Standing Out (5)
Elly’s private training ground was located a little ways outside Rutra.
It was a space Duke Orphega had given her, a place reserved for her alone, because she wasn’t especially fond of gossiping and mingling with others.
There, on weekends, she would leave Rutra behind and swing her sword.
The reason Elly wielded a blade was simple.
Because it was fun.
She was proud of the fact that her talent for the sword outstripped anyone else’s in the world, and she took immense satisfaction in the thought that, through that talent, she might inherit Duke Orphega’s swordsmanship.
And every time she honed the duke’s sword, it felt wonderful to watch herself grow stronger by the day.
But today, Elly looked very different from her usual self.
“Hah, hah—!”
Her breath came fast and shallow. For some reason, her sword felt unbearably heavy today, and it wouldn’t move the way she wanted it to.
No, the sword wasn’t heavy. It was her body that was heavy.
It felt almost like… long ago, when she had been a helpless orphan girl, wandering filthy back alleys until she finally collapsed on the street and could do nothing but wait for death.
“…Tch.”
Again and again, the conversation she’d had with Lobelia that day replayed in her head.
She had already betrayed her brother, so she shouldn’t come now pretending to be kind.
If she had decided to walk this path, then she should uphold that resolve to the end.
She was nothing more than an enemy to her brother now—Lobelia’s cold voice had driven that reality home without mercy.
She knew that. She had known it ever since the moment she decided to turn her back on her brother.
And yet, why was her mind so tangled now, and why did her body feel so heavy?
Was she still unable to let go of her lingering feelings for her brother, just as Lobelia had said? Was that why both her body and her heart felt so unsettled?
No, that’s not it. It can’t be.
Elly bit her lip and denied the thought that rose in her mind.
It was true that the fundamental reason her head felt muddled was Sian. She had no intention of denying that much.
But the heaviness in her body was different. There had to be some other cause she didn’t understand.
She couldn’t identify exactly what that cause was, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something had disappeared from her body.
A dreadful sensation, as though something that had always been there without question had vanished overnight.
It was certain now. There was something missing from her body.
Thankfully… apart from feeling heavy, it doesn’t seem like there are any major changes yet…
But no one knew what kind of side effects this “deficiency” might cause in the long run.
Thinking that way only made her more uneasy, but even so, there was no way she could have anyone else examine her or seek counsel about it.
If Master were to find out about this… I have to stop that, no matter what.
Elly had been recognized as Duke Orphega’s next successor solely on the strength of her talent with the sword.
If symptoms like this appeared in her body and she was no longer in a condition to learn the duke’s swordsmanship… she might be cast out of the position of heir.
No. That could not happen. Not under any circumstances.
She had abandoned her family, abandoned Sian, and sacrificed everything to barely claw her way up to this point.
If she lost something like that for such an absurd reason, wouldn’t that be the height of ridiculousness?
So Elly bit her lip and, in order to somehow sort out the chaos in her mind, swung her sword with all her strength—right up until the moment
“I’ve told you this time and again. Don’t put your emotions into the tip of your blade.”
Thud.
“…Huh?”
The sword she had been about to bring down would not move. It felt as though it had been driven into a rock hard as iron.
Elly slowly turned her head.
Behind her, she saw her sword held aloft in midair by two of a man’s fingers.
And the one who had stopped her blade with only those two fingers was someone Elly knew all too well.
“…Master?”
“It’s been a long time, my disciple.”
It was Duke Orphega himself.
“M-Master, what brings you here…?”
“Must I have some particular reason to visit my disciple? Besides, if I recall correctly, this training ground is a place I personally gifted you.”
Duke Orphega let out a small laugh as he said that, but Elly did not believe him.
The duke was a very busy man. More than that, he was not someone who would ever waste his attention on some meaningless errand.
There was no way he had come all the way here just to see his disciple’s face. Most likely, there was some other purpose.
“In any case, I’ve heard quite a few interesting rumors lately. Some of them involved you, too. I was relieved to hear you seemed to be spending your school days in a rather entertaining fashion.”
At Duke Orphega’s words, Elly felt her heart drop for an instant.
Surely the duke wasn’t here because he had noticed something about her condition and—
“Your half-brother, Sian… that boy is supposedly quite handsome, isn’t he? And from what I’ve heard, he’s also a lecher who always has a woman on his arm.”
“…?”
Surprisingly, the rumor the duke brought up was different from what Elly had expected.
“I have ears, too, so I heard a few things. Rumor has it that lately, Her Highness Cartesia has been parading around with some utterly unremarkable commoner as her beloved. To be honest, at first I thought it was slander aimed at Her Highness, or just baseless nonsense. The Cartesia I know would never behave that way while already having a future fiancé.”
“…Is the rumor that Her Highness has a fiancé actually true?”
It was a rumor Ricardo had also doubted, unable to trace its source.
“If it came out of the Imperial Palace, then half of it is probably true. Besides, whether the rumor is true or not, Her Highness is someone who’s already meant to be engaged to another man someday. If the imperial princess, so attentive to the duties she bears, is openly keeping a lover by her side… naturally, I’d become rather curious just how handsome he is, wouldn’t you, Elly?”
At those words, Elly found herself blinking without meaning to.
Honestly, she was a little startled. She had never imagined someone like the duke would be interested in that sort of gossip.
…Still, that’s a relief.
It didn’t seem he’d come because he had noticed something wrong with her body, which allowed Elly to finally calm her heart.
At this rate, the worst outcome would be avoided.
But then—
“And beyond that… I’m also rather curious just how extraordinary this boy called Sian really is.”
“…What?”
In the next moment, through the words that came from the duke’s mouth, Elly realized one of the very disasters she had feared had already come to pass.
“His Majesty values ability over birth and rank. If the fellow clinging to the imperial princess were some worthless nobody, he’d have done everything in his power to drive the brat away long ago. But His Majesty hasn’t moved. In fact, he’s been pretending not to care about Rutra at all. Almost as if he’s trying to direct our attention elsewhere…”
For a moment, Elly felt as though there was a flash of light in Duke Orphega’s eyes.
“Besides, I heard that recently this Sian boy has been setting records that surpassed you in several classes. I know very well where your current skill level stands. And if he was able to shatter the records you set, then he must possess a certain degree of ability.”
With that, the duke looked down at Elly.
Yet even while facing her, he wasn’t really looking at Elly.
He was measuring Sian through Elly.
He knew full well that, apart from the fact that no blood connected them, there was nothing in their appearances that resembled each other in the slightest.
“In the past, I found your half-brother most disagreeable. All the more so if he was a shiftless wastrel who entered Rutra merely by using you as his beacon. That was why I wanted you to keep your distance from him.”
If he had known from the start that the boy was this sort of person, the duke muttered lowly, he would never have judged him so hastily.
“So if you know anything at all about this Sian boy, tell me everything. He… feels incredibly interesting to me. So much so that I can’t even understand where a man like that had been hiding all this time before suddenly appearing.”
It wasn’t a request. It was a declaration.
Whether she knew it or not, Duke Orphega had clearly come to see Elly for this very purpose from the start.
Not because he was worried about his disciple, or anything like that, but to find out detailed information about a person who had caught his interest this strongly.
“Master… what do you intend to do to my brother?”
Elly prayed desperately in her heart.
Please. Please, don’t say that in front of me.
Tell me you won’t. Tell me that after everything I’ve given up until now, after betraying my one and only brother, I chose the path of becoming your disciple.
Tell me I’ll work harder from now on, swing my sword harder, and that you won’t turn my resolve and determination into something meaningless like Lobelia said—
But in spite of her silent cry, Duke Orphega eventually spoke the words that sounded every bit like a nightmare.
“I intend to take him as my disciple.”
At that instant, something inside a corner of Elly’s heart shattered.