You had been having a fun time training with Kougyoku that neither of you noticed how much time had passed. By the time the two of you were ready to call it quits it was time to eat dinner. Before you allowed Kougyoku to leave you placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. 

"I'm proud of you, Kougyoku," you said proudly, "you've been doing well." 

Which was true. She was a fast learner and eager at that. It almost reminded you of yourself when you were younger. A tad naive, but excitable nonetheless. You only hoped the two of you weren't similar in the sense of war, you flinched at the thought. That was one similarity you hoped to share with no one. 

Kougyoku, however, seemed stronger than you and more than ready for that. It was both comforting and unsettling. Then again, everyone in Kou was the same in that sense. 

Kougyoku beamed at your praise with a hint of a blush on her cheeks. "Thank you, Y/N-nee," she replied. 

You smiled down at her, "you can go ahead before me. I'll pick up the practice swords," you said. Kougyoku nodded and walked off, leaving you alone in the training grounds. You didn't stay alone for long, however.

"She's been learning well under your care."

You froze, the sword in your hands fell from your grip and you didn't dare turn around. That voice sounded too familiar to be real. 

"Come on, Y/N! I thought you were stronger than that!"

The memory came abrupt and unwelcome despite how fun it had been at the time. Suddenly, you wanted nothing more than for time to freeze just so you could escape this and never have to turn around to face who you thought it was. Unfortunately, you knew you had to turn around at some point. 

When you did. The person you saw there was a stranger. Despite the smile on her face looking familiar, the rest of her appearance was something else. This person's hair was a shining crimson with yellow horns growing out of the sides of her head. With an eye in the middle of her forehead, you guessed it was some kind of ornament (kind of doubtful considering you've seen a man who looked like a bull). 

"W... Who are you?" 

Was that your voice? You hadn't even realized your mouth opened to ask that question. 

The person smiled and chuckled a little. "Do you really not recognize you're own sister?" She asked with a raised brow, almost teasing you a bit. 

Your face then completely fell into complete and now it really had felt like time was frozen. Every single part of your body felt like it had stopped, even your eyes began to go out of focus. 

During that time in which you were frozen, the woman had decided to reach out to you for a hug. The moment she wrapped her arms around you, you flinched and pushed her away. She looked at you in confusion as her arms dropped to her sides. 

"What's wrong?" She inquired softly, taking a step towards you.

With that step forward, you took a step back. "Stop it." You spoke firmly with your arms held in front of you. Your expression of shock turned to one of anger the longer you gazed at her. 

"I am not one to use my position to harm others," you said, "but if you don't stop this now, I will have you taken care of." You threatened that with slight venom on your tone. There was a slight moment of pride when you noticed her flinch. 

Her own expression turned to sadness. "Do you really think that I would do that?" She asked, her tone hurt with a hand on her chest. 

You scoffed, "you really expect me to believe someone Kou of all places!" You gestured to the palace walls surrounding you, "stop this farce now! I already know my sister is gone..!" Your voice at the last syllable faltered as tears filled your eyes. 

"I suppose so," she responded, "but what would make you believe the opposite?" She asked, almost curious. 

Your hands clenched into fists as your anger turned to fury. "Enough." Your tone was stone cold, "I am not listening to this anymore." Your teeth were clenched as you turned away from the woman and began to walk away. 

As you tried to escape this, her voice sounded again. She never knew when to quit. 

"You named your servant, Kazue, after one of your favorite characters from a book I gifted you as a child."

Then, the shock came back as you slowly turned to her. At that, you didn't know what to say. The only thing that filled your mind was a memory. 

You were starting to grow a tad tired of those popping up at unwanted times. 

~About 20 years ago

"Y/N~~!"

At the sound of the chiming voice, you beamed and ran towards the source. When you finally caught sight of the person singing your name you jumped at them with a giggle, almost causing them to fall. 

"Yuki-nee!" You squealed. 

She giggled as you held onto her back and yelped as your weight became too much for her to hold onto. "Okay, okay," she laughed, "get down before I accidentally drop you."

With that, you quickly let go and landed on the floor. "What did you get me?!" You exclaimed, practically bouncing where you stood. Whenever your sister went away on a trip, she always managed to bring you back something from wherever she traveled. This time, you think she traveled to someplace called, Balbadd.

Yuki held up a finger, insinuating you should wait one moment. You huffed and crossed your arms, nonetheless, you agreed in silence. She giggled and smiled, "okay, on my way to Balbadd we had to stop at an Oasis city by the name of Utan I believe," she explained and then went on to about the place which sounded small yet peaceful. 

"Then, before we left I managed to stumble upon a small shop and this-" she reached into a bag to pull out a book- "was just calling out to me and I knew I had to get it for you." The book she pulled out looked a tad old and worse for wear. It was leather and tied up with string, almost like a journal. It had a title despite looking like a journal. 

You reached for the book and squinted at the title that was carved into leather. "The protectors of the divine staves," you read slowly. You didn't understand it at all. What were divine staves? And protectors? Why did it need protecting?

You decided to stop questioning and gave your sister a hug. "Thank you, Yuki-nee!" You exclaimed, "I bet I'm gonna love it!" You then let go and took another look at the book. 

Yuki placed a hand on your head, "I bet you will."

~

You began to shake your head. "No..." You whispered, "no... Stop it!" Your hands were in front of you again when you noticed she took a step towards you. 

"Please, Y/N," she pleaded, "you know it's me." She held her arms up as if expecting you to run into her arms. 

Your teeth began to clench and you continued shaking your head. "Then, why now?!" You yelled, "why here?! If you really are who you say you are then where were you when I needed you?!" All those times where you would've given anything to have her back when she left and when you found out she had died. 

Yuki flinched at the tone. "I couldn't go back. Not with the fate that was going to be given to me," she spoke softly, almost as if to herself. She sounded like she was trying to justify her own actions. 

"What makes you think I wanted this!?" You probed, your voice breaking once again. Everything that had happened to you since you had gotten here. 

"You were made for this."

That soft tone and demeanor almost made you want to rip your hair out. The fact that had to nerve to pretend she knew the type of woman you had become was laughable. "What makes you say that?" You really did almost laugh, "You don't know anything about me anymore ever since you abandoned me to take to reins!"

You tone then turned to ice, "do you... Do you have any idea what has happened to me?! All the betrayal?! And the lies?!" You seethed through your teeth as she looked down at her feet. 

"Well?! What makes you think I wanted this fate?" You spat, looking at her up and down. "Did you do this whole change-" you gestured to her appearance- "for yourself or just to stay away?"

There was silence again. 

You scoffed once more. "You are no sister of mine," you whispered. Finally, you allowed yourself to walk away and leave her standing there. It was sad she had thought there was going to be some sort of sappy reunion between you two. 

Yeah, right.

Not after what she did to you.

~2 months later

Thanks to the small portion of the Kou army they had taken, and his metal vessels, the dungeon was cleared in practically no time at all. On their arrival at the Kou palace, Kouen was immediately bombarded with servant after servant. 

"You must do something!" 

"She won't stop!"

"It is becoming detrimental to her health!" 

More and more comments were being shoved into his face as he tried listening to them all. He didn't even know who they were about. He'd only been gone for two months, what could've gone wrong?

He held up a hand, signaling all of them to stop speaking. When they stopped, Kouen sent one of them a pointed stare. "What is the problem?" He asked. 

From the crowd of servants came Kazue, looking quite distressed. "My princess. During these last two months she has thrown herself into a project with Prince Koumei and has refused to do anything else," he explained, "she has barely slept or eaten and refuses to listen to me." 

Kazue looked very distressed and had it not been for his natural white facial hair Kouen would've guessed that color came from worry. "What makes you think she'll listen to me?" He inquired, remembering your confrontation with him and the fact that you barely cast him any glances when he was leaving.

"There aren't many options left considering she won't even listen to me." Kazue winced at his sentence as if the thought of you disregarding him was physically painful.

Kouen held in a sigh, "fine. I will go see her now."

After being informed that you were with Koumei in his own study, Kouen quickly began to walk to where you were. Fortunately, it didn't take too long and when he opened the door, there was chaos. Papers were pinned all over the walls and covering the desk, several quills lay in a small pile beside Koumei (who was currently asleep) and there was even one keeping your hair up. 

As you walked by Kouen, currently scanning over a scroll in your hands, he managed to grab your elbow. "What are you doing?" He asked, taking one more glance around the room.

You didn't answer him and pulled your arm away. You continued to walk around the room, scanning different scrolls on the walls and desks. During the whole walk, Kouen noticed there was a smaller piece of paper clutched into your hand. 

Kouen rose a brow and grabbed the quill holding your hair up to grab your attention. "Hello? I just asked you something," he said.

When your hair fell you looked up to see what caused it and finally noticed Kouen. "What?" You asked absentmindedly, "Oh, you're back." Then, you went back to work.

Kouen's eye twitched, "hey! Stop working for a moment and look at me." He grabbed at your arm and tugged you towards him.

You growled at him in irritation, "what?! I'm busy."

"Busy doing what?" 

You only rolled your eyes and tried tugging your hand from his grip again. It was futile, however, you didn't have enough strength to do so. "Fine. I'll tell you." You gave in. 

You held up what you had been holding in front of Kouen, "tell me. What is this?" You inquired.

"A piece of paper," he answered simply.

You groaned, "no-! Well... Yes. But it's going to be something much more than that," you said with a giddy smile, grabbing a  couple of papers from the wall. 

"Okay, so, everyone knows that transporting currency such as gold or silver takes time," you began to explain, giving Kouen a pointed look to which he nodded.

"So, I had noticed how much longer it takes in Kou and Koumei thought that maybe there could've been a better alternative. So, we've been working on this ever since you all left," you informed, holding one of the papers for Kouen to read.

"For two months?" Kouen resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Your eyes widened slightly, "That's how long it's been? Well, whatever, no matter." You waved him off, "anyway, I had realized things like this." You held up the paper note in front of him again.

"Paper?"

"Yes, paper money. However, this type of currency is only to be used in the Kou Empire," you said, "when travelers come and go they exchange their currency with the capital. Same with merchants who get paid with this form of currency."

"Each one can have a different value," you continued explaining. 

Kouen crossed his arms, "who establishes the value?"

You smiled with slight excitement, "The economic value will be established by whoever runs the finances for the Empire. Now, I can bore you with all the variables that go into it, but let's not waste our time." You waved your hand in front of him again, dismissing the explanation again. 

"Oh? Try me." Kouen scoffed.

You snorted, "as tempting as that sounds, I'd rather not waste the day away."

Kouen resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "now, can you tell me why you've been wasting two months on this endeavor?"

You gaped at him, "a waste?! How so?" You countered, "I don't think you realize that relying on things as deplorable as war or slavery can't last forever." You spat out the last two words with venom dripping from your tone. 

"It's lasted us quite a long time."

"There wasn't a forever in that sentence." You rolled your eyes, "Now, let me finish! What I wanted to say was, with some of the excess rare metal that we'll have it could be a perfect time to start trading in different areas."

"Isn't that what you kingdom specialized in?"

You winced at the mention of it, "Exactly the reason why it's a good idea to start now." You put the papers down, "since you have Ryukyu under control metal trade can be established."

"Okay, how about you stop working for just a moment," Kouen calmly said as he began to lead you away from the desk.

You held up a hand, "Sorry, I can't now. I'm almost done working out all the details."

"You're coming with me now."

Kouen picked you up by the waist and threw you over his shoulder, not all concerned with the stares he might receive.

You growled, "Hey! Let go, goat man!" You yelled without realizing. It seemed like when you were sleep deprived you had no filter. 

"Call me that again and see what happens."

"As if I'm afraid of a brute like you- ow! Did you just pinch me?!"

"Hm."

"You insufferable pervert!"

*~*~*

With slight difficulty, Kouen had managed to bring you to bed. The moment your head hit the soft pillow and your skin rubbed against the silk sheets, you were out like a light. He rolled his eyes at your actions and how you had been fighting with him just a moment ago. He decided to leave you to sleep. 

When he left the room, he walked back to Koumei's study to wake him as well. He really didn't want to hear him complaining about his neck hurting. Kouen woke him up by hitting a book sitting by the desk on the top of his head. 

"Ow~! Aniue, that hurt," he whined, rubbing the top of his head.

Kouen rolled his eyes, "stop whining and get to your room," he instructed, "if you sleep here you'll get a kink in your neck."

Koumei pouted and stood up, but before he left the room he turned to his older brother. "You know, despite being a princess, she has some very good ideas for the benefit of Kou," he said nonchalantly, "she'll be a great asset." 

With that said, Koumei left the room, leaving Kouen alone. 

When he was left alone, he took a moment to scan all the papers strewn across the room. As he did, Kouen had to admit to himself that there were points even he didn't understand. 

You really were smarter than he realized. He tried to ignore the odd, small pang of guilt when Koumei called you an asset.

Then, Kouen left the room and had the unfortunate luck on running into Judar. Even more unfortunate, he seemed to be in a mood for mischief judging by the smirk on his face. 

"Yo, goat man. How ya doin'?" He asked with a chuckle. 

Kouen didn't respond and walked past him. Judar followed and his eyes began to squint at what began to surround Kouen. "Hey, what's with all the pink rukh around you?" He asked with widened eyes. 

At the silence, Judar's widened eyes turned to laughter. "Don't tell me you've got a crush!" He exclaimed when he took a break from laughing. Kouen didn't bother responding again and walked just a little bit faster from Judar, who could barely move from laughing so much. 

With the claims made about his rukh, Kouen decided to ignore it. He almost wanted to scoff, a crush? Really? What was he, a teenager?

"Don't be ridiculous," he muttered under his breath.

~~~

A/N: And so, this chap is done. It was most likely a tad obvious that our reader's sister was actually alive, but now, here is the reveal! It's pretty clear where this is going with the paper notes, but don't lose faith in our reader yet and watch how it exactly unfolds. 

Also, the title of this chap essentially answers the title of the last chap, which was a question (trust?). I just wanted to point that out.