Slow Prison Life - Chapter 28 - Younger Brother Hears a Fact He had Forgotten From His Sister

The cool light of the sun shining down signaled it was time to wrap up the afternoon’s grand merriment. Inside Rachel’s dungeon the iron bars were sandwiched between a pair of desks.
Today was the first time in a while that Alexandra had any free time, so she came over to the dungeon to visit Rachel. The girls hadn’t seen each other since they crushed George together, so Rachel met her friend with an open smile.

“So? Will George prove himself useful?”
Having fun shaking her cup slightly to take in the scent of the tea, Rachel laughed softly.

“Fufu, I’d be troubled if he doesn’t.”
Alexandra arced her brow as the corners of her mouth lifted up.

“That boy always looks so smug in his reporting yet he always trips up in the end, is there any work you’d entrust to him? Don’t sign any documents until you’ve signed them.”
“Yes, I understand what you mean. He is so self-important every time he brings me his work, yet there is always something he overlooked……….well, that part of him is cute.”
“Ahaha, you can say that again.”

The two laughed together about the topic of their fiancee/younger brother respectively before both calling out to a young boy standing next beside Alexandra.

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“By the way George, these tea leaves were steamed too long this time. Shouldn’t you have pulled them out a full minute earlier? Did you read my explanation properly?”
“The way you made mine was equally as coarse, you wouldn’t serve this to a customer would you? If you can’t even make a proper cup of tea, you can kiss any hope you have of becoming a diplomat away.”
“………….sorry.”

Today’s tea party consisted of just two girls. And one server.
If you’re going to talk bad about someone behind their back, you should do it right in front of them, was the policy these two girls lived by.

♠

While George was requesting that somebody replace him, Alexandra remembered there was something she needed to tell Rachel.

“Speaking of which Rachel, the other day I heard something from George……..”
“What?”

Rachel tilted her head slightly to the side as her future sister-in-law shrugged her shoulders.

“That guy, apparently he couldn’t tell the difference between you and me when he was young.”
“………..seriously?”

Her eyes opening wide in surprise, Rachel looked over and stared at her brother’s face.
George began squirming in discomfort as his sister was brought in to a topic he really didn’t want touched.
He really didn’t want to make his sister angry over that matter, so he tried drowning out her gaze by focusing on making the tea……..but when he went to replace the tea he had made, Rachel’s stare had only intensified.
George was beaten down by her persistence and reluctantly nodded.

“………..that’s right.”
“Really? Why?”
“………..because, I wasn’t as well put together when I was small……….and the two of you were so similar, doing similar things……….”
“Now George, Alexandra has blonde hair while I have dark brown.”
“Well sure, but…..”
“The two of us would always share a table and eat together while Alexandra was only occasionally invited over you know?”
“When you say it like that, you’re right, but………”
“In addition, Alexandra only ever used her mouth to abuse you while I used only corporal punishment.”
“So you understand exactly how my memories work!? The reason why I avoided her!?”

After all, my older sister is still ill-natured.
Being able to once again recognize this unpleasant face, George let out a sigh.
His life was now caught between this older sister and her friend Alexandra who shared her same interests………although they say what goes around comes around………..this is the worst.
A male servant would be green with envy if he were allowed to be sandwiched by a pair of such beautiful women, but anyone else who would say they be willing to take his place would undoubtedly be soon agreeing with him that this was the worst.
Ah, how he missed spending those fun times around Margaret with His Majesty……….

………..that’s right. Because he’d already said this much………

George brought up that other topic with his sister.

“Now that you bring it up Sis, my memories are a little fragmented………”

The other day he had told Sykes as well about those mysterious scenes from his memory. That story where Rachel pulled down his pants, firecrackers in hand, and he was unable to remember anything that had happened before or after………even Alexandra drew back when she heard that one.

“Rachel…….I’m all for childish mischief, but for it to become like that………”
“Because it’s you Sis, I was thinking you probably tried something half for fun, half out of interest………”

As the two’s blame-filled eyes turned on her, Rachel growled back with a frown.

“Why are the two of you talking as if it’s some sort of strange story? With that time, there was a preface for it!”
“………and, it is?”
“George started it!”

♠

It was the night before Rachel had pulled George’s pants down in that garden. Until that following day, Rachel had actually held a grudge on some mischief that George had pulled himself.

“Right when I was thinking it was time to go to sleep, I went to my bed……..”

But when Rachel turned over her bedding, five frogs that George had gathered up jumped out.

“Because I was only four then, of course I panicked.”

Flustered by the jumping, when she recovered from her surprise and realized what had happened, she quickly climbed into bed, grabbed the frogs, and threw them in the trash.

“Rachel……….you used to grab frogs with your bare hands………”
“That’s not the point.”

Rachel gathered all the frogs in her garbage can, placed a large book over the top so that none of the frogs could jump out to escape, and then finally went back to bed.
And then the next day.

“After a good night’s rest I began to think carefully, and I knew that this threat couldn’t be simply forgiven. The perpetrator needed to be taught a lesson. A crack was made in the relationship between me and my futon from a horrendous act of terrorism, aimed directly at disturbing my good night’s sleep by some monster who needed to be sentenced and punished.”
“………I could have done what you said, but Sis, you’re boiling point is way too low……”
“Rachel, you’ve always hated it whenever somebody disturbs your sleep since long ago……..”

Rachel held a one party trial¹ inside her mind with no closing arguments. A judgement was brought down instantly, and Rachel formed a special investigation group–made up of a single person–and found George in the garden looking at some snails.

“I found the fiendish criminal who would dare disturb another person’s sleep playing around without a care in the world, and any hesitation I felt disappeared as my anger exploded out.”
“Isn’t Sis’s boiling point just a little too low!? You’re safeguards are flimsier than the wings of a bird!”
“Rachel, to a three year old kid………..?”
“If you say it like that then I was just four years old. I could smile because in the end I wasn’t grown up either.”

So George, the main perpetrator of the terrorism was caught, but Rachel clearly declared something before pulling George’s pants down.

It goes without saying the frogs would receive some firecrackers as their punishment……….but, of course George also had to take responsibility and was guilty of the same crime that the frogs had committed……….

“Right? So I followed the law that has stood since the times of old, and since you were guilty of the same crime, you received the same punishment. So I stuffed my supply of firecrackers up the criminal’s ass as well………”
“How horrible is your way of thinking that you ended up there!? Isn’t it way too scary for a four year old kid to think like that!?”
“Rachel……what ‘supply of firecrackers’……….?”
“And after I went through so much trouble to try and give a cute explanation.”
“Where!? Hey, where!?”

Rachel drank down the half a cup of tea that she had remaining.

“So in conclusion, I didn’t really do anything that I should feel guilty over.”
“You may not feel guilty over it, but anyone who’d hear you speak would feel a chill at just how absurd……..”

Clasping her hands together as George grumbled to himself, Rachel looked out her ventilation window towards the blue sky above.

“Well, if I dare to say my one regret………it would be that the firecrackers didn’t blow in time for George. With the frogs it was a flashy pop, but George’s ended with a big *mumble mumble*”
“Sis, what’re you mumbling? Huh? What words are supposed to be there instead of that mumbling!?”

After a deep breath, Rachel struck a pose like she was deep in thought. It didn’t seem like she was going to give any further explanation at what she had mumbled. Finally Alexandra rested her cheek in her hand while wearing an amazed expression.

“Well, huh…….a firecracker, even if it could blow a frog away, I suppose that’d be impossible for a human.”
“I was still so young…….that’s the limit of a four year old.”

Rachel stood up from her seat and began digging around in one of the wooden crates in the back of the cell before returning with what she had been looking for. In her hand was a cylindrical “something”.

“Nowadays I can get even dynamite if I need to………..”
“That, no way………it’s the real thing!?”
“Hmm, I wonder?”

Inside the dungeon, the little brother’s nerves shattered, and his screams echoed off the walls.

♠

While watching George walk up the stone steps somehow exhausted both mentally and physically, Rachel whispered to Alexandra.

“Alexandra. George still has yet to notice…………right?”

The siblings’ childhood friend made a complex smile mixed with loneliness and unease before looking up at the tired back of her dear fiancée.

“Right. That sarcasm demon hates to show any fear, but in truth he’s just lashing out because of his own shyness……..still, it’s not like George would be able to just accept and laugh about all this.”

Rachel looked up at the back of her little brother as he left the dungeon as well.

“So in other words, George is still just a kid.”
“Yes……..but when you put it that way, isn’t he cute?”
“Should I force him to grow up?”
“Could you not? If ‘Sister’ does any more than this, that guy might end up becoming a shut-in.”
“Wouldn’t that be fun? A shut-in.”
“For you.”

♠

After leaving the dungeon and arriving above ground, George took a moment to take a deep breath of freedom before the Prison Guard came walking up with his keys hanging at his waist.

“Oh? Sorry, you haven’t been coming around lately. Is His Highness here too?”
“Huh? ……….No, I’m escorting someone else……..Sis’s close friend came by for a visit.”
“Ah, I see! ……Well!”

George grabbed the Prison Guard by the collar as he tried to turn around and leave as if it was natural.

“……….oi, didn’t you come to inspect the dungeon? Why did you suddenly make a u-turn!?”
“Please let me go! If the Lady and a close friend of hers are together, then something absolutely no good is definitely going on!”
“I completely agree with you, but it’s your job as a watchman to go check it out! That’s what you get paid for!”
“If the Lady catches me, then it won’t matter how much I get paid!”
“That’s perfectly understandable, but it’s unfair that I’m the only one having their nerves chipped away! You can play with Sis too!”
“Noooooo!”

The two men continued to struggle with each other until Alexandra finally came out herself.

1. A type of Japanese trial system where the ruling is final and cannot be appealed.