🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 24
The moment she faced Lyle’s cold expression, Elaina truly realized that she was standing before the man known as the Moon’s Shadow.
What a cold-hearted man.
For someone’s only brother, he was far too detached. His marriage with Diane must have been the same — a relationship driven purely by duty. He was a man who thought of nothing but the prosperity of his family line, like a racehorse with blinders on.
“Listen carefully. I’m not going back until this case is completely full. So if you want to get home sooner, you’d better fill it up fast.”
Elaina handed a metal cookie tin to Lyle. He stared down at the heart-shaped container for a long moment before letting out a small, dry laugh.
“Ha. That girl wouldn’t like this sort of thing.”
“How can you be so sure? You’ve never even bought her a snack before. Don’t act like you know everything. Your Grace, you really need to learn how to pay attention to the people around you.”
Lyle said nothing. But Elaina, with a serious face, kept lecturing him.
“Listen. I know your life hasn’t been easy — I’m aware. I won’t pretend to understand. It would be a lie to say I know what those days on the battlefield were like. But back then, Your Grace, you were fifteen. From the time you were born until you turned fifteen, you grew up surrounded by your family’s love, didn’t you?”
At the word love, Lyle’s expression froze.
Yes. There had been such days once — so long ago he could barely remember.
In the mansion that still held its old refined grace — before it had aged and worn down — there had been his grandfather, before his execution; his always-kind father; and his beautiful mother.
And suddenly, a forgotten memory rose up.
“Mother, is my little sibling really in there?”
Fifteen-year-old Lyle asked eagerly, resting his hand on his mother’s belly.
“Yes. Soon, the baby will be born. I hope it’s a girl — one who looks like her mother.”
“Dear, we said we wouldn’t say that, remember?”
“That’s right, Father. I don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl. I’ll play with the baby every day once it’s born — because I’ll be the older brother!”
“Maybe you’ll be the older sister instead. Goodness, the two of you—honestly.”
The room filled with laughter — the bright, gentle laughter of a warm afternoon.
Lyle’s eyes lingered on the empty cookie tin in his hands.
Elaina snapped her fingers in front of his face.
“If you’re not going to fill it, I will. Just don’t pick the same ones as me, all right? I’m getting a present for your little sister, too.”
Watching Elaina concentrate seriously with the tongs made Lyle quietly reach for his own pair.
Seeing the large, intimidating man carefully selecting cookies made her want to laugh, but Elaina held it back.
You really ought to thank me, future Duchess of Grant.
If this humorless, joyless man ever managed to act halfway sociable, it would be entirely thanks to her.
Lyle returned home before dinner. He looked tired, and his hands were full of bundles.
The butler took his coat and asked about the parcels.
“My lord, what are these?”
“Cookies.”
“Ah, cookies… wait—cookies, you said?”
The word sounded so out of place that the butler blinked in confusion. Lyle picked up one of the bundles and handed it to him.
“The lady told me people like it when you bring home small gifts.”
The butler, flustered, just gaped, and Lyle continued quickly.
“I never say it, but I appreciate your hard work. This one’s for you all. Share it with the servants over tea.”
The butler accepted the package, still stunned.
Then what’s in that smaller bundle?
He looked at Lyle curiously — the man was already climbing the stairs, a small parcel still in hand.
Lyle stood in front of a door for a long time.
Since returning home from that wretched war months ago, he had almost never come to this floor. Perhaps only once, to retrieve his mother’s ring.
Elaina’s voice echoed in his head:
“Sometimes you need to look to the side or behind you, not just straight ahead. That’s how you realize how far you’ve gone on your own.”
“Life is something you walk together,” she’d said as she stepped down from the carriage.
“In that sense, next time we meet, could you shorten your stride a little? You have no idea how tall you are, do you? When you take one step, I have to take two or three just to keep up in heels!”
Next time we meet, tell me how your sister reacted. Tell me whose gift she liked better.
Her mischievous smile flickered in his mind, and Lyle finally knocked.
“Who is it?”
The voice that came from inside clearly hadn’t expected him.
“Hey, who is it?”
When no answer came, the child’s tone turned irritated. Quick footsteps approached, and the door flew open.
“Why aren’t you answering—”
The annoyance in the voice faded the moment the child saw who it was. Nox froze, looking flustered — the same look he’d had the day he’d thrown a glass at Lyle’s feet, shattering it in anger.
“…What?”
He asked bluntly, but didn’t shut the door. Lyle was momentarily speechless.
He had thought it didn’t matter. That any bond between siblings was long impossible.
That the only thing connecting them was blood — nothing more.
His much younger brother couldn’t possibly know what the Grant family name once meant.
The only thing Lyle could give him, he’d believed, was the restored prestige of their noble house.
Whether his brother wanted it or not — whether he hated him or not — that didn’t matter. What mattered was restoring the name of House Grant to its former glory.
But looking at the confused, uncertain expression on his brother’s face now, Lyle suddenly wondered if he’d been wrong.
Maybe everything he’d been clinging to wasn’t as important as he thought. Maybe the things he’d dismissed as meaningless… weren’t meaningless at all.
“Nox.”
It was the first time Lyle had said his brother’s name. Nox’s eyes wavered.
“I brought some cookies.”
He held out the small parcel.
He had never done this before — never thought it worth his time. He’d told himself he had more pressing duties, more important tasks. In doing so, he had forgotten his old promise — to protect the little sibling who wasn’t even born yet back then.
Awkwardly, Nox reached out and took the cookies.
“It’s from a famous place, apparently.”
“…I know. I’m the only one in my class who hasn’t tried these yet.”
His tone was curt, but the reply came. Despite his words, his eyes trembled with disbelief.
“It’s really for me?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
A faint blush crept over Nox’s cheeks. He tried to hide his excitement behind a calm face, but couldn’t quite manage it.
If Lyle had known it would make him this happy…
If it had been this easy all along, he should have done it sooner.
He should have brought a gift home the day he returned from war. He should have reached out first to the younger brother who had once hurled a cup at him.
“Do you like sweets?”
“…Not really.”
“Then I’ll buy something else next time.”
When Lyle reached as if to take the bundle back, Nox yelped and quickly hid it behind his back.
“I said not really! I didn’t say I hated them!”
“You didn’t open it, so I thought maybe you didn’t like them.”
Nox didn’t answer. Obviously, he thought. Stupid brother.
He had never received a gift like this in his life — not something so neatly wrapped, not from family.
He didn’t want to ruin the wrapping, but if he didn’t open it, his brother might just leave.
Hesitating, he was startled when Lyle’s large hand reached over his and tore the wrapping open without hesitation.
“What are you—!”
“I’ll buy them for you often, so go on and open it.”
Inside were two cookie tins.
“Two?”
Nox carefully opened one.
The heart-shaped tin held an assortment of cookies. He examined them closely, then made a face.
“What is this — ginger? Oatmeal? Who eats this stuff?”
The other tin, by contrast, was filled with cookies topped with strawberry jam, chocolate, and bits of dried fruit.
Just from Nox’s expression, Lyle knew who had won the little wager between him and Elaina.
