Brother... Are You in Your Right Mind? No, Seriously—Have You Completely Lost It?!
I half-dragged, half-escorted Grand Duke Gareth away from Helena and led him up to the reception room on the fourth floor.
The moment the door closed, Gareth let out a long, heavy sigh, as though he had finally set down a burden he’d been carrying for miles, and sank into the sofa.
For once, the Grand Duke looked small. Pathetic, even.
"Brother, you look dreadful. What on earth happened to you in the capital?"
As I sat on the sofa opposite him and asked casually, Gareth scrubbed a hand over his face and gave a bitter smile.
"...I am sorry, Bayle. I have only just reunited with my younger brother, yet all I can show you is the shameful state of your elder brother. Dealing with the pack of wolves in the capital was exhausting enough, and now I’ve gone and made a mess of the house as well. How can I possibly face you?"
Watching the Grand Duke wallow in self-reproach, I decided to lighten the mood by talking about my own recent affairs.
"A shameful sight? Not at all. If anything, thanks to you treating me like a true brother, I’ve been working hard not to disgrace that name."
"Working hard?"
Gareth looked up in surprise.
"While you were away, I’ve been receiving formal swordsmanship instruction from Sir Karin."
"You’ve been learning the sword?"
"Yes. Under Sir Karin’s guidance, I plan to enter next year’s integrated swordsmanship tournament in Libertree County, and after that, the Imperial Swordsmanship Tournament in the capital."
I added, wearing an expression of solemn determination.
"I intend to bring home the champion’s trophy and prove to the entire Empire that your judgment in keeping a common-born man like me at your side was never wrong."
At my grand declaration, Grand Duke Gareth’s eyes widened all at once.
His red gaze quickly filled with hot emotion, moisture gathering at the corners.
"Ah... Bayle, my brother...!"
Gareth shot to his feet and came to stand before me, grabbing both my hands in his.
"For my sake? You’ve taken on such grueling training just to raise the name of this worthless elder brother of yours? I have shown you nothing but disgrace, and I’ve made Rebecca cry and driven you to discomfort... and yet you care for me so deeply!"
Haa... that wasn’t exactly the reason, but if I want to soothe the Grand Duke right now, I need to dress it up properly.
Gareth squeezed my hands hard enough to crush bone and shook them wildly, sinking alone into the swamp of his own brotherly devotion and battlefield sentiment.
I did not miss the opportunity.
Using the moment while he was drunk on emotion and defenseless, I met his eyes and went straight for the question I most wanted answered.
"Brother. The Grand Duke of the North that I know, the Gareth von Arteta that I respect, is not a foolish or light-minded man who would ruin his family for no reason and bring some strange woman into the sacred heart of the Grand Ducal household."
"...Bayle."
"What happened in the capital? What is that woman Helena, exactly?"
At my grave accusation, Gareth’s shoulders gave a sharp twitch.
He slowly let go of my hands, returned to the sofa, and sat down heavily.
"...You are my brother to whom I owe my life. I will tell you the most miserable shame of my life."
After a long silence, during which he steadied his ragged breathing, Gareth buried his face in both hands and began to pour out the most humiliating, most devastating secret to me, his younger brother.
"I... I was unable to touch Rebecca for the past ten years."
"Pardon? Unable to touch her?"
"The function of a man... had died in me. No physician in the capital, no elixir, nothing worked. For ten years, I lived as a eunuch before my wife."
...Huh?
No, this is a romance fantasy world. Even if it’s a past timeline, he’s set up as impotent?
However bleak the genre gets, isn’t this crossing the line a little too hard?!
Gareth’s confession went on.
"But on this visit to the capital... while staying in Gawain’s estate, I was showering when—by some miracle, or perhaps by some curse—my body’s function returned. Desire struck me all at once, and I lost my reason, collapsing before I knew what had happened."
Gareth clenched his fists so hard they trembled.
"And when I woke the next morning... Helena, Gawain’s maid, the one who had not a stitch on her body, was lying beside me. The sheets were stained with the signs of our coupling. I... I lost my reason and violated my own brother’s maid."
Hm... So Gawain’s definitely behind this.
"A woman who might have been carrying my seed after ten years of my body returning to life... the bloodline of the Grand Ducal house, perhaps growing within her. How could I leave such a woman alone in the cold capital? If she had become with child, what sin would that child have committed? So... so I brought her home in order to take responsibility."
Tears began to drip from Gareth’s eyes at last.
After hearing his confession, I forced my mind to settle and think clearly.
The estate in the capital that belongs to Gawain. The sudden return of masculinity. Losing consciousness. And Gawain’s maid.
It was obvious. A trap laid by Gawain von Arteta, the hidden hand and root of all evil in the original Rose Blooming to Be Broken.
That insane bastard definitely drugged my brother with something. Or maybe he passed him out with sleeping pills and planted the maid there to fake the whole thing.
I clenched my fist.
Now that the Grand Duke had confessed it to me, this was the perfect chance to expose Gawain’s true nature and make Gareth doubt him.
"Brother. Doesn’t that sound strange to you? Of all places, at Gawain’s estate, with Gawain’s maid, that happened? Brother, could it be that something was in the food or tea you had that day—"
Just as I was carefully trying to ignite a spark of suspicion toward Gawain—
"Yes. Rebecca said the exact same thing."
Gareth cut me off with a bitter smile.
"Rebecca, too, suspected Gawain. In fact, just before my father-in-law, Count Pirla, passed away, he told her in his final words to be cautious, saying that Gawain was trying to swallow up the Grand Ducal house. She even showed me a letter."
Oh! Father-in-law, magnificent work! Nice, Mrs. Rebecca!
I cheered inwardly.
If Lady Rebecca had already pointed directly at the truth, my explanation would be much easier.
"Then, Brother, you should immediately—"
"But I thought that letter was merely a trick arranged by my political enemies."
"...What?"
My cheer shattered in a single second.
Gareth wiped away his tears and spoke in a voice full of absolute conviction.
"Count Pirla was a suspicious man by nature when he was alive. In his old age and illness, his judgment in politics must have grown clouded. Gawain is what sort of child? Every time I go out to war, he stands behind me crying for my safety and diligently handles the Grand Ducal finances. There is no kinder, gentler younger brother in the world. To think such a fellow would stab his own brother in the back—nonsense."
I stood there blankly, mouth half-open.
"It is clear to me that my father-in-law was deceived by the slander of his enemies. Rebecca is the one clinging to that false letter and hating Gawain because of it. How could I possibly cast out my own flesh and blood, my beloved brother, on such baseless accusations?"
Ah.
That iron wall of blind trust.
That horrifying level of gullibility.
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
If a man like this could dismiss even his father-in-law’s dying words as the delusions of a suspicious old fool, then what chance did I, some common-born hanger-on who’d been rolled in by fate, have of convincing him that his younger brother was the mastermind?
No. If I keep digging into Gawain here...
Could this foolish, soft-hearted Grand Duke really withstand being forced to confront the truth between the wife he loved most in the world and the brother he trusted most in the world?
If I pushed the wrong way, there was a real chance Gareth’s sanity would snap completely, and he’d fall into madness as a deranged, yandere villainous Grand Duke who didn’t even appear in the original story.
After all, Gareth is Veronica the villainess’s father.
The possibility was high.
It could become the worst bad ending route imaginable—an obsession so twisted that, in the name of protecting his family, he locked everyone in the mansion and slaughtered them all.
...Hold back. This isn’t the time to touch Gawain. I need to step back.
I swallowed the frustration boiling in my chest and revised my strategy.
If I couldn’t strike at Gawain directly, then the immediate priority was to deal with Helena, who had already rolled right into our hands.
"...Brother, your profound devotion to family is admirable beyond my ability to measure."
I forced a smile and continued.
"But, Brother, no matter how important responsibility may be, bringing a concubine into the sacred fifth floor without even consulting your wife will only bring disaster upon the Grand Ducal house. Didn’t you see it at lunch today? How deeply Lady Rebecca was hurt?"
Gareth’s shoulders folded again under the weight of guilt.
"If you cannot bring yourself to drive Helena away at once, then at the very least please reconsider keeping her on the fifth floor. Even if it means moving her upstairs later, once it is clearly confirmed that she carries your child, it will not be too late. For now, the priority is mending the wounds of Lady Rebecca and the young princess."
My compromise was practical and reasonable.
After hearing me out, Gareth remained silent for a long time, wrestling with himself, before letting out a deep sigh and nodding.
"...You’re right. I was rash. To place that woman before Rebecca’s eyes when it isn’t even certain whether she’s with child is too cruel. As you advise, I’ll have Helena moved down to a guest room on the third floor until the pregnancy is confirmed."
Phew. For now, the immediate fire is out.
Just pushing Helena off the fifth floor would be a relief for Lady Rebecca and Veronica.
But if Helena was sent down to the third floor, someone would need to keep watch over her.
I couldn’t simply leave that venomous snake alone when there was a hundred percent chance she was Gawain’s spy.
"Brother, then I’ll move my room down to the third floor as well, to help take care of Helena."
Just as I voluntarily offered to relocate downstairs—
"Absolutely not!!"
Gareth suddenly barked and grabbed my shoulders tight.
"What? Why?"
"You are my brother! How could I ever tear you away from my side and force you into a guest room on the third floor? You must stay beside me, on the fifth floor!"
No, Brother! Let go of that creepy obsession already!
I had no way to break that burning, possessive look in Gareth’s eyes.
In the end, I compromised inwardly.
No helping it. Karin is on the third floor. I’ll have to tell her to keep an eye on Helena’s every move.
Just when I thought things had been mostly settled and was about to stand—
"...Bayle."
Gareth suddenly ran a rough hand through his hair and called to me in a weary, troubled voice.
"Yes, Brother. Go on."
Gareth clasped his hands together and trembled as his lips moved.
"I really... I really struggled with this for thousands, tens of thousands of times. I know that to speak such words as a man, as a husband, is itself a sin."
"Brother? Why do you look like that? Please, speak comfortably."
Gareth squeezed his eyes shut.
And then he said something so unbelievable, something I had never in my life imagined hearing, that I nearly doubted my own ears.
"Bayle. I have a desperate favor to ask of you."
Swallow.
"...Would you let Rebecca, my wife... have a child?"
"....... "
The air in the reception room seemed to turn into a vacuum in an instant.
It took my brain a full five seconds to even process what I had just heard.
Let my wife have a child.
In other words, he wanted me to sleep with Grand Duchess Rebecca and provide the seed to continue the Grand Ducal bloodline?
"...Pardon?"
I was so stunned I couldn’t even laugh.
"Brother... are you in your right mind? No, seriously—have you completely lost it?!"
Throwing Grand Duke etiquette and all the rest straight into the gutter, I sprang to my feet and shouted at him.