Chapter 1
Chapter 1
1. Potato Farming
"Miss Brisa, I regret having to bring you this news."
The day before the Capital Academy graduation ceremony.
"The Marquess Sears is said to have passed away in a carriage accident. I pray for the repose of the departed."
I was reading a book in the library when I heard the news of my father's death.
"Also, the eldest son of the Marquess Sears, who had been reported missing all this time, is said to have been found."
At the same time, I heard the news of my half-brother's return.
"And so the Sears marquess title......."
The teacher in charge of delivering the news wrapped an arm around my rigid shoulders.
"According to the will, it has been decided that the eldest son will inherit it."
My father's death did not deal me much of a blow. There had never been any affection between father and daughter, after all.
So much so that during the two years I was at the Capital Academy, I never once went down to the marquisate.
But the fact that a half-brother I had never even seen had become the Marquess Sears was a shock.
I had been educated as the heir of House Sears from a very young age. And now I was not to inherit the marquess title.......
If my mother, who had passed away two years ago, heard this news in the afterlife, she would kick open her coffin this very moment and tear through the marquess's residence.
"As if that eldest son born of a maid would ever come back. If they haven't found him by now, it means they never will."
My father, the Marquess Sears, had married twice.
His first marriage had been a wedding at a rural shrine, where he had secretly run off with a maid of the marquess's residence.
A few days later, the family found out and forced him to divorce her.
'The maid, who had been pregnant with a son, went missing.'
Ten years later, my father married my mother. It was his second marriage.
In truth, my father had always been searching for his eldest son from the moment of the divorce. The only thing he knew about the child in the womb was the sex the doctor had told him when the pregnancy was confirmed.
And he had always wanted to pass the marquess title to him.
So my mother had muttered anxiously every day.
"There's no way that lowborn thing will suddenly appear one day. With commoner blood mixed in, he could never become a proper Marquess Sears."
My mother had been the last princess of the Kingdom of Liente.
Though the kingdom had fallen in defeat, Liente had been a nation with a long history.
So my mother had insisted all along. That my bloodline was far superior to that eldest son's.
"He's probably been farming melons among commoners. As if the likes of him could ever have lived as a person worthy of the storied Sears marquess title."
But every one of those predictions was wrong.
My half-brother, Alpheus Sears, was no ordinary man.
Alpheus had grown up as a mercenary among commoners, but his abilities were so outstanding that he caught the eye of the Second Imperial Prince, who had gone north to resolve the Northern Civil War.
Called a war hero in the north, he had even been promised a title by the Second Imperial Prince.
And so, on his way up to the capital after bringing the Northern Civil War to a close, he had learned who his birth father was.
Regrettably, my father had died instantly in a carriage accident just before hearing the news.
Having heard all these circumstances, I headed for the marquisate regardless. I had to attend my father's funeral, after all.
* * *
I first met Alpheus at the funeral hall in the marquisate.
A startlingly handsome face and a sturdy build.
The same platinum hair and sky-blue eyes as mine.
The young man in mourning clothes strode over on his long legs and greeted me carefully.
"Brisa? Are you Brisa?"
My head went blank for a moment.
"I'm, um, Alpheus...... I heard you're ten years younger than me. So you're twelve now, right? I don't know if you've heard, but, um, I'm your brother and......."
After that.
I couldn't tell how the funeral had proceeded, or in what state of mind I had returned to my room.
My memory cut off completely.
Because.......
'Am I going mad?'
The moment I looked at Alpheus's face, unfamiliar memories had flooded into my head.
This world I lived in was the world of a novel I had read in a previous life.
'The male lead is Alpheus. Right now he's a good-natured, simple young man, but soon he'll turn dark.'
Worse, the future that would unfold before me was despairing.
After the funeral ended, I shut myself in my room for the time being.
"My lady, my lady!"
"What's the matter? Yes? Yes?"
All the loyal maids in the marquess's residence were at a loss. But I had no presence of mind to answer them.
The death of a father I had barely ever seen, and the appearance of the half-brother my mother had so fiercely dreaded in life—none of it mattered at this moment. The fact that I was not in my right mind frightened me more than anything.
The idea that this world was inside a novel was absurd.
'I've become an orphan, a half-brother I didn't even know existed has appeared, and on top of that the marquess title has suddenly been taken from me—the shock is just enormous.'
Clutching a thick book as usual, I gasped for breath.
'First of all, I must not let anyone find out that I've gone mad.'
I could never say out loud that I had suddenly come to know the future.
"Did you know? The last princess of Liente...... they say she suffered from madness."
"Really? Then what about her daughter? Isn't Brisa Sears out of her mind too?"
"Most likely. Why else would the Marquess Sears have spent all that time roaming outside looking for the eldest son born of a maid?"
Recalling the things I had overheard behind my back all this time, I squeezed my eyes shut.
If I said anything about a previous life or reincarnation, everyone would say I had finally gone mad like my mother.
'Maybe it'll get better with time. I don't have hallucinations or hear voices yet.......'
That was when.
"Um, Brisa. I'm, uh, Alpheus."
Along with a knock, a deep voice came through. Alpheus, whom I had met earlier at the funeral, was knocking on my door.
"It's, the person from earlier who became your family starting today. Um, so, I mean, you're not alone even though your father has passed away and......."
The war hero's way of speaking carried a strong whiff of a pushover.
"So, um, would it be all right if I came in now?"
I answered immediately.
"It wouldn't."
"Um...... do you want to talk a little?"
"I don't."
"Then at least seeing your face for a moment is...... all right?"
"It isn't."
Seeing Alpheus's face was what had started the delusions.......
'What if I see him again and the symptoms get worse?'
Turning him away at the door was easy. I had never had a gentle or kind personality to begin with.
"Ah....... Are you busy right now?"
"Very busy."
"Is it something I could help with?"
"I'm reading, so leaving now would be a great help."
"What book? I really love literature too! If it's a book I've read, we could even discuss......."
"<Understanding Livestock, Vol. 17: Mating and Reproduction>."
"......."
The literary youth outside the door finally shut his mouth.
A brief silence followed.
I thought he would leave now, but a careful voice continued.
"I'm leaving for the capital now. The imperial court, um, needs to pay out my war compensation as soon as possible."
"......."
"The marquisate's finances don't seem to be in very good shape. Of course! It's not something you need to worry about at all, absolutely, not in the slightest."
I could tell right away.
'It's something I very, truly, desperately need to worry about.'
I had only returned to the marquess's residence today after two years, so I didn't yet know much about the territory's situation. But the territory's situation had never been good.
"I'll be back within ten days at the latest. I hope...... I'd like to see your face then. Take good care of yourself."
I drew an uneasy breath.
Just now, Alpheus had spoken exactly as he did in the "future I had come to know."
'Don't tell me the butler was caught embezzling and thrown out too?'
No sooner had that suspicion faded than Alpheus added.
"Oh, and...... I let the butler go. It was just, um, adult circumstances. I'll leave my adjutant here instead, so if you need help, go to him anytime."
I despaired.
'Could it be that I'm not mad? Is this really the future that's coming?'
But no truly mad person ever thinks they are mad.
My mother, too, never acknowledged her madness until the day she died.
'Still, if my delusions really are the certain future.......'
If so, Alpheus would not return in ten days but in three months, badly injured.
And when he returned, there would be no one left in the marquisate. Everyone would be dead.
'If I say that out loud, I'll really become a mad girl....... No, maybe I really am a mad girl.......'
While I agonized, Alpheus's footsteps began to fade.
I clearly seemed mad, yet everything was proceeding exactly as my delusions said.
At this rate...... if I let Alpheus go like this, just as in the original novel.......
'Aaaaaaah!'
In the end, I rummaged through my bag, pulled something out, and shouted toward the door.
"Wait!"