Chapter 21. Liam Is. (3)
Just as babies began to learn how to speak, they were awfully cute.
“Oppbaa…”
“Yes, Aria.”
“Oppbaa!”
She couldn’t even pronounce it properly, and yet she looked up at me with such bright eyes, her little fingers twitching in the air, that I couldn’t help laughing.
So I picked Aria up.
Whenever she called me like that, it meant she wanted to go outside.
“Shall we go to the garden today?”
“Yup!”
I remembered only barely coming to my senses when I was about two years old.
But Aria already understood most things I said, and she could even call me big brother in her own tiny way, or answer me like this.
Hmm.
Was Aria the smart one?
Or had I been the foolish one?
Though I seemed to remember hearing that speaking like this from around age one was normal enough.
Still, it was probably best to assume Aria was the clever one.
I let the thought drift away and headed for the garden.
With Aria in my arms, I stroked her back as she kept wriggling against me, and carried her toward the place where the flowers were in full bloom.
As we crossed the grass, it went swish, swish beneath our feet.
And the maids tending the garden smiled this time not at me, but at Aria in my arms.
“Oh my, our young lady is here?”
“Goodness, how can she be this pretty!”
So I said lightly, with a teasing edge, “Hmm. Have I been cast aside already?”
“No, young master, you’re too big now to dote on like a baby. You’re even taller than me already.”
“I’m only fourteen.”
“That’s exactly why it’s so creepy, young master. You’re only fourteen and already this tall.”
Those were harsh words.
“How heartless…”
The maids burst out laughing at that, then went back to their work.
Maybe it was because they were maids Mother had brought with her, but every one of them had picked up a little of her manner of speaking and the way she carried herself.
In other words, the marquis’s estate itself was Mother’s den of evil.
Thinking that, I gently patted Aria’s head.
“Aria, you must never learn any of Mother’s wicked habits. You know there’s nothing to learn from her as a noble lady, right?”
I hoped so.
I hoped my sweet, precious little sister would never be soaked through with Mother’s nasty habits and quirks and become Eleanor MK2.
“Yup?”
“Nothing.”
I smiled and stroked Aria’s hair. She only smiled back, looking delighted, and nestled into my arms as always.
As always.
So I carried my little sister carefully and wandered through the garden.
The summer flowers blooming in full to greet the season were dazzling indeed.
Among the bluish leaves, the flowers bursting in every color caught both Aria’s eyes and mine.
“Ah…!”
“Do you like that flower?”
“Yup!”
Whenever we passed flowers like those, Aria would reach out toward them with shining eyes.
It was her first summer, after all, so these flowers that bloomed only in summer must have seemed fascinating to her.
So I wanted to spend time with Aria by showing her each flower one by one.
That is, until we passed morning glories and bindweeds, then cornflowers, and finally came to the place where the hibiscus was blooming in abundance.
“This is a flower called hibiscus…”
I tried to explain it while hiding the slight lump in my throat.
Because the red hibiscus you had loved was blooming beautifully here, I thought my sister would like it too.
“Waaah…! Hic, waaah…!”
“Ah…”
But when Aria saw the red petals, she burst into tears at once.
The sight of those red blossoms in full bloom had seemed beautiful to me, but for a child’s eyes, it apparently looked a little frightening.
Aria kept sniffling as though she hated those red flowers, and buried her face in my arms.
With her tiny hands, she clutched at my clothes and shook her head from side to side.
“…”
You used to love them.
I used to love them too, because they were your favorite flower.
“..., Leila.”
I called the maid.
“Yes, young master?”
“Could you pull out all the hibiscus and move them over to that corner?”
“Oh… these aren’t your favorite flowers, young master?”
Strictly speaking, they were not my favorite flowers, but yours.
I answered with a bitter smile, “Aria doesn’t like them very much.”
“Ah, I see! Then we’ll replant them today!”
“Yes, thank you.”
With that reply, I left the garden with Aria still sniffling in my arms.
That day, the hibiscus filling the garden were moved to the corner.
The red petals that had always decorated the garden’s center looked a little forlorn in their new place.
It was the next day.
I had just finished training from early morning and was on my way to Aria, who would be waiting for me, when—
“Liam! Could you come to Mother’s office for a moment?”
I had just reached the first-floor stairs when Mother’s voice came from above.
“..., Mother. Please keep your dignity.”
“Quit worrying about my dignity in my own estate and get up here!”
Honestly.
No, never mind.
“Yes… I’m coming.”
I answered and headed straight for Mother’s office.
And the moment I entered, I froze at what she said.
“Liam, that child, Eshier, says if he doesn’t come to the capital by the end of summer, he’ll send soldiers to drag him in. Was the game of tag you played when you were little still not over?”
“…”
Has Eshier gone mad from being raised under Mother?
When I said nothing, Mother laughed in disbelief and went on.
“Eshier even sent your mother a letter. He said he never imagined you’d keep replying to his letters with nothing but 'okay' every time, and make him wait four whole years.”
“..., I’ll go soon.”
Honestly, what a pest.
He should have given up by now, but somehow he’d gone so far as to write to Mother and call me out that way.
With a sigh, I had no choice but to say I’d go soon.
Mother had already made up her mind, after all.
“No, that’s not it. I just wanted to tell you to pack your things today. The carriage is already waiting.”
“What…? Mother, I still have a lot to do.”
It seemed that from the moment she received Eshier’s letter, Mother had planned to send me to the capital at once.
“It’s only training anyway, isn’t it? You can rest from that much for a bit.”
“…”
This was the same Mother who had started my training when I was six.
I also remembered clearly that she was the one who had said training should never be skipped and had to be done every day.
As I glared at her in silence, Mother gave an awkward laugh and changed the subject.
“Ahem, besides, there’s a training yard at the duke’s estate too, so it’s fine, isn’t it? In fact, wouldn’t it be bigger and better than the one here?”
“And I still have to take care of Aria.”
Besides, I still had a little sister to look after, which meant this was no time to leave the estate.
Only.
As always, as fourteen years of life had taught me.
There simply was no way for me to beat Mother.
With one hand, she pointed to herself, and with the other she pointed to Sion, who was standing beside her, while saying, “I’ve got me too. And if I can’t do it, Sion will. Right, Sion?”
Even as Sion’s expression twisted into one of disgust, Mother puffed out her chest with obvious pride, and the whole sight was ridiculous beyond words.
“..., Hah. Fine. How am I supposed to stop you? Young master, I’ll take care of things here, so you should go.”
I could hear Sion sighing, but Mother only laughed brightly and waved at me.
“So just go nicely, Liam. It’s better to leave politely than to be dragged off by soldiers, isn’t it~?”
And so, in the end.
I couldn’t win against the combined force of Mother and Eshier, and I climbed into the carriage.
“Oppbaa…”
Even as the carriage was about to depart, I whispered to Aria, who had burst into tears and kept asking where I was going.
“Don’t pick up Mother’s nasty habits, Aria. I’ll be back before long, so until then, you have to resist Mother’s evil claws, all right?”
And Mother, who heard that whisper, said, “My, Liam. If anyone heard you, they’d think this mother of yours is a hopeless woman.”
“…”
She said it with shameless composure.
The carriage set off toward the capital at last.
I was only fourteen, and yet my mother and father were so convinced I was already grown that they didn’t even give me an escort. I marveled at their treatment all the way there.
How many days had it taken?
At last, I arrived in Vinkelite, the capital of the Aion Empire.
The capital spread out before me was nothing like Harden.
Unlike the rough, plain little place that was Harden, it was a sight I could only stare at in silence.
“No way…”
All I could think was that, looking at those magnificent walls rising in the distance, with towers piercing up through them.
How had a kid living in a place like this survived for three whole years in some backwater like that?
Harden, which I had called a city, and even my own house, standing tall as the marquis’s estate, were both far too modest compared to the capital’s splendor.
And the thought that had been running through my head never quite stopped, even after I reached the duke’s estate.
In fact, the sheer size of the ducal manor left me so stunned that once I arrived, I could only shut my mouth and stare.
“Young master, we’ve arrived.”
“…”
At the coachman’s words, I quietly stepped down from the carriage.
“Liam!!”
I heard a voice that was familiar, though it had changed a little.
Far off, from the estate, a graceful young woman was running toward me.
“..., Eshier?”
We had parted when I was ten, and now, at fourteen, the Eshier I saw again had grown into a proper young lady.
As suited a sixteen-year-old two years older than me.
She had grown tall, and the baby fat had melted from her cheeks, leaving her face slim and refined.
Unlike before, she was wearing a dress, and that alone gave her a refined air.
“You rotten bastard!”
“Ugh….”
That would have been quite elegant, if she hadn’t delivered a dropkick while wearing that dress.
“You said you were coming to visit, so why the hell didn’t you come!!”
She knocked me over, then climbed on top of me and glared down.
Her reddened eyes looked hurt, and her lips were pressed tight as if she were holding back tears.
So I let out a laugh.
“Long time no see, Eshier.”
And just like that, after four years, I faced Eshier again.
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