Chapter 1 (2/2)

He went ahead and asked Father for knowledge and requested Alan-ojisan, who it seems had been a knight back in the old days, to personally instruct him on things like swordsmans.h.i.+p and martial arts.

While doing those things, his good looks became even more refined.

When I asked why he decided to do those things, Reiss evaded the question with a vague answer of 「…I just felt like it」, but when I asked Alan-ojisan, he broke out into a good-natured smile and told me in private.

「He said, 『I want to become strong enough to protect Su』」

「… protect me?」

「Yeah. I was surprised when he bowed his head and asked me to teach him how to use a sword. That rebellious brat… to think, he’s become a boy that’s totally devoted to you, Sulia-chan」

Alan-ojisan gave a hearty laugh and added, 「Ah, keep the fact that I said this to you a secret! That guy has forbidden me from telling you, 『don’t ever tell Su!』, he said」, but I didn’t have the composure to reply to that with a joke.

After all, my heart was thumping hard and loud.

…Before I knew it, I started to have a mild infatuation with Reiss, who was gradually starting to mature into someone strong and cool.

I loved that moment when his expressionless face brightens faintly when I call him by his name, 「Reiss」.

I’m sure Reiss only directed affections for me, the girl closest to him, as an imprinting mechanism. I can guess that 『wanting to protect me』 was probably a sentiment similar to that of familial love.

But, even so, that had been alright.

No matter what, neglible as it may be, I was the person closest to him.

After all, to Reiss, that had been considerably 『special』.

Th…that’s right.

At the time, we did get along. We got along so much that Alan-ojisan had jokingly hurled, 「I guess Sulia-chan is going to be Reiss’s bride soon」 with a smile. So much that when Father heard it, he replied 「No, I won’t allow it, I absolutely won’t allow it」 with a serious look.

We spent a lot of time together that we even knew all the habits and weaknesses of the other. We shared our embarra.s.sing muck ups with each other. He was not a talker. But only with me would he engage in pleasantly childish conversations.

Even if others saw it, the relations.h.i.+p between me and Reiss should have been one where we mutually treasured each other even if the sort of sentiment directed at me was different.

——- that relations.h.i.+p, like a thread coming undone, slowly crumbled.

Just when had our relations.h.i.+p started to crumble to the point where he’d spit out insults like that?

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