I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 89: Side story – The third son of the Lagarde family (2)

After being adopted by the Anastasia family all my worries were surprisingly well taken care of.

Or, to be more precise, I was treated better than I had been in the Lagarde household.

I didn’t have a father who treated me like a failure, or brothers who sneered and criticized me.

There wasn’t even a single servant who kept their distance from me, even though they were careful about what I said.

My new parents cared for me as if I were their own child, just like my original father did when I was a kid.

The staff treated me as if I were a member of the family, as if I had always been there.

“Master Kael, you never get up from your seat in the middle of a meal.

It’s a good thing you’re not like her, who jumps out of her seat when inspiration strikes.”

“Did the flowerpot in the hallway suddenly break this morning? Yes, we’ll take care of it.

What? You didn’t break it…ah, that’s okay, we already know that Master Kael didn’t break it.”

“I apologize, Master. I just wanted to make sure you were really sleeping quietly, since you haven’t been out in the middle of the night in over a month, and I was wondering if you might have slipped out the window in the middle of the night.

What? We’re on the third floor, how is it possible to slip out a window? …We’d really like to know that.”

It wasn’t just that they were polite, but that they treated me like I was the master of the house.

Most of this was due to rumors about my sister, who was chasing me around like a ghost.

A sister a year younger than me, with a complete lack of even the most basic of manners, and a spark of fire magic that burns with more freedom than a flame.

It didn’t take me long to realize that my brothers in House Lagarde were actually quite mild-mannered.

By the end of the first week, I hadn’t quite gotten over my suspicions that she was teasing me.

It wasn’t until over a month later that I cautiously admitted it.

My sister, Ariana Anastasia, is just the way she is.

It took me quite a while to understand that, somehow.

Once I understood her, a lot of things came into focus.

The ease with which my new parents and the old servants accepted my existence, rather than finding it strange.

I realized that they had been dealing with someone much more alien than me for a long time.

If I had stopped there, I would have ended up with the sentiment that she was just a weird step-sister to me.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I had fallen a little deeper in love with Arianna Anastasia.

“Ariana, at mealtimes, focus on your meal.”

“…….”

“Take a cue from your younger brother, Kael, because if I put you out there, which one of you would anyone recognize as a scion of the Duke’s House?”

My father and mother each made a comment as I watched my sister swirl her fork around the aglio olio pasta on her spoon throughout lunch.

“…….”

My step-sister didn’t even pretend to hear my parents’ words, just continued to spin her fork and pasta in a daze.

She’s been like this ever since we went to a royal exchange at the palace a few days ago.

I’d heard that something extraordinary had happened with her fiancé, Prince Alexandros.

That same day, I was busy being dragged around by my parents and greeting various nobles as the next head of House Anastasia.

As soon as the ceremony was over, I was brought back to House Anastasia in a state of disarray, though I never quite understood what exactly happened.

All I knew was that my sister, who had been forced to return by my mother, was often seen staring into thin air like this.

And given the severity of her punishment from the royal family, we know that it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

Ariana Anastasia’s punishment was a three-month ban from the palace and a six-month ban from seeing Prince Alexandros.

Considering that her previous punishment for kidnapping her fiancé, climbing a mountain behind the palace in the middle of the night, and using a spellbook taken from the royal library was only a one-month ban from the palace.

She was undoubtedly guilty of at least three times that.

“Alex….”

Hearing her fiancé’s nickname slip out of her mouth from time to time, the feeling of being lovesick, which was really out of character, was right on target.

It wasn’t just a ban from the palace, it was a ban on Prince Alexandros himself.

There was no way she could have sent a letter to Prince Alexandros asking him to come see her.

When the thought crossed my mind that my sister would end up spending half a year in this broken state.

“Ms. Ariana.”

Elise, the apprentice maid, came to her side and whispered quietly in my sister’s ear.

“How are you going to face Prince Alexandros in half a year if you continue to spend your days in a daze like this?”

“…….”

“Prince Alexandros was obviously particularly fond of Arianna’s health and vigor.

If you’re planning to show him a skinny, shriveled up skeleton half a year later, I won’t stop you.”

“……!!”

I’m not sure what Elise whispered in Ariana’s sister’s ear, but as soon as she heard her, Ariana’s hand on her fork got busy.

In no time at all, the pasta and soup were cleanly emptied, and my sister’s spirits were restored.

“Thank you!”

“Ariana, I told you not to get up from your seat until you’re done eating!”

Still shrugging off her mother’s nagging, she left the room, one of the apprentice maids wordlessly following behind her.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎ ⁎ ⁎

A lot has changed in Ariana since Elise started working closely with my sister.

Suddenly, she starts to listen to the maid’s noble young lady’s education diligently, even though she always ran away.

Her reading habit, which had been limited to strange magical texts in ancient scripts, was now filled with books on flower arranging and the tea ceremony.

No longer did she stare into thin air as if longing for someone, but instead began to pamper herself with more care than anyone else.

And always by her side, like a shadow, was her apprentice maid, Elise.

Her promotion to Arianna’s full-time maid came very quickly.

“At such a young age, she was already fully in charge of the young lady….”

“She’s a good girl, but I wonder if she’s going to get sick again and quit….”

It was an unusual promotion, but if you listen to the conversations of other servants, they seemed to sympathize with her.

Contrary to their worries, Elise has never left Arianna’s side since then.

Whether it was her influence or the events at the palace, within a few years Arianna had become a young lady of the Ducal House of Anastasia, a woman of impeccable taste and education.

Though, unlike her parents and other servants, she was still as unassuming as ever in front of me.

“Kael, Kael!”

“Sister, even though you and I are the only two people in this place, raising your voice like that makes me question your sophistication.”

“Cut me some slack when it’s just the two of us….Do you think it’s usually easy to pretend to be a duchess under your breath in front of your parents?”

“You don’t have to pretend, you just have to actually be a duchess.”

“I need to have someone I can talk to in peace. I can’t believe I have to be respectful to everyone.”

“Sister….”

Just when I was wondering if this young lady would be able to marry Prince Alexandros properly and take over the royal family, an outrageous suggestion leapt out of her mouth at me.

“Kael, you should call me sister when we’re alone.”

“What……?”

I asked, my ears perking up for a moment at the brazenness of her suggestion, even for a twelve-year-old.

What followed was an even more outrageous suggestion, one that didn’t even make me feel comfortable with the first name I’d ever heard.

“Sister, there’s something called the public eye, and it’s a little problematic that you treat me with such a casual attitude….”

“If you don’t like sister, would you rather call me brother?”

“…………?”

“No, well. If you don’t want to call me that because you don’t like me, you can call me brother.

It’s a more casual title, and I’d feel more comfortable calling you that, too….”

“I’ll call you Sister, please let me call you Sister.”

“Oh, yeah, sure…? If that’s more comfortable for you….”

I didn’t understand what she meant when she said that being called big brother was lighter than being called big sister.

I am confident that I made a wise decision that day in an extreme multiple choice test.

“But how long are you going to be respectful, are you still uncomfortable with me?”

Of course, even after that, I had to suffer from pressure from my older sister for a while, asking when I would finally let go.