The Iron-Blooded Empress (2)
Darin felt truly fortunate that Piel had been born healthy.
Kael had come into the world as a premature infant, so she had fretted over her second child’s health as well. Yet Darin had conceived her second while her emotions were already steadied by Kael’s presence.
As a result, Piel was not merely healthy—she bordered on robust.
On top of that, unlike her older brother whose only answer was swinging an axe, she had been born with prodigious magical talent, and among all the elements she handled fire magic with particular brilliance.
Watching her daughter spew flames from both hands, Darin sometimes found herself thinking,
She was born in the North—shouldn’t she be wielding ice magic?
But on second thought, that was pure prejudice. This was not a world inside a book, and there was no law that characters born in cold regions had to use ice magic.
It was a little odd that the ruling Northern Grand Ducal House was renowned as the absolute pinnacle of ice magic, yet she decided not to dwell on it.
In a North where storms could whip up at any moment, the ability to command fire magic was a talent of tremendous value. Darin even came to feel it was better this way than if Piel had mastered ice.
I used to worry the cold would leave Piel constantly catching colds—thank goodness.
Such was the carefree mother’s positive mindset.
Having inherited her father the Viscount of Bayorn’s monstrous strength as well, those worries were surely nothing more than fretting. At a mere eight years old she could already win arm-wrestling matches against Bayorn’s elite Huscarl troops; a fragile mother’s fretting was pure overreaction.
Yet even Piel was human, and therefore possessed a flaw.
That flaw was her personality alone—yet its presence was anything but ordinary.
In this other world, mages’ temperaments diverged according to the magic in which they specialized. It was a natural phenomenon that no amount of parenting could control.
Mages gifted with fire possessed, quite literally, fiery temperaments.
And because Piel had been born with talent near the absolute peak, her personality growing correspondingly savage was an unavoidable fate.
For a noble like Piel, this was a rather large blemish. Words that should never leave a noble young lady’s mouth often slipped out of hers.
Simply put, she had inherited her mother’s beautiful face—yet her speech and conduct were coarser than a commoner’s.
Darin recognized this and devoted every effort to raising her daughter gently, but it had little effect; Piel reached the age of eight unchanged.
—Crack!
A vicious impact sound floated across the lands of Bayorn. It was the sound of Piel’s fist striking her older brother’s jaw.
Kael and Piel were sparring as part of their training. Even though Kael held wooden hand-axes in both hands, he could not withstand his bare-handed little sister.
—Thud.
The fist that buried itself in his jaw sent Kael crumpling without so much as a scream. The pitiful sight of the young boy slamming face-first into the dirt looked more wretched than ever.
“Aaaah!”
The Viscountess, who had been watching the scene with her heart in her throat, screamed in place of her unconscious son.
“Kael!”
She scrambled toward him and laid his head upon her lap. Looking at the face swollen purple from Piel’s blow left her heartsick.
Piel, delighted by her mother’s clear voice, toddled over at a run.
“Mom, this bastard is such a weakling!”
Beaming from ear to ear, she crossed her arms and struck a pose that begged for praise. Yet her mother only wore a troubled expression at the crude insult. What a foul mouth for a little girl of barely eight.
“Piel, you should have gone easy on him! And how many times have I told you? Not ‘bastard’—big. bro. ther!”
That vulgar word “bastard” had been aimed at her own older brother Kael. There was no way Darin, who adored her eldest son, would let it pass.
At her mother’s scolding the little girl’s head drooped toward her mother’s knees. There lay only the limp, helpless boy.
That useless thing was supposed to be her older brother?
To Piel’s ears it sounded like nonsense.
“I don’t want to call someone weaker than me ‘brother’!”
Truly pitiful words. How was an older brother who was merely tall supposed to defeat a little sister born with both monstrous strength and magic? But to a fiery-tempered brat, such considerations meant nothing. The arrogant child did not know how to bow her head to anyone weaker than herself.
“Piel, what does that matter? He’s three years older—that makes him your older brother, doesn’t it?”
“Huh!? Even if he’s completely useless, just being older makes him my brother? What kind of logic is that!”
“…Do you dislike your brother, Piel?”
At her mother’s question the little girl thought hard for a moment, then shook her head. When she considered it again, she did not entirely dislike the older brother who was always kind to her.
“No.”
“…Then what?”
“It’s not that I dislike him—he’s just a weakling, and the way he looks at Mom is creepy too…”
“The way he looks at Mom is creepy…?”
“Yeah! It’s really creepy, so Piel’s going to protect Mom!”
Her mother sighed at her daughter’s thoughtless chatter. It was absurd. She felt most at peace when she was with Kael.
And what was so creepy about a child gazing affectionately at his parent? As far as she could tell, Kael was simply a son and older brother of upright character.
“Piel, never say such things again. Creepy toward your own brother?”
“…But it’s true! I’m not lying!”
“Anyway, you mustn’t! To belittle and assault your own flesh and blood like that—”
“It’s not assault, it’s sparring!”
“Haa… Even in sparring you can hold back a little, can’t you? Your brother is much weaker than you, Piel.”
“Mom’s weird. What’s this about holding back in a fight?”
“What’s this about holding back…?”
The little girl met her mother’s amber eyes without the slightest retreat. The way she clung to her conviction was pure stubbornness, yet it also looked as though she held some genuine principle.
“That’s actually an insult to the other person. Dad taught me that!”
“Mmm… Even if Dad said so, our Piel can still show a little flexibility and respect her older brother, can’t she?”
“I don’t know! I hate Mom—you always take that bastard’s side and only scold me!”
“……”
Darin gazed at her daughter’s unrestrained speech and sank into thought. Unlike gentle Kael, her little girl truly carried the blood of Bayorn. She delighted in struggle and was always sincere about it. No wonder her fiancé, young master Callisto, was afraid of Piel.
Because of this temperament, Piel had often given her mother Darin heartburn.
Not only did she fail to observe the speech and conduct of a proper “noble young lady,” she would frequently bolt outside the territory, hunt down beasts, roast them over fire or turn them into leather, and hold barbarian-style campouts. Behavior utterly unlike other children her age.
Why is a little girl’s nature so rough?
Were all fire-wielding mages this savage? Mages themselves were rare enough, and she rarely went out, so she had no idea.
That did not mean she loved her daughter any less. On the contrary, that unpredictable personality only drew more of her attention.
…Come to think of it, wishing a child would grow up exactly the way I want is greed, isn’t it?
Darin was a wise mother. Just because her daughter had been born with a lovely appearance, just because she had been born a girl—she did not believe that meant she had to become a demure noble young lady. Or rather, she had privately hoped for it, but by now she had realized it was impossible.
Everything else is fine… I just wish she wouldn’t treat her brother so roughly.
Darin lowered her gaze to her daughter. Looking at those puffed-out cheeks, it seemed the child felt slighted by her mother.
“Piel.”
“……”
Impudently, she did not answer even when her mother called. Watching her, Darin only smiled. One way or another, she was still just a child.
Darin cupped her daughter’s puffed cheeks in both hands and stroked them. Constant scolding was not always the answer. Her daughter’s upright nature made her weak to gentleness.
“Piel, will you listen to Mom for a moment?”
“…What?”
“Mom is weaker than Piel too, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then am I not Piel’s mother?”
Boom! A meteor of shock seemed to crash into the child’s heart. This beautiful vermilion-haired girl was not her mother? To Piel, who loved her mother, no words could have been more terrifying.
“…N-no.”
Moisture welled in the eyes of the girl who had never known restraint. Using polite speech toward her mother the moment her heart softened was Piel’s nature and habit. Darin gently stroked the child’s hair and soothed her.
“Then what about big brother Kael?”
The child’s eyes went round. She realized what her wise mother intended by bringing that up.
“Th-that’s…”
Piel was a stubborn child, so she dragged the words out, unwilling to admit it.
“Mom would like it if Piel became Kael’s little sister. And if you two got along without fighting, that would be even better.”
Yet defeating a mother who reproached her with such tender eyes was impossible. Just as mother Darin thought, the little girl was weak to gentleness.
“…He’s my big brother.”
Had she understood her mother’s heart? The child sniffled, confessed her fault, and nestled into her parent’s embrace.
“B-but I still hate Mom! There’s no way Mom isn’t my mom!”
And true to her fierce nature, she did not forget to voice her complaint. Yet it was understandable. For a mother who had always been kind and considerate to utter such words had been an enormous shock to the little girl.
“Hehe, all right. Mom will apologize for that.”
Darin supported her son’s head on one thigh and, with the arm on the other side, gathered her sulking daughter close. After several minutes of this the white-haired little girl gradually regained her composure.
Mother and daughter rubbed cheeks in reconciliation,
and sealed their love with kisses on those cheeks.
Pressing herself against the vermilion hair put Piel in high spirits; she buried her face in her mother’s chest and savored the soft weight of the breasts crushing her head.
“Piel, what are you doing?”
“Heehee, Mom’s boobs are so big I’m afraid they’ll be heavy, so I’m supporting them with my head!”
“What? Pfft—!”
Her daughter’s absurd behavior burst her mother’s laughter. Holding both children in her arms felt like heaven. Unlike when she joined bodies with her husband, this was a pure fullness free of any impurity.
Still, the lesson had to be finished. Seizing the moment, Darin subtly encouraged her daughter’s behavior, hoping her beloved flesh and blood might grow even a little gentler in nature.
“Come now, my little princess. Shall we try calling Kael ‘big brother’?”
The first button was the important one. Even simply saying “big brother” was already a struggle; demanding “older brother” would be too much. Darin coaxed and soothed the grumbling child, then gently pushed her toward the older brother who was beginning to open his eyes.
“B-big… bro…”
Respecting an older brother who had always been inferior to her was no easy thing, so the child’s mouth opened and closed several times in hesitation. Refusing her mother’s command was impossible.
At last Piel swallowed a sigh inside, then shouted at the older brother who had already opened his eyes and was looking at her.
“What are you staring at, you bastard of a brother!!!”