Ch.42The Principled One (6)

Kirsy walked with a somewhat brighter heart. Though Caden still wasn’t treating her with the same familiarity as before, they had shared a brief hug, and she had received reassurance that he loved her.

She had been terrified when he asked what she had been doing in bed… but somehow she managed to get past that too.

Kirsy’s heart was in knots. Not only was her behavior itself embarrassing, but she had done such things while thinking of her brother… she couldn’t imagine what he would think if he found out. Kirsy knew her love was twisted. It was a love that siblings shouldn’t feel for each other.

If these feelings and actions were discovered, their relationship might become even more distant than it was now. Somehow, someday, she would have to tell him. But for now, it was too early. It hadn’t been long since Kirsy herself could clearly name these feelings.

The feeling of love had always been the same, but only now did she realize this was romantic love between a man and woman.

As Kirsy walked to her dormitory, she thought of Asena. Asena already had such deep feelings for Caden. Being of the same kind, she could easily recognize it. She now understood Asena’s eccentric behaviors one by one. She understood why Asena sometimes acted meanly toward him, just like herself.

Kirsy felt uncomfortable. It was already burdensome to reveal her own feelings, but now Asena had the same feelings too. If that was the case, would she have to fight her sister for him? It was hard to believe that her sister had become her rival in love.

She wasn’t confident that she was better than Asena, but she didn’t want to lose either. And… for now, she firmly believed that Caden would love her more than anyone else. More than Asena. So things should be fine for now.

Kirsy increasingly realized that there were many obstacles to her love.

“…Ah…”

Thinking about him made her heart constrict and pound, causing Kirsy to sink down where she stood.

Now she could understand what this was too. It was something that appeared often in the stories of princesses and knights that Caden used to tell her at bedtime when they were young.

Lovesickness.

Kirsy could finally understand what that meant.

After taking several deep breaths, Kirsy gathered strength in her legs and stood up again. She had no desire to avoid the tasks ahead of her. One by one, she would solve them… and gradually reveal her feelings to lower his guard.

The night had already grown too late.

Kirsy carefully opened the door to the dormitory she had reached without realizing it.

-Creeak.

“……”

“…Sister.”

And the one who greeted Kirsy was Asena. Sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed and arms folded, she looked at Kirsy with a hardened face.

“…Where have you been?”

She asked. Kirsy could tell it was a question asked while already knowing the answer. So Kirsy didn’t respond.

“……”

“…So what did brother say?”

“…He’s still angry.”

Asena gently closed her eyes and sighed.

“….Huu….”

“…Sister… are you making up with brother…?”

“…How can I make up when brother ignores me all day?”

“……”

Asena spoke with difficulty through clenched teeth.

“…Me… brother… ignores…”

Asena’s hands trembled. She couldn’t bear the current situation. After suppressing her anger for a long time, she abruptly stood up.

“…Sister…?”

“…Get some rest, Kirsy. I have somewhere to go.”

“Where…?”

“…..”

Asena didn’t answer. She left the room, leaving Kirsy alone in the dormitory.

****

Asena felt like she would go mad with jealousy. Caden, who wouldn’t speak to her all day, or if he did, would maintain distance and use formal speech, was laughing and sharing jokes with Daisy.

Asena simply couldn’t stand the sight. In the past, she would have already taken some measures. But since such actions only distanced her from Caden, she now had to endure the feeling of blood rushing backward while witnessing everything with her own eyes.

Asena had made her own efforts.

Since she still wanted Caden to approach her first, she didn’t go to apologize… but she lingered in front of him.

She deliberately crossed his path, stared at him for long periods, and stood still in his way.

She showed signs of being upset, sad, and angry.

But this time, Caden didn’t approach her.

He didn’t stroke her cheek and say, ‘Alright. Let’s stop now. I don’t want to keep fighting.’

Instead, he didn’t even glance at her and kept talking with other women.

Leaving her behind, he only grew closer to other women.

With Daisy during guard duty. With Judy outside when there were classes.

They seemed to be having so much fun that their laughter echoed through the corridors.

Because of this, Asena couldn’t count how many quill pens she had broken.

Asena came to a certain dormitory room looking for a woman.

The woman’s name was ‘Shallon Payne.’

She was the second daughter of the ‘Payne’ family, which was under the Praester Family.

The Payne viscounty had another name.

They were also called ‘The Dagger of the Praester Family.’

It was something no one could say out loud, but it was widely rumored that the Payne family handled the dirty work for the Praester Family.

And this wasn’t wrong. Everyone in the Praester Family and all members of the Payne family knew this fact.

The Payne family was a family conquered by the Praester Family hundreds of years ago.

Instead of exterminating them, they took charge of all intelligence activities for the Praester Family in exchange for sparing everyone’s lives. As time passed, the Payne family increasingly solidified their position as tools of the Praester Family, and this extended to the Academy.

When Asena knocked on the door, Shallon Payne appeared.

This was the first time Asena had sought her out. But explanations weren’t necessary. Shallon perfectly understood her duty.

“…How may I help you?”

Shallon asked Asena.

“…In the student council room… there’s a small flower on Daisy Hexter’s desk. Remove that flower and throw it away.”

“Is that all?”

“…Yes. It’s trivial but… important to me. I’d like it to disappear without a trace.”

Shallon nodded and then passed by Asena, disappearing somewhere.

Thinking that the flower would be gone, Asena felt a little relief. The jealousy that had been tormenting her until just now diminished somewhat.

Asena didn’t feel any guilt for this action.

Even Caden had asked Daisy if she would consider throwing it away since it was already withered.

But Daisy said she couldn’t throw it away. She was getting too close to Caden without knowing her place. So Asena decided to throw it away for her.

She wanted to crush the flower with her own hands and then throw it away. But since Asena knew that would be difficult, she was satisfied with just making it disappear.

“……Huu…”

Asena sighed and calmed her mind.

At the same time, she thought of Caden, who came to mind whenever she was still.

How long would he continue like this?

Only a day had passed, but Asena was already at her limit.

The only thing Asena wanted in this world was his warmth. When he treated her coldly, she felt like she had lost her place in this world.

This world without his warmth was too cold. And when she thought that his warmth was directed at someone else, she felt unbearable jealousy.

After calming her mind there, Asena headed back to her room.

****

Today again, I was waiting for Daisy while yawning. Because the sheets were wet due to Kirsy, I had to sleep on the sofa and couldn’t get quality sleep. My shoulders were stiff and my neck was tense.

While pressing my collarbone and turning my neck in different directions to stretch, I saw someone’s head peeking from far away.

I couldn’t help but smile.

It was Kirsy.

Seeing my smile, she approached me with a brightened expression.

“Brother..!”

But funny is funny, and this is different.

“Lady Kirsy. Why are you here?”

She choked on her breath at my tone. It seemed she had expected something, even though I hadn’t said I would go back to speaking normally from today.

“…Brother… from today… again…”

“I didn’t say anything like that. That’s that, and please go back.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s troublesome for me if you keep interfering with my work. What am I supposed to do if you linger in front of Daisy because of me?”

“………”

She looks at me with a dejected expression.

“…You were with that woman all day yesterday.”

No, it’s a resentful expression. But I didn’t soften easily.

Rather, I relaxed the tension in my face. Looking at her with an expression that said, ‘Here we go again,’ Kirsy flinched and corrected her words.

“…Ah… I… understand… I’ll… try to endure today too.”

It was a good change. Since I would leave them someday, perhaps growing distant day by day was the right thing to do.

“…Please go back quickly. Daisy will be out soon.”

Kirsy reaches out her hand.

“Then…! When can we meet today…?”

“I don’t know.”

“……”

Since she seemed to be viewing the situation too optimistically, I decided to throw cold water on her hopes.

“Lady Kirsy. I’m still angry, so why do you keep thinking about when we’ll meet without even asking about my feelings?”

“…Huh…?”

“Did I forgive you without my knowledge?”

“…No… I just… brother… I… want to be with you…”

“Go back now. I won’t warn you again.”

Kirsy clutched her chest and turned away. She walked away from me with heavy, powerless steps.

Even as she left, she kept looking back at me, showing lingering attachment. Every time she looked at me, I gestured for her to go quickly.

Really… such a mischievous cuteness. Does she think everything will be fine if she just acts cute after doing something wrong?

Those days are over. Of course, she’s still cute… but that doesn’t mean I’ll waver. Even though my anger has subsided a lot, I still wanted to keep our distance for now.

And then, Daisy comes out.

“Good morning, Caden.”

“Good morning, Daisy.”

We greeted each other, smiled, and started our day.

****

Daisy entered the student council room while greeting. Caden followed her in.

Asena and Judy had already arrived. Asena rolled her eyes to look at Caden, but he didn’t even glance at her.

Having pushed away even Kirsy like that, he certainly wouldn’t be kinder to Asena, with whom he hadn’t even spoken yet.

Asena felt a dark emotion but pretended to be unaffected.

“…Huh?”

Daisy looked at her desk with confusion.

The flower she always looked at with a smile was gone.

“..Where did it go?”

Only after the flower disappeared did Daisy realize how much she had liked it. That’s why she couldn’t throw it away even though it had withered.

Daisy frantically looked around her desk, but she couldn’t find the flower.

After searching in vain, she looked at Caden standing behind her. For some reason, she felt ashamed to face him now that the flower was gone.

Caden could quickly understand what she was looking for. It was obvious to anyone that the flower had disappeared.

“…Um… perhaps…”

Daisy carefully asked Caden with lowered eyebrows. It was a natural question since he had suggested throwing it away the day before.

“…It wasn’t me.”

Daisy’s face reddened even more. Not only had she failed to take good care of a gift, but she had even asked the gift-giver if he had removed it.

While she was flustered, a voice rang out.

“…You should have taken better care of it.”

A cold voice. Caden and Daisy’s eyes turned toward that voice.

Asena was speaking without even looking at them.

“…If it was such a meaningful flower, shouldn’t you have kept it somewhere other than the student council room?”

“…Asena… did you…”

At that question, Asena’s eyes looked up at Daisy.

“…I left the student council room before you yesterday.”

“…Ah…”

That was a fact Daisy remembered too. Asena had waited for Caden outside, but Caden had ignored her, so it was impossible to forget.

Finally, Daisy turned to Caden.

She bowed her head deeply and apologized.

“…I’m… I’m sorry… it was a gift.”

“……”

But contrary to everyone’s expectation that Caden would easily forgive Daisy, Caden paused and showed a flat reaction.

Seeing him like that, Daisy blamed herself even more. It seemed he had indeed attached a lot of meaning to that flower.

Caden rolled his eyes in thought for a moment, then spoke to Daisy.

“…Just a moment. Judy, please look after Daisy for a bit.”

Then he left the student council room.

Watching him leave, Asena felt a slight sense of victory beneath her hardened face. It wasn’t enough to be happy about, but things seemed to be going better than expected.

Daisy stared blankly in the direction Caden had gone, then sighed deeply and sat down at her desk.

Then she folded her arms and laid her head on the desk.

Asena didn’t like her behavior either.

It was as if she was depressed for disappointing someone she had feelings for.

That probably wasn’t the case, but she didn’t like that kind of reaction itself.

Asena wanted to return the sense of deprivation she had felt because of her.

“…Brother seems very disappointed.”

“…Ugh…”

“It was a gift he gave after winning the competition, after all.”

“…..”

“Brother said to throw it away, but now it seems that was just empty words.”

-Bang!

At that moment, the door burst open.

Caden appeared, breathing heavily.

It hadn’t been long since he left.

Seeing him, who was usually in good physical condition, panting like this, one could roughly guess how hard he had run.

Caden, breathing roughly, walked toward Daisy.

Asena’s eyes widened as she saw what he was hiding behind his back.

“…No…”

She whispered quietly. But Caden didn’t stop.

Caden stood in front of Daisy and took out a flower from behind his back.

“…Huh?”

Daisy inhaled sharply.

“Since you’ve thrown it away now, I can give you a gift. Many of the same flowers have bloomed in the garden. Shouldn’t we appreciate them when they’re beautiful?”

Second time. This was the second time. Daisy had received twice what Asena had never received from him, what she wanted to receive.

Asena felt her heart hardening with a sense of defeat.

Caden spoke.

“If you want, I’ll bring one for you every day from now on. Don’t be so disheartened because one disappeared. Flowers aren’t eternal anyway.”

He smiled.

Asena could only watch from a distance as Caden smiled while giving flowers to another woman.

Why was he so kind? And why wasn’t that kindness directed at her?

Asena had every scene slowly etched into her mind.