However, Cas tilted his head to the side, as if the word “proposal” was unfamiliar to him.

“Proposal? What’s that?”

“You idiot. You’re a year older than me and you don’t even know that?”

“Sorry.”

Riena decided to explain it to her gloomy friend herself.

“It means asking someone to marry you.”

“Ma-marry?”

Cas, who had been lying down, abruptly sat up. His face, quite tanned compared to when he first arrived, flushed as if it were under the sunlight.

“Marriage… that’s not it! I haven’t thought about that.”

“Well, you’ll get married someday too, right?”

“That’s…”

“And I’ll get married too. Just like my father and mother did.”

“That’s…”

Riena looked up at Cas’s eyes and smiled.

“You know, Cas. Marriage is something you do with someone you like.”

“Do you know what marriage is?”

“I do! It’s when a man and a woman promise to live together forever, right?”

“That’s right!”

Riena’s eyes crinkled as she smiled even more deeply.

“So, if I get married when I grow up, I want to marry you, Cas.”

“Me… marry you?”

Cas’s voice rose in surprise, but Riena asked nonchalantly.

“Why, you don’t want to?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to… You said it yourself! Marriage is something you do with someone you like.”

What did Riena say to Cas, who was confused at that time?

“I like you.”

It was when they were starting to become interested in the opposite sex, but the “like” Riena spoke of was more of a feeling as a friend than a romantic interest.

She liked her father, her nanny, Joanna, and even Raoul.

But for some reason, if she had to choose between Raoul and Cas, she preferred marrying Cas.

She thought it would be fun to live with Cas in the same mansion for the rest of her life, just like now.

It was a completely different thought from the definition of marriage in the minds of adults, but Riena was serious at the time.

“…!”

Cas froze, unable to say a word. His face, neck, and even ears all turned bright red like a ripe tomato.

Riena giggled, finding it funny, and the nanny smiled, finding the two children adorable.

Cas still kept his mouth shut tight, his face flushed. Riena, who had been lying down, flipped over and slowly approached him.

As her arm touched his leg, Cas was startled and ran away.

As Riena, filled with playfulness, kept approaching him sideways, Cas was driven out of the mat.

Riena looked up at him with her chin resting on both hands.

“Do you dislike me?”

“It’s not that I dislike you…”

“Then?”

Cas looked at the nanny as if seeking help, but the nanny looked away, pretending not to know with a smile on her face.

Cas let out a groan and muttered quietly.

“…I like you too. If I get married when I grow up, I want to marry you too.”

Riena’s eyes twinkled.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Cas hesitated but spoke with certainty.

“When I grow up later, I’ll give you the prettiest jewel in the world and do that proposal thing you mentioned.”

“Alright, then let’s promise.”

Riena held out her right pinky finger. Cas hesitated for a moment, then hooked his finger with his face still red.

It was a vow made on a very nice spring day.

[This is the timeline separator]

About a month had passed since then. The weather had become early summer, and it rained heavily on the problematic day.

It was when the Dyke family and Cas were sitting at a table having dinner.

The head butler quickly ran over and personally handed a letter to Count Dyke.

“What’s the matter?”

Although they couldn’t hear what the head butler whispered in the count’s ear, it seemed to be bad news as the count’s face hardened as he tore open the letter.

“Asher…”

Count Dyke put his hand on his forehead after reading the letter.

No one paid much attention, but only Cas focused on his words.

Riena, who belatedly noticed that Cas was showing interest, asked.

“Who is Asher?”

“He’s my brother.”

Cas answered instead. He asked anxiously.

“What about your brother? What happened?”

The count closed his mouth, not knowing how to explain it to a young child.

Cas, who felt that something unusual had happened, urged uncharacteristically in a raised voice.

“What happened to my brother? Huh? Master, please answer me!”

“Asher has passed away.”

“Wh-what about my brother? Why?”

“Cas, calm down. Calm down first and listen.”

Riena grabbed his shoulders and urged, but Cas couldn’t contain his agitation. Tears instantly flowed from his eyes.

“Why my brother…”

“It seems his cold developed into pneumonia. The details aren’t written, but someone will come to pick you up soon. So get ready to go back.”

Before Count Dyke could finish his words, Cas ran out of the dining room. Riena excused herself to the count and followed after him.

Cas was crying and shoving his belongings into his luggage bag.

As if sensing her presence, he muttered.

“There’s no way my brother is dead. He’s the coolest knight in the world. I’m sure Father is lying to take me back. So I’m going to go and check for myself.”

What kind of parent would lie about their child’s death?

However, Riena didn’t deny Cas’s assumption. She just went to his side and helped him pack.

“Whenever Father scolded me, my brother always took my side.”

The story continued incoherently, but Riena listened to him patiently.

“Even when Mother and Father always scolded me, Brother Asher was always kind to me.”

“…”

“When I cried, my brother secretly gave me chocolate. Actually, this is a secret, but I really love chocolate.”

“Really? I didn’t know because you never showed any signs of it.”

“Yeah. My late mother told me not to eat it, so I tried not to. But when my brother gave me chocolate, I could eat it to my heart’s content. He would keep watch to see if anyone was coming. If we got caught, he would even lie and say he ate it himself.”

“I see.”

Cas continued to speak.

“Even after Mother passed away, my brother asked Master to take me in. He said it would be good for me to go and learn swordsmanship. Master agreed to take me in at my brother’s request.”

“…”

“But Father was furious and opposed it. Apparently, Father had asked Master to teach my brother the sword before, but he refused. So he said why are you unnecessarily trying to teach me when you didn’t do it for my brother…”

“That’s…”

For Riena, who had grown up receiving an abundance of her father’s love, it was a situation she couldn’t understand at all.

How could a father do that?

Countess Dyke sometimes treated Bianca and Riena differently, but she thought it was understandable since she wasn’t her biological daughter.

Could it be that Cas wasn’t his biological son?

She suddenly became curious but wasn’t tactless enough to ask that out loud.

“But my brother said it was a good opportunity for me and insisted that I be sent to Master. It was thanks to my brother’s persuasion that I could come here. That’s how I was able to meet you too…”

“Yeah.”

“My brother told me to learn swordsmanship well, come back, and show him how much I had learned. We promised to spar together when I grew as tall as him. But my brother…”

Tears welled up in Cas’s eyes again.

“There’s no way my brother would leave me behind.”

Riena couldn’t affirm or deny Cas’s words. She felt that neither would comfort his heart.

So she just hugged Cas tightly. He had grown a lot since he first came, so he didn’t fit snugly in her arms, but she hugged him as tightly as possible and patted his back.

Cas silently shed tears in her embrace.

[This is the timeline separator]

That morning, people came to pick up Cas. Fortunately, the rain had stopped, but the sky was filled with dark clouds.

Riena came out with Count Dyke to see Cas off. The rest of the family didn’t come out.

“Take care, Cas.”

Riena hugged the trembling Cas tightly. It was a pity that she couldn’t prepare fur gloves in time since it was summer.

If she had them, she would have put them on Cas’s cold hands.

The two children stayed like that for a while, then separated at the urging of the attendant to leave quickly.

Before leaving, Cas spoke solemnly.

“I’ll come back again. I’ll just make sure my brother is safe and come back here.”

Cas wiped his tears with his sleeve and held Riena’s hand tightly.

“This place is my second hometown and my home. You and Master are my other family. Maybe I like you and Master even more than my own family. Of course, except for my brother Asher.”

“Yeah.”

“So wait for me. I’ll buy lots of gifts when I come back.”

“Okay. You have to come back soon.”

“And when I come back…”

Cas whispered softly, only for Riena’s ears, so that no one else could hear.

“I’ll bring a pretty ring and propose to you.”

“Huh?”

“We promised to get married, didn’t we?”

With those words, Cas’s lips lightly touched Riena’s cheek.

As Riena’s eyes widened, Cas smiled with tears in his eyes.

“Then I’ll really get going.”

And so Cas left. Riena chased after the carriage, ignoring Count Dyke’s calls to come back.

No matter how fast Riena ran, she couldn’t catch up with the carriage.

Her feet kept sinking into the mud, making it hard to even call it running.

Although the wheels kept getting stuck and the carriage was slower than usual, the distance gradually widened.

“Ah…!”

Riena, who finally fell, shed tears while looking at the carriage that had become small.

Cas firmly believed that he would return. But Riena’s thoughts were different.

Could Cas really come back?

From what she heard, his brother Asher was the heir to the family.

Since it seemed that Asher was Cas’s only sibling, wouldn’t Cas have to fill Asher’s place?

Then he wouldn’t be able to come here, right? The peaceful days of Riena, Cas, and Count Dyke, or even the four of them including Raoul, might never come again.

Riena sat blankly until Count Dyke caught up and helped her up. Then she asked the count belatedly.

“Father, Cas will come back again, right?”

“…”

“Huh?”

“Let’s hope so.”

Leaving an ambiguous answer, the count took Riena back to the mansion.

And just as Riena had a bad feeling, Cas, who had promised to come back, never returned.