Brother Adel, the Musclehead.
Sister Emilia and I, wearing lightweight armor, walked through the castle corridors.
Suddenly, from around the corner of the hallway, Brother Roland and Prime Minister Sylberg appeared.
I step forward and tilted my head in front of Prime Minister Sylberg.
“How did Brother Adel deploy troops even though Prime Minister Sylberg was present?”
“Unfortunately, Margrave Belmont was attending at the castle at the time, along with Knight Commander Banburg, who incited Prince Adel. Despite the efforts of Crown Prince Roland and me to stop him, he ignored us and forcefully mobilized the knights.”
Prime Minister Sylberg’s face showed signs of fatigue.
Both Margrave Belmont and Knight Commander Banburg belong to the Adel faction.
Margrave Belmont is a powerful noble who holds territory along the border with the Bardhain Empire.
He must have been irritated and displeased by the frequent appearances of the Bardhain Empire’s army along the border.
The Castle Knights are crucial to the military of the Kingdom of Critonia.
Therefore, it’s not something that can be done lightly.
Perhaps Knight Commander Banburg was unhappy about this.
According to Prime Minister Sylberg, two days have passed since Brother Adel unit departed.
If it was such an important matter, Brother Roland should have complained to me about it, shouldn’t he?
“I had no idea.”
“Huh? Didn’t I talk to you about it in your room?”
I often ignore various complaints from him, so maybe I just tuned him out.
I should have listened more carefully in that case.
“Anyway, Sister Emilia and I will go and try to persuade him.”
I took Sister Emilia’s hand, and we ran down the corridor, heading towards the royal family’s private stable on the first floor of the castle.
There, five soldiers were waiting with horses prepared.
Since the Castle Knights also serve as guards for the Capital city, not all of them were deployed.
These soldiers are the ones remaining behind from the Castle Knights.
One of the soldiers stepped forward, placing his hand over his chest in salute before us.
“I am Knight Kreiss of the Castle Knights. I will escort both of you.”
“We’re counting on you to take care of us.”
Since the Castle Knights are accompanied by infantry, they shouldn’t be too far ahead.
Sister Emilia and I got into the carriage and, escorted by Kreiss and the others, we depart from the Royal castle.
We passed through the gates of the Capital city and onto the main road.
After traveling for about five hours with occasional breaks, the sun started to set in the west.
We decide to stay overnight in the nearest town.
As I lied on the bed in the inn, resting my body, Sister Emilia entered the room.
She sat down on a chair, showing a tired expression.
“I’m sorry for dragging you into this.”
“It’s okay. I’m worried about Brother Adel, too.”
“Ian, you can act more like a child in front of me. You’re still only ten years old.”
Princess Emilia smiled gently and embraced me with both arms.
Yes… there’s a reason why I seem more mature than the average ten-year-old. It’s because I’m a reincarnator with memories from my past life in Japan.
When I was five years old, I stumbled on the stairs of the castle and tumbled down to the bottom.
Apparently, I hit my head hard, bleeding profusely and falling unconscious for three days.
During that time, in the haze of my consciousness, memories from Japan became my memories of my past life, flowing into me.
So, I have memories from my past life in Japan.
But, I don’t have any personal information about living there.
Since then, my responses have become subtly more mature.
Sister Emilia, who has stepped away from me, twisted her expression with a tinge of frustration.
“Margrave Belmont and Knight Commander Banburg, along with the martial-minded local nobles, seem to want to support Adel and make Critonia a strong enough country to rival the Bardhain Empire. But that’s not going to work out well.”
“I agree. We don’t need to compete with the Bardhain Empire. Critonia should develop in its own way.”
“We don’t want the members of our family to fight among ourselves. Adel is such an idiot.”
“Maybe he just hasn’t thought deeply about it because he’s Brother Adel.”
“In that case, Adel is definitely an idiot.”
Saying so, Sister Emilia covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.
I couldn’t help but laugh along.
After chatting for a while, Sister Emilia said she wanted to sleep together, so we ended up sharing the same bed.
It’s been a while since I slept in the same bed as my sister, so I felt embarrassed and couldn’t sleep well.
The next morning, we boarded the carriage and left the town.
We caught up with the Castle Knights on the third day after leaving the castle, in the early afternoon.
Brother Adel looked surprised to see me and Sister Emilia, while Margrave Belmont and Knight Commander Banburg wore bitter expressions.
“Ian and Emilia, what are you doing here?”
“We came to stop you, obviously! You idiot, Adel!”
“Ouch, Sister, don’t pull my ear like that! It hurts!”
Sister Emilia, who approached Brother Adel, forcefully pulled his ear.
Brother Adel quickly moved away from her, holding his ear with both hands, looking frightened.
“The Castle Knights represent the kingdom’s military. If we move them to confront the Bardhain Empire’s army, the Empire will take it seriously too. But then we won’t stand a chance against a military powerhouse like the Bardhain Empire. You are such an idiot.”
“Don’t call me an idiot! I have a plan! I’ll just defeat the entire Bardhain Empire’s army!”
I thought maybe Brother Adel hadn’t thought deeply about it, but he’s definitely still a musclehead.