CH 37

Brother-in-law (4)

“Are you going to make me ask twice?”

Dandelion snapped out of it.

“Yes, yes! Lily Isles… no, de Winter, my older sister. Yes. But who are you…?”

“Someone you shouldn’t dare ask.”

Dandelion’s face paled.  He was near the Order of Knights, so it was obvious that he had a fairly high position among them.

Just then, Dandelion discovered another knight who appeared to be a subordinate standing behind the man.

The brown-haired man was also staring at him fiercely.

Dandelion couldn’t even think of bowing down and hiccuped. “Hey. Sir…? Knight? Are you going to punish me for nothing? I just talked about my sister, so it’s a family problem… And I’m the duchess’s younger brother. My older sister’s husband is the highest one here. Don’t you know?”

Vlad looked down at him with a dull look on his face. “How old are you?”

“Me? I’m 18 this year…”

The duke frowned slightly. As he recalled, when he was 18, he was in the midst of severing the head of an enemy at the frontline. “I’m not old enough to just move on from an idiot’s words.”

As soon as Vlad had finished speaking, the chief knight removed the medal from his uniform and shoved it into Dandelion’s mouth.

It was a common tactic to scare the trainees who spoke recklessly.

“…!”

Dandelion trembled at the touch of the cold medal on his tongue.

If someone punched it, his teeth and jaw would be shattered.

An extreme fear struck Dandelion.

Vlad looked at him with unwavering eyes..

He remembered Lily, who worried about her younger brother even while suffering from a high fever.

[Don’t say anything. I’m worried… that you and the others will catch my fever.]

Vlad’s eyes, which became even colder, turned to Dandelion.

“Your sister doesn’t seem to know how to handle her younger brother. She must have… taken care of you with love and compassion.” He tilted his head and looked down at Dandelion. “But this is your punishment.”

The younger man trembled and began to shed tears.

“Mhm… hm, mhmm…”

The chief knight raised his hand as if waiting.

Dandelion sobbed and closed his eyes tightly.

However, even after waiting for a long time, what he was prepared for did not happen.

When he slowly opened his eyes, the chief knight grabbed his chin and pulled out the medal, wiping the saliva on his clothes.

Vlad grimaced as he looked at Dandelion, who was looking at him in dismay. “If I hear something that shouldn’t be said just one more time, you will be disciplined in a way you can’t even imagine. So…”

Under Dandelion’s curtain-like eyelashes, the moist green eyes glowed bewilderingly.

“…Thank yourself for the features that resemble your older sister.”

When the chief knight let go of the hand holding his chin, Dandelion slowly sat down and began to weep.

Vlad clicked his tongue slightly.

He was going to scold him properly, but when he began to cry, he looked like Lily, so he didn’t.

At this rate, if Lily was painted on the enemy’s armor, he would be easily defeated.

Dandelion barely spoke, holding back his tears. “Hic. Thank you, thank you! I will! I-I will never do that again. I’ll take good care of my sister and my brothers, hic!”

Vlad ignored him. “Are you the one who asked Lily to prove it?”

Dandelion, who was trying to calm his breath, blinked absently. “Prove…? What?”

Vlad let out a shaky sigh as his expression was so similar to Lily’s that he lost his will to argue.

No matter how much she loved her younger brothers, there was no way she would have been swayed by such an idiot.

If so, it was clear that the person who instigated it was the other one.

“How about your brothers? Do you have similar personalities?”

“Brothers… huh? I have one older brother, Brother Crocus. And one younger brother. Antonio… Brother Crocus is different from me. ”

“…Crocus?”

Vlad’s eyebrows rose sharply.

It was different from the name he had heard. The name Lily had been calling out while suffering from a fever was…

“Is Tristan your brother?”

“Ah, you mean Brother Tristan? He’s a good friend of our family.” Dandelion shut his mouth, aghast. Then he racked his brain for words. “We’ve known each other for about 10 years, so he can be called sister’s good friend…”

A dark look crossed Vlad’s face.

This time, Dandelion covered his mouth with both hands in fear of losing his jaw.

However, it seemed that the duke’s ill feelings were not directed towards Dandelion.

Vlad slowly turned his head towards the castle. “Tristan was… a friend.”