Webtoon Promotion: Gift

Spring.

It was a warm and beautiful season. New leaves glittered on the trees along the streets, and flowers covered the hills in an astonishing variety of colors.

After the harshness of winter, spring brought new energy into the world. Young people dreamed of love, scholars pursued new research, inventors discovered hints that might lead to great works, and politicians reconsidered the projects they wished to carry out for their countries.

There was hope in it. Possibility. The sense that something new might begin.

And that feeling was not limited to adults.

Two girls who were gradually growing out of early childhood had made a plan of their own.

“…Has she gone?”

Sunlight poured into the study at Deharem Mansion.

Roselia sat with her back to the door, a book open in her hands. She lowered it cautiously as she spoke.

Across from her, Raylin had also been pretending to read. She lifted her eyes from the page, listened for footsteps, and checked to see whether any servants remained nearby.

At last, she gave her older sister a small nod.

“Yes. She went to fetch refreshments, so I think—”

“At least twenty minutes.”

Raylin closed her book and tilted her head.

“Twenty minutes? The drawing room isn't that far from the study. Isn't that a rather optimistic estimate?”

“No. I made sure of it. I hid the snacks they served yesterday deep in the kitchen. It'll take her a while to find them.”

“Ah! That's wonderful! You really are my big sister!”

Raylin's red eyes shone with admiration.

Roselia smiled proudly. She would have liked to enjoy that gratifying display of sisterly respect for longer, but time was short.

She cleared her throat and began reviewing their plans.

“Let's check everything once more. Knight Beynon and Witch Dremes?”

“They went out to help with wedding preparations. Father, Mother, and the Count have gone to the imperial palace on business.”

“And the steward?”

“He's pruning things in the front garden with the others. We shouldn't run into him inside.”

Everything appeared to be in order.

They had chosen this day precisely because the people most likely to interfere would be elsewhere.

“Good. Then we can begin.”

“Yes…!”

Roselia stood, and Raylin followed her out.

Their hearts were pounding, and a faint tremor had crept into their hands and feet. Neither girl turned back.

They had a very important purpose.

It's for Mother!

For the Count!

To understand why the two girls had become such conspirators, one had to go back a month.

It had begun with a simple question: when should they start celebrating their parents' birthdays themselves?

Raylin and Roselia had discussed it at considerable length. Both were unusually mature for their age, and this, like any matter of importance, had required a proper debate.

In the end, they had reached the same conclusion.

We should start now.

Until then, they had always been the ones receiving gifts and affection. They had never truly given anything back.

They decided to prepare a present for Ashley, the Count, when her birthday came around this year.

But what could they possibly give her?

An expensive gift bought with their saved pocket money would hardly be useful to the woman who governed the central region of the empire. And merely writing a letter thanking her for everything she did felt nowhere near enough.

After days of putting their heads together, the sisters had devised what seemed to them a brilliant plan.

Now that they were about to carry it out, however, Raylin was less certain.

“Um, Sister… Isn't looking through Father's correspondence a little like spying?”

Roselia, who was walking ahead, glanced back at her with a frown.

“Don't start that now. You were the one who suggested checking Father's notes to find out what sort of gift Mother might like.”

“I know, but…”

“Raylin. Once we've made up our minds, we mustn't waver. We press forward, even if our lives are at stake. That's our motto from now on. Understood?”

Risk our lives just to peek into Father's correspondence?

Raylin did not understand why matters had to be put quite so dramatically. But Roselia looked frighteningly determined, so she nodded.

They climbed the stairs, passed along the corridor, and came to the office.

There was one problem.

The office door, which ought to have been shut, stood partly open.

“Wait.”

Roselia drew a long breath and crept forward.

Her shoulders shook as she peered through the gap. A moment later she backed away and turned toward Raylin, wearing an expression of grave resolve.

“Raylin.”

“Yes, Sister?”

“Let's abandon the plan.”

Raylin blinked.

Hadn't this been the sister who, a moment ago, had insisted they risk their very lives rather than retreat?

“Abandon it?”

Her unblinking gaze placed an uncomfortable weight on Roselia.

“…Uncle Maltao is inside. He's cleaning the office.”

“So?”

“It's an unexpected obstacle. We'd have to tell a lie to get him out, and I don't think that would work.”

But isn't Uncle Maltao usually easy to fool?

The answer made no sense to Raylin. She kept staring.

Roselia shifted her eyes away, grew visibly more uncomfortable, and at last admitted what was really troubling her.

“Fine! I'll tell you! A few days ago, I lied to Uncle Maltao and got caught. I told him I was reading biographies of great people, but I was actually reading a romance novel…”

After that humiliation, she simply couldn't bear to lie to him again.

Raylin found herself feeling oddly sorry for her sister.

Nobody had forbidden Roselia to read a romance. She had invented the lie because she was worried what other people might think, and then managed to get caught anyway.

That sympathetic look made matters worse.

Roselia could feel all her dignity as an older sister slipping away, so she began explaining desperately.

“I couldn't help it! The book was ridiculously interesting. Especially when the hero went to the castle to rescue the princess! I was so absorbed that I didn't even hear anyone coming.”

“Huh.”

Raylin raised a hand to her mouth, barely concealing a smirk.

“So you read that sort of book, Sister?”

Roselia froze.

Why did Raylin have to say that sort? As if an entire innocent hobby could be dismissed with a single expression.

An accusation like that only became more humiliating the longer one tried to defend oneself.

Retreat was impossible.

Roselia drew a breath and counterattacked.

“You're one to talk. You still sleep with your teddy bear. What is it, your precious little sweetheart? How childish.”

“W-what does that have to do with anything?”

“We're almost past the age for dolls. Shouldn't we be able to sleep without them? I gave up mine last month. That's how you become an adult.”

The unexpected counterattack left Raylin struggling for words.

It did sound rather grown-up to sleep without a doll.

Roselia's point was clear enough: somebody who still needed her beloved teddy bear had no right to look down on another person's reading habits.

Just like that, the contest for superiority between the sisters had returned to a stalemate.

They were still glaring at one another when the office door creaked.

Maltao stepped out carrying a dirty duster and cleaning rag. He seemed to have finished his work.

Huh? Why are the young ladies here?

He paused with one hand on the door and looked at the two girls, who were so engrossed in their quarrel that they had scarcely noticed him.

They often argued. But why right in front of the office?

Maltao scratched his cheek.

Deciding that trying to intervene would only invite trouble, he walked away.

By the time Roselia and Raylin realized someone had passed them, he was already disappearing down the corridor.

“Huh?”

“Oh?”

They looked from his retreating back to each other.

Then, in perfect agreement, they nodded.

Their obstacle had removed himself. Whatever their quarrel had been about, there was no point continuing it now.

Smiling, the girls slipped into the empty office.

They went straight to Theorad's desk.

Roselia stood on tiptoe and picked up his magical correspondence notebook.

“This is it! With this, we'll know exactly what gift to prepare for Mother!”

Roselia's lapis-blue eyes sparkled with the excitement of a scholar on the verge of a great discovery.

Raylin held her breath beside her.

Roselia placed a hand on the book, channeled mana into it, and opened it.

Whoosh—

Blue light streamed into the air and formed a square window. Inside appeared an orderly list of the people with whom Theorad usually exchanged messages.

Roselia found Ashley's name and selected it.

A private conversation unfolded.

▶ “By the way, how about going to the sea this summer? I'd like the children to see how vast it is. If you're willing, perhaps I'll suggest that Her Majesty the Emperor join us.”

▷ “The sea? That sounds good.”

▶ “Right? Then I'll arrange repairs to the villa in Palengar beforehand. It's an old place, so it will need some work.”

There was nothing especially revealing in that exchange. Farther down, the messages were mostly about coordinating dates.

Roselia frowned.

She still had no idea what kind of birthday present Ashley would enjoy.

Raylin leaned forward.

“Try the older conversations. Read them carefully. There might be a clue.”

“Oh, of course!”

That made sense.

Roselia located an exchange from two weeks earlier and opened it.

Both sisters stared at the words that appeared.

▶ “Theorad. When are you coming home?”

▷ “The meeting just ended. I'm on my way back to the mansion by carriage. It may be late, so you can go to sleep first.”

▶ “I don't want to. It's my turn today.”

▶ “Because we're waiting…”

▷ “Ashley.”

▷ “I'll be there soon.”

▷ “It won't take long.”

Roselia drew in a sharp breath and snapped the notebook shut.

A strange, unsettling feeling had come over her, as though she had wandered into a place she was never supposed to enter.

The office fell silent.

Raylin covered her blushing face with both hands. When she finally spoke, her voice trembled.

“B-but… why was the Count naked?”

“I… I don't know either.”

Roselia was no less confused.

She returned her father's notebook to exactly where it had been, then stared down at the desk, her cheeks burning.

“We… shouldn't do this.”

Raylin did not argue.

She nodded, unusually solemn.

They had begun with a simple wish to make someone they loved happy. Instead, they had learned that another person's private conversations were not theirs to inspect, however good their intentions.

And so, without either of them quite realizing it, Raylin and Roselia had grown a little more.