Chapter 132

A hot wind was blowing.

Edgar sat under the big tree in the Reichnek estate's garden. Edwin was beside him. On the thick cloth a servant had spread over the grass, light snacks and books lay scattered.

The sheepdog, which had run around all morning with Adelheid, must have worn himself out — he lay stretched on the grass, yawning wide. Adelheid had just been dragged inside by Linda to change clothes. She hadn't even been playing in the mud, but somehow her outfit had gotten filthy. Nobody could figure out how.

"……Are we really allowed this much peace and quiet?"

Edgar muttered. Edwin, who had been watching an ant crawl between the blades of grass, looked up at the sound.

"Enjoy it while you can."

"Seriously……"

"You never know what's an inch ahead of you in life. Savor the peace while it's here, Edgar."

He'd moved past just saying strange things and into talking like a little old man.

Edgar gave Edwin a cold look.

"What, do you want something to happen?"

"That's not what I meant."

Nothing happening was best. It hadn't been that long since he'd been spouting things like Adelheid getting poisoned — how was he this relaxed already?

As if reading Edgar's mind, Edwin turned to face him.

"I've been telling you, Edgar."

"I know."

Edwin had said so from the start.

I don't really know about this period.

Edgar knew there were plenty of things Edwin hadn't said, but on that one point, at least, there'd been no lie.

How old had Edwin been back then? Edwin still refused to answer the question of how old he'd lived to be, but in any case he had outlived Edgar. Edgar himself couldn't recall much of the distant past now; for Edwin it would only be worse.

And more than that——

"Too much has changed, I keep telling you."

"I heard you — you can stop saying it. I know. Normally we'd have gone down to the Bertholdt domain by now."

"Right."

Edwin stretched. With Adelheid always at their side lately, there hadn't been many chances for the two of them to talk like this. Even at night one of the servants stood watch nearby. Normally their uncle would have been beside them, so someone must be filling that role.

This was why being a small child was such a pain. He knew it was a complaint that wouldn't go away for years yet, but a pain was a pain.

In the end, talking with Edwin about the "future" only happened at moments like this one, when they could be sure no one was nearby.

"So honestly, I don't know for certain whether the thing with Adelheid will happen or not. We've prepared, and it might still come to nothing."

"We've prepared?"

"Edgar……"

Edwin looked at him with pity.

"We've been practicing crying together this whole time. What did you think that was?"

"I have not been practicing!"

"Then let's start now. Burying your face in a doll is too weak. You can't get anywhere with that soft a mindset — needing props."

Edgar punched Edwin in the shoulder. Edwin winced and rubbed the spot.

"Cut it out."

"I'm not messing around…… okay, okay! That actually hurt. Stop hitting me."

"When you stop messing around."

"I said fine."

Warned off by his twin, Edwin let the teasing drop out of his voice.

"Like I said before, right now all we can do is keep strangers away as much as possible."

"Even so… we don't even know all the people at the Reichnek estate to begin with."

"Originally, they were targeting Grisha, so we should be all right until Uncle Grisha comes down. That was still years off."

Edwin's eyes went hazy as he stared into space.

"But it could happen earlier……. The situation in the capital seems to have gotten a lot more complicated than I was expecting."

"The capital?"

Edgar echoed, puzzled.

He couldn't see where the capital was suddenly coming in. If the endgame was the throne, of course the capital would come up eventually — but as Edgar remembered it, the mood in the capital hadn't started shifting until after he'd entered the academy.

No. Wait. Adelheid had gotten sick well before that. By that point, the assassination attempts on Grisha had already been old news. Edwin had said Grisha had already lost by the time Adelheid was struck down.

Somewhere Edgar hadn't been able to see, the fight had already been happening. But that wasn't what Edwin was talking about. The timing had shifted forward, ahead even of what Edwin had known.

And the biggest change Edgar knew of was——

"Because of Uncle going to the capital?"

"Not only that, but…… the order's changed."

"You mean it's not that Uncle went and things changed — it's that things changed, so Uncle went?"

"Right. You saw this morning's paper."

One of the more noticeable changes since he'd started sharing Adelheid's lessons was that he could now look at the newspaper unfiltered.

At the King's Woods, they'd only been allowed to see the papers after Uncle and Linda had gone through them. Since the papers were the only way to check on the outside world, that made sense enough, but once he'd realized he was looking at nothing but useless advertisements, he'd stopped paying much attention. Books had been brought over from the Bertholdt estate too, and he'd focused more on those.

But once proper lessons started, that changed. The first subject Linda picked was reading the newspaper.

More precisely — how to read the subtle implications tucked into sentences that looked neutral.

Sometimes Linda cut an article out. When she said flatly it wasn't a suitable subject yet, it was probably a gruesome crime piece or something lurid. Adelheid grumbled about it, but Edgar and Edwin took Linda's explanations without a fuss.

This morning's paper had had no missing sections. But all five of the papers delivered to the Reichnek estate had run the same subject as their front-page story.

"Founding Day?"

"Right. What do you think we should be paying attention to?"

"……"

Edwin's eyes were bright as he asked. There was a strange expectancy to him. Edgar blinked slowly.

……Is this a lesson? Is Edwin trying to teach me?

Edgar answered haltingly:

"……The fact that the Second Prince is going to preside over the ceremony?"

"Correct!"

"……Wasn't it always the First Prince? At least up until I graduated and went to the domain, it was always the First Prince."

"Yes."

Edwin's smile disappeared completely, and he nodded, his face gone dark.

"As far as I remember too, the Second Prince never once did it. I have no idea what happened."

"If Uncle went because of this……"

"Adelheid said Uncle Grisha's too tied up with Founding Day to come down, remember. He's definitely up to something with Uncle."

Edwin tapped his knee with a finger, restless.

"The papers make it sound like it was decided just recently, but it must've been in the works a lot longer than that."

"Founding Day?"

"I can't put what I know together with what's actually going on, since I don't know how things are actually moving. It's frustrating for you, but it's frustrating for me too."

Edwin was now openly letting Edgar see how anxious he was. Which was heartening in a way, but thinking about the cause of the anxiety made it hard to just be glad.

Every time, he told himself there was nothing for it now — but if feelings could be settled that easily, no one in the world would have anything to worry about.

"But there's nothing to be done about it."

The roles had reversed from before.

Well, back then Edwin hadn't known he'd come back to the past either — but it had been Edwin who used to half-tease Edgar when he got frustrated, telling him it was just how things went. Now, belatedly, Edgar clicked his tongue — Edwin had come out with lines like that so calmly, from the same position himself.

"And even if we did know, there's only so much we can do. You're the one who said that."

"That doesn't mean we can just sit still, though."

"I'm not saying sit still — I'm saying that's the reality."

"Ugh."

Edwin's face twisted in distaste. But no rebuttal came out.

"Still……"

Edwin fidgeted with his hands as he spoke.

"I don't like just sitting here."

"……You're not about to do something dangerous, are you? You're the one who told me to stay put, Edwin."

"No. Nothing like that."

Lost in thought, Edwin was chewing on his lip without realizing it.

However much longer he'd lived, it seemed his habits hadn't drifted far from what Edgar remembered. Edgar didn't interrupt him.

It wasn't an unfamiliar expression to Edgar. Every so often, when Edwin had pulled some prank and finally had to come clean, he'd make a face like that. The stakes were different this time, but he was hiding something all the same. Edgar started to press him, then let it go.

"Hey, Edgar."

Sure enough, Edwin's face turned serious as he began to speak.

If he'd decided not to say it, he wouldn't have been agonizing like this. That he was agonizing meant, in the end, that he was going to tell.

"We really do need it, though."

"……Information?"

"Better to be prepared, isn't it. And I'd honestly feel better too, if something did blow up. You remember what happened right before we came down here?"

Edgar looked at his twin skeptically but nodded. This wasn't what Edgar had thought he was going to say.

"That… and the man who tried to open the safe."

"……Yeah."

"That definitely didn't happen before. Maybe if we were older, but at this age we can't even run away properly."

"What are you up to?"

"When we went to the estate last time I tried to find it, but it was already gone. Uncle probably took it."

Edwin's eyes lost focus. Even when Edgar poked him in the side, demanding to know what on earth he was talking about and to explain properly, Edwin — caught up in his own thoughts — just kept muttering things only he understood.

"It wasn't made to be read……. He said the only one at the capital estate was that single copy, but there has to be another somewhere. There's no way Dad would have put it somewhere out of my reach. Even less chance he'd have destroyed it."

"……"

"He prepared it for a situation like this one……. Edgar, if you were Dad, where do you think you'd have put it?"

"……I can tell you if you tell me what you're looking for."

Edwin's eyes widened, then he grinned.

"Uncle Grisha's probably holding it. Hope Founding Day ends soon."

"If you're going to tell me, tell me straight. Don't beat around the bush."

"Mm. Let's see."

Edwin tilted his head one way, then the other, as he said:

"Edgar. Do you believe in magic?"

Another suspicious choice of words.

Edgar sighed and glared at Edwin.

"You said you came back to the past by magic, didn't you?"

"Ah. Right. Edgar back when he didn't believe in magic was cute too."

"I never didn't believe. What good would not believing do?"

"Fair enough."

Edwin burst out laughing.

Unable to keep up with his twin at all, Edgar just waited. Snapping at him halfway would only entertain Edwin further.

"Then let me tell you another secret."

Peeved that Edgar wasn't reacting, Edwin pursed his lips a moment, then shrugged.

"You remember Dad?"

"It'd be a problem if I didn't remember……"

"Yeah? Then do you remember Dad being a mage?"

"……What?"