SWY 102

“What are you talking about?”

Only then did Lestel turn his gaze to Sharhan. Seeing the confusion in Lestel’s face, Sharhan sneered exaggeratedly.

“You seem bothered because it’s someone who almost became your bride, huh? The way you looked at her was so dewy, I thought you’d smeared water all over your eyes.”

In his head, he was thinking, ‘What do I care if that bastard Lestel looks at Ardelle or not?’ but his mouth moved on its own. He spat out the words and immediately regretted it. Still, when he saw Ardelle refusing to eat her soup and only stealing glances this way, he felt a fresh wave of irritation.

It had been the same in the past. While glaring at him with blazing eyes, Ardelle would melt like chocolate under sunlight in front of Lestel, and it drove him mad.

Like that day when Ardelle had fallen and was carried to the villa. She used her injured leg as an excuse to ride on Lestel’s back. Watching her back as she was carried away made his insides boil and filled him with a strange sense of alienation.

After venting his frustration more harshly than usual on Lestel and returning home, he overheard his parents saying, “The Ailun and Hines families might actually unite through marriage.”

That would be bad for the already declining Kaios family, as it would mean the neighboring noble houses forming an alliance.

Sharhan, who had overheard them from outside, had felt his heart drop. That night, he couldn’t sleep a wink.

Maybe it was because his nerves were frayed, but for a while afterward, even the slightest thing from Lestel annoyed him. They ended up fighting far more often than usual. At one point, it almost escalated into a real duel with swords.

Unlike the enthusiastic pursuit from the Hines family, the Ailun family’s response remained vague, and in the end, the engagement between the two families never happened.

But before and after that, the only person ever rumored to be engaged to Lestel was Ardelle. Whether the marquis really had intended to take her as his daughter-in-law or not was unclear. But even just the fact that such rumors had existed left a bitter taste in his mouth.

As those long-buried memories resurfaced, his heart burned like he’d swallowed fire, and a surge of baseless irritation returned. Today, of all days, Lestel’s smooth and handsome face was really grating on his nerves.

‘I’ve never even had stupid rumors about engagements or marriage.’

Feeling suddenly snappish, Sharhan scrubbed at his scalp roughly.

“I was looking at Peter.”

“Yeah, Arde… What?”

Sharhan blinked. Lestel, watching Sharhan’s flustered reaction, was smiling.

“I said, I was looking at Peter.”

Lestel gestured toward Peter with his eyes. Now that he looked again, Peter was indeed sitting beside Ardelle.

“W-Why were you looking at Peter?”

“He wasn’t eating his soup and was just staring with a serious expression. I was concerned.”

“R-Right.”

Sure enough, Peter was staring down at the gradually cooling soup bowl with gloomy eyes.

“Shan, did you think I was looking at Ardelle and get jealous?”

“W-What are you talking about?”

“Why are you stammering?”

“Who’s st-stammering?”

“You are, right now.”

“I-It’s just, my tongue’s frozen. It’s cold in here. The kids must be f-freezing since we couldn’t even light a fire.”

“Ah, so your tongue’s frozen. For a moment, I thought you were jealous…”

Sharhan, his face red, elbowed the rambling Lestel in the side. He didn’t hold back, and the thump was loud enough to startle the children and Ardelle into turning wide-eyed stares their way. But Lestel didn’t even flinch and kept smiling.

Sharhan, forcing the corners of his mouth up into a smile so the children wouldn’t be scared, warned in a low voice,

“Keep spouting nonsense and I’ll shut your mouth for real.”

“I’ll give you a kiss later.”

Lestel leaned in and whispered into Sharhan’s ear. His warm, damp breath touched the tip of Sharhan’s frozen ear. Sharhan flinched and shoved him away.

“Are you insane? What kind of nonsense are you saying in front of the kids?”

“That’s why I whispered it. I’ll kiss you later. Since your tongue’s frozen and you’re stammering, I’ll melt it for you with mine…”

Ignoring Lestel’s nonsense, Sharhan followed after Peter, who had picked up his bowl and stood.

At the top of the stairs on the second floor, Peter slumped down, his face pale as ash.

“Peter.”

Sharhan sat down beside him.

“Lord Sharhan.”

“Just call me brother. More importantly, why aren’t you eating? You should eat before it gets cold.”

“I can’t.”

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“I am… but I don’t think I deserve to eat.”

“What are you talking about? Why not?”

“If I hadn’t left the kids behind… nine of my siblings are gone now. It’s like I killed them.”

Peter, lowering his voice so his younger siblings, who had just been happily chattering, “Miss, can I have more soup?”, wouldn’t hear, spoke through quiet sobs.

“It’s not your fault. It was an accident…”

“I knew Raon wasn’t a good guy. He used to threaten the kids behind our backs to steal their food. Once, I even caught him trying to lure them out because he was tired of being cooped up and eating bird feed. I never told the lady. I was scared she’d kick him out. I should’ve told her. I only covered for him because he was still my little brother… I thought I had to protect him, but it’s all my fault. The kids were scared of him. He kept hitting them when no one was looking. I knew he might do something awful while I was gone, but… they kept crying about being hungry…”

He sniffled mid-sentence, making parts of it hard to understand, but Sharhan got the gist. He didn’t press Peter for details. Instead, he focused on comforting the boy, gently rubbing his back.

“It wasn’t your fault. You made the best choice you could. You risked your life to go out and get food for your siblings. That took real courage.”

“But still…”

“I know losing them hurts. It’s awful. But if you stay stuck in grief like this, your remaining siblings will be heartbroken too. You have to look forward. The world out there is crawling with corpses and danger. If you let guilt drag you down and grow weak, how will you protect the ones who are still with you?”

Peter quietly looked back at his siblings, sniffled once, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and then downed the cold soup in one go.

Sharhan, who wasn’t good at comforting others, had been nervous inside, but felt relieved.

“I’ll protect the siblings I have left. They’re my family now, and I’m the eldest.”

“Good.”

“I want to grow up quickly and become a strong ally to Miss.”

“Yeah, that’s admirable.”

“It’d be nice if you… I mean, you hyungs could stay too. But you’re going to look for your sibling, right? Miss must be struggling too, since I’m still a kid and Mister Parel isn’t here.”

Sharhan’s hand curled into a fist at the sound of that name. He cautiously asked,

“…What did Mister Parel look like?”

Peter seemed surprised by the question, but answered without hesitation.

“Hmm? He was shorter than you, brother, with brown hair and slightly tanned skin. He taught me how to walk quietly without making noise. I’m not good at it yet, though.”

“I see.”

Sharhan had wondered if it might be someone else with the same name, but it was definitely the assassin, Parel.

‘Why did he go east instead of back to the capital?’

According to Ardelle, he had escaped alive. They might cross paths in Serman. If they did, Sharhan intended to repay the favor, fully.

“He was a good man. Really kind to us. He went out every day risking his life to bring food, hugged us at night to keep us warm, and even played with us. I hope he comes back alive…”

Sharhan now doubted whether the Parel Peter was talking about and the Parel he had once seen were truly the same person.

How could a man who sacrificed the entire empire in the name of vengeance be the same person who cared for children with such tenderness?

“Did he really say all that?”

“Yes. He told me that now our siblings are our real family, and I need to protect them well. That if we all stick together, there’s nothing we can’t do.”

“……”

“But I don’t think he’ll come back, even if he’s alive. He said he had something he absolutely had to do.”

Peter’s somber words brought back something Sharhan had heard from Ardelle.

‘She definitely said the marquis had returned with an important guest and shut the castle gates tight. Don’t tell me… that important guest was royalty? The emperor?’