Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: I Am Happy (6)
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If I had to pick the most awkward situation in the world, there'd be a fierce lineup of competitors.
Like getting caught mashing the close button right in front of someone who barely squeezed into the elevator.
Or emerging from a restaurant bathroom after unclogging a backed-up toilet, only for the next person to shoot you a suspicious side-eye as they head in.
Or siblings fresh off a fight plopping down at the dinner table to eat together.
"……."
I stole a glance at Edwin, who sat across from me, calmly eating his meal.
The bastard wore his usual unchanging, stone-faced expression as he nobly shoveled spinach meatballs into his mouth.
Eating with that mug right in front of me was uncomfortable enough, but since the observation class ended with a shared meal, I couldn't complain.
"Mm, this is still……."
Edwin slowly chewed Kingswell's cafeteria food, lost in its aftertaste.
Was he reminiscing about memories from Kingswell ten years ago?
If so, it was a pathetic sight, but I couldn't bring myself to say it out loud and just silently chomped on my spinach meatballs.
"Uwup, uwoong."
"……Charlotte. Finish what's in your mouth before you speak."
"Uuuung……."
Meanwhile, Charlotte was next to me, cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk from stuffing her face with meatballs, mumbling something incoherent.
"Eat slowly, Charlotte. You'll get indigestion."
"Uuu……."
As I wiped the meatball sauce from her mouth, Edwin's gaze grew even stranger.
He stared at Charlotte and me alternately, like he'd stumbled on an affair scene, his expression sour.
"You should refrain from opening your mouth during mealtime."
The jerk spouted that nonsense before resuming his noble slicing and eating of meatballs.
Such an unlucky bastard.
"That's why he's still unmarried……."
"What did you say?"
"I said enjoy your meal, brother."
Edwin's eyes sharpened further, but I casually dipped my meatball in sauce and popped it in my mouth, pretending nonchalance.
Edwin Percival Blackmere, the firstborn heir to everything Blackmere.
At 28, he'd climbed the elite path young, but despite the age when marriage talks should have been swirling, he remained unmarried.
That's right.
Edwin was a nearly thirty-year-old bachelor uncle (true, single).
No wonder he was touchy.
"Oh my, handsome gentlemen dining? Mind if I join~?"
Mid-meal, a thick waft of sweet perfume drifted in from somewhere.
I turned toward the source.
A peculiar woman with pale purple eyes curved seductively, lavender hair swaying as she plopped down beside Edwin.
"Hehe. Hello?"
She flashed a beaming eye smile at me and greeted. That's when I pinpointed the odd vibe.
"You're…… from the Winthrop family……?"
"Oh dear, did big sis fade from memory? I'm disappointed. I even saw you when you were a little tyke."
Rosalyn Therese Winthrop, eldest daughter of the Winthrop family.
In other words, my fiancée Layla's older sister.
"Just ignore her. She's weird."
Layla followed with a sigh and sat beside me. Rosalyn puffed her cheeks and grumbled.
"Little sis~ That's too harsh!"
"Sigh…… Just eat, sis."
"Really, such an un-cute sister. Hey, Edwin. Wanna swap siblings?"
"No."
"Ahaha!"
God knows what was so funny, but Rosalyn burst into giggles, slapping Edwin's back heartily.
His spoon clanged against his tray, splashing soup everywhere.
"……."
Layla flinched in horror at the soup on his face, but Edwin nonchalantly dabbed it away with his napkin and continued eating.
"You've always been a whirlwind."
"And you've always been frosty."
"You're the one who's not demure."
"You're the one who's no fun?"
One side clung with a perpetual smile, the other stonewalled with silent eating.
I smelled something.
I boldly addressed Rosalyn.
"Sister-in-law."
"Oh my."
Pfft—!
Edwin, who had been chewing his meatball silently and nobly, spat out a chunk.
Right onto my face across from him.
"……."
"……Leonard."
"Yes, brother."
"Refrain from chit-chat during meals."
He seemed about to snap, but seeing my pathetic state, he held back.
I silently wiped my face with a napkin. Rosalyn grinned broadly, hooked her arm through Edwin's, and clung tight.
"Hehe…… We look that good together? What to do, should I start calling you young master from now on?"
"Rosalyn. During meals, focus on—"
"Edwin, try this. Hehe. Reminds me of our Kingswell days. Here, say ah~."
"Rosalyn, enough……!"
Rosalyn dangled a meatball with a sultry laugh; Edwin recoiled in alarm.
Watching them, I finally confirmed their relationship.
'Look at that lip twitch.'
Edwin, you sly bachelor bastard.
Totally hooked.
After finishing lunch at Kingswell for the first time in ages, steeped in old memories,
Edwin slowly strolled the tree-lined path on campus, taking in the surroundings.
Fresh green sprouts mingled with the full bloom of spring air. Gentle breezes carried faint wildflower scents.
The perfect time for freshmen to buzz with excitement.
Even the ever-cool Edwin couldn't help but sink into nostalgia wandering Kingswell Royal Academy's grounds this season.
Memories of eighteen-year-old him—purer, more naive—strolling these paths.
"We used to walk like this often back then, right?"
And the pale purple girl walking side-by-side, just like back then.
Edwin's gaze quietly followed Rosalyn, who had paused a few steps ahead and turned back.
The bright, sunny girl who always stuck close back then had become a woman.
Ten years could change rivers and mountains, let alone people.
Height, body, thoughts—all slowly, surely eroded by time's waves, losing their old shapes.
But the essence remained.
Edwin met Rosalyn's beaming smile with steady eyes.
Much had changed. Yet her eyes sparkled clear and enigmatic as ever, tricking him into feeling like it was ten years ago.
"……Nonsense."
"Hehe, you're as frosty as ever."
His gruff reply might've slipped out for that reason.
Edwin resumed walking after a brief pause; Rosalyn quietly fell in step beside him.
Smooth—
He didn't shake off the soft hand slipping into his arm.
His body tensed momentarily, but he kept walking without showing it.
Rosalyn linked arms gently, rested her head on his shoulder, and they wandered the grounds in silence for a while.
"Edwin. Your brother—"
"Rosalyn. Don't say unnecessary things."
Rosalyn halted abruptly.
Edwin stopped too, gazing down at her steadily.
"Planning to give advice about Leonard?"
"……."
"If so, drop it. He's pathetic. That's just his nature."
"But you know it too, deep down? That your brother's changed a bit."
Edwin fell silent, meeting her piercing pale purple gaze.
Changed.
She'd know the weight of that word.
The Winthrop family had deep ties since childhood. Edwin and Rosalyn knew each other even before Leonard and Layla's engagement.
In other words, someone who'd seen young Leonard too.
Another witness to him before he broke and turned delinquent long ago.
"Back then, he was purer, more…… childlike, I guess."
"……."
"Not bad. I mean innocently pure and cute. He especially adored you? More than Lord Blackmere, the Court Earl."
"……I don't know."
How could he not? Child Leonard favored his aloof father-figure brother over their cold father.
Edwin hadn't minded.
Returning home to the suffocating chill, little Leonard always beamed, toddling over for hugs.
Hoisting his under-ten brother up drew peals of laughter as tiny hands kneaded Edwin's face.
The one time stoic Blackmere Edwin softened.
Even their cold-blooded father faintly smiled when Leonard squealed and tackled his legs.
Those meals turned warmly serene.
Edwin cherished dining with Leonard.
That era, forever gone.
"How did it come to this……."
"……."
To Rosalyn's sigh-laden lament, Edwin stared silently into space, wordless.
Truly, how?
Leonard crumbling under Father's harsh lessons?
Or Edwin berating his broken brother for not enduring?
Or blaming the defiant, unmeek sibling?
But Leonard had talent.
The honest growth with effort Edwin envied.
Did family pressure really suffocate such potential to rot?
Yet Edwin endured it.
Same conditions, same teachings.
Edwin did; why couldn't Leonard…….
'……Ah.'
Or perhaps.
The brother, jealous from some point, coldly envying his sibling's gift.
And the brother bearing superior talent's blessing and curse, without inheritance.
Was Leonard's environment truly equal?
"Edwin."
The thought shattered at Rosalyn's call, startling him.
Edwin flinched, turning to her.
"I've heard rumors of what he's done at the academy, but he's still your brother."
"……."
"Who'll stand by him if not you?"
Edwin said nothing.
He just stood, staring at the ground lost in thought.
"……Let's head back."
Turning to leave.
"Hehe, yeah. Mind if I drop by your place? Dinner and all."
"Not sure Father will allow it."
"Liar. You'll sneak me in."
"……Nonsense."
Mingling with departing parents, Edwin pondered deeply.
The reason Leonard turned delinquent.
'……Complicated.'
Still a headache.
The tree-lined path after they left.
"……."
Celestina peeked from behind a bench, blankly watching their retreating figures.
'That must be…… the Blackmere brothers'…….'
Coincidence. Celestina had finished lunch early and come to the path to sort tangled thoughts.
For her, piecing together Leonard's "family matters," overhearing Edwin and Rosalyn was a shock.
'Blackmere Court Earl, Edwin Percival Blackmere, his pure childhood…….'
A brother hating yet unable to abandon his sibling, guilt buried within.
Puzzle pieces clicked coldly in her fingertips.
"What should I do……."
Celestina murmured blankly from the bench.
No answer came to her hollow words.