Chapter 20
Father and My Absolute Fave’s Cool Looks Are Nice, but I Still Prefer Their Smiling Faces

Translated by: chocolalaProofread by: Amethyst Rose

The next day, as I was rushing down the stairs to see Brother off to the academy, I bumped into him without his uniform on.

“Oh, Brother, where’s your uniform?”

“I’m taking a day off from school today.”

“What?⁉ Where are you feeling sick? You must stay in bed! Go to sleep! I will take care of you. Is it your stomach or your chest?”

“Alba, calm down. Breathe slowly. At this rate, you’re the one who’s going to fall ill.”

There was no way I could stay calm! As soon as I took his hand and tried to lead him towards his room, he picked me up in his arms.

Brother, who had never missed a day of school before, actually took a day off. How could he be carrying me like this?!

When I was on edge all by myself, Brother chuckled and gave me a very dazzling smile and said, “Thank you for worrying about me.”

“You see, I’m feeling very well. I took the day off because I had some business to attend to. Father will also take half a day off from his duties, so we’ll all have lunch together,” he said in an attempt to calm me down. Then, I looked up at him.

Indeed, he looked very healthy as usual.

I unwittingly put my palm on my brother’s cheek and stroked his smooth and silky cheek; he laughed softly and laid his cheek against my hand.

*slides* Like a cat that had taken a liking to you.

“Brother, I love you…!” I couldn’t help but shout in excitement at the sheer adorableness of my brother. 

Why is it that every movement and gesture of my absolute fave is just so precious…?!  Today, my vitality gauge was maxed out from early morning!

I was in the middle of a feverish frenzy over Brother’s adorableness in his arms as he brought me like that to the reception room. For some reason, Father was there and when he saw me being carried by Brother, he hurriedly got up and came to my side. 

“What’s the matter, Alba? Are you feeling unwell?”

“No… Brother is just too adorable today as well…”

“Orsis is, adorable… huh? Adorable… certainly, my kids are adorable.”

Father seemed to be worried about me, so I explained to him that he had misunderstood, but he ended up tilting his head in puzzlement as he hummed and grumbled. Brother seemed to be choking back a laugh, his shoulders shaking from time to time.

But I only picked up on Father’s words when he said ‘my kids are adorable’ and my eyes widened with a snap.

“Father, you understand it…? Brother’s adorableness! No matter how he moves, it’s truly adorable, yet so cool. Furthermore, Brother is so intelligent, he truly is the greatest masterpiece that God has ever created…!”

“Does Alba think I’m like a cute pet or something…?”

“Alba, Orsis is troubled there…”

As I was getting excited talking about Brother, he sat me down in the middle of the sofa. Then he sat down next to me.

But why did we go to the reception room? Even Father, who was usually working at this time, was also there. The question occurred to me for the first time since we arrived here.

“Oh, by the way, Brother just told me that Father is also off work for half a day. Is there anything going on today?”

“We’ve got visitors today!” Father told me and I hurriedly got up from the seat. 

“Then I’d better go back to my room without disturbing you! I’ll be right back! I’ll look forward to meeting you for lunch!”

“It’s all right. Sit down, Alba.”

Brother and Father, sitting on either side of me, stopped me and nodded their heads. Usually, only Father dealt with visitors; so, me staying here would only be a nuisance. 

As I was sitting meekly and pondering, Sven appeared and informed Father, “Master, the visitors are here.” 

Father then nodded and not long afterwards, Sven brought someone in.

“Thank you for allowing me to visit you so early in the morning.”

The man who bowed politely at the entrance to the reception room was a head taller than Father and had a very well-built body. The red hair and the eyes reminded me of someone else, and then that someone else appeared from behind the big man. 

Oh, I get it now!

So this was the general commander of the Knights Order. No wonder he looked so physically intimidating.

“I am very sorry that my foolish son has taunted the son of the Duke of Saliente.”

“I am sorry.”

I focused my gaze at my absolute fave’s nemesis1 who bowed his head following the example of the Knight Commander.

I see. So they came to apologise for the matter from the previous day. That was fast.

When I glanced at Brother, I saw that he was no longer in the same mood as before and had changed into a “cool brother” look. On my other side, Father also had the same look. 

Sandwiched between two identical faces, I almost forgot for a moment that two redheads were bowing in front of me. I thought I was in heaven. But I liked their smiling faces better, so I hoped they would change out of this cool version as soon as possible.

However, since it was an apology visit, I shouldn’t have greeted them with all smiles, I suppose? They were already done with the apology, shouldn’t they go home already?

As I sat in my chair thinking about this, Father urged them to raise their heads. A blue bruise could be seen on my absolute fave’s nemesis—as if he had been punched in the face. 

“Did you hit him with that big body of yours?” I blurted out absent-mindedly as I saw the bruise. 

I couldn’t believe that such a big man could hit a child who was only 13.

“Excuse me, Sven. Can you bring me something cold?”

That bruised area should be cold-compressed, or it’d only swell more later. It would be too painful. I didn’t think his nose was broken, but it looked like maybe one or two of his back teeth might have flown out. 

“Brother, can you make some ice for me?”

“I could do that, but what would you do with the ice, Alba?”

“Nem…Adrian-sama’s face needs to be cooled down. Just look at that, it seems so painful.”

As I tried to urge him to do it faster, the person who hit Adrian stopped me, “You don’t have to do that. This is my way of disciplining him. I heard that yesterday he spoke very unpleasant words to you. It should not be tolerated under normal circumstances.” 

“Who cares about that? Hitting is violence. When someone hits you, it hurts.” As I said this, I remembered the pain in the back of my hand where my step-grandmother had hit me with a fan. 

That hurt my hands, but what hurt the most was my heart. And that cold stare that I got from them was really heartbreaking. Even though I knew that I was in the wrong, I still couldn’t stand it.

“Young Master Alba, I’ve brought it.”

“Thank you!”

Sven returned with an ice pack in his hand, which I took and offered to my absolute fave’s nemesis.

“Cool it down with this. It’s better than nothing.”

But he didn’t accept it, “I cannot accept it. The words I spat at you were several times worse than these.” 

“It doesn’t matter at all, because it’s nothing but a fact. I don’t care, so please don’t make such a painful face. Just cool it down.”

“Alba…” Brother heaved a long sigh at my words. 

Then he took the ice pack from my hand and rose from his seat. He went around the table and approached the father and son, who were still standing, and pressed the ice pack firmly against the cheek of his nemesis. 

“It’s Alba’s wish. Now cool it.”

“But…”

“For me, and for my father, Alba is a very important part of the family, even if we are not related by blood. Working with Bruno is not a shackle, it’s my pride and joy, and for the first time, I have something to live for. I don’t need you to tell me off about that because everyone is different and what’s important to you is different to me. You need to learn that what’s important to you is not necessarily important to me. You will not speak of it again ever.”

“Y…Yes!” 

The cool brother stared at his nemesis with powerful intimidation. When I was admiring his face, which I didn’t get to see very often, Father let out a sigh, “Geez, my sons are so kind for their own good. I thought I’d take this opportunity to drag the commander under my wing.”  

“It seems that Lord Saliente’s younger son is much more magnanimous than my foolish son. Mr Alba, thank you for your great generosity. Normally, what my foolish son had said would warrant him to be disinherited, but it is a fatherly love that made me wish that this matter could end with just one punch.”

“Disinherit?”

I raised my eyebrows at the Knight Commander’s words, and Father nodded at me in affirmation.

“If I were to make a formal protest, Adrian might be disinherited by his father. His father had sternly admonished him and came here to apologise; from here we know that he held off on disinheriting him.”

“Then, he got hit in the face… Humans can easily die by getting hit, you know?”

“Well, he’s a Knight Commander after all, he must know how much strength to exert enough not to kill.”

I was speechless for a while before I brought myself to ask, “If… if I do anything horrible, will I get hit by Father…?”

“No, no, Alba? I’ll never hit you, alright?” Father hastily said this and finally offered seats to the Knight Commander and his son.