I wasn’t sure if it was okay, but since they said it was fine and I was all ready anyway, I decided to get into the carriage as planned.
The second eldest brother, who had been standing blankly beside me staring at the ground, suddenly seemed to snap out of it when I moved and came over to escort me.
“Watch your step…”
Just as my brother was helping me into the carriage, he suddenly froze.
I felt a slight tremble in his hand, which made me look up in confusion, only to see him staring stiffly into the carriage.
‘What is it?’
Is something inside?
I peeked in, but there was nothing.
To be precise, there was only Ari and Ray.
And my brother’s gaze was fixed on the two of them.
The moment they noticed his stare and looked back at him, I could feel his breathing grow heavier.
There was a sense of hostility I couldn’t quite understand.
‘No way…?’
Is he jealous of my friends?
That was the only explanation I could think of for his hostility.
I couldn’t hide the disgust on my face.
I knew he cared about me, but this was crossing the line.
Lately, I hadn’t spent much time with him because I was hanging out with my friends, and I guess this was his way of acting out.
So earlier when he said he’d slash anyone who touched me, it was because of this!
‘But then why didn’t he act like this with Pedro?’
Even though my thoughts drifted to that guy again, I couldn’t help it.
‘These two are way better than Pedro, so why!’
Ugh… Unbelievable. How could he have hostility toward such kind kids?
‘Unforgivable.’
“Ugh!”
Just like he had taught me before, I clenched my fist tightly and punched him in the side.
I used the middle knuckle to dig deep into his ribs, and he recoiled in shock like he had been electrocuted.
“L-Luvy?”
“Hmph!”
I shook off his hand and turned my head away haughtily as I climbed into the carriage.
Seeing our sudden sibling scuffle, Ari and Ray both widened their eyes in surprise, and I gave a small smile.
“Luvy…”
My brother called out to me with a pitiful voice, but I ignored him, showing I didn’t need his help.
When I reached out toward the carriage, Ray gently smiled and took my hand.
With his help, I got in easily.
“Luvy…”
My brother was still calling me pitifully, but I turned my head away and slammed the door shut.
Through the small window, I caught a glimpse of his teary face, but I pulled the curtain closed without hesitation.
Now that the light was blocked and the carriage interior dimmed, Ari and Ray looked around nervously, trying to gauge my mood.
‘So ridiculous. Seriously.’
He was the one in the wrong, so why did I feel embarrassed?
I turned to look at Ari, who was glancing at me with concern.
‘I’m learning a lot in this life.’
My oldest brother’s ambition, my second brother’s jealousy…
Though I loved them as family, these were things I couldn’t condone.
Even if my second brother was being silly, he was still a knight, so I trusted he wouldn’t do anything truly bad… but life doesn’t always go smoothly.
“Hey, guys.”
“Huh? H-Huh?”
“Y-Yeah? What is it?”
“Make a fist.”
At my serious tone, both of them, a little nervous, clenched their fists like I did.
Ari’s small, cute, and lovely hands made tiny fists that looked like acorns.
But what surprised me was Ray.
‘He’s got strong bones.’
Even though he was still young, unlike Ari, his hands clearly felt like a boy’s hands.
I had held his hand often before, but I’d never looked at them so closely.
“Like this, Seia?”
“Y-Yeah. Let’s just refine it a little.”
Without realizing it, I fiddled with his hand until Ray’s curious voice brought me back.
Trying to act nonchalant, I adjusted their poorly clenched fists and firmly set their middle knuckles, just like I had done earlier.
“If my brother approaches you, use this fist and hit him here.”
I punched my own philtrum.
No matter how much you train your body, the philtrum is always a weak spot.
My words made their eyes flutter nervously.
“W-Why would we need to do that?”
Ari asked, but I was too embarrassed to answer.
How could I tell them that my brother was pathetically jealous of them right in front of their faces?
And he was a knight!
A royal palace knight, no less!
It wasn’t something I could just brush off.
“My brother seems to have some… dirty jealousy toward you two.”
That was the most toned-down version I could manage.
At my words, both of their faces filled with disbelief.
And rightly so.
Even if they were all minors, a guy nearly an adult being jealous of younger kids was absurd.
Even I had a hard time believing it.
“No way.”
“That can’t be. He didn’t look like that…”
“He did. I saw it in his eyes. He looked like he wanted to punch someone.”
“Still, I doubt it…”
Even though I was being serious, kind-hearted Ari continued defending my brother, and Ray burst into laughter.
Both of them thought I was joking, which left me incredibly frustrated.
“Sigh, you two are way too innocent.”
I grumbled out of frustration, but their expressions only grew more puzzled.
I found myself pounding my chest with my fist without realizing.
Anyway, I managed to force Ari to promise she’d be careful around my brother, and only then did I feel somewhat relieved.
I still felt a little uneasy, but I figured it’d be fine as long as I stayed close.
“…But isn’t the carriage too dark?”
The small windows didn’t let in much light, and with the curtains closed to block my brother out, it was even darker.
Just as I was thinking whether I should pull back the curtain so I could at least see their faces…
“Too dark? One sec.”
Ray touched something on the carriage wall, and suddenly, the interior lit up.
“Whoa…?”
The previously stuffy carriage ceiling had disappeared.
Startled, I looked up at the sky and turned to Ray, who smiled.
“The roof didn’t actually disappear—it just turned transparent.”
As he spoke, he stood up and reached toward the roof.
Then, with a soft tap, his palm touched something—There was a soft rustling sound.
“Since the light is filtered when it comes in, the sunlight isn’t even hot.”
It was past noon, but the sun was still high in the sky.
The sun was visible from just above a diagonal line over the head.
If the light had come in directly, it would have felt like walking under the scorching sun.
But the magically enchanted roof seemed to let only the light through, without the heat.
It looked small and simple, like something you’d see at a real carriage rental station, but it had such advanced technology inside.
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
At my admiration, Ray showed me other functions of the carriage.
When he pressed something on the wall again, the seats of the carriage unfolded and turned into a bed-like shape.
And at the same time, a pleasant breeze blew in.
The carriage was enclosed on all sides and had felt a bit stuffy, but just that gentle breeze made everything feel fresh.
“Wow… but why weren’t you using these features before?”
Wouldn’t it have been more comfortable if they had used it from the start when we came to the count’s territory?
I asked curiously, and the two just shrugged their shoulders.
“Why bother?”
“We didn’t feel uncomfortable.”
“Even if it’s bright, the only thing you’ll see is his face.”
And they started bickering again.
They always seemed to get along like that.
***
“I think my brother is disgustingly jealous of you two.”
At those words, Aries had no idea what kind of face to make.
Should she laugh?
Be dumbfounded?
Raymund felt the same, and they both smiled bitterly to themselves.
Seiana wasn’t exactly clueless.
She just had such firm thoughts that she never considered anything beyond them.
She only saw what she wanted to see.
When her eyes met Halo’s, Aries saw fear in his gaze.
At the same time, a rising sense of disgust.
It was the kind of look he usually gave to others, so she was about to ignore it—But then she saw Halo’s eyes change.
Even though he was afraid, he had a look like he wouldn’t back down.
‘This is why knights are such fools.’
Aries scoffed inwardly.
Halo wasn’t the first to show this look in front of her.
Knights often mistook reckless bravado for courage, trying to overcome the instinctual fear felt in front of someone with supernatural powers.
But none of them ever succeeded.
At first, they’d try to endure it, but then their mind and body would wear down and they’d give up.
Aries hated knights because she’d seen this happen so many times.
Normally, she wouldn’t have cared whether a knight broke down from such ignorance, but…
‘This is troublesome.’
The fact that Halo was Seiana’s brother bothered her.
If he pushed himself too far and broke, Seiana would be saddened.
She was just thinking about how to stop things when, luckily, Seiana stepped in.
And then she said something completely ridiculous.
“As if that would ever happen.”
She hadn’t meant to defend Halo.
It was just such a ludicrous statement that the denial came out naturally.
Still, Seiana looked frustrated, thinking Aries was too naive to understand.
When in reality, Aries was the one feeling frustrated.
‘Well, it’s still better than being looked at like a monster.’
So Aries decided to simply go along with Seiana’s self-defense lecture.
Halo’s honor might take a hit due to Seiana’s misunderstanding, but Aries couldn’t have cared less.
Seiana didn’t even know that a single gesture from Aries could turn Halo into a bloody mess.
She focused on teaching how to strike, where to aim—those details.
It was funny, really.
Just like Aries, Seiana wasn’t someone who trained in martial arts.
So she had clearly learned this self-defense from Halo himself.
Yet now she was teaching Aries how to hit him.
When the lesson ended, they were told about the carriage’s features.
Aries’s goal this time was to fall asleep with Seiana in the carriage under the stars.
Since Halo was keeping his eyes wide open, it was something Raymund could never even try, which made her look forward to it even more.
“From here on, there are no transfer gates?”
“They haven’t been built yet.”
“Oh, not yet, huh.”
Their destination wasn’t a suburb near the capital, but a rural area, so there were no transfer gates yet.
Transfer gates, made with the empire’s best technology, were very convenient—but extremely costly.
Unless it was a key strategic location, most territories with gates had to be wealthy enough to cover half the cost of building them.
So in rural territories focused on livestock or farming, transfer gates hadn’t been built yet.
Seiana being surprised by that was a little odd, but if she’d only ever lived near the capital, it made sense, Raymund and Aries figured.