Chapter 7
“Huh? In your dream?”
At that sudden accusation, Seria simply blinked blankly. When the little girl’s eyes began to sparkle and the corners of her mouth curled up mischievously—
“C–Ciel! You should say hello first!”
Yuel stammered nervously and shouted urgently.
“Hurry!”
Maybe because she realized she hadn’t introduced herself yet, or perhaps because she just felt sorry for her struggling brother,
Ciel decided not to reveal everything and simply stated her name instead.
“My name is Ciel Rickard.”
“Can I call you Ciel?”
“Yeah.”
“How old are you?”
“Six years old!”
As Ciel cheerfully answered while holding up six fingers, even the usually cautious Seria began to soften and melt.
“Yuel, I like your little sister.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It feels like there are two of you now.”
“That’s not true.”
Ignoring Yuel’s insistence that he and his sister were different people, Seria stepped away from him.
Ironically, Yuel was the one who felt a twinge of regret at the distance between them—but of course, he didn’t show it.
“Come on. Show me around your house.”
Saying that, Seria took the lead, walking ahead of Yuel as if she owned the place.
It was hard to tell who was the host and who was the guest, but either way, Yuel quickly caught up to her side.
“But Yuel.”
“Yeah?”
“Why were you looking for me in your dream?”
Seria’s voice was so calm and straightforward that Yuel didn’t even understand what she meant at first.
“Uh… wh-what?”
When his embarrassing secret was suddenly exposed again, Yuel’s face flushed bright red.
“Why did you do that, huh? Did you miss me that much?”
Watching Seria pull her usual teasing expression, Yuel felt like he’d been transported back in time—though it was only about a month ago.
“I–I never did that!”
Her pout, lips stretched down in that characteristic way, was so typically Seria.
Yuel, face burning, puffed up and protested, but today his little sister seemed determined to make things difficult for him.
“Yes, you did! You definitely did!”
Maybe because she didn’t want to be called a liar, Ciel shouted back just as loudly.
“How would you know?!”
“Because I saw it! It was raining and scary, so I went into your room, and you called out for her!”
As she watched the siblings bicker, Seria’s eyes gleamed.
Even though Ciel was only six, she spoke clearly and confidently—it made Seria think they’d make a great team.
‘If the two of us team up to tease Yuel, this is going to be fun.’
Just the thought of cornering Yuel from both sides made her ears perk up with excitement.
While Seria grinned wickedly, thankfully Yuel was too distracted arguing with Ciel to notice the sinister smile.
“You… If you keep this up, I won’t get you any snacks.”
He even started trembling as he threatened her, but when his little sister’s eyes welled up instantly, Yuel panicked and hurried to add,
“…Just for today.”
At that, Ciel beamed, as if she’d never been on the verge of tears.
Seeing her smile, Seria also burst into a wide grin.
Yes, they were definitely going to make a great team.
First, Yuel showed Seria around the mansion and the gardens.
There were plenty of other places he could have shown her—like the training grounds or the banquet halls—but Yuel knew Seria wouldn’t be interested in those.
Ciel, who had been toddling along behind them, lost interest like any child would and wandered off halfway through.
At the same time, Seria’s interest was also wearing thin.
“Wanna play tag?”
“Tag? Sure. Then you’re it!”
“W–wait, what?”
So after a quick tour, Yuel and Seria started playing their usual game of tag again.
Maybe it was because they had missed each other after being apart, or maybe because they were on Yuel’s home turf, but this time he didn’t tear up like before.
Still, he startled easily whenever Seria tapped him, and that made her quite pleased.
But honestly, even if she ignored all those reasons—
“I really do like you.”
She simply liked Yuel.
“Then why didn’t you write back?”
Instead of saying something like “I don’t like you!”, Yuel threw out a rather unexpected question.
He had been playing excitedly, pretending nothing was wrong, but that question had been on his mind all day, nagging at him.
The one caught off guard this time was Seria—it had been a long time since she’d felt that way.
“…I don’t like writing letters.”
Seria brushed it off casually, and before the relieved Yuel could ask more, she quickly added,
“But I like playing with you. The other kids are so boring.”
“Really?”
Yuel subconsciously tried to suppress the twitch at the corners of his mouth.
Her words made him feel an odd sense of pride, straightening his posture.
‘I’m someone special to Seria.’
It felt so good to believe that.
High on that happiness, Yuel resolved to act like the “special friend” he believed he was.
That’s why, when he heard that children from other noble families would be visiting the mansion, he decided to act mature.
‘I just want to play with Seria.’
‘I only want to play with Yuel.’
Both of them secretly wished no one would come.
Here’s how it began.
News that Seria had visited the Marquis’s estate spread quickly, and soon, countless letters started arriving at House Rickard.
“Other kids are coming too?”
“If you want, yes. They’ll be new faces for you. But apparently, they’ve met Seria before.”
At his father’s words, Yuel shifted his feet nervously, unsure how to respond.
At some point, he had started wanting to monopolize Seria’s time—but he had no intention of making her feel pressured by showing it.
Besides, wasn’t he her “special friend”?
“What do you want to do?”
When the marquis gently asked, Yuel hesitated for a moment, then answered,
“Then let’s do it. Seria will probably like it too.”
A special friend shouldn’t show petty jealousy. He shouldn’t complain about sharing playtime with others.
That’s what Yuel believed.
Seria was a free spirit; she wouldn’t like being tied down to just one person.
Even if she liked playing with him best, he didn’t want to take away her chance to play with others.
‘If I act selfishly, Seria might not like me anymore.’
In the end, his status as a “special friend” only existed as long as Seria acknowledged it.
Balancing that was like walking a tightrope, but Yuel wanted to seem mature.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly a wise choice.
“I don’t want to! I only want to play with Yuel!”
“I knew you’d say that.”
“Then why did you ask?”
Seria’s prim, almost sulky tone earned her a wry expression in return.
“Because Yuel said it was fine.”
“…Yuel did?”
Really? She asked again, unable to believe it, but her eldest brother only shrugged.
At that moment, Seria felt a confusing whirlpool of emotions—
Annoyance. Anger. Disappointment. Impulse.
Feeling all of that at once, the ten-year-old girl responded impulsively.
“Hmph, fine. Invite them all! I don’t care.”
I only need you. But I guess you don’t feel the same?
Their feelings had just slightly missed each other, and so, unwillingly, they ended up accepting guests neither of them wanted.
Until that point, even when Seria heard clues like “we met before,” “the Robe family,” or “the eldest son of Baron Hellington,” she didn’t connect the dots.
After all, many guests had visited the ducal estate, and all of them had tried to link their families to House Kester by introducing their children to her.
“Hi, do you remember me? We met last time.”
But the moment she saw him—more precisely, the moment she saw his smug attitude—Seria’s forgotten memory resurfaced.
He was only a year older than her, yet he had acted like such an adult back then.
Maybe she was just extra sensitive because of the bad things she’d heard about him, but something about him rubbed her the wrong way.
“I don’t really remember.”
She widened her eyes and glared at him.
The guests were Louis Robe, an eleven-year-old boy she’d met before, and two other ten-year-olds. Three in total.
Naturally, to Seria, they were unwelcome guests—even though she had technically agreed to this.
She didn’t have a good impression of them and felt instantly on guard.
“Why are you speaking informally? Last time you used polite speech.”
“Because you said you preferred that.”
“I changed my mind. Be polite again.”
She said it with quite a fierce tone, but Louis just grinned slyly and agreed, brushing it off.
Thanks to that, Yuel—who had been nervously glancing between Seria and the boys—was able to relax a little.
“S–so, shall we go to the garden?”
Under Yuel’s lead as the host, they somehow managed to make small talk and play together.
But because Seria was only warm toward Yuel, the other boy felt increasingly restless.
What worried him more was the thought that, if this continued, people might get the wrong idea about Seria.
So Yuel reluctantly left her side briefly and approached the boys.
“That’s why I told you, her personality is weird.”
Carried by the wind, he heard their blunt, nasty remarks, and his ears pricked up.
“She’s not socialized at all. What kind of girl is so rude and stuck-up?”
“Does being a duke’s daughter make her special? What she said to my brother earlier was so annoying.”
“Then why are you using casual speech~”
“I changed my mind, be polite again~”
In their childish, straightforward way, the boys were venting their anger.
They mimicked her tone in a mocking way, and their voices dripped with hostility.
Yuel got so angry he didn’t even realize how angry he was.
His whole body shook, blood rushed to his head, and his breathing quickened so much that his vision blurred.
He’d experienced something similar whenever Seria teased him, but never this intense.
No, this feeling was entirely different.
This was… this was—
“You said your head hurt, but maybe it’s your brain that’s broken?”
“HEY!!!”
It was unbearable.
“What did you just say?”
Before he knew it, his fists were clenched tight.
“Take that back!”
Yuel shouted as he charged at them, ramming into them before they could even react.
