Shattering Innocence with Sister Albert
Shattering Innocence with Sister Albert
Late afternoon. I took advantage of a free moment to visit Sister Albert.
"Sister Albert!"
Maybe it was because we hadn't seen each other in so long, or because her sickly little brother—who normally spent every day bedridden—had suddenly barged into her room.
She stared down at me with wide eyes—as if to ask, 'Why are you here?'
"...Yune? What's going on?"
"I'm coming in first!"
"Huh? Oh, right."
I could tell she was a little flustered, but I forced my way inside anyway.
And after closing the door so our voices wouldn't carry.
"Sis, long time no see!"
"...Yeah. You too, Yune. I'm glad you're healthy now."
I smiled and greeted her properly. I hadn't been able to before, because I was talking with Mother earlier.
She gave me a helpless smile as she looked down at me.
"Hey, sis. What was the Academy like?"
"Huh? The Academy? Well, it was fun. I learned a lot."
"Woah! Sis, sis! Tell me about it! I'm so curious!"
After that, I kept pestering her for stories about the Imperial Academy. Flare had told me so much about the world, but I'd barely heard a thing about the Academy.
I quickly grabbed her hand and made her sit next to me. She seemed a bit flustered before she carefully started to speak.
"Um... isn't this weird for you? I hate to say this, but I never thought you'd actually like me this much."
"Aww, if I don't cling to such a pretty sister, who am I supposed to cling to?"
"...Pretty? Me?"
"Yeah! You're super pretty!"
At my flattery, her cheeks immediately flushed red. She took a breath, then...
"...Was he always this cute?"
"Huh? What did you say, sis?"
"Nothing. ...Right. You're curious about the Academy? I majored in strategy..."
She gave me a brief overview of the Academy.
A four-year institution. The first year is mandatory general education. In the second year, you take the subjects you want. The third and fourth years involve hands-on practical training based on your desired career path.
"...And Sister Mar and I graduated early after finishing the first semester of our third year."
"Wow, that's amazing. Both of you graduating early together. How do you get early graduation?"
"It varies, but I was highly praised for a thesis I submitted at the start of third year. They said early graduation was possible, so I applied right away."
"A thesis? You wrote one? Wow, sis, you're really amazing! That's so cool!"
"Heh."
Unlike the awkwardness at first, her expression gradually relaxed as I sat there listening attentively and chiming in.
'Heh. Mark of a Manly Man: Incredible social skills.'
I felt a surge of pride at my own manly manliness.
After carefully watching her expression, I subtly brought up the real reason I had come.
"So, sis. Is it true they teach about adventurers at the Academy?"
"Huh? How do you know about that?"
"While you were gone, Flare... oh. Flare is a mercenary, you know?"
I briefly told her what I had gone through over the past year. The journey to cure the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, learning magic from Flare, and so on.
When I finished my explanation by describing the moment I decided to become an adventurer, she put a hand to her forehead and looked down at me.
"...So, you want to be an adventurer? You, Yune?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna become a super famous Grand Mage and travel the whole world!"
But her expression turned grim at my grand ambitions. She raised an eyebrow as if troubled and took a moment to choose her words.
Then she dropped a bombshell.
"There's no way you can."
"...What?"
* * * * * *
Yune had brought up wanting to be an adventurer. Albert wondered what to say to her naive little brother before deciding to just be honest.
"Yune. Listen carefully. You are the only son of Erengard, the Northern Grand Duchess—her youngest son, at that. I don't like ranking nobles, but there are fewer people more noble than you than I can count on both hands."
"What does that have to do with anything? Adventurer is a free profession. Anyone can be one, regardless of status."
"Haah. That Flare person seems to have put strange ideas into your head, but reality is completely different. 'Anyone can become one' means even starving slash-and-burn farmers, illegal immigrants, or even criminals who escaped hard labor camps can be adventurers."
"..."
"An utterly lowly profession. One devoid of honor, chasing nothing but money. That is an adventurer. So you'd better abandon any illusions you have about it early on."
After that, Albert began educating Yune on the common sense regarding adventurers. Untrustworthy people. People you shouldn't associate with. People who don't hold promises sacred.
Her absurdly harsh assessment stemmed from her bias based on experience. During tactical training at the Academy, she had once led a mercenary group and came away with a deeply negative impression of mercenaries and, by extension, adventurers.
But Yune frowned as if he couldn't agree.
"But Flare, who I mentioned earlier, is a mage from the secured Magic Tower, and she was a really kind person. So you can't say all adventurers are like that."
'Oh. Proof by contradiction. He's naive, but he's smart for his age. He hasn't even received a real education yet. Is this the Nordkirchen blood flowing in him?'
"Fine. Maybe not everyone. But how many are like that? One in three? One in ten? I think one in a hundred is generous."
"..."
Yune clamped his mouth shut and looked down, having been lost for words. A wave of guilt washed over Albert.
'Come to think of it, Yune is still nine. It's not strange for him to still believe in fairy-tale-like stories. Was I too harsh? Should I have sugarcoated it a bit?'
Albert felt sorry for seemingly shattering her innocent brother's childhood dreams, but soon she steeled herself.
"Brother. Let me tell you the most important thing. Even if adventurers really were a great profession like you say, you could still never become one."
"Why...?"
Yune's eyes were now slightly wet. Albert wanted to pull him into a hug right then and there and shout, 'I'm sorry! My Yune, you can do anything you want!', but she held back and continued.
"I said it at the start. It's because you are Yunes von Nordkirchen. Because you are the noble young lord of one of the most prestigious families in the Empire."
"I can't be an adventurer just because I'm a noble?"
"That's right. And especially because you're a boy."
She told her naive younger brother the reality. How much political value the existence of Yune, the sole youngest son of House Nordkirchen, held. And the political meaning behind the engagement decided without any regard for his own will.
"It hurts, but this is reality. You can never be an adventurer. If you say you'll become one, the Charlottenburg family won't stand still."
"...Then, what if the engagement breaks?"
"Huh? What did you just say, brother?"
"Uh, n-nothing. Anyway, I get it."
Yune, who had been quietly listening, muttered the honest thought that had come to him.
If Albert had heard its contents, she would have panicked and tried to dissuade him...
Fortunately for Yune, and unfortunately for Albert and the Nordkirchen Grand Ducal House, that mutter reached no one.
It merely became a small secret resolve swirling in the depths of Yune's mind.
* * * * * *
Still, Sister Albert had launched such a harsh factual assault on her little brother, whom she hadn't seen in ages, that it was almost too much.
But her eyes were so full of worry for me that I could clearly see she wasn't saying this out of any malice.
She was probably genuinely worried about me. In her mind, I shouldn't and couldn't become an adventurer. She had probably said such cold words to stop me from chasing a pointless dream.
But...
'Mark of a Manly Man: Does not bend to the oppression of his surroundings.'
Despite her logical reasoning, my will to become an adventurer was not broken.
Adventurers aren't a great job? That was fine. In fact, it was all the better because it felt so manly.
And as for the realistic problems blocking me, those regarding my status...
'Couldn't I just graduate the Academy and sneak away? If I stay here, I'll probably just end up being married off to some ugly noblewoman and being stuck at home all day anyway.'
I decided to simply evade the issue. Abolishing the class system seemed too hard, so I'd just run away in secret after I'd graduated the Academy and milked it for everything it had to offer.
Calculating that my family would have no choice but to grudgingly turn a blind eye after I came back having made a name for myself as an adventurer, I smiled slyly.
'Mark of a Manly Man: Acts first, gets permission later. And as for the engagement... I'll just meet this 'fiancée' person, say a few mean things, and it'll break off on its own, right? Hehe.'
Having sorted out my thoughts in an instant, I looked at Sister Albert and grinned brightly.
"Thanks, sis! It's almost dinner time, so I'll see you then!"
"...You really understood, right? You're not cooking up some weird ideas?"
"What ideas? I've given up on being an adventurer!"
"Well, that's a relief."
Sister Albert looked at me anxiously. I hid my true feelings with a laugh and hurriedly dashed out of the room.
'Yeah. Let's keep the dream of becoming an adventurer a secret. So that I can leave just a letter behind at the decisive moment.'