Chapter 52

Rolling her eyes at him was the only thing Delphina could do.

Now wasn’t the time to be causing unnecessary trouble- simply shrugging her shoulders, she hooked her index finger at him, asking Hayle to come closer. Whilst she was curious as to what errand Pietro had sent him on, they had bigger fish to fry.

“Has everything been arranged?”

Cocking his head slightly, Hayle lifted his chin with pride, looking like a peacock about to spread his wings and crow.

“Of course, some of those ‘Knights’ of mine have been organised into the adults mid-level section, the rest? I’ve kept them back for guard duties. By that point, everything will be set up and ready to go.”

Letting out a quiet sigh, Delphina felt oddly relieved that he had actually managed to get the job done. From what she had seen of him so far, he seemed liable to throw in his own personal twist on direction if left alone for too long.

Giving a hearty shoulder pat in passing, she threw him a thumbs-up before wandering back over towards where she had last seen Pietro. She needed to do something before the boredom started to kill her off.

Then a thought suddenly stopped her in her tracks: where were the Hunters?

Walking slightly faster, she enhanced her hearing and vision- the sooner she found Pietro, the better. Hopefully, he had ordered the Silverwraiths to update the Hunters on the Tournament when she hadn’t noticed.

It didn’t take her long to narrow down where he had gone. Pietro had only moved a few metres away and was writing in a tightly bound leather book. Trying to keep her mild urgency unnoticed, she made a beeline for her brother.

Getting closer, Delphina could tell Pietro was fully engrossed in whatever it was he was doing. It seemed a shame to disturb him… Hehe.

Moving into his blind spot, she snuck forward, quietly muffling her steps on the decorative brickwork and flagstones that made up the plaza’s floor. She could see that he was writing what might be the outline for the Tournament structure and rules.

Waiting for him to finish his sentence, she drew close, leaning forward at the perfect moment and then gently blew air into his ear. Swiftly stepping back as he almost dropped the book.

Delphina couldn’t help but let a laugh leak out as his face bloomed with both rage and embarrassment. Raising both hands in the air as he snapped the book closed and motioned to throw it at her.

“Sorry!”

Yes, she was definitely sorry, totally one hundred percent sorry she hadn’t done this sooner.

“All jokes aside, brother, did you send anyone to inform the Hunters about the Tournament’s schedule?”

Placing the book down on his lap, he looked at her for a moment before slowly nodding. Then he shifted his gaze away.

Oho?

“Well? What did they say?”

Scratching his nose awkwardly, Pietro turned his face back towards her and put on a lopsided smile, looking akin to a dog that had just been caught making a mess by its owner.

“That’s why I just sent Hayle.”

The sound of Delphina’s hand slapping his back rang out, causing a few staff members to jump and look around in surprise, before carrying on with finishing their duties and leaving the area as fast as possible.

She narrowed her eyes at him as she shook her hand, trying to cool it down in the breeze. Pietro stooped down, patting his left shoulder as if that would make the pain go away faster.

“Sister, I see your fist is as swift as ever.”

“Don’t try and compliment your way out of this, Pietro. You asked me to leave the Tournament to you- surely you had plenty of time before lunch to send someone to the Hunters?”

Putting on an aggrieved expression, he explained that he had done so. But the Hunters were nowhere to be seen, so he had sent Hayle over to check no one had played a ‘prank’ on the way. Though all this explanation only elicited an exasperated snort from Delphina.

“Note to self: Seriously, never assign anything socially related to Pietro. He should have sent someone he trusted rather than some random Knight or staff member.”

Covering her eyes with one hand, she patted the shoulder nearest her.

“Well, we’ve all got to learn somehow, I guess. Let’s just hope everything went well with Hayle.”

When she had seen him moments ago, nothing seemed out of sorts- if anything, Hayle was borderline leisurely. Damn, she really should have asked about the errand then. Should she go check on everyone?

“Ah, there he is now. Sister, you should ask about the Hunters rather than me.”

Letting her hand drift down from her face, she once again noticed his sheepish behaviour. It did seem like he was trying to curry favour with her, even if he was regularly fucking it up; it didn’t seem deliberate.

Making up her mind, she shook her head and took a step back.

“No, you asked Hayle to do this task for you, so you should also hear the report. Besides, you said you’d do all the legwork? Don’t become a hypocrite, brother.”

Poking fun at him seemed to do the job; he was once again standing up straight. He tentatively raised his hand, slowly reaching out to pat her head, though he retracted like he’d touched boiling water once he was done.

“What? Worried I’ll bite?”

“No! No, it’s just Hayle’s staring.”

And so he was; he had clearly seen it from start to finish. Looking rather pale and nauseated, like he’d just witnessed a chthonic horror spawn into existence, and his sanity was dropping as the seconds continued.

Tutting out loud at the expression he was pulling, she gestured towards herself and Pietro, asking if he’d never seen sibling affection before.

“Yeah, I’d sooner expect you two to stab each other before… Whatever that was.”

Shrugging her shoulders, she flicked her hands out as she did so-

“Didn’t your expectations already get subverted earlier today? Let’s move on from that already…”

Placing her fingertips along her jaw, she tipped her head coquettishly, gently squinting one eye as she did so.

“Ah, wait. It’s not because you were jealous of me being touched by my brother, right? Do you want head pats from him too? *sigh* I always knew Alphas were possessive, but this is new. Were siblings Hayle, what were you even thinking?”

Both Hayle and Pietro blushed after she said this, Hayle out of embarrassment, Pietro out of annoyance. Blurting out their denial at the same time.

“That’s not what I was thinking!”

“I only give head pats to my sister!”

Damn, she was out here fighting the twincest allegations pre-emptively, and Pietro truly was just a pig teammate. But hey, so long as ‘she’ didn’t get stuck with that label, who cared if Pietro came across as a sis-con.

That still didn’t stop both her and Hayle from glancing at each other before turning to look at Pietro. Who had just realised the implication of his fervour.

“N-no, I mean, Delphina is currently the only person to whom I would give head pats.”

Delphina turned towards Hayle and crossed her arms, pointing at Pietro with her elbow.

“You sure you find that cute?”