EEA Chapter 30

Cyril Elgar Yuliana, lord of Yuliana Castle, could not understand at all how his beloved younger sister, who had been the Crown Prince's fiancée, had become the wife of Clint Rishers de Excalize, who was notorious as a womanizer. He had been planning to visit her one day anyway, so now seemed like the right time. Until now, Ailea had absolutely forbidden him from coming, so he had only been biding his time, but in such an absurd situation, he felt he needed to be somewhat unreasonable.

Cyril entered the Imperial Castle Calise first with cold eyes.

Emperor Murray had Cyril, who had requested an audience, enter his office. A young man with platinum hair and sky-blue eyes, exactly like Ailea's, walked toward him with a polite greeting.

The Emperor was very troubled about how to treat him. As compensation for Cyril's father, he had brought Ailea to the Imperial Castle and arranged her marriage with the Crown Prince. But now that his younger sister had gone to an entirely unexpected border region, Cyril was surely angry.

Murray, whose health had been deteriorating lately, gradually became afraid of this hot-blooded young man's anger.

"You came, Cyril."

Remembering when he had seen him as a very young child when he came to the Imperial Castle, Murray called him familiarly as if it were a private occasion, and Cyril immediately asked,

"What happened? Why is my younger sister in Excalize instead of the Imperial Castle?"

"Won't you sit down first? I have something to explain."

"Yes."

Cyril plopped down in the chair.

"Please explain."

Then Murray smiled familiarly and said,

"You know that your sister contracted an illness, don't you?"

"Yes, I heard the news."

Cyril looked at the Emperor as if asking what that had to do with anything. While Teniac had strong imperial authority, the power of the nobles who guarded each castle was not weak either. Above all, it was Teniac's moral code that even the Emperor should not insult a family.

Murray tried to appease Cyril.

"To put it bluntly, I judged that Ailea would not be able to maintain a good relationship with my son. But Clint is different. That fellow has a fundamentally different attitude toward women. He's a womanizer who loves all women."

"Yes."

"I thought living with that womanizer would be happier than living with my son, who wouldn't even look at an ugly woman. Isn't that right? How could a woman who contracted such an illness receive love?"

At the toothless tiger's cunning persuasion, the young Cyril thought for a moment, then muttered,

"Your Majesty."

"Yes."

"So you're saying my younger sister doesn't deserve to be loved?"

Cyril asked the Emperor. When the Emperor had no answer, he said cynically, "Surely I must have misunderstood?"

At Cyril's smile, Murray instinctively knew that if his son became king, he would never be able to maintain a good relationship with that Cyril Elgar Yuliana.

When Murray calculated in his head, Yuliana Castle was located relatively close to the Imperial Castle. However, Excalize Castle was very far from the Imperial Castle.

But if Yuliana and Excalize joined hands, extending Excalize's influence to areas close to the Imperial Castle, it would surely threaten the power of the next emperor, Roylin.

Murray realized that his love for his son had blinded him and led him to make the wrong choice. Cyril stood up from his seat.

"Then I'll be going, Your Majesty."

"Why don't you have a cup of tea?"

Through Murray's words, Cyril could vaguely guess what kind of treatment Ailea had received in this Imperial Castle. Above all, it was certain that she had received no love from the Crown Prince whatsoever. He answered,

"No. Thank you for taking care of my lacking younger sister until now, and for thinking of that child's future and sending her elsewhere."

"......"

"Thank you for taking care of our family until now, Your Majesty."

To Emperor Murray, Cyril's polite final greeting sounded like a warning not to touch his family in the future. Murray was certain that it probably really meant that.

Cyril immediately rode his horse toward Excalize Castle. To return to Yuliana as quickly as possible, he rode alone without any entourage. At the news that Cyril was coming, Ailea came out to the front of the castle with her still feverish body to wait for her older brother whom she hadn't seen for seven years.

"I wonder if he'll be able to make it safely on such a long journey..."

As she looked anxiously toward the grassland, Clint asked,

"Aren't you being too anxious? Lord Cyril is twenty-one this year, right? He's the same age as Kaiton."

"Is that so?"

Ailea's eyes widened. In her mind, Cyril was fourteen years old, a mischievous boy. He didn't match at all with Kaiton, who was an adult man. Ailea soon smiled and answered,

"Brother Cyril is a very mischievous little child."

"Really?"

While Clint was feeling relieved, a young man riding a horse could be seen in the distance. The horse seemed to appear and then approached right in front of them in an instant. Ailea was dazed, wondering what was happening.

The person approaching was not the prankster she remembered. Rather, he resembled her father Ron.

Clint was even more surprised by that appearance. Clint, reminded of the strict Captain Ron, tensed up habitually and said to Ailea,

"...You lied to me."

"It wasn't a lie..."

"You said he was cute! You said he was a little child! You said he was mischievous!"

"That was seven years ago..."

Clint was rarely overwhelmed by others' presence. But the reason he felt crushed now was solely because his opponent was the older brother that his wife had missed so dearly. It was strange. Clint was slightly afraid of being disliked by Cyril.

Because Ailea said her older brother was playful and cute, Clint had thought he would get along well with him. The rumor that the lord of Yuliana Castle was strict must be wrong, his sister must be right, he had thought, but it was completely different. His sister was completely wrong.

Cyril, who had ridden right up to the two of them, dismounted from his horse. He looked at Ailea with an expressionless face as he got off his horse. He was a man with a cold face who seemed like he had lived with an expressionless demeanor all along. With his icy face slightly frowning, he examined Ailea's face.

He had hoped it wouldn't be true, but it was her. She hadn't grown much even compared to seven years ago. His beloved younger sister Ailea, who had left for the Imperial Castle alone at only thirteen years old without a single adult. Cyril asked first,

"Why is your body like this?"

"Brother Cyril, you should greet me first."

"Ah, sorry."

Cyril, who had hastily examined Ailea's condition first, bowed at the waist to greet her.

"It's been a long time, Lady Ailea Rishers de Excalize."

"Yes. Thank you for coming, Lord Cyril Elgar Yuliana."

Ailea also curtsied and bowed her head in greeting. And before she could even lift her head, Cyril grabbed Ailea's arm and asked,

"Since when?"

"At the Imperial Castle... I somehow contracted an illness."

"How is this something you 'somehow' contracted?"

How could an illness contracted 'somehow' be this serious? Cyril sincerely thought it was fortunate that he had come instead of the hot-tempered Sophie. If Sophie had seen her older sister's condition, she might have immediately led soldiers to the Imperial Castle to settle the matter.

Ailea, whom he met after seven years, was even running a fever. Only then did Cyril turn his attention to Clint. As Cyril stood with his mouth shut, waiting for the Grand Duke's greeting, Clint extended his hand for a handshake.

"Welcome, Lord Cyril. I was actually about to send you an invitation soon."

"How do you do."

Cyril answered politely.

Ailea looked at Cyril with amazement, marveling at how much the height difference had grown compared to when they were young. To save the nervous Clint, she changed the subject.

"Brother Cyril, did you really leave Yuliana Castle to Sophie? To that young child?"

When Ailea nagged him like seven years ago, Cyril said as if annoyed,

"Sophie also turned eighteen a few days ago, so there's nothing to worry about. She's much more mature than you. Why are you so thin? Why haven't you grown at all in height? Was such a small child born into our family?"

At Cyril's counterattack, Ailea pressed her lips tightly together. Cyril, who had been endlessly stiff toward Clint, had a softer tone with Ailea.

"But why do you have such a fever? Is it because of the illness?"

"Huh? Oh, no, that's not it..."

"Why?"

"I'm a bit tired..."

As Ailea's face reddened with embarrassment, Clint's eyes moved frantically beside her. Cyril immediately sensed that this man was somehow responsible for Ailea's body ache. Cyril looked at Clint expressionlessly and said,

"It seems you bear some responsibility, my lord."

"No. My lady simply has weak stamina."

"Are you even making excuses about my younger sister? Why don't you settle this with me first?"

Cyril, who had been guarding the castle and suppressing the rebellion of relatives and surrounding vassals who coveted his territory since he was fourteen, was much more mature than Clint. At Cyril's words, Clint said with a serious expression,

"I refuse. I think I'll just get beaten one-sidedly."

"I'm suggesting we have a conversation."

"I can't hear you."

Clint said firmly. Cyril, whom he met after a long time, still adored his younger sister terribly, and Clint, who would naturally overpower Cyril with force, somehow couldn't assert himself against his wife's real older brother. Ailea broke into a cold sweat at the completely unexpected meeting between the two men.

For Cyril, who had come a long way in a hurry, the three of them immediately had a meal and soon had tea time. At Cyril's words that he wanted to learn about castle wall and military management, Clint felt like he was being tested and ran outside, saying he would go look around first.

Neither Ailea nor Cyril were particularly talkative, so for siblings meeting after seven years, they weren't very chatty. She spoke in a deliberately brighter voice,

"It's somehow unfair that everyone except me has grown so much."

"Isn't it that you'll grow if you eat well from now on?"

"Hmm, I think it's already too late."

Ailea smiled broadly. Ailea, who hadn't grown properly since she was thirteen because she had no one to depend on, made Cyril's heart ache. Ailea asked,

"It must have been very difficult when uncle passed away too, right? When father went to the battlefield, he always took care of the castle. Even after father passed away, he sometimes helped."

At her question, Cyril was silent for a moment before opening his mouth.

"I couldn't write to you because I was worried you'd be concerned, but uncle tried to kill me. To take over the territory. He passed away after being counterattacked by Sophie and me."

"What?"

Ailea's body stiffened at the terrible story. She asked, "Why didn't you tell me such a thing?"

"Did you? Did you give us even a single word while you got this seriously ill?"

Cyril asked back calmly. Ailea couldn't answer.

‘If I had been loved more by the Crown Prince, my family wouldn't have had to suffer like this.’ As if knowing that Ailea was falling into such thoughts, Cyril changed the subject.

"Are there any other guys who have this illness? People with this disease."

"Ah, my husband used detoxification magic to take some of this poison from my face. So that person's left hand is black."

At Ailea's worried words, Cyril's expression softened a little. He felt that Clint cherished her much more than he had feared. Indeed, just looking at the two of them together, Clint was considerate toward Ailea, and he clearly showed signs of trying to make a good impression on Cyril, who was Ailea's older brother.

Cyril thought that the happiness Ailea had written about in her letters might be real this time.