Humans Always Betray Me
“Humans always betray me.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that…?”
Amelia asked, but I only smiled faintly and left it there.
“It’s nothing. You needn’t worry so much. I’ll come whenever you need me.”
“Hmph. Coming from you, that only makes me more suspicious… What a rare thing, for you to say something like that. I don’t believe a single honeyed word that comes out of your mouth. Promise me you’ll write often.”
Why is everyone so obsessed with letters?
“Yes… well.”
“Insolent as ever. Still, I’ll take that as an answer. If you have even a fingernail’s worth of awareness that you’re a noble now, you’ll know how disgraceful it is to break a promise spoken aloud.”
I nearly told her I didn’t know, on account of a rat having eaten my fingernails, but stopped myself.
No need to bicker on the last day.
“I’ll write often.”
I answered simply, without ornament.
“Hmm.”
She smiled, satisfied.
It was such a brilliant smile that her eyes curved into crescents — so much so that I nearly found her adorable without meaning to.
“Ah, Hasgard.”
She changed the subject as if something had just occurred to her, and I almost regretted the smile that slipped away.
“Your disciple.”
She brought Laward up out of nowhere.
“You mean Laward?”
“Yes, that one. You might want to keep an eye on him.”
“Keep an eye… on what?”
“It seems he’s monopolizing the training grounds.”
“It’s true he’s been training even harder since that incident, but there’s no problem. He’s managing his stamina.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’ve heard the second-years and third-years alike grumbling that the grounds have been stolen from them. Honestly. If they don’t like it, they should just get there earlier than he does. Being diligent is a crime now, is it?”
Ah. So that’s what this is about.
Your name keeps coming up with the seniors lately, so watch yourself.
Something like that?
Not even funny.
“He can handle that much himself. It’s not something I need to worry about.”
“Well, if you say so, I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
Amelia shrugged and fixed her gaze on me again.
In a past life she had married Laward, yet now she spoke of him as if he were of no concern at all.
“I only… thought of it in case something might tarnish your name. He is your disciple, after all.”
Even that was a thread of conversation that led back to me.
“Thank you for your concern.”
“Concern? Hardly… I just happened to think of it, that’s all.”
Amelia turned her head slightly away.
Before I could fall any deeper into her shifting expressions, I carefully studied the Favorability Scouter screen once more.
There was still one more thing I hadn’t checked.
The reward for maxing out favorability — something I hadn’t been able to see before upgrading the Scouter.
The Bond Skill.
And the Special Command.
I’d already confirmed the Bond Skill, so it was time for the next one.
The Bond Skill had been teleportation of all things, so I couldn’t help but look forward to the Special Command.
If the Bond Skill is a utility skill, maybe the Special Command is an offensive one?
I checked it while entertaining that happy little fantasy.
And then—
“…….”
My expression froze solid.
I’d just sworn to myself the other day that I would mind my face, too.
I couldn’t pull myself together at all.
“What is it, Hasgard? Hmm? So you are sad about being apart from me after all.”
“…….”
“Have you been holding it in this whole time? Is that it? Hmm? Hmm?”
The Special Command.
It wasn’t the kind of skill that helped with clearing the game or with multi-route playthroughs.
If anything, it was something that fit the genre far too well.
A device designed so you could never forget this was an otome game.
I should never have focused on the “Special.” I should have focused on the “Command.”
I could give Amelia special orders.
I could make her do things she would never normally do.
Acts that only became available once favorability hit 99.
If I had to put it into words…
If I could go as far as saying it—
It was something beyond even the True Ending.
“Pardon the interruption during your meal.”
A woman with a cloth draped over her arm, raised to about waist height like a waiter, bowed her head as she spoke.
“Hm?”
A pair of fox ears twitched and turned toward the sound of her voice.
“What is it?”
The man with the fox ears kept his gaze fixed on his plate as he leaned toward the woman.
As if it were the most familiar thing in the world, she dabbed, dab, dab, at the blood clinging to the corners of the fox man’s mouth with the cloth.
Afterward, the fox man smiled as if satisfied, then picked up a piece of raw meat from the plate with his bare hand and opened his mouth wide.
His sharp canines caught the light and glittered; the morsel of meat slid onto his tongue.
What it tasted like could be read from the soft sway of the fox man’s fluffy tail.
All nine tails moved one after another, like fingers dancing over piano keys.
Then the woman carefully approached his fox ear and whispered behind a hand cupped over her mouth.
“Hmm, I see. He was so confident he’d bring back a head, and instead he got himself killed.”
Hearing the news of the twins, the man nodded two or three times as if it were nothing of consequence.
“That holy knight must be quite strong… So he wasn’t a candidate for nothing. A shame. We might have become family… Looks like he’s already crossed a bridge he can’t come back from.”
The fox licked the blood from his fingers and lifted his sharp eyes.
Higher still, toward the ceiling.
Toward the man hanging upside down there.
“Ahh. Humans always betray me.”
How long had he been like that? The man’s face was flushed crimson from all the blood pooling in his head, and he glared at the fox as if he meant to kill him.
“Khhaaagh! I’ll kill you! I will cut you down without fail!”
The hanging man thrashed and shouted like a freshly caught fish.
“Silence that mouth of yours.”
Speaking as if he were teasing, the fox man leaned back into his massive chair and hooked one arm over the backrest.
“Is that how royalty talks?”
The fox smiled with his eyes as he looked at the fingers of the man hanging upside down.
The man’s index finger.
A ring carved in the image of the sun glittered there.
“Khrrgh…!”
The First Prince struggled, but all that answered him was the clanking of the iron chains binding his body.
“I knew there would be ones like you! The Subjugation Festival, the princess’s kidnapping, the undead in the marquisate — it was all connected! The Death God Cult…! The Necromancer has been resurrected…!”
“Wooow.”
The fox man’s ears perked up, and his tails swished back and forth.
“Just how good is your intelligence network? You’ve already figured out that much? No — even if you found it out, you still managed to track us down. Bold. Very bold. Or is it that you thought catching us would give you an edge in the succession?”
As if offering him a turn to speak, the fox pointed a finger straight at the First Prince.
“…….”
“You’re really smart!”
Then he raised both hands and clapped.
“Most people would struggle even knowing all that — I guess the eldest son really is different… But smart and careful aren’t the same thing, apparently. Knowing too much made you stupid, if anything.”
“What are you talking about…?”
“No, think about it. If you know us that well—”
Whoosh—
His smiling face stopped right in front of the upside-down First Prince’s.
“…you should have brought an army.”
Flick.
The fox’s nail scraped across the First Prince’s throat, and a line of blood spilled down onto the plate below.
Like a water fountain, the blood that had already pooled downward poured out without end.
“U-uaaaaagh!”
The fox continued his meal with the First Prince’s screams as background music.
He lapped up the blood that kept filling the plate.
On and on.
On and on.
“……Amelia.”
Kairon, disguised in Daywin’s appearance, carefully opened his mouth.
“Were you… nervous…?”
“Hmph. Nervous about what.”
Dressed in full royal formalwear, Amelia slid a ring onto her slender middle finger.
“……It’ll… be fine.”
At Kairon’s soft words, she gave a start and looked up at him.
“Brother.”
“……Yeah.”
“Close your mouth.”
“……Huh?”
When you say things like that looking like that, it feels nice for a second — then I remember you’re my brother and the whole mood dies.
The words rose all the way to the tip of her tongue, but Amelia only sighed and shook her head.
Having returned to the royal palace, Amelia made her way to the place where the succession candidates were gathered in one room.
A conference chamber with a round table at its center.
When Amelia pushed open the great doors with both hands, the siblings who had arrived first all turned their heads at once.
They stared at the sudden uninvited guest for a long moment before finally recognizing her as Amelia.
Their younger sister’s face, seen for the first time in two years.
“A… Amelia…?”
Their expressions twisted into something almost comical.
They stared at her with mouths hanging open.
Amelia, for her part, merely looked over the people in the room, as if to show she couldn’t care less.
Fewer than I thought.
Eleven siblings.
Two of the four princes.
And two of the seven princesses, is it?
Four candidates sat at the north, south, east, and west of the round table, their escort knights standing behind them.
And one empty seat.
Five in total.
Six, counting Amelia.
“Amelia… how did you…?”
At the Second Prince’s mutter, Amelia looked down on them.
“You’ve all worked hard trying to kill me.”
She confirmed it in the faces of her siblings, whose expressions shifted as if something had struck home.
“Even living for two years as if I knew nothing, there were so many eyes watching. You must all be disappointed. You prayed I wouldn’t come back, didn’t you?”
Thud!
At those words the Second Prince braced both hands hard against the round table and stood.
“A-Amelia. Welcome back. But this is a place only succession candidates may enter. You know that, right? S-so… I’d prefer if you left now…”
“Yes, thank you for the welcome. But I can’t leave.”
“Amelia, do you even understand what you’re doing right now?”
The Third Prince rose next and rebuked her.
“This is a place where proper succession candidates discuss the future policies of the royal house in peace. You, stripped of your authority, have no right to set foot—”
“Peace? Don’t make me laugh. You’re all sitting there figuring out how to kill each other.”
“You dare, after sheltering Kairon, whom His Majesty cast out!”
At the Third Prince’s scolding, Amelia sensed Kairon shift slightly behind her.
Don’t flinch.
Out of her siblings’ sight, Amelia clenched a fist and gave Kairon’s side a light thump.
“Amelia, listen to our brothers. Tch, what is this, showing up out of nowhere…”
“Get out at once. Do you mean to ignore tradition? You there! Why aren’t you stopping the intruder!”
The princesses rose in turn and pointed their fingers at Amelia.
Fingers.
Amelia raised a finger right back at them.
“Will this do?”
The ring on her middle finger glittered gold.
Once again, her siblings stared at Amelia with vacant, stupefied faces.
Clank!
The guards who rushed in late were equally bewildered by the sudden silence that had fallen over the room.
They had come running at the word of an intruder, yet every succession candidate except Amelia had frozen in place, unable to say a word.
“You’re here.”
Only Amelia turned her head and singled out one of the guards with her eyes.
“Since you’re here, bring a chair.”
“Pardon? Ah… yes.”
The guard bobbed his head at once and bolted back out.
“At last I can sit.”
Amelia lowered her hands neatly and let out a breath.
“A-Amelia. You… you… how…?”
“Did His Majesty return the ring? No, that can’t be… The crime was aiding that demon, of all people…”
Her siblings began to react to Amelia in their own separate ways.
In that moment—
Dong, dong, dong, dong—
The palace bells rang out with a heavy noise.
The siblings, and Amelia and Kairon as well, all flinched at those four tolls.
It was a sound every child of the royal house knew well.
Ill tidings.
The bells struck when royal blood had died.
As one, they turned their heads toward the seat of the one who had not yet arrived.
Their eyes fell on the empty place at the round table.
The First Prince’s seat.
“It can’t be…”
“Amelia… who did you get that ring from…”
The question of where she had gotten the ring soon became—
From whom.