All for My Little Sister
The cabin was completely unrecognizable from when she had last seen it.
The entire structure had collapsed into ruin, leaving behind barely a charred skeleton. So much time had passed since the blaze that not even a wisp of ash stirred in the breeze; the destruction was so absolute that not a single trace of her former life remained.
Who on earth could have done this…?
Lefonya stared blankly at the heap of blackened rubble.
This shack had been her sole sanctuary, bought little by little with coins she had scrimped and hoarded away from the Pope's watchful eyes. True, she had intended to abandon it once her mission was complete, but it had still been the very first space she had ever owned in her life—the only place where she could shed every false pretense and exist simply as herself.
To see it reduced to nothing, collapsed into cold ash, felt terribly like an omen of her own future.
"Ahem. …Sir Velic. Don't just stand there gawking. Go see if anything survived."
Noticing the hollow shock etched across Lefonya's face, Pelens hurriedly nudged the knight into motion. Birdie and Becky immediately joined in, gingerly sifting through the charcoal debris.
Naturally, there was nothing left to find.
Lefonya scanned the surroundings. Only the house had burned; the surrounding woods remained completely untouched.
For a wooden house to melt and collapse so completely without the fire spreading to a single adjacent tree… the arsonist must have stayed here from start to finish, keeping watch over every flame.
A fire capable of incinerating an entire cabin to ash would have had to burn hot and long. Under normal circumstances, the blaze would have inevitably caught the surrounding brush, or nearby travelers would have noticed the smoke and rushed to put it out. Yet there was not even a speck of soot on the nearby boughs, nor any sign that anyone had scrambled with water buckets.
That left only one possibility.
Someone used mana stones to incinerate my home deliberately and cleanly, watched until the ashes cooled so it wouldn't draw attention, and then tidied up before leaving.
Why? What reason could they possibly have? There hadn't been anything left here worth taking.
Tamping down her cold calculation, Lefonya looked at the party still fruitlessly digging through the soot and parted her lips.
"Let's go back."
Pelens, Sir Velic, Birdie, and Becky all stopped in unison, turning their eyes toward her.
"It's fine. Come to think of it, whatever I left behind wasn't all that important anyway."
"Still, Ponya, you said it was something you needed to pack—"
"Really, it's fine."
The forgotten belongings had only ever been an excuse to leave the estate in the first place.
"Let's head back."
There was no reason to waste any more time here.
Once the carriage gets close to the underground passage that connects to the rendezvous point, I'll tell them my stomach hurts, ask to stop and rest, and slip away then.
Vanishing out of nowhere might worry them or arouse suspicion, but she had no choice. Who knew when she would ever be permitted to leave the estate again? Her only option was to play the part of a frivolous five-year-old who had wandered off on a childish whim after spotting something shiny.
"Everyone, that's enough," Pelens commanded in a low, firm voice, his eyes carefully reading Lefonya's pale complexion.
Everyone froze mid-step.
"We're heading back."
The moment Pelens gave the order, Lefonya was the first to turn around. She climbed into the carriage without a single backward glance, and Pelens followed close behind. Left with no other choice, the rest of the party gathered themselves and turned back as well. Birdie and Becky settled onto the coachman's box while Sir Velic mounted his horse.
Soon, the carriage lurched into motion. Lefonya rested her chin in her palm, staring out the window as the landscape whipped past. Fortunately, Pelens didn't try to strike up a conversation, giving her the quiet space she needed to ponder who had torched the cabin and why.
The air inside the carriage hung stifling and heavy, a stark contrast to their cheerful departure.
After they had been riding for quite some time, Pelens suddenly rapped his knuckles against the carriage wall.
"Halt the carriage."
Tense from the suffocating gloom inside, the coachman pulled the reins with an abrupt jerk. Lefonya, who had been actively scanning the road for the right spot to make her escape, blinked in surprise and looked up at Pelens.
Why is he stopping all of a sudden?
Pelens swung the carriage door open, stepped down to the cobblestones, and reached a broad hand back inside toward Lefonya.
She tilted her head, thoroughly bewildered.
"Me? I'm getting out too?"
"Of course you are."
Wasn't he getting off alone? As Lefonya hesitated and awkwardly pushed herself up, Pelens chuckled.
"Is there another fluffball in this carriage that I somehow missed?"
With a teasing grin, he scooped Lefonya into his arms and set her gently onto the ground.
They were standing before a lavish boutique.
"Huh? This place is…"
"Didn't I promise we'd stop by and take a look around on our way home?"
Ah. Come to think of it, they really had talked about that earlier. He hadn't forgotten.
"Right. But Brother, right now I'm really not in the—"
"Come on, fluffball."
She had intended to tell him she wasn't in the mood and beg to go straight home, but Pelens merely smiled as if he understood everything and gently caught her hand.
"This way."
Because the grand boutique catered primarily to the aristocracy, its storefront was fitted with enchanted tinted glass that shielded its highborn patrons from the prying eyes of the street. Towed along in Pelens's wake, Lefonya found herself pulled inside.
A crystal-clear chime announced their arrival, and a rush of fragrant, cozy warmth washed over them.
"Whoa…"
She had never guessed from the outside, but the interior was vast and brimming with enchanting curiosities that seized the eye. Cloud-shaped lamps powered by mana stones floated softly in midair, while ornate lanterns inlaid with multiple high-grade jewels slowly rotated, casting ever-shifting ribbons of color across the floor. There was an exquisite dollhouse built to replicate an entire noble manor, alongside clockwork toys featuring miniature horses and carriages that trotted endlessly in place.
It was all so mesmerizing that the gloom from seeing her burnt-down cabin momentarily slipped from her mind.
"Greetings to the Second Young Master of Craitan."
A shopkeeper approached swiftly, bowing deeply to Pelens. One glance at the livery worn by Sir Velic, Birdie, and Becky was more than enough to identify their house.
"We received no prior notice of your visit and failed to prepare a proper reception. Please forgive our discourtesy."
"Save it. We're just here to look around."
"Understood, my lord. I shall wait just over there, so please call for me should anything catch your eye."
The shopkeeper was deferential and courteous, and Pelens handled the exchange with practiced ease. Lefonya, feeling entirely out of her element, lingered a step behind in awkward hesitation.
Pelens chuckled and drew her closer to his side.
"Fluffball, you can look at whatever you want. If you find something neat and want to touch it, go ahead. And if there's anything you want, we'll buy it."
"Buy it? But we didn't get permission from the Duke."
"I don't need to file a report with Father every single time I spend money. Besides, today I'm only using my own allowance from him."
"You're buying it for me?"
"Yeah."
Pelens answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, turning his attention to the display cases. It seemed this was his first time browsing a shop like this as well, judging by the quiet murmurs of "Huh, that's neat" that escaped him at every turn.
Did he really come here just for me?
Lefonya found herself pattering along closely at his heels.
"What's this thing?" Pelens muttered.
The attendant immediately scurried over to explain. "That is a paired artifact, my lord. When two people carry them, they can hear each other's voices regardless of distance. By setting a vocal trigger and calling out, you can speak across great expanses and even sense the other party's location. They are quite popular among betrothed couples."
"Then forget that. What about this?"
"Those are coloring tools crafted entirely from precious gemstones. As the gem is ground across parchment, it deposits vibrant pigments that glitter brilliantly under the light. They are an exclusive novelty found only in our establishment."
"Oh. So the drawings actually sparkle?"
"Indeed, my lord. Unlike ordinary pigments, filling a sketch with powdered jewels lends it an incomparable brilliance. The set on this side utilizes lower-grade gems, so the hues are somewhat subdued, but this set right here employs only the highest-grade jewels, rendering colors of breathtaking clarity."
"Oho."
"The supreme-grade set was completed just yesterday. Should you purchase it today, you would become its very first owner in the entire Empire."
Are they completely insane? Lefonya's mind reeled. Coloring with jewels?!
A single high-grade gem was enough to sustain two grown adults living frugally for an entire year. Even a modest low-grade stone could feed two adults in comfort for three months. And they were grinding them down to make art supplies?!
Just as she was reeling in horror at the unhinged luxury of the aristocracy—
"Then we'll take this."
Pelens casually pointed his finger at the supreme-grade jewel set.
Lefonya's head snapped toward him.
"I'll buy every set currently in stock."
He's out of his mind. He's not just a roughneck hooligan—he's a certifiable lunatic!
"And wrap up that floating cloud light and that rotating lantern, too. Ah, and that toy carriage with the running horses, along with the dollhouse over there."
The lunatic's shopping rampage had officially begun. With terrifying precision, he pointed out every single item Lefonya's gaze had briefly lingered on since entering the shop.
"And that pink rabbit doll as well."
The boutique's display shelves began to empty at a dizzying speed.
Lefonya's jaw dropped. Apparently recognizing that this was far from normal behavior, the other noble customers browsing nearby stood frozen, staring at Pelens with their mouths agape.
By now, the charred ruins of the cabin were the furthest thing from Lefonya's mind. How could she possibly dwell on anything else when an absolute madman was detonating a spending spree right before her eyes?
Sensing the stunned gazes boring into him from all directions, Pelens shrugged nonchalantly.
"It's all for my little sister."