Ch.25Unknown Knowledge (4)

“…Could it be that woman is more important to you than me?”

Kirsy’s expression looked so pained as she said this that even I frowned.

I looked at Judy once, then back at Kirsy.

I tried to hold back, but now there was no other choice.

Had I endured for about four days? That’s actually quite a long time to hold back.

I placed my hand on Kirsy’s cheek.

It had been a while since I’d touched her.

“Kirsy, that’s not possible.”

It wasn’t meant to hurt Judy at all. Questions about who I like more are always difficult to answer, but… when comparing family and friends, who wouldn’t choose family?

Kirsy trembled at my touch.

“…Ah…”

She let out a moan between her teeth, her expression softening as she rubbed her cheek against my hand like a cat.

The sensation was soft like bread. I could feel her silky hair against the back of my hand.

Before I knew it, Kirsy had grabbed the back of my hand to prevent it from slipping away.

I said, “You’re more important to me. Do you really need to ask?”

“…Yes… I need to hear you say it, brother…”

Her eyes were still moist.

She continued rubbing her cheek against my hand for a while, then suddenly stopped and opened her eyes coldly.

“…It smells…”

“…What?”

I couldn’t believe my ears.

“Your hand smells like that woman.”

“……”

“Stroke me with your other hand, brother. I hate this smell.”

Kirsy pouted.

I sighed.

“You’re quite sensitive to smells, aren’t you?”

I asked with a double meaning.

First she said my body smelled, and now Judy too.

Perhaps it really was right to give up hugs or any physical contact.

Kirsy looked startled, as if she had made a mistake, her cold expression changing to one of surprise.

“Ah…! No…!”

I removed my hand from her.

I didn’t stroke her cheek again after that.

“I’ll be careful.”

I said.

It had been our first physical contact in a while, but I regretted doing it.

Even though her words weren’t directed at me, I felt my wounds being reopened.

“Brother…! That’s not what I meant…!”

I didn’t hear her explanation.

I was more concerned about how to resolve this situation.

Kirsy getting angry whenever she saw Judy.

This couldn’t continue.

No matter how much Grandmother Riana had warned about the Ice Family, it was too difficult if they fought like cats and dogs every time they met.

Especially since, while that might be expected of Kirsy, as Judy was becoming a closer friend, this kind of relationship was just uncomfortable.

I had already warned Kirsy while horseback riding, but nothing had changed.

I didn’t want to propose the same ineffective solution twice. I believed that scolding Kirsy again would only lead to similar incidents.

“……”

In the end, I thought it was because there had been many reasons for dissatisfaction lately.

I realized that I hadn’t been spending quality time with the twins recently. We hadn’t had time to address our frustrations.

Just as I had complaints they didn’t know about, the twins probably had their own discomforts that I wasn’t aware of.

Ultimately, this was my responsibility. Even as an adopted child, I was the eldest. It was my job to guide them in the right direction.

…But then again.

I realized that I had also relied on physical contact to easily resolve their frustrations.

In the current situation, I was at a loss for how to appease Kirsy’s anger without touching her.

“…Hmm…”

“Brother, it’s… it’s okay with your hand from before, okay?”

“….”

I flicked her forehead.

“Ouch!”

Kirsy covered her forehead.

She looked confused by my sudden playfulness.

I just grinned at her.

“Forget it. Let’s just move on. There’s no point arguing over nothing. No matter how much our families are enemies… as I told Judy, it’s exhausting to fight every time we meet. Stop it now. Kirsy, I can’t ask you to get along well, but stop picking fights every time you see her.”

“…No…”

“Tsk. What do you mean ‘no’? Saying people smell, and calling her ‘that woman’ when she has a name. That’s just rude.”

“……”

“Stop doing that to my friend. It puts me in a difficult position.”

“…..”

Kirsy slowly nodded.

I was about to grab her shoulder but flinched.

This is why habits are scary.

I almost instinctively used my hand to turn her around.

Instead, I twirled my finger and said to her:

“Come on, turn around. Let’s go get something to eat.”

Kirsy looked at me, then her eyes carefully moved to Judy.

“……”

Judy, feeling that gaze, said to me:

“…Go ahead and eat. I’m fine.”

“…Alright. See you later.”

****

Another holiday had arrived.

Though it was early morning, I was already dressed and walking outside.

My destination was the twins.

Thinking about it, I realized that compared to when we were at the Praester territory, I’d been spending quite a bit of time apart from the twins. We still saw each other often, but it wasn’t as much as before.

Because of that, I thought perhaps various problems had arisen. I hadn’t been seeking them out either.

So today I came to find them early.

That’s not to say I had planned any activities.

I was planning to go to the library and wanted to invite them along.

Arriving at the first floor of the women’s dormitory, I approached the receptionist who was sitting and waiting.

“Hello.”

She greeted me. I returned the greeting and asked:

“I’m here to see Asena Praester and Kirsy Praester. Could you call them for me?”

The dormitory was surprisingly strict about entry restrictions.

The reason Asena could easily visit my room was because she was the Praester duchess and a Student Council member, but normally one had to do as I was doing now.

The receptionist nodded and spoke to someone beside her, then asked me to wait for a moment.

As I sat waiting briefly, Kirsy appeared from the stairway with a clattering sound.

“Brother!!”

With a bright smile I hadn’t seen in a while, she came running with her silver hair still not fully arranged.

She spread her arms and launched herself, but I raised my hands and carefully caught her by the shoulders.

Her expression darkened momentarily before brightening again.

“So… what brings you here? This is the first time you’ve come to find us, isn’t it?”

Instead of answering, I lightly touched her hair to fix it.

“You should have fixed your hair before coming out.”

“Well, I was surprised when they said you were here…”

“Where’s Asena?”

“She’s coming. So… why did you come?”

“Ah, I’m going to the library and wanted to ask if you’d like to come along.”

Kirsy froze, slowly rolling her eyes from left to right. My plan didn’t seem to appeal to her much.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

I already knew that Kirsy disliked reading. She preferred going outside to play.

Asena was the one who enjoyed reading.

But today I hadn’t come for anyone in particular—I just wanted company while studying, so I wasn’t going to change my plans just because Kirsy reacted that way.

“What, you don’t want to go?”

If she was the Kirsy I thought she was, her answer was predictable.

Kirsy shook her head.

“No… no. I’ll go.”

She wouldn’t be Kirsy if she didn’t follow when Asena and I were going.

Soon after, Asena came down.

Unlike Kirsy, she was perfectly prepared. She had taken off her black Academy uniform and was wearing a flowing dress. It was appropriate attire for a walk.

She too approached me with a rare eye-smile.

“…What’s going on?”

I smiled back at Asena.

“…Let’s go to the library, Asena.”

****

Asena had felt her heart fill with excitement when she heard that Caden had come looking for them… but now she felt a little disappointed.

Honestly, she had thought they would go for a walk.

Or perhaps do something more special.

Instead, they ended up in a quiet library filled with the smell of old paper.

Kirsy was already darting around different parts of the library.

Although Asena enjoyed reading, today it wasn’t as fun as usual.

She couldn’t concentrate on her book and kept glancing at Caden sitting right beside her.

No one would believe that the head of the Praester family would glance sideways at someone.

She would normally look straight at people, not peek at them cautiously like this.

But… she couldn’t help it.

“…”

Frustration kept building up.

If only she could lean against his arm while reading, there would be no problem.

Or perhaps they could go to the park with books, and she could lie on his lap to read.

Of course, since Asena didn’t show affection to Caden in public, she probably wouldn’t do these things even if given the chance, but still, she wanted to create that kind of memory.

Recently, her frustration had grown since hugs and kisses with him had been forbidden.

Slowly but steadily.

She could feel the frustration building.

Sometimes when she felt unbearably stifled and wondered why, she realized it was because she couldn’t hug him or kiss him that was weighing on her heart.

Even now, her eyes kept drifting toward his hand.

While he was focused on his book, she thought about pretending it was an accident.

Or maybe she could just grab his hand boldly?

Such thoughts came to her, but the reason she couldn’t act on them was because she knew the bitterness that would follow.

Even if she held his hand, if Caden became serious and told her to let go, nothing would be gained.

He needed to want it too for it to be done with joy.

Asena felt resentful toward Caden for ignoring her and focusing on his book.

“What is a Knight.”

“The Qualities of a Leader.”

“Hammer and Anvil Tactics.”

Whatever was so interesting, his eyes wouldn’t leave the pile of books.

Asena just sighed and returned her gaze to her own book.

The words weren’t easy to read, but at least she tried.

As befitting a political science student, she was looking at a book that described various human types.

As Caden remained focused for a long time,

Asena swallowed her yawns and continued reading.

How long had she been reading like that?

A striking passage caught her eye.

People to be most careful of in negotiations.

Asena began to read that text carefully.

The people to be most careful of in negotiations are generous people.

They are always considerate, kind, and unlike others, they don’t get angry easily. Negotiations with them tend to be comfortable. They have an ingrained attitude of compromise and strive to maintain a positive atmosphere even at their own expense.

Asena smiled inwardly.

‘That’s brother.’

But since it said to be careful, she read on with greater focus.

These people don’t get angry easily, but that doesn’t mean they have unlimited patience. When someone is generous, many people tend to overlook this.

They too are human, so they can get angry and become frightening. But if you become complacent because of their smiling face and start making excessive demands and pressure, that person will transform terrifyingly.

“…”

As she read on, Asena felt increasingly uncomfortable for some reason. She adjusted her posture and examined the text more closely.

A generous person can be described as a cliff. They don’t waver much at any provocation, but once the line is crossed, the relationship falls endlessly.

They don’t look back twice. Because they were so considerate, they are surrounded by people and can easily find someone to replace you.

Don’t ignore warnings from such a person. If you’ve received a warning, don’t try to engage in a power struggle. It might be the last chance they’re giving you.

Be careful if you’ve established a close relationship. The more important that person is to you, the greater the impact when they turn away.

“…”

For some reason, Asena couldn’t take her eyes off this short text.

She glanced at Caden again.

He was quietly enjoying his book, turning the pages.

Each time he flipped a page, sunlight reflected off the book, making his face alternately bright and dark.

It was an innocent face that knew nothing.

Nothing had changed.

He hadn’t turned away.

Asena looked at those words again.

For some reason, she felt uncomfortable, and for some reason, her heart was racing.

.

.

.

.

.

Kirsy wandered around, exploring the library.

“Hmm~hmm~”

Humming softly enough that others couldn’t hear, she moved around this vast space.

The Academy’s library was enormous.

As a place where knowledge from the entire kingdom gathered, there were books made of strange materials and books written in unknown languages.

Whenever Kirsy saw an appealing cover, she would climb up a tall ladder, take out the book, flip through a few pages, put it back, and then look for the next one.

She had already wandered quite far from where Caden was originally. It felt like she was on an adventure. That’s how large the library was.

She looked more carefully at books with many illustrations. After all, they were much easier to engage with than text and far less boring.

As she looked around, a book caught her eye.

‘Kissing Guide.’

“Oh?”

Kirsy approached the book with a bright smile.

She could consider herself something of an expert.

Though it had recently been forbidden, she had always kissed Caden until then.

Thinking about the kisses they had shared made her heart warm.

Kirsy had never found a book that piqued her interest like this before.

Still, she didn’t forget to look around before taking the book out.

For some reason, she didn’t want Caden to catch her.

Though she had wandered far enough that he couldn’t possibly see her, she was being cautious just in case.

-Slide

The book slid smoothly out of the bookshelf.

It seemed many people had read it, as unlike the surrounding books, it was quite worn and a bit messy.

Indeed, she had heard that noble young ladies pretended to know nothing but were interested in such things, and it seemed that wasn’t wrong.

Kirsy opened the book. Fortunately, it was a picture book.

The first image showed a woman kissing a man on the cheek.

This was a scene all too familiar to Kirsy.

“..Hehe.”

It was so familiar it made her laugh. The thought that she couldn’t do this anymore made her heart heavy.

But Kirsy had no intention of giving up.

Logically, it didn’t make sense that they would never do it again.

Perhaps if the misunderstanding about the gossip was cleared up, things would be okay. She had never actually thought he smelled bad.

-Flip.

She turned to the next page.

Another familiar scene.

A man kissing a woman on the forehead.

Caden had done this to her many times.

Kirsy touched her now-cold forehead. Remembering the day she would receive such kisses again, and finding vicarious satisfaction through the book, she examined the picture carefully.

So far, nothing surprising had appeared.

The book was more bland than she had expected.

Even turning to the next page, there was just an image of a man kissing a woman’s hand.

Nothing particularly interesting had emerged.

Kirsy finally couldn’t resist and skipped dozens of pages at once.

“……Huh?”

And at that moment, she swallowed hard.

Her cheeks instantly turned red, and her eyes wandered.

She never imagined something like this would be in the book. Suddenly she felt like she was looking at a book she shouldn’t be seeing.

…..Wasn’t the highest level of kissing supposed to be on the lips? Like princesses and knights do.

But what Kirsy saw was a man and woman greedily exploring each other’s tongues.

In the stories Caden had told her—Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid—such animalistic kisses had never appeared.

“….The tongue..the tongue..”

-Gulp.

She swallowed again.

The face of someone began to overlay the man depicted in the book.

If she had to guess…..it looked much more pleasurable than kissing on the cheek.