Chapter 11
“W-Why are you crying?”
The twins burst into tears at the same time, and the noise was incredible.
My ears hurt.
I saw Uncle Lloyd about to scold them, so I quickly grabbed their hands.
“Why are you crying, Leon…?”
“Huuuh, waaah…”
“Ian?”
“Huuuuuh…”
They were crying so pitifully.
Since they were looking up at me from below, I could clearly see their red eyes, red noses, and the large tears constantly rolling down their cheeks.
Ew, there was snot too.
“Y-you, you, you…”
“Me? What about me?”
“You said you d-don’t like us! Waaah, Father…!”
“When did I ever say that?”
“You did! You did! You hate us!”
Leon shouted at the top of his lungs.
My ears were ringing.
Ian bit his lip as if trying to hold something back while crying, while Leon kept blurting out whatever came to mind.
“You said you don’t have to listen to Uncle Lloyd…”
“We’re Lloyds too, you know?”
“Ah, right… Anyway, you don’t have to listen to him. I don’t need knights or anything…”
“……”
Both Leon and Ian fell silent and glared at me.
W-What?
Why are they looking at me like that?
“You don’t need one. Mom and Dad will protect me.”
“…Sniff… Hic…”
“Ian, what’s wrong…?”
When I tugged on his hand and called his name directly, Ian’s eyes widened.
But only for a moment.
Sniffling, he said,
“You said you didn’t need us.”
“Well, I just meant you don’t have to do something if you’re being forced…”
“Who said we don’t want to?!”
“You said you wanted to see if I was worth serving!”
“You wouldn’t even let us see you! We just wanted to meet you!”
Leon cut in with another shout.
Ow, my ears.
I instinctively tried to pull my hands away to cover them, but both boys grabbed them at the same time.
Then, when I stared at them, they quietly looked away.
Ah, what is this?
They’re ridiculously cute.
I was starting to find these crybaby twins adorable.
Not because of how they looked, but because of the way they acted.
“Exactly! We never said we hated you!”
“We never said that.”
Your pronunciation is funny.
Did they really never say that?
They had said they wanted to decide for themselves whether I was worthy of being served, and wasn’t that basically the same thing?
Still, they were right that they had never actually said they disliked me.
I found myself hesitating.
“But Leon, you went ‘Hmph!’ at me.”
Mother suddenly interrupted.
“Shana, could you do that again?”
“Huh?”
“That thing you just did. Come on, do it again.”
What was wrong with these adults?
Couldn’t they see I was having a serious conversation with the twins?
Mother, Father, and even Uncle Lloyd nodded eagerly with strange smiles.
What?
What were they talking about?
What did I just do…?
Oh.
“Hmph?”
“Kyaaa! Our Shana is so cute! Do it again! Again!”
“Mom! I’m being serious right now!”
Please cooperate!
“Yes, yes, you’re being serious. Mommy was wrong. Our little Shana must be upset, right? Give me another ‘Hmph,’ okay?”
“Seriously!”
“Yes, seriously. Oh dear, Shana, can I kiss you?”
“No! You’re not allowed!”
I copied Leon, snorted, crossed my arms, and dramatically turned my head away.
It was supposed to show Mother that I was upset.
Instead, Mother, Father, and even Uncle Lloyd made strange noises and dropped to their knees.
What was happening?
“Shana, I have a favor to ask.”
Father approached with a completely serious expression.
“W-What is it…?”
“Could you do that ‘Hmph!’ once a day?”
A man who looked like the protagonist of a romance novel, a man who barely smiled outside of Maria Manor, imitating Leon and saying “Hmph!” possessed a level of destructive power that words couldn’t describe.
In other words, I was speechless.
“If you do that, I think Daddy can live a long, long time…”
“Mommy too! Mommy too!”
“Lady Shana, I beg you.”
These people, honestly…
“No. I won’t.”
“Shana…”
“I’m talking to Leon and Ian.”
Father and Mother retreated with deeply regretful expressions.
Because of the interruption, Leon and Ian had stopped crying and were now staring blankly.
Yeah.
You’d be shocked too.
I was shocked.
“Sorry… while we were talking…”
“Huh? Ah, no, no…”
“My mom and dad are kind of… um…”
Beside me, Mother protested.
“Shana! What kind of thing is that to say about us?!”
I ignored her.
“It’s embarrassing…”
“…I can understand that.”
Ian muttered quietly.
Right?
You understand how embarrassing those parents are?
They’re only like that because they love me too much, so please be generous.
At that moment Leon suddenly remembered what they had been talking about.
“Ah! I almost forgot! So, what we’re saying is—”
“Leon, you don’t need to shout. I remember.”
Ian pointed out.
Leon pouted before looking straight at me.
“Do you hate us?”
“I told you I don’t! Do you not listen?”
“…Are you really three years old? Talking to you feels like talking to my mother.”
“I don’t hate you! But if someone hates me, I don’t like them either.”
“……”
“And like Uncle Lloyd said, you don’t need to become my knights. You don’t have to protect me. What am I, some fragile glass ornament…?”
“You really are…”
“And you don’t have to get hurt trying to come see me.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
Leon tried to act tough.
But the wound had required far more clay treatment than a simple scratch.
They’re still children.
“If it hurts, say it hurts.”
“……”
“If you don’t like something, say you don’t like it.”
I dislike rude children.
But seeing children who grow up too quickly, or who endure too much, makes my heart ache.
“Uncle scolded you, so you’re upset, right?”
“I barely said anything…” Uncle Lloyd protested.
Ignored.
“You’re still little…”
“I don’t want to hear that from someone even younger.”
“It was hard, wasn’t it?”
The twins both fell silent.
After a brief pause, Ian spoke first.
Even though they looked identical, their expressions made it easy to tell them apart.
Ian raised his head.
There was a strangely determined look in his eyes.
“Who said we didn’t want to? Nobody forced us.”
Oh.
“If we really hated it, we wouldn’t do it!”
“Right! We were just curious!”
“Ever since you were born, we’ve heard your name so much our ears nearly bled!”
“So of course we wanted to meet you!”
I became serious.
That sounds a lot like…
“You know… that’s… brainwa…”
“Brain what?”
“No, that! Brainwa!”
Brainwashing.
Could someone please fix my pronunciation?
“She means brainwashing.”
“Where did you even learn a word like that, Shana?”
“I read it in a book.”
“What kind of children’s book contains the word brainwashing…?”
Let’s just pretend there is one.
“No! Training is training, but we wanted to see you with our own eyes!”
“You just did…”
We’d known each other for, what, fifteen minutes?
“S-So that’s why you hate us?”
“No…”
“Then do you hate the idea of us becoming your knights?”
“Uh… yes. I don’t want that.”
Both Leon and Ian immediately fell silent.
I cautiously watched their reactions.
Ian finally asked quietly,
“Why?”
“First, I don’t need knights…”
“You don’t know that.”
“And you’re too young…”
“You’re younger.”
“And I don’t want you doing something you don’t want to do…”
“We never said we didn’t want to.”
“And I’m not ready to be responsible for someone else yet…”
Especially not for two children.
The twins looked deeply offended by that last part.
But it was true.
If I walked around with these little kids as my personal knights, what would happen to my dignity as an adult?
More importantly, I didn’t want them getting hurt for my sake.
That’s what knights do.
They carry swords.
They get injured.
“But if we’re talking about being friends—”
“J-Just wait and see!”
“Huh?”
“Just wait! I’ll definitely become your knight someday!”
“Uh… what?”
Leon shouted before running off somewhere.
Left behind alone, Ian stared straight at me.
“We’re seven years old.”
“O-Okay?”
“When people tell us not to do something, that’s exactly when we want to do it.”
You know that yourself?
How often must your mother say that for you to quote it word for word?
“Lady Shana.”
“Y-Yes?”
“We really did just want to meet you. The person we’re supposed to serve.”
Why had he suddenly started calling me Lady Shana?
“Lady Shana, don’t underestimate our bloodline.”
What kind of bloodline are we talking about?
Prize cattle or something?
“We’ll definitely become your knights someday, so prepare yourself.”
With that, Ian turned around and ran off as well.
I blinked blankly and looked at Father.
Father, Mother, and Uncle Lloyd all looked moments away from bursting into laughter.
“Dad.”
“Y-Yes, Shana…?”
“What exactly… am I supposed to prepare for?”
“Pff—”
“……”
“Sir Lloyd, your sons are exactly like you were as a child…”
At last, Father and Mother completely lost it and burst out laughing.
Uncle Lloyd simply covered his forehead and shook his head.
Had it been a mistake to tell seven-year-old boys not to do something?
Had I only provoked their urge to do it even more?
Did I mess up?
Was becoming my knight really something that required determination?
Wouldn’t that only benefit me?
…No, actually, it meant I’d have to employ both of them in the future.
I frowned seriously.
Then, leaving my laughing parents behind, I tugged on Uncle Lloyd’s pant leg.
“Yes, Lady Shana?”
Kneeling to meet my eyes, Uncle Lloyd’s fierce face was slightly red, apparently embarrassed by his sons’ behavior.
I beckoned him closer.
Then I whispered into his ear.
“Uncle.”
“Yes, Lady Shana?”
“If someone becomes a knight… how much money does Daddy pay them?”
“Pardon?”
“…I don’t think I’ll ever be rich enough…”
“……”
“How am I supposed to pay both their salaries?”
