* * *
The Marchioness gave up trying to make Lavi another friend and left her to play alone with Akkad. She’d come to realize that Lavi’s leaving the mansion had nothing to do with making friends.
“It looks like he won’t come today either.”
Lavi sighed softly as she read the letter from Akkad.
Allen, next to her, smoothed Lavi’s messy hair with a questioning look, “Why the sigh?”
“I don’t think Akkad will be able to come here as often anymore.”
It had already been a week without seeing Akkad.
“Ah, it’s because he started taking swordsmanship lessons.”
“Allen, you knew?”
Lavi had just learned about it from Akkad’s letter, so why did Allen know about it first? A crooked pout pulled her lips down, and strangely, a feeling of disappointment flooded through her.
“I’m familiar with several knights in the service of the Duke of Enoch.”
“I see.”
Lavi sighed in dismay. The fact that Akkad wasn’t around meant that she couldn’t do anything active. Plus, her physical condition wasn’t good today. The thought of having to spend all day indoors made her slump in her chair.
Lavi, contemplating how to occupy her time, stretched out her arms to Allen in a silent request for a hug. This happened all the time when Akkad was away, so it felt natural to hold Lavi in his arms. Just walking around the mansion drained her stamina, so it was something that couldn’t be helped.
“Where should we go?”
“I want to go to the library.”
When she heard that Akkad was learning swordsmanship, she naturally thought about the war that would occur in the future. She was thinking of going somewhere quiet and thinking about what would happen.
“I understand. Reading a book is also a good idea.”
Lavi leaned her head on Allen’s shoulder and nodded indifferently. She couldn’t believe she felt so depressed just because Akkad wasn’t coming to the mansion. She wondered if she was relying on him too much.
“Allen.”
“Yes, miss.”
“Can’t you call for a priest?”
“Where does it hurt?”
Allen lifted Lavi up gently, carefully examining her. Lavi’s feet dangled in the air.
“It’s not that I’m hurt. It’s just that if the priest comes often, it’ll be easier on me.”
“Ah, your physical strength has improved a lot these days, so I didn’t realize you were thinking that way.”
“It has?”
Lavi snorted and fidgeted her feet in the air.
“Yes. You’ve gained quite a bit of weight and have become much healthier.” Allen smiled sweetly and added that he was glad.
He was saying that her physical strength had improved. She was guessing it was an illusion based on how she was when she was with Akkad, but had she gained weight? Lavi tilted her head and looked at her body. Now that she thought about it, it did seem like her bony arms had become quite plump. Lavi briefly wondered if that could be thanks to Akkad, but then she stopped thinking about it.
Arriving at the library, Lavi slowly browsed the bookshelves and then called out for Allen.
“That one.”
“Is this the one you’re talking about?”
“No, take out all the books there, it’s the one inside.”
“Why is this here…?”
Lavi sat in front of the desk, quickly taking the materials Allen had pulled down.
“Because I hid it there.”
She’d said ‘I’ hid it, but in reality, it was Akkad who climbed up the ladder and hid it with great difficulty.
It was a compilation of information about each family. Strangely, whenever she tried to look at these materials, her brother would appear and take them away, so she kept them in a place where he couldn’t see them. She especially didn’t want to get caught, because she’d had to secretly sneak into her father’s office and steal it in the first place.
“Hmm.”
Lavi scribbled various notes on it with a pen, paying no heed to the fact that the material was original.
Every day, she’d put off the thought of organizing what she remembered of the contents of the original work, and two years had already passed.
‘I’ve been busy with Akkad.’
It was all for the sake of survival.
Lavi put the tip of the pen in her mouth and thought hard. She kept trying to remember more of the original story, but it remained a blur.
“Ugh! I can’t think of anything.”
“What are you speaking of? Can I help you?” Allen asked, gently slipping the pen out of Lavi’s grasp, but Lavi, but Lavi shook her head.
“There’s something like … something Allen doesn’t know.”
Lavi nibbled on the pen again.
“Miss. You’re going to hurt your teeth.”
Lavi nodded curtly and stared at the blank page. First, she just scribbled whatever came to mind next to the family name.
Brother Werner and Prince Felix are the main characters.
Akkad, the son of the Duke of Enoch, is a childhood friend of Werner’s younger sister, and while visiting the mansion, he falls in unrequited love with Werner.
The villains are the Imperial Crown Prince Zachrid and Lady Salome, her brother’s arranged marriage partner. 1
The ending would probably be Felix and Werner overthrowing Zachrid and Felix becoming emperor.
Then, will her brother have the position of empress?
Lavi, who had been stroking her forearm with her hand, wrote one more line under Akkad’s name that filled her with unease.
Akkad returns to the Empire, having led the way to victory in a war that seemed certain to be lost.
He then took on the role of helping the two main characters wipe out Zachrid’s forces, and also eliminated all of the forces hostile to Werner.
‘That’s our Akkad…such a pure-heart.’
For the happiness of the person he loved, he’d done everything, even gotten blood on his hands.
However, there was a great sense of disparity with the fact that Akkad was supposed to grow up into such a strong person.
It doesn’t seem likely at all.
But then, she couldn’t even remember what would cause her death, so she had no choice but to try her best to survive and not get distracted by other thoughts. Looking back at her situation, she felt a bitter taste in her mouth.
Every now and then, she had to stop and wonder about why she would die.
“Hmmm… so, what’s the reason? What could it be?”
Lavi struggled to push away her gloomy thoughts and return to the topic she was originally thinking about.
Why was young Akkad driven to the battlefield?
It seemed unlikely even if the sixteen year-old was extremely talented. No matter how much she thought about it, it felt uncomfortable.
Lavi was deep in thought, holding her hair with both hands, when Allen came to her with warm milk. Lavi glanced at the paper on the desk, smiled crookedly, and flipped it over.
“Allen. It’s bad form to steal a look at something written by a lady like that.”
“… I’m sorry.”
Allen twitched his cheekbones and said he was sorry, but he didn’t look sorry at all. Lavi fiercely glared at Allen, and then spoke.
“Allen. If a little kid who is only sixteen years old has to go to war, what would be the reason?”
She could see Allen stifling a laugh at the ‘little kid’ part. Apparently he thought it was funny to hear a nine year-old child call a sixteen year-old a ‘little kid’.
Allen, who had finally calmed his expression, cleared his throat and answered.
“Well, is that little kid a noble?”
“Yes.”
“In the case of commoners, the reason for going to war is usually to earn money and make a living, but for nobles, it only happens when they’re directly sent by their guardian.”
The word ‘guardian’ only made her even more confused. If that was the case, it would mean that Akkad was sent by Duke Enoch and his wife, which was absolute nonsense.
“If your guardian tells you to go, you have to go?”
“Isn’t that how it is? Otherwise, it would be a case where the imperial family issues an order, which is very rare.”
A memory suddenly came to Lavi’s mind at Allen’s words.
Werner’s younger sister collapsed while attending a close friend’s funeral, so he canceled his promised engagement with Lady Salome.
Lavi scribbled down the things as quickly as they came to mind, then abruptly crumpled the paper.
Watching her, Allen’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Miss?”
She remembered it. The reason why Akkad had no choice but to go to war.
“That piece of dog XX! A new XX won’t be enough, I’ll XXXX and XX this kind of XXXX.” 2
“…… Ah, M-miss?!”
“Huuu… and after XX, have to XXXX to get rid of…….”
Akkad’s uncle killed the Duke and Duchess of Enoch, disguising the murder as a carriage accident, and took over as the head of the family. By rights, Akkad should have become the head of the household, but he wasn’t of age.
Nobles needed the emperor’s approval when deciding on succession. As in the case of Akkad, even if the family head changed, the uncle couldn’t change the line of succession because the successor designated by the previous family head took precedence. It was a system meant to prevent bloodshed over the position of successor.
In other words, in order for Akkad’s uncle to make his own son the heir….…he sent Akkad off to die on the battlefield.
Lavi put down her milk and covered her mouth with her hands. She was disgusted. How could someone do something like that to such a kind and delicate child?
‘What should I do about this?’
Lavi stayed in the library thinking until the maid came to tell her it was time for bed.
She thought about what she could do to prevent the accident, but no solutions came to mind, so she left the library shivering in Allen’s arms.
Allen was shaken to his core as he watched Lavi sink into a deep slump. He glanced at Lavi before slowly opening his mouth.
“Miss.”
“Yes?”
“Swear words like –no, where in the world did you learn things like that?”
Allen asked kindly, but inwardly gritted his teeth. He silently vowed that whoever dared speak with such language in front of the young lady wouldn’t get away with it.
“I don’t know either.”
Lavi, who had no way of knowing Allen’s feelings, spoke as if she were telling someone else’s story and buried her head in Allen’s shoulder with a soft thud.
There was only so much a nine-year-old kid could do.
Still, there was some time left before something happened to Duke Enoch, so she planned to think about it slowly.
As she left the building where the library was located and headed towards the main building, she heard a familiar voice.
“Lavi~, did you have fun today?”
“Older brother?”
When she turned her head, she saw blonde hair and clear blue eyes that were the exact shade of her own. Slightly sharp eyes drew a soft curve as the person they belonged to smiled.
Lavi stretched out her hand to her brother Werner, looking at him with a friendly smile. Her brother Werner, who turned nineteen this year, was already working as a civil servant at the imperial palace. 3It seemed that he came to visit her as soon as he returned to the mansion, as he was still dressed in the regalia worn by courtiers. Uniform or livery would also be correct.
Lavi nodded in satisfied approval, thinking the white outfit suited her brother very well.
“Hmm. So what happened to our little lady?” 4
Werner, who took Lavi from Allen and lifted her in a hug, searched Lavi’s face. Lavi was smiling now, but he’d seen her sullen expression when she’d been in Allen’s arms earlier.
“Older brother.”
“Yes?”
“My older brother can do anything, right? Anything I ask?”
“Of course. Is there something you want done?”
Werner glanced at Allen as if to ask what happened, but Allen only shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t know what had happened except that he’d witnessed the young lady in the library swearing up an incredibly loud storm of curse words.
Could brother Werner help solve the problem Akkad’s uncle would cause? Lavi thought it might still be too early to talk about it now.
“How much can you do for me?”
“Anything that’s within my power.”
“I’m serious.”
“I’m serious too?”
For some reason, she didn’t find him very reliable.
“Even if I ask you to get rid of someone?”
“What?!” Werner and Allen’s faces both turned pale.
Lavi continued to ponder, fiddling with Werner’s hair. She frowned, thinking it was complicated, and wrinkled her face before speaking again.
“Sigh, living as a nine-year-old is so hard. There’s nothing you can do, right? Damn it.”
“Lavi? Where on earth did you learn say that? No, more than that, what’s going on, huh?”
Lavi let out a small sigh and ran a hand through her hair. Seeing Lavi frowning with an annoyed face, the flustered Werner groaned. Lavi sighed again as she looked at Werner.
‘It must be nice being the main character. There is a lot you can do, and you have a lot of power. Health too…’
On one hand, he will have an arranged marriage with Lady Salome, who is said to be the most beautiful person in the empire, and on the other hand, he will be in a relationship with the main character, the first Prince Felix.
Some people, meanwhile, might die without ever being in a relationship.
Lavi narrowed her eyes and glared at her brother. A horrible ordeal awaited the innocent Akkad, and when she looked at her brother, she felt unaccountably grumpy for no reason.
“Lavi, you’re not…asking me to get rid of Akkad, are you?”
“What are you talking about?!”
“Oh good, I’m glad it wasn’t that. I was wondering if you two had a fight.”
It wasn’t normal to jump to such methods just for a fight between friends.
“You must tell me what happened later. Promise me.”
Lavi pushed away the finger her brother had extended, and asked instead, “So, brother, when are you going to have an arranged marriage?”
“Lavi, what really happened today? Who did you hear that from?”
“Two-timers are scum. Even if it’s an arranged marriage, I think you have to respect the other person. Otherwise, you’ll just end up …” Lavi, who had been speaking in a stream of consciousness manner, shut her mouth with a click. It wasn’t something to say to the main character.
When she felt Werner looking at her with his eyebrows twitching, Lavi looked away, distracted. ‘What? Why are you looking at me like that?’was written all over her face.
Werner, who was ordinarily a resourceful person, was useless when it came to Lavi, and grinned as if he thought she was just too cute. Allen, who had been watching the siblings from behind, shot Werner a look that suggested he say something about the rough language, but he was ignored.
“Lavi, do you want to sleep with your brother tonight?”
“No. It won’t be comfortable.” Lavi rejected him without even the slightest hesitation. If her brother stirred while sleeping with her, then in the best case, she would get blue bruises, and in the worst case, there was the fear that her bones might crack.
Akkad was so gentle that such things didn’t happen, and since they slept holding hands, she was healed in real time.
Werner looked at Lavi with a sullen face at her firm refusal, but Lavi snorted and turned her head away. As if Werner had no intention of giving up like this, he stroked Lavi’s head and opened his mouth again, “Lavi, you sleep well with Akkad. You don’t like your brother?”
“That’s Akkad. Sleeping with brother would be a bit…” Werner’s face turned white as she added a small word. “Gross.” Lavi glanced at the shocked Werner, then reached out and patted his shoulder. She felt a little sorry for being too grumpy. “Cheer up. You know that I love my brother, right?”
“Kisses, then.”
Lavi squirmed as Werner leaned in, demanding affection.
“That’s a bit….”
She gave Allen a look telling him to quickly pick her up again.Allen hesitated, looking flustered, and then caught Lavi’s vicious expression look and took Lavi back out of Werner’s arms.
Lavi tried to ignore Werner, who was looking at her with a hurt expression. It was burdensome to demand a series of kisses like he’d die without them.
‘It’s too much when he talks…it spoils the image.’
Yes. Werner looked cool with his mouth shut and his face expressionless. Lavi did not want the protagonist’s charisma to be completely shattered. She could understand why he liked her because she was his sibling who was ten years younger than him. However, she had a small–no, a big–wish that he would manage his facial expressions a bit more.
“Let’s go, Allen. I’m going to sleep now.”
“… Okay.”
Allen looked at Werner and started walking when Lavi urged him to quickly leave.
Werner cried out Lavi’s name, but Lavi simply stretched her arms above her head and waved without even looking back.
“Good night, brother. Bye.”
T/N: Berserker!Mode Lavi is one of my favorite Lavi modes…but I do feel bad for Werner here. There are three more sections in chapter 2, but they’re relatively short, so I may do them in one post.
- Three notes here:
1) I don’t know why these two lines are bolded and the others aren’t, but I assume it’s for a reason and am therefore formatting it as it is in the original
2) Romanization of names is hard y’all. Crown Prince is 재크리드 – could also be like, Jacquard, Zachreed, Jackryd….I keep going back and forth
3) Also, per note last chapter, another use of 영애 (Salome young-ae) ↩︎ - Lines are censored in the original lol. 이런 개X끼. XX을 XXX해서 XXXX해 버려도 모자랄 새X.” & next line is “후우- XX해서 XXX을 해 버려야…….” The only one I can really figure out is the 개X끼 ↩︎
- 문관 could also be courtier, magistrate ↩︎
- FWIW, Werner is using 아가씨/agassi (same as the maids and Allen) to call Lavi ↩︎
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