I Became the Youngest Sister-in-law of the Ruined Reverse Harem’s Male Leads - Chapter 26

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

#.26

Actually, I thought that once we came to the Empire, I might have to ask permission every time I wanted to see my sisters, but it was all just my imagination.

Our home had simply changed to the Imperial Palace, but when morning came, we all gathered in the dining hall to eat together as usual.

Except for the fact that my youngest sister barely showed her face and the menu consisted of unfamiliar foods we couldn’t eat in Trowance, there wasn’t much difference.

“Little one. You need to eat your carrots too.”

“I don’t feel like eating carrots today. That’s just how I feel.”

When I shook my head back and forth, my oldest sister burst into laughter.

“You don’t feel like eating carrots?”

“Yeah. Today is one of those days.”

My oldest sister was learning everything from Imperial etiquette to various lessons, and taking over duties as the future empress, so it was hard to see her face after breakfast.

She even seemed busier than in Trowance, looking more tired than before.

Still, she always had breakfast with us, and just like in Trowance, she read me fairy tales every night before bed.

“Still, let’s eat just one. You need to eat a balanced diet to stay healthy.”

Since my body was weak and I even had to drink the magic potion Francois made, my heart softened at the word “healthy.”

As I glanced at the carrots and pondered, my oldest sister touched on my ultimate weakness.

“And if you eat carrots, you’ll grow much taller, right?”

I opened my eyes wide and looked at my second sister. My second sister nodded seriously.

All three of my sisters, including my youngest sister, were quite tall. On the other hand, I was particularly small even among my peers, so I was sensitive about height.

“Sigh. Then I guess I have no choice…”

My oldest sister stabbed a carrot with her fork and held it up to my pouting lips.

I squeezed my eyes shut and stopped breathing as I crunched and swallowed the carrot.

Then I quickly ate other food to wash out my mouth.

“Phew! I did it!”

Just as I was relieved to be freed from eating carrots, I saw Edgar through the glass window of the dining hall door.

Edgar was rolling his big eyes around, looking for someone.

When our eyes met, he seemed startled and flinched, then quickly hid his body.

At that sight, my eyes narrowed too.

What kind of prank is he planning to pull today by coming all the way here?

“Hmm.”

Edgar slowly got up and pressed himself against the window again to scout us out.

Then, noticing my gaze, he moved away from the door and quickly hid his body!

My oldest sister, who noticed Edgar, whispered softly.

“Edgar seems to want to get along with Lilliana.”

“Unless he becomes my subordinate, I won’t be friends with him.”

“It would be nice if you became friends.”

“No way. Edgar has committed many sins, so he has to be a subordinate, nothing else. I’ll go ahead. Today I need to clearly teach him which one of us is the leader.”

I slowly climbed down under the dining table.

Since I had finished eating, my sisters didn’t try to stop me.

I crawled on my knees through the long dining table to the door.

This way Edgar won’t be able to find me, right?

When I pressed against the door and glanced up at the window above my head, I could see Edgar turning his head back and forth in confusion, probably because I had suddenly disappeared.

I grinned and immediately stood up, pressing my face against the window with a thud!

“Boo!”

When I even made a sound, Edgar screamed “Ahhh!” from beyond the door and fell on his bottom.

I opened the door and ran out, laughing “Kihihihi.”

Then Edgar, his face bright red, glared at me and scrambled to his feet.

“Why did you come here? Are you hungry?”

“Hun, hungry? Today I came to… with you.”

“What? Edgar, speak up a bit. I didn’t hear anything.”

“I came to… pl, play with you.”

“You came to play with me?”

My eyes widened.

Edgar’s face turned incomparably redder than before.

“Yeah! You came from Trowance so you don’t have friends here. I’ll specially play with you.”

“No.”

When I firmly refused, Edgar froze stiff.

He seemed not to have thought he’d be rejected, opening and closing his mouth as he stared at me.

“If you become my subordinate, I’ll play with you.”

“Don’t say ridiculous things! Why should I be your subordinate!”

Edgar screamed loudly. I covered my ears with both hands and frowned.

I decided to just ignore Edgar. I should go to my room and play soldier with Cookie, Jelly, and my dolls.

When I headed into the corridor, Edgar followed behind me.

“I said I’ll play with you!”

“Then are you saying you’ll become my subordinate?”

“What does playing together have to do with being a subordinate?”

“A leader must cherish their subordinates, and subordinates must be loyal to their leader. So you have to become a subordinate for me to play with you.”

Edgar frowned deeply as if he couldn’t understand.

He was still young and his chubby cheeks made his adult-like pondering look really unsuitable.

“Edgar, do you not have any friends to play with?”

“Wh, why wouldn’t I have any!”

Edgar jumped up and down, waving both hands.

He doesn’t have any. He really doesn’t. Strong denial means strong affirmation, they say.

Just ten minutes ago, I had declared I wouldn’t play with Edgar unless he became my subordinate, but if he was in the pitiful situation of having no friends, that changed things.

“Sigh. It can’t be helped. I can’t play with you, but there is something you can do for me.”

“What is it?”

“I want to tour the Imperial Palace.”

At my request, Edgar, who had been staring at me, grinned. He puffed out his chest and nodded.

“That’s as easy as eating cold soup. Just follow me.”

I followed Edgar as he proudly took the lead and suggested.

“Let’s go to the garden first.”

“Garden?”

“Doesn’t the Imperial Palace have a garden?”

“What are you talking about? The Imperial Palace garden is so big and wonderful!”

Edgar suddenly got indignant at my question and grabbed my hand, running while saying he’d show me the most wonderful garden in the world.

‘Too fast!’

We were definitely both 6 years old, but Edgar was much faster than me.

So even though I ran until I was out of breath, I ended up being dragged along by Edgar.

“Wait, let’s go a little slower!”

Edgar could have left me behind with my slow speed, but he never let go of the hand he was holding.

“Huff, gasp!”

When I felt too out of breath to run anymore, I pulled my hand away from Edgar and sat down on the ground.

Unlike me, who was breathing frantically, Edgar seemed perfectly fine.

Rather, he looked down at me with a dissatisfied expression.

“You’re tired from running just this much?”

“It’s hot.”

I fanned myself with my hands, cooling the sweat on my face.

My curly hair was sticking to my neck and face, making me feel quite uncomfortable.

If I had known this would happen, I should have asked my second sister to tie up my hair.

If I grow just a little more, I’ll be able to tie my hair prettily by myself like Liliana, but I don’t have that skill yet. Hmph.

“No matter how I look at it, you’re the subordinate. You’re too weak to be the leader.”

“What? Don’t covet my position!”

I’m the leader, so what is he talking about?

Even though I was out of breath, I got fired up at Edgar’s outrageous comment and shot up from my seat.

“Let’s go quickly. This isn’t hard at all.”

I hid my ragged breathing and pretended to be fine while poking Edgar repeatedly.

Edgar, who had been looking at me with narrowed eyes, snorted and took the lead again.

This time he didn’t run like before but walked to the garden.

“This is the garden entrance.”

At the garden entrance, there was an arched fence.

Vine plants were climbing over the fence, and beyond it, I could glimpse an environment as lush as a forest.

“Wooooow!”

I covered my mouth in anticipation.

Unable to contain my pounding heart, I bounced up and down in place.

“The inside is even more amazing.”

“It really looks like that.”

“Like what?”

“Doesn’t it look like the entrance to a secret forest in front of the tower where an evil dragon imprisoned a princess?”

At my words, Edgar tilted his head as if asking what nonsense I was talking about.

“It’s just a garden entrance.”

“There must be a princess beyond the garden. We have to avoid the evil dragon guarding the tower and rescue the princess!”

Antonio would have started playing hero from the moment I said it looked like a secret forest entrance, but Edgar still looked like he didn’t understand.

I almost burst out laughing, but I quickly changed my thinking and imagined I was a hero driving around a stupid donkey named Edgar.

Thinking of him as a donkey made me even more excited.

“Come on, hurry!”

We have to crawl low on the ground in the garden so the evil dragon can’t see us!

Just as I was thinking that and grabbing Edgar’s hand to enter the garden—

“You cannot enter.”

“Huh?”

Having apparently heard our conversation, a servant appeared with pruning shears and blocked our way.

“What’s this?”

“Young Duke, I apologize for saying this, but you cannot visit the garden today.”

“Why not?”

The servant glanced at me briefly before answering.

“There’s pruning work in the garden today, so it’s dangerous. It would be better to come another day.”

Edgar turned his head to check on me, as if asking if I was okay with this.

I was a little disappointed, but if they’re doing pruning work, it can’t be helped. If we wandered around below and got hit by a broken branch, we could get hurt.

“It can’t be helped. Let’s do something else.”

So we left the garden entrance.

Perhaps feeling sorry that our plan to tour the garden was canceled, Edgar hesitated for a moment before asking.

“Should we play something else?”

“Then let’s play house over there.”

Where I pointed, there were the Imperial Palace flower beds. Edgar muttered with a reluctant expression.

“Playing house?”

“Don’t you want to?”

“Uh… that’s a bit…”

“Then I’ll play by myself.”

“No, no, let’s do it! I can do it.”

“Great! Let’s go do it quickly!”

I quickly ran to the flower beds, worried Edgar might change his mind. It was nice and cool in the building’s shade.

I picked up a stone and crushed flower petals with it.

Edgar sat awkwardly next to me and just watched what I was doing.

Really… he doesn’t seem to know how to play house, so I’ll have to teach him step by step.

I picked some grass leaves and handed them to Edgar.

“I’ll make a salad, so you grill the meat.”

“Grill meat? But this isn’t meat.”

Does the Empire only have kids like Edgar who don’t know how to play? Or is Edgar the unusual one?

Edgar looked like he didn’t know what the problem was.

He doesn’t even know how to play house, yet he wants to be the leader. I shook my head.

“Oh my. It can’t be helped. I’ll be the cook today. Edgar, you be the customer.”

Oh wait. Come to think of it, Edgar was supposed to become my subordinate for us to play together…

Edgar doesn’t seem to remember either, so I’ll just pretend I forgot too.

As I was gathering red and yellow flower petals on a large flat stone, Edgar, who was picking grass leaves beside me, quietly asked.

“Hey. Why… you?”

“Hm? What did you say?”

Edgar’s cheeks were flushed.

It’s cool in the shade, but maybe he’s still hot from all that running? More importantly, what did he just say?

“Why because of me…”

“Because of you?”

“Why did you attack the maids because of me?”

What kind of question is that?

Tap. Tap. Tap. When I crushed the flower petals with the stone, red juice came out.

If I put this on my nails, would my nails turn red?

Having such trivial thoughts, I replied to Edgar.

“Edgar is a precious person. You can’t say bad things to someone like that.”

“…”

I was busy putting the juicy flower petals on my nails and didn’t notice that Edgar hadn’t responded.

After a while, when I was starting to wonder, Edgar asked again.

“Am I a precious person?”

When I looked up, Edgar was staring at me with a face as red as a tomato.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————