The Iron-Blooded Empress (3)
Apiel Bayern.
The girl was only thirteen, yet she looked like a stunning beauty at first glance.
Piel was taller than her own adult mother. Even considering that Darin was small compared to other women, Piel had inherited the Bayern blood to an extreme degree, giving her a towering stature.
Piel’s growth went beyond mere height and beauty. In terms of raw power within the Bayern territory, she ranked just behind her father, Baron Bayern. As a mage, she had no peer at all.
Unusually, her second education was not at an academy but through home tutoring by her mother and father.
Her father oversaw the training to build combat strength as a warrior of Bayern.
For everything else—culture, knowledge, etiquette—she took charge herself.
The reason was simple: her hot-tempered daughter could not sit still in an academy where noble children gathered, where countless variables could arise.
Sending her to an academy in the north risked embarrassing her before the Duke of the North and other high nobles, while the capital was the center of power itself, demanding even more caution.
Of course, if her parents wished, they could send her. But that was not the only reason. Baron Bayern wanted to raise his daughter as a secret weapon of the family, one that could survive any storm.
Even in a backwater territory like Bayern, a hidden ace was essential.
Darin, with her gentle and obedient nature, would never have noticed.
She suffered silently because of her rough husband, yet she also relied on the baron’s warmth and grew like a precious flower in a greenhouse.
Baron Bayern had discussed family matters with his clever wife Darin many times, but he had never brought up this dark side.
From the first time he saw her, a girl with hair like vermilion and eyes like amber, pure and untouched by the world, he had wished that the world would never tarnish her until the day she died.
Anyway, the parents raised Piel with an education worthy of her.
Yet even their efforts could not reach the realm of magic.
In the Bayern territory, there were only about a dozen mages.
In the land of barbarians they were called shamans, but the Bayern household worshipped physical strength, so their level was pitifully low.
Furthermore, there were no magic towers in the north, and sending her to one in the capital would invite unnecessary attention.
Thus, Baron Bayern decided to send Piel to study abroad in a foreign kingdom that had gathered many people of superior magical talent.
Though small in scale, Bryden Kingdom was renowned for its magic towers.
Baron Bayern had told his wife Darin in a roundabout way that drinking water from outside the country would make her future brighter.
Dark as her outlook on the outside world was, when her husband said so and her daughter expressed desire to study because she longed for strength, Darin had no choice but to give her permission.
Yet the thought of her precious daughter being away from her blood seemed unbearable.
The vermilion-haired girl stood firm, holding her daughter’s hand tightly.
Today was the day Piel would finally head to Bryden Kingdom for her studies.
“Mom, um… I have to go now…?”
The woman showing discomfort was a girl who had barely turned thirteen.
A beauty with a cynical expression, she leaned her enormous greatsword and halberd against her back in a cross.
She was Apiel Bayern, the young barbarian who dreamed of becoming a mage.
The small woman, having heard the scolding, flinched for a moment before pulling her daughter’s arm and refusing to let go of the child’s body heat.
She wanted to ease even a little of the lingering sorrow.
The daughter did not shake off her mother’s hand either.
Every time she tried to flex her arm, the strength drained away at the sight of her mother’s teary eyes.
“Haa, your father sure is funny. If we went to the magic tower in the central capital, I’d see his face every now and then.”
“Mom, please understand. It’s famous for magic over there.”
“Yeah, I know, but…”
The vermilion-haired woman gazed at her daughter with a tinge of resentment for not standing up for her.
But there was no helping it. Where was the parent who would stop their child from going to the magic tower just because they wanted to succeed?
“I know, but it’s been years since I last saw him, so it’s hard. Ah! You have to keep that tomboyish tone even after you go? The magic tower people will look down on you.”
“Go ahead and say whatever you want. If I hit your face and make you shut up, that’s that.”
“Haha! Now you’re trying to punch first.”
“Then what?”
“You have to talk it out!”
“Those who poke their nose into other people’s business can’t be reasoned with. It’s a heavy thing.”
“No, Piel! How come you’re just like Dad? Smashing in without thinking is a terrible habit.”
“Isn’t learning by trying and feeling it with your skin the best way? If there’s someone stronger than me there, I’ll follow Mom’s advice. Whether there is or not, I don’t know.”
“Haa, it would be good if you could learn to be calm like your brother…”
“Hah! Are you talking about Kael? I’d rather act as openly as I am than turn into some sly bastard like him.”
“Oh, calling your brother a bastard again, Piel?”
“No, guh… I get it.”
The white-haired girl’s gaze could not withstand her mother’s scolding and lowered her head.
Since she had grown taller than this mother after turning thirteen, she could not win in the fierce blue eyes that came from those amber eyes.
More than anything, the words her mother had spoken when she was little—“Then Mom isn’t Piel’s mom?”—still floated in her mind.
No matter how much time passed, for Piel this Darin remained the only beloved mother in the world.
The day she lost her mother would never come while she lived.
“Hah, I’ll try to kill my temper as much as possible, like Mom said. But I’m a Bayern barbarian before I’m a girl. You know I’m not the type to pay attention to other people’s eyes, right?”
“Hmm, strange? Piel also looks at eyes?”
“Eh? When did I?”
The daughter blinked her eyes twice.
How could her mother not know that she had never once looked at other people’s eyes and acted on her own? Yet why was she looking at her like that?
But the baron’s wife really thought so.
With her beautiful vermilion eyes drawn into crescents, she answered with certainty.
“You always watch Mom’s eyes and consider them. You’ve always done that since you were little. So you can certainly show consideration to others too.”
Even today, when seeing her off, the daughter who had escorted her in a dress and shoes.
Other than that, she protected her mother who wanted to walk in the mountains and across the territory.
She scolded servants who sent impure gazes.
She even cooked for her mother sometimes, even if it didn’t suit her.
The young tyrant had guarded her mother like a steadfast knight.
Where else could a man blush while being praised as the most beautiful and noble woman in Bayern? Not Piel either.
“C, chtm~! I’m not that good kid like Mom thinks, right? And I’m sure other people don’t care, but how come I don’t watch Mom’s eyes?”
“Eh? Why would other people not care but watch Mom’s eyes?”
“Huh?”
The way the daughter looked at her mother with eyes sparkling like gems was endearingly cute.
Piel unconsciously stared at her mother’s petite and beautiful figure, then shook her head to clear her mind.
“T, that’s, um…”
Piel felt embarrassed, but she wanted to say she watched her mother’s eyes because she had taken care of her since she was little and was grateful for it.
But no matter how rough her temper was, Piel was just a child entering puberty.
It would have been awkward to say the words “I love you” straight to her mother.
“Eh, it’s because Mom scolds too much, right?”
So, as always, she could only answer with a pout.
“That’s what?”
The way she lowered her head was like a frightened rabbit, so cute.
Piel wanted to hug her mother tightly and rub her cheeks.
Lately, Piel had been holding back her affection toward her mother as much as possible.
Her mother complained that the daughter’s affection had cooled, but there was no choice.
She feared she might become like her lewd brother.
At such a young age, it would have been fine to act that way.
But now, that time had passed.
When Piel first shed blood from below, her mother had come to mind.
She did not know why, but she only tried to ignore it.
“Eh? Why, Piel? Your face looks bad.”
The vermilion-haired woman leaned in suddenly, and the sweet, faint scent of tangerine tickled the daughter’s nose.
Since the daughter did not answer, the mother kissed her ear and coaxed her.
Piel thought.
The sudden tongue looked even redder, cleaner, and smaller than her own little one.
The white-haired girl’s face burned as if about to explode.
“Y, you pervert.”
“What? What are you saying all of a sudden, Piel?”
“Y, y-you’re seducing me, a married woman, from outside?”
“???”
The mother, unable to understand her daughter’s feelings, only tilted her head blankly.
Was she getting shy about physical closeness with her mother because she had entered puberty? Piel had done this since she was a baby, so why now?
“You’re trying to leave Mom’s arms, aren’t you. Are the parents’ arms boring you already?”
“…That’s not the problem.”
No, that was not the problem at all.
Her mother was not seducing anyone, nor acting like a scheming fox.
She simply existed as something lovable.
As Piel grew older, she could guess why her father wrapped her mother tightly and kept her in the castle.
A fairy-like woman appearing in the central capital would surely bring a wind of rumors.
That scale was beyond what a mere baron could handle.
“Hehe, Piel~ Why? What got on Mom’s face?”
“……”
The mother, unaware of anything, smiled with pure eyes.
Piel was truly worried.
If she left her alone, the two men in the house would bully this rabbit girl mercilessly.