Chapter 50
Chapter 50
It was beyond anything Hilbury had expected.
Since Leopold's father had manifested the curse in his mid-twenties, Hilbury had vaguely assumed that even if it were inherited, it would appear around that age.
Moreover, the curse manifested more often than he had thought. Three months came back around quickly.
After going through all of it, Leopold spoke calmly.
"I agree that this curse must not be revealed to the outside. However, I believe the engagement should be broken."
"Break the engagement?"
"I don't want there to be a victim. Brisa Sears entered this engagement without knowing the truth, didn't she?"
"So you're saying you'll end the Nozen line?"
"I will try to resolve this curse by any means. But I cannot remain engaged to someone who knows nothing."
Hilbury let out a deep sigh at his grandson's words.
Of course, it was he who had arranged this engagement. But at the time, it had only been a suspicion along the lines of "the curse might manifest once they married and lived together."
Now that the curse had actually manifested during the boy's youth, it had become difficult to insist outright that they "keep deceiving her." Hilbury was not a man without conscience, after all.
"Are you aware that Sears also hid that mother's madness from us?"
"Which makes it even more unacceptable."
Leopold's stance was firm.
"That child needs a proper family. Her life up until now has surely been harsh enough."
The sudden manifestation of a curse in the family was something Hilbury had not foreseen either. So he, too, could not help but be thrown into confusion.
Still, he had no intention of forcing the matter forward when his grandson was so firmly against it.
"If that is truly your wish, let us end the engagement at once. I'll have the letter sent immediately."
It had been a marriage arrangement in which Nozen had made far more concessions from the start. If a letter ending the engagement was sent, everyone would simply think, "That figures."
Of course, talk would circulate—things like "Brisa Sears really was a bit lacking for Nozen after all," or "So that mother's madness really was genuine."
But that was none of his concern.
Yet Leopold, who Hilbury had expected to nod and agree to do exactly that right away, hesitated.
"......No."
He rolled his eyes for a moment, then muttered.
"The timing seems poor. There are troubles at the Sears Marquis Residence right now, and..."
"Doesn't that house always have troubles?"
"Just... if you give me full authority, I will send the letter ending the engagement when it suits me. There is still plenty of time."
It was true that there was plenty of time.
There were still twelve years left until Brisa came of age.
Hilbury agreed. He assumed Leopold would send the letter within a year at most.
But Leopold did not send the letter ending the engagement for four years after that, not even while they attended the academy together for two years.
He only heard that the two remained distant but otherwise got along ordinarily, neither close nor hostile.
So he lost interest in Brisa Sears entirely.
'If they simply end up marrying as things stand, that wouldn't be so bad either.'
But in the end, Leopold sent the letter ending the engagement.
On the night Marquess Sears died and Brisa's half-brother was found.
The timing was perfect. Everyone assumed Brisa's engagement had been broken because she was no longer the heir.
Well, up to that point, nothing was strange.
But wasn't it strange that he had sent an anonymous bouquet along with the letter ending the engagement?
So Hilbury had Baron Forman investigate her, and...
"That young lady is, quite literally, a remarkable noblewoman."
Baron Forman, who had somehow returned before the Warp was even restored, said it with conviction.
"Like all those people who testified five years ago that the mother had no madness, it seems you've been fed something at Sears."
"They certainly fed me a great deal... Never in all my life as Ronald Forman have I shamelessly eaten that much on someone else's dime."
Hilbury had made one joke to the upright Baron Forman, and now found himself in a situation where he had no idea how to respond.
"You must not let that young lady slip away, Your Highness."
"Is that so? Is she a young lady Leopold needs?"
"No."
Baron Forman said seriously.
"She is a young lady the West needs. So much so that a trivial matter like Leopold cannot be allowed to affect the equation."
"Trivial? The boy is the heir to the grand duchy......"
"But the boy has to make a living too, doesn't he? I can't bear to watch my own grandson go hungry."
Hilbury, not knowing what to say, could only let out a helpless chuckle.
He had lived as Grand Duke of Nozen for far too long.
He had had his son late in life and was much older than Baron Forman. He was weary.
He took pride in having always maintained political neutrality and protected the west well.
Even when the imperial family was in turmoil, he had tried to keep the balance.
Since the West was known as the empire's breadbasket, he had lived generously, sharing with other regions.
And yet misfortune had struck in succession.
He had wanted to stand firm as a mountain until Leopold came of age.
'Ha......'
Hilbury sighed and closed the report on Brisa.
'If only this were a time when I could take an interest in my grandson's tender love life......'
Now that the Warp was working, everyone demanded the West's grain as if entitled to it, even though the West's productivity was no longer what it had once been.
And on top of that, black mages had appeared.
That was when it happened.
"Your Highness! This is serious!"
His adjutant burst in.
His adjutant brought news disastrous enough to make all of Hilbury's other worries seem trivial.
"They say that in the end, not a single sprout came up on the Seldoche Plain. So a Wizard came from the Magic Tower, and the result..."
Hilbury took the report from his adjutant.
The old man's face turned deathly pale as he confirmed the result.
* * *
After Leopold discovered my mother's madness on the day of the engagement ceremony.
I naturally expected a letter ending the engagement to arrive.
Hadn't the very person involved learned of our fraudulent act, of all people?
But there was no contact, no reproach.
After that, we had no particular occasion to interact until we met at the academy.
That was because I had enrolled two years early.
"Brisa, do you know why I try so hard to make you so perfect?"
On the day I left to take the entrance exam, my mother held me tight and said this.
"Because I can't trust your father and your brother. I will soon leave this world, and the only one who can protect you is yourself. If that brother of yours with his filthy blood returns, you, with your perfect blood, will be a thorn in his eye."
Mother said she had done it because she loved me: the harsh education and the way she had hurried me into an engagement with a good family while she was still alive.
"Go to the academy as quickly as possible. The tuition is expensive. If your brother happens to return in the middle of it, he might not pay your tuition."
So I became the first student ever admitted that early.
As I left home to take the entrance exam, I thought this.
If Mother was going to die soon, I wanted to spend even one more day with her.
In fact, that became the last conversation my mother and I ever had.
I loved my mother.
Even if she was sometimes not in her right mind, that couldn't be helped.
Even when I doubted Mother's love, she was still precious to me.
So I didn't let on how grateful I was that Leopold had not brought up ending the engagement.
'It's a little shameless, but still......'
I was afraid that if I brought it up, he might really end the engagement.
But at the same time, I wanted to prove that I was normal, that I wasn't mad, and therefore that this wasn't a fraudulent engagement.
That nothing you need worry about would happen. That I wasn't that shameless.