The Male Lead’s Younger Sister is Still Sad Today

Episode 21

After finishing the calculations, I hurriedly crawled under the blanket, and Abel used his foot to dab at the bloodstains on the floor that had fallen from my cheek.

“Abel?”

With a creaking sound, the door opened.

“Geez, what’s all this about!”

Peter, who had checked the room, was shocked. But Abel casually defused the situation.

“I was sleeping and got hot, so I opened the window by mistake.”

“Good grief, and in the process, you broke the window? How strong are you, exactly?!”

“Just when the window was about to break…”

Abel showed his bloodstained foot.

“Because I stepped on the glass.”

“Is he crazy? Why is he so calm after stepping on glass!”

Peter smacked Abel’s back until it made a loud noise, and he lowered his voice.

“But, seriously… Chase didn’t wake up with all this commotion?”

Peter’s gaze turned towards me, and it was piercing.

“Unfortunately, it seems not.”

“Is that admirable… or just foolish?”

“Anyway, I’m sorry for causing a ruckus unintentionally.”

“No, don’t worry about that. We’ll help with the cleanup.”

Following that, Roel’s voice was heard.

“I’ll just appreciate the sentiment. I don’t want to wake up a sleeping child for nothing… I’ll help clean up quickly by myself.”

“Anyway, he’s quite a character.”

Peter mumbled with a bitter smile.

“Then I’ll ask Mr. Henry to replace the window.”

“Thank you.”

As if the situation had been roughly resolved, the sound of people’s footsteps fading away was accompanied by the closing of the door.

“…You can get up now.”

At Abel’s words, I rose from beneath the blanket.

Awkwardness pervaded the room that had been vacated by the people. It was difficult to have a conversation with Abel about the broken window situation.

Abel took out some medicine from the dresser, approached me silently, and began treating the wounds on my cheek. Applying the ointment with rough hands, Abel opened his mouth quietly.

“I didn’t notice your feelings.”

It seemed that my previous words had continued to bother him.

“Why would I expect you to notice?”

Then, he smiled faintly and placed a bandage on my wound.

Shattered glass fragments were scattered all over the floor. I pulled Abel towards me, wondering if he might step on a glass fragment or something.

“…But why did the window suddenly break?”

No one had thrown a stone or anything like that. There were no rocks flying from outside the window. It wasn’t a common occurrence for a window to break on its own.

…Could it be magic?

A sense of unease filled a corner of my mind. Without even realizing it, I looked at Abel, and he responded as if it were nothing important.

“I’ll take care of that mess, so you should get some rest.”

“Just a moment…!”

However, Abel forcibly made me lie down on the bed. To make matters worse, he covered me with a blanket and patted my back.

“It’s probably magic.”

Abel seemed to be thinking the same thing as me.

“It’s nothing.”

I wondered how this could be nothing.

I was afraid. I replayed the moment when the window broke in my mind. It felt like a warning about Abel’s death.

‘Could it be something related to the person targeting Abel?’

I still hadn’t figured out Abel’s death. I knew nothing about how he died.

Was it the anxiety etched on my face that brought it up? Abel raised his hand and gently closed my eyes. His hand was quite warm.

“Don’t think strange thoughts. You’ll have nightmares.”

So, Abel stayed by my side for a while, but even so, I couldn’t easily fall asleep.

* * *

Every time I smiled, the wounds from the glass shards stung. Fortunately, the good thing was that Abel wasn’t hurt.

Even if he had been injured, I would rather it had been me. If there had been any injuries on Abel’s beautiful face, my heart would have hurt even more.

“I should find comfort in the fact that it wasn’t worse than this.”

In any case, I didn’t need anything else other than for there to be no scars on my face.

“Chase.”

“Oh, senior.”

“Just a moment, you have a bandage on your cheek…”

Roel, who was running toward me, pointed to the bandage on my face with a serious expression. I responded nonchalantly to his reaction and smiled.

“I got scratched by a cat yesterday.”

I had seen a black cat wandering around the mansion last time. According to what the servants said, it was a cat that had completely taken over the mansion.

We had made up an excuse, attributing the broken window from the previous day to Abel’s strength. In truth, neither Abel nor I had found the exact cause of why the window broke.

The most plausible explanation was magic, but neither Abel nor I possessed that level of magical ability. To break a window without drawing a magic circle – that was something only high-level magicians could do.

Furthermore, it would not be good if the fact that we knew how to use magic became public. Currently, there were very few magicians in the Kingdom of Roschena. Apart from the Seville family, which had been famous as a magical lineage in the past, there were hardly any publicly known magicians within the kingdom.

Magic had enjoyed great prestige in the past, but now that glory had faded. People regarded the unknown power with suspicion. Magic, believed to originate from people’s wishes, was a power beyond explanation.

When I was younger, I used magic recklessly because I didn’t know any better, but I couldn’t do that now. Roel, whose face was filled with concern, let out a sigh of relief.

“Are you talking about Elizabeth?”

“Elizabeth?”

“Yeah, a cat with black fur and golden eyes. That cat scratched you, right?”

Fortunately, Roel seemed to have the cat I was thinking of in mind. I only learned today that the cat’s name was Elizabeth.

“Yes, that’s right!”

Sorry, Elizabeth.

I’ll borrow your name just for today.

Laughing and agreeing with Roel’s words, he nodded in approval.

“That cat is really touchy. It dislikes people a lot.”

“Do you raise the cat at the mansion?”

“Raise… me? I probably don’t.”

Roel shrugged lightly.

“It just sat down in the mansion on its own.”

“Where did it come from?”

“Yeah. But the cat is smarter than it looks. It’s relatively kind only to the mansion’s owner. Just relatively.”

“Oh… Does the lord also like Elizabeth?”

It was unexpected that Lord Raiden liked cats. He seemed like someone who would be disgusted by shedding fur.

In response to my question, Roel made a peculiar expression.

“Is that so? I’ve seen him feed it sometimes, but his expression didn’t seem particularly cheerful.”

“Still, if he’s providing food, it seems like he must like her, right? So, who named Elizabeth?”

“The lord.”

…Well, with this, it seems that the cat raised by the lord is correct.

Does its personality resemble Raiden’s? There’s a saying that pets resemble their owners.

“By the way, from today, should I start learning my duties again?”

“If it becomes a bother to you, you can drop it anytime!”

I urgently spoke, thinking from Roel’s perspective that it might become bothersome.

“I’m not that ungrateful. Besides, teaching you and going around with you is quite fun. There are also quite a few things I haven’t taught you yet.”

“What, senior… I’m touched.”

That was genuinely touching. With both hands clasped together, I gazed at Roel earnestly. He let out a chuckle and patted my shoulder.

Ah, having Roel as my direct senior made me so happy.

“Guests will be leaving soon. Look over there.”

When I turned my head in response to Roel’s words, I saw a carriage stopped near the fountain. An elderly man was getting into the carriage.

“That person is Viscount Herwin.”

“He’s involved in charity work…”

Wondering if it was a good time to mention what I had seen in the newspaper, I opened my mouth, but Roel lowered his head.

“That’s true, but there’s something more important.”

“Something more important?”

Roel nodded subtly.

“Viscount and the engaged family are being mentioned.”

“Oh, that’s probably more important for us.”

“Exactly. As the viscount is also getting married, the chances are high that Herwin’s youngest will become the mistress of Akarut.”

While looking at the back of the car leaving the main gate, Roel spoke.

“And one more important thing is, after the guests leave, the viscount will have tea right there.”

“Are you saying…”

Roel narrowed one of his eyes.

“That means we need to go see the viscount immediately.”

* * *

The place where Raiden and Herwin Viscount had met was the garden.

Akarut’s garden was quite simple. It was full of green and white, with not a single ordinary flower.

The garden was symmetrical on both sides, and in the center, there was a white marble statue. It was an eagle sculpture, a sculpture of an eagle with its wings spread out, as if it were soaring powerfully into the sky.

As I walked past the statue, I saw the high white pavilion’s roof.

“Is that it?”

Not long after, I saw the entire appearance of the pavilion.

“Viscount.”

At Roel’s voice, Raiden turned his gaze towards us. My face in front of him, Roel’s face behind him.

However, that was only for a moment. He glanced at my bandaged cheek and furrowed his eyebrows slightly.

“You.”

Looking at Raiden, it seemed like he had a lot to say. However, from my perspective, I couldn’t understand why Raiden had that expression upon seeing my wound.

?”

Even when I smiled at him, his eyes, once furrowed, showed no signs of relaxing.

“Shall we make some tea?”

Carefully asking while glancing at Raiden, he turned his head without replying.

“Chase, let’s make some tea.”

Seeing that, Roel patted my shoulder, as if used to such behavior. I quickly started to prepare the tea.

Could it be that he’s worried about my wound?

I had that thought, but why would that guy worry about me?

I soon let out a dry laugh. It was the thought that came to my mind, but it seemed so absurd.

‘What am I thinking…’

Quickly pouring hot water into the teacup and approaching Raiden cautiously, I set the teacup in front of him.

During that time, Raiden never took his eyes off me. It worried me to the point where I thought that I might end up with a hole in my face.

Even when he was leaving after pouring the tea, his gaze remained fixed on me and did not seem to leave.