Lilika turned around and took a quick step towards the castle.
When she left without saying a word, she thought there would be at least one person stopping her.
She had been thinking hard that she wanted to say something sarcastic to that person. No one was interested in Lilika. It was ridiculous.

Lilika bit her well-maintained nails. It was a habit she had endured since childhood, but now she was nervous and couldn’t help it.
She watched as the attitude of the knights towards Yuria changed. She closed her eyes.
Lilika tried to find a way to break through the situation.

‘My father can’t be like this.’

Didn’t he tell Lilika to apologize the other day? She couldn’t believe his attitude had changed recently.
Then, in the end… There was only one person left.

Lilika tightened her hands grabbing her dress.
She checked her face, reddened from crossing the corridor of the castle at a quick pace. Her disheveled hair, too.
But even so, she was still pretty.
It wasn’t arrogance. Even if it was, objectively.
Even though Lilika was an illegitimate child, it was all thanks to her appearance that she was relatively easily accepted in the social world and by the duchy.

Even though it was her intention, her disheveled appearance right now made her delicate, tearful eyes and the reddened area around them look slightly wet.
Like a fairy who had fallen into the castle.
Lilika’s unique charm was also seen as her ineptness and awkwardness.
So, it would be effective again this time.

After pretending to knock, Lilika didn’t even wait for an answer and opened the door to Jiksen’s room.

“Brother…”
“What, who… Lilika!”

Jiksen, who was lying on the sofa, stood up urgently.
The irritation on his face from the sudden visit quickly changed into worry.

“Why are you crying? Who made you cry?”
“I just… I think everyone in the world hates me…”
“So, who was it? Which bastard did this?”

Lilika flinched at Jiksen’s somewhat raised voice.
Seeing her reaction, Jiksen hastily softened his voice.

“No, I’m not pressing you, I’m just worried. And what do you mean, everyone in the world hates you? Your brother is right here.”

Jiksen grasped Lilika’s hands.

“I don’t know about anyone else, but I will protect you. I’m your brother.”
“…”

Worried, Jiksen said that his heart hurt when she cried like that, and that he wouldn’t let the person who made her cry go.
But Lilika didn’t really listen to him.
Words are always deceptive. Didn’t he leave Lilika to get out on his own in a really troublesome situation?

“I’m a child who lacks a lot… You can also hate me.”
“No…”
“In the end, it was my fault for making a maid follow Sister Yuria, and it was because of my lack of education that the tutor was dismissed.”
“T-that…”

Jiksen was also bothered about the meeting between Yuria and the princess.
Lilika may have suggested it, but it was he who gave the order.

“Ah. You mean that Lilika said it would be better to attach a maid to Yuria since you didn’t know what she was going to do when she met Her Highness the Princess?”

However, because of Jiksen’s words, it became as if he had been caught up in Lilika’s wrongdoing. Although Jiksen had also written a letter of apology.
And that wasn’t all. Lilika said she would do everything she was asked to do, but in the end, she couldn’t even try hard to prevent the tutor from being fired.
The words that came out of Lilika’s mouth were all about how she was lacking, but for some reason, it sounded like she was reproaching the tutor. Jiksen scratched his face, embarrassed.
Then, he opened his mouth to appease LiliKa.

“Are you still upset about that?”
“… No.”

She wasn’t upset, she was angry.
At that moment, Lilika genuinely burst into tears and clenched her molars.
But she fixed her expression and soon spoke in a heartbreaking voice.

“Sister Yuria didn’t like me before… Is that why? When I meet Sister Yuria, I feel like bad things keep happening.”
“That’s true.”
“Regardless of my intentions, it’s all my fault. “People say I’m a bad child, so I wonder if I really am bad…”
“Lilika, why would you be bad! If you were a bad person, there would be no good people in the world!”
“Thank you, Brother.”

In the end, Lilika spoke as if she herself was innocent and had just been caught up in Yuria’s plan.

“I don’t know about Father, but I knew Brother would take my side…”

Lilika did her best today.
Saying what she had to say, but making sure that she never actually felt it.
Just acting weak and pure, and reminding Jiksen once again that she was the younger sister he had to protect.

“I’m… afraid of people cursing at me.”

Of course, she wanted to ask about what happened before and what he had just said.
But Jiksen wasn’t the kind of person that would work.
Although he denied it, he was quite emotional and hot-blooded.
It was clear that if Lilika said everything she had to say, he would take it as if she dared to argue with him.

“Father came to see me, and he was just angry.”
“Father?”
“The only person who can see me crying… is you.”

She had to pretend that she was a fragile sister and that he was the only one who could protect her.
And, unsurprisingly, Jiksen quickly responded.

“Aah, Lilika. Don’t cry. It was all my fault. I don’t even know… you know I’m a little slow-witted, right?”

Jiksen hugged Lilika’s slender shoulders and comforted her.

“As my brother, you really have to stand by me…”

When Jiksen was tricked like that, Lilika finally got to the point.

“I don’t think anyone in this castle is on my side. It seems something has happened with the knights this time, but no one will tell me…”
“Hm? The knights? Nothing happened with them.”

Nothing happened with the knights when Yuria was visiting them?
They were looking at Yuria with favorable eyes while pretending not to know her.

“I didn’t really get any reports from the knights. Isn’t that why you don’t know?”
“Is that so? It’s just that I saw Sister Yuria at the knights’ training hall, which is something she never did.”
“What? Why did she go there?”
“Did she go there for something Brother doesn’t know about? Oh my…”

Since he had the blessing of the sword, Jiksen was the one who led the Primrose Knights.
As such, he needed to know everything that happened to the knights, but it was really late.
However, it wasn’t until Lilika mentioned it that Jiksen seemed to be concerned with the knights.

“Huh, what is that child Yuria trying to do? I’ll look into it, Lilika. Don’t worry too much. Just look at good things and think good thoughts.”
“As expected, I have no one but you.”
“If Yuria does something stupid this time, I’ll scold her firmly.”

Jiksen seemed to be very enthusiastic.
He said that he would show Lilika what it meant to be a good brother.

‘Yes, I’m sure doing this much is going to pay off.’

Seeing Jiksen’s appearance, Lilika smiled contentedly.

***

Everyone knew that the Primrose Knights had been to the sunny southern region.
But no one cared about their skin or their condition.
Except for one person. Yuria.

“The sun will be hot in the capital in a month or so now.”
“Aah, do we have to go through all the trouble we went through in the South again?”

It was a short break time.
The knights, gathered at the training hall, naturally had such thoughts.

“Young Lady Yuria doesn’t seem to be as bad as I thought?”

Lilika was kind and affectionate, but… it was really just words.
Unlike Yuria, she didn’t care at all about their real lives.

“The South is hot, so be careful!”

When she saw them off as they were heading to the south, Lilika spoke out of worry.
But how could they be careful?
They were just beings that did what Jiksen told them to do. There was no such thing as a way to be careful of the heat.

It wasn’t simply because Yuria gave them something material, as opposed to Lilika, that they decided to open up to her.

“She was worried about our skin being damaged by the sun, so she thought of a specific way to help us.”
“Honestly, anyone could do that…”
“Of course, but you’re bound to make a comparison when that person didn’t just say empty words.”

They chuckled as they faced each other. Even though they were impressed by every word Lilika told them because the subject of comparison was Jiksen, after seeing Yuria, they realized that sometimes, Lilika was only kind to them when she needed them.

“Of course, Young Lady Lilika is the esteemed daughter of the Primrose family, and we, the knights, are the ones who have to take care of her…”
“And so is Young Lady Yuria.”
“…”

At that moment, silence fell between the knights.
When they saw the figure of a person appearing at the entrance to the training hall, their eyes opened wide.

——