BVGW 39

‘It’s possible.’

That was it.

‘Who knows what kind of jerk might bully Lirian someday? The three brothers are blood-related, so they’re out. This is exactly the time I have to protect her myself.’

…Though, admittedly, that reasoning was a little strange.

Illei Serevia Leonhardt.

He was once a member of the imperial family.

Born to parents who were the epitome of a loveless political marriage, he learned the value of usefulness long before he ever learned the meaning of love.

After that, he lived quietly beneath the suffocating oppression of a religious order that hid its cruelty behind masks of benevolence and compassion—until he finally met Ersioni.

So, for Illei, marriage was nothing more than a means to an end.
A strategic tool he could use to protect himself—and someone else.

‘Yeah. If we got married, I could protect Lirian for the rest of her life.’

Even if marriage was typically reserved for a man and woman who loved each other, he thought that maybe—just maybe—it could work for the two of them as well.

In truth, Illei had planned to exclude Ersioni from his future altogether, precisely because he was worried about the danger that might soon threaten her.

But that plan had already gone off the rails the moment she returned in time along with him.

Even if he wanted to exclude her, Lirian was never the type to sit quietly and let him.

‘I didn’t think she’d actually tell her whole family everything.’

By the time he realized it, Ersioni was already moving.

The most shocking thing for Illei, upon arriving here, was that they already knew about the dangers that lay ahead.

Was this what a normal family was like?

No matter how absurd something sounded, they would still believe in each other, support each other.

There was no need to prove one’s worth—parents trusted their children, and children trusted their parents.

‘In the Imperial family… no, never mind.’

He was just starting to drift into old memories when—

“Adoption is an option, too.”

Caesar brought up another possibility.

“…Pardon?”

“You asked what it would take for you to become one of the Ersionis. If you’re fine with it, I was thinking of officially adopting you as my son.”

A… adopted son?

Illei froze at the unexpected proposal.

It was true that once he was added to their family registry, they could become a legitimate household without the bothersome process of marriage.

‘But if that happens…’

The imperial law code he’d memorized as a child flashed rapidly through his mind.

[Article 12. Those who share blood, or have once been registered under the same household, are strictly forbidden to marry.]

‘Then… we wouldn’t be able to get married.’

The Empire outlawed consanguinity in the strongest possible terms.

That included adopted children who had once been registered in the same family.

Even if one were later disowned, the records would remain—meaning they could never legally “mix.”

A cold sweat trickled down Illei’s back.

“What do you think?”

A hand extended to him in kindness.

If he became the Duke and Duchess’s adopted son, he’d finally become what he’d wanted most—Lirian’s older brother.

It really was an incredibly generous offer.

‘So why… why can’t I answer?’

He was flustered by emotions he couldn’t identify—caught somewhere between gratitude and panic—when suddenly—

“NO!!!”

BANG!

Lirian leapt to her feet, slamming her hands on the table.

“Absolutely! Not!”

Even as her two brothers tried to pull her back down, Lirian stood up straight, eyes blazing like fire.

“Princess, what do you mean? You said you wanted Illei to live with us.”

“Yeah! I’m going to live with Illei.”

“Then Illei has to be added to Mom and Dad’s family registry. That way, he can become your strong, dependable big brother.”

Lirian frowned deeply, thinking hard for a long moment—then declared,

“No. I don’t want him as my brother.”

“Why not?”

“Because if he becomes my brother, he can’t do the lip-rubbing thing Daddy does with Mommy.”

“…What?”

Lirian apparently had a surprisingly accurate grasp of social conventions.

And at that, Caesar’s world completely collapsed.

“Wha—wha—what are you talking about, Liri?!”

“Ummm, it’s kind of embarrassing to say…”

“Say it! Now!”

Caesar’s voice cracked as if he might faint, and Lirian twisted her little body, fidgeting.

“When I was sleeping… um, Illei snuck up and gave me a kiss on the forehead.”

In an instant, every dark-haired head in the room swiveled toward Illei.

Even Jeril, who had been asleep, woke up at the sound of Caesar’s yelling and stared at him blearily.

The combined gazes were so intense that Illei instinctively took a step back.

The edges of his ears slowly turned bright red.

And then—he remembered.

“I miss you…”

It had been after another long, brutal battle against the fiends. As he dozed lightly, he heard her small, sleepy murmur.

He could never mistake who she was calling for.

Seeing the tiny tear forming at the corner of her eye, he’d instinctively leaned down and brushed his lips against her forehead.

Because if the Duke, Duchess, and her brothers had been alive, surely they would have done the same.

“That… that wasn’t…”

How had she even known? He was sure she’d been asleep!

“You—you were awake?! Why didn’t you say anything?!”

Illei’s face, in sharp contrast to his silver hair, turned completely crimson.

“Well, if I’d opened my eyes, you would’ve run away. It tickled a lot, but I tried my best not to wake up.”

“You really did do that?!”

Her calm answer met with her father’s horrified shout.

The father of a daughter roared,

“Lirian! Do you even know what that means?!”

And the ever-straightforward fireball of a daughter drove a nail straight through her father’s heart once more.

“Of course! If there hadn’t been dragons, we would’ve had a fiery love in a peaceful world.”

“WHAT?!”

Caesar clutched his neck and toppled over.

“Father!”

“Darling!”

Illei looked at the utter chaos unfolding before him—the destroyed conference room, the stunned onlookers—and thought to himself:

Maybe… the supposedly airheaded Princess Ersioni, whom he’d always thought of as naive, was actually—

“Hey, Illei.”

“…….”

“I didn’t tell them about the flower ring you secretly gave me. So you have to return it to me later, okay?”

…a sly little fox.

“That’s mine. Got it?”

Before his regression, Illei had found a dying starflower in the barren wasteland where no life could survive anymore.

Seeing the wilted bloom reminded him of a childhood promise he hadn’t been able to keep, so he wove the petals into a ring and gave it to Lirian.

But that same night—the night of the forehead kiss—his embarrassment had gotten the better of him, and he’d taken the starflower ring back.

Since she never brought it up, he thought she’d forgotten about it.

‘…I can’t believe she still remembers that.’

Lirian ran up to him, tiptoed to whisper something in his ear, and then scampered away again.

Then she ran toward her staggering father and shouted,

“Daddy! Don’t die!”

To Illei, she looked like a butterfly—fluttering just out of reach, too bright and light to catch.

Lirian Ersioni.

On the surface, she seemed thoughtless, moody, and impulsive.
And honestly… she was.

But there was one thing most people didn’t realize about her:

Her entire world was made of love.

To her, giving and receiving affection was as natural as breathing.

That’s how she’d been raised.

And that was why, despite being called the “airheaded princess,” Lirian possessed a ghostly intuition when it came to recognizing feelings of affection directed toward her.

That day long ago, when the stars had fallen from the sky—
She’d entrusted herself to the stranger who offered her his back, precisely because of that.

“Ah…”

Illei lowered his bright-red face, hiding it as best he could.

From his ears to his neck, every bit of skin not hidden by hair was glowing scarlet.

He covered his mouth with one hand and muttered under his breath,

“Would it kill you to just… pretend you didn’t know?”

A faint groan slipped out.

His black history had been suddenly and mercilessly exposed; of course he was mortified.

But in his flustered state, he failed to notice something far more important—

‘We would’ve had a fiery love.’

Lirian—who had never once openly declared her feelings—had finally said something like that.

“Lirian! You’re still too young! You don’t even know what love is!”

“Daddy, I’m already five years old!”

“Five-year-olds are still babies—Yuri! What have you been teaching her?!”

“Father, please leave me out of this.”

And thus, the long-frozen relationship between father and daughter began to show the first signs of change.