Chapter – 40….
“Yes.”
“Your original eye color and hair color were black, but after coming here they changed to that color?”
“Yes.”
“And the surname ‘Volsheik’?”
“I gave it to her.”
“I see. Right. That’s how it was.”
Heidel nodded, leaning back deep into the sofa.
With one hand pressing lightly against his temple, he tapped the sofa’s armrest with his fingers.
A third silence passed.
A quiet neither comfortable enough to yawn nor prickling like sitting on a bed of needles.
Heidel’s eyes curved pleasantly, a smile tugging at his lips.
“Good. Asili Volsheik, huh. I’ve gained a younger sibling. You’re younger, right? Even if not, just be one.”
The acknowledgement came far too easily—too refreshingly, too quickly—and Asili’s expression grew faintly distorted.
“Age-wise… I guess I am the younger one.”
Seeing her face, which clearly read Is this really okay?, Heidel waved his hand lightly.
“It doesn’t matter. Ludwig already declared it, and I’ve granted him full authority over the household. You’re already a Volsheik. And that guy—who normally never changes—said he changed because of you. And on top of that…”
He straightened up and leaned his face right toward hers without hesitation.
It didn’t make her recoil, but she wasn’t as unaffected as Ludwig either.
As Asili slightly shrank her neck, Heidel pressed his forehead gently against hers.
“Your hair and your eyes—no matter how I look at you, you’re a Volsheik. Whatever color they used to be, it’d be ridiculous to deny you’re one now.”
At that, Asili absentmindedly touched the ends of her hair.
This hair and these eyes, once so foreign, had somehow become familiar.
And she hadn’t even realized she’d gotten used to them.
Heidel’s remark made her move a hand to her aching chest, and Ludwig watched her quietly.
“Good, very good. A younger sister from another dimension.”
When Asili slowly blinked, Heidel pressed his forehead firmly against hers again before pulling away.
“Asili—your name suits perfectly, too. A dream. From dream to reality.”
Though he didn’t hide his amusement, she felt none of the shallow curiosity the crown prince had shown.
He was genuine when he called her little sister.
And he believed the unbelievable—so unbelievable even she struggled to accept it—without a hint of doubt.
“To wake up after years only to find I’ve gained a sibling… What a gift even my father in the afterlife would come running to see!”
The surprise and doubt he had shown upon first meeting her now felt like a lie.
As the time passed, his excitement only seemed to grow.
He even hummed a tune as he circled Asili, chanting “Little sister” over and over.
“My little sister! My sister!”
Ludwig whispered upon seeing Heidel clap his hands like a man gone mad.
“Among the Volsheiks, blood is particularly rare. Heidel always said he wished he had a sibling when he was young, but he’d given up on that impossible wish only recently.”
The words So try to understand, even if he looks insane echoed without needing to be spoken.
Asili didn’t answer. She just bit down on her lower lip.
She had formally stepped into the Volsheik household far more easily—unexpectedly easily—than she ever could have imagined.
She didn’t know how or why… but something in her chest ached in a different way now.
He called her younger sister.
And a younger sister meant… family.
At that single word—family—she had to swallow the sudden surge of tears.
That night—an entirely ordinary night.
That car accident—nothing special, nothing remarkable.
Yet in that moment, Asili was left alone in the world.
How many times since then had she beaten her chest, crying?
Why didn’t they take me too?
Why couldn’t I go with them?
She had lost her family.
Her heart felt torn, a piece ripped clean away, leaving a hollow that never filled.
She didn’t think about it every day.
Just sometimes—when she saw a mother and daughter walking arm-in-arm.
When she saw a daughter fixing her elderly father’s collar with affectionate scolding.
Little moments that passed in an instant, leaving behind only the sting of tears.
A strong arm wrapped around her trembling shoulders.
“I’m curious how he’ll react if you call him ‘big brother.’”
At the low whisper, Asili couldn’t help but laugh.
She leaned her cheek into the palm of Ludwig’s hand as he brushed away the tears she pretended not to shed.
A watery breath escaped her lips.
“I… have a big brother now.”
On that day—so ordinary, no different from any other—
Asili and Heidel became family, tied together by the name Volsheik.
Three days after Heidel woke.
“What? The head of House Volsheik?”
A loud voice echoed in the emperor’s office, and an even louder one burst from the crown prince’s palace.
“What? House Volsheik’s lord? Really?”
And throughout the empire, noble estates erupted with the same shocked cry.
“The head of House Volsheik?”
“Good heavens, how many years has it been?”
“Lord Volsheik…!”
“This is no time to sit around.”
“The repayment? The deadline is long past—surely he’s not coming to collect?”
With such an ancient, storied lineage, there wasn’t a single noble house unentangled from the Volsheiks somehow.
Chaos spread everywhere.
Across the capital—no, the entire empire—the name Volsheik drifted like a legend whispered in a fairy tale.
“They say the lord of House Volsheik has awakened.”
“Then is he going to slay a dragon now?”
A caretaker, too disabled for farm work but helping parents by watching over their children, tilted her head.
“Maybe he will.”
“Wow! A dragon! Then he’s a hero!”
Another child bounced up and down, waving his hand wildly as the area burst into excited chatter.
The man who stirred everything from emperor to toddlers—Heidel Ryuk Volsheik—did not go off to slay dragons or settle old debts.
“Asili, are you going to keep doing this?”
He was simply being rejected—quite forcefully—by a soft little hand while he chased the rare thrill of having a younger sister.
“Don’t reject your brother’s love!”
“Please—go! Go somewhere! Don’t you have things to do? Don’t you?!”
Asili was exhausted from fighting off Heidel, who persistently tried to hug her or scoop her up.
“I’m not a toddler, or even a five-year-old! Why do you keep trying to pick me up?!”
“Because you’re my sister.”
“That one sentence doesn’t explain everything!”
“Good. Now you’re speaking casually to me!”
“No—no! Don’t smile so proudly like that!”
Asili covered her flushing face.
Truthfully, she had never intended to speak casually to Heidel.
Even if he called himself her brother, he was still the head of his house.
Asili, who valued proper respect, couldn’t imagine using informal speech with him.
But… after going through this tug-of-war again and again, the casual words simply started slipping out.
Trying to stay formal did nothing to stop Heidel’s bulldozing affection.
Polite and gentle requests never worked.
A raised voice didn’t work.
And eventually…
She half gave up, letting him pick her up and shake her around like an oversized doll.
As he cooed at her shamelessly, the half-dead look in her eyes returned.
“When are you going back home?”
“Hmm? Well, if you say you’ll come with me?”
“We already finished that conversation.”
“No we didn’t. You should just come home. Why stay here when there’s a perfectly good house waiting?”
His casual, obvious suggestion—that she simply go “home”—made Asili sigh.
She really didn’t want to repeat the complicated reasons involving the Grand Duchess.
All of it was true, of course.
She had fallen into this world like someone dropped from the sky—because she was dropped from the sky.
And the greatest reason she was able to settle here was Ludwig.
He took her hand.
He declared her as his own.
But the biggest reason she couldn’t readily leave the grand duke’s estate for the Volsheik manor was…
She rolled the words around in her mouth several times.
Heidel didn’t rush her; he simply waited.
“If you don’t say it, it won’t be conveyed.”
At her small, almost murmured voice, Heidel reached out and gently brushed her bangs aside, smiling.
“If everything could be conveyed without words, that would be the work of destiny—your fated one.”
At his words, a figure flashed in Asili’s mind.
It was brief, but clearer than anyone else.
Ludwig.
He appeared so naturally that she barely registered what fated one was supposed to mean.
Heidel’s voice continued, prompting her to lift her head from where she’d been staring down—
