Next week, I’ll be announcing a new project!

"Muu~……"

If I reinforce that, then this will fall.

If I reinforce this, then that will fall.

I stared down the board, but a good move didn"t come to mind. My path of retreat had already been cut off.

"……I give up."

As a result, I bravely resigned.

"Elder brother, you"ve become stronger again."

"There is still a person that I can"t beat though."

As he spoke while making a wry smile, Romel-san"s image naturally came to mind.

For him to not even take notice of brother, who is this strong…….just who in the world is that person?

"Lately he hasn"t been coming to our place, but I wonder if he"s been going around drinking again……"

"Who knows. He might unexpectedly be busy with work."

"Work? Honestly speaking, I can"t imagine Romel-san enthusiastically doing work."

I only have memories of him always drinking. That person seemed free like the wind more than anyone else. I simply could not connect the figure of him working in some company or country as a gear, with the image of the person inside of me.

"There might be more unexpected sides to a person than can be seen on the surface. You"re the same, you know."

"? Am I similar to Romel-san?"

"Even if your way of doing things is different, you"re similar at the root…….you both are hiding ferocious claws within your bodies."

I could only tilt my head at my brother"s abstract words.

"……-ah. Thank you very much for accompanying me. I should probably go to sleep soon."

Glancing at the clock, I stood up from my seat. This time is about right.

"Good night."

"Yeah, night."

The next day, I started my independent training before the sun rose.

After fully completing the menu that I had set for myself, I ate a meal and worked hard in studying.

……since I have absolutely no talent in battle tactics, I am not studying it. However, father has stated that I must at least learn the bare minimum of knowledge for a n.o.ble girl.

Apparently he is trying to hinder his daughter who tries to go out to town whenever she is free.

Of course, it does appear to be a necessity (to have such knowledge).

It can"t be helped. If I was going out with Kuroitsu-san and the other"s from the army, or with the private soldiers from our Marquis house, it"d be better; but if I was going out to town on my own, then they wouldn"t know what sort of incidents I"d b.u.t.t my head into like before……is what the problem was.

Well, I did have a previous offence, so I can"t really refute that, but……

At any rate, I must wonder what is with my father, to simply give the task telling me to "go study" without even preparing someone to mentor me.

Though it isn"t like I don"t understand that it will be difficult to hire a tutor as long as I am staying in the Marquis House under the name of Mel, who is "Ojou-sama"s guard".

On that note, I have no choice but to work hard studying everything, from start to finish.

Luckily, all n.o.ble mansions have some sort of library room.

I can search up and learn the subjects from there, and if I still ultimately don"t understand it, I can ask my knowledgeable elder brother. With that, I should somehow be able to manage getting through the material.

Yesterday"s board game was also something that occurred after I had him teach me something.

According to brother, I sometimes make some interesting moves……though I have absolutely no self-awareness of doing such a thing…..lately, the daily routine has been to play one game as compensation for teaching me.

That alone is proof of how much I have been relying on elder brother.

I digress, but as long as father does not invite a child tutor for girls, since father also has no clue regarding the manners of n.o.ble women, I have been exempted from manner training. That alone was probably my one salvation.

Now then, after finishing today"s quota, I"ve become completely bored.

I could continue staying obediently at home now, or……

As I thought about that casually while looking out the window, there were soldiers from the Anderson Marquis house"s private troops training.

"Shurei-san!"

My body throbbed from watching the training, and in the end, I went down to the arena.

"Ohh, Mel!"

When the training went on a small break, the man who was supervising it called out to me. His name is Shurei.

He is the capable person that controls the Anderson Marquis House"s troops. Apparently his age is the same as Kuroitsu-san"s.

Because Kuroitsu-san partic.i.p.ates in the Anderson Marquis House"s personal training quite frequently, the two of them have plenty of chances to meet face-to-face, and have completely hit it off.

"It has been a while. Did something happen?"

"No, I temporarily returned to the Anderson territory for a while. Just basically confirming the territory"s public order."

The Anderson Marquis House"s troops were robust warriors trained by father……in addition, they were elites, and thus the maintenance of the public order within the Anderson House was left to them.

They were, so to speak, escort troops; or perhaps they could be described as people that perform similar duties to those of the troops found in the Capital.

……because they were people who have endured father"s training, they were probably used as a deterrent.

The biggest reason for that was since father didn"t require guards, they apparently didn"t have much proper work. On the other hand, it wasn"t like the Anderson Marquis House, whom they worked under, could suddenly discharge them, thus that was how all of this began.

"……I see. How was the territory?"

"As always. There aren"t any idiotic guys that would try to do something to a territory that sits on Gazelle-sama"s lap."

"That"s good."

"More importantly, Mel. It seems like you"ve been rampaging around quite a bit."

"That"s……but I feel that I have actually been restraining myself, though it may appear that way."

"What an amusing joke. The story of Kuroitsu experiencing a crushing defeat reached my ears too, you know?"

"Ahh……"

"Come."

As I reflexively made a wry smile at Shurei-san"s words, I was pa.s.sed a practice sword.

"Show me your current power. Your power that surpa.s.sed Kuroitsu"s."

Shurei-san"s eyes as he grinned widely held a belligerent light. How to say, he loves to fight. As expected of someone trained personally by father.

"Great face there."

When I was thinking such thoughts, Shurei-san laughed and said that.

"……face?"

Tilting my head at what he was pointing out, I began to touch my face to feel if something was stuck to it. When I did so, it seemed that before I knew it, I had been smiling.

I guess I can"t talk about other people.

Because I, too, felt my mood lift when I imagined a fight with Shurei-san.

"……then, let"s begin."

"……start!"

And so, I broke into a run.