The Oblivious Little Brother - 3
Convincing Sera proved far harder than convincing Zenobia. With Zenobia, the other party had cooperated willingly enough. This time, though, it amounted to telling a girl who had carried a torch since childhood that she would have to settle for second place. The real problem was not her attitude so much as my own conscience.
But there was no helping it. Had Sera also been the daughter of a count's house, we might have settled the order by who had become friends with Erich first. Unfortunately, if a baron's daughter like Sera took first place, Zenobia would be automatically disqualified. That was something I simply could not do to Zenobia.
"If you take first place, Zenobia will fight it to the bitter end—oppose it, sabotage it, everything. Then this whole mess will drag on, and a third party might even show up."
"That's... true."
What hurt even more was the way Sera nodded with a bitter face as she listened to my persuasion.
If she had only lashed out—Why do I have to be second? Why should I yield Erich to that thieving cat?—I would not have felt nearly so guilty.
"Still, don't worry too much. Erich isn't the type to play favorites over the order."
I offered her that half-hearted comfort as I looked at her. From the perspective of the person who would actually become second, no words would bring real consolation, but as a matter of human decency I felt I had to say something.
And it was not even a lie. Erich's sense of social cues was catastrophic, and his intelligence—well, his intelligence was also somewhat concerning—but he was not a bad-hearted bastard. He would treat Sera as one of his rightful wives, not a concubine, and he would attach no special meaning to first and second.
Erich's title would pass to the child of his first wife, Zenobia, of course, but Sera was set to inherit the Zaigel barony anyway, so that was not a major issue.
"Well... if Erich takes after you, Brother, then yes."
A heavy, straight pitch slammed into my solar plexus and made me flinch.
She probably meant no malice by it—more along the lines of "the younger brother of a man who treats six wives equally should have no trouble with two"—but hearing it let me see how a third party viewed me.
A twisted older brother who had already taken in six wives of his own and was now trying to arrange multiple wives for his younger brother as well.
I'm a complete lunatic, aren't I?
My head spun. I felt like the villain who had appeared specifically to destroy the concept of monogamy.
"...Honestly, I don't want to be second. I wanted to be Erich's only wife, and if I couldn't be the only one, I wanted to be first."
Sera's gloomy voice reached me, and I managed to pull my emotions back together at once. I was the villain, all right. Right now I was less a victim than a secondary perpetrator.
The primary one was Erich, of course. That bastard was a complete son of a bitch.
"But if even you, Brother—who until now only offered quiet support—are stepping in this far... it means even second place is a struggle, doesn't it?"
"That's not because you're lacking. It's because Erich is so hopelessly—"
"No. It's because I'm lacking. I spent a whole year with him and made no progress at all. That's my fault."
Looking at the faint smile on Sera's face, I could not find a proper reply.
I had thought the same thing myself, more than once. If only Sera had been more aggressive, would Erich have reacted differently?
"I missed my chance, so what is there left to say? And as you said, Brother, Erich won't discriminate."
Even someone watching from a distance had thought those things; how much worse must it have been for the person living it? She simply had not shown it outwardly. Inside, self-reproach and anxiety must have been writhing the whole time.
We let this drag on too long.
I forcibly swallowed a sigh and looked at Sera, who still wore that bitter smile. If this had been only three or four months in, she might have shaken her head and insisted she could never yield. Her heart would not yet have been broken; the embers would still have been burning.
But it had already been a full year. The old saying claimed that a sound mind dwells in a sound body. For Sera, whose health was so far from sound, to endure a year of this emotional torment was an enormous mental burden.
That was why, even while showing depression and self-reproach under my persuasion, she did not push back. It was truly pitiful.
Why does this not feel like someone else's problem?
This time the self-reproach hit me. The sight of someone nursing a one-sided love, running into an impregnable wall, getting hurt, and finally compromising—that was a scene far too familiar to me.
Damn it. Brothers did not need to resemble each other in something like this.
After obtaining the consent of both future sisters-in-law, I hastily convened a wives' meeting. Calling it a wives' meeting was a stretch—Mar was still the only official wife—but a wives' meeting it was.
"So that's the situation. What should we do?"
"……."
"……."
Once my long-winded explanation of the circumstances ended, the participants exchanged glances and kept silent. They seemed confused about what to say.
Everyone here—except Eri and Phine, who were still at the administrative offices—already knew perfectly well that Erich's obliviousness ranked alongside unicorns, Atlantis, and the Emperor's conscience, and that Sera's insides were turning into hellfire. They had watched it live just as I had; it would have been stranger if they did not know.
That was precisely what made it hard. Even though Sera and Zenobia had signed a joint struggle declaration, there was no guarantee that joint struggle would lead to victory. Even combining their strength, I felt no certainty they could breach Erich's solid iron wall.
"The fact that the two of them have joined forces is a good thing, at least. When focusing on the goal alone is barely enough, it eliminates wasting energy on meaningless places."
After the silence, Mar spoke first.
Mar was currently the sole lady of the Crassius household. Erich's marriage was also a matter tied to the family's prosperity, so it was only natural that the lady of the house would speak first.
"But that's all. In truth, the two of them rarely checked each other to begin with. Even combining forces won't change much."
"That's true."
It was such a reasonable point that I could only nod. The clash between Sera and Zenobia had looked fierce at last year's Club Expo, but the actual number of times they had met face-to-face and thrown check shots at each other was vanishingly small. They would have needed to gather in the same place to fight or anything else, and they simply never ran into each other.
So even with them joining hands, no dramatic shift could be expected. From the start, Sera and Zenobia's energy had been aimed at Erich far more than at checking each other.
It was just that the situation was so bleak that even the tiniest change was necessary.
"So we need to change the fundamental approach."
"The approach?"
"Yes."
Mar nodded resolutely, then closed her mouth for a moment before carefully continuing.
"Not creeping closer little by little. Directly—just as we confessed honestly to Karl."
Her words brought back the storm of confession relays. It had started with Trixie, spurred on by Mar, and then continued through Rory, Lin, Eri, and Phine—a truly spectacular relay.
It would definitely be effective.
I accepted it. Back then I had not regarded my lovers as romantic interests either, until the confessions made me look at them differently. A confession demanded considerable courage and the risk of being rejected on the spot, but for revealing one's feelings there was nothing more effective.
If Erich still failed to understand Sera and Zenobia's hearts even after receiving confessions, he would not be human. That would not be obliviousness; it would be an inorganic object that simply did not know the emotion called love.
"Everyone thinking the same thing?"
I glanced around at the other lovers as I asked. Mar's plan was effective, yes, but it had the flavor of "just drop a surprise nuke and you win lol," so adopting it unconditionally felt a bit much. Not just anyone could summon the courage to confess.
Besides, if they confessed only to hear something like "Let's just stay good friends," there would be no hope left.
"After a full year with no results, shock therapy is needed. Even if they're rejected once, the simple fact of having shown their hearts is important."
"That's right. At the very least, the perception shifts from ordinary friend to someone who likes them. Then even if he refuses now, he might change his mind later."
Under my gaze, Trixie and Lin supported Mar's opinion.
Good. Unanimous, then.
"I-I, um... I... think so too..."
But Rory, who had not noticed my consideration that was not quite consideration, voiced her opinion in a voice that nearly vanished.
At that pitiful tone I wordlessly stroked Rory's head. From her perspective, she was discussing the marriage of the young master who had once rejected her; whatever she said, her feelings were bound to be complicated.
I had only called her to the meeting because I could not leave her out when all the other lovers were attending, yet she seemed to feel a sense of duty as a participant anyway.
This is all Erich's fault.
It really was all Erich's fault.
After finishing training as usual that day, I sat in a corner of the training ground and caught my breath.
It was winter, the weather cold and snow falling, but I could not neglect training over something so minor. Letting the weather affect you was something that applied to common soldiers, not knights. A true knight and martial artist was someone who could fight under any conditions whatsoever.
I really need to find a new sparring partner soon.
I set the empty water flask on the floor and let out a sigh. Born into the Crassius family, I had already reached the age of nineteen, and over those years I had sparred countless times with the family's knights.
Of course, as knights they could not truly thrash the young master of the house, so they had gone easy, but even without sincerity, years of the same opponents and the same spars had left me with no more novelty to be found. Fresh sparring was simply no longer possible.
That was why a new partner was desperately needed. After entering the Academy I had had classmates and upperclassmen, but two years of enrollment had made even that feel stale.
I miss Ryutis.
I thought of the red-haired man who would be in his homeland by now.
A tiresome sparring partner, yet a good one all the same—Ryutis. When he had been nearby he had been a complete lunatic, but now that he was gone I felt an odd wistfulness and found myself thinking of him. What a peculiar guy he was.
Should I go to another territory?
I was even thinking that far. If the Crassius knights were not enough, should I face knights from other houses? Zenobia was an Imperial Count, so if I asked her properly, something might—
"Young Master."
"Hm?"
Just as the urge to whine to my sister-in-law began to stir, one of the knights approached.
"Lady Sera of the Trimara baronial house has arrived."
"Sera?"
"Yes."
At that I rose from my seat. In the past I had been the one to visit Sera, but these days she came to see me more often as well.
As a friend, it made me very happy. A friend who once had to stay in bed every single day was now attending the Academy and even coming over to our house to play like this.
What could it be about?
Still, it was a little strange. We had spoken through the communication orb just yesterday, and she had not mentioned coming in person.
...She's probably just here to hang out.
After a brief moment of thought I reached that conclusion. When a friend came to see a friend, what reason was needed? If you missed them, you came.
Surely Sera and I were close enough for that much.