Volume 4 Chapter 1: The Incident Occurred Suddenly Part II (2/2)

“… That’s true.”

As I thought, Mother was thinking the same thing as me. I give her a big nod of agreement.

“So I asked the servants about a lot of different things… then they said…”

“Then they said?”

Mother’s gaze sharpens. I automatically straighten up in response.

“Keith apparently had been spotted a number of times looking depressed lately, his expression dark.”

“Keith looking depressed?”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look depressed, but perhaps I just didn’t notice?

“That’s right. And everyone says that he almost always only looked depressed after he saw a certain someone.”

“What!? A certain someone!?”

Who could it be? Could that person have something to do with Keith’s worries? Then if we ask that person, we might learn something about his worries.

“Mother, just who is this person?”

“… It is…” Mother begins, pausing for a moment to stare at me before continuing, “… You, Katarina!”

She said the second statement firmly, as if she were a detective from a TV show that had found the culprit.

“… Wh – what!? Me!?”

My mouth drops open in my shock.

“That’s right, you, Katarina. According to the servants’ testimonies, lately Keith has apparently looked particularly depressed after speaking with you,” Mother says as if she were cornering in on the culprit of a crime.

“After speaking with me…”

He had listened to my grouching a lot lately… but had he seemed depressed? I think back… now that she mentions it, I do recall that he had seemed somehow pained the day before we came home.

“Oh, now that you mention it…”

“As I thought, you know what it may be,” says Mother at my comment, sighing deeply as if she were a policewoman that had wrangled out a confession from a criminal. Continuing, she declares loudly, “Keith did not run away from home because he could not bear the burden of his responsibilities as the heir to a Duke’s house. Keith ran away because babysitting you, Katarina, was too much for him to bear!”

“What, babysitting?”

Well, it’s true that he did always back me up and help me out in a lot of different ways… but babysitting?

“Keith became tired of having to take care of his useless stepsister for all these years. But since he’s a kind child, he couldn’t say straight-out that he hated his stepsister, so he wrote a letter like that…” says Mother, looking away with a pained expression.

“…”

Putting aside the babysitting and so on, it’s true that I’ve barged into his room and made him listen to my grouching a lot lately. Being told that he got tired because of that is making me think that may be so.

“… What should we do…?”

If Keith never came back, having drained all of his goodwill towards me…

At my downhearted state, Mother looks at me grimly and tightly grips my hands.

“There’s nothing we can do about what’s already happened. For now, apologize for everything you’ve done up until now. And tell him that you’ll do your best to avoid causing him trouble in the future. If he recognizes your genuine intentions, I’m sure he’ll forgive you – he’s a kind child.”

“… Mo – mother.”

To think that Mother would say something like that to me. I’m touched – my eyes get wet. I grip my mother’s hands right back.

“Mother, I will properly apologize to Keith! And I’ll go and tell him that I will do my best to avoid causing him trouble!” I say.

“Yes, do your best, Katarina!”

In this way, in one room in the Claes mansion, a mother-daughter pair, both a little off their heads, grip each other’s hands and cry out to each other.

************

Right then, let’s conduct a strategy meeting for bringing Keith back!

President: Katarina Claes, Vice-President: Katarina Claes, Secretary: Katarina Claes.

Very well then. Today, I would like to discuss strategies to have Keith return back home after he ran away. Everyone, please voice your opinions.

I would not call this my opinion exactly, but would it not be a good idea to apologize and promise to not cause him any trouble anymore like Mother suggested earlier?

Well, that is the basic idea, but I believe that it would be better to show our good faith in some way.

Good faith?

For example, doing something for him to make up for all the trouble we’ve caused him up until now?

Ooh, that is a very good idea. So then what would we do for him?

I have not thought about that yet!

… You shouldn’t say that so haughtily.

What if we gave him a present? Like sweets?

That sounds good, but would Keith be happy getting sweets?

Then perhaps new seedlings or fertilizer?

That’s just what Katarina wants, isn’t it.

Then perhaps tickets for shoulder massages or washing his back in the bath?

Father would probably be overjoyed, but would Keith? But it might be nice to demonstrate our gratitude for what he does for us every day by serving him well like that.

Well then, it’s decided! We’ll apologize to Keith to get him to come home, then serve him well with all our gratitude!

And we need to promise to not cause him trouble anymore.

That’s right. Let’s vow to no longer eat too much and get sick. Let’s also vow to be careful not to play inside after getting carried away, thus breaking things.

Alright, it’s perfect. Well then, all we need to do now is go to Keith.

That’s right!

… So, where is Keith?

!!!

!!!

We need to begin by searching for Keith, do we not?

Y – you’re very smart, Katarina Claes. It’s just as you say.

That’s true, let’s start by searching for Keith. Since he ran away from home, he’s probably not nearby… so we’ll need to set out on a journey in search of Keith.

A journey in search of Keith! Like in that anime 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, right!?

That’s right, but in search of our stepbrother rather than our mother.

… Well, to begin with then are we alright with deciding to set out on a journey in search of Keith?

Yes.

Yes.

And so, I resolved to set out on a journey to search for Keith.

************

The fact that I had decided to set out on a journey had leaked from somewhere… and for some reason, people showed up saying that they wanted to come along with me.

One was my fiancé Jared Stuart, who said that he would come along because he was worried about me. He wouldn’t listen to my objections and I couldn’t send him away.

Another was Lahna from the Ministry of Magic for some reason, who said “This is convenient – I can treat it as the training trip for new Ministry employees. Let me come along.”

I was surprised to hear there was a trip like that, but since things would probably go smoothly with a Ministry higher-up like Lahna coming along, I decided to ask her to come along.

So the new employees that Lahna was going to train, Maria and Sora, ended up coming along as well.

On a side note, the young man named Sora is the same person as Rufus, one of the culprits behind my kidnapping a little while back.

He helped out greatly with the kidnapping with his dark magic, but after bursting into tears and claiming that his master had threatened him, he was absolved of all charges. He, who had lived through such an unlucky childhood, was under custody by the Ministry of Magic.

Though well, when I actually interacted with him during the kidnapping incident he really didn’t seem like the type to burst into tears and claim that he was threatened…

Well anyways, through this and that, it was decided that a somewhat strange group consisting of me, Jared, Lahna, Maria, and Sora (Rufus) would set out on a journey in search of Keith.