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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: My Arch-Rival Sister Cherishes Me
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As the knight, who had been taken by surprise, clutched his crotch and wailed, Sion delivered the same blow to another man, then swiftly lifted me.
“Hold on tight, young lady!”
He didn’t wait for my reply and began to run.
“Stop!”
Gale’s shout and the sound of footsteps pursuing us echoed from behind, but Sion ran straight ahead.
Thump, thump, thump.
How long did he run? Sion arrived in front of the portal, panting heavily, yet never stopping.
But there was no time to catch a breath.
“Stop right there!”
Gale had already reached a distance close enough to grab my feet. A few meters behind him, I could make out several other Imperial Guards.
Sion glanced back, then threw the prepared magic stone into the air. His running legs didn’t falter.
Hum—
With a loud hum, the ground vibrated, and a bluish light shimmered in the air.
Whoosh—
The moment Gale’s fingers wrapped around my leg, we were sucked into the portal.
Thud, thud, thud—
“Ugh, my head…”
Sion and I tumbled out onto a hill in the Luperne territory, tangled together.
My hair was tangled from catching on something, and one of my shoes had come off. I turned my head to look at Sion, and he was throwing up again.
“Ughhhhh!”
Poor Sion, who had suffered all day long.
I looked at him with pity, gratitude, and apology.
Pity for his ordeal, gratitude for saving me, and apology for having eaten so much lately and gotten heavier.
“I-I’m fine.”
This time, as if he’d adapted, Sion quickly got to his feet. His complexion certainly looked better than before.
I reached out a hand and patted his back. It wasn’t to help him vomit, but to encourage him.
“You’ve been through a lot…”
“Ughhhhh!”
But before I could finish my sentence, another retching sound came from behind us.
Sion and I turned around simultaneously.
“Ugh! Oh, why is there a portal right in front of my eyes…”
We both gasped simultaneously.
The person throwing up, hunched over on all fours with one of my shoes in his hand, was Gale Osmond.
“Haa… these bastards…”
He raked a hand through his sweat-soaked hair, huffing.
“I’m going to kill these bastards with my own hands.”
Sion and I looked at each other. On closer inspection, Sion’s hands were empty. It seemed he had abandoned his sword to carry me and run.
Gale, on the other hand, was a mess but still clutched his sword.
He brandished his sword triumphantly, even as he dry-heaved.
“Alright, now try running away again…”
Whoosh—
But before he could finish his sentence, something sharp and gleaming flew from behind Sion and me, grazing Gale.
“Agh! What was that?!”
He jumped, clutching his cheek, and came away with red blood on his hand.
“Which bastard was that?!”
Gale roared, his voice echoing through the forest.
“You’ll see which bastard it is for yourself.”
When I turned around, what met my eyes was hair redder than blood, and the longsword held in its owner’s hand.
“And take a look at where you are right now, too.”
His pitch-black eyes glinted with murderous intent.
Gale’s face flushed crimson with rage.
“You, who the hell are you?! How dare you scratch my face?!”
He bellowed.
Right, Gale was overly confident about his face. He used to boast that his skin was milky white, no matter how much he trained.
It’s always the ugly ones who are like that.
Gale seemed to have stopped retching and stood up straight. Then he flashed a sneering smile at Aramis, who was silently glaring at him.
“Hmph, don’t want to talk, do you? Even if you hide your identity, I’ll find out everything. I’ll definitely find out your name and…”
“Aramis Mueller, the eldest son of Count Lance Mueller.”
Aramis cut Gale off with an annoyed expression.
“What?”
Gale’s eyes trembled in shock at his words.
“You! You’re that brat from the Imperial Academy…”
“You know me?”
“Of course I do! You scoundrel!”
Gale roared, his voice cracking comically.
“Don’t tell me you don’t remember what you did to me, when I was invited as a special guest sword instructor for a day!”
He pointed a trembling finger at Aramis. Aramis merely frowned.
“...I don’t remember.”
“In front of the entire student body… you brutally hit my stomach… with a, a wooden sword…”
“Ah.”
Aramis looked at Gale, who was frothing at the mouth, his face red as if about to explode, and said with an indifferent expression.
“Oh, you’re the guy who got beaten up after boasting he’d spar with me, aren’t you? Five years ago.”
He asked, his lips curving into a faint, almost imperceptible smile.
“Your attack was cowardly!”
“You were the one who said that someone who couldn’t create an Aura could never defeat a knight, so I should just attack however I wanted.”
“But my stomach!”
“How was I supposed to know you’d wet yourself if I poked your stomach with a wooden sword?”
Gasp.
Sion and I covered our mouths simultaneously and looked at each other.
He peed himself.
Milky-skinned Gale, wetting his pants while fighting a twelve-year-old.
“Hmph… You’ll never know how great the humiliation you inflicted upon me was.”
“No, it was clearly a humiliating defeat. You sat down and bawled.”
“Shut up!”
“One of the students even had to comfort you. That child later struggled to wash your snot off their clothes.”
“Ugh! Stop it!”
“Anyway…”
Aramis’s eyes gleamed dangerously once more.
“Why are you drawing your sword in the Luperne territory? And towards…”
His gaze flickered towards me.
“...a child.”
“Hmm, so you’re from Luperne.”
Gale curled one side of his lip, adjusted his grip on his sword, and aimed it at Aramis.
“These suspicious individuals didn’t obey my orders. I was arresting them under my authority, so you should back off.”
“Your authority?”
“I am the Imperial Knight Commander, personally appointed by His Imperial Majesty! Disobeying my words is tantamount to disobeying your liege!”
Aramis’s voice grew even more menacing.
“I told you before, didn’t I? To take a good look at where you are.”
Step.
He took a step towards Gale. Gale flinched but didn’t back down.
“W-What are you… ”
“This is the Luperne Duchy.”
Aramis took another step. Gale had to raise his gaze slightly to meet his eyes.
His eyes trembled uneasily.
“And my liege is Callista Luperne.”
“W-What?!”
“And you’ve touched something my liege cherishes.”
Gale’s face turned pale. He looked as if he’d just encountered a true madman.
However, I was just as surprised.
Did he just say Gale touched something Callista cherished?
I looked at Sion, then scanned my surroundings. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t figure out what Aramis was referring to.
I must have misheard.
“Y-You traitorous… ”
“Enough chatter.”
Aramis didn’t give Gale any more time to speak and swung his longsword in a surprise attack.
Clang—
With a sharp clang, Gale’s sword went flying.
“This… this bastard is being cowardly aga…”
Thwack—
The moment he, flustered, tried to argue, Aramis’s foot flew out.
“Agh!”
Thwack! Thump! Thump!
“Aaaargh! Agh!”
Under the barrage of kicks, Gale crumpled to the ground in a similar position to when he was throwing up earlier.
Aramis’s merciless kicks didn’t stop, landing on his back, shoulders, rear, and even his head.
“Stop, stop it!”
“If it hurts, then get lost.”
Thwack!
“Gasp!”
With one final kick, Aramis sent Gale flying through the still-open portal.
“Ughhhhh!”
With a wretched scream, the portal’s light flared brightly, then vanished without a trace.
***
“...Is that so.”
Callista said briefly after hearing the whole story. At her dry tone, which revealed little emotion, Sion and I simultaneously flinched.
“It seems I did well to send Aramis when you were taking too long.”
Aramis led us to the reception room on the first floor of the Luperne Mansion, where he reported the circumstances to Callista, who was waiting there.
“He came after you with a sword… Gale Osmond.”
“That’s right.”
“Did you bring his sword?”
“Here it is.”
Aramis presented Gale’s sword, which he had sent flying, to Callista with both hands.
She was silent for a few seconds, then took the sword and set it beside the sofa. For a moment, a murderous glint seemed to flash in her eyes, but it vanished instantly.
“Is that the man who you defeated at the Academy before?”
“You remember.”
“It was a humiliating defeat. It was talked about among your classmates for quite a while.”
Callista fell silent in thought for a moment, then instructed Aramis and Sion to leave.
“Harper, stay for a moment.”
Callista spoke to me as I was about to head to the room, holding Sion’s hand.
“M-Me… just me?”
“Yes, just you.”
My heart sank.
It wasn’t the first time, but being alone with Callista was still frightening.
Sion, oblivious to my churning insides, followed Aramis out, and soon I was standing rigidly in the middle of the room, awaiting her words.
“Come here.”
Callista beckoned me with her index and middle fingers. I timidly approached her.
“...You said you left Sion behind.”
She looked down at me and spoke.
“It was a very dangerous situation. Why did you do that?”
Callista’s voice was even lower than usual. I replied in a voice so faint it was almost inaudible.
“...I just wanted to look around the shops.”
Neither Sion nor I mentioned Sion’s true errand or Iris’s tavern. If we did, not only Sion but Iris as well could get into trouble.
The problem was that Sion, who was in a panic due to guilt over putting me in danger, had made a partial confession: that he had been separated from me for a short time.
This person still has a long way to go if he wants to hide his identity and gather information.
“I just said I wanted to wander around by myself. I wanted to go to the clothes shop, the fruit shop…”
“Was there anything important you needed to buy?”
Callista asked, her expression still stern. Only then did I remember something I had forgotten.
“I-I bought a ribbon.”
I had bought a purple ribbon with the single copper coin I found under the sofa.
Even though it was leftover fabric, it looked pretty to my eyes.
“A ribbon?”
She raised one eyebrow.
“Were you short on ribbons?”
“No, it wasn’t for me…”
I hesitated, wondering whether to speak or not, then opened my mouth again.
“...It was for you, Sister.”
Callista’s lips twitched almost imperceptibly.
