A Stepmother's Marchen

Chapter 35

“Hey, good Lord Commander of the Guard! Are you busy?”

The young man, who sat with his back turned and stared out of the window, threw the unit leader’s log randomly on the desk, and slowly turned his head.

The young knight who possesses curly, glamorous gold hair covering his ears, blazing dark green eyes and sculptural tall figures was Jeremy Von

Just one day before the wedding of the century, it was Jeremy von Neuwanstein, the lion of Neuwanstein and Crown Prince’s sword.

As if he didn’t recognize the visitor, he blinked a few times and slowly regained his focus.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to see if my only brother is okay.”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

Jeremy, who spouted bluntly, looked out of the window again. He seemed to be in a bad mood, too.

There was no way he’d feel better…

Swallowing a bitter smile, Elias pulled a chair nearby and sat on it, “You’re finally getting married tomorrow, brother. After four years, you’ve finally made up your mind?”

Silence, silence that was hard to express in words was left, and Elias resisted the urge to grab his brother by the collar and shake him roughly.

He must be patient. He must be considerate…

“Well, it’s not like I don’t know how you feel at all.”

“Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if she just left.”

“Why would you imagine something that didn’t happen?”

“Didn’t you think about that?”

“I used to do it sometimes. I mean, as a way to control myself whenever I get angry.”

“I didn’t know you had that self-control.”

Normally, something should have flown at this point, but surprisingly Jeremy didn’t react much. Seeing his unusual appearance, Elias swallowed a bitter smile again, crossed his long legs and sat back comfortably.

“Do you remember the first time we met her? Everything was turned upside down. Our relatives said that if she had a baby, we’d be in the cold, and my father would stick to her every day. I don’t even remember why we were anxious then.”

“We were all young, idiots.”

“……We were too young.”

Elias followed his brother’s gaze out of the window.

It was snowing. The dome roof of the Imperial Palace, shrouded in darkness, turned white, and the landscape was more unique.

It was too late to realize that she was just as young as them.

The environment surrounding them was so rapidly changed, the responsibility on the girl’s shoulders was so heavy that solid barriers were built between her and them.

“It’s not like I don’t know why you are so dilly.”

Jeremy lowered his eyes bitterly as his younger brother blabbed.

Elias of course knew, he just didn’t know if Shuri did.

They had nothing to say if anyone asked what Shuri was to them. How the hell were they supposed to answer that question?

Their relationship was too deep for her to be their sister, but it was much more complicated for her to be their mother. As such, there were so many abnormal aspects of their relationship.

It was 7 years. A total of 7 years, totaling 9 years before their father died.

For nearly a decade, starting in their early teens, they grew up with her for half of their lives.

With a girl who had the title of Guardian, who was only two years older than him, the oldest of the siblings.

It was never easy. Sometimes he was resentful. He was a definite successor and a stronger man, so why would she always try to hold everything in by herself with so many thorns? He wondered why she tried to take responsibility for everything by herself.

Of course, he knew he and his siblings were responsible for that. They were the ones who refused the girl who was smiling from the beginning.

Because she wasn’t their mother, they were the ones who bothered her with terrible jokes and pranks. Their only excuse was the fact that they were all young.

Would it be a contradictory sentiment if she feared she would leave them after their father died? Was it simple and easy to control a person’s mind? …

At one time, when he was a boy who didn’t know anything, whenever he saw the girl who was living with them under the same roof, he felt a strange feeling.

Sometimes he blamed himself for not controlling his feelings, but sometimes he prayed to God that she wouldn’t be as pretty as she was so annoying.

Then, from one point on, he started to get irritated whenever others called her their stepmother.

The mass of complex emotions that were difficult to express in any word had become a deformed skein that had become more entangled as the years pass. Now he couldn’t define in one word what she was to him.

The only thing that was certain was that he couldn’t even imagine her leaving them, and that he couldn’t put up with someone swearing at her. That was probably the same with Elias. If not, he wouldn’t have punched the second prince at that time.

All that she had done as their mother for seven years, did she really think they would know nothing?

Did she think that they didn’t know the whole story, and didn’t even try to recognize her efforts?

Did she?

And when he struggled in agony for countless nights with measles, did she know how much tears she shed beside him weighed on his chest?

“That was supposed to happen anyway. But if you’re going to do that, why did you postpone it? I’d rather just be quick…”

“Do you have any idea?”

“I don’t know, because the twins took all the brains.”

“If I had married just then, I would have been the master as people wished, but wouldn’t it be better if I left everyone hanging?”

It went without saying that Elias’ jaw fell helplessly down due to Jeremy’s words, “How can you not even have such basic knowledge?”

“Brother… ..So you just did that for such a reason? What the hell….? What are you doing?!”

“Do you want me to step on you like I did when I was little? As you know, I don’t like useless fights and hate politics. But if I had got married at the age of 17, what would happen to Shuri?”