The match against Stella was over, and the midterm vacation, which was the recovery period for the body, was about to enter the fifth day.

In the single room where I was hospitalized for intensive care, I could only hear the crunching sound of peeling apples.

“Mr. Conrad, do it.”

“Saint Claire… .”

I wanted to bring a plate and fruit that had nothing to do with treatment from the morning today.

After cutting an apple from the fruit basket Stella had brought, Saint Claire held a piece of apple in front of my mouth.

“I can eat it myself, Saint Clare.”

“Your left arm hasn’t healed yet.”

“Your right arm is fine, isn’t it?”

“But the left arm is closer to pick it up, isn’t it?”

“That’s because the saintess is sitting to my left.”

It wouldn’t be strange for her to sit on my left side since my left arm hasn’t been treated yet.

Saint Claire seemed to be using the fact that my left arm hadn’t healed yet as a good excuse to feed her from hand to mouth.

“Have you ever liked the shape of a rabbit?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll cut the next one into a rabbit shape, so just eat this one.”

“I don’t care what the rabbit looks like… .”

“Eat quickly. My arm hurts.”

With his hand in front of his lips, he was trying to feed me an apple somehow.

Reluctantly, I opened my mouth and accepted the piece of fruit in her hand.

It would be rude to her to refuse any more.

Above all, there is an old adage of an old saint, don’t attack a man with a knife.

Right now, the fact that I’m in the church now is technically the aftermath of a battle with a man with a sword.

By my standards, it was a persuasive maxim in its own way.

The sweetness of the apple spread in my mouth with a crunching sound.

It was definitely something a noble lady had obtained, so I got the impression that it tasted quite expensive.

“Mr. Conrad, do it.”

“So you say I can eat…” What is that?”

“Can’t you see? It’s a rabbit.”

“… A rabbit is right, though.”

I thought you meant rabbit-ear-shaped apple slices with the skin slightly undercut.

I didn’t think of an apple craft that was so delicately cut that the front and back feet were expressed.

“Ah, do it, quickly.”

Around the time she held the carefully carved piece of fruit in front of me again.

‘Knock, knock, knock.’

Three knocks were heard outside the hospital room door.

“Brother, I came to see you in the hospital. Are you all right now?”

At the sound of her sister’s voice coming from beyond the door, Saint Claire quietly put down the piece of fruit she had been thrusting at me onto a plate.

“Yeah, it’s okay, come in.”

After about 2 seconds passed after my answer.

With a rattling sound, the door to the hospital room opened to the right, and the young lady of the viscountess with light blonde hair appeared.

“Saint Claire was there too.”

“It’s been a while, Miss Delfina.”

“My brother is always indebted.”

“No, I usually rather get help from Mr. Conrad.”

Saint Clare, who was good at hiding her true nature, and Delphina, who played an ideal noble lady but eventually became her true nature.

It was literally a conversation between two people made up of pretense and pretense, so it couldn’t be so amicable on the outside.

Of course, in reality, you have to be friendly.

“Last time, I was really indebted… ah.”

I was silently watching Delphina chatting with Saint Clare.

My sister met my eyes and, as if remembering something, she took out from her bag and handed me something wrapped in a white cloth.

“Brother, you left this behind.”

“Leave it?”

I received an object wrapped in something hard from Delphina.

As soon as I removed the white cloth covering the outside, I could make out what she had given me.

“It’s a broadsword.”

To be precise, it was the broadsword I had been using since last spring.

“He left it at the stadium. While I retrieved it, I also replaced the handle with a new one and sharpened the blade neatly.”

After confirming that the blade was sharp enough to show my face, I thanked my little sister.

“Thank you, Delphina. I’ve been putting off management because I’ve been busy.”

“… You’re on good terms with Lady Stella, right? I was a little worried when I saw the last evaluation match.”

“Don’t worry, it’s still good. I stopped by once last night.”

For some reason, it seemed like they were talking a little bit this time, but then they suddenly blushed and ran away.

As a swordsman, losing a 1v1 duel to a mage was such a shameful thing.

“Then you are lucky. Oh, I’ll put the broadsword in my brother’s cloak. The holder on the right always carries it, right?”

“Yeah, right.”

After taking the sword back from me, Delphina properly put the well-prepared broadsword back into the cloak hanging in the closet.

“… … .”

Strangely, she looked into Saint Clare’s eyes and put on a hesitant expression.

“What’s wrong, Delphina.”

“Yeah?”

“If you have something you want to say or a concern, tell me. I will listen.”

“… Actually, there is one concern that I want to ask only to my brother.”

If you only want to ask me, it probably means that you don’t want to talk to Saint Clare.

The moment I was about to carefully ask her to leave, Saint Clare quietly stood up first.

“It’s time to shine your face in the church service. Can I leave for a while?”

Anyway, one notice is that he is an incredibly fast person.

“How long will it take for you to come back?”

“Well, maybe it will take an hour or so?”

“All right. Please be careful.”

“Let’s talk with the siblings while I’m gone.”

Leaving the half-cut apple on the plate, Saint Claire stepped out of the hospital room and disappeared.

Delphina continued talking to me with a slightly worried tone.

“Isn’t it just that I made you notice it because of me?”

“It’s okay, because you’re naturally like that.”

“I’m sorry that I seem to have interrupted the two of you having a good time together.”

It seemed that he had given his impressions after seeing the rabbit sliced apple on the plate.

If you don’t want to feel sorry for Saint Clare, who was so considerate and vacated, you should start by asking the purpose of Delphina’s visit.

“So, what is your concern?”

“That… It’s about human relationships.”

“yes?”

Delfina was probably much more skilled than me when it came to managing personal connections.

I felt a bit embarrassed as I received counseling from an unexpected direction.

“Don’t you know Delphina better than I do?”

“It should be, though. Still, I want to hear advice from my older brother.”

“If it’s okay with me, I’ll listen. Who are you worried about?”

Well, the reason why he designated me as a counselor must have been for a reason.

Maybe it was a story about a person related to me.

“When someone suddenly and intentionally avoids talking to me or not making eye contact. Any guesses as to why?”

“Someone is deliberately avoiding conversation, or avoiding eye contact… .”

It was a fairly vague explanation of the situation, but I was able to grasp the meaning of what my sister was trying to say.

Because I had a similar experience recently.

Maybe you can give some advice on it with an example.

“For now, let me tell you about a similar case I have been through.”

“Yes, brother.”

“Perhaps the other person did something big wrong to you, so you didn’t have the confidence to excuse it, so you started avoiding it?”

First of all, I compared it to the case of Lulu and I, who had been through the most recently, and asked.

“Did he do me wrong?”

“Perhaps he has committed some wrong that he cannot undo with his own power. I wondered if he was avoiding it because he didn’t know how to explain it.”

“Well… .”

Delphina heard me and seemed to be thinking about the person she was avoiding.

He immediately shook his head to both sides as if in denial.

“I don’t think so.”

“yes?”

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him that he can’t undo with his own power. Even if he committed it, he’s not the kind of person to silently avoid or do.”

“If you say so, then so be it.”

At least from a human perspective, my sister must have had a broader perspective than I did.

Perhaps the evaluation seen through her sister’s eyes was not wrong.

“Then, on the other hand, what if you made a mistake or made an awkward request and avoided it?”

So this time, I tried to bring up a story, wondering if it might be a similar case to the one I had been avoiding Saint Clare for a while.

“Well, I don’t think there is either… .”

“yes?”

“Maybe I did something rude or said something embarrassing without my knowledge, but I don’t think I remember it.”

If it’s not in Delphina’s memory, it’s probably right that it doesn’t exist.

My sister wasn’t someone to bother with or ask for strange favors.

Even if he had done such a thing, he wasn’t a great person to be unaware of.

“If that’s not the case, did you have something to think about and need some time to sort things out without face-to-face?”

This time, I asked, reminding myself of the time in the beginning of the second semester last year, when I didn’t deliberately meet Xian because he was thinking about my proposal.

“It’s time to organize your thoughts… .”

“With this, it wouldn’t be strange if there was something that Delphi and you didn’t know. Maybe if I wait a little bit, maybe I can talk to them first.”

“Anything like that, when you talk to other people, it seems like you talk normally without any particular worries.”

“Conversation normally as if there are no worries with others… Wait, how do you know that?”

“You keep avoiding one-on-one conversations with me, but if you want to be part of the student council, you still have to face each other anyway… ah.”

Delfina, who had accidentally spit out a clue that would allow her to recognize the opponent, hurriedly shut her mouth.

I had already heard hints from her that she was a member of the student council.

If we’ve narrowed down the candidates so far, it’s only a matter of time before we figure out who they really are.

“If you, Delphina, care so much about it, then there is a high possibility that you are close to yours even within the student council.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, brother.”

“Is that Johnny Winte? That you are the one you said.”

“… … .”

First of all, looking at the reaction, I don’t think it’s Johnny Winte.

“Then is it Lady Hilla Warburg? From what I’ve heard, they’re quite friendly.”

“… I do not know?”

Not even Lady Hilla.

After that, I called Delphina’s student council members one by one, but my sister’s eyes were still unwavering and her composure was maintained.

I wonder if my ability to hide lies has improved without my knowledge. Or is there someone I haven’t told you about yet.

… oh

Come to think of it, I didn’t ask who was the last person to join Delphina’s student council.

“Delphina, by any chance the person you mentioned is avoiding you these days… .”

“Oh, no, brother. In the first place, you need to limit yourself to student council members… .”

“Are you Prince Antonio Alexandros?”

“… … .”

It seems that he tried to hide his feelings somehow.

It was an acting ability that was not enough to circumvent my observational skills, which have already lived under the same roof with my younger sister for nearly 20 years.

“Right.”

“… I didn’t say anything.”

The answer was as if it had already been said.

Anyway, now that I knew who the target was, I began to have a sense of how to solve it.

“Shall I ask you one more time? Why is Prince Antonio avoiding the Viscount Lady?”

“Oh, of course not! Are you insane, brother?!”

“it’s okay. Prince Antonio won’t think it’s rude.”

“That’s your brother’s idea!”

yes it is, but

It was a personality that I had grasped over two times in my previous life and in my current life. Maybe my expectations weren’t so wrong.

“Uh, anyway, please never tell Prince Antonio that I brought up such a story, brother.

Oh, no. Just think of today’s consultation itself as if it wasn’t there, and forget it from your memory. Come to think of it, I think this was a problem I had to solve on my own.”

“Yes, work hard.”

“Rest in peace, brother.”

Delphina said her last goodbye to me and quietly closed the door to the hospital room and left.

“… … .”

As I put the brown rabbit in my mouth, I roughly guessed my sister’s feelings.

Delphina must have been shocked in her own way.

He must have thought that he had made a connection to become friends with the royal family.

If he had a bad relationship with Prince Antonio, who was the key to the process, he wouldn’t be in a good mood.

Delfina told me not to tell this story to Prince Antonio.

I’ll probably need to see him sometime soon.

And the opportunity to meet the prince came sooner than expected.