I Didn't Even Want To Live, But God Forced Me To Reincarnate! 210 Still Leticia's Debut Party

Upon arriving to where my friends were, I was greeted by Luca's raised eyebrows and question.

"Nothing. It's not like Leticia's finished greeting the others, right?" I answered back.

"Did you get lost again?" Luca's tone of voice was affirmative.

"Of course not!" I protested—don't label me like that!

"Yes, yes, can you two stop your usual bickering, please?"

Carbuncle clapped her hands a few times to shift my and Luca's focus with a bored expression on her face.

Back then, she was in high spirits when she saw us starting to bicker, supporting us to "fight" (that was effective in making us stop bickering, too...). But in time, she grew tired of it that she'd just tell us to stop. Or maybe we were getting too noisy...

"Right, Kuu-chan is right! Stop bickering and let's all enjoy the party!" Iris said with her small hands tightly grasped in front of her shoulders.

"Iris, my cute girl~," I quickly hugged her small body in my arms. She's just too adorable!

"Lyra, I'm older than you, so don't treat me like that...," Iris protested.

"My Iris has started to grow up that she's started to protest...," I purposely made my tone of voice sound sad.

"It can't be helped with how things are, Iris. That's why, you should eat a lot and grow up more," Harvey said as he casually patted Iris' head.

"Even Harvey, too..."

"Yes, Little Sheep, eat a lot! I'll go hunt for ya~," Carbuncle smirked.

"...No, thank you," Iris rejected Carbuncle's offer right away.

It was suddenly getting merrier around here. Perhaps due to that, Leticia decided to stop seeing the other n.o.bles and went to approach us.

"Lyrnee!" She lightly ran towards my direction.

The twins who were behind her tried to follow as well.

"Careful, don't fall down!" I warned them in my worry.

"Hya!" Leticia jumped to hug me.

The twins stared at us.

...I felt as if the twins were asking for their portion as well.

"Hmph, you shouldn't be too careless and do that in public, Princess," Ein commented from the side as he observed us.

"What's wrong with it?" Leticia replied with a sulky voice.

"Well, you're the focus of everyone's eyes. You should restrain yourself and maintain a good image," Ein replied as if it was natural.

"It's okay, Ein, Leti's still small," I tried to back Leticia up.

"Don't pamper her too much, Big Sis Lyra. Things like this require us to get used to it from when we're small..."

"You might be right, but still..."

I can relate much to Ein's comment and understand where he's coming from, but I... maybe since I have experienced that in my past lifetime, I don't want Leticia to experience it as well.

"I'm saying this out of my kind consideration, Big Sis. Isn't that right, Big Bro Luca?" Ein quickly shifted the topic of the conversation to Luca.

"...She'll be fine," Luca refused to comment too much for this and only replied as much.

"Thanks for your consideration then, Ein. I thought you were rivals with Leticia but it turns out you care about her," I smiled.

"I just realized that she's still a child and I no longer view her as quite a rival, but...," Ein shifted his gaze to Freyr. Freyr noticed this and only stared back at Ein with his straight face.

"I have to seize the best little brother award!" Ein said with determination...

I scratched my head in confusion.

"Well, Ein, just don't try too hard and overdo yourself, okay? It's already amazing how you managed to reach your current achievements anyway...," I lightly reminded Ein not too lose out on his life.

Yes, Ein actually managed to get an amazing achievement so far.

He actually skipped a year and he's now a year my junior in Special Cla.s.s.

His target is... to be in the same cla.s.s as me and the others.

When I saw Nicole the other day, it seemed as if she didn't view Ein's condition as something strange. I learned that it was not the first time that the Loera clan had some of the members that skipped grades and such.

That's definitely a cheat! Their clan's [Oracle] is really a cheat in life!!

"So, it will be fine, right? Lucniisama and Kiri are there to protect me!" Leticia then insisted.

"Eh?" Kiri was surprised to hear his name being called so suddenly.

"Yes, that's right, Leti," Luca ignored Kiri's surprised voice and affirmed Leticia's words.

"And you have me and the others here as well! Even Ein will be there for you, right?" I tried to stare as menacingly as I could to Ein.

"What?" Ein was surprised but after seeing my expression, he sighed and reluctantly nodded, "I guess."

Leticia brightly smiled.

But a certain insensitive brat decided to break this happy scene.

"O-of course I'll be there for you, Leticia. But you're thinking of me way too highly... To protect you, I...," Kiri showed a determined expression at first, but his confidence faded midway.

"What are you talking about? Still feeling timid? You're almost 10 too, you know. You'll be fine, we've been training together, so I know," Luca hit Kiri's back.

"Luca, that's too much power!" Kiri protested.

"Yes, yes, I'll definitely make it hurt every time you're being timid."

"...You're evil!"

Well, for one... Kiri being so straightforward and telling that Luca's cruel... that's already an improvement, alright.

Leticia giggled.

"Of course, Kiri is the knight, Lucniisama is the prince, and I'm the princess! So, Kiri definitely will protect us, right?"

"Nah, I don't need anyone's protection," Luca rejected the notion.

"So, he's all yours," Luca casually pointed Kiri to Leticia.

"Eh?!" Kiri yelped in surprise.

"But then again, if you're incompetent, I'll just protect Leticia myself. No problem," Luca shrugged his shoulders.

"Kiri is going to become a knight in the future, right? Right?" Leticia asked with her bright eyes.

"Y-yes!" Kiri finally decided to let it go at this point.

"The young ones are so lively, aren't they?" Clavis finally decided to speak up.

"Haha, let them be. It's nice seeing them like this," Alt-nii answered.

"Ah~ We're getting old, aren't we?" Harvey casually put his arm on Alt-nii's shoulder.

Geez, these three older boys! Acting like we're way younger than them, huh?

And here I still remember them being more childish than me... oh well.

It couldn't be helped, they're thirteen years old this year.

Exactly as old as me... as Reinst when I died.

My mentality doesn't seem to grow older that much past that point—in a good way, I think—so, it seems like they're going to outgrow me soon. Or maybe we'll be walking together from now on.

I'm looking forward for the future.

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Blurb/Bonus Scene:

"Hmm? There's a gossip that I favour one house way too much?" King t.i.tus asked with a bored look on his face.

"Well, that's what I heard," Queen Shaula answered.

"It can't be helped that we're so involved with them... with Cyan and Ophelia's positions, right? As for the children, it's simply due to their close ages. Besides... there's that Loera main family's heir apparent in our son's friend circle."

"As for the Grabberton family and Fumitsuna family...," Queen Shaula paused a bit before continuing, "It's simply due to their age gap and distance, I guess. But the Grabberton family's heir has started to get more involved with the royal court in preparation for his inheritance, right?"

"Yes, that's right. That Herbert is teaching his son first-hand."

"As for the Fumitsuna family..."

"We're maintaining an especially close relation with them, as their territory is so close to war zone—the unclaimed land, the border. Their main family's heir is also going to get involved with the royal court soon enough," King t.i.tus stated it as a matter of fact.

"Maybe it's because the Hartmann family's involvement with us is the most apparent, then," Queen Shaula deduced.

"...Though I must admit that I'm indeed very close to Cyan than the others, haha," t.i.tus shrugged his shoulders.

"...There you have the answer," Shaula was speechless.