The Elder Sister Who Ran Away After Being Cheated by Her Fiancé and Younger Sister - Chapter 22:

In the end, Estelle must have passed out drunk, because when she woke up, she was in bed.

Fortunately, she didn’t have a hangover. It must have been good liquor.

When she got up and went to the living room, Valken was doing push-ups.

Why?

“Good morning, Estelle. It’s morning exercise, want to join me?”

No, she didn’t. But then she reconsidered, thinking it might help her wake up, and joined in for a bit.

She didn’t push herself to exhaustion, stopping at a reasonable point before heading off to take a shower.

She let Valken have the bathroom, and in the meantime, Estelle prepared breakfast.

She brewed coffee, sliced bread, and spread liver pâté on it. She made simple open-faced sandwiches with ham and leafy greens.

It might not be enough for Valken, who could eat a whole pig starting from breakfast.

Remembering a nostalgic conversation, Estelle laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Valken asked, laughing as she came out of the bathroom and carried plates and the coffee pot to the table. Estelle brought out the cups and replied, “Don’t you actually eat a whole pig for breakfast?”

“One per person,” Valken said.

They both laughed out loud and started breakfast.

Back then, Estelle had let it slide, but now it occurred to her that Valken must be a noble lady. And if Valken was so casual with Fretes, then Fretes must also be nobility.

She had thought it was fine not to know since it hadn’t been disclosed, but she was starting to feel it might be better to find out.

“Are you a noble, Valken?”

“You’re asking now?”

“I thought it might be about time I asked.”

“Well, yes. But don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not like I kept it from you for some deep, calculated reason. It’s just really not a big deal, so it’s almost embarrassing to bring it up.”

Valken took a big bite of her open-faced sandwich and swallowed. It didn’t look crude at all in fact, it looked delicious. Impressive.

“Fretes and I are relatives.”

“Really?”

“But we’re both from branch families way out on the edges of the family tree, to the point where we might as well be omitted.”

Estelle didn’t know much about nobility, but she still thought that made them nobles.

Understanding Estelle’s confusion, Valken explained, “The nobility in Hanzelka are quite proper. But in Hollanders, you can have multiple spouses, so if you count just by noble bloodlines, there are a ridiculous number of them.”

“Hollanders is like that?!”

“Oh, you didn’t know? Royals and heads of noble families often have multiple wives. But usually, it’s just one. I’m the second daughter of the fourth wife of the younger of the two brothers who head the main family.”

Estelle tried to map it out in her head but gave up when it got too complicated.

Valken made a face that said, “See?”

“It’s basically primogeniture, but if the heir turns out incompetent, they might have an ‘accident,’ so the second and later children still have some meaning. But once the succession is settled, the rest become unnecessary. They’re not allowed to inherit the family name or land, they’re just given a new family name and kicked out.

So, I’m the head of the Valkenfoot family. Even if it’s just me. You can’t make a living like that, and I had no interest in becoming someone’s nth wife, so I joined the military.”

Estelle listened with fascination to how the nobility in the neighboring country worked.

Well, I’ll be.

Wouldn’t that mean the total number of noble “houses” would increase like crazy?

“Fretes is technically from the main line. In the main family, no matter which wife the children come from, they’re all counted as legitimate heirs, so he’s the ninth son. With eight older brothers, his value as a nobleman isn’t just zero, it’s negative.”

Laughing it off, though it was a sympathetic, wry smile, Valken continued, “So Fretes was also cut off as the head of the Fretes family, with just one member. But in his case, his mother—the sixth wife looks out for him, so he’s better off. Even so, he was tossed into the military to toughen up. Our military ends up being a sort of dumping ground for noble children who’ve been kicked out of their families.”

It was all new to Estelle.

When she admitted as much, Valken said, “Well, it’s nothing to boast about. It’s the kind of thing people gossip about, so proper Hanzelka soldiers wouldn’t bother bringing it up.”

“So, unlike the well-established nobles of Hanzelka, we’re lightweight. So, don’t worry about it.”

Valken laughed, adding that the Hanzelka side was polite enough to treat them as nobles anyway.

I see. Well, whatever.

Not that it was really that simple.

But she understood Valken’s wish for her not to treat her differently, so she filed it away as knowledge.

“Oh, right! Listening to you last night, Estelle, I thought of something.”

Valken, having finished washing the dishes, dried her hands as she spoke. It was true! A princess wouldn’t do dishes.

“I think there’s a technique I should teach you, Estelle.”

“Huh?”

Then Valken intensively instructed Estelle in a certain technique, broken down by situation.

Since Estelle had done similar things in military training, she picked it up quickly. In about half an hour, she understood the theory.

“I think I get it, but when would I ever use this?”

“You will. If you ever find yourself struggling with a decision in the future, remember it.”

Would such an opportunity ever come? She was sure she’d face many dilemmas, but she couldn’t see how this technique related.

Still, having seen Valken’s intuition in action many times before, Estelle decided that if Valken said so, there must be something to it.

“Make sure you practice!”

“Y-yeah.”

◇

Estelle waited with Valken in front of the dormitory for the carriage to pick them up.

Since the officers’ quarters used by noble officers had carriage facilities, you could arrange for a pickup by telling them the time.

“But real nobles would use their own family’s carriage. Since we’re foreigners, it’s understood we didn’t bring one with us.”

If they were from the main family, they’d properly bring one from their home country, and they wouldn’t even stay in the officers’ quarters—they’d buy a mansion here instead, Valken said. So, there was a clear class divide.

Soon, a carriage bearing the Hanzelka military emblem arrived.

Valken reached for the door and said, “Oh?”

The door opened from the inside—someone was already inside.

It was Fretes.