Silence Is an Affirmation

It was impossible to craft, on the spot, a weapon whose unique ability was actually worthwhile.

And so I planned to simply inscribe the names of weapons that were already famous — to borrow their legends wholesale.

For a sword, that meant the Qinggang Sword, better known to most as the Qinghong Sword — one of the twin treasured blades wielded by Cao Cao in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The regrettable part, I suppose, was that the weapons of legendary figures and heroes were overwhelmingly swords, spears, and bows.

The Cheonui Mubong codex held numerous entries on weapon arts, which meant putting them to use would require a wide variety of arms.

Among them, scythes were almost entirely absent from my memories of my past life.

The first thing that surfaced was the Scythe wielded by Kronos, the god of Greek myth.

But it went without saying that a god's weapon belonged, strictly speaking, to the category of divine relics.

Beyond that, the scythe carried such a strong image as the personal possession of Death itself, governing the end of all things, that it was hard to find a single record of an ordinary hero or great man ever having used one.

But hold on — the legend says Aphrodite was born when Kronos was cut by the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Scythe, from the blood that followed. How does that part actually apply when I transmute it?

What a truly magnificent unique ability, I thought, and closed the notification window.

Whether it was Awe Points or Faith Points, I figured I could pile up as many as I wanted later on, once I graduated from the Academy and took up governance of the Altair Dukedom.

Honestly, the fastest way to farm Awe would be for war to break out right now, or for the Demon World Tree to finish blooming — but that was precisely the problem.

I'm not about to wish a catastrophe on the whole world just to make myself stronger.

After that, the next word I mastered through transmutation was Thousand Armies, Ten Thousand Horses.

It was a word I had been considering even before my Initialization — a support skill designed to complement my Hundred Ghosts.

Each spirit's unique ability was determined by the legends attached to it, but those same legends could just as easily become their weaknesses.

Thousand Armies, Ten Thousand Horses was a large-scale buff that shored up exactly such weaknesses.

That said, because it applied as a mass-effect buff despite lacking any area-of-effect power, its duration was far from generous — and since it was unaffected by Rapid Battle, Swift Victory, it could only be used once per day.

Considering that, it might have seemed wasteful, but the Hundred Ghosts were not immortal.

I needed to be able to preserve their strength as much as possible so that none of them died, so I judged the word well worth acquiring.

In fact, it was precisely thanks to the unique abilities the ghosts already possessed that I could afford to skip other words I had originally intended to master.

"……"

With that settled, I quietly turned my head and looked out the window.

Winter was creeping closer, little by little.

Leaves tumbled from the branches one by one, piling deep across the garden, and the once-bracing wind had sharpened into something biting.

Perhaps this winter would bring snow.

It would be the day of my coming-of-age ceremony — and also the day Lapis returned, the day Aria and I climbed up to the Academy together.

I can't wait to see them.

It wasn't a matter of meeting and parting anymore.

It would only be a single year at the Academy, but until I was formally appointed acting lord, I suspected it would be the only stretch of freedom and ease I would get.

Monster populations had dwindled noticeably of late, so a ban on extermination campaigns had been declared across the Asis Duchy and every other territory bordering the Barren Lands.

……The Demon King will be strong, won't he? Very.

It might have been pure conjecture, but the premonition that it would be so weighed on me heavily.

In payment for the sins of my past life, I had been denied speech in this one — yet this power of the Lingual Word gave me far too much strength and convenience to call it mere retribution.

Frankly, should I say that for the single risk of being unable to speak, I was receiving far too much in return?

Well, the finer workings of it were beyond me. All I could do was give my utmost, so that the passing hours would never be wasted.

So that, as always, no regret would be left behind in the time called the past.

And so, several weeks later, when the last of the fallen leaves had gone and winter arrived in the capital, snow came drifting down from the heavens — white and soft, as if gently folding the earth into its embrace.

The Imperial Palace was in an uproar.

Crowds incomparably larger than those for Aria's coming-of-age ceremony were streaming in and out of the palace gates without pause.

For my ceremony, Father had evidently resolved to spare no effort, declaring his intention to stage something of a grand spectacle — so I suppose the crowds were only fitting.

As everyone knew, the Demon King's advent was drawing nearer by the day — near enough now that humanity had to consciously plan around the Demon World Tree's growth.

I'd heard from the Prime Minister that the price of foodstuffs had risen by a full twenty percent.

That was proof enough of how many of the common people had begun to feel an unspoken dread.

This unease would surely be no different in the other two kingdoms, not just the Empire.

The Empire, however, had a means of soothing it.

Namely: putting me — bearer of the same power as the founding Emperor — at the forefront, to build a rallying point for the people.

How well it would actually work, I couldn't say……

Though I suppose I'd be something like the face of the operation?

Straightforwardly speaking, I was not yet Emperor.

This wasn't a coronation — it was merely a coming-of-age ceremony, and lavishing this much effort on one was unprecedented in all of history.

So they've arrived.

The ceremony was still a week away. Setting the thought aside, I shifted my gaze.

A single carriage rolled through the Imperial Palace's main gate, crossing over the modestly gathered snow.

Who sat inside was something I could guess without bothering to check.

Before long the carriage door opened, and stepping down came one man, along with Lapis and Aria.

Who?

I blinked down at the window, staring at a man I had never once seen in my life.

The uniform he wore was the standard issue of the Academy's Knight Department.

Friend, maybe? But no friend of mine would be riding a carriage into the palace at a time like this.

Of course, as the son of a noble house, he could have some connection to the ceremony.

But an Academy student, by definition, had already come of age.

Who on earth is he?

Watching him step down first to escort them, I felt something sour settle in my chest.

No — "displeased" was the more accurate word than "uncomfortable."

After watching the three of them enter the palace, I rose as well and went out to greet them.

But the man whose identity I most wanted to learn was nowhere to be seen.

Where had he vanished to? I couldn't even sense his presence.

"Rohen, I missed you!"

"Welcome back."

"I have so much to tell you, but I must first have an audience with His Majesty the Emperor — would you excuse me for a little while?"

"Don't worry about that much. Go on, take your time."

"I'll be right back, then."

Once Lapis had departed and I was left alone with Aria, I began writing on my paper.

But she didn't wait for me to finish — she simply turned her back and started walking toward her chambers.

Out of options, I set down my pen and followed.

"Are you going to keep standing there?"

Inside her room, Aria set down the coat over her uniform and turned her back to me.

A few buttons at her collar were undone, a hint of cleavage showing through.

I could take it as her intent to change — a polite request to give her the room.

"Who's the man you came with?"

"No greeting, and THAT'S what you wanted to ask, with that face on?"

Aria laughed as if the question were absurd.

"He's the son of Sir Robert of the Imperial Palace Knights. Now that you're entering the Knight Department, he was summoned to the palace to walk you through the entrance examination procedures in detail. What, were you worried he might be my lover?"

"Of course I was."

I wrote it out, boldly.

It would have been stranger not to worry.

What if he'd turned out to be some sleazy creep?

"You're the one who told me, back when we were kids, to marry someone ordinary, have adorable children, and live out a long, happy life together. If you bristle and bare your fangs at every man who comes near me, I'll never get to fall in love at all."

Aria perched on the edge of the bed and laughed, crossing her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠legs as though my concern were simply too much.

"I told you it's best to be with someone who doesn't prejudge you as a traitor's daughter."

"And Benzen doesn't see me as one."

"……"

For some reason my gut twisted a little, but I had no particular comeback, so I simply crumpled the paper I'd been writing on.

"So he fits the conditions you laid out, then?"

"You have feelings of your own, don't you?"

"Now that I think about it, it might not be so bad. Spend enough time together, and I might actually come to like him."

"……"

"It's not as though you and Lapis started out in love either, is it?"

"Lapis and I began ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠because I needed a base of political support."

"And I need someone I can lean on when I want to. Living on my own, I've learned it really isn't easy."

So she added, her eyes settling on me.

"If it's a matter of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠need with the feelings stripped out, you have me — your own brother. I'm entering the Academy too, and there's a Magic Tower in the Altair Dukedom, so we won't even have to part after graduation."

"A brother can't stay by your side for a lifetime, can he? At least leave me the right to choose my other half."

"……"

"I'm not blind to people's character either, you know."

Anyone overhearing would take me for a man of vast romantic experience.

"Some people change completely the moment they're married."

"It'll be the result of my own choice either way."

I let out a sigh at Aria's words.

"I hear Benzen likes short hair. Should I cut mine?"

Hearing that, I'd had quite enough. I raked my hand roughly through her hair, mussing it, and strode toward her.

At the sight, Aria sprang up from the bed and tried to put distance between us — but in a room this small, how far could she possibly go?

I drove her straight into the corner, caught her struggling wrists, and pinned them firmly in place.

Her body flinched, wary before the fact — but there was no tremor in her voice at all.

"So when you're struck speechless, your habit is to press in on me like this."

"Conversation."

Writing was far too stifling, so I poured the power of the Lingual Word straight into the word itself.

"What's the reason you keep probing me like this?"

That Aria felt nothing whatsoever for Benzen was something I could sense well enough, even without trying.

Which was exactly why she insisted on steering the conversation down this path anyway — and honestly, it irritated me.

"Why does it displease you whenever I mention another man?"

"Because I worry about you."

"Worry about what?"

"That you'll pick the wrong man and suffer for it your whole life."

At that, Aria — her wrists still captive in my hands — parted her lips as if the claim were beneath belief.

"That's a worry from me as your sister?"

"……Yes, that's right."

"Liar. You just hate seeing me with any other man."

"That much is simply how any brother who doesn't want his sister taken from him would——"

"Hilarious."

Meeting my gaze head-on, Aria said it as though I were pitiable.

"You look at me as a woman, not a sister — yet the sibling excuse rolls right off your tongue."

"……"

"What you're feeling isn't worry. It's called jealousy."

"……"

"Let go already. If we press any closer than this, you're going to embarrass yourself and get hard."

"……"

"You simply want to own me. The brother-and-sister thing is nothing but a convenient pretext."

Prying my hands from where they gripped her slender wrists, I held my silence.

I had to admit that Aria's words weren't entirely wrong.

After that incident, it had effectively been me who tended to Aria's side since childhood.

And for all my advice that she find a good, open-minded person and build a happy life, as the years passed I had grown less and less willing to give her to anyone else.

In truth, once I had matured to a certain point, I stopped even entertaining the hypothesis of Aria marrying someone.

Aria's place was simply always beside me — that was how I had thought, unconsciously, all along.

So I could not refute her claim that I wanted to possess her.

Just as she said…… through all the flowing years, perhaps I had been conscious of her less as the sister who shared my blood, and more as the other remaining half — as a woman.

No, that latter guess was the closer one.

"Stop making free use of the sibling excuse every time you do anything in front of me."

Aria slid her hair back behind her ear and gave me a light push.

"Maybe when we were children. Not anymore."

"……"

"My foolish little brother. Should I take your silence as a wordless yes?"

With a sneering, sensuous smile, Aria slipped past me and walked back toward the bed.

Watching her go, I reached out, caught her by the waist, and drew her close against me.

"If I start treating you as a woman — would you accept it?"

Pressed together as we were, her alluring scent sharpened vividly at the tip of my nose.

A faint fragrance of roses.

Yet with no threatening thorns bared toward me — a bewitching crimson rose that seemed ready, at any touch of my hand, to bend and be gathered into a vase.

"Looking back, you were always the one framing things as a joke…… weren't you probing for my heart? Was that the heart of me as your brother — or of me as a man?"

"So what?"

"……Do you like me?"

Her answer would split everything in two.

"This is a command. Answer."

It may well have been a cowardly move.

But if she spat out some hollow, performative reply here, it would mean nothing — so I used the fact that she was bound to me, and gave the order.

Before long, her voice reached my ears.

"I like you."