26

Whatever the reasons, it remained a fact that he had broken off our engagement.
Regardless of who had instigated it, the one who actually did so was Leon-sama.
And in that case there was but one answer I would select.

“I have understood your story, Big Brother. However, my answer has been decided. The breaking off the engagement .. is what I desire!”

Brother hung his head at my words.
Sana let afloat a wide smile covering her face.
Chris-sama was grinning as well.

“My words may possibly not reach Leon-sama. But even still, I want the two of us to have a proper talk about this, alone.  On that occasion neither Big Brother nor Chris-sama, and not even Anjiu-sama will be necessary. Big Brother, I want to ask this of of. Please persuade Leon-sama to let me talk to him, just the two of us.”

Brother made a slightly startled face at that but quickly accepted.

“That’s true, I guess .. it may be this late in the game but it’s only logical for you two to really talk things out. In that case I’ll be visiting him now. This kind of thing should be done the sooner the better, isn’t that so?”

“Thank you very much. But Big Brother, can you really go out with your body like that?”

Brother should have received a considerable level of damage from Mother’s fists yesterday.

“Aah, this much poses no real problem. It’s probably a skill I got from the mixture of Mother’s blood and the blood of Father’s hot-bloodedness.  My regeneration is bizzarly fast.”

Is that how it was. That’s why he never learned his lesson despite being done in by Mother every single time.
Isn’t that bad, from an educational perspective?

Brother prepared right away and left for the castle.
We who had been left behind met eyes and let out a bit of laughter.
Come to think of it, wasn’t now a good chance. To ask Chris-sama what I had been curious about.

“Say, Chris-sama. Yesterday you told Anjiu-sama but .. why did you say she couldn’t marry Prince Leon?”

“Mh? Aah, about that, huh. It’s only my hunch but Miss Anjiu is probably a guy.”

Wha-what did you say~~
Tha-that cute Anjiu-sama is a guy, you say!

“Eh, eh, excuse me but no matter how you look at her she doesn’t look like anything but a girl ..”

Upon my words Chris responded with a bitter smile.

“Ririina, as you know I have been often mistaken for a girl, right? Perhaps that’s why I can tell by intuition. Miss Anjiu, no wait, even the name might be a fake. That is a guy, you know. To boot that guy didn’t say a single thing, did he? It’s surely because he thinks that if he did he would be found out.”

Me, do I really have no eye for people to that extent?
There was the matter of Chris-sama, then there’s Anjiu-sama, I couldn’t tell the difference at all to an extend that made you wonder ‘really?’.

“Still, exactly in what way did Leon-sama and Anjiu-sama become aquaintanced then? From what Big Brother said before it looks like Leon-sama is bad with woman, after all, so that would mean they have met when Anjiu-sama was dressed as a man.”

“I guess so. Wouldn’t it be alright to ask Prince Leon about that directly when you’re talking to him? He might back away if you jumped straight into the engagement talk, after all.”

Hm, because of how it’s been until now the biggest problem would be whether we could even have an actual conversation unlike so far. ^[1]
Let’s get fired up for this.

— several hours later

It seems Brother had returned.
Sana had let me known.
He intended to come to my room.
A few minutes later Brother entered after knocking for a change.

“Ririina, made you wait.”

“Welcome home, Big Brother. Does it seem like Prince Leon would talk with me?”

“Aah, he was quite unwilling but I managed to persuade him. On that note .. it might be sudden, but I appointed the talk for tomorrow. Is that alright with you, Ririina?”

“Eeh, that is alright. Thank you, Big Brother.”

” .. No need for that, really. I predict that tomorrow is going to be tough. It might be strange coming from me, but wouldn’t it be better to have our parents accompany you? They probably had that intention anyway, right? It looks like Mother is just about going to blow him away with her fists, too. He’s not good at taking hits like me so for him even a single strike would mean the out for him.”

No, that’s not a line you should be saying with that much self-confidence.
Even Mother probably wouldn’t do that, would she?
After she’d just direct all of that at you instead.

“I’ll do what I can. I share some responsibility because I also gave up on talking to him at some point. Tomorrow I’ll go tell him all the things I haven’t been able to to my heart’s content.”

Towards my enthusiasm, Brother said something in a small voice.
“It looks like Prince Leon will be in a real pinch tomorrow .. Just how can I ..”
Isn’t Brother being a bit too overprotective of Prince Leon?
If it’s like this it’s not even clear anymore whose Brother he is supposed to be.
Is this the depth of the connection between two who had proposed to the same person ..

While feeling a tinge of uneasiness towards that overprotectiveness, it was another day that I thought it was about time to find a permanent measure for him under the banner of wife.