“Sorry!”

“Sorry…”

Aeliana stared at them. Her anger had long diminished after dinner. She didn’t expect an apology in less than a day.

‘This could be an advantage for me.’

She placed her bear down and lightly tugged on both of their sleeves bringing their gaze over to her. She shot them a cute smile and said in a cute voice,

“I forgive you because brother Marius didn’t mean to do it, right?”

Marius stiffened up upon her words before tensely nodding. 

“And brother Darius was trying to stop brother right?”

Darius looked at her with his big doe eyes, nodding. She clasped her hands together and said,

“So it’s okay! Brother won’t do it again after all right?”

She stared at them, her eyes sparkling making it hard to refute. Darius fumbled with his fingers while Marius chewed on his bottom lip.

“Right? Brothers?” she muttered a sad yet innocent look on her face, creating puppy dog eyes.

“Okay! Okay! I won’t do it again!” Marius burst out.

“...Me too..” Darius spoke afterwards, nodding to himself.

Aeliana smiled to herself.

“But I still don’t like you!!” Marius declared, pointing at her rudely before storming out of the library.

Aeliana shrugged it off and was about to continue reading her book but realised that Darius hadn’t left with his twin. She angled her head to the right, making eye contact with him.

He fiddled with his fingers again. Aeliana could tell it was a habit of his but waited for him to speak. He slowly pointed at the book she was holding and softly spoke,

“Do..do you want to read together..?” 

His cheeks were dusted pink and he couldn’t look her in the eye. She unconsciously furrowed her brows. So sudden?

“No.” she replied, shaking her head.

He visibly flinched before looking down to the ground, devastated that he got rejected. Aeliana could see imaginary downward dog ears protruding from his head.

It was a good opportunity to get closer to him but Aeliana felt like he was only doing it because of guilt, not because he wanted to. She also felt like being a bit petty even though she wasn't mad anymore.

‘I can get another chance next time’

Darius’ gaze didn’t leave her until Marius suddenly came back, dragging him away. Aeliana continued reading where she had left off until Flora came and picked her up, forcing her to go to sleep.

The next morning right after breakfast, Aeliana headed to the library and chose another children's book related to magic.

The previous book she read had simple words and was more towards pictures. The book she chose this time had more words than pictures. It was another way of improving her imperial language.

Flora placed down a plate of cookies and a large glass of milk before leaving her alone in the library.

Aeliana slowly read each page. Despite the book being meant for children, it had words she didn’t understand. Her brows were furrowed together as she tried to understand the words.

“..be..bel...what..” 

‘I should ask the librarian or find a dictionary, it’s hard to understand.’

Aeliana snacked on a cookie and was about to go find the librarian when she heard a voice beside her. It was soft and mellow.

“It says believe.”

“Ack—!” Aeliana jumped in surprise, not expecting to hear another voice.

She was too absorbed in figuring out what the words meant that she didn’t notice another presence with her. She turned around and saw Darius standing there. She blinked her eyes a couple of times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

“...Brother? What are you doing here?” 

Darius looked at the book, dodging her eyes and answered her question, “I saw you here and you kept frowning.”

Aeliana nodded but her eyes showed she didn’t believe his words. She turned back to her book and continued reading.

“..ca..t?”

“Cast.”

“Oh, cast.”

The next thing Aeliana knew, Darius was sitting beside her helping her with any word or sentence that she found difficult. She didn’t find his presence irritating but the opposite.

Out of her four brothers, Darius was the kindest even though he didn’t like her. He wouldn’t pull pranks on her like Marius or glare at her like her first brother. However, he didn’t treat her like his sister but as a guest.

Flora came to check on her a few times and even brought another glass of milk just for Darius. 

“Brother,” Aeliana poked Darius’ forearm to get his attention.

“Yes?”

“Does this say 'consistent'?”

Darius looked at the word she pointed at and nodded. Aeliana’s eyes brightened up and a grin made its way to her lips.

“I got it right!” she cheered to herself, clapping.

Darius just stared at her without saying anything. Seconds later he nodded, “En..”

“My lady, Lord Darius, it’s time for lunch.” Flora announced as she came into the library.

“Okay!” 

Aeliana closed the book shut and got down from her seat, running around to Flora, and jumping into her arms. Flora carried her up and tapped her nose,

“My lady! I told you not to run so your body can heal!”

“I’m fine now! I ran a lot yesterday and I’m okay!”

Flora heaved a sigh, shaking her head, “Alright, alright. Let’s go down now.”

“Okay~” Aeliana cutely answered in a singing tune.

Just as Flora was about to walk out of the library, Aeliana remembered about Darius. She looked down at him before whispering something inside Flora’s ear.

Flora placed her back on the ground. 

She walked up to her brother and extended her hand out toward him. He glanced at her hand in confusion.

“Let’s go together,  brother!” she smiled.

Darius blankly stared at her hand and slowly reached out before freezing up. She looked at him, wondering why he stopped. He then retracted his hand and while shaking his head, he hurriedly left the library.

Aeliana gaped at her brother’s small back before down at her extended hand. Embarrassed by the situation, she dropped it back to her side and ran into Flora’s arms.

“...Let’s go.”