The owner of the booming voice was none other than Luca. I looked at my second older brother, who was gasping for breath, with a pitying gaze. His shirt buttons were undone, and the jacket was casually thrown on, as if he had hastily left the palace without bothering to change clothes.

“I went on strike today. I’m going to play with you all day!”

“…I never said I would play with you, Luca.”

“Come on! I rushed here to play with you, and you’re reacting like this!”

“Okay, you went on strike. So what?”

When I asked him with a clenched fist, Luca replied with a sulky expression, like a drenched puppy.

“Mom has been giving me intense lessons all day long. From morning till night! And today is the weekend. Does that make any sense?”

“In the end, you ran away because you didn’t want to study. Luca, are you acting like a child?”

“Then we’re all children. It’s a long way to becoming an adult!”

With his hand confidently on his hip, Luca seemed unashamed. Unable to refute his logically coherent response, I sighed softly.

“It was a bit too much to do that until the weekend. Still, isn’t there a reason your mom is doing that? You don’t need to run away.”

“Ugh… My recent test scores weren’t that great. But Mom is so demanding! My brain isn’t that good.”

Afterward, Luca sighed and complained for a while. Luca’s lessons mainly focused on preparing for the family business, and subjects like economics and accounting seemed burdensome for a young child to learn.

Watching Luca grumble about how learning art and music would be much better than dealing with money, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for his situation.

“So, today I’m taking a break. My nanny said she would make excuses to the teachers, so play with me. Okay?”

“Even so, it was a bit too much until the weekend. But at least you still had a conscience. Seeing you tell the nanny and run away, it’s a bit much.”

“Our nanny is different from Mom. She’s very nice. She even accepts all my tantrums.”

Trying to deliver a lecture about the different roles we played, I decided to keep my mouth shut. What’s the point of saying such things to a young Luca?

Unlike me, who had already lived through two lifetimes, Luca was just an ordinary child prone to tantrums.

“Anyway, I get it. I’ll join in your little rebellion, Luca. But promise me to study hard once you go back?”

“I can’t promise that. It’s too much of a waste of time just looking at numbers!”

“Then I won’t play with you. What if I tell Lera that you came here? How do you think she’ll react?”

“Ugh, you absolutely can’t do that!”

With my timely threat and persuasion, Luca eventually yielded, swearing on our fingers that he would never play truant again.
Receiving permission from the nanny, there shouldn’t be any issues. However, I felt that doing this much would give me some dignity when I faced Lera later.

“By the way, I can’t go too far. It’s fine within the palace, but I need to stay close to the Rose Palace if possible.”

“Why? Now you can go anywhere. As long as it’s not a restricted area only accessible to the lords, it should be fine.”

“Just… there are some circumstances.”

After vaguely answering, I asked the maids to prepare a simple picnic lunch. Luca seemed like he wanted to ask more, but he was either excited to go out or decided not to pry into my affairs any further.

‘It seems a bit early to reveal the existence of the enslavement magic, especially since I haven’t clearly identified the mastermind behind the assassin.’

Disclosing the existence of the enslavement magic carried a risk, especially since I hadn’t uncovered the mastermind behind the assassin. If someone else wanted to threaten me, not Raven, as last time, revealing the existence of the magic might lead to trouble.

I already knew that Raven had excellent skills in swordsmanship and martial arts, but at this point, he was weaker than me, and I felt the need to protect him.

‘Raven would be good to bring along for a picnic… but he’s probably busy.’

Although he was already dedicated to sword training and studies, lately Raven had been swinging his sword all day long as if possessed. During the day, he polished his swordsmanship, and after sunset, he secluded himself in his room or the library, reading books and studying throughout the night.

The reason behind this was the impending entrance exam for the authorized royal knights. Although the passing rate was notoriously low for this exam, it seemed Raven was determined to pass it on his first attempt.

In the end, without informing Raven, I left the palace with Luca and headed to a place with a lake.

It was the same lake where I had secretly visited to get flowers for Sione before. It wasn’t too far from the Rose Palace, and it was an ideal place for a picnic.

We found a nice spot by the lake, where we could enjoy the shimmering water, and laid out a blanket.

After setting up a large parasol to escape the heat and preparing the food we brought, the scene was set for a picturesque picnic.