Chapter 49: The man holding the switch (2)

“Karat, do you know what love is?”

Signa said, sprawled out on the bed.

“Yes?”

Karat, who had been standing by the door trying to relax, flinched.

“You heard me right.”

“I never thought Lady Thermis would say something like that.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Signa, who only had her head poking out from the bed, replied urgently.

“From now on, just call me Signa. Nicknames become habits.”

Signa, who had recently been forced to call her ‘sister’ at the end of every sentence, was keenly aware of this.

“Understood.”

Karat nodded in an awkward posture.

“But it’s surprising. I’ve never heard you say anything like that before.”

“Maybe it’s because I’m going through puberty.”

Karat didn’t know what to say.

“…That’s not a funny joke.”

“Do you even have funny jokes?”

“I can laugh too.”

“Then why aren’t you laughing? What joke is funnier than a war hero turning into a twelve-year-old girl?”

“Or calling her younger sister ‘sister’? Isn’t that funny?”

Karat didn’t laugh, but Signa didn’t care.

“Actually, you’re laughing inside, aren’t you? Right?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Haa…”

As Signa flapped her arms and legs on the bed, the soft and spacious pajamas fluttered like wings. It was an ungraceful sight, but Karat didn’t bother to point it out and just turned her head away.

“Should I just ask Aisha when she’s alone…”

Of course, Parnen was out of the question.

Asking ‘What is love?’ in front of Parnen, who had a great pain of not being able to marry, was a really big rudeness.

“But you really never said anything like that, did you?”

At least Karat had never heard Thermis talk about such topics.

“Why, is it strange for a girl in her prime to be interested in romance?”

“……Please don’t talk like that. I don’t know what to answer.”

“Haa…”

Signa decided to stop being sarcastic.

She wasn’t someone who could take a joke.

“Then, changing the question… Have you ever imagined Yukomis dating?”

“Yes?”

This was an even more awkward topic for Karat than Signa’s jokes.

“That is, uhh…”

“Or have you ever seen her show affection to anyone?”

Signa hurriedly added a proviso.

“Except for you, Parnen, and Aisha.”

“No.”

Karat answered without much thought.

“Lady Signa is everything else.”

“You don’t have any hidden fiancées, do you?”

She asked, but Signa never thought that Yukomis would have something like that.

Yukomis?

Engagement? With someone of the opposite s*x?

Getting married?

There were nobles who only had businesslike relationships with their husbands to continue the family line,
but Signa couldn’t imagine even that from Yukomis.

“…If she’s hiding it from Lady Signa, she wouldn’t tell me either… But I don’t think she would have one either.”

That was the same for Karat.

Above all, if there was such a person, Karat, who followed Yukomis like a shadow whenever she went out, couldn’t have not known.

Her only personal business was collecting books and tea leaves.

‘Master・・・ in love?’

Thinking about it, it was really strange. Just like she couldn’t imagine Thermis getting married,
it was the same even if she replaced the protagonist with Yukomis.

“I guess so.”

“Even if it’s not now, she might feel like it someday.”

Even while saying that, Karat didn’t really believe what she was saying.

“Lady Yukomis is a magician. She will live a really long life in her current form. There’s no reason to rush.”

Coincidentally, unlike Yukomis, Signa was in a pretty urgent situation.

At this age, it was common among high-ranking nobles to have at least a fiancée, if not a marriage,
but as Karat said, Yukomis had many days left.

That was the reason why Yukomis could reject all the persistent urging of her family.

“Someday…”

She herself had been like that in her previous life, but the fact that both sisters were refusing to marry must be an anxious thing for Duke Solenas as well.

As Karat had answered, it was extremely rare for Yukomis to show affection to someone.

Leaving aside other people, she couldn’t become close to even the warm-hearted members like Ilesha and Silissa until the end. Even that affection towards Parnen was treating her as a foster mother, and Aisha and Karat were… closer to trust.

Such Yukomis’s face was always relaxed when she was with herself.

Yukomis only treated herself like that.

Only herself.

That part was important.

It wasn’t a matter of liking men or liking women.

At least as far as Yukomis knew, she had been a boy until recently.

That was a fact that would make ordinary people’s hearts complicated enough,
but Yukomis didn’t seem to care about such problems at all.

She even said that she would change her gender ‘if you wanted,’ as if it were nothing.

Beyond liking men or women,
Signa had realized that she only ‘liked herself’ from there.

Signa’s goal was to turn Yukomis’s heart around.

There was nothing better than if the love that Yukomis was giving to her now turned to someone else.

But, there was no clue as to whether what was rooted in Yukomis’s heart was sisterly love, homosexual love, Agape, or Eros…

There was no way to know who to turn it to.

It could be everything.

Maybe it was nothing.

It was too complex and holistic to be confined within such a category.

The reason why Yukomis didn’t bother to explain to the people around her how she felt about her was also
because in her heart, ‘affection’ was just ‘affection,’ and she didn’t think there was anything more to add to it.

‘Come to think of it, she said she felt guilty.’

Now, she didn’t even know how old she was inside,
but connecting with a clueless teenager or someone in their twenties.

She thought that was a really guilty thing when she was Thermis.

Besides, Yukomis was family.

“Karat. Don’t you think Yukomis’s attitude towards me is a bit peculiar, no matter what?”

“I don’t think so.”

Unexpectedly, Karat answered immediately.

“Huh?”

“I… I think that person’s appearance stems from guilt.”

“Guilt, you say.”

“Yes. You were dead…”

It was a strange-sounding statement.

“Lady Signa didn’t see it directly, but Parnen and I saw how much Lady Yukomis was suffering. She said her sister died because of her.”

“She always had nightmares because of it, but Parnen said that she’s been sleeping very comfortably every night recently. She always seems happy in her office too.”

“Is that because of me?”

“Of course. There’s no other reason.”

Karat said decisively.

“At first, I was a little skeptical because Lady Signa said she wouldn’t say ‘that fact,’ but Lady Yukomis’s condition has improved so much. I’m not sure, but I think she’s feeling some kind of vicarious satisfaction from seeing Lady Signa, who is ‘similar to her sister,’ happy.”

“Vicarious satisfaction, huh…”

Not having direct contact with the object of the debt of gratitude, and not needing to be humble.

There were no complicated procedures or tact needed to restore the relationship, and it had become an environment where she could unilaterally pour out her affection.

By chance.

This was like…

“What is this, some kind of animal therapy…”

Was she becoming some kind of fluffy dog or cat?

“Yes?”

“Never mind.”

Signa smiled weakly.

“Come to think of it, you and Parnen must know a lot about her schedule.”

“That’s right. She’s staying here under the guise of a long-term vacation, so we can always serve her by her side.”

“What does Yukomis usually do?”

“Usually, you mean…”

Karat listed Yukomis’s schedule.

“She wakes up early… has breakfast…”

“You don’t have to talk about that far.”

“Yes. Recently, she’s been managing the Pranon region. Otherwise, she occasionally handles work related to the magic school. Of course, there are capable agents in the area, so she only directly approves really important documents.”

“You’re saying approval documents from Pranon are being sent up to Yukomis?”

“Yes. It’s originally an area without much change, but these days she seems to be planning a development project herself.”

“That’s unusual. That workaholic is directly managing a ‘vacation spot’…”

Pranon was a resort located at the southernmost tip of the Solenas estate’s mainland.

It was truly a place that fit the cliché of the southern paradise.

Snow-white volcanic rock, emerald sea, small secret white sand beaches…

A picturesque resort where any noble would want to have a villa.

Several of the affiliated islands also housed imperial villas.

The status of being the heir to the empire’s largest ducal family was much greater than that of a resort count, so outwardly it was a title that usually only used the middle name,
but…

She was still a countess.

“With Yukomis’s personality, I thought she wouldn’t even glance at it, saying there’s no time to rest.”

“That was the case until just last month.”

Yukomis had been granted a territory that she could directly govern from a very young age.

The reason why Thermis, the eldest daughter, didn’t have a middle name, and Yukomis had the middle name ‘Pranon’ was because of that.

Signa didn’t have any particular feelings about that fact.

It was right for her, not herself who wasn’t a magician, to receive the title and territory.

It was also true that she was more capable.

And it’s not like the current Duke, her ‘former’ mother, had a serious illness,
and since she was a high-ranking magician, she would live a long time, so the succession of the ducal title was still a distant future story.

Like many veteran magicians, the Duke would retire at an appropriate time, but…

Until then, Yukomis also needed a territory to directly govern.

“Anyway, Lady Yukomis usually finishes her work in the morning.”

“I guess so. Yukomis could handle work several times faster than ordinary people.”

She was always overworked because she voluntarily took on a huge amount of work because she was frustrated.

“After that… she has lunch… and heads to this detached palace.”

“Anything else in between?”

“Nothing at all.”

“She’s been spending the entire afternoon at the detached palace lately…”

“That’s right.”

“These days, she even reads books with me in my room after training.”

“Yes.”

“She’s even insisting on taking a bath together.”

“Yes?”

That was the first time Karat had heard that.

“Didn’t you hear from Aisha?”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“She’s always begging me to prepare bathwater for two in the detached palace.”

“…Lady Yukomis is begging?”

Originally, Aisha was no longer the person to prepare bathwater directly.

Because she was acting as a housekeeper.

However, for various reasons, Yukomis wanted to erase Signa’s presence in the mansion as much as possible,
so Aisha, whom she could trust the most, was taking care of Signa’s convenience.

When you think about it, it was similar to becoming a personal maid again.

“First of all, I always tell her in a roundabout way that I can’t make Aisha work hard.”

It was quite a bizarre sight even for Aisha to see the much smaller Signa scolding Yukomis.

“No, but I’m used to seeing her in her underwear, since I was in the same knight order.”

That much was unavoidable.

Changing clothes in a small place, exchanging equipment, or clothes being torn and broken…
Since they were in the same knight order and during the war, such things were bound to happen.

“But even if she’s the same s*x, something about taking a bath together, it’s not like she’s a child anymore…”

Although she said it indirectly, Signa couldn’t know ‘how much of an intention was taking up a share’ in Yukomis’s proposal.

No, it was meaningless to distinguish such things for her, who was simply thinking of all kinds of affection as simply ‘love.’

Signa turned the conversation after seeing Karat closing her eyes with difficulty.

“Ah… I’m sorry. It wasn’t something I should have said where you could hear it.”

“…It’s nothing.”

“Anyway, is her only private life the time she comes to the detached palace?”

“Now that I hear it, that’s right.”

“What about other hobbies, outings, or meetings? Doesn’t she have anything like that?”

“Nothing at all. She’s currently rejecting all receptions from outsiders. The only exception would be the Princess who visited last time.”

Signa’s face turned pale.

“To summarize, the workaholic Yukomis has quit her job and is dedicating her entire afternoon only to me, but she doesn’t have any other hobbies or relationships? And she’s turning away all guests?”

“…That’s how it is.”

It seemed like Karat also realized that something was a bit strange.

“It’s a bit different. She’s almost a shut-in!”

“A shut-in?”

“What does Parnen say?”

“She’s at least relieved just to see Lady Yukomis sleeping comfortably every night.”

I see. She’s in the position of a mother who is endlessly generous to her child.

But it wouldn’t be unreasonable.

“But if that’s how she enjoys her vacation, it’s not that bad, is it?”

Karat’s words were common sense, but

“Your words would be right if that vacation ends someday.”

Yukomis was not a common-sense person.

Signa, who had confirmed her eerie appearance by her side, couldn’t think so at all.

“When I was still a boy, Yukomis was going to send me to the knight training academy. But now I can’t go to the knight training academy, and since I’m a non-magician, I can’t go to the magic academy either, and Yukomis doesn’t want to show me to the outside world, so she doesn’t hire a private tutor.”

“But Lady Signa doesn’t need a tutor.”

No matter what she did, she couldn’t be as good as Yukomis,
but Thermis, who always worked hard to develop herself, also had knowledge that greatly exceeded the average.

“It’s not me who needs it, it’s Yukomis!”

Signa raised her voice, frustrated.

“She’s only trying to slowly increase the time she spends with me! I think she’ll move into the detached palace soon.”

Signa thought it was a near future.

“Do you think this is the kind of thing that can suddenly stop one day when she’s ‘ah~ bored’?”

What Yukomis was doing was closer to drug treatment than therapy.

And drug abuse always comes at a price.

“I have to make a decision.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Only I can do it.”

Karat didn’t seem to have any idea.

“First of all, I need your and Aisha’s help.”

Yukomis was a one-sided person no matter what.

She acted based on the groundless conviction that the other person would accept her affection indefinitely as she poured it out.

She was a person who was always used to holding the initiative.

‘I’ll show you what a real shut-in is.’

However, Signa… had confirmed it just recently.

That she was the one holding the switch.

If she had already received it and couldn’t hand it over to someone else.

‘There’s no choice. I have to use it.’

If it was impossible to say it indirectly, she had no choice but to go head-on.

“…When Yukomis wakes up tomorrow, tell her that I don’t want to see her for a while.”