I Became the Youngest Sister-in-law of the Ruined Reverse Harem’s Male Leads - Chapter 19
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
#.19
Even after leaving the Coast Guard, Edith was extremely busy.
The media ran special feature articles about Edith marrying the Emperor day after day.
As a result, interview requests came in several times a day.
On top of that, the advisors and attendants Marius brought also visited Edith daily to discuss various matters before returning.
There seemed to be many things to discuss – Imperial protocols and etiquette, the Empire’s culture, wedding preparations, and so on.
And the same was true for Liliana.
“Huhuung. When will Andrea reply? I can’t wait any longer.”
In one week, the ship heading to the Empire would depart.
Taking that ship, Edith, myself, and even Regina would leave Trobancha.
That would leave Liliana alone in Trobancha.
What if I miss Liliana? She’ll be very lonely without me too.
“Hiing.”
And what if I miss my friends?
Antonio and I have been friends since we were babies – is our friendship going to end like this?
“Little one. Let’s do your hair.”
Liliana grabbed my arms as I was lying down and pulled me up.
Liliana, who had dressed up more carefully than usual, was my sister but surprisingly beautiful.
“Since it’s the formal meeting today, you need to sit without wrinkling your clothes.”
“Liliana. Is Edith really getting married?”
“Does little one not want your sister to get married?”
“After getting married, we’ll all still live together, right?”
“Hmm.”
Liliana smiled as if troubled, then turned me around to sit and fixed my hair.
The touch of Liliana’s fingers on my hair felt good. Gentle, warm, and ticklish.
I want to keep feeling this touch… but when we go to the Empire, we won’t be able to live like we do now. I don’t like that.
“Lilliana likes how things are now…”
“Little one wants to keep living like now. You must be very sad.”
“Yeah. I want to live peacefully with my sisters and Cookie and Jelly. That’s why I’m depressed every day.”
“When did you learn the word ‘peacefully’?”
“I can read well now. Yesterday I read ‘Tosuni Who Became a Cow’ by myself before sleeping.”
“Wow. You read books well too, our little one has grown up.”
At my answer, Liliana smiled softly and showed me a mirror.
In the mirror, I had my curly hair tied in two pigtails and was wearing a pretty dress that was popular in Trobancha.
“Do you like it?”
“Yeah. I like it.”
“When we go today, be polite to the gentlemen. Understood?”
“Ehyohyohyo. Do you think I’m a little kid? I’m all grown up.”
I shrugged my shoulders and boasted about being grown up, but I wasn’t confident I wouldn’t glare at Marius and Leopold when I actually met them.
How dare they try to separate me from my angelic sisters!
While waiting for Edith and Liliana, I ran to the yard to check the mailbox.
I checked hoping a reply from Andrea might have come, and indeed a letter had arrived.
I quickly took out the letter and ran to the living room to check its contents. And…
“Hiccup. Huuung. Waaaaah.”
Tears burst out.
I heard about the marriage. It’s sudden, but it’s your lives so it’s not my place to interfere.
Life here is busy so it seems difficult to drop by home to see you off. Take care there and I’ll visit the Empire sometime, so let’s meet then.
It was an utterly heartless reply. And he didn’t leave a single word for me.
I had hoped he would say he’d take me to live with him… but far from empty promises, he was cold even to my sisters.
I really have been abandoned by my brother. And there’s no one who can stop my sisters.
At that thought, such sadness overwhelmed me that I couldn’t bear it.
In the end, I could only cry until the moment we arrived at the formal meeting venue.
* * *
“Did the little one cry?”
“I didn’t cry, okay? Am I a baby?”
“Little one is a baby.”
“No. I’m all grown up. I’m past the age of crying.”
When I answered while sniffling, Marius giggled and laughed.
Leopold, sitting next to him, couldn’t take his eyes off Liliana the entire time.
Regina is pretty though. Hihi.
“Are the immigration preparations going well?”
“My friends agreed to take care of the house. We can’t sell it since our brother might come back.”
“What about luggage?”
“We’re planning to pack just clothes and a few important things.”
“Even packing simply, with Edith’s and her sisters’ things, there will be quite a lot of luggage. I’ll assign someone separately, so don’t worry and pack generously.”
I was eating the peeled shrimp Leopold offered when I asked.
“Isn’t Liliana coming with us?”
“If Emilia wants to come along, we’ll go together.”
“If we go, can we stay together for a long time?”
“If Emilia wants to.”
Liliana opposed her sisters’ sudden marriage and didn’t come to the formal meeting.
She hasn’t come home for quite a while, so we don’t even know how she’s doing. So the possibility of Liliana coming with us is very low.
“I don’t want to go either…”
“Little one. You feel like your sister is being taken away by this old man, right?”
“No! Lilliana doesn’t want to go because she likes home! I don’t want to be separated from my friends either. You don’t understand my feelings at all! Hmph!”
I turned my head away sharply and gulped down my grape juice.
“You can make new friends even in the Empire. And there’s a boy your age at my house too.”
“He’s not Francesca or Antonio. Hing. I want to meet Antonio and go to the playground.”
“You cried because you missed Antonio? Then shall we go meet Antonio later?”
Edith burst into a giggle and poked my cheeks to cheer me up.
I stuck out my lips. It felt lonely that I was the only one hurt by Andrea’s reply.
“I don’t want to be separated from Antonio. We’re mega best friends. I’ll want to see Francesca, Vicky, and Martina every single day too, so can’t you just not get married?”
At my question, Edith’s face hardened frighteningly.
I could feel even Liliana gulping and watching Edith’s mood.
Feeling slightly scared, I fidgeted with my fork.
If I were a grown adult like Liliana, I would protest with my whole body, but being a child, I can’t even do that.
Moreover, I’m afraid that if I act rudely toward Edith, even she might say she dislikes me.
As I hung my head low, feeling deflated, Marius sitting across from me gently comforted me.
“It must be very sad to part with your friends. But when you go to the Empire, there will be many fun things. When festivals begin, you can see fireworks, watch knights’ sword tournaments, and go on field trips.”
“…Hmm.”
“Living in the Empire will be very, very enjoyable too – couldn’t Lilliana wait just a little until then?”
When I looked up, my eyes met Marius’s.
Unlike usual, his expression was serious but not heavy.
Rather, perhaps out of concern for me, he was smiling gently and warmly.
He teases me every time we meet, but I know he’s actually a very good person.
Even so, it was a difficult matter to decide immediately. When I didn’t answer readily, Marius spoke again.
“Does Lilliana not like uncle? Is it because I tease you every day?”
“That’s not it, but I do like Uncle Leo better than uncle.”
“That’s hurtful. Uncle bought you lots of sweet cake last time, didn’t I?”
“That’s true, but hmm…”
“If you come to the Empire, uncle will let you eat delicious things every day. You’ll wear lots of pretty clothes and have toys piled up like mountains, you know?”
“Hmm.”
I rolled my eyes around and pondered seriously.
I couldn’t sell out my sisters for such petty bribes.
As I contemplated for a while, the gazes of Edith and Liliana, who had seated me in the center, focused on me.
Leopold was also seriously waiting for my answer.
When I hesitated with my answer, moving my lips slightly, Marius added more conditions.
“On your birthday, I’ll let you watch fireworks too. And you’ll get to experience fantasy magic. And Uncle Leo says he’ll give you piggyback rides every day and play hide-and-seek with you.”
Leopold seemed a bit flustered by Marius’s promises, but Marius didn’t care.
“You don’t know how fun piggyback rides are, do you? Uncle Leo is tall, so it’ll be really fun, right?”
P-piggyback rides? Even when I had my brother, I barely got to ride piggyback…
My heart was pounding. I answered as if enchanted by something.
“O-okay! Then it’s just for a little while, right? Just a hundred nights. Got it?”
“Instead of a hundred nights, how about two hundred nights?”
“T-two hundred nights is a bit much… Fine. Two hundred nights! Just two hundred nights and then I’ll come home, right?”
“Yes, yes. Then the little one has promised to live at uncle’s house. You understand, right?”
“Yes! I understand!”
And so my trip to the Empire was confirmed.
* * *
Emilia looked around her research lab.
It was a place where she had practically lived for the past four years since entering as the youngest researcher at seventeen.
“Emilia, having you follow them to the Empire too is a great loss for Trobancha.”
Her colleague researcher couldn’t hide their disappointment upon seeing the box of belongings Emilia was carrying.
“You could have taken extended leave. How long are you planning to stay there that you even submitted a resignation letter?”
“No matter how I think about it, I’m worried about sending just my sisters and little sister to the Empire.”
Edith was probably trying to marry the Emperor because of Lilliana’s health, and Regina was probably following them to the Empire to support such Edith.
‘Fool, do you think I don’t know what you’re thinking?’
Though Edith was good at handling things on her own, there was the wild card that was Lilliana.
Regina seemed to believe she was sharp, but in Emilia’s view, her cleverness was nothing special.
In the Empire where the class system was thorough, she wasn’t even a noble and had no particular abilities or education, yet her decision to blindly follow Edith was too reckless.
‘Especially since the man she’s meeting is the Empire’s Knight Commander.’
It also bothered her that this Leopold guy was the Knight Commander.
She worried that being a person of high status, he might change and look down on Regina.
One day his feelings might cool and he could make Regina cry with cruel words like other men.
Going all the way to the Empire where the differences in status and culture were enormous, all because of a man she’d known for less than a month?
Emilia was already sighing deeply from worry about her twin.
“Still, it’s fortunate that you’re transferring to a good job, isn’t it?”
“That is fortunate. If there are any good techniques there, memorize them all and bring them back.”
“Of course. Naturally. I’m going to squeeze the Empire dry. Don’t worry.”
And so Emilia had her last day at work, receiving encouragement and farewells from her colleagues.
Tomorrow, her sisters and little sister would board a ship and leave Trobancha. Emilia planned to cross over to the Empire with them to help them in her own way.
“Francois Cassel… I don’t know what you’re trying to get from me, but I’ll have to use you first.”
Since they were both equally black-hearted, now that it had come to this, she would thoroughly use him to take care of her sisters and Lilliana.
Emilia smiled wickedly, looking forward to her upcoming life in the Empire.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————