CH 2

Episode 2

Her entire frame trembled. Everyone would feel that way when they met the dark, dark, inhuman eyes.

It was really cold eyes that one would assume not to be aimed at their daughter.

“Let’s go, let’s go… Ah, father.”

Laiya’s voice, accompanied with her current trembling body, stuttered.

“Words. Don’t stutter.”

“Yes, yes…”

Laiya hurriedly opened the door and went in.

For some unrelated reason, not long after she entered, there was a loud clash of something even worse.

She covered her ears and ran back and forth across the room

Her heart beating at an unbearably violent pace.

This body is too vulnerable to fear, perhaps it’s because of long-term neglect.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the neglect of her parents that bothered Laiya BlackWinter.

Her other concern was just around the corner.

“Urgh! What?”

She bumped into a body roughly and fell. It was an unavoidable conclusion as her opponent was much bigger than herself.

When she glanced up, she was dazzled by the sight of silver hair.

“What is this? A chaff?”

[T/N: chaff – dry, scaly husks of corn or rubbish. He most likely means the second meaning though.]

Her second brother. Stephan BlackWinter.

He was the only brother who possessed silver hair. In fact, the reason for this was due to the blood of fairies mixing in with their mother’s family, thus leading to the onset of seismic events that later followed.

Her older brother was born with a peculiar constitution that caused his black hair to turn to silver a month and a half ago.

Wait! The fact that second brother is here…

Laiya didn’t need to turn her head to meet the gaze of cold blue.

Standing next to her second brother, was her first brother. Kyle BlackWinter. The man who would later get rid of her, stood on the side quietly.

Black hair, the symbol of BlackWinter, and cold blue eyes.

The blue eyes that looked down on her frowned.

“How weak. You actually want to go out like this?”

Twitch.

She shrugged her shoulders and as if it was useless to reply.

He looked at her with the same cold eyes of their father.

“It’s true. You’re still a child and you bumped into me; can you handle falling? Do you have any common sense?”

“Noisy.”

Step, step.

Kyle BlackWinter walked past Laiya.

“There should be no useless existences in this family.”

Laiya grabbed onto the hem of her clothes and shut her eyes.

“How twisted.”

Stephan shrugged at the sound of his brother striding away.

“Hey, how long do you plan on sitting around?”

“What?”

Laiya thought about her relationship with her second brother, Stephan.

Weren’t they in a relationship where they had no interaction at all, and even if they came across one another, they barely talked.

Stephan looked visibly frustrated, and then he grabbed her forearm and pulled her to her feet.

Unfortunately, he did not remember to control his strength.

“Oww!”

“What? What hurts?”

It feels like my forearm is breaking.

As she had worn a short-sleeved dress, the marks were clearly visible on her skin. Stephan was astonished.

“Urgh, what… What? This bruise?”

“Well, you are the one who did this.”

“Hey Chaff, why are you so weak?”

Even if the child before him was not her, if it was a normal child being held by him, they would still end up like her. When they are grabbed like that, it’ll hurt.

“Wow, that’s going to bruise tomorrow.”

Shrug.

Stephan shrugged, unconcerned, at her mutters.

What?

Laiya watched as her poked her forearm once more.

Poke. Flinch. Poke. Flinch.

This guy!

Stephan, who watched her face turn red soon, raised his voice.

“Hey, who doesn’t coat their skin in mana? That knowledge is the most basic of basics.”

“…I don’t know any swordsmanship.”

“Still! Using mana is like breathing, isn’t it? Huh?”

She scratched her cheek and rolled her eyes at him.

“That’s why our parents don’t seem to like me either.”

“…Huh?”

Stephan looked towards the direction Laiya appeared from and scratched the back of his head.

“Did you come to see our parents?”

“Yes. I was trying to ask for the permission to use the library.”

I need to look for something there that can help me find a way to survive. The library could only be entered with the permission of the head of the family.

“Why do you have to do that?”

“It’s a rule.”

“No. not that…”

“Not what?”

“No, that’s not right. But… I just went in…”

“That’s right. Our parents like you.”

Stephan’s frown deepened; it was a face of a person who did not know how to react.

“I… Kyle doesn’t like me too.”

You just said that because you heard him, didn’t you?

There’s a saying in this family that things that aren’t worth anything, shouldn’t exist.

So, is that really what a sixteen-year-old would say to an eight-year-old as comfort? We’re like a crazy family that knows nothing else but swords.

“You don’t even like me, do you?”

When Laiya asked Stephan her question, he froze, startled and the quickly shook his head.

“No! No, Chaff you are, you are, umm, uh… I don’t hate you.”

“Really?”

“Yes! What? Do you think I’m lying?”

Isn’t this guy a little too…?

Stephan BlackWinter.

He was the second most famous brother who would become an outstanding swordsman after Kyle.

After helping his older brother, Kyle became the head of the household, he became the knight leader of the Knights of BlackWinter.

But then, he dies in an accident.

The protagonist investigated the case and it comes to light that it was a conspiracy.

And, as I said before, Stephan has been living with silver hair for a month and a half due to fairy blood.

It was general knowledge that if a woman was born with fairy bloodline, it would bring good luck to the child.

But it will cause a fatal flaw if a man was born with fairy blood.

The blood would make it difficult for their spouse to conceive.

That is, he was…

A seedless watermelon.

The readers had made fun of that.

She purged further thoughts of the nickname from her mind.

Laiya didn’t want to accidentally call him that especially when he seemed so worried about hurting her feelings.

“That’s what I think, um…”

“Do you think I’m useless?”

“Yes! Oh no, I didn’t mean that, that… Wait. You shouldn’t be useless. If not, um, you should be able to clean the swords. Yeah, you can also clean away horse poop.”

Are you trying to argue now? This seedless watermelon?

“Oh, I don’t know what else! Anyway, I don’t hate you. I’m going.”

Stephan, who tried to abandoned his explanation, turned around.

With that, Laiya decided to take a quick walk before returning. It was then that Stephan suddenly ran back to her.

“Hey. For your arm, I’ll grant you one request. So, apply this on it, here, take this medicine!”

Laiya glanced up at Stephan with a blank facial expression.

Her second brother was a delicate young boy who resembled his mother rather than his father in appearance.

He looked at Laiya and shook his head.

He then muttered.

“How can you be so weak that you are even hurt with just a simple touch from me?”

Stephan walked away.

She glanced at his previous spot and tilted her head.

I don’t think he’s a bad person.

Still, it was a very small positive reaction in comparison with the rest of her family.

Hmm, maybe because this is the first warmth I’ve felt.

***

As Stephan had recently brought to her attention, there was little a talentless ‘can’t even use a sword’ heir could do in this family.

At the very least, even taking a job such as taking charge as an accountant of one of the family’s companies, required a masters in swordsmanship for self-defense before taking that position.

In this situation, there was no hope for the weak and sickly Laiya BlackWinter, who couldn’t even make any progress no matter the effort.

It’s only natural that the servants and maid won’t like me as well.

There were only two people in the mansion who were nice to Laiya.

The first was the head butler, Rover, and the second was her aunt, Roxy Eastwood.

The head butler did not turn his back on Laiya when she needed help, so there were no problems when it came to eating and sleeping, or any problems when she required healing for her body.

As for her aunt, she had gotten married and then divorced. She then returned to the family with the oath stating that she would never again take on the name BlackWinter.

So even if it was difficult to see at first, her aunt was a person who she liked very much.

So, I am very timid.

In any world, children deserved to be loved.

Even though she had never received the love of her parents in both worlds, her past one and her present one.

For now, going to the library has been temporarily delayed.

Laiya needed to get into the library to find a way to survive, but that had to be at a later date when her current parents were not quarrelling.

Once the BlackWinter couple fought, they fought for days on end. So, getting permission was going to be a troublesome endeavor for a while.

So, what to do now?

I can’t do that, well, it is earlier than planned, but the second plan can fall into operation!

Laiya didn’t need to find all means for her survival immediately, so she had some time to spare to work on the most sensible person for now.

After all, he’s the only one!