“—That is His Highness Zephal, the first prince.”
When I was little, Mother took me out of the detached palace, and I experienced a fateful encounter.
In a garden overflowing with flowers beneath dazzling sunlight, I met the half brother who was five years older than me.
I had heard the servants whisper about his existence, but it was the first time I had seen him with my own eyes.
The queen had soft pink-blond hair, vermilion eyes, and an air of delicate beauty.
But Lord Zephal was different.
He had inherited the queen’s eyes, yet his were cool and sharply angled. Lustrous black hair framed a face so perfect it seemed carefully sculpted. His red lips and snow-white skin engraved themselves upon my memory.
*That person is my elder brother!*
Emotion filled my chest. His beauty captivated me at first sight, and an indescribable joy welled up inside me.
“So…beautiful.”
I must have voiced my admiration without realizing it, because Lord Zephal noticed me even from a distance.
He should have been about ten years old, yet the expression with which he looked at me was far more mature.
“……”
The next moment, displeasure twisted his face.
His gaze seemed to say that an irritating insect had entered his sight. Those vermilion eyes swept over me, then quickly turned away.
For some reason, my heart began beating even faster.
* * *
“Raficel, take pride in yourself.”
That was Mother’s favorite saying.
Mother had once been a knight.
Female knights were not unusual in our kingdom. She had served Father as both her liege and the royal she was assigned to protect.
Then, for reasons Mother herself never seemed to understand, he took an interest in her, and she entered the royal palace as his concubine.
Even after giving birth to me, she sometimes muttered with an aggrieved expression, “Why is a knight like me living in a place like this…?”
“I thought the only way to capture my stubborn Sephy was to marry her.”
Father visited the detached palace often, and each time he coaxed and soothed Mother.
He frequently told us that he had fallen in love with her at first sight and spent years loving her from afar.
Sephira Morgan—that was my mother’s name.
She was the daughter of a knight who had been granted a nonhereditary barony. Since she would have to carve out a future with her own hands, she naturally decided to become a knight.
The fact that marrying some wealthy man never even occurred to her proved what a complete muscle-brained warrior she was.
Like any knight, she possessed an extraordinary concern for honor and an equally fierce instinct to protect her own.
“This is all I can teach you. Raficel, never forgive anyone who insults you. Protect those who are yours, and send every enemy who underestimates you straight to hell!”
“Yes, Mother!”
Looking back, I realize that this was rather dangerous guidance.
Even so, I do not believe it was wrong.
I only truly understood her words after I gained someone I wished to protect.
“Lude! One more bout!”
“You still intend to continue? Should you not rest for a moment?”
“No. Not yet!”
I tightened my grip upon the practice sword and charged.
Our blades met with a sharp clang, and Lude knocked mine aside. I attacked again and again, yet he deflected every blow with one hand.
The knights’ training grounds stood in one corner of the royal palace. Since they were close to Jade Palace, where I served Lord Zephal, I often trained there during breaks in my duties.
Mother had been a knight, and Father was tall and powerfully built. If I worked hard, I ought to grow stronger as well.
“Lower your stance! Your step is too shallow!”
“Yes!”
During training, even the knights assigned to protect me treated me as their pupil.
Lude had once served under Mother, and he had known me since infancy.
He was tall, broad, and covered in solid muscle—exactly what I wanted to become.
Most impressive of all, his balance never broke. No matter how or where he was struck, he could respond from any position.
I envied him.
I wanted to grow up quickly.
I wanted to become strong enough to protect the person most precious to me.
“Lord Raficel, it is nearly time for Lord Zephal’s evening meal.”
I looked around with a start.
The evening change of guard had begun, and knights were steadily returning to the station connected to the training grounds.
“Oh no! I need to wash!”
“I will prepare fresh attendant’s clothing. Please put away your sword, Lord Raficel.”
“Right!”
I could not possibly appear before Lord Zephal covered in grime from training.
I had developed the habit of washing myself repeatedly with well water before returning. I absolutely refused to smell of sweat. I even took care not to scar my face so he would continue calling me adorable.
“I should cover the scent with perfumed oil. And I must comb my hair.”
In truth, I trained so fiercely that calluses had already formed all over my palms.
When I tried to hide my hand after Lord Zephal took it, he said—
“You work very hard, Rafi.”
Then he patted my head.
My head!
The memory alone almost brought me to tears.
When I was falsely accused of treason, I had resigned myself to never again seeing Lord Zephal. But events took an utterly unexpected turn, and now every day left me unsure what to do with myself.
I was his personal attendant.
I could remain at Lord Zephal’s side and serve him from morning until night.
It was nothing but a reward.
And, as if that were not enough, on that first day he had said—
“But when we are alone as we are now, you may call me ‘Brother.’”
“What?”
“And when I am not attending to official business, may I call you ‘Rafi’?”
*Ah, Lord Zephal! No—Brother! You are so kind and so beautiful, and the way your eyes soften is irresistible! I love you!*
I dumped the well water over my head with all my strength. After cooling my overflowing brotherly devotion and somehow calming my feverish face, I returned to serve dinner.
My current goal is to train until I can lift Brother into my arms and carry him myself.
