Chapter 10
“Ares?”
Aveline’s eyes darted rapidly as she watched her brother charging forward like an enraged bull.
“What are you doing? Get your hands off her!”
Ares, who had sprinted at full speed, snatched away his sister’s hand that was covering Duke Ribes’ mouth.
“Didn’t I tell you to clap if anything seemed odd?”
Aveline was bewildered by Ares’ sudden appearance.
“Were you hiding over there watching the whole time?”
Moreover, Ares had emerged from a window in the servants’ corridor – a place he would never usually enter.
“Uh, um?”
Caught off guard, Ares’ face turned bright red.
As Theron turned his head following Aveline’s gesture, Ares hastily spoke up.
“Anyway!”
Raising his voice to divert attention, Ares now shifted his target to Theron.
“Even if you are a duke, I think it’s improper to visit a woman who’s just come of age without warning.”
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”
“Sister, get behind me.”
Taken aback by her aggressive brother, Aveline poked Ares’ side repeatedly. But Ares paid no attention and instead stood in front of Aveline to shield her.
“Hmm.”
A quiet interest filled Theron’s blue eyes as he observed the twins.
Presumably, he seemed to find the current situation amusing.
“There are probably already some gossip mongers who know about your visit here, Duke. You know well how rumors can get distorted, don’t you?”
“I don’t particularly concern myself with baseless chatter.”
It was a polite response compared to Ares’ sharp tone. But underlying it was the meaning, ‘You seem very sensitive to rumors, unlike me.’
Ares’ forehead wrinkled deeply as he cleverly understood the implication.
“You might not care, being such a refined duke, but my sister isn’t someone who just stays cooped up at home reading strange books every day! If rumors spread wrongly and block her marriage prospects, how will you take responsibility?”
Theron’s eyes blinked slowly a few times as he listened to the agitated Ares.
“Strange books?”
A hint of wariness crept into Theron’s gaze as he looked at Aveline.
“Oh my, what is this child saying!”
Aveline, whose hobby had been forcibly revealed, laughed awkwardly and secretly kicked Ares in the shin.
“Ouch!”
“Hahaha. You don’t need to pay much attention to what he just said.”
“…”
The silence stretched on.
His furrowed brow seemed to be considering whether Aveline should be allowed to keep his jewel.
‘I’ve barely bought some time, I can’t be dragged off to have my stomach cut open now.’
Aveline gave Theron the most desperate and pitiful expression she could muster.
“…”
Theron slightly averted his gaze from Aveline and spoke.
“Let’s do this then.”
Both Ares and Aveline’s eyes turned to Theron’s lips at his next words.
“Let’s say I came to visit the Herolds young master today, not the young lady.”
“What?”
Ares gaped stupidly at the unexpected statement.
At the same time, the smile on Theron’s lips deepened.
“You said you were worried about your sister, right? So if I say I went to see the Herolds young master, it’s good for the gossip mongers, it doesn’t affect the young lady’s reputation, and consequently, it’s good for the young master too.”
As soon as Theron finished speaking, Ares’ face turned pale.
* * *
Even after Theron left, Ares couldn’t calm down.
“Just stay still!”
Aveline scolded Ares, who had followed her into her room and was pacing around like a madman.
“He seemed serious, didn’t he?”
Ares’ expression was quite grave as he stopped abruptly at Aveline’s shout.
“What Duke Ribes said.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ah! You know, when he said he’d tell everyone he came to see me today.”
“Oh.”
Ares looked genuinely worried. His mind was now full of concerns about what kind of rumors would follow once this spread.
A meeting between two of the Empire’s top-ranked handsome men.
She certainly knew people who would be excited about this kind of gossip.
“To think I’d get mixed up with such a strange person. My precious reputation…”
Aveline was starting to get annoyed with her brother’s constant whining.
She wanted to snap at him that he didn’t look all that normal either and kick him out right away, but remembering how he had paced the servants’ corridor out of concern for her despite his pride, she forced herself to pull up the corners of her lips.
“It doesn’t seem like Duke Ribes has many friends to spread such talk, so I don’t think you need to worry too much. Why don’t you sleep on it and sort out your thoughts again in the morning? My cute little brother.”
“…Why are you talking like that?”
“Like what?”
“…Never mind. You’re annoying, sister.”
“Sweet dreams, little brother!”
Aveline waved enthusiastically at the back of Ares’ head as he left the room with a sulky face.
“Ah. Finally alone.”
As soon as she confirmed Ares had completely left, Aveline flopped onto her bed.
“I need to calm my mind and body.”
The book she chose to read before bed tonight was titled “The Tyrant is a Siscon”, a child-rearing story.
As the straightforward title suggested, the novel’s content was nothing special.
It was about a tyrant who initially didn’t welcome the existence of his much younger sibling, but eventually became completely enamored with his sibling’s cute charm.
‘But that’s exactly what allows readers to feel vicarious satisfaction.’
Aveline, exhausted from the day’s events, lay down comfortably and opened the book.
She had already read it several times and knew the main content by heart. Aveline selected and read her favorite scenes.
The scene she was reading now was the moment when the protagonist, Chloe, makes a bouquet in the garden and brings it to her tyrannical older brother, Klein.
Seeing the grass stains on his little sister’s small hands, Klein, who had only pushed her away until now, finally succumbs to his sister’s cuteness despite his previous rejections.
‘This was the event that really kicked off his sister complex.’
Aveline, mentally exhausted from the day’s real-life events, immersed herself in the book as if escaping, and soon fell asleep.
* * *
Someone gently stroked Aveline’s forehead as she slept.
“Mmm…”
As Aveline stirred at the presence, the hand stroking her head paused momentarily. Then it soon began to move carefully again.
‘Who is it?’
The touch, as if caressing something precious, felt unfamiliar. It was a kind of touch Aveline had never experienced before.
‘There’s no one in our house who would do this.’
There was absolutely no chance of her father stroking Aveline’s head. Then who could it be?
Aveline, now fully alert, lifted her heavy eyelids.
“Why don’t you sleep a little more.”
The voice she heard was unfamiliar.
This time, Aveline opened her eyes wide and turned her head towards the source of the voice.
“Did you sleep well?”
The owner of the gentle voice was a fresh-faced handsome man with brown hair and green eyes.
‘What’s this? Am I in a dream again?’
Having previous experience, Aveline hurriedly examined herself.
Small chubby hands and short arms, a round belly, and soft cheeks that sank in when pressed.
‘I’m completely a little child!’
What kind of situation was this now?
While Aveline was frozen in confusion, the man spoke again.
“Chloe, did you have a bad dream?”
Chloe?
It was a familiar name.
‘No way!’
Aveline finally took a proper look at the man again. Brown hair and green eyes. And herself, being called Chloe.
Then was this man Klein, Chloe’s older brother?
‘Wow. Isn’t this inside the novel “The Tyrant is a Siscon”?’
Yesterday she was in a regret story, today in a child-rearing story.
Looking at Klein, who was gazing at her with eyes that seemed to find her adorable beyond words, Aveline thought that this time, something was truly strange.
But her bewilderment was short-lived.
Realizing she couldn’t escape this dream immediately, Aveline quickly accepted the situation.
‘Let’s enjoy it.’
Since it had come to this, why not receive some doting from the tyrannical older brother!
After that, until she woke up, Aveline basked in Klein’s affection.
“Big bwother!”
“My goodness, an angel is speaking! Someone, confiscate this angel’s wings at once!”
True to his character as a sister-complex, Klein returned Aveline’s words with several times more doting.
The twenty-year-old tyrant staggered on his sturdy legs every time he heard his sister, fifteen years his junior, speak with her clumsy pronunciation.
When Aveline presented him with a bouquet of clumsily picked flowers, as per the novel’s plot, he even wiped away tears.
“How did you manage this with these tiny hands… sniff.”
“Don’t cwy.”
“Record every single word Chloe just said, without missing a letter!”
By this point, Klein was having all of his chattering sister’s words recorded.
Then every night, he would read what Chloe had said and stomp his feet in delight.
“Who could possibly hate you?”
He stroked his sister’s head as she sat beside him, putting dessert in her mouth.
“Hee.”
Aveline gave Klein her brightest smile.
It was the first time in her life she had experienced being so precious in someone’s eyes.
Aveline sincerely thought she didn’t want to wake up from this dream.
Although Klein had been cold to his sister at first, he was now the best older brother and family anyone could ask for, and Aveline loved being looked at as such an adorable existence by someone.
But the dream didn’t last long, and soon Aveline opened her eyes in her own dark room, where the curtains had not yet been drawn.
