The Limit of Words

When I returned to the Imperial Palace after the close of Lapis's birthday banquet, I was utterly stunned to find that a good thirty days had slipped by.

It made me understand, in the most visceral way, why the Neutral Faction nobles—so far removed from the capital's central politics—had grown so isolated.

Even so, spring had arrived in full, vivid bloom, so strolling through the gardens felt warm and gentle against my skin.

I went looking for Aria's chambers rather than my own, but she was nowhere to be seen—presumably off at her lessons.

I thought about heading back to my room, but I also wanted to see her face and share a meal with her after so long, so instead I laid my weary body down on Aria's bed and closed my eyes.

The soft, distinctive scent of a young girl clung to the sheets.

Before I knew it, I had drifted off into sleep, and when I next opened my eyes, someone was poking and prodding at me.

……Huh?

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes and forcing myself upright, I found Aria standing before me.

"Eat."

Dinner, apparently.

Unfortunately, having just woken up, I had little appetite—but refusing would have been rude, so I picked up my spoon and put the power of Utterance into my words.

"I'm home."

"……"

Aria stared at me blankly.

"Welcome back."

She finally spat out, a note of curtness laced through it. I answered with a picture-perfect smile.

At that, she frowned as if vaguely displeased, then opened her mouth.

"For the past month, I've been eating with Father and your mother."

"What?"

"So from now on, there won't be any more occasions like this—just the two of us at the table. And even when there are, we'll all eat together."

"Good for you."

Aria had been changing at a rapid pace during my month away, without me there to anchor her.

It seemed like the beginning wasn't a bad one, so as I continued eating, I let slip a thought that had drifted into my mind.

"Have you been sleeping well while I was gone?"

This was the girl who used to toss and turn every night unless I projected Mary's phantom for her through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my Reflecting Mirror.

Still, her complexion looked good—better than expected—so I wondered if perhaps she'd overcome even that.

"I…… slept fine."

The answer came with a slight hesitation, making it a little hard to read the intent behind it.

But if I asked outright, "Want me to stay with you?", she'd inevitably tell me she didn't need it.

"Mm. Then I suppose you don't need me around anymore, do you."

"I suppose not."

I tossed out a probing remark, and an atmosphere far colder than before drifted through the room.

She was bound in servitude, so I could have simply asked through a command and spared myself the guesswork… but I had no particular desire to brand myself a piece of trash.

"And yet I'd like to stay together a little longer."

"……"

"Because I'm your little brother. A little spoiled whining toward your big sister should be forgiven, no?"

"Do as you please. You've never once asked my permission before."

"That's right. I'm still an immature little brother. I won't concern myself with my sister's opinions in the slightest."

Was that answer satisfying enough?

The chill that had descended for the briefest of moments seemed to melt away, soft and slow, like snow resting in a palm.

Hmph.

I slyly met her gaze, and while Aria continued her meal with a look that said she found the whole thing absurd…

not a trace of that earlier curtness could be found anywhere in her manner.

Once dinner was over, I lay down on the bed beside Aria just as I had a month ago, preparing to sleep.

Swish.

By now it had become half a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠habit—I ran my fingers through her soft platinum hair, and no rebuke came.

"Does it really not bother you?"

「 Cutting away all spoken preamble, that's rather hard to follow—unless you've learned mind-reading.」

"As time passes. As I grow. I become more and more like my mother."

"……"

"This platinum hair is her most defining trait—the clearest proof that I'm the traitor's daughter. I was curious why you of all people took such a particular interest in it, so I asked."

「 No one looks at the golden petals of a Rudbeckia and a Cosmos and confuses one for the other.」

In the soft moonlight filtering through the window, Aria read the words I'd written on the paper, gazed at me intently for a moment, then turned her head away.

"……I heard you got engaged to Duke Asis's daughter."

I answered with silence.

"From what I hear, it's a foothold for securing the Neutral Faction nobles as your support base. Force-feeding cold, ruthless reality to a young girl who doesn't even understand political marriage yet—who should still be chasing the romance of love—you really are a rotten, irredeemable man. What good is teaching her to walk on her own, if the place she walks into is just another person's cage? It's nothing more than an extension of the sickbed she lay in all that time."

She'd never even met Lapis.

Where on earth did this overflowing capacity for empathy come from?

Since her head was turned away from me, arguing back in writing felt awkward, so I quietly reached out and toyed with Aria's platinum hair instead.

"……"

At that, she turned not just her head but her whole body, until her back was fully to me.

"We're sleeping now. Hands off the hair."

Where exactly had I gone wrong?

The mood hadn't been bad at all—so why had it soured so abruptly and so uncomfortably? I was thoroughly baffled.

In the end I meekly folded my hands, and only when Aria slipped into sleep and her breathing settled into a steady rhythm did I finally relax and let out a sigh.

Perhaps because I'd slept at midday, sleep refused to come.

So I poked at the thoughts swimming through my head, and my mind settled on the All-Around Beauty I hadn't managed to use on Lapis.

What a waste.

All-Around Beauty was a word that applied to me as well.

That said, with Flawless Perfection already in my possession, one could argue it was redundant.

The advantage All-Around Beauty held over Flawless Perfection was that it could also be applied to pursuits of the mind—academics, domestic governance, and the like.

Its disadvantage, naturally, was that it had to be developed step by careful step from the ground up.

Flawless Perfection, by contrast, granted its effect at the absolute pinnacle the instant a designated discipline was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠invoked.

Of course, this world possessed an innate talent called magistery.

If All-Around Beauty could grant talent for magistery, I wouldn't have hesitated—but regrettably, the true meaning of the word magic was "an incomprehensible power that beguiles and deceives people," which made it difficult to consider it synonymous with this world's magistery.

And so, frankly, it felt rather wasted on me.

Besides, it was a one-time word—once used, it could never be recombined again.

I'll just force myself to sleep for now……

If I kept chasing that line of thought, I'd be up all night, so I too closed my eyes like Aria and let sleep take me.

Back at the Imperial Palace, I began my day with the usual prescribed lessons.

They typically ended around two in the afternoon.

From then on, I threw myself into training at the practice grounds to reap the benefits of Rapid Progress.

This time, however, just before heading to the training grounds, I attempted a combination to acquire a clever word that had flashed through my mind during the lessons.

"Substitute."

It worked a little differently than I'd expected.

I had assumed Substitute would simply refund the usage count of an already-acquired word.

Still, better was better—it was hardly a bad outcome.

A two-character word that let me acquire something greater than itself. Efficient, to say the least.

Then……

Would Strength to Uproot Mountains, Spirit to Crown the Age be the better choice?

It was a one-time word either way.

And since it demanded a considerable stockpile of consonants and vowels, it would net me the greatest efficiency.

What?

I stood frozen, then blinked rapidly in shock at the additional notification that popped up.

There was a limit on how many words I could acquire?

I hurriedly checked my list—thirty words in total.

……You call that advice? Why are you only telling me now?

Is there no way to raise the limit?

Paying your way forward with your own lifespan—wasn't that a bit too predatory?

……Then does the growth I gained from Rapid Progress vanish when I perform the Initialization?

A small mercy.

In other words, rather than resetting everything right away through Initialization, my priority should be to quickly grow this body that Rapid Progress had already pushed past its limits.

The day my body finished growing all the way to its prescribed limit—that would be the day I used the Initialization.

Truthfully, I should have found it strange that there were no restrictions in the first place.

But with things as they were, my head was starting to ache.

First of all, I'd definitely want to keep at least one of Healing or Treatment.

Confessions would be essential for reining in the nobles, so Confession wasn't something I could discard either.

Desperate Escape was naturally my lifeline, and Lightning Campaign—which stripped away all constraints for fifteen seconds—was too valuable to give up.

Yet staring at the words I'd acquired so far, I couldn't help wondering why they all suddenly looked so useless.

And no better words sparked in my mind or floated up to memory, no matter how I reached for them.

Was this some silent pressure demanding I agonize endlessly, and only at the very end, speak?

At this rate, the one-time words actually felt more comforting.

Once used, they vanished from the list and no longer occupied a slot.

Let's not worry too much about it for now.

The Initialization was still a long way off, so in the meantime, I could simply refine and ponder which words to distill and acquire while I trained.