First of All, Let’s Hide My Younger Brother

— She's amazing, what family is she from?

 

— That girl saved us!

 

I was startled when I heard people cheering.

 

Did it work? Did it faint?

 

Being puzzled, I turned to the side where the guards were, and they were all staring at me.

 

— The demon, the blood demon couldn't take it any longer….

 

As the atmosphere became noisy, a man who seemed to be the captain of the guards stepped forward and took command of the situation.

 

Then the guards ran and covered the blood demon's body with a net with a magic stone.

 

To prevent it from waking up, they placed a huge net on the ground and even tied it tightly with a rope1.

 

It resembled Gulliver, when he was captured by falling on a small island2.

 

At that time.

 

— Lady Kayla?

 

I turned around to see whose voice was calling me and was startled.

 

I saw the Kratie cadets in blue knight uniforms,and Ritaus going to the front, as soon as they arrived.

 

The waists of the Kratie cadets were even filled with swords and rifles, respectively. 

 

With a sword on the left and a small rifle on the right, which must have magic bullets inside.

 

' So, instead of the Knights of the Guard, the cadets of Kratie were sent.'

 

「Ritaus, who had just been knighted, was a young man who demonstrated his overwhelming abilities, even among the cadets.」

 

It was described in a long explanation in the original story.
And then Franz followed him.

 

 — The lady…
Did you kill the blood fiend by yourself?

 

Ritaus asked with a slightly stiff expression.

 

I held out my right hand and showed him [Shuette] that it was emitting a blue light.

 

It was then that both Ritaus and the students behind him agreed.

 

— As expected, Vesta's [Shuette] is amazing.

 

— Yes, it's true.
If not for that, how could a girl deal with a monster like that all by herself?

 

It was very unpleasant for me to hear those whispers, but it was true, so I didn't respond.

 

Ritaus, whose eyes were fixed on [Shuette], slowly raised his head and his gaze went somewhere over my shoulder.

 

I too automatically turned my head.

 

At the end of Ritaus' gaze, there was a girl in a black hood.

 

 — Asta…
Astell!

 

Ritaus ran towards the girl.

 

The girl gently grabbed Ritaus' outstretched hand and stumbled for a moment to get up.

 

In an instant, the hood was pulled down and the girl's lush pink hair spilled out.

 

When the girl was startled, Ritaus quickly lifted her hood and he put it back on her.

 

They both knew each other, as they looked so used to each other.

 

A beautiful girl with pink hair, named Astell, and Ritaus.

 

For a moment, I felt like my heart was going to explode.

 

I remembered the identity of the girl.

 

No, 'she' is not a girl.

 

A little boy with long pink hair who looks like a girl.

 

He is Astaire, the obsessive crazy I so desperately wanted to avoid.

 

 

Astaire Lische Erbach.

 

 

Astaire had to grow up wearing girl's clothes from infancy.
It was because he had a curse.

 

 

「If the child is a boy, he will die before he comes of age.」

 

 

In the original story, Astaire appeared dressed as a woman when he was 15 or 16 years old.

 

Since in this world, adulthood is reached at the age of 16, it was only for a brief time that Astaire appeared dressed as a woman.

 

So I didn't even remember that Astaire was wearing women's clothes at the beginning of .

 

This is because only on the cover was the color drawing of Astaire as a man, and not as a lady.

 

Also, I had only seen Astaire dressed as a woman in black and white.

 

So I didn't realize right away that the pink haired girl was Astaire.

 

Idiot, idiot, idiot!

 

At that moment, Astaire, being supported by Ritaus, raised his head and looked up at me.

 

His amethyst purple eyes looked straight at me.

 

Why are you looking at me?

 

Why?

 

Come to think of it, I looked at him with eyes full of resentment before.

 

Did I offend him with something?

 

Yes, yes, I did help you, but I didn't avoid you, so why?

 

I turned around and avoided Astaire's gaze.

 

Perfect timing, the captain of the guard approached me and asked me to testify on the spot.

 

I thought as I ran to the platform where the guards were standing.

 

I have to get Franz to be [Shitsuro]'s Master, as soon as possible.

 

Astaire's deep purple eyes still seemed to keep looking at me.

 

 

4.
Astaire Lische Erbach

 

 

The spirits were always with Astaire.

 

Only Astaire, a descendant of King Spirit, could see the spirits, that were invisible.

 

— You are the prettiest child in the world.
You are much more beautiful than any other girl.

 

That day, as usual, the spirits whispered the most pleasant things to Astaire.

 

Astaire, who had to wear girls' clothes since childhood, thought he was a real girl.

 

He played with dolls and toy tea boxes like a normal girl.

 

He also loved the princess stories he read every night before bedtime.

 

Among the tales, Astaire's favorite was the story of a knight who came to rescue a princess who was trapped in a tower.

 

— Will a knight like this appear to me one day?

 

Astaire thought the cursed life he is having resembled that of the princess trapped in the tower.

 

So there was a time when he thought his second cousin, Ritaus, would be the knight to come to his rescue.

 

— I will be Ritaus' bride.
I will wear a wedding dress the same color as my hair, and I am going to make the bouquet the same violet color as my eyes.

 

As the adults watched adoringly as seven year old Astaire gibbered, eleven year old Ritaus spoke in a cold voice.

 

— You can't marry me.

 

It was the first time the direct, but affectionate Ritaus had turned him down.

 

— Why, why can't you marry me?

 

— You are a boy.

 

A moment of silence passed.
Astaire had never thought of himself as a boy.

 

— I'm a girl!

 

— You are a boy.
You took a bath with me.

 

— So what!

 

— The girls don't have chili peppers3.

 

Astaire collapsed on the floor.
Count Aizar and his wife began to scold Ritaus harshly.

 

— He still doesn't know anything.
Can't you just humor him? 

 

Seeing that, Astaire became even more convinced that he was not a woman.

 

Even the spirits that were always whispering in his ear didn't say that it was a lie.

 

He is a man.

 

He always thought he was a woman, but he was a man.

 

Later, when he grows up, he wished to marry Ritaus, but he is a man.

 

Even if he grows up in the future, he can't marry Ritaus.

 

Because he is a man…

 

It could have been since that moment.

 

When Astaire's endless obsession with Ritaus began.

 

At first, he hated every woman in the world who could marry Ritaus.

 

So, if there was a girl in the family who wanted to be his friend, Astaire would go around messing up, interrupting everything.

 

After that, Astaire bullied the maids who served him.

 

At first, they seemed to be like his little pranks, like when he would make a person fall down using magic, induce them to make a mistake so they would break all the stacked dishes, or cut the clothesline so the wet clothes could get dirty.

 

 

But gradually, the intensity began to get worse.

 

He caused boiling water from a kettle to gush out and end up covering a maid's face, causing severe burns, caused a maid who was sewing to poke her eyes, and caused a maid who climbed up high stairs to fall while dusting sculptures hanging from the ceiling.

 

The maid suffered a back injury and was unable to use her lower body for the rest of her life.

 

It was only then that Count Aizar and his wife realized the gravity of the situation.

 

It became clear to them what kind of evil the boy could do with the 'power of the Spirit King' when his mind was twisted.

 

So they decided to replace all the maids serving Ritaus with men.

 

When the women surrounding Ritaus disappeared, Astaire seemed to have stopped his evil deeds, and that calmed Count Aizar and his wife.

 

But that was a big mistake.

 

The Count Aizar and his wife could not have imagined that this time his target would be the men surrounding Ritaus.

 

Astaire's maternal grandfather, Duke Lische, was busy with the administration of the territory, so there were many days when he could not take care of Astaire.

 

So he used to entrust Astaire to Ritaus, the eldest son of Count Aizar, his relative.

 

Ritaus faithfully obeyed the orders of Duke Lische and Count Aizar.

 

He didn't know what Astaire might do if he didn't get what he wanted, so he did what he wanted.

 

He had to read books to him, play hide and seek with him, play roles as Astaire wanted, and play house with him.

 

If he wanted to dance with him, he would dance, if he asked for a hug, he would give him a hug, and if he wanted to kiss him, he would be willing to kiss Astaire's lips without any emotion.

 

 

 

TL: Yse

 

N/T: 

 

 

 

1) In this last sentence it didn't say 'net', but I still put it in since I couldn't understand what it really meant.
징을/ gong, I could see it had several meanings such as 'nails', 'bells' and 'bells'.

 

2) Reference to Gulliver's Travels, when Gulliver is dragged to the Island of Lilliput.
When he wakes up, he is completely tied up and tiny little men shoot him with tiny little arrows. 

 

 

 

 

3) N/T: 고추 means chili pepper, as it may also be slang for male genitals, its English equivalent for it would be 'weiner'.