BSRF 06

Chapter 6

I picked up a rose lying beside me and slowly twirled it around. I simply lay there with my mind blank, and before I knew it, it was time for dinner.

When I went down to the dining room, my parents had already returned from their outing.

“Shiona!”

The moment Mother saw me, she jumped up from her seat and ran over with a bright smile. I lifted her up effortlessly, spun her around a couple of times, and hugged her tightly.

Mother’s cheerful laughter rang out warmly in my arms.

Father and Pavel watched the scene between mother and daughter with pleased expressions. I straightened my posture and greeted my family.

“Shiona Rodriz. Having carried out the Empire’s command, I have returned home.”

“Oh my, how wonderful.”

“Well done!”

“As expected of our older sister.”

The moment I finished speaking, Mother, Father, and my younger brother all spoke at once.

After that, the atmosphere during dinner was warm and lively. I gladly accepted the endless praise directed at me.

I kept nodding proudly and even clenched my fist dramatically.

I exaggeratedly recounted stories about fighting monsters and even mimicked the ridiculous behavior of one of my subordinates.

Every time I spoke, Mother wiped away tears while laughing, and Father kept repeating how proud he was of me.

At moments like these, I sometimes completely forgot that this world was inside a novel.

I kept drinking the alcohol Father handed me without refusing, and at some point, I drifted off to sleep.

When I opened my eyes again, I had somehow been moved to my bedroom.

Even through my hazy mind, I felt someone looking down at me.

“Pavel…?”

I squinted into the darkness, unable to make out the figure standing there. Then a cold hand suddenly reached out and covered my eyes.

The touch resting gently against my eyelids was careful, almost as if urging me back to sleep.

The cool hand against my face, flushed hot from alcohol, made drowsiness wash over me again.

I fell asleep instantly.

Shiona Rodriz.

In my dream, it felt as though someone kept calling my name.

“Gah!”

I woke up flailing.

I’d had a strange dream. Actually, several dreams, but the last one had been so intense that I couldn’t remember any of the others.

Huff…

Still clutching my trembling chest, I steadied my breathing. It had been a truly horrible dream.

“Ugh, a cockroach? That’s disgusting…”

It was a dream where a gigantic cockroach had appeared as a monster. I never wanted to encounter something like that, whether in dreams or reality.

Rubbing my still-goosebump-covered arms, I looked around.

“Did someone carry me here?”

My last memory was grabbing my younger brother by the hair while sitting next to him. Pavel had probably carried me here after I fell asleep.

I rang the bell beside my bed to calm my slightly nauseous stomach. Since it was my day off, I fully intended not to move a single step.

Not long after, Marian came in carrying orange juice. I gulped it down and said,

“Thanks. My stomach was upset anyway, and I really wanted something refreshing.”

“You always look for fruit the day after drinking, Miss.”

I set down the now-empty glass and rested my head back on the pillow.

“Should I prepare a light breakfast? Would you like to eat in bed?”

“Yeah. I’m not moving today. Bring snacks and lunch here too.”

“The head chef has been eagerly waiting since he heard you came home. You’ll have to eat a lot today.”

Marian smiled teasingly with narrowed eyes. I merely shrugged as though that was no problem at all.

From the moment I woke up today, I hadn’t left the bed except to use the bathroom.

With several soft cushions propped behind my back, I lounged comfortably while reading a novel Marian had brought me.

Various snacks were arranged on the tray atop the bed. I picked up a tart covered in blueberry jam.

As I turned the page, I took a bite. The crispy pastry and sweet jam melted softly in my mouth.

“Yeah, this is the life.”

This honey-like rest I was enjoying for the first time in a while was unbelievably sweet.

A peaceful day without anything special happening. This was exactly the kind of ordinary life I wanted…

Fighting monsters while covered in dust and barely washed was absolutely not the life I desired.

“Whether monsters appear or not, why should I care?”

Even if it hadn’t been me, the male lead would have handled everything just fine.

Besides, monsters barely even appeared in the novel. The story focused on finding a murderer, not on knights rolling around fighting monsters.

Sigh…

Letting out a long breath, I shoved the remaining half of the tart into my mouth.

Then I tried focusing on the book again, but I really didn’t like the direction the story was taking.

“What’s with this now? If it’s a romance novel, shouldn’t they just date already? Why are they fighting again?”

The two protagonists showed absolutely no signs of romance, making me so frustrated that I snapped the book shut.

While looking through the other books Marian had brought, one intriguing title caught my eye.

The Duchess’s Secret Seduction…

Hmm…

I glanced around for no reason before carefully picking up the book.

This novel immediately jumped into the main story, and unlike the last one, it was extremely immersive.

There were even illustrations inside. The drawings were so detailed that I could practically feel the illustrator’s determination to portray the scenes vividly.

Determined to appreciate that effort, I stopped turning the pages and swallowed hard.

Then suddenly, loud pounding noises came from beyond the door along with the butler’s voice.

“Sir Kiern!”

Bang!

At the same time, the door burst open. I hurriedly shoved the book beneath the blanket and shouted,

“What the hell!?”

“Commander!”

The butler followed in behind Kiern.

“My apologies, Miss. Sir Kiern arrived so suddenly that…”

Apparently, he had forced his way all the way into my room.

“Commander, is it true?”

Ignoring the butler, Kiern strode over to my bed and demanded an answer.

“What are you talking about?”

“I heard Ricardo will be joining the monster subjugation. That can’t possibly be true, right?”

I gestured for the butler to leave.

Click.

The moment the door closed, I grabbed the fork from the tray and hurled it at Kiern.

The fork grazed past his neck and embedded itself in the door behind him.

Staring at the fork stuck in the door, Kiern asked stiffly,

“Commander… are you trying to kill me?”

“That depends on what you say next. You didn’t come all the way here for such a pointless reason, did you?”

“It’s important to me. No, are you really going with Ricardo?”

Leaning back against the pillows, I replied lazily,

“Yeah, I am. But you don’t need to prepare anything special, so there’s no reason to worry about it.”

“Ha! Have you no pride? Think about what that bastard did. And you still want to go with him?”

“What exactly did he do…?”

Ricardo disliked me, sure, but from my perspective it was almost cute.

Other than glaring at me from behind and muttering to himself, he hadn’t really done anything. It wasn’t like he secretly hired someone to kill me.

But Kiern clearly thought differently. He dragged over a chair, sat beside the bed, and began venting his complaints about Ricardo.

“He constantly picks fights, tries to use his authority to pressure you down—everyone knows he’s twisted and sneaky. Well, except someone as dense as you, Commander.”

Now that he mentioned it… Ricardo had picked fights before. Right, he was kind of twisted and sneaky.

I nodded along absentmindedly before frowning at one unexpected word.

“Dense…? Me?”

I had survived ten whole years inside a novel carefully reading the atmosphere around me. The word “dense” absolutely did not suit me.

“I misspoke. I meant someone important, like you, Commander.”

“……”

“That’s not the issue right now. Ricardo definitely begged to join, didn’t he? And you actually accepted? Your heart’s too soft, Commander.”

Seeing Kiern pressing a hand to his forehead and sighing as though he were genuinely worried made me laugh in disbelief.

“It’s already decided, so what can I do? If you hate it that much, why don’t you drop out?”

“Commander…!”

“Well, that works out nicely. I was worried about the budget anyway. We’ll save one person’s worth.”

When I grinned jokingly, Kiern let out a short laugh and said,

“Don’t say things like that, even as a joke. Could you really leave without me?”

He had a point. I’d long since dumped all the annoying tasks like organizing supplies and managing the budget onto him.

Apparently, Kiern still hadn’t realized my secret plan to quit being commander someday and dump the position onto him instead.

“Anyway, don’t worry about Ricardo. Honestly, it works out better this way. I can ask Commander Alonso to increase security, and we can squeeze some extra money out of the ducal house too.”

“If money’s the problem, my family can contribute. There’s no need to rely on that guy’s help.”

“What can I do? He admires me so much that he desperately wants to stay by my side all the time. A generous person like me should understand.”

“Hahaha, Ricardo admiring me.”

Even I found my own joke ridiculous, so I smacked Kiern’s shoulder while laughing loudly.

Yet Kiern’s expression remained cold.

“I don’t like it. There are already more than enough people who admire you, Commander. You need to firmly push people like him away.”

Was he joking too?

I shrugged.

“What can I do when they keep clinging to me no matter how much I push them away? Maybe it’s because I’m just too outstanding. Being exceptionally talented really is a terrible sin.”

At that, Kiern clenched his fists tightly and bit his lip, seemingly trying to suppress laughter.

“I… don’t follow you just because of your abilities.”

What nonsense. He seemed to have completely forgotten that when I first became commander, he challenged me to a duel because he refused to acknowledge me. After I utterly crushed him, he’d started following me around nonstop, yet now he acted like this.

“Tsk, tsk.”

Clicking my tongue, I said,

“Even so, the decision won’t change. Ricardo is joining this expedition. It’s already settled. So stop interrupting my precious rest and leave already, would you?”

“……”

“I said leave.”

“Then promise me one thing.”

I already knew he was stubborn, but today he was especially persistent.

When I motioned for him to continue, Kiern slightly parted his tightly closed lips, then shut them again.

I got tired of waiting and asked,

“What promise?”

“Please… acknowledge that I’m your right-hand man.”

His eyelashes trembled slightly.

Not because I was moved by his steadfast loyalty, but because my irritation exploded over the absurd reason he had interrupted my rest.

I kicked off the blanket and stood up. Then, to display my authority as commander, I raised my fist dramatically.

Just as I was about to punch Kiern in the stomach—

Thud.

A book I had hidden beneath the blanket flew into the air and dropped onto the floor.

And of course, it opened directly to the illustrated scene I had been staring at earlier.

“……”

I desperately wished Kiern had bad eyesight, but he was the kind of guy who could identify a monster’s features from dozens of meters away. If I could see it, there was no way he couldn’t.

Silence filled the room.

“……”

I slowly redirected the fist meant for Kiern upward above my head.

“O-Of course.”

“…Pardon?”

“Who else would be my right-hand man besides you…? It was such an obvious thing to say that my body just moved on its own… Ha, ha…”

“Y-Yes… that’s right.”

Flustered, words escaped my mouth before they even passed through my brain.

By now, Kiern’s face had turned red all the way to the tips of his ears. Surprisingly, he was rather innocent about these kinds of things.

The atmosphere now felt as though I had been teasing some naïve young man, and I awkwardly darted my eyes around, unable to figure out what to say.

“Uh… right.”

“Ah… then, I’ll be going now…”

Clearly panicked, Kiern stumbled while turning to leave, tripping over his own feet. He immediately scrambled back up, slammed the door shut behind him, and fled.

I stared silently at the scene until the sound of his footsteps faded away beyond the door.

Only then did I clutch my head and let out a roar.