YMPDKMA Chapter 32

I hadn't intended it, but I sounded exactly like a jealous sister-in-law interrogating someone. I cleared my throat to make my voice as gentle as possible. Just because Riche and I had grown distant didn't mean Rehan needed to cut ties with her too. No—Rehan might still think she and I were close.

"Didn't Riche tell you?"

"It's been quite a while since I've seen Riche."

"I didn't know lady's maid work was that busy."

He seemed unaware that Riche wouldn't see me anymore. I felt a bit dazed as I fiddled with the chopsticks on the table.

"Do you meet often? With Riche?"

"His Grace is very interested in the military academy. It seems he comes to investigate frequently."

"Is that sooo?"

Rehan looked at me—deliberately drawing out my words—with confused eyes. But the one who's truly confused is me. I never dreamed Riche would visit Rehan at the academy this routinely, like eating meals. She'd been my friend, not Rehan's. At least as far as I knew. I only knew they were acquaintances who'd met. Who knew they were building a friendship in secret?

I had no reason to dislike Riche and Rehan becoming close, so why hide it? I recalled her expression—cold as ice—and the clumsy smile she'd forced to hide that coldness. She'd wanted to ask me something. Something related to Rehan. Riche said that question wasn't about me, but since I'm his only sister, she couldn't completely exclude me from his affairs.

While I pondered the rest of the question Riche had left unfinished, the server boy who'd been friendly with Rehan brought two steaming bowls of wheat noodles. The noodles coiled in round bundles and submerged in milky meat broth in the deep bowls looked quite appetizing. There was a decent amount of meat on top of the noodles, releasing a savory smell. The server boy winked at me with a slightly boastful face.

"You're cute, miss, so I put in extra meat."

"Ah, thank you."

He didn't even hear my thanks before Rehan grabbed him by the scruff and dragged him away. The boy didn't back down and blinked his other eye.

"Dietrich's a playboy, miss! A real man should be like me..."

"Want to get hit before you leave?"

When Rehan growled low, the boy finally straightened his collapsed posture and made his escape. I giggled at his flustered retreating figure. I absolutely wasn't swayed by compliments.

"He's cute. What's his name?"

"...You think that's cute?"

"Yeah. He seems innocent."

"He's someone who got expelled from the academy before finishing even one semester. Don't pay him any attention."

"You shouldn't talk about your friend like that."

"We're absolutely not friends."

Rehan wrinkled his brow like he was disgusted, then picked up his chopsticks and loosened the noodles in the broth. I picked up the wooden chopsticks following his example, but I had no idea how to use them. Chopsticks were an invention from An at the western edge of the continent—in Belnerny, only commoners used them. Naturally, Madam Chrissie never taught me how to use chopsticks.

As I hesitated and glanced at how Rehan held his chopsticks, he chuckled and pushed his well-mixed noodles toward me.

"Please eat."

"I was about to mix mine. Right now!"

"I know."

Good thing he knows. I shamelessly switched my noodles—which had clumped together instead of mixing with the broth—with Rehan's.

"What do you talk about when you meet Riche?"

"Nothing particularly special."

"Don't you talk about me?"

"I did ask how you were doing."

"No, not that. Does Riche know some secret of yours that I don't?"

"What do you mean?"

Oh no. He really doesn't know anything. I need to see Riche. It's unavoidable now. Rehan lifted his head with a puzzled look at why I kept asking about him and Riche, then gazed somewhat pitifully at his inadequate older sister who couldn't even eat the noodles he'd mixed so well for her.

"...Should I ask for a fork?"

"No! I can eat!"

They looked simple—just thin sticks—but I didn't understand why they were so difficult to use. I glared at the chopsticks that kept slipping from my hands, then stuck them in the bowl and twirled. Finally the noodles wound satisfactorily around the chopsticks. Didn't seem like the proper method, but there's an old saying: doesn't matter which way you go as long as you reach Champagne.

"See, this works, right?"

But having to wind noodles around chopsticks with every bite meant I ate at a noticeably slower pace compared to Rehan, who scooped them up smoothly. Rehan had already finished his noodles and only had broth left—he sat there blankly watching me struggle to roll up wheat noodles.

He hadn't said anything about what time he needed to be back today, so I didn't rush. I ignored him and focused on eating noodles when I heard a deflating laugh from across the table. Rehan's nose twitched as he bent his head at an angle. I felt a bit offended and put down my chopsticks.

"Why are you laughing!"

"No, you're just eating so earnestly."

"Should I eat carelessly instead of earnestly?"

"I'm glad it suits your taste."

Rehan didn't hide his lingering smile as he picked up his chopsticks and reached toward my bowl. Thinking he'd finished his own and now wanted to covet my noodles, I frowned—but contrary to my mean expectations, he picked up a few strands of remaining noodles and put them in my mouth.

Convenient, sure. But somehow it felt like a familiar scene. Rehan's expression closely resembled Tori's when she fed the raccoon. Indignant at my brother treating me like an animal, I wound the remaining noodles around the chopsticks all at once.

"Isn't that too much?"

"My mouth's really big."

Boasting about such a worthless trait, I stuffed the noodle clump into my mouth in one go. Rehan looked down disapprovingly as I even lifted the bowl and gulped down the broth.

"If you eat like that, Madam Chrissie will scold you."

"I just won't eat like this in front of her, right?"

I spoke boldly and thunk! set down the empty bowl on the table. Without being asked, Rehan paid. I didn't want to make my little brother spend his pocket money, but the price was cheap so I let it go without complaint.

Full from warm noodles, in a good mood about returning to the palace—when a particularly brilliant blonde caught my eye in the darkness that had settled over the street.

Blonde wasn't unusual. But such a dazzling shade was definitely rare. Without thinking, I left Rehan behind and ran into the alley. My eyes hadn't deceived me—the owner of that blonde hair was a boy I knew very well.

A boy. He was. Rupert was facing a vicious-looking man in a boy's form. I'd spotted Rupert, but Rupert hadn't spotted me. I thought for just a moment he'd seen me—because beyond that mountain-sized man who looked like a huge boulder, his face had turned displeased.

That brief expression change became meaningless as Rupert quickly returned to an impassive face. Setting aside the crown prince from the past I'd encountered, I held my breath for a moment at this boyish appearance of his I was seeing for the first time. Watching him in a state where he hadn't noticed me, I realized a new facet of him.

Whether it was new or his true nature wasn't certain. But it was very different from Princess Lapherte, whom I knew well. Rupert was no longer splendid. Instead, he looked terribly exhausted.

He still had features distinct and handsome enough to be called beautiful, but he looked tired enough that all that brilliance was hidden by the worn brown robe he wore. If a person could die from overwork, they'd have exactly that face. Worn like a sculpture crushed and trampled by fatigue.

I was shocked that Rupert—still just a child—had such a face. An appearance so removed from the painted beauty and elegance of Princess Lapherte that no one would recognize him now. Only because it was me could I spot him.

I'd recognized him almost unconsciously. Few people were as conscious of young Rupert as I was right now. I was conscious of him when sleeping and waking, when thinking and acting—every moment. Because how he thought, what plans he made, what actions he'd take next—all of it was crucial to Bellua's future.

But I hadn't even known Rupert wandered back alleys looking like this. Realizing that, deep self-reproach flooded in. I hadn't utilized the opportunity I'd barely grasped to this extent. Every day just looking back at the past in reminiscence. Too afraid of Rupert to resist, hating him too much to properly cling to him.

I took one step toward that direction as if entranced.

"Sister."

The one who caught me moving involuntarily like I was being manipulated was Rehan. He'd read the confusion rising on my face.

"What did you see?"