Chapter 5

Saved by a Crazy Step-Father 5

The expression on the little girl’s face became more intense as she looked at the woman with an arrogant attitude as if saying she did nothing wrong.

“And how do I know if you’re a good or a bad person. Did the Grand Duke really send you?”

“Ha······. Did you just call His Grace, the Grand Duke? I see you have no manners at all.”

I don’t trust anyone.

There has never been a time that something good happened every time I trust people.

And the same was true this time.

After my Papa passed away, there was only one person I thought was good. He felt sorry for my mama and me, and sometimes brought us food. But then, the knight tried to kill us.

It was one of the empress schemes.

The food he brought me, pretending to be nice, was poisoned. After papa lost his life to his younger brother, the first good man to come help us brought only lies and bad memories. After that, I can’t trust people anymore.

“I don’t believe anyone.”

Cecilia, who was looking at me, leaned down without any emotion.

“There’s no helping it if you don’t believe me. I was told to treat someone like you, who suddenly appeared, as a lady of the Grand Duke’s house, so I had to put up with it. I’m just following orders.”

Then the woman grabbed my wrist with a strong grip.

“Ouch! ”

(tl: that’s It, let me kill this bi***)

“I don’t know how you got inside this place, but once you’re here, you will be my responsibility. Both the Young Lady and Young Master have grown up in my hands. So you have to listen to me.”

“Let go!”

See, after all, you can’t trust adults.

I tried to escape the grasp of the woman named Cecilia. However, it was impossible to get out of the grasp of adults when I was just a child.

“It’s no use making a fuss.”

Her grip tightened even more as I struggled to get out of her hands.

“No one else is much better in educating children than me. Everyone was like you at first.”

“Let me go! This is not educating!”

“It’s no use screaming. There won’t be anyone passing by here. We’ve made sure no one comes here until the end of your training. You have to stay with me until the lessons are over. You’re not allowed to go out until then.”

(tl: bi*** want someone your size!?)

It was at that moment.

BAM!

The door opened with a loud sound.

“What’s with all this noise! It was so loud as I passed by that I couldn’t help but open the door!”

The boy who shouted, contrary to his words, opened the door suddentily at the right moment and came in as if he had waited for the right time.

“Ah······.”

The boy was just a little bit taller than me, no he was just almost taller than me.

However you look at him, he looks so young that he cannot be considered as an adult.

“Young master.”

Cecilia, who had been mean to me a little while ago completely changed her attitude and hurriedly lowered her head.

“Why is it so loud?”

“Tha-That’s. I was just trying to educate her, but the young lady wouldn’t listen to me at all.”

“Is this her?”

The boy with black hair and blue eyes walked in softly and stared at me.

Then, the corners of his mouth quivered uncomfortably.

“What’s with your looks, you’re only bones.”

“······.”

“You’re so skinny. How old are you.”

Is he on my side or Cecilia’s side?

Can I trust him? I didn’t have any information about this boy in any of my previous lives because I didn’t meet any other child besides myself.

(tl OMG! T–T)

The current emperor, who killed my papa, had a daughter, but I have never met her.

“······And you, how old are you.”

“This brother is eight years old, a cool age! Ah! You don’t know how old you are yet?”

“······It’s not that.”

“Then how old are you.”

“······5 years old.”

“Ah?”

The boy shook his head as he looked at me.

“You shouldn’t lie with your age.”

“It’s not a lie. I’m really five years old.”

“But you’re only bite-sized. Are you sure you’re not three years old?”

“What do you mean bite-sized?!  I’m not three but five years old!”

I puffed out my cheeks.

At that time, Cecilia, who was looking at us alternately, hugged me in haste.

With a ‘whoosh’, she lifted me hurriedly.

“What, what are you doing!”

“Young Master, you’re not supposed to be here. Until the end of the training, no one should come to see her.”

“Really?”

“Yes, young master.”

“I see. Okay.”

The boy, who had looked at me with sparkling eyes a while ago, nodded his head without saying much and turned around.

If the boy goes out right now, this woman won’t just leave me alone.

Her eyes had a poisonous glare. And it was scary.

‘Should I hold on to him right now?’

It was the moment I stopped struggling in the arms of the woman and tried to reach out to the boy, when he suddenly said.

“However······.”

The boy who was walking out slowly, as if not wanting to get out of the room, turned to me again.

“Don’t you need my help?”

“What?”

“Well, your face right now is making an expression that seems like you’re asking me to help you, am I wrong?”

“······.”

“I don’t like how you look like a sack of bones, but if you say,  ‘Big brother, please help me.’ I will gladly help you out.”

“Yo-Young Master! If you say it like that, doesn’t it look like I’m doing something bad to the little girl?”

Cecilia, who was holding me from behind, was embarrassed by the boy’s words.

“Well, that seems right. Look at her face, she’s so scared like she’s going to die.”

“No, it’s just······.”

“Just say it. You are my little sister. So if you ask me for help, I will gladly help you.”

The smiling boy stretched out his hand at me.

That’s weird.

It’s my first time meeting this boy, and yet I don’t feel repulsed by him.

Is it because he’s not an adult or because he has a different glint in his eyes compared to those who hit me.

Unknowingly, I grasped his hand.

“Now then, say one letter at a time.”

“What?”

“It’s older brother.”

“······.”

“I always wanted to be called ‘Older Brother’ but I don’t have a little sister, but since you’re here now, you should call me that, come on try to say it.”

“······.”

What is he saying?

What does he mean by  ‘Older Brother’?

I only ever saw these words in books, a word used to speak fondly of other family members, and yet, this boy and I are not even close friends.

I looked at the boy, with an uncomfortable expression on my face.

Looking from his head, his plump cheeks look just like ducks beaks.

Quack, quack. He also had black hair that resembles black feathers of a duck’s head.

“Go on, say it. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you to wake up just to hear those words? I held back trying to wake you up, you know.”

“······Did you watch me sleeping?”

“······No, I didn’t. I just waited for you-! Regardless! Are you not going to say it?”

The boy was very persistent, unlike the way he looks.

“Come on.”

“······Alright. Older  Brother. Is that, okay?”

The boy laughed brightly as if he got everything he wanted to have.

“I finally heard it. I’m an older brother! I also have a younger sister!”

(tl: precious boy <3)

“Now that I said it, you must keep your promise.”

I looked down at the hand that held me.

Perhaps that’s when he came back to his senses, the boy clapped his hands.

“Right. Cecilia. Put her down.”

“But, Young Master, this is what His Grace himself commanded me to do.”

“Dad told you to bully her?”

After saying that, the child opened his arms towards me.

“You can let go now. She doesn’t like it.”

“······Yo-Young Master·····.·”

Cecilia, who could not refute the boy’s words, could only sigh.

Then he opened his arms wide as if to ask me to come to him. It was so strange.

It made me remember my dad who had passed away.

The warm papa who always smiled at me.

“Come here, little sister.”

“······.”

“You can trust me. I’m your reliable Older Brother.”

After he said that, my raging emotions have calmed down as if my heart unconsciously decided that I could really trust him.

I hate adults.

And it’s hard for me to trust anyone.

Because everyone had a smile on their faces as they harassed me. Because they hit my mama. But strangely enough, the little boy in front of me gave me a feeling that he could be trusted.

This is the boy Cecilia called Young Master.

So I reached out my hand to him.

Then Cecilia let me go, perhaps this kid, ‘The Young Master’s’ words cannot be ignored.

Thanks to this, my body was passed from her to the boy.

This eight-year-old boy was bigger than I thought, and he was firm.

“Oh, you are heavier than I thought.”

“······.”

“I’m taking back my words that you only seem like three years old.”

“W-What are you doing? Let me down!”

My mama always said I was light, but I’m actually heavy!

Come to think of it, my mom hasn’t been able to hug me lately.

I did my best to struggle as it felt like my secret that I was heavy was paraded out in the open. Then the boy put me on the floor like a heavy tree without hesitation.

“Ah! It hurts!”

“Really? Did it hurt? You’re much weaker than I thought! Then I have to help you grow stronger.”

Then he slowly stroked my head as if he was a grown-up.

“Although you are only bones I will help you.”

But Cecilia held the boy’s hand strongly.

“Young Master, stop now and go back please.”

“Why?”

“As I said before. I have to start teaching the child now. “

“Cecilia.”

The boy’s voice suddenly turned cold.

The tone was a lot different from when he was talking to me.

Hearing that cold voice, my body hardened for a moment.

“······Yes, Young Master.”

“Am I just anybody to you?”

“No, young master.”

“You said that ‘anyone’ can’t meet her, but if I’m not just ‘anyone’, then why are you stopping me?”

“Tha-That’s for her education to be······.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be feeding her first, instead of giving her a class?”

Only then Cecilia bowed her head.

“Did you feed her?”

“······I did not.”

“Then bring her a meal.”

He looked exactly like the Grand Duke.

Cold and sharp eyes while giving orders without any affection in a chilling voice. The boy who did the same thing exactly as his father, looked straight at Cecilia.

Cecilia, who acted as if she would not back down since the beginning, finally nodded.

“······Yes, I understand. But I can’t leave the child alo-“

“Don’t worry! I’ll be watching my little sister, so hurry up and go.”

“It’s not that······. Until all the lessons were completed······.”

“Don’t make me repeat myself.”

In an instant, I even felt the air around me getting cold. Even though he wasn’t using magic, enormous magical power spewed out of the boy’s body.

‘The way he utilizes his power was a bit clumsy. He only knows how to release it, but did not know the proper way to cast it.’

I looked at the boy who stood still.

The child exuded such enormous strength that ordinary people cannot stand. Eventually, Cecilia, who was sweating, nodded a moment later.

“Yes, Young Master.”

After the answer was heard and Cecilia went out, the boy raised his chin out and looked at me.