I Should Have Listened When He Offered Nicely
“Let’s go back home together.”
David offered, scanning the shrine once before shaking his head.
“We were supposed to send you to the grand Gerka’s Hall, the most famous temple in the Gerka Shrine. I never would have sent you here if I’d known it was this shack.”
David understood. I had been startled the first time I arrived. I had even thought about going home.
To David, the overprotective brother, leaving me here felt impossible.
“You’re the only daughter of the Danier family. It doesn’t match divine will to end up doing odd jobs in a place like this.”
The gods apparently didn’t see it that way. They didn’t think that deeply or care about people as much as I assumed…
I couldn’t argue, so I just laughed and gave a light shrug.
“Odd jobs are one thing, but this is for Gerka. Serving the gods isn’t odd work.”
“Whatever you call it, the essence remains the same.”
“What are you talking about, David? In this world, where flattery and prestige rule everything, what could be more important than the essence?”
If the essence mattered so much, why had Izabo endured such a delicate show? She could have simply killed Amori Serpine on the spot.
She endured it precisely because she didn’t do that.
Of course, in exchange Izabo had reaped an immensely sweet fruit. She had no complaints.
“Arian.”
David reached out to soothe me, but I stepped back a full pace.
His face twisted in response to my gesture. It looked pitiful.
Bertrand, the heir, at least received proper treatment. Among the family, David—the second son—received the least.
“I know what you’re saying. Still, I’m not going.”
I couldn’t go as Hamilcar’s eternal slave unless I became the Count of Hamilcar’s wife.
I had integrated well into the Hamilcar region, grown close with the future heir, and even forged ties with the temples.
After all that effort, how could I just abandon it? Absolutely not.
“Brother, go deliver the letter. Father will understand. I swear it.”
“He won’t understand. Father will order you to bring me back. When he learns the temple is this poor, he’ll break his own legs wanting to scold you.”
“Never. You don’t trust me?”
David sighed heavily as I asked with a grin.
“Fine. Promise me.”
He pointed to Damien’s room with his finger.
“I’ll never get entangled.”
“We’re already entangled. What are you saying?”
“How could I leave you here after saying that?!”
David growled.
Ah, it was about time he started getting annoying. I swept my hair back and said,
“Sure. Let’s go.”
Indeed, David was the brother I had lived with for twelve years. When I suggested going together, he stepped back in surprise.
“W-why?”
“What? Going? We’re going. In exchange, you’ll definitely get scolded by Father. That’s your own doing, isn’t it?”
“Why get scolded?”
“You don’t want to teach me?”
What kind of big brother scolds his own little sister like that? I left David in the kitchen with his pitiful “Why… what…?” and entered Pythia’s room.
David had never beaten me. Yet he still thought he was above me because he was the brother. He believed he had to protect me.
What a commendable, admirable brother. His learning ability, though, was his one weak point.
“Together… you’re saying you’ll go?”
At Pythia’s words, David looked at me as if the world had collapsed.
David was finally starting to understand what I meant. He never imagined the saintess would accompany her disciple home.
Pythia was going north? The moment she had appeared in Serpine, the king would have had a heart attack and refused. Now she was even in Danier, where the royal summer palace stood, and the Danier family was bringing her back?
I could already picture the king throwing a tantrum.
I didn’t know what feelings the king held for his sister Pythia.
But no king would like a subject who quietly escorted a more legitimate older brother to his domain instead of respecting him.
“N-no… I only prepared to bring Arian back…”
“You don’t need to worry. I’ll handle my own escort.”
Pythia said. The escort she referred to was probably the money she had skimmed from the empty bowls.
What was she up to?
Since Pythia had decided to go, refusal was impossible. How could I stop the saintess?
But since I had brought her here, I couldn’t shirk the responsibility. Besides,
“Then I’ll handle my own escort as well, Your Holiness.”
Damien said it naturally. At that, David’s eyes widened and he pointed.
“Why is the Hamilcar Prince even in Danier…!”
“I’m the saintess’s knight. Her guardian.”
“Knight? I’m the knight, and he’s the prince. He’s a mage.”
“I could be a mage-knight, for all I know.”
What kind of madman was this? That was what David’s face clearly said.
But David had no choice. Pythia wasn’t stopping him. She accepted his words, meaning Damien Hamilcar was the holy knight guarding the saintess.
As I once said, holy knights were a part-time position, similar to a congressional aide.
You needed qualifications, but the most important was that the protected person, the saintess, approved of you.
In other words, Damien Hamilcar was a holy knight. As long as the saintess defined it that way, whether he was a mage or knight was irrelevant.
And I knew.
When I called up the Status Window, golden shining text appeared.
I realized I had never checked David’s Status Window before?
While David and Damien argued, I cautiously called up David’s Status Window.
**David Danier, 15 years old, Knight, second son of Count Raymond Danier and Countess Louise Saint-Clair**
I couldn’t figure out how the Status Window formed that single block of characters.
Damien’s Status Window only showed,
**Damien Hamilcar, 12 years old**
There must be some criteria, but what was it?
While I puzzled over it, I examined David’s Status Window.
The Status Windows floated as messy clumps of text in mid-air, making it hard to find what I wanted.
In novels or games, the interfaces were insanely well-designed. Gerka apparently had no such sense.
Since I couldn’t demand that, I stole glances at the Status Windows, careful not to be seen.
**Swordsmanship S, Magic C, Gambling C, Accounting E**
It was confirmed. The numbers in the Status Window indicated talent, not current stats. David knew nothing about magic.
But Bertrand was a promising mage, so David might have inherited that talent. Swordsmanship S was impressive, though.
Why only these four talents? Humans surely had more.
It felt like major categories, but the items differed from Damien’s.
**Assassination S, Swordsmanship A, Gambling S, Accounting C**
The difference between the two Status Windows lay in the assassination and magic sections.
Why did David have a magic section while Damien had swordsmanship? Why no magic for Damien?
What did this Status Window even mean?
It felt off. While I sorted it in my head, David’s voice drifted past my ears.
“Now that I think about it, perhaps we only need to take the letter Arian wrote.”
David quickly changed his tune. He had realized that placing Pythia—whose legitimacy outstripped the king’s—and Damien, the only son of the southern great duke, on either side of him in Danier territory was too risky.
I let out a snort.
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door. Pythia and Damien pressed down, squishing David, as I stood up from my seat.
I was the one who should have stood. The saintess and Hamilcar heir held higher ranks. David wasn’t lower than me either.
David gave me the pleading eyes of someone begging to be used instead. I ignored the gaze and opened the door.
What greeted me first was the armored chest. When I looked up, a middle-aged man with a fierce expression stared down at me.
“I heard Damien Hamilcar is here.”
His face was familiar, though I hadn’t seen him in a long time. He was the lord of this land—William Hamilcar.