By Zephyria 
“That’s the quickest solution. It’s not like there’s no alternative. If we catch and kill all the Calderians who approach you, they won’t be able to justify anything, and then I wouldn’t have to care who you are.”
“……”
“You won’t be in danger of dying like before, so it’s not a bad deal for you either.”
I shrugged, and Aegis, who was looking at me with an indescribable expression, said in a deeply subdued voice.
“They say all Actans are barbarians, and it’s true.”
I slowly rose to my feet, placing my hands on my knees as he muttered to himself. Aegis flinched and looked up at me.
“Rest more if you don’t want to talk.”
“……”
I walked past the stiff Aegis. Just as I was about to open the door and leave, I heard a very faint and small voice from behind.
“……I don’t know.”
I hesitated for a moment, my hand on the doorknob. There was a high probability that Aegis knew nothing anyway. It would be much more efficient to meet the royal guards or Servants and have a conversation.
“I don’t know anything. I just, just… suddenly came here…”
I was debating whether to leave or not when the voice got a little closer. I turned my head and saw Aegis, who had come right up to me, rambling from right behind me.
“Just… if I stay there a little longer, later everyone will…”
I watched his face distort as if he was about to cry as he spoke, and I finally sighed and turned around.
“What was the question I asked you?”
“What?”
“What did I ask you?”
“……”
Aegis looked bewildered at my sudden question. Seeing that made me sigh again.
“Did anyone ask you why the kingdom guys did this?”
“……”
Aegis blinked his big eyes at me. It was as if he was asking what I had asked. I stared blankly down at Aegis, then bent down to meet his gaze.
“I asked you what your name was.”
“Name?”
“Yes. What’s your name?”
“……”
I never thought that Aegis, who was likely a disposable piece, would know anything like that in the first place. I had been asking him how old he was and what his name was, and now he was widening his eyes as if he was hearing it for the first time, which was absurd.
Aegis, who had been watching me waiting for an answer… no, Aska, a twelve-year-old boy, pouted his lips a few times and said.
“Aska.”
I couldn’t help but be moved by the name I finally learned. I couldn’t believe it was so difficult to hear a name.
“Then you’re not going to kill those people?”
Aska asked me urgently, looking at me. I thought for a moment and then opened my mouth.
“Aska, you must never lie to me again.”
“What?”
“Never, no matter what happens, promise you won’t lie, and I won’t kill them. If those people aren’t involved in this.”
Aska’s eyes widened at the words that he wouldn’t be killed, but I frowned again at the added words. Seeing that, I said with a dumbfounded expression.
“Those are the people who are trying to kill you.”
“Those people don’t know anything.”
“You know that… no, never mind. Answer me first.”
They must have known that Aska was a boy. That’s why they made such a fuss when he changed clothes last time, and that’s why they only staffed the Servants with people from the kingdom.
I thought they could never be unrelated to this.
Aska hesitated at my words and then answered.
“Okay.”
“What?”
“I won’t lie.”
I didn’t think I could completely trust Aska with these words, but I was relieved anyway.
“Then the first question. Are you a Calderian royal?”
Aska took a few breaths as if he was about to say something at my question, but he couldn’t open his mouth easily. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to speak, but it seemed like he didn’t know the answer.
I wondered why he was doing that, since it was either yes or no, and then I suddenly had a thought and asked him just in case.
“Where were you before you came here?”
Aska pursed his lips at the changed question. But unlike before, the answer came quickly.
“In the slums.”
“……”
It was a question I asked because I felt like I knew, but I never expected the word slums to come out. I was momentarily flustered and couldn’t say anything, but I pulled myself together and asked again.
“Since when?”
“When?”
“Since when were you there… no, were you born there?”
Aska nodded at my question. I had roughly guessed that he was an illegitimate child, but this didn’t make sense. Aska was too composed to have been born and raised in a slum, no matter what his bloodline was.
“Then where did you learn how to eat, how to walk… anything like that? Did you learn it before you came here?”
“I learned it in a hurry because there wasn’t much time, but I did learn it.”
“……”
But then that’s strange too… No matter how quickly he learned, Aska’s actions when he first met me were hardly royal etiquette.
“…Then why did you do that?”
I asked with a sullen expression, and Aska tilted his head.
“What?”
“When we first met, you hit me and cursed at me… Why did you do that? Did the royal family teach you that?”
I asked with a serious expression, and Aska rolled his eyes around and then looked at me with an awkward face.
“Because establishing dominance is important…”
“What?”
“…Because you guys are barbarians who open skulls, take out brains, and bathe in people’s blood… If I didn’t establish dominance first, I’d be looked down on…”
“……”
I was more dumbfounded than when I heard that Aska was twelve years old. I asked with a bewildered face.
“Who told you that?”
“My sister…”
“Who’s your sister? Aegis?”
Aska, who was rolling his eyes around again and avoiding my gaze, finally nodded slightly. I looked at his innocent-looking face and slowly moved to the bed and collapsed on it.
As I lay still with my face buried in the soft blanket, all sorts of thoughts ran through my head. What was Aegis thinking when she told her younger brother, who came as a hostage in her place, such things, and what was Aska doing, doing exactly as he was told…?
I suddenly felt tired and turned over to look at the ceiling, and something caught my eye. I turned my head and saw Aska standing awkwardly next to me, having come right up to me.
“Sigh…”
“……”
Looking at that made me feel stuffy as if my chest was blocked. Aska’s expression naturally distorted at the sight of me sighing in his face. I struggled to sit up and asked.
“What else did she say?”
“……”
“That she’ll come to pick you up in a year?”
I remembered that he had said he would return in a year from the first time we met, but Aska pursed his lips, perhaps because he didn’t like my tone.
He was glaring at me with his eyes raised, so it seemed that Aegis had said that too.
I could tell without hearing everything. She definitely seemed to want Aska to die here at my hands. Otherwise, the advice she gave him didn’t make sense.
“Come here.”
I gestured to Aska, who was still glaring at me as if his eyes didn’t hurt. Of course, he wasn’t the type to come just because I told him to.
“Come sit down so we can talk.”
“Just do it from there.”
“I have something serious to say.”
“Can’t you say it seriously if I’m standing?”
“Please don’t be childish.”
“Hey!”
Aska finally couldn’t stand it and screamed at my words. The sound was so loud that I flinched.
“You’re doing this because you think I’m young, right?”
“What? And why are you yelling?”
“You’ve been acting annoying ever since you found out my age!”
“It’s not because of your age, I’m just annoying in general. Stop yelling and come sit down quickly.”
I held out my hand, and Aska slapped the back of my hand as if he was slapping my cheek, then sat on the edge of the bed. I rubbed my burning hand and said.
“First of all, there’s a high probability that the statement that she’ll come to pick you up in a year is a lie.”
“……”
Aska didn’t answer this time either, but it seemed like he was roughly aware of it himself. Well, if he didn’t feel that something was wrong in this situation, he would be an idiot.
“I don’t know what else she told you, but that’s all a lie too. The reason why they bothered to find you, who was born and raised in the slums, and brought you to the castle was to use you for this purpose.”
“……”
“What I don’t understand is, the repercussions of the fact that you’re not a woman would be significant, so why did they bother to educate you, a man, and send you here? If they simply wanted a Calderian princess to die in Actan, they could have just found another woman and had her act appropriately.”
Why did it have to be Aska?