332 - Side Story - Leonardo's Perspective - Little Lady 6
"Commander, a love letter has arrived from the capital."
"Just leave it over there somewhere."
"Okay~"
Lugmilama Fortress is home to a great many truly unique individuals. Only about half of them are the Black Knights that ordinary citizens imagine. The rest are all unique, unique, unique people. Male knights who use feminine speech are just the beginning.
Leonardo casually watched Evraul, who walked with an exaggerated swaying of his hips. Just as Evraul was about to toss the envelope to the edge of the desk as ordered, something felt off. For one thing, bringing a love letter at this time of year was strange.
"...Wait. What is the sender's name?"
"Oh my, isnt this the first time you have cared about the sender of a love letter, Commander?"
Evraul smiled coquettishly with a "ufufu," but unfortunately, Evraul was a man. No matter how elegantly he spoke in feminine language, he was a man. His gestures and tone were more feminine than a woman's, so if you thought that meant his sexual preferences were for men, it turned out he liked women. It was complicated. This Lugmilama Fortress had men who looked like women, men who used feminine speech, people who could be seen as either men or women, men who loved men, men who had female appearances but loved women, women who only looked like men, men more feminine than women. A truly incomprehensible crowd. Black Knights who walked around half-naked boasting about their muscles were on the cute end of the spectrum.
"It is written in cute handwriting, 'To my dear Leonardo Big Brother.' The sender is..."
"If it is a letter from Tina, just say so. Calling it a love letter is misleading."
"It is a love letter. It is a letter from the Commander's little sweetheart."
"You do not call a sister a sweetheart."
"She is already twelve, you know? She will be getting a boyfriend soon, Commander. What will you do? What if when you return to the capital, she says 'Leonardo Big Brother, there is someone I want you to meet'... I am joking, joking. Do not take it seriously, okay."
At the sound of a pen snapping, Evraul straightened his back. Realizing he had gone too far with the joke, Evraul's face turned serious. He had a serious face, but he still used feminine speech. This was one of Evraul's quirks, so Leonardo had no intention of denying it.
"But honestly, she is more like a lover than a sister. My own sister really is not cute at all. Everything that comes out of her mouth is vulgar, and the last time I visited my parents' home, the moment she saw my face she said 'Gross'..."
The Commander's little sister was not a creature called 'sister,' Evraul said. Evraul's real sister apparently was not cute at all, but Tina was cute.
...But was that not because she was not a blood-related sister who had been together since birth?
He thought things had become considerably less reserved now, but still, he felt Tina kept a line drawn. Sometimes she indulged in selfishness, but she rarely insisted on her own way unreasonably. The only time Tina refused to listen to any persuasion and insisted on her own way was the three days right after being snatched by the spirits. Only during those three days did she act like a normal child, not listening and being completely selfish.
...And because she was embarrassed about it, they had an agreement not to bring up those three days in front of Tina.
Those three days seemed to be a dark history for Tina. Her usual rationality did not work, and she could not calm down unless she got her way, ignoring all reasoning.
...A Tina full of selfishness was cute too. "Leo, don't go to work!" as she clung to his leg like a weight.
Before or since, the only time Tina freely and fully expressed her selfishness toward him was those three days.
"...Sorry to interrupt your fantasies, but a package has also arrived from the Commander's little sweetheart."
"Hurry up and hand it over."
Along with the white envelope, a thin box dangled before his eyes. Bored of Evraul playing around with Tina's letter any longer, he snatched away the envelope and thin box as if seizing them.
"It is from Tina, Ms. Hartmann, and Kalisa."
"Oh my, Commander. You are quite popular with the ladies. How enviable."
"It is my sister, her tutor, and her nurse maid."
Leonardo waved Evraul away with his hand, telling him to go somewhere else since he was distracting. This was a precious letter from Tina. He did not want to read it while being heckled.
Even though he was treated coldly, Evraul did not seem particularly bothered and returned to work. Neither Leonardo nor Evraul were idle.
The letter from Tina was on his mind, but he first read through the instructions from the capital that had been delivered together. The content was almost the same as the previous instructions. It said to leave everything about starting a war to those on site, and that they could go wild as they pleased. It also detailed the minimum defense line, whether to pursue deep across the border, demands on the enemy in case of victory, and the line that could not be crossed in case of defeat. They were giving instructions in advance, so they could do whatever they wanted and seize victory.
...Now then, what about the letter from Tina?
Opening the white envelope, Tina's beautiful handwriting was revealed. The content was quite ordinary. It began with seasonal greetings, included lines of concern for him, and described Tina's current situation, which he was most curious about. The thin box apparently contained the other half of the pendant that Christoph-sama had given Tina as a birthday gift. Opening the box, a gold pendant was inside, and opening the pendant revealed Tina's profile engraved in it.
...I want to see the real Tina soon.
He stared intently at the pendant with Tina's profile engraved in it, and immediately hung it around his neck. He did not usually wear accessories, but this was different. Especially now that he could not see the real Tina, he intended to keep it on his person always.
...But nothing particularly unusual seems to have happened?
Finishing the letter from Tina that detailed her ordinary recent life, he gently returned it to the envelope. Letters from Tina could not be fully trusted, in a sense. It seemed she was separating what she could write from what she could not, so as not to worry him.
...As I thought! Something did happen after all!
He read through the report named "Letter from Ms. Hartmann," and the moment he finished, he clutched his head. Countless incidents that were not mentioned at all in Tina's letter were written from Ms. Hartmann's perspective without holding anything back.
...Setting aside the lodger at the detached palace... Prince Chadwick had taken an interest in Tina after all.
It seemed to still be in the observation stage, but it was better to be on guard. That prince was capricious, cruel, did not think about consequences, and had a truly troublesome personality of "as long as I am having fun now, that is fine." Since he did not have a Royal Peerage, his treatment within the royal family was light, but still, royalty was royalty. For a mere knight, he was a troublesome opponent who was hard to handle roughly. Since he might be causing trouble because he wanted attention from his father, if he learned about Tina, whom Christoph was particularly careful to keep close, he would probably make some kind of move. If they could catch evidence of his crime, Alf would protect Tina and catch them all in one sweep, but that prince was very good at cutting off his tail. He had made suspicious moves many times before, but had not left a single piece of evidence.
...If Prince Chadwick has set his sights on her, I am grateful that Alf is by Tina's side as a substitute for Alfred-sama.
Alfred would protect Tina too, but there was a sense of trust that Alf was more reassuring. Prince Alfred had a line somewhere that he would cut off, but Alf would never abandon Tina, who was under Aurelia's guardianship. He would probably protect Tina even at the cost of his own life. Aurelia's existence was that significant to Alf.
...Getting snatched by spirits even when it is not the Divine King Festival. Is Tina not a bit too loved by spirits?
This also was not written in Tina's letter. As expected, gathering information from multiple sources was important, he thought.
Finally, he read the report named "Letter from Kalisa," which was actually a Tina observation diary. While Ms. Hartmann's letter was a report of incidents and accidents that Tina had caused or been involved in, Kalisa's letter described Tina's everyday gestures from a nurse maid's perspective that unconsciously warmed the heart. Honestly, it had become an indispensable kind of refreshment for life at Lugmilama Fortress, where he had to live apart from Tina.
...Yeah, my sister is cute.
The first half described how Tina had worried about him and paced around the room, how she had gone gooey-eyed with the same face as him when Prince Anselm called her 'Big Sister,' and other events related to Tina that made him want to return to the capital immediately. But as it went on, unsettling things started to flicker in the second half. Mainly, topics about Prince Dietfried.
...She is not going to say something like "I want to become Prince Dietfried's bride" when I return to the capital, is she!?
While he could not be at her side, a bad bug seemed to be getting close to his sister (Tina). He felt the need to return to the capital soon and correct Tina's perception that her big brother was cooler than any prince.
...Well, it seems Dietfried-sama cannot even talk to Tina, in a weird sort of situation.
"Let us observe a bit more," Kalisa's letter concluded. Since he was not chasing after Tina relentlessly like before, it seemed she judged that leaving things as they were was fine.
...Tina is at the age where she might be loved by someone.
Tina herself said she would stay with him until she was twenty, but he did not know how things would really turn out. Girls were precocious. If she got a lover, there was the possibility she would throw away her brother (me) and leave home early.
...Of course, I do not actually intend to say I will not approve unless it is a man stronger than me.
If there was a man stronger than him, it would inevitably be a Black Knight or a Silver-White Knight. That meant he would stand on the battlefield. He did not want Tina, who grew flustered and paced around the room just hearing that her brother was going to battle, to have a lover who stood on the battlefield. Of course, if it was someone Tina chose, he could not oppose it, but that was a different matter.
...How many more years will Tina stay as my sister?
Recalling the possibility that at the shortest, in three years Tina might leave him, his spine froze. Of the mere three years, about one year had been spent apart from Tina because of the neighboring Saenard Kingdom.
"Commander, stop swooning over your little sister's love letter! The enemy has started moving!"
Evraul opened the tent flap and called out to him. Since they had set up camp where the enemy's formation was clearly visible, their movements were an open book from here. They had been waiting in formation to intercept if the enemy crossed the border, so the enemy's movements were completely visible without even needing scouts.
"...We have orders to do as we please."
He put on his helmet while exiting the tent. When war began, the faces of the overly individualistic members of the fortress called the Demon's Territory Lugmilama changed. They all wore knightly faces, waiting for the order to sortie.
"Let us crush them so thoroughly that they will not think of starting a war again while I am still active."
As he gave the order to sortie, the knights began moving all at once.
Welcome to the Demon's Territory of Unique Individuals, Lugmilama Fortress. Next time might be Cory's perspective, the one who is always being told he looks suspiciously suspicious.
I will fix any typos and errors later.