~Chapter 3~
Before heading to Yulian’s room, Heidi helped fix me up.
“This hairpin, wasn’t it a gift from Lord Yulian on your last birthday?”
Heidi pulled out a big emerald hairpin from a drawer full of accessories.
It was a rare one, so I usually saved it for special occasions.
“If he sees this, Lord Yulian might suddenly remember you.”
“…You think so?”
“Of course! Lord Yulian always carefully picked out every gift he gave you.”
“Then I’ll wear one of the outfits he bought me too.”
After finishing the makeover, I asked for parchment and a pen to write a document—one that would be important to protect Yulian from future danger.
“My precious Rossi-Rossi, I hope you grow up to be a bright and confident kid.”
Yulian’s voice from the past echoed in my head.
‘Yulian…’
Counting the time before I turned back time, it had been way too long since I last saw him.
‘I’ll live confidently, just like you wanted, Yulian.’
I took the document, took a deep breath, and stood up.
‘And I’ll be confident in front of you too.’
With that determination, I headed to Yulian’s room.
Sure enough, he was awake. Just like how I remembered him before the regression.
His whole body was wrapped in bandages, but you could still see his handsome features.
Yulian narrowed his sharp green eyes and scanned me suspiciously.
“Who’s this little squirt?”
He’d already gotten a rough explanation from his best friend and adjutant, Schulva. But he still looked super doubtful.
“You’re telling me this kid’s my sister? Seriously…?”
His already rough and thug-like vibe made him look even scarier.
Before the regression, I ran out crying at this exact moment. Yulian looking at me so coldly was just too much.
‘And I never saw him again after that…’
I closed my eyes and opened them again.
During those ten years locked in the temple’s underground prison, I’d replayed this moment over and over, full of regret.
‘If I want to change the future, I need to act differently now.’
So instead of running, I calmly sat down next to Yulian’s bed and nodded.
“Nice to meet you, big brother. We have different dads, but I’m your sister.”
Yulian squinted at me and asked,
“…How old are you?”
I answered sweetly.
“Oh, remember when you were twelve and Mom ran away from home? She did that ‘cause she got pregnant with me by some other guy.”
“WHAT THE HELL?!”
Yulian tried to bolt upright but groaned and grabbed his back, slumping back down.
“What the hell was our mom doing?! She ran away twice after being in a family like this?!”
Yulian, now seventeen, was only now learning the full truth about his mom’s late-night escape.
He cursed with a twitching face.
“And for god’s sake, which idiot ran their mouth and told a little kid like you all this crap?!”
I stared at him for a moment and then kindly replied.
“You did. On the day we first met, you told me yourself.”
“…Huh?”
Yulian looked stunned—he’d just realized he was the blabbermouth.
I continued calmly.
“Mom left me at an orphanage and died. You were the one who brought me here when I was living as an orphan.”
Yulian looked shocked.
I patted my chest and smiled.
“You really cared about me, you know. You said you’d take responsibility for me.”
He grabbed his head and sighed deeply, looking overwhelmed.
“Ugh…”
“Anyway, there’s a twelve-year age gap between us. Just thought it’d be easier to remember that way. Hope that helps.”
Yulian groaned, saying nothing, clearly frustrated.
“I can’t even take care of myself right now… and now I’ve got some kid to look after too…”
That’s when Schulva suddenly slapped a hand over Yulian’s mouth.
“Mmgh!”
“Lady Rossi, please don’t take his words to heart!”
Schulva frantically tried to explain.
“He doesn’t know what he’s saying. He’s out of his mind right now… This guy—uh, I mean, Lord Yulian—is not in his right state.”
I’d never seen Schulva this flustered, so I just smiled.
“Schulva, are you really allowed to cover your boss’s mouth like that? Yulian doesn’t seem like the type to let that slide.”
“That’s exactly why I’m doing it.”
Schulva sighed deeply.
“When he gets his memories back, he’s definitely going to scream at me: ‘Why didn’t you shut me up when I said mean things to my baby Rossi?!’ It’s better I get ahead of that now.”
He then added seriously, with a completely straight face,
“If he remembers, that sister-loving idiot will stop eating for a whole month and cry his eyes out for hurting you.”
“What?”
Yulian blinked in disbelief.
Like he couldn’t believe any of this.
Then he shouted back like he was trying to win the argument.
“Then what do you expect me to do?! I’m a noble now?! I used to be some legendary warrior?! Are you serious?!”
“Heh… I mean, it doesn’t sound that weird to me.”
I mumbled, but Yulian kept yelling.
“I don’t know anything about noble life! I’m scared, okay?! I just wanna go back to the butcher shop!”
With his sharp green eyes gleaming, he pointed at me.
“My brain’s empty! I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do next, and now there’s a little kid stuck to me! That’s not normal, right?!”
Silence filled the room.
Schulva shook his head and sighed.
Yulian, yelling his head off in front of me like this.
Yulian, whining about noble life being scary and wanting to go back to chopping meat.
It was something I never could’ve imagined before.
Then I remembered something Yulian once said.
“If you saw what I used to be like, you’d freak out. ‘What a bratty, savage, black-flame dragon punk—this guy is hopeless…’ That’s what you’d think.”
I fully accepted the truth at that moment.
The calm, ruthless Yulian Noart who crushed his relatives and stood against the temple—he was gone.
The room stayed completely quiet.
Yulian, who had just yelled, now peeked at me nervously.
“Ahem! Uh, listen… I mean… uh…”
When Yulian started to fidget and show a guilty face,
“Yeah, you’re right.”
I finally spoke, sounding down.
“You really don’t have anything in your head. You are a hopeless idiot. Now that I’ve met you, it’s even more obvious.”
Yulian froze.
So did Schulva.
“But the Noart family isn’t the kind of place where a hopeless idiot like you can survive. Especially now that Grandpa’s not even here.”
“…What?”
“Well, it is what it is.”
I pulled out the document I’d prepared earlier.
Yulian’s mouth fell open as he read it.
It was written in big, messy handwriting.
“Yulian.”
While he was reading it, I casually opened his desk drawer, took out the seal, inked it, and handed it to him.
Then, with a tragically serious look, I said,
“Stamp it. Right now.”
