Raytan must have lost a lot of blood in the past considering he always wears this and the treatment works every time. That was why he was familiar with medicines that were used for these purposes. No one cared about him when he came back so he must have had to treat himself.

Raytan has nothing that he likes, that’s why he is not attached to the imperial palace. People hate and ignore him. Bern is one of them. I thought I would be the one who will give you affection, but it turns out you don’t want any from this imperial palace. Somehow, it makes me a little…sad.

“You’ve memorized a lot of words, learned grammar. I think you can write well now.”

Sezh came to her senses as Raytan spoke up, looking up at him to match his gaze.

“Write something up, anything you want. That’s your homework.”

“How long do I need to write, big brother?”

“Just write moderately. You won’t be able to write that long anyway.”

Just how much hate did he have that he couldn’t say any good things now? Sezh clamped her mouth shut.

“Do it on your own. I’m going to see my mother.”

Raytan stood up as if he had nothing more to do.

Hey, wait a minute!

Sezh tried to catch him, but Raytan just went his way without looking back once.

“…”

Sezh sighed as she was left alone in this wide library. She sat silently on her chair and stared at the empty notes.

***

Raytan’s attempt to visit ended up in vain.

He went to see her after finishing the tutoring, but it’d turned out that Lise had fallen asleep instead. He ignored Marie’s warning and just strode in. He went to Lise’s room quietly and looked at his mother who had fallen asleep for quite a long time. It was always like this whenever she spent the night with the emperor.

It wasn’t just because of Lise’s habit of not being able to fall asleep when she changed her bed.

Maybe it’s because of this.

Raytan stared at the small bottle placed on Lise’s dressing table with empty eyes. The light purple liquid in the transparent glass bottle seemed like it would be able to cool down his spine.

After getting up from his seat, Raytan meticulously covered Lise with the blanket and left the room.

If he had stayed a little longer, he would have broken those bottles with his own hands. But, in the end, that wasn’t what Lise wanted.

In his life, Raytan had never disobeyed Lise’s will. The same was true of that medicine. Even if it was eating away at Lise’s life, Raytan could not resist Lise’s will.

Marie caught Raytan as he was about to leave Lise’s palace. She proceeded to tell him that he had to stop by the library once more.

What a stupid girl. You can’t go back alone, huh? Well, she was a girl with a special ability to bother people around her.

Raytan headed back to the library with an annoyed face.

But there was no one in the library. Instead, a notebook on the desk welcomed him.

-I do my homework in advance.

A memo was written at the top of the note. And beneath it, there was a crooked note in Kazaki.

-My name is Sezh. I’m 12 years old.

He felt as though it wasn’t worth it to teach her composition in the first place considering it was a sentence anyone could write with just a simple glance through the textbook. Raytan continued to read the next sentence, thinking that it was pathetic.

-I like strawberry cake. I also like warm milk and cocoa.

Raytan looked bored while skimming the notes, as he thought that the writing was very…childish. But he narrowed his eyes because of the following sentence.

– And I like big brother Raytan.

“…”

– I hope I can study with big brother Raytan while eating cake together next time. It makes me feel good when I eat food with someone that I like.

“…what a stupid bitch.”

Raytan murmured quietly.

I thought you wrote down a very great sentence because you did your homework in advance…I like it, I like this and I like that. You just wrote sentences that have the same pattern and different meanings.

No matter how much I taught you, it was useless. We’re not making any progress here.

Raytan shook his head before taking the notebook and walking out of the library.

I’ll teach you a little more strictly from tomorrow. Well, maybe I should teach her how to talk in kazaki…The learner is stupid, but it won’t matter much because the teacher is very good at what he does.

Raytan walked as he thought about this matter to himself.