When Spring Comes, Even Honeymoons Melt - 4
The defective goods that had been misdelivered turned a pitiful back and were returned. It might have been a little harsh on my younger brother, but I felt no regret. There was simply no room in my mansion for some brat who had run away from reality.
What a weakling.
If he had at least talked about simultaneous marriages the way I once did, I might have thought he had fought reality until madness claimed him. There is a world of difference between going mad while fighting and fleeing without ever putting up a fight.
"An invitation?"
"Yeah."
So after making the necessary preparations, I called Zenobia.
Turning your back on reality is only possible when you still have room to spare. That meant I simply had to leave him with no room at all. If he still managed to run even after being surrounded from both sides, well, that would make him one hell of a piece of work in his own right.
"Once the term starts, we won't be able to see each other for months. There's the Club Expo, sure, but it's still better to meet face-to-face before school begins."
"I'd be grateful if you invited me, of course, but..."
A deep conflict settled over Zenobia's face, already shadowed by faint dark circles.
I understood. Emotionally, she had wanted to go see Erich long before I ever suggested it. Visiting another person's territory without hesitation was difficult for an Imperial Count, but with the shared title of Imperial Count as justification and their childhood friendship as a bond, it fell within an acceptable range.
What truly held Zenobia back, however, was work. Being a sitting Imperial Count meant being a sitting member of the Imperial Diet. And as the youngest among them, Zenobia was so buried under duties that she simply had no time to go meet Erich.
"One day is fine. Father agreed to help."
"Your father?"
Zenobia tilted her head at the sudden remark, then seemed to grasp my meaning. Her eyes flew wide and she hurriedly shook her head.
"N-no! It's all right! I couldn't possibly impose on him!"
She was so flustered that her normally polite speech had snapped back into the stiff formality of the past.
I understood that too. From her perspective, what I had just proposed was something she had to refuse with every ounce of will she possessed.
It must feel like dumping the work on her future father-in-law.
For the youngest member of the Diet, crushed by her duties, to free up even a single day meant someone else would have to handle that work in her place. And I had nominated Father as that someone.
"It's fine. The moment I mentioned it was about Erich's love life, he agreed right away. I actually had to stop him from offering a whole week."
Fortunately for Zenobia, Father had accepted my proposal with blazing enthusiasm.
"I'll take care of the girl's work. I'm on the verge of retirement anyway, so the documents coming to me have already dwindled. It won't be a problem."
"Thank you, Father."
"No need for thanks. It is only natural that an elder should put his strength to work for the children."
That brief exchange right after I sent Erich home. In those few words I felt Father's sincerity.
Father had never voiced it, but he had clearly been worried about Erich's social denseness and romantic prospects. Mother might have complained to him, given how well they got along. Or perhaps, with his iron grip on the household staff, he had simply intuited the nanny's suffering.
Or maybe it was as simple as: The eldest is married, so next is the second son. Either way, Father's commitment to Erich's love life was absolute.
"You know that refusing can sometimes be the ruder option, right?"
"...Yes. Thank you."
In the end, Zenobia nodded and accepted my proposal.
Where else would you find a brother like this?
Seeing Zenobia already smiling made me feel pleased myself.
Brothers this devoted to their little brother's romance were rare.
I set off for the territory with my lovers in a lively group. The pretext for inviting Zenobia was fellowship between Imperial Counts, so if I, a sitting Imperial Count, were absent from the fief, that pretext would evaporate.
"You're here? Come in quickly. Zenobia has already arrived."
The moment we reached the territory, Mother, waiting at the main gate, left only those words and vanished into the castle.
A hurried greeting, a skipped embrace, blunt information delivery. For a mother who usually welcomed me and my lovers with warmth whenever we visited the territory, the reaction was unusually stiff—yet neither I nor my lovers felt slighted.
She's made up her mind.
Because Mother's retreating figure radiated a warrior's aura. The aura of a warrior about to step onto the battlefield.
Just as Father was toiling outside the territory, Mother intended to throw her full support behind Sera and Zenobia from within it. The fact that she had even come to the gate to greet us under these circumstances was impressive enough.
The whole world is lending a hand.
I steeled myself and walked on. Father, who had willingly donated his time for this meeting; Mother, who had cast aside the gentle noblewoman and transformed into a warrior marching to war; the household staff who had united as one under the nanny; and finally me, putting myself through all this just to get my brother married.
I had mobilized everything. Every factor that could influence Erich had been thrown into the mix. If he still managed to mess this up, I would have no choice but to accept it with humility. Erich was simply destined to live and die a virgin in body, mind, and spirit.
A virgin of body, mind, and spirit.
No matter how many times I thought about it, the phrase was so insane that I had to close my eyes. Balance and growth of body, mind, and spirit were important for a martial artist, sure—but did that balance really have to be virginity?
If Enen had bestowed such a fate on Erich, I wanted to lodge a formal protest. The older brother was an Apostle, so why did the younger brother have to suffer like this?
I stared blankly at the servants bustling about. Their busyness felt like a scolding for my own foolishness.
I stuck my head straight into the lion's mouth...
I felt like crying. I had fled to my brother searching for light, only to find an abyss instead. A dark, bottomless abyss.
Of course I didn't resent him for turning me away when I showed up at his mansion. Charging in on a newlywed like that was my own fault—that much was fair. But even so, this was going too far.
Since when does the abyss chase after you?
If I had run into Zenobia at my brother's place, that would have been on me. Staying put in the territory would have kept things limited to Sera; I had expanded the problem myself.
But my brother inviting Zenobia? What the hell was that about? Why go this far?
"Take it slow," he said.
Pure lies. How could the same person who told me to take it slow turn around and set up a scheme like this?
For a moment I wondered if this was karmic payback for verbally thrashing him last year when he started spouting nonsense about simultaneous marriages. Was he holding a grudge over that? Was this revenge because his little brother had dared talk back?
It was plausible. No—it had to be. Without some reason like that, the injustice would kill me—
"Young Master."
"Y-yes?"
I instinctively turned at the nanny's voice.
"Please head to the Great Hall. Some light refreshments have been prepared, so it will be less tedious than lingering here."
"Ah—y-yeah. I'll do that."
I nodded repeatedly at the nanny's gentle smile, yet even as I nodded I carefully avoided meeting her eyes. I simply lacked the courage to face her properly.
The act itself filled me with a strange self-loathing. I had never imagined a day would come when I would avoid the nanny.
"Young Master."
She spoke again, and I flinched.
"I am all right."
"Huh...?"
The words that followed left me sounding like an idiot. All right? About what?
"That you are purer than most people is something I know better than anyone, having raised you since you were small."
The nanny quietly took my hand.
"I find that side of you utterly endearing. I like the Young Master who holds a warm heart and looks at the world with pure eyes."
Her smile deepened.
"Sera likes that side of you as well. Your... purity. She doesn't see it as a flaw, and that is why she came to care for you."
Was it just me, or had she started to say "social denseness" before hastily correcting herself to "purity"?
Still, I couldn't interrupt the nanny when she was going out of her way to say something kind, so I simply listened in silence.
"There is also fault on that child's part for not approaching you more actively even while knowing that side of you. So you need not feel so terribly sorry."
At that, I had no choice but to speak.
Sera suffering alone because of my denseness was my fault. It was an incident born of my own shortcomings. Blaming Sera for it was going too far.
"Nanny, I—"
"I have lived thinking of the two of you as my own sons. Whether the two of you feel the same or not, I am a happy mother with two dependable sons and one adorable daughter."
I closed my mouth again before I could finish.
I knew. I knew it well. I knew the heart with which the nanny had raised my brother and me, and I knew that we had grown up without mishap thanks to her.
That was why I fell silent. Out of gratitude to a woman who had lost one of her own children to illness and watched another grow up frail, yet still raised us brothers as her own; out of apology for the long suffering I had inflicted on her only daughter.
And finally, out of guilt for avoiding her because of that very apology.
"So I do not resent you, Young Master. Sometimes a little turmoil arises between a man and a woman. That is simply how life goes."
The nanny let out a soft laugh and patted the back of my hand. She patted it gently, as if comforting me while I stared at the floor.
"So please, Young Master, set down the burden in your heart as well."
I kept my mouth shut for a long while after her words.
I felt like crying again—for an entirely different reason this time.
The nanny's advice was unmistakably effective. Looking at her was no longer difficult. Hearing Sera's voice no longer startled me. I didn't even run when I saw Zenobia.
A smile formed on my lips without my noticing. Now I could look at Sera and Zenobia at the same time without any problem. I no longer needed to stew alone mapping out escape routes.
Yes, that was definitely what I thought.
What is this?
A small banquet was underway in the Great Hall—a gathering held to foster amicable relations between the Count of Tailglehen and the Count of Horfelt.
When I looked at Sera and Zenobia attending that banquet, I felt something different from before.
Why is this happening?
My heart was pounding strangely.
I couldn't understand it. My chest had raced even when I felt only guilt toward them, but I had already pushed that guilt aside. So why now?
Caught in a confusion I could not unravel, I looked toward Sera and my sister-in-law, who happened to be standing together.
Ah.
Sensing my gaze, both of them turned their heads toward me and offered soft smiles.
My heart pounded even harder.