Side Story - A Storm in My Heart
This year I turned ten, and I became engaged.
Engaged at ten years old? It did seem rather early, but what could I do about it? For a noble daughter, marrying for the sake of her family was simply how things were done.
My fiancé was the eldest son of Baron Rosfel.
It was a match arranged through the connection between Baron Rosfel, commander of the southern knight order, and my elder brother who served under him. At first glance it might appear to be a step-down marriage from a viscount house to a barony, but I was told it was actually an exceptionally fine prospect.
I didn’t fully understand the details, but seeing the wet nurse and servants chatter with excitement from morning till night, I supposed they must be right.
They kept saying things like “The young lady is blessed,” and “It’s one of the finest matches in the kingdom,” looking happier about it than if it were their own affair. Their joy was strangely contagious.
Yet a corner of my heart remained uneasy. Becoming engaged at ten to someone whose face I had never seen felt suffocating.
So I decided to meet him. I wanted to see what sort of person my fiancé truly was.
Not long after I made that resolution, I heard that my fiancé had suffered a rather serious accident.
When word reached me that he had been wounded during a regular subjugation operation with the southern knights, I realized this was my opportunity.
I could pay him a get-well visit and meet him under the perfect pretext.
It wasn’t that I felt no concern at all. He was injured, so naturally I felt a measure of pity.
But my worry for a fiancé I had never even seen could only remain shallow. I was no saint out of a fairy tale, after all.
Was there truly anyone who could worry with their whole heart for people they had never met, offering devotion and self-sacrifice for strangers? In the world I had experienced, at least, I had never encountered such a person.
…Though my experience was only that of a ten-year-old, of course.
At any rate, upon hearing of my fiancé’s injury, what swelled within me was not so much worry as eager anticipation at the chance to finally meet him.
Carrying that buoyant expectation, I traveled to Rosfel and met my fiancé.
“Hello? My name is Brunhild Rosenfels. I’ve come to visit my fiancé while he recovers…?”
BANG!
“Aigoo! Young Master Alvaro! We have a guest present— you can’t be doing that here!”
He… seemed rather different from the sort of person I had imagined?
Alvaro Sternfeld, my fiancé, was truly one of a kind.
One of a kind… honestly, in cruder terms, perhaps the words madman or lunatic would fit better?
…Forgive me. It is rude even to think such things.
Perhaps it is because I have spent the last several days in Rosfel, constantly at my fiancé’s side, but I feel as though I am beginning to pick up his manner of speech.
But just listen to this. The very first thing he did upon meeting his fiancée was ask her to evaluate the power of the magic he had cast—as casually as if he were stopping a random passerby on the street!
I was utterly flustered. He was a type of person I had never encountered before.
Afterward I witnessed the family butler arriving to clean up the mess, scolding him and dragging him away.
Watching that scene, I spent the rest of the day trying to comprehend what on earth was happening.
Good heavens. Not even realizing his fiancée had come to visit, the moment he forced himself up from his sickbed, the first thing he did was…
For some reason, I feel a headache coming on.
Yes, I am certain the reason those crude words occurred to me was because of this very headache.
“Sigh… It’s difficult to simply dismiss him as immature.”
He must have been scolded by Baron Rosfel again. The image of my fiancé appearing late at night covered in dirt replayed in my mind.
“I apologize, my lady. I am Alvaro Sternfeld. Could you possibly forgive my rudeness on our first meeting?”
When he apologized with such a serious face and voice… what else could I do but accept?
“Lady Brunhild? Um… Young Master Alvaro is calling for you. What should I tell him?”
The servant’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. It was one of the attendants who had traveled with me from my own house.
It seemed my fiancé was calling for me again… but why did he keep trying to draw me into debates about magic theory?
If it were swordsmanship I could have shrugged it off with “Well, that’s how boys his age are,” but I simply could not understand why he insisted on dragging me into conversations that began with “This is a theory of magic—”
“…Please tell him I decline.”
“He said… he won’t talk about magic today. He’s asking if you might join him for a picnic in the countryside instead. Would that be all right?”
Jingle!
The sound of coins clinking came from inside the servant’s pocket.
…He must have slipped the man some money. When on earth had he approached my servant and bribed him like this?
Seeing such resourcefulness and quick action, I felt less admiration than the renewed conviction that he was, indeed, rather peculiar. Perhaps that was the power of first impressions.
“…Tell him I’ll go.”
“Yes, my lady! I’ll inform Young Master Alvaro at once.”
Watching the servant scurry out of the room with such speed, I could only sigh.
“Haa… It feels like I haven’t had a single peaceful day since arriving in Rosfel…”
My body might be comfortable, but inside my heart a typhoon was raging.
A typhoon by the name of my fiancé.
We went on an outing to the forest near the Rosfel lord’s manor.
But why?
“Why aren’t we going alone?”
“Were you hoping we would?”
“…I don’t know.”
I wasn’t talking about the servants or escorts.
In the carriage sat myself, my fiancé, and—
“…I hope it isn’t uncomfortable for you?”
“Please don’t worry. I’m quite all right, Lord Eckhart.”
My fiancé’s younger brother, Eckhart, had done nothing wrong. The problem was my fiancé.
So it wasn’t meant to be an outing for just the two of us?
The moment that thought occurred to me, embarrassment surged from my chest straight to my face.
I quickly turned my head to hide how red my cheeks had become.
Why was I reacting like this all of a sudden? I didn’t even understand myself.
Perhaps mistaking my turned head for displeasure, my fiancé added in a defensive tone, “It’s because Hardy’s condition has improved. Our younger brother has a weak constitution and rarely leaves the mansion, so I brought him along when the chance arose.”
Hearing that, I found myself examining Eckhart more closely.
They were two years apart, yet outwardly the age gap seemed far greater.
Part of it was that Alvaro was large for his age, but more than that, Eckhart simply looked younger—most likely because his chronic illness had slowed his growth.
Born into a knightly house, one unable to inherit the blessing of the sword, the other tormented by sickness. The contrast felt almost heartbreaking.
Yet the two of them paid no mind to such fates and simply got along in perfect harmony.
Wait… could it be that Alvaro’s strange behavior is actually for his brother’s sake?
Watching them together, the thought suddenly struck me.
Although Alvaro lacked the talent for knighthood, as the eldest son many people must have assumed he would still be the more stable choice compared to frail Eckhart.
Once I considered that possibility, Alvaro’s actions appeared in an entirely different light.
So was he deliberately acting like an eccentric so the family would not choose him?
That way the succession would pass to his brother instead?
If that’s true… isn’t it far too cruel to himself?
To sacrifice his birthright, his reputation, everything for his younger brother… it seemed excessively devoted.
Ah, and here I was thinking there were no truly devoted people…
It might not be the perfect, fairy-tale sacrifice for complete strangers, since it was for family.
But it is still genuinely altruistic.
I felt ashamed of the arrogant judgment I had made with my short ten years of life.
“We’ve arrived!”
The coachman’s voice rang out. We had reached the picnic spot.
I set my embarrassed feelings aside and began to step down from the carriage, but—
“Hardy! I’ll show you the ultimate technique I used in the recent subjugation!”
“Oh dear! Young master! You mustn’t behave this way with a guest present! And Young Master Eckhart has a weak body—oh my!”
"Fire Javelin!"
⟨ Fire Javelin ⟩
BOOOOM!
“Wow! Brother, that was amazing!”
“Right? Hardy?”
…Perhaps I had been mistaken after all.
Could that really be called devoted sacrifice?
Five years later.
“Hilt, do you know any high nobles?”
“I told you not to speak so abruptly.”
Without the slightest context, my fiancé suddenly asked me the question.
I had come to Rosfel after a long time for his coming-of-age ceremony, yet he was still only causing trouble, which worried me greatly.
When I turned to look, he was staring at me with those bright, sparkling eyes. It was absurd, but I sighed and answered.
“You want me to introduce you to the high nobles I know?”
“Yeah, please.”
“So suddenly?”
“Yeah. I’m planning to leave the territory. I’m going to become independent.”
“…Are you a lunatic?”
Ah, I slipped. What I had only meant to think came out of my mouth.
…But really, think about it.
He shows up at his own coming-of-age ceremony where I came to congratulate him, suddenly asks if I know any high nobles, and now declares he’s going to be independent. If this isn’t the behavior of a lunatic… Hoo, calm down. Calm.
“Fifteen is the age of adulthood, right? Shouldn’t I start living a life that belongs only to me?”
Hoo. I already knew he intended to become independent. The servants had been gossiping that “It seems Lord Alvaro has no interest in the position of family head,” and I had been keeping an eye on his activities as well.
Even so.
“A life that belongs only to you? Does the fact that the person standing in front of you is your fiancée not enter your mind at all?”
Does he truly not consider the person before him as his fiancée? A life that belongs only to me? After everything, this is just too much!
Hoo… I’ll endure it. It’s not as if this is the first or second time, Hilt. Just endure…
“Hoo… I can’t live like this. Why did they have to engage me to someone like him of all people?”
“Uh… well, you see… …I’m sorry, Hilt.”
“…Anyway, why the high nobles?”
“It’s because…”
After hearing the full story, it was exactly as I had suspected.
The notion that if he became the family head he would only burden everyone, so he would sacrifice himself by leaving.
When I was younger I had thought it looked cool, but now all I felt was frustration.
No matter how much it is for family, is it right to sacrifice that much?
The reason I couldn’t shake the thought was that, to me, Al looked far too sad.
Above all, even though the choice is for his family, it means he must part from that very family.
It was a decision that would mean virtually permanent political separation from the Sternfeld barony. In noble society, it was practically the same as choosing to cut all ties.
So I used every connection I possessed to find the very best one I could and gave it to Al.
“The third prince? I never imagined that!”
“Are you satisfied now?”
“Of course. Completely satisfied.”
“By the way, why are you trying to meet a high noble?”
“I’m going to ask him to take me in as a vassal.”
“As a vassal?”
Al explained with a joyful expression how he would rise again from there.
…It was a relief. That even after leaving his family he didn’t seem depressed. That he showed no sign of regretting his choice to protect Eckhart or tearing himself down. It was truly a relief.
After that Al asked me all sorts of questions about the third prince, then suddenly his eyes changed.
…That look was the one he got right before causing trouble, wasn’t it?
“Al?”
“Yeah? What is it, Hilt?”
“You’re not thinking of doing something strange again, are you?”
“…I won’t?”
The way he glanced aside while saying that made it obvious he was planning something.
“You must not cause any incidents there. Even if it is the third prince’s relatively quiet banquet, it is still a prince’s event. There will undoubtedly be incredible figures everywhere. You really cannot cause trouble.”
To that, Al answered only,
“I’ll try.”
…. Huhuhuhuhu. I’ve held back quite a lot until now, haven’t I?
My body is trembling. This must be the anger that has built up over the years. Justified, righteous anger.
Crack!
“It’s not ‘try’! You must ‘not do it’!”
Thump! Thump! Thump!
I beat my fiancé without mercy. I thought this would bring him to his senses, but—
“Hilt, that hurts.”
“I’m hitting you so it hurts! You idiot!”
“No, I’m seriously not joking—it really hurts. Your hands are incredibly spicy, you know?”
Ah… it seems hopeless. I feel as if the thread of reason is about to snap.
Endure it, endure it, Hilt. Hitting him more won’t change anything. If anything, he’ll just use it as an excuse to cause even more trouble. So—
Ah, I can’t hold back anymore.
Whoosh!
Before I knew it my fist had flown out, landing a clean strike directly into Al’s solar plexus.
“Oof!”
I watched him writhe on the ground in agony, yet at the same time I could already picture him causing chaos at the banquet.
Haa… really…
My head throbbed painfully.
You truly are a storm in my heart.