Please Endure It! Please Hold On!
Karl. My brother. Cute little brother since childhood, and still cute as an adult.
Every time I close my eyes, I remember the old days when he would come running to me with “Noona!” and hug me tightly.
How much of a spoiled brat he was, more than my father or mother, he was the one I loved the most.
Time passed, and even though he was a year older than me, Karl was still Karl.
I don’t know how much my heart ached when I heard that this guy had suddenly enlisted as a soldier.
He must not get hurt. Please, I hope he just gives up and comes back.
Even if I had to use any means, I wanted to pull him out of the training camp and keep him by my side.
In the meantime, my father didn’t know my feelings and just said “Son, hang in there!”
My mother also respected Karl’s decision and tried to look fine.
Finally, Her Highness the Princess told me to “please endure it,” so I endured.
At first, I thought it would be fine. But right after that, the war broke out.
The radical faction of the elves, the hawks, Luzens. They caused trouble one way or another.
And in that war, our Karl unfortunately ended up going.
After that, until the war ended, I was tormented by nightmares almost every day for three years.
Every time I heard the sound of “Noona” calling for Karl, I woke up drenched in sweat.
Was he eating well? Had he not gotten badly hurt? Every day was hell.
Time passed, and finally the war ended. And Karl’s suffering ended too.
I no longer had nightmares. Finally, my brother came back.
One day, somehow, the Princess who had gotten close to me told me the news.
“Your brother will be a Medal of Honor recipient, Ricata.”
It was surprising. What did that mean? Why our Karl?
It turned out this guy had done something huge but kept it secret.
At first, I was a bit upset, but soon I understood. There must be a reason for Karl to do that.
What I had to do was hug our hardworking brother tightly and say well done.
But our proud brother did another big feat after receiving the Medal of Honor.
He stopped a train hijacking. It could have led to terrorism.
Alone, he suppressed the Luzens elves and saved countless people.
Once this Karl’s deeds were known, everyone applauded our brother.
Good. Happy. It was so happy that our Karl became a proud person.
It was a bit disappointing that he didn’t tell me about that incident either, but…
But to this brother of mine. To our Karl, the greatest in the world.
“He deserves to be chewed up! That human! Karl, right?! I will curse him even after death! You damn Empire’s bastard! Enemy who killed our own people! Fall to hell!”
“…?”
A moment later.
After coming to my senses, I found myself giving flowers to the Gganfs.
*
In the end, the train hijacking and terrorism suspects confessed to everything.
From their names, ages, where they lived, to the reasons for selecting the target and the rough command structure.
Why they volunteered for such things and the process they went through to get here! Everything!
“With a bit of exaggeration, they were about to spill their underwear colors too?”
When Ricata noona asked one thing, the guys automatically answered in sequence.
They wanted to say more, but since they didn’t know what to say, they were just shivering.
“Is that all? Nothing more?”
“Yes, yes! Really nothing more! Really!”
“Hmm.”
“S-Sorry! Sorry! Please spare me. Please spare me!”
So? When I was being nice, if I had read the atmosphere, there wouldn’t have been such things.
At least, don’t insult me in front of noona. Now I’m feeling sorry for nothing.
“Good. This is enough to be useful. Ah, that thing stuck in your shoulders. I’ll pull it out for you.”
“Eh? T-This? W-We?”
The Gganfs who were protesting were looking at noona with a serious expression, and they answered loudly “I’ll do it!”
And then, they pulled out the knives stuck in their own shoulders and handed them to noona.
It must have hurt, but they couldn’t even scream.
Instead, they had a relieved expression on their faces saying “We survived!”
It was a moment when the proverb “Words are good, but words and bayonets are more effective” came to mind.
“As expected, the Blade Queen….”
Meanwhile, Eloise was muttering with a look of admiration.
Hey. Stop using that title. Even in another world, it keeps bothering me.
And I don’t want to imagine my noona’s hair turning into a wig!
Clang—
“Karl. Noona’s here!”
“Eh, eh… I’m here, noona?”
There was a slight sense of cognitive dissonance, but if I did that, noona would definitely scold me… Hold on! Hold on!
Think positively. “G. Karl. Come here.” is a legendary blunder compared to this?
“Still, it’s fortunate that the Gganfs who can’t communicate are not the ones who can’t communicate.”
“Th-That?”
“Yeah. I’ve seen a few guys who really can’t communicate. Noona gave them chances a lot at first, but those who wouldn’t talk wouldn’t talk even if you gave them a hundred chances.”
“…”
Is that hundred chances the one I was thinking of?
I glanced sideways at Eloise next to me. Meaning, is my thought correct?
Then, the one who seemed to know my noona better than me closed her eyes.
Click—
…So that’s what I thought. It’s not two times like before, but a hundred times?
The ridiculous title “Blade Queen” wasn’t made for nothing.
From now on, I have to listen to noona well. I already listened well, but even more so.
Whether I marry or not, if a child is born, I’ll warn them to be polite to their aunt.
Whether I become an aunt or a child, I want to avoid the future of being a hedgehog.
“Ugh.”
“S-Survived…”
Meanwhile, the two Gganfs were bleeding from both shoulders.
And at the same time, tears of emotion were streaming from both eyes as they left the interrogation room.
It looked painful, but probably the relief of surviving was greater.
“Are you okay, noona?”
“Huh? What do you mean, Karl?”
“No… Even though it was interrogation, having a knife stuck in the shoulder is a bit…”
Noona was from the Special Operations Execution Department, but she was former, not current.
So, it could be seen as a noble inserting themselves into official duties and “torturing” a “prisoner”.
“Ah, don’t worry. The Special Intelligence Agency said it was a ‘minor incident caused by excessive resistance of the interrogation subjects during interrogation’.”
“Eh? That works?”
“You know where noona worked. Since they know each other well with the Special Intelligence Agency, there are many people who have been watching since then. Of course, high rank. So they cover for each other!”
“…”
“Since they said they would handle it, there’s nothing for our Karl to worry about. Hehe! More importantly, noona was worrying so much? Huh? Hey, our Karl likes noona that much?”
Noona is great. Where else is there someone who treats their brother so dearly.
But noona. Since everything is good, can’t you stop the “Ogu ogu”?
I will be fifty in a few days. I’ve been to the army… received a Medal of Honor too…
“Ricata Adelheit.”
Just as I was about to hug and kiss her, I was getting serious about it.
At the right timing, Eloise called noona and extended her hand.
“You’ve been a great help. I was sure those guys would burn one day, but I never imagined it would end in less than a day. So I didn’t have to go looking for them.”
At first glance, a perverted elf wearing rags, but actually the commander of the Heigens Annihilation Force.
In other words, an elf in a similar position to our noona in the past.
It’s obvious who the target would be when such a woman “goes looking”.
“What? Eloise Lohengrin. The faster the Heigens side catches the Luzens remnants’ boss, the faster the Empire’s peace will come.”
“Your brother is a Medal of Honor recipient, and noona isn’t bad either.”
“Thank you. Since the other side isn’t bad either, don’t be upset.”
Noona shook hands with the hand Eloise extended.
The handshake of the Blade Queen and the perverted elf. No, no. Former and current agents’ handshake.
The start was a bit ambiguous, but now there’s something they understand. A kind of sense of homogeneity feeling—
“By the way, could you give Karl to me?”
“Get lost. You crazy Gganf girl.”
“Ahaha! Then how about a half-elf niece?”
“Splitting you in half right here as half, how about it.”
“Eii! Don’t even make jokes! Ufufufu!”
Eloise, having gotten what she needed, leaves first, saying she’ll report and return.
It feels like a storm has passed. More tired than when stopping the train incident.
While staring blankly at Eloise disappearing, noona calls my name from the side.
“Karl.”
“Yeah. Noona. You called?”
“Shall I ask subtly?”
“…Eh?”
“That Gganf. It seems like it might become quite troublesome. Just say it.”
So, bury the commander of the Heigens Annihilation Force alive… right now?
“Please endure it, noona. Please.”
“If Karl says so, I can’t help it.”
Is it because of diplomatic issues or noona’s own peace of mind, or because I said not to do it!
“…Still, asking for you despite being a Gganf is crossing a line, isn’t it?”
“Ah. A bit!”