Chapter 248: I’m Sorry

　Breakfast was over, and as everyone was leaving their seats, I stopped my mother.

“Mother, may I speak to you for a moment?”

“Yes?”

　Mother smiles gently. It was hard to believe that she had given birth to four children. I wonder what kind of health regimen she must have mastered to achieve such a state. I don’t think that mother would do something like that, but just in case.

“Meeka, this is about my sister-in-law. She may have a little problem with her behavior, but she is a very nice person, so, um, please don’t be too hard on her.”

“Oh my, that’s so unexpected. I can’t believe you think I would do such a thing.”

　I felt embarrassed, so I instinctively looked away. Mother began to giggle. She is teasing me!　I looked at her and saw that she was laughing, covering her mouth with a fan.

“There’s no need to worry. I’ve thoroughly done my research on Meeka-san. There’s a reason why she is so passionate about swordsmanship.”

“A reason?”

“That’s right. Boys want to be mean to girls they like, don’t they?”

“H-ha…”

　Really? I’ve never been like that…but I feel like there are definitely kids like that out there… Not all of them, of course.

　In other words, sister-in-law Meeka had a boy who was mean to her, and in order to fight against him, she became stronger. For her, becoming strong means nothing more than protecting herself.

　You get the picture, right? My mother smiles, as if to say, I nodded back.

“Cain said the same thing to me. All the brothers are kind to Meeka. I’m a little jealous.”

　Mother giggles. That’s because she is my future sister-in-law, okay? It’s better to have her get along with you, mother, sweet or not, than to be on bad terms with mother. I was never smitten by her breasts.

“I am relieved to hear that. I’m sorry I was so rude.”

“It’s all right, Julius. I’m glad you are taking a proper interest in your new family.”

　Mother squints at me with a kind of glare. Did she think I was such a cold person?　I didn’t mean it that way. I’ll ask my brothers later. If they think so, I need to clear up the misunderstanding.

　After I returned to my room after talking with my mother, I immediately got ready to go to the knight’s quarters. Even though we were going to the same knight’s quarters, I was going separately from brother Cain. He has to introduce sister-in-law Meeka. The footwork is inevitably heavy.

“All right, I’m ready. Let’s go, Nero.”

“Yes, sir.”

　When I arrived at the knights’ quarters with Nero, the place was already noisy. Maybe brother Cain was ahead of us. What should I do …… I guess I’ll just say hello to Lionel for now?　When I found Lionel, I headed straight for him.

“What’s this ……?”

“Julius-sama!　Welcome back.”

“Julius-sama, welcome home!”

“Oh, yeah. ……”

…… it was nice to receive such an enthusiastic welcome, but what I saw before me was the sight of knights in full plate doing air chairs. What on earth is going on?

“I’ve heard. I heard that you single-handedly took out thirteen snow wolves.　That’s my Julius-sama.”

“What?　Yes, well, yes.”

“At that time, I heard that the escort knight had acted poorly?”

“Yeah, well, that’s right…”

　So this full plate air chair. I’m kind of sorry. Sure, I did think, “How can leadership be disrupted just because the commander is gone?” and I thought, “they need to be scolded,” but I never imagined it would come to this.

“If you are unable to respond to unforeseen circumstances, you are unworthy as a knight who protects the glorious Margrave Heine family. So, first of all, I intend to train them again from the bottom of my heart. Please forgive me.”

　Lionel bowed deeply. The other knights followed suit and bowed their heads. The armor of the knights in the air chair made a small clinking sound.

　This is not good. I’ve got to do something about this.

“Look up, everyone. Everyone makes mistakes. As long as you don’t make the same mistake again, there’s no problem. If you are truly sorry, show it by your actions. The knights who are sitting there, Stand up and take action. I’m always watching.”

　With a clattering sound, the knight in the air chair stood up. I saw something shining through the gap in his helmet. …… perhaps, are they crying?　What a harsh punishment! I mean, how long have you been doing this? I should have come sooner.

“Let me introduce you all. As you may have heard, this is Nero, he has officially become my personal servant. We will be training together from now on. Please take care of him.”

“I’m Nero.  Nice to meet you.”

“I have heard about you. I will train you as strictly as I trained Julius-sama.”

“Yes, sir!”

　Nero replied with a smile, happy that he could make himself stronger. Nero will have to learn other practical things as well, which I think will be quite difficult. Hopefully the training here will be a distraction from that.

　There were other things I wanted to ask about, like how things were going while I was gone, but I also have other places to go. After a quick greeting with the knights, I headed towards the dormitory. There, apprentice knights were training.

“Giles, Christopher, I’m back. The person next to me is my servant Nero. I want you to get to know each other from now on.”

“Welcome home. I’m Giles.”

“Christopher. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

　In addition to the two, other apprentice knights are also hard at training. In the future, they will become fine knights under Brother Cain. There are only two kids my age so far. I have no intention of leading the Knights in the future, and I think this is fine.

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