IJSMC 12

Chapter : 12

As they exchanged glances filled with suspicion, Sirius suddenly said something completely out of the blue.

“You’re really weak.”

Isn’t the other side just abnormally strong? Elena couldn’t hide the look of disbelief as she replied.

“I was born a bit weak, but I think I’m just average.”

“Is that so?”

Though he echoed her words, his face clearly showed he didn’t agree at all.

Sirius looked down at his abdomen, which was wrapped tightly in bandages.
It hadn’t healed completely yet—thin red lines still remained across his stomach—but the split flesh had already closed up.

That was because the blood of a wolf had given him monstrous regenerative abilities.

Still, to him, this was normal. Of course, he knew ordinary people were weaker than him.

But Elena—who could even get indigestion just from drinking water—seemed to be the weakest of them all.

So that’s why it’s even more impressive.

Sirius looked at Elena, who seemed drained of strength and was leaning against the dining table.

It was truly strange.

Even with such a frail body, and while trembling with fear, she had still come to help him.

Sirius clearly remembered the first time she had taken care of him.

It was the moment when a threadlike hope began to turn into certainty.

On the second day, when he was suffering like he was about to die from the grueling training, she came to his room.

Despite her deliberately quiet footsteps, he had noticed her presence from the start.

At the imperial palace, he had lived on constant alert even while sleeping—there was no way he wouldn’t notice such clumsy steps.

“……”

But Sirius truly didn’t have the strength to even lift a finger, so he couldn’t move at all.

Under normal circumstances, it would’ve been right to grab the delicate neck of someone who came to see him in the middle of the night and demand an explanation.

But everything felt bothersome. In truth, he didn’t even have the strength for that.

“Ugh—”

In the meantime, her suspicious behavior only escalated.

She suddenly began tending to him with awkward, unskilled hands.

Sirius sharpened his guard internally.

There was no such thing as kindness without a reason.

Once, he had trusted and followed someone just because they treated him well—only to find out later that person had been poisoning his food.

Betrayed, Sirius’s heart had hardened into a jagged shape.

“Must hurt.”

But after coming to Duke Rode’s estate, that heart had softened a little.

And Elena was the one responsible for that.

Faced with her clumsy care, Sirius found tears quietly spilling from his eyes.

“You’re crying again…”

Sirius flinched. Had she known he cried yesterday too?

She’d seen him at his weakest.

But all Elena did was gently take his trembling hand.

Still, if that had been all, Sirius wouldn’t have thought she was on his side.

Ending his recollection, he spoke to Elena.

“If you have indigestion, shouldn’t you take some medicine?”

“It’s not that bad. I’ll feel better if I just stay like this.”

“Your room seems full of medicine. Why are you being stingy?”

Elena, slumped over the table, flinched. Sirius suppressed a laugh and gently rubbed her back.

He knew the traits of people who were kind with ulterior motives.

They always tried hard to make their kindness noticeable.

But Elena was the opposite—she wanted to hide the fact that she was helping.

She was too clumsy for him not to notice, though.

At the very least, he knew Elena had no intention of currying favor with him.

Her kindness came either from pure sympathy or from some unspoken reason.

But Sirius found himself no longer caring which it was.

The only person who had pulled him out of endless nightmares—and softened his heart—was Elena.

Until now, he had only known how to repay hostility with hostility.

So what should Elena’s actions be repaid with?

Having his first-ever ally, Sirius decided to keep her close and treat her well for now.

“Want to come watch me train?”

No, I don’t want to, Elena wanted to say—but unfortunately, she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.

Sirius looked to be in an exceptionally good mood.

At the very least, she shouldn’t upset him.

She didn’t want to get on his bad side over something unnecessary.

Elena had planned to eat breakfast together and then slip away quietly, but instead she ended up being dragged by Sirius all the way to the training grounds.

“Can’t I just watch from here?”

Why had her life come to this?

At this rate, she’d be dragged around all day.

Crying internally, Elena settled down a little distance away from the training grounds.

This was her absolute limit. If she went any farther in, she’d inevitably run into Duke Rode.

“Fine. It might be dangerous for you in there.”

Fortunately, unlike last time, Sirius didn’t try to drag her inside.

Elena sat on a nearby tree stump and watched Sirius walk in with a light step.

He looked dignified, though his frame was still small.

Still, she couldn’t let her guard down. Sirius could tear people apart—

“Hey!”

Startled, Elena flinched at the thunderous shout.

At some point, Joseph was standing beside her, glaring at her while holding an armful of wooden swords.

“What?!”

Elena snapped back without backing down.

Joseph thought of her as a rankless, untouchable nobody in this household—but it was all meaningless.

What use was being acknowledged by that kind of father, anyway?

And once Sirius wiped out the Rode family, the line of succession would become nothing more than a shattered illusion.

But Joseph, unaware of the future, began seething at the retaliation from a girl he considered beneath him.

“Where do you get off talking back to me?! You’re getting more and more insolent… You came to watch me get punished, didn’t you?”

Elena looked him over.

Now that she thought about it, he was wearing a servant’s uniform.

It seemed he’d been demoted to servant duties as punishment for breaking sparring rules.

Whatever. Elena snorted lightly.

“Why would I come to see you? I don’t do pointless things like that.”

“What?”

But her painfully honest answer didn’t even register with Joseph.

He’d come here looking for a fight from the start.

“And you don’t even call me ‘brother.’”

Needing an outlet for his anger, Joseph trembled as he threw the pile of wooden swords onto the ground.

Sensing trouble, Elena stood up.

That’s when she noticed Sirius approaching.

“Hah! You dare ignore me, you little worm?!”

Seeing Elena’s gaze shift elsewhere, Joseph boiled with rage.

But only for a moment—he, too, sensed something strange and slowly turned around.

“…Sirius?”

Shock colored his voice. Elena thought he truly looked empty-headed.

He blinked slowly, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

It really did make him look stupid.

Still, Elena understood how he felt.

She herself had struggled to believe it when she saw Sirius moving perfectly fine that morning.

“T-That… that’s really Sirius?”

“It’s ‘Prince Sirius,’ not ‘that.’”

Idiot. Elena kept the rest to herself as she corrected him.

It was her way of looking out for him—since he’d been throwing tantrums about not being treated like a brother, she’d demonstrated how a proper younger sibling should act.

If she acted like a younger sister, surely he’d act like an older brother if he wanted the title.

But Joseph, even after such a kind example, learned nothing and continued acting like a fool.

Even as Sirius drew closer, he pointed at him.

“N-No way!”

“Move.”

Sirius spoke with mild irritation. He didn’t care what kind of expression Joseph had.

Joseph was simply blocking his path to Elena, and he wanted him gone.

But the intention to let him off lightly was shattered by Joseph himself.

Half out of his mind, Joseph grabbed Sirius by the shoulder.

“How is this possible? I definitely yesterday—”

Aaaah! Elena screamed internally.

Joseph was touching Sirius’s shoulder.

She didn’t want to see blood splattering everywhere!

Even if he was curious how someone stabbed in the stomach could move around after just one day, touching Sirius was sheer insanity.

But Joseph didn’t know that. Truly not worth treating like a brother.

“Say that again?”

“What?”

“Get lost.”

It was the final warning. Sensing the dangerous aura, Joseph flinched.

But soon his face flushed red and blue.

Being momentarily intimidated by a boy three years younger had wounded his pride.

“Y-You little—!”

Elena silently offered her condolences to Joseph as he marched straight into hell.

“When did I ever give you permission to speak casually to me?”

“That’s—!”

Joseph shouted, then froze, unable to finish.

His plan to push Sirius down the hierarchy by disrespecting him had already failed on the first day.

He had nothing to say.

Normally, he would’ve ignored everything and continued picking a fight—but for some reason, he couldn’t act as usual.

Facing Sirius, a chill crawled up his spine like a warning.

“Well, um—”

“I mean—”

“Answer me.”

Pressed by the icy command, Joseph reflexively released Sirius’s shoulder.

The murderous intent in the eyes looking down at him was impossible to believe came from a ten-year-old.

Before he realized it, he was stumbling backward.

He couldn’t believe how pathetic he looked.

By habit, Joseph blurted out angrily.

“You little runt!”

“Enough.”

But the small commotion was abruptly ended by an unexpected person.