Reina of Hanneau (English)

SOU TOMOHISA

“Wait, Mister Mitsuei,” Reina scurries on her feet in an attempt to follow the evidently furious man.

Reina is not sure what is truly going on in his mind. What does he plan to do? Kill his brother? That is impossible! But one thing is for sure, he will never listen to her or back down now.

Mitsuei may seem to be a scary person for Reina, but he isn’t capable of doing that to his family. If she knew that he’ll be acting this way, she should’ve just kept the pregnancy to herself.

“It’s already evening, Mister Mitsuei. Leaving at this time is----,”

“You’ll be coming with me.”

Mitsuei declares with finality. He glanced away from Reina as soon as he concluded his speech, showing that he is uninterested in what she had to say. And seeing the intensity in his eyes, Reina can only shiver in both fear and worry. Fear for what he’s about to do. And worry about the impending result.

Moreover, his eyes promise a not-so-good ending for all of them.

“But, you see. I --- I already …,”

“I heard you the first time, Miss Asai. You may have met him earlier but not me. I have yet to give him a piece of my mind. So I hope you are also listening to what I’m saying.”

Reina wants to cry. Not only are his words sarcastic, but also the way he said it made her regret opposing him. His eyes remain fierce as if he is about to stab someone with the long blade pinned around his waist. When she was younger, she thought he was difficult to read.

But now, by some magic, she can read every emotion in his eyes if she looks at him intently. And he is extremely enraged.

To make things worse, he takes her arm, imploring her to stand up and come with him. And with her strength compared to his, of course, she is unable to free herself from his grasps. The beating of her heart clearly says she is nervous. Now that her courage from earlier wore off, she didn’t have the energy to face Tomohisa again.

‘I don’t want to see him.’

Reina stifles a cry. She still cringes at the memory of the scene she had witnessed before deciding to end her life on the bridge.

Her claimed fiance and child's father were having a good time with the company of prostitutes from the club. It is that exact moment she realized that he won’t be fit to be a father more so build a family for his children. She isn’t that naive to fight for a relationship that’s been long gone. It’s always been a bad habit of his to deceive her.

But then, Mitsuie proves to be a stubborn man. He doesn’t intend to let go of Reina’s hand. Reina expects him to use brute force to make her submit to his wishes however, to her surprise, Mitsuei is far more gentle than she imagined.

Aside from holding her hand, his other arm is surrounding her back. She can’t help but feel that he is trying to support her. Perhaps it made him more careful knowing she is pregnant.

“I don’t care of what he might say. A man should follow through with his decisions,” Mitsuei firmly states.

It is noble of Sou Mitsuei to be thinking like that. But is it similar to Tomohisa? In the beginning, even though they are brothers, they are nothing alike.

Tomohisa is a carefree person. He acts or does things for himself, not minding what others might think of him. At first, that was what attracted her most to him. She loved his mindset. She kept on wishing she’d be the same, not giving care to those people judging her.

On the contrary, Mitsuei seems to have gotten their family’s dominant gene. He looks domineering like their father and grandfather. His father was strict and keen to discipline until his death on the battlefield when they were still kids.

In the end, Reina has no other choice but to follow Mitsuei’s demands. Who knows what he might do if she is to insist. Now that she got the worries out of her system, she feels weak. She can’t find any strength to argue with Mitsuei. Especially when his eyes are blaring with irritation.

Fortunately this time, Mitsuei decides to take the carriage. He asked someone from Hanneau to drive for them as he sits in the comforts of the vehicle. If they were to share on a horse again, it would be awkward for Reina.

However, Mitsuei doesn’t seem to be comfortable. He appears more troubled than he already did.

“Must you really come, Kayomi?”

Mitsuei groans in frustration. He massages the temple of his head to relieve himself from the ongoing stress that he has been.

Kayomi on the other hand never shows any signs of guilt. She even looks like she’s enjoying the moonlight sky. She acts like she never heard her father complain.

Seeing Mitsuei surrender to his daughter’s habit somehow amuses Reina to the point where she couldn’t hide her smile. And since he is sitting right across her, she has a clear view of his expression.

“What?”

Reina flinches in her seat. She is surprised by Mitsuei’s sudden interrogation. To her shock, he is looking straight at her. She swore she looked away to hide her amusement. But the man proved to have keen eyes for things.

“Father, can you please be a little more gentle when you speak? You always scare people away with that tone of yours. You’ll probably even scare the baby in her tummy,” Kayomi suggests looking back at Reina beside her with a sweet smile.

Kayomi’s words rendered Mitsuei speechless. He looks like someone who just realized they had forgotten something. Though his face was quick to change, Reina was able to catch such a rare expression. Just then, his eyes look threatening toward Kayomi who is unfazed by her father’s reaction.

“Kayomi, you are forbidden to leave the house for a month,” Mitsuei firmly declares.

Kayomi in return shrugs not the least bit affected. Then she whispers, “I don’t go outside anyway.”

Kayomi’s voice is so low that it’s only enough for Reina to hear. Her lips pouted in the most adorable way.

Thankfully, the entire trip went to a stop without any more squabbles from the pair. But to be honest, Reina finds their relationship really pleasant. They have an open and loving family relationship. Their conversation gives her wishful thinking. Will she and her child be similar to this even without a father?

Reina grew up in a complete family. Her father is adamant about discipline just like any other soldier. And her mother, she’s gentle but also strict in imposing discipline and understanding on their children. But then, Mitsuei raised Kayomi alone. It must have been tough after his wife left, but he’s able to raise a fine young woman.

The raging thoughts on Reina’s mind disappeared the moment the carriage stops outside the gates of Tomohisa’s house. Her heart begins to race thumping so hard that she’s scared either Mitsuei or Kayomi detects her nervousness.

“Are you scared?” Kayomi holds Reina’s hand looking at her with a smile. “Don’t worry, I know Uncle Tomohisa would be thrilled to know about his child.”

Reina smiles awkwardly. “Oh, I hope so, Kayomi.”

Despite it all, Reina still wants to hold on hope that Tomohisa would change and welcome their child. After all, he isn’t that cruel.

Reina got out of the vehicle and followed Mitsuei who is standing right outside the front door. The gates don’t seem to be locked so there were no issues besides the unanswered front door.

“He should be home by now,” Mitsuei murmurs with a wrinkled face.

Mitsuei looks around the house and all the lights are off. But if someone is to look closely at the windows, something is flickering as if someone is moving around. They could even see a shadow moving inside.

“He must be tired already, Mister Mitsuei. Should we just return here tomorrow?” Reina says in an attempt to convince the man.

“There’s movement inside so he’s still awake. I don’t want to delay this. It’s a matter of time before your family knows about your situation. And if that happens, it would be hard to appease them. Don’t you think?”

Reina sighs in resignation. What he said is indeed right. Her father married her mother first before having children. Similar to her brother Haru. And they would expect Reina to do the same. And once the news gets out, people around them will start gossiping about her.

Still, it is already late in the evening and they might disturb the neighbors. Reina is about to argue with Mitusei’s decision when he signals her to be quiet. Did he end up getting annoyed by her?

Reina begins to feel down and conscious that she didn’t want to say anything more to him. She just wants to get over this night in peace. Plus, she’s already tired and sleepy.

Once more, Reina tries to appease Mitsuei. But even before she could utter a word, she heard a noise coming from the inside of the house. It’s subtle but loud enough for them to hear.

Reina isn’t dense to understand the indecency that is going on inside. Her heart sunk as soon as she knew what had happened. As both man and lady enjoy their night of pleasure, moans, and groans reverberated throughout the house. It's impossible to deny.

"See, I told you he must be tired," Reina whispers looking back at Mitsuei with sad eyes.

Her tears are threatening to fall again. She thought her eyes had gone dry after her outbursts earlier. Stress and anxiety. Of course, she'd be bound to get exhausted.

However, the next thing that happened turned her sobs into screams. Mitsuei, the man who was looking back at her with pity, slammed his fist right through the glass window.