Brotherly Love and Duty
I started by reading Aidan's expression. It hadn't been all that long, but his face still carried the same look it always did whenever we met after some time apart. His refined features and easy smile made him seem less like the master of a great house and more like a young artist devoted to his craft. Yet his true nature was pure Franz blood through and through. Saying it that way makes him sound intimidating, but there was no doubt my brother possessed a deep love for his family. And that same brother was simply watching me now, a faint smile playing on his lips with no real change in his expression.
“Ahem!” What was I supposed to say? The pregnancy itself wasn’t a problem. It had been settled ever since that day I spoke with Father and my brother.
“I’m glad to hear it. Grace is pregnant? I was genuinely shocked when the news reached me.”
“Y-you were?”
“Yes. It put my mind at ease.”
His eyebrows curved gently like crescent moons. When Aidan spoke of my sister-in-law, the worry he had carried was clear, and now a sigh of relief slipped out as though a weight had finally lifted.
“In any case, barring anything unusual, the Franz bloodline will continue safely from here.”
“Ah, yes.”
“You’ve done well.”
“Not at all… What hardship was there on my part? If anything, the difficult days ahead belong to Grace.”
“True. I’ll need to look after her as well.”
As I gave appropriate replies to Aidan’s words, I caught the undercurrent. Just as I thought… My brother…
I bit my lip lightly and studied his face.
“What is it? Do you have something to say?”
“Brother. Have you met with Grace yet?”
“No.”
Aidan shook his head at my question. Even though his wife was pregnant, he still hadn’t seen her. Of course, the child wasn’t his.
“Reports come first. Beginning with Father’s affairs and considering everything that lies ahead, I barely carved out time between reports and meetings.”
“I see…”
It would have been better if he had used that time for Grace. Still, I couldn’t criticize whether his attitude was right or wrong. A noble had duties and obligations. In that sense, my brother’s conduct wasn’t mistaken. Even so, meeting the woman carrying the next heir was also necessary.
“Brother.”
“Hm?”
Father had his cold side, but his affection for Mother was unmistakable. When I was young, even compared to Earth, there were moments that let me feel it. But my brother…
“Do you love Grace? As a woman?”
“Hoo.”
My brother surely loved Grace. But was it the love between a man and a woman, or the affection of nobility? And by the standards of this world, that distinction probably wasn’t wrong.
“I see…”
Perhaps sensing the sincerity on my face, Aidan gave a rare smile and began to consider the question seriously.
“Love, you say.”
“Yes. Love.”
I didn’t want to sound sentimental, but I had given Grace a ring. That gesture had been genuine, and she had accepted it with the same feeling.
“You mean as a man and a woman?”
“Yes. And as a man, I… love Grace. I love her.”
“Is that so?”
Aidan’s expression remained unchanged as he looked at me. I couldn’t read him at all.
“Grace probably feels the same?”
“Yes. Well, it might just be my wishful thinking, but…”
“No. If you’re saying this much, she must feel the same. I see. So it really is as a man and a woman…”
At first I thought he was simply uncomfortable and was keeping his face carefully blank. But.
“I don’t know.”
Aidan’s words didn’t sound like a lie. His expression was genuinely troubled.
“I love Father. I love Mother as well, and I respect them as my parents. I respect them as the lord and lady who guide the Franz family. Objectively speaking, Father has led our house admirably, and Mother devotes herself passionately in the capital.”
“That’s true. I love and respect them both as parents and as the heads of our family.”
I had come to understand that through everything that happened. And not only my parents.
“This is a little embarrassing to say, but I like you too, Brother.”
“Hahahaha. I feel the same. Even if we ended up fighting over the succession, I think we could enjoy the contest.”
“I’d rather pass on that. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me?”
“Yes. I heard. You handled it more naturally than I expected, so honestly I’d like you to keep helping me with work at my side.”
“Ugh, no thank you.”
I shook my head at his words. Seeing my reaction, Aidan laughed with genuine amusement and lifted his teacup.
“Yes. She’s the same. I believe she lacks nothing as someone who will lead the family alongside me in the future. Her talent for magic is excellent, her mind is sharp, and I see no flaws in her character.”
But he added that this was merely his assessment of her as a partner in guiding the house.
“If you ask whether I love her as a woman, the way you mean it… well. No. That isn’t it.”
Aidan answered more cleanly than I had anticipated. Hearing it, I thought, Just as I expected. Grace probably felt the same.
“I like her as a person. She likely feels the same. Neither of us holds any particular dissatisfaction toward the other. Although… when I think about how I couldn’t give her a child, it wouldn’t be strange if she did resent me.”
“She doesn’t. Grace holds no resentment toward you, Brother.”
“That’s good to hear.”
I had spoken with Grace about many things, including her thoughts on my brother. Truly, the two of them weren’t bad together as people. If I had never appeared and they had conceived a child as husband and wife, they would have fulfilled their roles as masters of the Franz family admirably. But that was only a hypothetical. There had been no child between them, and I had stepped in.
My brother looked at me and smiled bitterly.
“You don’t need to feel sorry.”
“Brother.”
Because of my own greed, I felt as though I were doing something unforgivable to him. No, it was greed.
“There is no romantic love between us as man and woman, but there is the bond of husband and wife. If this path makes her happier, then it is only right that I step aside.”
But then he added,
“It cannot become an official relationship. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
Divorce was out of the question. Father would oppose it, and no matter what, I was still a son of Franz. I opposed it as well. Grace wouldn’t want things to go that far either.
Aidan laid out several conditions.
“You cannot stay together indefinitely. Strictly speaking, she must remain my wife and the lady of the house. That must continue until time passes or until I take a new wife or concubine.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“And the two of you cannot appear together at official events.”
“Understood.”
That was something both Grace and I would have to endure. Even if we lived together from now on, she would occasionally need to return to Franz. And unless it was a special occasion like the coming-of-age ceremony, she could not step forward at public functions.
“Finally…”
There wasn’t much more. My brother wasn’t the overly strict type. But the most important point remained—the one thing neither he nor Father would ever accept.
“The child Grace now carries is the next official heir of Franz.”
The baby Grace was carrying—my child—must be raised as the legitimate successor of the Franz family. We still had no clear solution regarding my brother’s inability to produce an heir, but for the time being this was how it had to be.
“I understand that too.”
“I’m sorry, but this is one thing I cannot yield.”
“It’s all right, Brother.”
Though he wore an apologetic expression, I felt far more guilt. And even as the Franz heir, it didn’t mean we could never meet. The people around us weren’t the sort who would forcibly keep us apart. I knew they wouldn’t interfere in private moments even if, in public, we had to maintain distance.
We spoke about future matters as well. Watching my brother discuss upcoming affairs in such a businesslike manner, he truly seemed at peace with it all.
“So this was what Father meant.”
“Father?”
“Yes. He spoke to me beforehand. I didn’t fully understand at the time, but…”
After the main discussion ended, as we traded light conversation and he smiled bitterly, it was clear Father had said something to him as well.
“Still, the fact that Grace is truly pregnant… does that mean I really cannot produce a child?”
My brother, who usually appeared detached from matters of romance and physical relationships between men and women, looked unexpectedly dejected. The realization seemed to have struck him harder than anything else.
“It’s still too early to say for certain…”
There was still the possibility that it had simply been terrible luck. It wasn’t as if he had been as active as I was. Still, as one man to another, I could only offer comfort. I had seen people on Earth who had chosen vasectomies after fathering two children, but my brother’s situation was different.
At my consoling words, Aidan nodded.
“I’ll have to try harder.”
I didn’t ask what he meant by that. It was too difficult to meet his eyes, so I buried my face in my teacup.
“Take good care of Grace, Leo.”
With those final words, my brother rose from his seat.
I remained where I was a little longer, watching him leave.
Could I consider the most urgent matter settled for now?