Like Brother, Like Brother
The Baking Club claimed first place at the expo this year just as it had the year before. It was hardly a surprise; we had seen the result coming even before the event began. This year the cookies personally baked by the Magic Lord herself had been counted among our club's achievements—if we still failed to take first after that, we would have had every reason to suspect the results were rigged.
And right now the modest honor of first place was the least of our concerns.
"Here, this is Erich's share."
"...Thanks."
The heavy pouch settled into my palm and a bitter smile rose of its own accord.
After we sold the Magic Lord's cookies, half the proceeds were to go to the Baking Club. No matter how I looked at it the money was never truly ours, yet the Magic Lord had insisted she had no need of it, so what else could we do? Handing it over to the Academy was no better; even they had accepted only half, and that with the air of someone forced to take an unwelcome gift.
And so the club—and its president—had found themselves holding a sudden fortune. Overnight Luise had become a lightning-struck millionaire, and the bewilderment left her utterly at a loss.
The rest of us, myself included, simply told her to spend it however she liked. To put it more honestly, we treated the whole affair as someone else's fire across the river.
"Let's just split it equally!"
That was the result. With trembling fingers Luise had counted the gold and then committed the outrageous act of dividing every last coin by the number of members. Unable to bear the burden alone, she had turned us all into accomplices—a truly ruthless move.
What am I supposed to do with this?
Ruthless or not, the method was devastatingly effective. I now felt the full weight of the pressure that had been crushing Luise.
Of course Ainter, Ryutis, Later, and Tanian remained completely unfazed. From the vantage of imperial or royal blood, a pile of gold was nothing to gape at. They were merely impressed that cookies had fetched such a sum; the sum itself did not move them. They simply smiled at Luise's frantic insistence that they take their shares and showed no further reaction.
I, however, was an ordinary noble. Attaching the word "ordinary" to the Crassius family still felt like a stretch of conscience, yet compared with actual royalty we were ordinary enough. And I was only the second son, not even the heir. I was in no position to treat a sum like this as pocket change.
"And this is Sera's share!"
With every pouch she handed out, Luise's voice grew curiously brighter. By the time she reached the final victim—Sera—she was almost humming.
"I-I really don't need it. I didn't do anything."
"There isn't a single person here who did nothing. Everyone worked hard, so take it."
Sera shook her head in alarm, but Luise forced the pouch into her hands all the same.
Strange. The conversation itself was warm and kind, yet somehow it looked exactly like an act of cruelty. The tears gathering in Sera's eyes seemed born more of terror than gratitude.
Well, she has every reason to feel that way.
I could guess exactly how Sera felt, and a quiet laugh escaped me. Even I, from an Imperial Count's house, found the money oppressive; how much worse must it be for a mere baronial daughter? Sera had spent most of her life inside the manor, far from any luxury, so the very unit of "gold coins" was alien to her. And now several of them sat in her palm.
"Please take it. I'll feel better if you do."
Luise's earnest plea made Sera turn trembling eyes toward me, silently begging me to stop her.
Sorry.
I gave a small shake of my head. I truly was sorry, but it was impossible. If I could have stopped her, I would never have accepted my own share. My older brother might have managed it, but of course he was absent at the worst possible moment.
"If keeping it feels too heavy, why not send it to your nanny? Tell her it's the first money you ever earned yourself—she'll be delighted."
"M-maybe I should...?"
Simply shaking my head would have left Sera feeling betrayed, so I offered a halfway decent answer. Fortunately it seemed good enough; she nodded.
Now that I had said it aloud, it really was a solid idea. I should just send mine to Mother as well. She could use it for the family or the territory—whatever she saw fit. Even if she spent it as personal funds, she would put it to better use than I ever would.
On the evening of the awards ceremony a banquet was held. The competition throughout the expo had been nothing more than an Academy event, so the banquet was meant to let everyone shake off any lingering feelings—or so the official story went. In truth it was simply a banquet, a cheerful close to the festival.
Most of the outside guests had already left before the awards, which made the banquet practically a gathering for Academy students alone. For those who had spent the week treating club seniors like superiors, it was a welcome and easy occasion.
"Erich."
"Oh—Sister?"
Which was why I never expected Sister Zenobia to still be there.
Of course the Academy never actually shoved the guests out the door; they left early only because they were busy. Still, Sister Zenobia was an Imperial Countess. I had assumed she would be busier than anyone and long gone.
"Congratulations on first place. You worked hard."
She smiled brightly and held out a handkerchief. The unexpected gift drew a genuine smile from me.
"I thought about giving you a bouquet, but a handkerchief seemed more practical. Do they still wear out so quickly?"
"Always. Three months is a long life for one of mine."
Training meant rolling across the ground with my whole body, so handkerchiefs suffered the same fate. I had been like this since childhood; there was no fixing it now, which was why I regularly bought new ones. I had been meaning to pick one up soon—and now here it was.
"Thank you. I'll take good care of it."
"Please do. Be gentler with this one."
With that, Sister Zenobia turned her gaze to Sera and spoke first.
"Hello to you as well, Sera. It's late and you still have the banquet to attend—aren't you tired?"
Her concern for Sera's frail constitution brought a small smile to my face. They had only met for the first time during this expo, yet here she was already worrying over her. It was a relief to see the two of them getting along reasonably well.
"I'm fine. If I couldn't manage this much I never would have enrolled. I'm more touched that Your Ladyship, who must be so busy, stayed this long."
Sera answered with a faint smile of her own, clearly pleased by the kindness.
I was touched as well. Even if she had left after a single day I would have understood, yet she had contributed to our sales right up to the final day of booth operations, and now she had stayed for the banquet just to congratulate us. It would have been a lie to say I was not grateful.
"I'm the one who offered to help you, Sister, yet you came to me first. It's a little embarrassing."
I tossed the remark out as a light joke, and Sister Zenobia's eyes went round with surprise.
She had not expected me to drag up something from childhood so suddenly. Speaking of those old days with my own mouth still made me feel awkward, but after being teased for once declaring I would become Sera's knight, I had decided it no longer mattered. Whether I had one embarrassing memory or two, what difference did it make?
"You still remember that?"
She murmured in astonishment. I nodded. My body was only passable, but my memory was passable too.
"I may forget what other people say, but I remember what I myself have said."
The ideal, of course, was to remember both. When memory had its limits, the least one could do was hold on to one's own words. It made keeping relationships far easier.
Unlike last year, we decided each of us would make our own way to the banquet hall. Luise would enter with the club advisor, and I was supposed to enjoy a quiet moment with Sera, so moving as a whole club would have been awkward.
Besides, once Luise, Sera, and I peeled off, only four solidly built men would remain. I had no desire to enter a banquet hall escorted by other men. An Armein knight escorts a lady to a banquet; he does not escort another man.
So I rested a while at the dormitory and then headed for the hall—
We're doomed.
Near the entrance I spotted myself, Sera, and the Countess of Horfelt already gathered together. I had never imagined an outside guest would still be on Academy grounds.
At the same time I could only feel admiration. Here was someone willing to overturn common sense for the sake of her goal—an unyielding spirit rarely seen even in Armein. I simply had not expected to witness that spirit applied to a romantic rivalry.
At least she's an outsider. That's something.
Thankfully the Countess of Horfelt was an external guest, not Academy staff. The banquet was part of the expo schedule, so she could remain for it, but afterward she would have no further pretext to stay. At least I would be spared the sight of any further clashes between Sera and the Countess.
That said, another kind of astonishment took hold of me.
Why... doesn't he notice?
Looking at Erich standing between Sera and the Countess of Horfelt, the question rose unbidden.
The moment I first saw Sera I knew she held feelings for Erich; the moment I saw the Countess I knew she felt the same. Even a dense fool who could barely manage his own affairs could see it—so how could the man at the center remain oblivious? If Erich simply had no interest in romance I could have understood, yet the way he had once fallen for Luise proved otherwise.
He had even noticed when Luise fell for the club advisor. He was not someone dull to the emotion of love, so why?
Is he doing it on purpose?
I even wondered that. Perhaps he simply did not know which decision to make and was deliberately playing dense.
But that expression was the real thing. Not acting—pure, unadulterated denseness. I almost wished it had been an act.
"Ryutis?"
While I stood watching the three of them with a complicated heart, Ainter's voice came from behind me.
"What are you doing hiding—"
Following my line of sight, Ainter snapped his mouth shut and ducked behind the tree just as I had.
"...Shall we go around?"
"That would be better."
I nodded at the wise suggestion. I had not the slightest courage to insert myself into that particular triangle.
He'll figure it out on his own.
Just before I turned away I glanced once more at Erich, who still wore that peaceful smile.
Yes—he would manage. The moment he became the one being loved, his usual sharp instincts had vanished to a startling degree, yet he was still someone who could look after himself. At the very least he would not end up stabbed by either of them.
The club advisor was exactly the same.
Suddenly I remembered the advisor during the second semester last year. While the rest of us were falling for Luise and committing one absurdity after another, he had clutched the back of his neck and helped us through it—only to become completely oblivious the moment he himself received Luise's love. A genuine miracle of denseness. And now Erich was reenacting that same miracle.
I never expected the two of them to show off their brotherhood quite so blatantly.