episode_0016

During the festival period, Kristia declared that she wouldn’t do anything.

Considering the amount of administrative work she handles, it wouldn’t have been strange for those below her to plead for her to withdraw her statement, but fortunately, there were no incidents. This was because from the start, the Kingdom of Kristia was a place where Kristia did not handle any work and only tormented her subordinates, spending her personal time. The reason Kristia directly manages the work is simply to increase efficiency, so her not working immediately didn’t cause any major issues.

If she didn’t handle work for about 1-2 years, cracks might begin to appear in her influence, but since she was only taking about a week off, it wasn’t a big deal.

“The siblings seem to get along well.”

The owner of the shop, watching me and Kristia munching on hotteok, said. He seemed genuinely bright, perhaps thinking that Aten could really defeat Hypefree.

“Don’t you get hit a lot by your sister?”

“My sister has never hit me.”

Well, she wasn’t my sister to begin with. I’ve been playfully hit many times. In this world, I’ve never been hit because if I got hit, I would die, but back on Earth, we were just ordinary siblings, so even if we hit each other with all our strength, it wasn’t a big problem.

“Really? I saw earlier, it looked like you’ve been hit quite a lot.”

“Well, of course. She’s not my sister, she’s my younger sibling.”

Perhaps because of the festival, there were quite a few people passing by, and as soon as I spoke, it felt like they collectively paused. Some deliberately slowed their steps to hear the end of this nonsense, and some even completely stopped and stared at me.

“Uh… uh…”

The shop owner looked at me with a vacant gaze, as if his thoughts had been interrupted.

“Even so, I’m an adult.”

“Blood-related siblings… right?”

In this romantic fantasy world, it wasn’t unusual to see siblings who weren’t blood-related, so her question wasn’t entirely implausible.

“No…”

“I don’t know.”

Before Christia could speak, she cut in.

I worried if this would cause trouble later, but I thought of a better excuse.

“We’re orphans. We’ve been together since we were young, so whether we share blood or not, we don’t really know.”

Saying that, I lightly tapped Christia’s side.

Even though I called it her side, Christia was much taller than me, making it nearly impossible to tap comfortably.

“Seeing how little we resemble each other, it seems likely we’re not related by blood, but what does that matter?”

I’m Tia’s older brother, and Tia is my younger sister.

As I said that, people around us began to look at me with admiration.

Despite just mentioning I was an adult, it seemed difficult for them to ignore the power emanating from my appearance.

“Hey there, young man! I’ll give you two extra fish-shaped buns for free!”

Of course, it meant he would provide the extra buns if I bought the fish-shaped buns first.

I didn’t refuse and accepted the offer. It wasn’t a situation where I could afford to waste any money.

“Nom.”

To Christia, the fish-shaped bun was nothing more than a small snack to be eaten in one bite.

I had to take at least four bites.

“They’re truly good siblings.”

As the rather cheerful atmosphere continued, I cautiously brought up the question I’d been holding onto.

“But… the atmosphere is quite cheerful. We’re travelers and don’t have big plans, but you mentioned being under Christia Kingdom’s rule. Despite that, it seems too cheerful…”

“This festival is the last one the king has arranged for us.”

A child, as small as me, responded to my words.

“It’s the final festival, so of course we should enjoy it, right?”

“And there’s a strong belief that Sir Aten will rescue the king. Hype? I’ve never even heard of such a person. Even if it’s Aten, he might be able to handle Astia, if not Cristia.”

Cristia seemed to force a smile at his words.

Seeing her, who was truly skilled in facial expressions, forcing a smile so obviously, made it clear how absurd his words were.

“Defeat Astia? Ridiculous. Astia, being Cristia’s guardian knight, occasionally seen training, had an incredible skill. According to Cristia, Astia had reached the level of mid-10th rank. Not to mention, in the original world, Astia ultimately achieved the strength of a late 11th rank, making someone like Aten completely insignificant.”

“If, by chance, Sir Aten is defeated… what will you do?”

“Well, I don’t really know. From what I’ve heard, this human Cristia isn’t such a bad person, and just living an ordinary day doesn’t seem so bad either.”

“Sir! Why are you saying such things! You must fight desperately!”

Did my words spark something?

People instantly divided into two and began debating.

“Half and half…”

I could once again realize the prestige Cristia held.

This was the Armenian Kingdom.

A place returning to being an ideal kingdom itself.

Even here, achieving about half of the support through mere prestige alone was very much like Cristia.

Of course, the original Cristia would have achieved 100% support in no time.

Anyone showing even a hint of resistance would have been enslaved as common slaves of knights or soldiers.

She would have achieved 100% support through fear alone.

“Everyone, calm down!”

As I clapped my hands and spoke, the surrounding gazes focused on me.

“Today is a joyful festival, isn’t it? We can talk about what you think of Chrisia later. Today, we should enjoy ourselves, right? Even if it’s for the king.”

As I spoke brightly, people started to enjoy the festival again, saying, “Right, because this is the last festival.”

“Hmm.”

Seeing me like that, Chrisia made a small sound and then grabbed my wrist, walking with me at a rather fast pace.

“Tia! Wait!”

This time, she walked at a speed that almost seemed like she didn’t care about my stride, so I had to do my best to keep up with her pace.

“Why is this woman suddenly like this?”

In an instant, I found myself alone with Chrisia in the alley.

“Why…”

I couldn’t continue speaking.

Chrisia was looking at me with a queenly, strong smile.

“I see…”

So, I changed to formal language.

“Just… I thought Sacher had more charisma than I expected.”

Unbelievable.

Sacher was definitely not someone who relied on charisma.

Ferocity.

He was just a foolish friend driven solely by the desire to seek revenge against Chrisia.

He wasn’t smart, influential, or even without flaws, but he was a fool doing his best to bring down the wicked villain Chrisia in any way possible.

That’s why Sacher had the worst success rate.

His very nature was solely focused on being hostile towards Chrisia.

Even the strategy of using his charming looks, which would be the best way for Sacher to survive, was rendered unusable due to his personality.

“It’s unlikely that Chrisia doesn’t know better, right?”

As I smiled, she shook her head and said, “If it’s the Sacher we know, your words are probably right. However…”

Chrisia looked straight at me and continued.

“You have gentleness. Your cute appearance, which anyone could love, must have been a stroke of luck at birth.”

The ability to subdue people gently.

The ability to lead people according to one’s own intentions without shouting.

Christia told me that I had such an ability.

“What nonsense…”

The reason people listened to me was simply because my words jogged their memories of something they had momentarily forgotten.

And perhaps, it was just because Saka, as she herself looked so adorable, and seemed like someone who could be loved by anyone, that others paid just a little bit more attention to my words.

“And that ability is probably not the Saka we know. It must be a unique ability possessed by a person I’ve met so far, named Han Seohwa.”