Prologue. I Am Aika. Aika de Valliart!

I am Aika de Valliart.
I possess a mysterious power.

I’ve been sitting on a bed of thorns for days now.

But it was a cushion I climbed onto myself.

“Haa…”

The sound of a sigh, heavy with annoyance, made my shoulders flinch before I even realized it.

“He actually wants me to take care of this? That old man lost his mind.”

His menacing glare made me turn my head and stare at the window instead.

Even though I avoided his gaze, my cheeks still stung.

Stop staring. If you’re going to keep looking, at least use pretty eyes!

I wanted to say it out loud so badly, but I only screamed it in my head.

Because out of all the people Mom warned me about, he was the scariest.

She said he was even more frightening than His Majesty the Emperor, the very sun of the Empire.

“Hey.”

“……”

On top of that, here I was sitting on the carpeted floor, while he sat comfortably on the couch like he owned the world.

He crooked his finger at me with that delinquent attitude of his.

I glanced at him, then slowly turned my head away, pretending not to notice.

That was the smallest act of rebellion I could manage.

Still, seriously…

What’s the point of being handsome if you’ve got a rotten personality?

Ugh, Mom…

No, this isn’t the time for that.

I mustn’t forget the reason I came here.

I tried again to put on a cheerful, grinning face to ease the tension, but it quickly fell apart.

“Hey, Peanut.”

“I’m not Peanut!”

In the end, I couldn’t hold back and shouted in protest.

“Then, Fun-size. Come here.”

“I’m not fun-size either!”

“Then…”

Ugh, does he really need me to say it?

I looked down at my body.

No matter how mean his eyes were, I was not that short.

Mom said I was the prettiest and coolest in the whole wide world!

“Maybe… four heads tall?”

I mean, at least that much? I’m self-aware, okay!

A blatant snort of laughter reached my ears.

Seething, I turned my back to him completely and sat down facing away.

“You better come over while I’m being nice. If I have to go over there, you’ll regret it.”

Grrr, seriously.

When he threatens people, it doesn’t feel like just a threat.

I pursed my lips and puffed my cheeks in protest before getting up with a huff.

Then I marched over to him and glared with triangle-shaped eyes.

Even when I tilted my head back, I barely reached his waist, but I didn’t shrink away one bit.

“I’m going to be living with you from now on.”

“……”

“I don’t do kids. So keep a low profile, got it?”

“……”

Hmph, well I don’t do grown-ups either!

Ignoring him, I hugged my doll tight, stuck out my lower lip, and stared at him with a sulky face.

“Answer me.”

He was 18 years older than me and still this nasty.

An adult, 18 years older than a child, threatening her like that.

So savage. So cruel.

Ugh… But it’s not like I can avoid living with him.

I’d go crying to Mom if I could—but I can’t anymore.

“…Fine.”

My head was a swirl of thoughts, but I answered quietly for now.

“If you’re done agreeing, go ask for more food. And don’t loiter around in front of me.”

“But I already ate…”

“Eat more. What, did you stop growing halfway or something?”

He jumped up from his seat and ran a rough hand through his hair.

Then he shoved his hands into his pockets and stormed out past me.

“Whew…”

I slumped back down onto the floor.

It felt like a storm had blown through.

If it hadn’t been Mom’s dying wish, I wouldn’t be living with him either.

Grandpa clearly loves me way, way more.

He’d die young without me anyway, and still treats me like I’m a nuisance.

Just wait. One day, I’ll totally put him in his place!

Even if he begs me later with his hands and feet, I won’t forgive him.

Even if he pleads to live together then—no chance, hmph!

“Tsk.”

So who is this good-for-nothing brute who treats me like garbage? The one I now have to live with, for better or worse?

Kassel de Valliart.

Yup. My one and only uncle.

The Mad Dog of Valliart.

That’s what they called Kassel de Valliart.

Also known as Kassel the Reaper.

I first met my uncle at my mother’s funeral.

It was a sudden accident.

Mom had always been a very busy person.

She had more working days than days off. Even after giving birth to me, she kept working at the imperial palace.

Many mornings I woke up to find she’d already gone off to work.

She never explained exactly what she did, but I knew she was the Chancellor of the Empire.

“Chancellor, here’s the report.”

“Please help us, Chancellor!”

I heard her subordinates call her that more times than I could count.

Still, I never resented her. I was never sad about it.

Because she loved me more than anyone in the world, and I loved her just as much.

I don’t know who my dad is.

Mom never told me.

“Mom, what kind of person is Aika’s dad?”

One time when I asked about him, she just said he had something important to do.

He’d never come to see me, so he couldn’t have been that great.

After that, I didn’t ask again—because I didn’t want to make her sad.

Anyway, one day Mom had to go out of the capital for work, just for a while.

She said she’d be gone for half a month. So I begged her to take me with her.

Usually I could stay with the maids just fine, even when she was away for over a week.

But that day, for some reason, I just had to go.

“Mom! I wanna come too!”

“Aika wants to come with Mommy?”

“Yeah. I’ll be good, I’ll be quiet—can’t you take me, please?”

“Hmm…”

“Just this once! Mom, just one wish!”

She finally said yes, and it was my very first trip with her.

After her work was done, we were on our way home.

I was looking at a picture book she was reading aloud when, out of nowhere, we were attacked. The carriage overturned.

“Aika!”

Mom held me so tight I could barely breathe. Thanks to that, I wasn’t badly hurt—but I hit my head and lost consciousness.

And when I opened my eyes again… Mom was already gone.

Grandpa told me they found me in the nearby woods, not in the wrecked carriage with her.

But I remember almost nothing about the accident.

Like torn pages from a book, the memories are all jumbled and missing.

The palace said they were investigating the truth behind the carriage accident, but I didn’t hear anything about it.

All I heard was that the Emperor was furious.

I think they said he even lost control of himself.

I could guess why His Majesty was so angry.

He and Mom had been close friends for a long time.

He must have been heartbroken to lose her.

And since Mom was brilliant and did her job incredibly well, that made it even sadder.

Mom’s funeral was held with great ceremony.

I cried so much I couldn’t really see who was there, but Grandpa later told me almost everyone from the palace came.

And a lot of nobles, too.

That was where I met my uncle for the first time.

“…Mom?”

He had the same red hair and golden eyes as Mom. His chin was a bit sharper, and his features a little stronger, but he looked so much like her it was like seeing a twin.

I really thought Mom had come back to life.

Unlike the others at the funeral who cried in sorrow, he stared at the coffin—and the people around it—like he wanted to kill someone.

“…Mom…”

I stopped crying, ran to him, and clung to him. I didn’t let go for days.

But by the last day, when I finally fell asleep, he was gone.

And after that first meeting, I lived with Grandpa for several months.