I seriously don’t know what his problem is.

The others are acting normal now, but that bastard is still out of his mind. Does that make any sense?!

“Why are you being like this?”

“Like what?”

“I told you I’m not sick anymore.”

He isn’t the type to act like this, so I can’t figure out what he’s plotting.

I already knew he didn’t hate me to the point of disgust anymore like he used to.

Even so, this is too much. He would never do something like this. Never!

What was even funnier was how he kept avoiding eye contact like someone who’d done something wrong.

Ravi, you bastard—don’t tell me!

“Be honest, Brother. Did you do something behind my back?”

At Camilla’s question, Ravi stayed silent for a long time. Like it was hard to say, he kept irritably raking a hand back through his hair.

But when Camilla kept pressing him with that steady stare, he finally opened his mouth, reluctant.

“...Because I don’t want to.”

“What?”

“Because I don’t want to regret it! Why!”

“Regret?”

What is he talking about all of a sudden? Regret?

When she asked again with her eyes widened, he scrubbed at his hair again, annoyed.

She’d learned this not long ago—an old habit of Ravi’s. Whenever he was anxious or didn’t want to talk, he always roughly shoved his hair back like that.

Before, she thought he was just losing his temper, but that wasn’t it.

“Not sending you.”

“Send me? Me? Where?”

“...To that man.”

“That man?”

That man wh—wait. Don’t tell me...!

“The Duke of Escra?”

As if she’d guessed right, he clamped his mouth shut again.

“Hey! Why are you shutting up right now?!”

Do you want to watch someone die from frustration? What the hell are you talking about? Why is that man’s name coming up here?!

“Are you going to talk properly or not?”

“Ah, seriously! If that man had taken you, you wouldn’t have gotten sick!”

“What?”

“You...”

While Camilla was collapsed, those thoughts kept coming back.

If the Duke of Escra had taken her, wouldn’t she have never gotten that sick?

Was she getting swept into dangerous things over and over because she was here for no reason? 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

What happened at House Jevillan, too—and somehow, ever since she came back here, incidents and accidents never stopped. It was too strange.

Maybe it was because she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. That thought kept returning.

“I don’t have anything to say.”

“What do you mean, nothing to say?”

“To that man.”

What if this girl ended up going wrong because of this?

“Because I think I’d regret it.”

Holding on to you. Not sending you to that man.

Ravi’s head finally dropped with a dull slump.

THUNK!

“Ghk!”

But he had no choice but to lift his head right back up—clutching his stinging jaw and groaning.

“Hey! What the hell are you—!”

“What are you even saying, you idiot.”

Camilla had rammed her forehead straight into his jaw. Ravi, who had been complaining about the pain, had to snap his mouth shut.

Because she had planted a hand on her hip and was staring at him with an utterly dumbfounded look.

“In your eyes, do I look like some sweet, obedient little sister?”

“What?”

“Do I look like someone who goes when you tell me to go, and doesn’t go when you tell me not to?”

“That’s...”

...No.

“Idiot.”

“Hey!”

“Shut up! Want me to ram you again?”

“Ugh.”

Ravi rubbed his aching jaw and instinctively took a small step back.

“Seriously, you’re a genius at digging your own grave.”

What—if I trip while walking, you’ll say it’s your fault too?

Letting out a short sigh, Camilla sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him steadily. Under that gaze, Ravi furrowed his brow and averted his eyes.

Oh?

Now he’s embarrassed?

“This was my choice.”

“...You don’t regret it?”

Not following the Duke of Escra.

Ever since the man left, Ravi had wanted to ask every time he looked at Camilla.

Are you really okay? Do you really not regret not going with him?

In the end, he’d been too afraid of the answer to ask even once.

“I might.”

“What?”

“If you keep acting like an idiot, like you are right now.”

“.......”

She really did have endless ways to be ridiculous.

Ravi got unusually sullen for Ravi. Even when he was wrong, his specialty was being shameless to the end.

Seeing him looking that deflated, a laugh slipped out.

“Brother.”

No answer.

Camilla stood, walked up close, and met his eyes head-on.

Then, as he tried to turn away in a hurry, she quickly grabbed his cheeks with both hands and held him in place.

“What are you doing—!”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“.......”

“This is my home. And it will keep being my home.”

Unless they kick me out.

SQUEEEZE!

“A-Aaagh! Hey!”

Only after yanking his cheeks with all her strength did she let him go.

“So stop worrying about pointless things.”

“You—doing this to your brother!”

“Take this.”

“...What is it?”

“A Mana Stone that was discovered recently.”

“What?”

It was only about the size of an adult’s thumbnail. But the mana pouring out of it made Ravi’s eyes go wide.

It was one full step above the top-grade Mana Stones the Ghost Trading House dealt in.

“That really only comes out in extremely tiny amounts.”

That wasn’t a lie meant to raise the price. It was real. It had been discovered recently, and they still couldn’t even release it to the market.

The yield was truly that small. Right now, the only people who even knew this Mana Stone existed were the Duke of Sephra and Arsian—those two. Though as of today, one more person had been added.

“I’m leaving.”

Ravi vanished on the spot.

Casting teleportation magic without taking his eyes off the Mana Stone, he looked like a little kid who’d lost his mind over a new toy.

He probably wouldn’t come out of his laboratory for a while again.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s more like you, Brother Ravi.”

Thinking it was far better than him digging those ridiculous graves for himself, Camilla snorted a laugh again.

*****

BANG!

Late at night, with darkness settled thick, someone slipped out of the rear gate of House Sorpel with nimble movements.

“Whew.”

The one who let out a short sigh while looking back at the ducal estate he’d escaped was Jainer.

“Having a magician in the house is seriously inconvenient.”

With a capable magician like Ravi around, using a teleportation Mana Stone without being noticed was impossible. He’d sense the mana instantly.

It would be fun if I got caught, though.

Watching Camilla fret over whether the fact that he was the Master of Khan would be exposed was entertaining from the side.

If someone actually started suspecting him, he was genuinely curious how she would react—and whether she would take his side.

“Of course, I’d rather not be hated.”

In the end, Jainer had no choice but to get a certain distance away from House Sorpel before taking out the teleportation Mana Stone and using it.

WHOOSH.

But the instant he tried to use the stone, he twisted away and sprang out of place.

Because a sharp blade had pierced into the spot where he had been in an instant.

He flung himself back, but another blade stubbornly chased him. Only after dodging several more times did he finally manage to see his attacker’s face.

“For a joke, isn’t your Killing Intent a little too thick?”

Jainer lightly shook his head as if he were offended and tossed out a teasing remark.

“So it is you.”

But the other man looked like he had zero intention of trading jokes with him. In a cold voice, he lifted his sword again.

“It’s you, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘it’s me,’ but I’ll answer no for now.”

“It’s you. The guy who wore a mask back then.”

A Killing Intent–laced smile rose on Arsian’s face.

The guy he had met before, when he’d been tearing apart a Khan branch of assassins.

He hadn’t gotten a proper look because of the mask, but he remembered that voice perfectly.

“It’s not.”

“Not? Then you can die either way.”

“Hey. That’s not how this works.”

Dodging the attacks flying at him with agile movements, Jainer shouted in a hurry.

“I think there’s a misunderstanding!”

“Yeah? If there’s a misunderstanding, I’ll kill you first, then apologize.”

“Hey, °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° that’s really not how this works!”

As if he’d already decided, nothing else got through.

In an instant, black energy rippled around Arsian. Realizing Arsian was about to use magic too, Jainer shouted again, urgent.

“I’m Camilla’s brother!”

Arsian froze.

Oh.

So that’s the only thing that makes that man react?

“Then I can’t leave you alone even more.”

But as Arsian’s aura only grew fiercer, Jainer clicked his tongue lightly.

“No, why?!”

“Because a thing like you can’t be next to her.”

You shameless bastard. You think I don’t know why? Who do you think you’re saying you’ll stay beside?

“A guy who tried to kill her.”

“She knows too.”

Arsian, who had been about to cast an attack spell while pouring out thick Killing Intent, halted.

“...She knows?”

“She knows. Because I already told her.”

More precisely, Camilla figured out his identity first, but that isn’t the important part right now, is it?

“You think I’m going to believe that?”

“You can go ask Camilla right now.”

“.......”

What mattered was that at the words that Camilla already knew everything, Arsian’s Killing Intent visibly eased.

“And she still just lets you be?”

“Because I’m her brother.”

Jainer put particular force into the word “brother.”

“.......”

Maybe it worked. Arsian’s gaze was still sharp, but his pressure softened compared to before.

“Tsk.”

In the end, Arsian clicked his tongue and even sheathed the sword he’d been holding.

If she decided to leave that bastard alone, she must have her reasons. There was no reason for him to step in.

“What? Is it over?”

Arsian didn’t answer. He just turned away.

He didn’t like that bastard before, and he didn’t like him now—but there was nothing more to do.

Slimy bastard.

Even just now, he hadn’t gone all out while facing him.

On the surface, he acted like it was hard, like he was struggling, but Arsian wasn’t someone who couldn’t read the ease hidden inside.

Jainer’s ability wasn’t something to dismiss—he could tell just by the way Jainer had dodged his sword a moment ago.

“Ha.”

Watching Arsian walk away like that, a hollow laugh spilled from Jainer’s mouth.