunt standing beside him.
When she gave him an encouraging nod with a smile, Theo awkwardly patted my head.
“Aww, she’s so pretty…”
“Heehee.”
“Hahaha… Leon, you should say hello to Lilis, too.”
my aunt said, watching Theo and me with a fond smile.
Leon, with a red earring in his right ear, was half-hidden behind her, observing me with curious eyes.
“…She’s seven but she’s tiny. Dummy. I was huge when I was seven.”
“What? Did you just call your little cousin a dummy?”
Seemingly embarrassed, Leon just tugged on his mother’s skirt and pretended not to listen.
“Lilis, your cousins may look identical, but their personalities are completely different. Theo is gentle and kind. Leon is so mischievous he worries me.”
“What did I do? Ack!”
My aunt gave the little rascal spinning around her a light smack on the head, then pressed a hand to her forehead as if exhausted.
“Leon, behave yourself. And speak more nicely. How many times has Mother told you that young ladies won’t like you if you act like this? It’s only been a few days since you scared Lady Valerine with that tarantula. Do you want another scolding?”
“That was because Erica Valerine said she liked spiders.”
“She only said that because she wanted to be friends with you, since you like insects. What young lady would actually like a hairy tarantula!”
It must be tough raising a son…
I gave an awkward smile as I watched my aunt sigh deeply.
Leon, the future magic swordsman, had a mischievous, blunt personality and constantly bickered with Chessier.
Of course, he never meant it. Leon cared for Chessier more than anyone.
Even while being scolded by his mother, Leon kept glancing at me. Our eyes met several times.
‘Sigh, to think this crazy novel where half the characters die is now my reality…’
Looking at the still-young, twelve-year-old troublemaker Leon, I couldn’t help but recall a passage from the original story.
「Blood poured relentlessly from the wound. Chessier held the gasping Leon in his trembling arms.
“L-Leon. Brother… Y-You can’t die like this. Please, stay with me.”
“Heh. Ugh, you idiot. Are you crying? Don’t… cry… A man shouldn’t be such a baby.”
“Hah, hah. J-Just hold on a little longer. Brother, please…”
“This punk finally calls me brother when I’m about to die. You little brat, I saved you… Don’t be a fool and, ugh, don’t you die.”
“B-Brother… Brother!!”
“…Promise me, you’ll make it back alive.”
With that final request, the light of life faded from Leon Antracse’s eyes.」
‘Wow, I think I’m going to cry again.’
The large-scale monster subjugation that happens around volume two of the original story.
Leon dies there.
He dies shielding Chessier from an attack.
I clearly remembered using two whole boxes of tissues while reading that part because of how heartbreakingly it was written.
‘This crazy novel has zero welfare for its side characters!’
I had, at some point, walked over to Leon and was now clutching his pant leg.
You magnificent, pitiful boy.
“Big bwother… I’m so, so happy to meet you. Let’s be fwiends. We can catch spiders together.”
“……”
“Hehe, I like tarantulas…”
I said, shyly gripping his clothes.
I wanted to be his friend.
But for some reason, Leon just stared blankly at me as I approached him.
“B-Big bwother?”
Just then.
Leon, who had been watching me with a twitch and a strangely dangerous expression, suddenly shot out his hand.
He grabbed my chubby cheek in a firm grip and—
“……?”
—pinched it!
“Ah, owwie!”
So hard that it brought tears to my eyes!
“Goodness gracious! Leon!”
“Gasp! Hey, Leon! Why would you pinch her so hard!”
