I Became a Childhood Friend With the Villainous Saintess

5 – The Place I Want to Leave (1)

The promise was broken.

Count Roksen, who had said he would come after ten days, did not return even as the sun set on the tenth day.

The siblings stared blankly at the forest, and it was not until late at night that they acknowledged that he had broken his promise.

A sticky sense of unease enveloped the hut.

We had been able to endure our stay here for ten days only because of Count Roksen’s promise.

The belief that Count Roksen would keep his promise; it was only because of that belief that we could live so innocently, laughing and playing.

Now that this belief was shattered, the siblings’ anxiety was beyond anything we could have imagined.

These were children who avoided mingling with even the nobility.

They were the direct descendants of Irenshia, the purest-blooded rulers on this continent, those whose words not even members of the royal family could easily lower.

It was expected that at least one of the siblings would inherit the position of Archduke just by growing up without injury.

When selecting a marriage partner, they were expected to choose at least a great noble of the empire and if someone from another country was chosen, the candidate naturally had to be an heir to the throne.

Such children could not be made to live in a worn and decrepit hut like this.

Forcing such a lifestyle onto children who had been raised like delicate flowers in a greenhouse was a form of abuse in and of itself.

Those children hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Sniff, sob…sniff.”

Terion’s anger reached the tips of his hair, and Cirien wept, tears streaming down her face.

Henna prepared the meal with a gloomy expression, but could not bring herself to call the two of them.

She knew that the meals here would provide no comfort to either of them.

I didn’t want to make those kids go to bed hungry.

I didn’t want to see them keep crying and getting angry until they were exhausted and fell asleep.

I had to step in.

“I know you’re upset, but let’s eat first. Hena has been waiting since earlier.”

“I said I don’t want to eat!”

“How long will you not want to eat? Tomorrow? Or for the rest of your life?”

“Until I get out of here…”

“How would you know when you’ll leave? Do you have any assurance?”

As expected, Terion was acting sensitive.

Just as I had anticipated. He always had a fiery temper. And a lot of irritation.

So, I knew that if I acted like this, his emotions would be directed at me.

“You. Don’t talk like that.”

“Will it change if I don’t say anything?”

“I told you to stop!”

“You should stop too, brother. How long are you going to be like this?”

Terion’s words were blocked. There was no way he could respond.

When people’s words are blocked, they tend to get angry. And those who are already angry often resort to violence.

I heard a tense voice.

“What do you know!”

Whack! My vision spun around in an instant.

There was no need to think about what happened. It was a clear cause-and-effect situation.

Terion’s arm had reached out, and my eyes did not miss that movement.

I could have dodged or blocked him. Still, I decided to take the hit.

There was no need to think about counterattacking. Terion was the son of the Grand Duke, and I was his servant’s son.

No matter how close we were, there were certain things that had to be maintained.

“Quite spicy.”

One hit didn’t seem to be enough to calm Terion’s anger.

The boy’s body charged towards me aggressively. My collar was grabbed, and another punch came in.

I was born quite sturdy, so in the past, it didn’t feel like much when hit. But now, Terion had grown bigger, and his fists had become quite fierce.

Did he gain some skills in punching? I couldn’t know that far.

Anyway, I couldn’t take it all, so I just put up my guard. Terion’s furious punches kept coming.

If I just take it like this, eventually I’ll fall from exhaustion.

Terion’s temper may have been fiery, but he never crossed the line. He was kind-hearted, so he wouldn’t keep hitting a close friend like me.

That’s what happened now too. Seeing me properly defending myself, his punches gained strength. At first, even though he was angry, he had instinctively held back in the strength of his punches.

I thought it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

But even that seemed to have been too long.

Something rushed in. The weight on top of me was removed, and Terion’s punches stopped.

And then I heard a voice filled with sobs.

“Stop it!”

It was Siren.

She must have pushed Terion with her small body.

When I looked up, Terion was far off to the side with a dumbfounded expression, and Siren was crouched beside me.

Siren didn’t stop there.

Her small fists struck Terion’s arm.

Terion’s face looked complicated.

I don’t know for sure. It could be that he was surprised by his weak-hearted little sister suddenly taking a stand, or maybe it was because he had never seen Siren cry so pitifully before.

One thing was clear: he wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t come to his senses after seeing Siren’s tears.

“Why, why are you hitting Rajen? What did Rajen do wrong?”

“Well, that… it’s because…”

“Brother is the bad one. It’s always brother’s fault! You were just taking your anger out on Rajen. Because Rajen can’t hit you back. You knew Rajen would just take it, so you hit him.”

“……”

Thud. Thud.

Siren struck Terion’s arm.

Her punches were weak. She couldn’t even muster enough strength to properly hit his face, so she targeted his arm or shoulder instead.

Siren was also the one shedding tears. It almost seemed as if the hitter was in more pain than the one being hit.

“Since Rajen can’t hit you, I’ll do it. I’m going to make sure this never happens again. Absolutely. I won’t let it happen ever again.”

It didn’t last long. Siren stopped punching and buried her face in Terion’s embrace, sobbing. She cried so much that not only her face but even Terion’s clothes were soaked in tears.

With a face that looked like he’d been hit with the most painful punch in the world, Terion said,

“…I’m sorry. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have treated you both like that. I’m really sorry.”

After the late-night skirmish was suppressed by Siren, enough time passed for everyone to calm down.

We sat side by side at the table, nibbling on dry bread.

Terion hung his head like a sinner, saying nothing. Sirien had just stopped crying, and Hena was restlessly watching our faces.

I was the only one who could open my mouth at such a time.

“It still tastes terrible. I guess even Hena’s skills can’t make it good with these ingredients.”

“Ah? I’m sorry. I tried my best.”

“Don’t be sorry. If Hena can’t make it good, no one can. If I made it, Terion and Sirien wouldn’t have been able to take a bite, would they?”

“……Well, Rajen can’t cook. He can’t even make tea. I remember when Rajen made tea for me, and I almost threw up.”

“Hey, throwing up? That’s going too far.”

“I really almost did.”

It was an incident at Lehaim Castle.

Sirien usually liked black tea, and by chance, the maids were away at the time.

Although it was only a short while and we could have waited, foolish pride got the better of me.

Tea is just boiling water with tea leaves in it. So I thought I could at least do that.

Sirien was interested when I said I would make it myself.

And Sirien couldn’t even take a single sip.

“There was a strange taste in the tea?”

“I tasted it too, and it wasn’t that bad.”

“Rajen doesn’t know the taste of tea, that’s why.”

“Tsk. Picky.”

There was really delicious food in the castle.

Who said medieval food has no taste? The dining standards of Lehaim were quite high even by the standards of my modern experience.

However, it was impossible to make a good meal with the ingredients preserved here.

Remembering the old days, Sirien mumbled, too.

“I want to eat cake……. With whipped cream and strawberries.”

“I want beef. I’d have no more wishes if I could eat a thick piece.”

Sirien especially liked sweet and soft things.

In particular, her love for cakes was extraordinary. The maids of the Grand Duke’s family would often bribe Sirien with cakes.

Eventually, they prepared several small-sized cakes and gave them to Sirien whenever she wanted one.

And my taste was, of course, steak. For some reason, the steaks here tasted deep and rich compared to the ones I ate in the present.

Was it the result of the finest chefs using carefully selected ingredients? Or was it because my growing body strongly desired the protein?

It was an unknown event.

“Hena, is there anything you want to eat separately?”

“Huh? I’m fine.”

Hena bowed her head, but this time Terion intervened.

He seemed to want to take care of her, as she was his maid.

“Don’t say that. You have a lot of favorite food too. Why, last time, you secretly ate the leftover cookies…”

“Ma-Master!”

“Hmm, hmm. Anyway, is there anything you want to eat? When we leave here, let’s eat together.”

“Um, well, then I guess it’s honey milk and cookies for me.”

“Is that all you want? Let’s eat something delicious together when we go back.”

“Yes… Sounds good!”

Hena smiled, which was rare.

I was glad to see her smile return.

We decided to have hope again.

It wasn’t anything else, but the Demon King’s invasion. The situation couldn’t be resolved smoothly.

It couldn’t be helped that we were a few days late. That’s what we decided.