Nightmare (2)
Although we weren’t bound by blood, I had always thought of my younger sisters as family.
We were closer than anyone in the world, cherished one another, and loved each other like family.
But now, it seemed that was never what we were at all.
I had been the only one who saw them as family. My sisters, it seemed, had never once thought of me that way.
Eli had said, “The Duke promised me. If I mastered every technique of the Orphega Duchy’s swordsmanship, he’d take me in as his adopted daughter. I want to be a noble. Not the little sister of some filthy mercenary, but the daughter of the Orphega Duchy that everyone looks up to.”
Letitia had said, “My master told me. I’m a talent worthy of inheriting his place—someone who will one day stand at the head of all mages and command them. For someone like me, a past as the younger sister of some lowborn mercenary is completely worthless.”
Seria had said, “Sorry, but I don’t need a brother getting in my way. No, he’s actually annoying. Crude, rude, and even ignorant to boot. It would have been better if you had never been my brother at all...”
Lobelia had said, “You know what? I’ve been on pretty good terms with the Crown Prince lately. But whenever I’m with His Highness, you never help me—you just come barging over and embarrass me. I’m really ashamed of you, Oppa.”
It was unfamiliar. The sisters I had been so sure I knew better than anyone suddenly felt like strangers, so much so that I had begun to wonder whether they were even the same children I remembered.
This couldn’t be happening. My sisters—the sisters I knew—would never have said such things to me.
“Of course, we do have some gratitude toward you. If it hadn’t been for you, we might have starved to death in the streets, or lived like trash without ever realizing the talent we had.”
“But that gratitude ends there. It’s one thing for you to think of us as family, as your little sisters, but don’t we have the right not to think of you as family?”
“If only you weren’t here, there’d be nothing left to hold us back. Right now, you’re nothing but an obstacle to us.”
“So if you truly think of us as family, then please. Leave the Academy. Just drop out without another word... and disappear from in front of us.”
The world went dark before my eyes. It was like a nightmare. Every moment I had spent believing we cherished and loved one another now felt like nothing more than a cruel lie.
...There has to be some kind of misunderstanding. Something.
Yes, there had to be a misunderstanding. Or if not that, then there was no doubt some bastard had whispered poison into the ears of my innocent little sisters.
Otherwise there was no reason for them to hurl such vicious, horrifying words at me.
Almost on instinct, I turned my head and looked at my sisters’ faces.
Eli’s. Letitia’s. Seria’s. And Lobelia’s.
Their expressions were icy to the bone.
And only then did I understand. They weren’t joking. They weren’t teasing me. They were saying all this to me in earnest.
“...I see. You really meant it, then. All of you.”
When I ground out those words through clenched teeth, Letitia gave a sneer and answered me with a cold little laugh.
“What, did you think we were joking?”
“I... thought that even if we weren’t blood-related, we were still a real family.”
“We were. Once.”
“So now we’re not family?”
“We just found something more worthwhile than playing at this pathetic family game. At the very least, there’s more to gain than keeping someone like you as family.”
“Brother, we don’t want to say any more ugly things either. So can’t you just listen to us nicely from here on out? Hmm?”
I was speechless. What made it so infuriating was that, among everything I had just heard, that line sounded the most sincere.
The line asking me to please leave the Academy.
“...Hah.”
In truth, leaving the Academy as my sisters wanted wasn’t difficult at all.
I had no ambition for study, nor any desire to make connections with other nobles and use them as a stepping-stone to advance my own future.
The only reason I had enrolled in the Academy was to act as guardian for my sisters, who were still not yet adults, and to watch over them from the shadows.
And also... though it was a secret from the outside world, there had been another reason I had needed to stay close to these girls.
Whether I lived or died, whether I amounted to anything or not, none of that mattered in the least.
So for these girls’ sake alone, I could never quit the Academy.
Even if they no longer thought of me as family... I was still their family. Their brother.
“Sorry, but I’m refusing. I will never leave this Academy. Never.”
At my firm answer, Letitia, Seria, Eli, and Lobelia looked at me silently.
As if they had expected me to say exactly that from the very beginning.
“...I see. So that’s how you want to play it. Brother, you really are impossible. Acting all lofty and noble on your own, then before you know it, you’ve gotten used to mixing with nobles at the Academy and tasting both the sweet and the bitter, huh?”
“Brother. We’ve already given you plenty of advice in good faith. We’ve also tried to persuade you as much as we could. So anything that happens from here on out... won’t be our responsibility.”
“If you change your mind, tell us anytime. We were family once, after all, so I’d rather handle things in a way that’s as convenient for you as possible.”
Saying that, my sisters sprang to their feet and left the room without once looking back.
“...Hah.”
And even as I watched their backs, I still couldn’t bring myself to stop them.
Because I was too afraid of the look they would give me if I tried.
I was a coward.
****
After refusing my sisters’ suggestion that I leave the Academy, I thought they would try some scheme or another to force me out one way or another.
If their real goal was to expel me, then there were countless ways to do it, even if I refused to leave of my own accord.
But my sisters never directly pulled any such tricks on me.
Instead... they chose something far more indirect, and far more insidious.
“That’s him, right? The guy who shamelessly leached off his little sisters to get into Lutra?”
“That’s what I heard too. During the entrance exam, he supposedly threatened the admissions officer that if they didn’t let him in, he’d never send his sisters to the Academy.”
“Wow. If that’s true, then he wasn’t even supposed to get into Lutra in the first place.”
“And on top of that, I heard his sisters aren’t even really family. What was it—no blood relation at all?”
“Seriously? If I were him, I’d be so embarrassed I’d just drop out. Trying to get into the Academy by selling out your own little sisters? What kind of person does that?”
As I walked down the corridor to attend class, people whispered behind my back, throwing every kind of insult at me.
Needless to say, this was the rumor that had started spreading throughout the Academy after I refused my sisters’ demand.
It had spread faster than I could react, and by the time I realized what was happening, everything was already far too late.
I had become the trash who got into the Academy by selling out his sisters, and there wasn’t a single person left who would believe me.
I had already become a fine public enemy.
“Damn it.”
But the most vicious part of all was that I knew exactly who had spread this rumor around, and why they had done it—yet there was nothing I could do about it.
If I tried to explain away the rumor, that meant exposing the conversation I had had with my sisters that day, and I had absolutely no intention of telling anyone about that.
Because however the situation had turned out, my sisters and I were still one family.
There was no brother in this world who would sell out his own little sister.
It was just... that right now, there was a little friction between us.
I believed, firmly, that someday the misunderstanding between us would be cleared up and we’d return to how things had been before.
And most importantly, there was still more than one person at the Academy who believed and trusted me, so I could endure this until the end.
“Ah, Sian. There you are. We said we’d eat lunch together, so why are you so late?”
In front of the student cafeteria, I met a girl smiling brightly at me as if she hadn’t heard a word about the rumors setting the entire Academy abuzz.
She wore her golden hair long, down to her back, and her eyes were so clear and sapphire-blue they looked as though actual gems had been set into her face. She was nothing less than a stunning beauty.
Her name was Cartesia von Kaius.
The Imperial Princess, and at the same time, one of the few friends I still had left.