Chapter 19

Episode 19 — Inferiority complex

I wonder if Duke Feedus arrived safely.

Sitting on the sofa placed in the middle of the 1st Prince’s bedroom, I thought blankly.

I did feel sorry for suddenly making him meet the protagonist without knowing anything, but well, he would not die.

In any case, since the beginning of the original work had been brought forward, making the master and disciple meet as quickly as possible was probably not a bad choice.

If things went well, I might even be able to find out whether the flow of events had been accelerated not only in the imperial palace, but also in the place where the protagonist was.

The place where the protagonist lives is somewhere it is difficult to check the progress of events from here.

I only felt a little guilty that I had made the oldest Duke Feedus suffer the most.

"Hey! Why did you only bring this much this time?! You have to bring a lot more so I can recover quickly!"

At the voice that broke my thoughts, I turned my head expressionlessly in that direction.

"Are you shouting at me right now?"

"...When did I shout? That is not it. I am only saying this because it is frustrating."

Rasia lowered his voice with an expression that said he was dying of irritation.

Much better.

I sank into the sofa and gestured for him to continue as he infused energy into the stone.

He was angry, but because he had already experienced that it helped improve his physical condition, he followed my words.

I leaned back against the sofa again and said to him,

"That is hard to obtain, but if you do too much at once, Your Highness the 1st Prince will die."

To be precise, he would be killed by someone who noticed the visible changes in him.

"What?! Why are you only telling me that now! Is this dangerous like the hookah too?"

"What nonsense is that now? What is wrong with the hookah?"

When I asked back, the 1st Prince answered with a dumbfounded expression.

"Didn’t you say that on the first day you barged in here? That if I was worried, I should quit that first! After hearing that, I immediately quit everything."

"Ah, that was just my way of telling you to quit something that is not good for your health."

The 1st Prince’s face instantly flushed red with anger, but I did not care.

Even if he acted like that, he was probably only thinking inwardly that once this treatment was over, he would skin me alive.

The 1st Prince poured himself water prepared on the bedside table and drank it to cool the heat boiling inside him.

I watched bitterly as he gulped down the water.

In truth, the hookah really is ruining his body.

And that water he is drinking, the food he ate for dinner today, and everything he consumes are making him sick.

He is now pouring poison into his own mouth.

This is not something that can be solved by killing the head maid or the chef.

Unless the seed planted inside his body is resolved, he will have to live relying on this treatment for the rest of his life.

Erasing unnecessary thoughts, I handed him the last stone I had brought today.

"This is the last one. It is not as though this itself will kill you, so do not be frightened."

"Yes. Thank you very much."

Grinding his teeth, he snatched the stone and focused on the last treatment of the day.

And around the time things were being wrapped up, there came the sound of someone cautiously knocking on the bedroom door.

"Your Highness, His Highness the 2nd Prince has come to visit."

"Tell him I will be out soon, so he should wait in the reception room."

Perhaps his mood had improved, because the 1st Prince roughly handed me the stone and spoke to the waiting maid.

"I will be going, so you disappear by that bizarre method the way you came in."

At his blunt tone, I answered only by shrugging my shoulders.

He looked dissatisfied with that, but he could not bring himself to say anything and went outside.

I took in the sight of him.

The sight of an older brother going to meet his beloved younger brother, who had planted the seed of disaster in his body.

* * *

Once again seated at the long table where blonde heads of all different shades had gathered, I had to think about how to pass this boring time.

Last time, I had spent the time counting the wood grain on the table while ignoring the 8th Prince picking a fight beside me, but it had not been very effective.

Why do they call over twenty people to a place where, in the end, only three people are playing along with one another?

The others were holding their seats with solemn expressions, as if they did not find the same routine boring every time.

It was truly no different from the last ritual.

Ah, there was something different.

This time, that 8th Prince, Celos Abiran, had joined that boring crowd.

It was the first family ritual held after the hunting festival.

Perhaps because of the promise with me today regarding honorifics, my unlucky half-brother did not even speak to me.

If he did, he would have to show himself speaking respectfully to the 7th Prince in front of others.

Perhaps he hated that enough to die for it, because Celos quietly shut his mouth and only glared at the table.

Because of the sense of incongruity that sight created, a few people did glance at him.

But if the 8th Prince suddenly called me older brother and spoke respectfully, the surroundings would not have ended with just sideways glances.

That was not what I wanted either, so I did not bother provoking him.

Then do I now count the wood grain of the table without the 8th Prince picking fights?

Good heavens, to think the day would come when I missed that guy’s rude provocation, even if only by the size of a fingernail.

As I crossed my arms while thinking useless thoughts, I heard a voice mixed with laughter from behind me.

"You look bored."

Those sitting at the far end of the table were startled by the appearance of a person they usually would not even dare to look at, and they straightened their already stiff postures even more.

"W-We greet Her Highness the 1st Princess."

It was the 1st Princess, Mentil Abiran, who had elegantly put up her wheat-colored hair to reveal the line of her neck.

It was the first time I had faced her since our meeting at the hunting competition.

Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked around. And lastly, she met my eyes and smiled brightly.

"Yes, it is a meaningful family event, so even if it is a little boring, do not show too much of a bothered attitude."

It was a joke meant to lighten the mood in its own way, but no one smiled at her jest.

Perhaps that was the wiser reaction.

Because if they forced themselves to laugh in such a stiff state, vomit might come out instead of a smile.

"Everyone lacks laughter."

Even in this uncomfortable atmosphere, Mentil bravely pretended to cry and continued joking as she looked around at those of us at the lowest seats.

"It seems the third son of the Crisa family will begin an amusing struggle in the Central District that Duke Feedus protected. It would be nice if we all went to watch before the next Tinas ritual arrives."

For words spoken as lightly as suggesting they go for a walk, the content was quite bloody.

If it was the Central District, then it was the land Duke Feedus had protected from Rasia at the hunting competition.

And the third son of the Crisa family referred to Tollin Crisa, the aide of Duke Feedus, who had collapsed.

At least for one year, the imperial family would not recklessly touch it due to tradition, and other nobles would not covet land that an imperial family member had once desired either.

How that land would be used was the first task that would determine the future of the House of Feedus, which had been given to acting duke Tollin Crisa.

From Tollin’s position, it would be like walking a precarious tightrope while carrying the remaining family members on his back, but to Mentil, it seemed to be nothing more than a rather interesting spectacle.

When no one answered hastily, Mentil now turned her body completely toward me.

Her action, meant simply to express friendliness, was creating a hair-trigger situation for me.

Giving the impression that the 1st Princess was close to me drew far too much attention.

The attention of characters in the original work who were no good to encounter would also focus on me together.

Good heavens, what could be more terrible than that?

Before she could open her mouth any further, I acted first.

"I understand that you are extremely busy preparing with His Imperial Majesty until the ritual. I am worried that your precious time may be wasted on us."

I could feel the other imperial family members standing there looking at me as if I were a madman for wagging my tongue with all my might, but it did not matter.

Fortunately, the 7th Prince originally had no reputation left to fall.

What I needed to be wary of was my reputation rising, not falling.

"Wasted? What is there to regret about spending time with family?"

Mentil, who could not possibly know what I was thinking, answered.

"Unlike Lady Mentil, there are certainly some who think differently."

"You are a child who cares more about others’ gazes than I expected."

There was no intention to scold me in Mentil’s words. She truly seemed to think my answer did not suit me.

"That is also true, but what I care about is the future."

"The future?"

I nodded.

"My future, as someone seated at the lowest place, does not lie in my own hands. It lies in the hands of the person who will become emperor."

Why else would the 3rd Prince be so desperate before the recovered 1st Prince?

Because he feared how the 1st Prince would deal with him after becoming emperor.

No one says it out loud, but everyone must be doing their utmost not to fall out of favor with the imperial family member who possesses strong power.

Because they might end their long lives in some freezing place far from the capital.

When Mentil understood my words, that I was no different from them, her brow furrowed.

"Are you saying that being separated from the capital and living a life less luxurious than now is so frightening....."

Mentil paused for a moment.

Her emerald eyes moved to my black hair.

Her words were correct.

It is rare for the emperor to personally kill other members of the imperial family.

Most are sent to barren places on the frontier.

But for the powerless 7th Prince, being driven to the frontier would be a sentence not much different from execution.

Only then did she seem to understand my situation, which was far closer to death than that of my other siblings.

Mentil’s eyes sank.

I could not know what she had thought of, but the fact that she had fallen silent was a good sign for now.

"Yes, I am very afraid."

When I answered the question she had been unable to continue, Mentil looked at me.

"I wish to spend my time as quietly as possible, and as unnoticed as possible. I do not want to stand out any further among the other imperial family members. Because......"

I stopped speaking for a moment and met Mentil’s green eyes, which were silently listening to me.

"...I am scared to death."

....If Rasia, the leading candidate for emperor, had heard this, he would have spat every curse imaginable, saying that the most shameless bastard in the world was here, but the other imperial family members I referred to here pointed elsewhere.

Perhaps my honest answer was funny, because someone beside me sneered.

My pride was not hurt.

I did not know whether it was because the words I had just spoken were half lies, or because the mockery of people who did not matter in the slightest in my life meant nothing to me.

Mentil, who had remained silent with her mouth closed for a moment, turned her head.

"Do you think so too?"

The person she spoke to was someone I had not expected either.

"Y-Yes?"

Celos, suddenly questioned, stammered so badly that he looked foolish.

Mentil quietly looked at Celos’ face with a piercing gaze.

Celos Abiran stood still without saying anything, yet unable to avoid her gaze either.

At length, Mentil turned her head as if no further answer was necessary.

"....My mood has gone. Everyone, sit down."

And then she turned around and left without lingering, heading to her own seat.

I secretly let out a sigh and sat down.

If this made her disappointed in me and lose interest entirely, that would be best. If not, at least I had bought time, so there was nothing to lose from this action.

Praying for something like a wish, that today’s conversation would remain effective until I left, I caught my breath, and then someone beside me spoke.

"What are you?"

I turned my head toward the 8th Prince, who had spoken to me for the first time since entering the banquet hall.

Celos was looking at me with an expression that said he did not understand.

It also looked like that of a child who felt wronged after having the snack he was eating taken away.

Depending on how one looked at it, it also seemed like that of someone whose pride had been hurt.

It seemed he did not like that, while standing beside me, he had ended up showing a pathetic reaction in front of the 1st Princess.

Or perhaps he did not like that the 1st Princess was interested in me.

Compared to me, who had a different mother, he, who had been born under the same mother as the 1st Princess, that is, the empress, was closer to the 1st Princess.

He cared quite a lot about that.

"What do you mean, ‘you’, to your older brother?"

When I answered, both of Celos’ eyebrows shot upward.

"How can you be so..... Ah, damn it, never mind."

Celos moved his lips a few times as if trying to speak, then stopped and turned his head away with a sharp sound.

Before long, the boring dinner began, so Celos did not open his mouth again after that.

* * *

When Tollin opened his eyes after being unconscious for a full day, many things in the House of Duke Feedus had changed.

He was no longer the aide of the family head, but the acting duke, and he had to protect the ducal family and the young duke from the pack of hyenas trying to bite into the unstable ducal house after the sudden obituary of the family head.

Everyone whispered that they did not know what the duke had been thinking, entrusting the role of acting head of the family to the timid and cowardly Tollin Crisa.

They mocked that he was far too small a person to fill the empty seat of the family head, that the House of Duke Feedus would collapse in an instant, and that the young duke would be left penniless and sitting in the streets.

But before long, completely different words began to pass through their mouths.

They all said that the loyal dog protecting the duke’s family had completely become a rabid dog, that anyone who touched the House of Duke Feedus would have to see blood, and that the young duke who would grow up under Tollin Crisa was an endlessly pitiful child.

In conclusion, it was all content saying that Tollin Crisa had become a madman.