Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 222
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 222
The dining table was vast and splendid.
Upon it, a magnificent banquet had been laid out.
Specialty dishes that the Asteri Territory prided itself on, and even local cuisine from the Bydantis Territory, prepared in case they didn’t suit Marquis Bydantis’s palate!
Dainties and rarities couldn’t have been more dainty or rare.
And what of the care poured into every single dish on the table?
The gently braised meat was so tender it practically fell apart the moment it touched the mouth, and every ingredient had been cut to match in grain and size so that nothing caught awkwardly on the tongue.
With a touch of exaggeration, it looked even finer than food served at the Imperial Court.
And yet.
“…”
The principals at the table, Rickshel and Clarentia, paid it little mind.
Was it because, as Lion had hoped, they were too conscious of each other?
That was even less the case.
Ingrained courtesy kept them facing one another without slouching, but the angles of their gazes were quite different.
Rickshel was staring at the painting beyond Clarentia.
Clarentia was fixed on a single minuscule speck of dust drifting in the air near Rickshel.
‘Brother is late.’
‘Lion Asteri is late.’
They were, admittedly, thinking more or less the same thing, but…
“…”
To anyone watching, it looked like nothing less than a battle of nerves, and the atmosphere in the dining room was utterly frigid.
The servants observing this cold war from a distance murmured among themselves.
“As expected, they aren’t eating.”
“Pardon? Have we done something wrong, by any chance?”
“Hm? No.”
One of the long-serving servants continued in a matter-of-fact tone.
“The eldest young master is absent, you see.”
“Ah…!”
Only then did the other servants nod, as if they understood, and sigh in relief.
It was more than plausible.
Young Master Rickshel’s devotion to his brother was something even a probationary servant could recognize, and according to the rumors, Marquis Bydantis was also remarkably fond of Young Master Lion.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say she was doggedly eyeing him.
“Still, it’s a relief that it isn’t our fault.”
“Of course. If we had been at fault, Miss Elvia would have stepped in long ago.”
“…”
That was also true.
The servant shut their mouth and unnecessarily straightened their uniform.
After enough time had passed that the food was barely staying warm —
“I’m very late, aren’t I?”
The dining-room door opened, and Lion appeared, wearing a smooth grin.
“Not at all. You’ve only just arrived.”
“Likewise.”
The instant Lion arrived, both of their expressions eased naturally, and the icy atmosphere melted clean away.
It felt as though the very temperature of the dining room had risen slightly, as if someone had lit the fireplace.
“Haha. That’s a relief.”
Lion took his seat as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and only then did the meal begin.
“The head chef seems to have put a great deal of care into this.”
“Yes. Ever since a few days ago, they’ve been saying they had to devote their whole heart to it, and they’ve been preparing every ingredient by hand.”
“It’s distinctly better than usual.”
Rickshel used Levitation Magic to plate distant dishes and set them down in front of Lion.
In the blink of an eye, Clarentia also filleted meat clinging to the bone with a dinner knife and passed it toward Lion.
“Uh… thanks. Thank you?”
Before he knew it, a tower of food was piling up on Lion’s plate alongside the dishes.
‘Wait, this is…’
The exact same thing Grandfather used to do.
Of course, he knew these actions stemmed from kindness and a warm heart.
But the feeling was, for some reason, a little different when it was those two doing it instead of Grandfather.
In the end, unable to take it any longer, Lion opened his mouth.
“Little brother.”
“Yes, brother.”
“No matter how you look at it, isn’t this too much?”
Lion gestured toward the spindly tower of food Rickshel had delicately stacked up.
“And the same goes for you, Marquis.”
Lion returned the food they’d portioned out for him right back onto their respective plates.
“I appreciate the consideration, but I’m not a child, am I.”
“I am not viewing you as a child, brother. I merely did so because the dishes were somewhat distant from where you were seated.”
“You’re rather frail, so you should eat more.”
“I concur on that point.”
“…”
Momentarily stunned by their final pincer attack, Lion let out an inward hiss.
‘This really isn’t the kind of synergy I was hoping for.’
The two of them getting along like a house on fire was a joy he couldn’t welcome enough, but he’d never dreamed it would manifest in this fashion.
In the unexpected atmosphere, Lion chewed his food industriously while tilting his head slightly.
Originally, he had meant to take the lead and somehow bridge the mood between the two of them, but wasn’t this the reverse situation?
The two of them joining forces—toward me,
what should you call it…
‘Childcare…?’
Once that thought entered his mind, even Lion couldn’t help feeling a bit faint.
‘At my age, receiving this…’
Granted, in outward age they were only a few years apart, but he had all those years he’d accumulated one by one, hadn’t he?
That is to say, the sheer number of rice-cakes in his life’s soup was on a different level entirely.
At any rate, this atmosphere needed to change.
“I’m perfectly capable of eating well on my own, so it would be best if the two of you talked.”
“The broad strokes have already been settled.”
“…?”
When had they managed that?
The Marquis of Bydantis had formally arrived here only today, no less.
‘Don’t tell me they wrapped everything up in the brief time I was out of the house?’
As that look crossed his face, the Marquis of Bydantis nodded, turning Lion’s doubt into certainty.
“Our opinions aligned well. There was no need for additional mediation. So you may rest easy about it.”
“Yes. That is correct. I will arrange things so that my brother has nothing to worry about.”
“Riiight…”
He found that convenient and was grateful for it.
And in any case, he’d escaped the childcare vibe, too.
“So what did you agree on?”
Rickshel wiped his mouth with his napkin and answered.
“To begin with, we will make every necessary preparation, as befits the Emperor’s Birthday Festival. It will be a joint undertaking between House Asteri and House Bydantis. All other matters will be handled at the Second Prince’s discretion. Although it is quite galling.”
The nerve, to tell his brother to come and go as if he were summoned…
Truthfully, he was thoroughly displeased with this situation.
It felt as though the Second Prince had done this simply because he wanted to see his brother.
‘That can’t be it.’
Although the Second Prince was quite fond of his brother, he was not such a simple character.
‘Because the time is approaching when we can no longer simply keep him protected.’
Rickshel was aware of it, too.
That now that his brother had recovered his health, had become the master of the labyrinth, and rumors were swirling here and there, he could not be completely excluded from the political arena.
If so, it was far better to seize the initiative first.
The Second Prince, who was steadily consolidating genuine power within the Imperial Court.
The Marquis of Bydantis of the Sword Mastery Family.
And right here — House Asteri, where the Family Head stood firm as a bulwark.
It was an utterly perfect combination for protecting his brother.
There was, however, a single point of concern.
That was, precisely —
“It’s because of the First Prince, isn’t it?”
“…!”
When Rickshel’s eyes flew wide open in surprise, Lion simply shrugged.
‘It’s obvious enough.’
No matter how little attention he paid to the political world, certain things naturally entered his field of vision.
Especially those sorts who went out of their way to stand out — weren’t they exactly the ones you ended up staring at once more, even if you hated looking at them?
That was the First Prince in a nutshell.
He was the spitting image of his own father: when it came to incompetence, he was the gold standard, and on top of that, he’d been coddled his whole life and ran wild without knowing his own limits.
As a result, he’d even received a painfully harsh punishment for the first time in his life.
‘Then it’s obvious.’
Far from being cowed, his venom would have doubled.
If he were the type to grow meek over something this minor, the problem would have been resolved long ago.
“Yes. The First Prince’s actions are acts entirely beyond common sense, so they are difficult to predict. The one fact we can infer is… that in some form or another, he will reach his hand out toward you, brother.”
“I suppose he will.”
In fact, it was only natural.
Why?
‘He’s taking his anger out on the person who looks easiest, that’s all.’
That breed of person existed.
The twisted breed who, whenever anger and fury welled up, had to vent it on someone else to feel satisfied.
The First Prince, rotten through and through to the core, was exactly that type.
— As expected of the eldest grandson of a family famed for magic.
That expression and the tone of his voice at the coming-of-age ceremony clearly belonged to someone who wanted to humiliate a person he considered beneath him.
“At any rate, since the First Prince might cause trouble, I’ll be a bit more careful.”
“No. There is no need for you to be careful.”
“Hm?”
“Because there is no reason for my brother to suffer any harm from the mere rampage of the First Prince. I only meant to ask for your understanding, since I may have to show you a somewhat violent side.”
“I-is that so?”
The Marquis of Bydantis nodded in agreement.
‘A somewhat violent side?’
That was the first time those words had come out of Rickshel’s mouth.
‘No, wait…’
Don’t tell me that bastard of a First Prince had picked on Rickshel, too?
It was a plausible story.
Hadn’t Rickshel been entering the imperial palace ever since he was very young?
It was quite possible that the First Prince, relatively lacking yet older, had been subtly giving him a hard time.
‘Now that makes it something I absolutely have to look into, doesn’t it?’
And —
Lion popped the fruit-filled pudding that had come out for dessert into his mouth and glanced sidelong at Rickshel.
He was genuinely grateful for this level of overprotectiveness, but —
‘Because if others solve everything for me, it’s never going to end.’
Even if it had become certain that the Second Prince would eventually become Crown Prince, the standing of the First Prince didn’t waver that quickly.
The Emperor might be hopeless, but the Empress was still holding strong, wasn’t she?
More precisely, the central nobility was.
They were types who would prop up the First Prince and do anything for the sake of their own influence.
The reason they weren’t acting up at the moment was purely because they feared Grandfather.
And while the tide of power had tilted toward the Second Prince, it was also because they were still getting by comfortably.
But —
What would happen if the situation grew worse still?
He had a strong feeling they might manipulate the First Prince into causing a major incident.
‘And that target would most likely be…’
House Asteri, which wholeheartedly supported the Second Prince.
And of all its members, the aim would focus on me, the weakest.
Even if his family and the people around him did their best to fend it off, they wouldn’t be able to block every hidden blade flying from an unseen direction.
“Still, I feel reassured, since so many people are going to protect me. I can wander around without worrying.”
“Yes. Do not worry.”
“Hahaha. Thank you.”
Lion wiped his mouth with his napkin and rose from his seat.
“Then I’ll head upstairs first. Maybe because I was running around here and there today, I’m a little tired.”
“Overworking your body is bad for your health.”
“Shall I escort you?”
“Hahaha. There’s no need to go that far.”
Lion deliberately stood up with extra vigor and strode out of the room.
The moment the door closed, a cold silence settled over the broad dining room.
“It would seem…”
“Yes. My brother appears to be planning something.”