Someday, I Want To Protect My Sister

“H-Hey, Shitoen.”

“Yes?”

Just as I started to say, “Tonight,” the door to the treatment room opened with a clatter.

“Lady Shitoen?”

“Eek!”

“Gah…!”

Shitoen got so startled by the sudden voice calling out to her that she jumped straight up… and then, bam.

Bam… right into my jaw… Shitoen’s head hit me square in the jaw…

What is this…? Divine punishment on me for entertaining indecent thoughts…?

The moment I reflexively grabbed my jaw, Shitoen darted away from me in a flurry.

“I-I-I-I’ll go fetch some water! It seems Prince Saryu brought dinner, so Roze-chan, please go ahead and eat first!”

The instant she said it, Shitoen ran off like a startled rabbit.

“…Good evening, Prince Saryu-sama.”

Roze greeted me in a voice that was clearly on a completely different level from when she had said “Lady Shitoen?” If anything, it came out flat, more like “Prince Saryu-saaama.”

When I shifted my gaze while rubbing my jaw, I found her looking at me with a careless posture, her back leaned against the open door.

It seemed she had changed clothes, but she was still wearing Tania attire. Her hair was divided into two sections and tied behind her ears. I had heard she was eighteen, but her baby face made her look much more childlike.

“I had no idea at all that you were a prince, so… sorry about all that.”

She apologized with the unmistakable air of someone saying it only because she had to.

“I’m not very princely myself, so it’s fine.”

“True.”

She laughed, and I ended up laughing along with her.

“Here. A little something. You’ll eat, right?”

When I held out the basket, she came closer.

She flipped back the cloth covering the top with a quick motion, checked inside, and said, “There’s fruit,” smiling openly as she clung to my arm. The older sister was plenty alluring, but this one felt more like a kitten. Fickle, but friendly at odd moments.

“More importantly, eat the bread and salad. There are sausages too. Don’t be picky, or you know. You’ll end up anemic, and that’s serious. Apparently a man I know well used to suffer from that.”

“Huh.”

With Roze still clinging to my arm, I stepped into the room.

Inside, it was wider than I had expected.

It was simple, but there were two beds.

Mone was sleeping in the one farther in, and no one was in the nearer bed. Still, the sheets were a complete mess, probably from Roze rolling around on it until just a moment ago, and clothes that seemed to have been tossed off lay at its foot.

There were also three equally plain chairs.

Shitoen’s leather bag had been placed neatly on one of them, and beside it was a round table, already prepared with a brass basin of water and towels.

I looked around the room for something else that might serve as a table.

There it was.

Some sort of writing desk stood by the window.

I’d bring that over and have Roze eat there.

“Hey, hold this.”

I shoved the basket at Roze, who was hanging off my arm, and pushed her away. She was a nuisance, and for a kid she had a surprisingly decent chest. It would be a pain if she started complaining that I had “touched” her or whatever.

Thinking I ought to keep as much distance from Roze as possible, I walked over to the writing desk and lifted it. It probably was not made from especially fine wood. It was unexpectedly light.

I set it down in an open spot and looked at Roze.

“There. Bring a chair over and eat here.”

When I beckoned her over, she gave me a strangely damp-looking stare.

“What?”

“…I was just thinking how nice that must be.”

She said it bluntly, then came trotting over and placed the basket on the writing desk.

“You know, when we were first shown to this room, that desk was in a really inconvenient spot… So Lady Shitoen and I tried to move it ourselves, but it was too heavy.”

“What the heck? Then you should’ve just called someone. One of my men, or me.”

“That’s not it…”

Roze trailed off, then stared at me.

Or rather… at my arms?

“I kind of wish I’d been born a man.”

What was that supposed to mean?

“Then I’d have a big body like that, with thick arms like that. I’m sure I could protect Sister too.”

She muttered that while winding the tied end of her hair around her index finger and then letting it slip free.

Sister. She meant Mone.

I looked over at the woman sleeping in the bed.

Maybe because of the fever, her face was red. It was a little frightening how completely motionless she was, but her chest rose and fell at regular intervals, and I could hear something like the sound of breathing through her slightly parted, dry lips.

“Did the two of you go out for work together?”

I pulled over a chair and motioned for Roze to sit. I brought one for myself too and sat down as well.

“We’re always together when we work. Sister always wants to do it alone, but… you’d worry, wouldn’t you?”

She said it while looking up at me, and I nodded. Yeah, I supposed so.

Things like this could happen too, getting attacked by bandits. You could hardly call it safe.

“She’s always been protecting me ever since we were little… So I want to protect Sister someday, but…”

Sure enough, her eyes flicked to my arms again.

“Those arms are nice.”

“The way you say that is kind of scary. Makes it sound like you want to tear them off.”

When I said that, Roze laughed innocently.

“What about your parents?”

They had been able to prepare a covered wagon like that. I had assumed they ran quite a large business, but maybe I was wrong. As I leaned my upper body against the backrest of the chair and asked, Roze took out an apple from the basket.

“I heard Mother died when I was little. Father seems to be doing fine. I only see him once in a while.”

“That’s lonely.”

“No. I have Sister. Besides, I hate Father.”

Holding the apple in both hands, Roze smiled as though she were enjoying its glossy sheen.

“Sister seems grateful to Father, but… I just need Sister. So I want to help her more, but…”

Her eyes darkened just a little, and I let out a low groan.

“I’ve got two older brothers myself… and with siblings, you support each other. Sure, I know the burden on the eldest is the biggest, so both I and my second brother try to help him somehow, and because he knows that, our eldest doesn’t overdo it either. So if Mone knows you feel like you want to do something for her, then I’m sure she’ll tell you herself, ‘Do this for me.’ You don’t have to strain yourself over it.”

When I told her that, Roze looked slightly surprised.

“What?”

“I thought you were the type who didn’t really think about stuff like that.”

“Who are you calling muscle for brains?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Still holding the apple, Roze kicked her legs and laughed. Good. It looked like her spirits had turned in a brighter direction.

“Hey, hey, more importantly, Lady Shitoen is that Lady Shitoen, right?”

She suddenly said that.

“Which Lady Shitoen?”

I asked back, somewhat guarded.

After all, when we were in the Kingdom of Luminous, all kinds of strange lies about Shitoen had spread because of that idiot crown prince and Mail.

“The one who married into the Kingdom of Luminous, suffered terribly there, had her engagement broken off, and then remarried into the Kingdom of Tidros, where she cured all sorts of illnesses in no time at all…”

“That Shitoen.”

I cut in before she had even finished the sentence.

“So it really is her!”

With a little squeal, Roze clutched the apple and flushed bright red.

“Sister and I were saying, ‘What an amazing princess she is!’ Wow! It’s such a miracle that we actually got to meet her!”

After kicking her feet again just as energetically, she suddenly leaned way toward me.

“So then, do princes really like ladies like Lady Shitoen?”

“…Well…”

I hesitated, but in my heart I was declaring, She’s exactly my type!

“Hey, hey. Then what about someone like me?”

“Huh?”

I jerked back in surprise, but Roze’s eyes sparkled even more as she leaned in farther.

When she bent like that, it looked like I might be able to see the cleavage through the wide-open collar of her neckline.

“I’m young, and cute, and look, my chest is decent too…”

“Young, my ass. You’re just a kid. By that logic, newborn babies are the youngest things in the world. More importantly, put your boobs away. Your boobs.”

“Boobs?! You’re the worst!”

“You’re the one showing them off, so what are you complaining about?”

“Right after we got attacked by bandits, you tried to look at my back!”

“That was because I was trying to make it easier for Shitoen to examine you!”

“Liar! You had the face of a pervy bear!”

“Have you ever even seen a pervy bear?!”

“My, I could hear the commotion all the way out in the hallway… There are injured people here, you know?”

After knocking three times—tap, tap, tap—Shitoen came in wearing a face that seemed to say, “Honestly.”

“It wasn’t my fault, Lady Shitoen.”

“It wasn’t my fault, Shitoen.”

Because we both blurted it out at the same time, Shitoen, holding a water pitcher in her arms, widened her eyes and then let out a small laugh.