SN Chapter 4

When Kallix snapped urgently out of his reverie, she was also staring at him. As if she'd known from the start that he'd been watching. In one dark corner of the corridor, Rosaline's eyes were shining. Kallix moved his feet and approached Rosaline slowly.

"Mother has returned. She wishes to have lunch together."

Rosaline brightened. Surely it was 'lunch,' not 'mother,' that stirred her heart. When Kallix extended his hand, she grasped it and rose promptly.

"Kallix, let's go together."

'Let's go together,' was it? He gave a bitter smile. Truly remarkable learning speed.

"Is this all right?"

Kallix's aide, Alter, asked in an emotionless voice. Before going to lunch, Rosaline had entered her room to change out of her nightclothes and arrange her hair. The two men waited in a nearby reception room. Alter was fiddling with the wooden pieces on the Othello board placed on the table. Just when it seemed he was asking to play a game, he was drawing a heart shape with the black pieces. It was impossible to understand what he was doing.

"The Count of Redvielle's eldest daughter went missing, and she doesn't know. She was injured, and she doesn't know. She returned, and she doesn't know. And you don't even plan to tell her for now? She'll be tremendously hurt, you know."

The Countess of Redvielle. Edelweiss.

She'd learned of her daughter's disappearance only two days ago. Even when Rosaline had been missing for six days, even when she'd received treatment in Iron-Bramble County, and even after she'd returned to the Redvielle estate, Edelweiss hadn't known any of these facts.

She'd been staying at Count Redvielle's villa, which sat quite far from Ester with a view of the sea. She had no particular illness, but she constantly collapsed and was constantly unwell, so under the name of recuperation, she spent more than half the year there.

Kallix had recently received news that Edelweiss had collapsed. He couldn't possibly tell her in that situation that his sister had gone missing and the count's household was preparing white mourning cloths. I'll contact her when we find Rosaline, I'll contact her if it seems she might survive, I'll contact her when she comes home, I'll contact her when she opens her eyes—he'd kept putting it off until finally contacting her three days ago, and the news had reached her two days prior.

Of course, even conveying that news had required omitting all descriptions of how she'd nearly died or had been in an extremely dangerous situation, condensing it to: There was a slightly unpleasant incident at the hunting competition, so she's recuperating at home while stabilizing her mind and body. If he'd told her everything as it was, she would certainly have fainted.

"You didn't tell her that either?"

"What."

"That Miss's head is a bit."

Kallix's eyes flashed fierce blue. Her head is what. My sister's head is what. What. His expression promised an untimely death if even one strange word emerged.

"...Her head has... become... a bit... adorable."

"..."

Kallix fell silent. Alter read affirmation in that silence. A sigh escaped naturally. The road ahead stretched thousands upon thousands of miles.

Rosaline soon came out after changing clothes. Though she still had bandages wrapped in several places, the long sleeves mostly concealed them. The small scratches on her face were no different from what she'd always carried from her work with the knight order. Her disheveled hair was now gathered and neatly arranged, and she wore a dress. It was the first proper appearance he'd seen in a while.

Kallix and Alter's gazes traveled down her body and settled on her feet, hidden by the dress. A quick-witted maid lifted the hem of Rosaline's dress slightly. They saw polished shoe toes and nodded. Mm, she's wearing shoes too.

"Our Young Lady looks completely proper!"

Kallix's elbow struck Alter's ribs fiercely. Alter collapsed with a urk sound. Kallix trampled the thing squirming on the floor and extended his hand toward Rosaline.

"Shall we go, Sister? Mother is waiting."

"Yes, Kallix."

The change over one week was remarkable. Unlike the first day when she'd spoken in short, clipped words, she was beginning to regain her former appearance at an astonishing speed. Sometimes female speech patterns, sometimes male speech patterns, sometimes formal, sometimes informal—though she changed haphazardly depending on what she'd heard that day, just having progressed from individual words to constructing sentences was remarkable development. The butler praised her until his mouth wore out, saying an unprecedented genius had emerged in their family. Kallix thought this household's atmosphere was truly excessive.

Even so, she was still far from adequate. She was like a child whose mouth had just opened, mindlessly repeating words she heard. To the level where others would immediately sense something wrong if they saw her. However, she'd been a person of few words and quiet nature from before, so for the brief time of a meal, she should be able to get by with simple answers. No—she had to.

"If Mother speaks to you?"

"Yes, or no."

"When you eat?"

"Must use fork and knife and spoon."

"Excellent."

Kallix entered the place where his mother waited, watching Rosaline's confident expression. Shattering light from the chandelier, the banquet hall made splendid with considerable effort for the countess's return. Rosaline was looking around at the scene with audible whoosh-whoosh head turns.

Kallix warmly embraced the brown-haired woman rising from her seat. She too held her son, whom she was seeing after several months, tightly in her arms. She soon also embraced Rosaline firmly, then grabbed her face and began examining it everywhere.

"My Rose. Your face is too damaged. Does it still hurt badly? Are you all right?"

"Yes."

"Really, what is this on a lady's face? I told you to quit that knight order immediately!"

"No."

She'd consumed both usable answers immediately upon meeting. Kallix hastily intervened to mediate between the two.

"Mother! You've worked hard coming such a long way! You must be tired, please sit down first."

"Yes, yes. I was holding onto my injured child and nagging again. Let's sit."

"Yes."

Rosaline answered very diligently indeed. The instruction that 'you must respond when someone speaks to you for conversation to occur' was demonstrating tremendous effectiveness. His sister seemed not to forget once she was taught something.

Though it had been crash short-term education, Rosaline used the fork and knife quite competently. Kallix gazed wistfully at the traces of his tearful efforts. However, to Edelweiss, who remembered the Rosaline of before, it must have seemed quite inadequate. Though she didn't voice reproach aloud, she showed her uncomfortable feelings with slight frowns. That she opened her mouth too wide, that the sound of chewing food was too loud. If Rosaline weren't currently injured and recuperating, she would have heard several words long ago.

Clatter.

The sound of Rosaline setting down her spoon echoed loudly through the quiet space. Edelweiss's brow twitched. Kallix watched this and exhaled a sigh. He'd planned to inform her of Rosaline's condition slowly, but it seemed he'd need to move up that timeline more than expected.

"Mother."

"What is it, Kallix?"

"I have something to tell you."

"Yes, but let me speak first. Rose?"

Rosaline answered "Yes" with food in her mouth. Edelweiss's expression crumpled sharply. She looked as if she wanted to say immediately, 'How... such... ill-mannered behavior!'

"A girl going outside every single day, getting injured while doing knight order this and that. This time too. Do you know your mother constantly worries with anxiety?"

"No."

Kallix squeezed his eyes shut. His sister's honesty was dizzying. While Edelweiss sat bewildered, he hastily added words.

"Mother, Sister is..."

"No, never mind. I see. You've been away from home and felt quite neglected. You're my child born from my own womb—how could I not worry, Rose?"

"Yes."

"You don't know how shocked I was when I heard you were injured this time. A child who'd go to work even with a broken arm—what kind of trouble happened that there's talk of you resting at home?"

"Yes."

"So before I left the villa, this mother looked into various things. You've reached the age to form a household..."

"Mother!"

Kallix stood up abruptly. Though it was an agenda she always kept on her lips, these weren't proper words to say to a sister who'd nearly died. Of course, as a parent, it might be natural to wish her daughter would put down dangerous swords and marry into a good house to live comfortably. But not even once had Rosaline wanted that. Because their ideals were so vastly different, the two had clashed repeatedly.

In an era when women received titles, when women became merchants, when women took up swords, Edelweiss was excessively old-fashioned. Moreover, Edelweiss's homeland was the Kingdom of Lagosue, a nation with a longer reign of queens than any other country on the continent.

"This doesn't seem like the time to bring this up."

"Anyone would think I'm telling you to get married, Cal. Who said to meet right now? Rest a bit, and once your body recovers, just meet once. At that lovely age, what a waste, really. Would this mother not have found someone suitable? He's a young count at thirty-one with excellent business acumen, and I heard his character is outstanding too. When I said I had to return to Ester, he gave me a very precious gem excavated from the Eastern Continent. Once you're engaged, I'll have a ring made with it for our Rose..."

Edelweiss couldn't finish her words. It was because of Rosaline, who'd been steadfastly eating her meal despite the conversation revolving around her. More precisely, her method of eating was the problem. The moment she picked up bread that had just fallen on the floor and casually tore into it, eating with relish, the entire gathering fell silent.

The frozen Kallix covered his face with his hand and let out a rare sound of distress, while Alter, watching from behind, shook his head slowly... slowly... Come to think of it, there certainly hadn't been any content during etiquette education about not picking up dropped food.

They hadn't even thought such education would be necessary in the first place.