The Main Heroine Falls for the Extra

I think it was right after I had just overcome my chuunibyou phase.
I had succeeded in acquiring the Wind Cutter I had been aiming for, but in the process, I created a massive dark history and even made my cute little sister an additional victim.
With my mental power briefly shutting down due to this fact, I stopped my magical training and decided to learn swordsmanship from my father.
When I told my father about this, he was extremely pleased and took me to the training ground, where I had my first meeting with her.
“Master, who is that child?”
“He’s…ahem! Nea, this is my son. From today, he’ll be learning swordsmanship with you.”
A girl with dazzling blonde hair tied back, wearing training attire.
Princess Aine Gine Palaginya.
At that time, she was training under my father in swordsmanship, hiding her identity under the name Nea.
Completely unaware of this fact, I treated her comfortably as an older sister in a relationship of martial siblings sharing the same master.
“How can you lose your composure like this! Can’t you block properly?!”
“Wait a minute, sister. This has nothing to do with composure; it’s just too fast…?!”
…She was a somewhat rough older sister.
Thanks to my father’s enthusiastic teaching, my own efforts, and sparring with her, I (while getting beaten up) developed my swordsmanship skills.
After several years, my martial sister ‘Nea’ graduated from under my father and left Count Wentos’ territory, only to return a year later leading a group of soldiers.
This time as Princess Aine.
At that time, I was surprised to discover that the martial sister I had trained with was actually Princess Aine, a major antagonist in the original story, and I was surprised again when she suddenly arrived leading soldiers.
In the original story, she was portrayed as a heartless villain, so I was somewhat wary.
But even though she came to the territory as a princess, she was still my martial sister ‘Nea’.
“I believe the magical beasts in the north will help train the Knights Order.”
Her purpose was none other than subjugating magical beasts to develop the Knights Order.
She had returned to train the Knights Order in this northern land and have them subjugate magical beasts to gain experience.
Since then, she would visit two or three times a year whenever magical beasts became active in the northern region to train the knights and subjugate magical beasts.
With me as well.
…?
Why me too…?
Well anyway.
My martial sister and Her Highness was standing before me in light armor, having just returned from training, with a slight smile.
Judging by the other knights visible through the open door catching their breath in the mansion’s garden, they must have run quite a distance, yet she wasn’t even catching her breath.
…Still a monstrous person.
It might be expected, since she boasted such strength in the original story that she was essentially the final boss of the latter part.
“Your Highness!!”
A red-haired man followed her into the mansion.
Though red-haired, it was a darker tone than Riel’s, more of a dark crimson, neatly groomed on a handsome man.
The man wearing dark red armor similar to his hair color was sweating profusely and catching his breath.
“What are you doing running off alone?!”
“When I hear my cute disciple has returned, shouldn’t I hurry to see him?”
“It’s been a while, Commander Gareth.”
His name was Gareth Belman.
Originally leading a small mercenary group, he encountered Princess Aine who was on a training journey while hiding her identity after completing her training.
He was completely hooked and ended up becoming the commander of her personal knight order.
That’s how it was described in the original story, and from what I’ve heard directly, it wasn’t much different.
As an aside, all the members of the mercenary group he led were apparently absorbed directly into the personal knight order.
“It’s been a while, Young Master Kyo.”
“Haha, please speak comfortably. You’ll soon be the royal consort…”
“Haha…”
Commander Gareth bowed his head with an embarrassed laugh.
He is scheduled to marry Princess Aine in the near future.
Of course, His Majesty the King was not pleased with and opposed the marriage between his daughter and a former mercenary, but at that time Princess Aine said:
‘He is a man who will achieve great feats.’
And at the end of that year, a small conflict broke out between our kingdom and the Brankia Empire to the south over territorial issues.
At that time, she deployed Commander Gareth at the head of dozens of knights and two thousand soldiers, and Commander Gareth, who arrived slightly late, gathered the kingdom’s defeated troops and other nobles’ soldiers and attempted a quick decisive battle.
The result was a great victory.
Not only did they recapture the kingdom’s land that was about to be occupied, but they also succeeded in taking the empire’s disputed territory.
They managed to capture several prisoners in the process, among whom was none other than the empire’s crown prince.
It was a battle where the imperial forces had underestimated the kingdom’s army and sent the crown prince to gain military achievements, and although the crown prince did achieve some success, he was captured by Commander Gareth’s counterattack.
In the end, the empire suffered a bitter defeat, giving up the captured territory along with a huge ransom in exchange for the return of the crown prince.
The king, greatly pleased with this major victory, offered Commander Gareth a hereditary noble title and rewards, at which point Commander Gareth asked for the princess.
Remembering Princess Aine’s words at that time, the king laughed heartily and permitted the marriage.
So he was confirmed to become a count soon, along with his marriage to Her Highness.
So while he’s now addressing me respectfully because he’s technically still a commoner, soon I’ll be the one who needs to bow to him, which makes me wonder why he’s doing this.
“What use is a soon-to-be noble being so shy, eh!”
Whack!
“Ugh…!”
Princess Aine punched Commander Gareth in the side as she said this.
Of course, from her perspective it was just a light tap, but for an ordinary person, this would be far more than a tap.
I know because I’ve been hit by her.
“Bro…Brother…”
Following Commander Gareth was a boy with the same black hair as mine.
My younger brother, Asta Wentos.
He staggered in, looking almost like a zombie.
Her Highness’s training is extremely intense. I know it well.
“Asta… are you alright?”
“Brother… if only you had returned one day earlier…”
Asta looked at me with reproachful eyes.
…Right.
If I had returned one day earlier, it would have been me, not Asta, who was taken.
But what could I do? The holiday started today.
“…Good job.”
“Urrggh…”
I called a maid to send the nearly dying Asta to his room, then faced Princess Aine again.
“Mother said she would prepare a delicious dinner, so please come in and rest for now.”
“Lady Sylvia? That’s something to look forward to.”
“After dinner, there’s something I’d like to ask of Your Highness.”
“Hmm.”
Princess Aine’s eyes lit up with curiosity at my words.
After guiding Her Highness’s party to a place where they could rest, I headed to the guest room where Riel would be.
While walking down the corridor following the guiding maid, a loud voice echoed through the corridor.
“Aaaaaaaah!!”
A scream.
Startled, I ran toward the source of the scream.
“Let gooooo!! Let me gooooo!!”
“Just a little! Just a little longer like this!!”
What I saw was Riel tightly hugging Kino and rubbing her cheek against her, while Kino struggled in Riel’s embrace.
The hat she had been wearing was nowhere to be seen, and Phyllis, who should have accompanied them, was also not visible.
As I stood there in confusion, Kino noticed me, turned around, and shouted:
“Ah! Help me, Brother! Brotherrr!!”
Kino, how desperate must you be that ‘Alukhinon of the Blood Wind’ has fled far away?
Kino was desperately reaching out her hands toward me, asking for help.
“Ri…Riel?”
“Ah.”
Riel, belatedly noticing me, froze in place, startled.
Taking advantage of that moment, Kino escaped from Riel’s arms and threw herself into my embrace.
“Waaaaaaah!! Brotherrrrr!!”
Hmm, honestly, I shouldn’t say this.
But it feels like it’s been a really long time since I’ve seen Kino like this.
After being infected(?), she had maintained her ‘Alukhinon of the Blood Wind’ persona almost all the time, except for rare occasions.
“Um… Riel? Why did you do that…?”
“W-well…”
Riel, whose face had turned bright red from embarrassment, stuttered before speaking.
“W-well… Kino is just so cute… and I’ve never had a younger sibling…”
“That’s true.”
“Brother?!”
That’s right. I admit it.
Our Kino is quite cute.
She was even cuter when she used to follow me around going “Brother~ Brother~” in the old days…
Well, while I was thinking she was cute inside, I held back due to my pride.
But while Phyllis was out preparing tea, seeing Kino putting on a show(?) right in front of me must have flipped my switch.
While strongly expressing my sympathy, I was thinking something else in my mind.
Riel’s tension disposition, which was similar to an illness or curse, had completely disappeared.
I don’t know if it’s completely gone or just temporarily better.
But somehow I could be certain that the bright and outgoing Riel who had been friendly with Emilia while leaving the capital and who was now fawning over Kino was the real Riel.
After somehow calming Kino down, Phyllis returned, and the four of us had tea time together.
While spending time like that, we received notification that dinner preparations were complete. When we headed to the dining room, six people were there.
Father, Mother, and my younger brother Asta.
And Princess Aine, Commander Gareth, and Eve.
…All familiar faces.
“Sister!”
“Riel! It’s been so long!”
Eve ran over with a bright expression as soon as she saw Riel and hugged her tightly.
Seeing this, Kino flinched slightly.
…She must have remembered what happened to her earlier.
After the sisters’ reunion after about a month, Riel introduced herself to Princess Aine and Commander Gareth.
Of course, the two who had already heard about Riel from Eve welcomed her with smiles.
After dinner, we immediately discussed our business.
Naturally, it was about the Ignis Duke family and its head, the Duke.
Princess Aine’s expression didn’t change much when she heard this story.
With Eve being her subordinate, the story would naturally have reached Her Highness’s ears as well.
“The royal family is also concerned about the Ignis Duke family right now.”
It’s only natural.
No matter how busy they might be, it’s inconceivable that the Duke himself, his wife, and his son would continue to be absent from their territory for years.
Of course the royal family would be concerned.
And above all, there’s the Ignis Duke family that’s going crazy due to the Duke’s absence.
“Regarding the Duke’s family, I’m planning to go there myself soon under the pretext of ‘visiting my subordinate’ to resolve the situation.”
…Well, it seemed like we didn’t need to worry about that aspect.
If she goes, the chaotic state of the Duke’s family itself will be resolved.
“But the problem is that we can’t determine the whereabouts of the important Duke’s family at all.”
Her Highness ended her words like that.
Just then, the very topic we were about to bring up emerged.
“Your Highness, we have information regarding that matter.”
“Oh?”
Princess Aine raised her head and looked at us, wondering what we meant.
Riel spoke up.
“My… my father met with Princess Yuril…”
“With Yuril?”
“Yes. The detailed information is here.”
She passed the documents to Phyllis, who then presented them to Princess Aine.
“…Contact with a person presumed to be Duke Ignis in the western part of Baron Rayme’s territory…”
“It indeed coincides with the time when Princess Yuril went out for an inspection with her guards.”
Princess Aine nodded upon hearing Eve’s report.
Her eyes turned toward us.
“I see, then I think I understand your request as well.”
“Yes. We would like to speak with Princess Yuril.”
Princess Yuril is the person who stands first in line for the throne succession.
Of course, even if not her, the activities of royals with succession rights are shrouded in secrecy, but as the first in line, she is especially so.
Even discovering the fact that she had contact with Duke Ignis this time was quite remarkable.
Princess Aine, who has completely renounced her succession rights and operates publicly without such secrets, is the unusual one.
“You want to talk with Yuril…?”
“It’s difficult for us to meet her directly on our own.”
“Well, since you and I aren’t strangers, that much isn’t difficult.”
Great, it seems like we’ll be able to get some clues about Riel’s father.
Thinking this, I bowed my head to Princess Aine.
“Thank you! If possible, as soon as…”
“No, there’s no need for that. I’ll let you meet her right away.”
“…What?”

What does this mean?
“Yuril is here in this Count’s territory right now.”
“Whaaaat?!”
…What did you say?