Chapter 45: It’s just a simple training.

“Let’s do one more.”

“Hieeeek…”

The courtyard of the detached palace, a small lawn.

Yukomis was squatting down in front of Signa, who was trembling while in a push-up position.

“Just one more.”

“Heueueueuk…”

Signa’s arms were forcibly lowered and raised.

“Good. Good. Your posture is good after all. Where did you learn it? Did Karat teach you?”

“Eueueueuk…”

“Let’s do five more.”

“You said just one more!”

“Looking at you, it doesn’t seem like it’s too much.”

“What genius can’t even count numbers properly…”

“Ten more.”

Yukomis was still smiling.

“Come on. Keep going.”

Signa bit her lip as if she was resentful,

But Yukomis looked down at her with her chin resting on her hands as if she was enjoying it.

“Oneeee… Twoooooo…”

“That’s right.”

“Threeeeeeet…!”

Signa’s shoulders and elbows fluttered like fish that had just been pulled out of the water.

“Ah, that last one doesn’t count.”

“What???”

“Your posture was completely wrong.”

“Lies!! You fraud!!!”

“Signa. Is that the way to talk to your sister?”

Yukomis lightly tapped Signa’s head.

“You have to speak respectfully and demurely when you talk to your sister. I told you, right?”

“Eueu… Eueueuk… It’s cowardly…”

“What’s cowardly?”

Signa was dumbfounded.

If it was anyone else, it was definitely not something she should have said.

“The answer?”

“Yes…”

“Okay. While going down, one is sister.”

“…Si…”

“While coming up…”

Yukomis paused there for a moment.

“While coming up, two is…”

“…?”

“I love you.”

“Lo…”

Signa’s breath caught in her throat.

“…What??”

Signa forgot about the pain for a moment and looked up at Yukomis again.

But Yukomis was already averting her gaze.

“Di, didn’t you hear me? While coming up, Sa…?”

Hesitating.

“I love…”

There, Yukomis bit her lower lip tightly.

“…Anyway, do it.”

“How can you just throw it out there when you’re embarrassed too!”

“Qu, quiet! Just do it!”

“If I suddenly hear those words, all my strength will be drained!”

“You’re still just complaining, cha, chattering!”

She didn’t back down.

“What’s wrong with sisters loving each other?”

“Ye, yes?”

“That’s what family is originally, right? It’s natural for a younger sister to admire her older sister. Those kinds of things have to묻어나, right?”

It was definitely not something Yukomis should have said.

The words she had said the most to Thermis in her lifetime were ‘It’s unpleasant’, ‘It’s foolish’, and ‘Stay away from me’.

“Or what? I’m, I’m also a sensible person. I know very well that you’re in a very complicated situation. I also know that these kinds of issues need time. Well, were you thinking something else? In a meaning other than ‘family love’, do you think that I’m the kind of person who would blatantly say those words to you in a place like this, that I would enjoy such cheap stimulation…”

Her words became terribly convoluted, unlike her.

When Yukomis glanced back at Signa’s face again, it was an expression that clearly thought so.

“Don’t look at me like that! Just keep going!”

Yukomis’s face turned bright red.

“Anyway, I won’t let you finish until you do it all!”

Yukomis was a stubborn person anyway at times like this.

Signa, who had returned to her proper posture again, closed her eyes tightly.

She knew that it was best to do as she said in order to end this pain quickly.

“Si… Sister…”

Signa already felt like she was about to die at this part.

“Lo… Lovve… Heu…”

“Louder.”

“Love… He…”

“…Louder.”

Yukomis whispered in her ear.

“Lo… I love you!!”

Saying those words out loud was much harder than she had thought.

As if those words were some kind of tremendous magic spell, Signa, who had lost her strength for a moment, flopped down on the lawn.

“Heoeokheoeok…”

While Signa was burying her face in the soft grass, Yukomis didn’t know what to do.

Yukomis, who had finally won the words ‘I love you’ that came out ‘in her sister’s voice’,

Was trembling intermittently at her shoulders and lower jaw because of the joy that the resonance brought.

“…Good. One.”

A voice that was trying hard to pretend to be calm.

It was only one now.

Aisha and Parren were standing in the corner of the courtyard, far away from such Yukomis.

They had come with towels and cold drinks prepared according to the two’s afternoon training time.

Aisha, who couldn’t bear to see Signa struggling at Yukomis’s feet, closed her eyes tightly and turned her head away.

“Head Maid-nim, I… I can’t watch anymore…”

Parren gently hugged her.

“It’s something that the eldest lady chose herself, isn’t it.”

It was wrong.

To Signa, it was clearly a choice by others.

“But…”

“The eldest lady is used to adversity. She will overcome this soon.”

As soon as Parren finished speaking, Signa’s voice echoed once more in the courtyard.

“I loooove youuu!!! Sisteer…”

“Two.”

She didn’t seem like it at all.

Several days had already passed since Signa’s confession.

Parren and Aisha didn’t understand why Signa had revealed her identity to them but wanted to hide it from Yukomis only.

And for some reason, Signa hadn’t been able to specifically explain the reason to them either.

‘The moment I reveal it, the misunderstanding will deepen to the point where she’ll kill me’

‘I admit it’s my mistake, but it’s already irreversible’

‘It’s already not something that will end with just what the two of you are thinking’

And,

‘When you think about it, being a minor is a tremendous advantage anyway’

‘Yukomis is smart, so she’s a sensible child’

‘This fact will buy me time until ‘right before crossing the line’ for at least a few years’

She had just listed a bunch of nonsense that didn’t make sense.

・…The line?

‘So please treat me like I’m Signa.’

‘But you can’t hide it forever.’

Parren made a logical rebuttal.

‘Even if it’s not now… What are you going to do to clean up the aftermath if it’s revealed by mistake someday?’

‘…I don’t know.’

‘Lady?’

It was an irresponsible answer that wasn’t like Signa, no, Thermis at all.

‘I have to think about that from now on.’

‘Yes?’

‘The first thing is to make Yukomis understand that her current emotions are guilt… or something like that, guilt, and a misunderstanding of strayed emotions unique to adolescence.’

‘I don’t really understand what you’re saying…’

‘It must be something like that, right? No, I have to make her believe that.’

But for some reason, Signa in that place seemed so desperate…

And because she seemed like she was being chased by something, the two of them had no choice but to forcibly agree with Signa’s words.

And the very next day after retreating from there, they heard this declaration from Yukomis.

‘She has decided to become my younger sister from now on.’

The two of them had hardened their resolve, not knowing what words they would hear,

But the words that actually came out of Yukomis’s mouth were far beyond the boundaries of imagination.

And the ‘action’ of Yukomis that followed was much more direct and powerful than the shock brought by mere words.

‘You’ll have to stay in the detached palace for a while.’

It was an indirect declaration of house arrest.

But that was nothing special.

‘For some reason, there are too many people targeting her. Kidnapping is almost a way of life.’

‘So for now, I’ll teach her at least simple self-defense.’

‘She also needs to build up her stamina.’

‘I’ve also learned from my sister, so I can just do it that way.’

Parren made a logical rebuttal there again.

‘Wouldn’t Karat be more suitable for that job?’

‘There’s no need for the lady to do even this kind of thing directly…’

‘Th, that’s a bit complicated!’

Yukomis rambled just like Signa.

‘There’s that magic too! If you overexert yourself too much, it’ll activate on its own! And there can be side effects again? So I’ll watch her directly by her side… and moderate her at the right level…’

‘Calm down, lady.’

As far as Parren knew, Yukomis wasn’t the kind of person who spoke like this.

The Yukomis that Parren knew should have said something like, ‘I’m worried about the side effects of magic, so I’ll teach her directly’.

The screams of Signa came back to Parren’s ears, who was lost in thought.

“It’s the last one.”

“Sisteeeer…!””
“Just a little more.”

“I… Love… Heueut… Heueuk… Haaheut…”

“That’s right.”

“Do… it… oot…”

“Ten.”

Parren now knew the reason.

She had obtained the conviction that there was clearly some selfish intention included in the little lady’s procession.

Parren didn’t even know what kind of selfish intention that selfish intention was, but anyway.

“Good job.”

Even from a distance, Yukomis was smiling with a benevolent smile like the Virgin Mary because of the amount of happiness that was close to the lethal dose.

What on earth had happened in the north that they had become such affectionate people?

She said that she was hiding it from Yukomis.

What was the trigger that made her decide to take in the ‘younger sister-like’ ‘younger sister appearance’?

Karat couldn’t give a satisfactory explanation for that either.

‘Yes… That is… It’s really complicated. How should I explain it…’

He wasn’t avoiding the topic at all, but he also couldn’t explain it in a way that Parren could understand.

Karat wasn’t the kind of person who glossed over reports like this originally.

‘Explain it slowly from the beginning. Karat.’

‘Yes. First of all… there was a religion in the north that worshiped Thermis-nim’s virginity…’

‘Yes?’

Parren’s head completely refused to understand from the first sentence he spat out.

What on earth was going on?

It was as if all three of them, Thermis, Yukomis, and Karat, had been replaced by other people in Isht.

“Aisha, please!”

Yukomis called out Aisha’s name, who was still leaning on Parren’s shoulder.

Yukomis sat down Signa, who had collapsed from exhaustion, on her lap.

Signa’s long hair, which was covered in sweat, left wet marks on her clothes, but Yukomis didn’t care.

“Head Maid-nim… I…”

“Go and come back. We have to get used to ‘that appearance’ in the end too, don’t we.”

Parren didn’t specifically say ‘shabby and clumsy’.

“Yes.”

Taking a step that didn’t fall off, Aisha handed the towel and two water bottles to Yukomis.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

There, Aisha couldn’t help but glance at Signa, who was stretched out with her eyes squinted.

Signa’s face, looking up at Aisha, was incredibly flushed.

Whether it was simply because of her heavy breathing, or because of tremendous shame.

Aisha didn’t know how to accept the fact that the position of her only lord, that always reliable and benevolent lord, was reversed like this and that she was being messed with messily…

Signa, who noticed Aisha’s gaze, just nodded towards her.

A strong will to endure this humiliation could be felt even beyond those narrowly opened eyes.

‘Lord…’

Aisha’s chest felt like it was going to burst because she couldn’t call her lord by the name of lord.

‘Why on earth are you doing this…?’

Signa didn’t give an answer to that question.

As Parren said, her lord was a person who didn’t succumb to these adversities after all.

“Let’s stop here today.”

Yukomis, who was touching Signa’s forehead, said softly.

“Yes.”

Yukomis, in her own way, also thought that Signa was used to pain after all.

An ordinary child would have collapsed a long time ago if they did such intense exercise.

“You understand your younger sister’s mindset now, right?”

“Does listening to whatever you say count as a younger sister’s disposition?”

“Yeah.”

Signa was speechless at that brazen answer that didn’t hesitate even a little.

“Anyway, it doesn’t seem like the training efficiency is good. As expected, the ‘forced healing’ magic is trying to return your body to its original state.”

“Yes…”

“It’s trying to return the muscles to the appearance before they undergo super recovery and growth. So I have to forcibly delay the activation.”

Signa just nodded weakly while drinking water from Yukomis’s lap.

“I really don’t understand how magic is being ‘created’ inside your body. It’s my magic, but it’s very distorted. It doesn’t seem to be just because of Manya…”

Signa took her mouth off the water bottle.

“…Paa. Then, does that mean that the training I did today was meaningless?”

“No, it seems like I have to adjust it every time by subtracting magic and delaying the activation like this in order to see the effects of the training. It’s bothersome.”

It was like her body had become a complicated engine just listening to the words.

Signa could only think that.

“Remember the feeling well today. In my opinion, this is the limit where magic doesn’t malfunction.”

“…Yes.”

“You must never overdo it beyond this, get seriously injured, or do something like that. Never. You must never have such an easygoing thought like ‘Even if I get hurt, magic will take care of it on its own’. You understand?”

“I understand.”

“Signa. Look at me.”

Yukomis grabbed Signa’s cheeks, who was answering perfunctorily.

And fixed them so that she would look up at her two eyes.

“Signa. I’m going to say it clearly this time, so keep it in mind.”

It was an exceedingly serious gaze.

“Even if this magic heals visible wounds, if that’s repeated endlessly, the overload engraved on your body will remain forever.”

“…Yes.”

“And that… Even if it’s not noticeable right away, it slowly eats away at people.”

When she saw her complex expression, which looked angry, sad, and frustrated at the same time, Signa could feel her sincerity.

“So please be careful. Cherish your body. I don’t want to see you in pain. If possible.”

“I hate it when you say, ‘It’s all healed, so it’s okay’ or ‘It’s not that bad’. Pain is a really important issue.

Yukomis was saying a fact that was too familiar to the two people in this place.

“So just you… Don’t act like my sister…”

A dualistic heart that wanted her to be like her sister, but at the same time, didn’t want her to be like her sister.

But that was a word that the two people in this place, no, even Aisha who was standing next to her, could completely sympathize with.

“Don’t worry.”

Signa also reached out one hand and brushed away the long hair that Yukomis had dropped.

“There won’t be such a thing anymore now.”

And she smiled.

When she saw Yukomis’s remorseful appearance like that,

She realized that she really cherished and worried about her.

‘Yeah. She was a kid with a softer heart than she shows on the outside.’

She was still uneasy, but at the same time, that fact was really joyful, so…

Signa decided to forget for a moment about what her sister was thinking about her.

“There aren’t any wars anymore now, right?”

“Yeah… Good girl…”

Yukomis also smiled back with almost tearful eyes.

For now, it was right to be grateful that she, who had always been unable to be honest, had become able to express her feelings like this.

“Lastly, one more thing.”

After gazing at each other like that for a long time, Yukomis finally opened her mouth.

“What is it?”

“You have to attach sister at the end of your words.”

That was a really important issue for her.