Chapter 21

"Günter?"

His mind went white.

"Why would Günter be murdered?"

Words came rushing up, thoughts too. But nothing he could shape into anything.

This shouldn't have happened.

Günter, having found little of use in the papers he'd brought from the estate, had gone back at Harold's request to look into the shepherd.

Adrien Renard had worked as butler for years, so there was every chance the others would turn up close to home too. Just as Edwin had mentioned a shepherd named Nicola.

And one of the reports his brother had hidden was a list of private pastures leasing land from the Bertholdt domain. Nicola Rowell was one of the shepherds who'd signed a contract.

So taking the risk of asking Günter to look into it had been worth it. Or so he'd thought.

He hadn't imagined the risk would become real. If he'd thought Günter would die, he'd never have asked.

"S — someone came up from the estate to bring word."

A man who'd been working with them just a week ago. Mattheus was trembling as he spoke.

The sunlight might have grown gentler, but it was still winter. Despite the chill, Mattheus was drenched in sweat.

Harold clenched his teeth.

One person was already dead. Without the carriage accident, there would have been more.

He couldn't let the number grow.

"Tell me what happened."

Harold's eyes burned pale blue with fury.

---

"...The grown-ups are acting weird."

Edgar mumbled it, wringing the stuffed bear.

Where Edgar looked restless, Edwin lay sprawled easily across the children's sofa where he always sat.

"What are you talking about? Edgar, grown-ups are always weird."

Flip.

A page turned in a book he wasn't even looking at. The smugness of it narrowed Edgar's eyes.

"You know that's not what I mean!"

"Mm-hmm."

Edwin yawned, unimpressed.

"If anything's weird, you'd know. What was it like last time?"

"That..."

Edgar pouted and mumbled.

"...That was so long ago I don't really remember."

"Oh?"

"For me it's been over ten years, you know. And originally..."

Edgar trailed off.

He'd talked a big game to Edwin, but the truth was he didn't remember this stretch of time well. Part of it was that he hadn't wanted to remember.

This had been the time when he'd been taken in by Adrien's sweet talk and couldn't bring himself to trust his uncle or any of the other grown-ups.

"Originally?"

Edwin looked up from the book at Edgar. Edgar noticed his own face going red and snapped his head to the side.

Embarrassing, and something he'd rather not think about. He'd been all prickles back then, unable to trust his uncle.

There was nothing for it. He really had been eight years old!

"...Around now, we weren't packing for the move — we were busy getting ready to go down to the country estate."

He couldn't tell the truth to a twin who was really eight. And it wasn't just about being embarrassed.

Their father's funeral was coming up soon.

Edgar hadn't gone to the funeral. He'd only found out afterward that it had even happened. He'd resented his uncle for that, and...

"..."

No. All of that could be fixed.

This time he'd go to the funeral. It was his last chance to say goodbye to his father.

He hadn't come back early enough to save his father, but he'd save his uncle, and...

"Edgar. You think way too much."

When Edgar just stood there hugging the bear, Edwin, who'd been waiting for him, let out a small laugh.

Edgar shot him a sulky glare, but Edwin apparently saw no problem with any of it and turned his attention back from his twin to his book.

Which was, of course, deeply annoying for Edgar.

He knew he couldn't ask too much of his brother. But now, up against the limits of a child's body that wouldn't do what he wanted, Edwin was the only one he could vent to.

"It's not thinking too much — it's obvious!"

"But I keep telling you. Grown-ups are always weird."

Edwin turned a page. Flip. Flip. He'd never found the sound of paper turning this infuriating.

"Uncle's busy with the move, and there's Dad's funeral, so of course he's got a lot on his mind."

"..."

Edgar hadn't expected Edwin to bring up the funeral, and his eyes went wide.

"Don't tell me, Edgar. You're not thinking about sneaking out again, are you? Uncle's busy. You can't."

"...I'm not!"

The thought had crossed his mind, so his answer came a beat late.

Luckily Edwin let it slide without poking at him.

"But the kind of weird I'm talking about isn't that kind."

"Why do you think it's weird?"

Edwin turned a page.

He was definitely doing it on purpose.

"Something serious has happened."

"Something serious?"

"You saw Mattheus running around looking for Uncle yesterday, didn't you?"

He'd never seen Mattheus so shaken. Not even when his uncle died, and never once during his time as Count Bertholdt.

As he'd said, Edgar didn't know everything that had happened the first time — back when he'd really been eight.

But he'd known Mattheus long enough that if he'd seen him like that, he'd never have forgotten it.

Then again, maybe he simply hadn't seen it.

"Maybe... something's wrong with the new house?"

"..."

"Edgar, you think too much. Or one of the family's investments fell through, something like that."

"That'd still be a problem..."

Maybe, as Edwin said, he was thinking — worrying — too much. Edgar let out a heavy sigh that didn't suit his young face at all.

Edwin reached out and pulled Edgar close as he came over. When Edgar let himself be tugged down onto the sofa, Edwin naturally propped his legs up on Edgar's lap.

"We stopped him from going down to the country estate, right? So we're done, aren't we?"

"We don't know. It's not like they've caught the culprit."

"But that's years off, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"So it's a long way away. And since Uncle isn't going down to the country estate, maybe it just won't happen at all."

"...Huh?"

Edwin looked at Edgar over the top of his book.

"You've already changed a lot about the future, Edgar. You told Uncle Adrien was a bad guy. You kept Uncle from going down to the estate."

Edgar's mouth fell open.

"Didn't you say we weren't even living in this house before?"

"...Right?"

"What. Why do you sound so unsure?"

Edwin pulled his knees up and gave Edgar a teasing little kick. Any other time Edgar would have snapped at him, but he just stared at Edwin blankly.

This time Edwin sighed. That was rare.

"Look, Edgar... don't overthink it. You might have already saved Uncle."

"..."

He'd never... thought of it that way.

But he quickly realized Edwin was right. This wasn't the past he knew anymore. Before, they'd never lolled around the Archibald house like this.

Their uncle had never taken them to some abandoned villa of the Duke of Lambert as their new home, and Günter had never come up from the estate.

Everything had changed.

Which meant things Edgar didn't know about could still happen.

Their uncle could die from something Edgar didn't know about!!

"Ah, Edgar. You're thinking something weird again, aren't you."

"No I'm not!"

"Don't lie to me. I know."

"You don't know anything!"

"Hah. I know when you're thinking something weird, that's all."

"You just tease me! I said I wanted to see what the books Dad wrote down were, and you keep picking weird ones!"

"Weird!"

Edwin closed the book he'd been reading and held it up so Edgar could see the cover. He'd been living with picture books until recently, but this wasn't a picture book.

The cover had a very lifelike drawing of a dog.

"We're getting Nabi now! I've never raised a dog before!! Dad said if you can learn something from a book, learn it! It's easier that way!!"

"That's more important than the books Dad left behind?!"

"They're in a foreign language anyway, we can't even read them!"

Edwin fired back, refusing to give ground.

"And if Uncle asks why we need books that hard, what are you going to say?"

"...Ugh!"

"Nothing to say, huh? We'll just sneak into the library or Dad's study later and grab them."

Edwin clutched tight to the book on dog training that he'd wheedled out of Harold.

He'd asked Anne too, so he'd extracted every dog-related book in the Archibald estate on top of that. Apparently he was more serious about this Nabi dog than Edgar had realized.

Edgar didn't really even remember anything like that.

There was nothing for it. For Edgar it was nearly twenty years ago, but for Edwin it was only a few years back.

"Sheepdogs need a lot of exercise, so Nabi does too. The new house's garden... the garden was small. The woods are big though, so we could let him loose out there, right?"

Once Edgar fell silent, Edwin forgot about shouting and started flipping through the book.

"...Don't they hold hunts in that forest sometimes? Are there dangerous animals?"

Edgar surrendered. Edwin had a point, and there didn't seem to be any harm in raising one dog.

If his twin, who went along quietly with all his own stubborn plans, wanted this, that was enough.

"I already asked Uncle. He said it's the capital, so they don't keep predators there."

"Really?"

"But if we go wandering around we could get lost, so we have to go with Uncle."

"...You mean to go into the woods with the dog?"

"You want to send him in alone?"

"..."

Their faces were identical, but the passion for dogs hadn't carried over.

Edgar hesitated, then let his shoulders drop and leaned back into the sofa.

"Uncle's right. The woods are big. We should be careful."

Edwin's face pinched with dissatisfaction for a moment, then smoothed out. He said startlingly grown-up things sometimes, and then something like this reminded you he was still little.

Maybe Edwin was right. Maybe he was overthinking it.

Their uncle could die from something Edgar didn't know about — but the opposite was also possible. Because Edgar had stopped things he did know about, their uncle might not die at all.

Of course, if it had been that easy, he wouldn't have gone through what he did last time.

"It'd be nice if I could think as simply as you do, Edwin."

"...Huh?"

"No, just — I'm jealous of you."

"..."

Edwin narrowed his eyes. Edgar caught his suspicious expression and burst out laughing.

Edgar wrestled the book out of Edwin's hands and pressed the stuffed bear he'd been holding into them instead. Edwin snorted and hugged the bear.

"Anyway! I still think the grown-ups are being weird."

"I thought we were done with that."

"Nope."

"Fine. Okay, okay."

Edwin made a show of being put out, but his eyes, meeting Edgar's, were full of mischief.

They'd been together since before they were born. Age didn't matter — to Edgar, Edwin had always been the brother and friend at his side.

The same went for Edwin.

"So what do you want to do?"

"Do you think if I pretend to cry and ask Uncle what's going on, he'd tell me?"

"You said you didn't want to do that."

"Because Edwin can do it instead of me."

"No way. That only really works when you do it."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's your special move. You try first, and if it doesn't work, I'll think about doing it."

Knock, knock, knock.

The twins, in the middle of scuffling on the sofa, looked at the door at the same time.

Before Edgar could answer, the door opened.

"Hello, young masters."

An easy-smiling young man was standing in the doorway.

"Your uncle needs you urgently. I'll take you to him. Come with me."

"...Who are you?"

"A servant working at the Archibald estate, young master."

An unfamiliar face. Something felt off.

Had Uncle left the Archibald estate today? Whenever he stepped out, their uncle always came to say goodbye first. Today, their uncle...

"..."

"Your uncle's asking for you, I said."

Click.

The man shut the door. Edwin pulled Edgar back behind him.

"You wouldn't want to keep your uncle waiting, would you?"

Only then did Edgar see the dagger in the man's hand.