CHAPTER 4     Duel of the Siblings

Nearly one week after returning from their outdoor education course…

“Hey, Gil.”

“Yes?”

“C’mon, don’t be like that…”

“I’m the same as ever,” Gilbert sniffed.

His mood was at an all-time low. Cecilia frowned, inspecting him as they strolled together from the dorms to the academy.

He’d been in a real funk lately. Though he would answer if she spoke to him and eat lunch with her if she asked, his responses were even more clipped than usual.

They hadn’t had a fight. Something else must have been bothering him.

I bet that’s it…

Cecilia eyed some female students squealing together on a bench. They were holding a book.

“Here it is, the famous Madame Neal’s novel! My friend finally lent it to me!”

“This is the one with the guys who really sound like Prince Cecil and Prince Oscar, right? Ooh, I’ve wanted to read it for so long!”

“Carol said she cried reading it. Her eyes were all red this morning!”

“I really can’t wait!”

As they glowed with happiness, the two girls’ eyes fluttered shut, and they fell into a reverie. Cecilia felt her cheeks growing gaunt with exhaustion just watching them.

Recently, Lean’s…story had somehow gotten popular among the students. Apparently, she’d printed several copies of it herself and left them lying around the school library. Her coconspirator in printing the books was Jade, of course, who’d gotten involved with the printing business of late.

Merely three days later, all the female students had fallen in love with their creation.

Incidentally, the author’s pen name, Neal, was an anagram of Lean.

When the book first started to spread, Cecilia asked to meet with Lean to understand why she was doing this. According to her, it was because she wanted to make more friends who shared her…interests.

Even though she’d successfully lured Jade into her web, evidently, he alone was not enough. Dragging people down into hell with her, Lean explained proudly, meant exposing them to stories that would resonate with them.

“My greatest concern at the moment is that I am the only creator of this content. Therefore, I’m going to train up other authors from scratch!”

Lean’s spirited tone reverberated again in her ear. This was one aggressive girl.

The reason behind Gilbert’s foul mood had to be the story Lean had written.

“I’m surprised by how tolerant you are of all this, Cecil,” Gilbert barked caustically, his mouth turned down in a sour moue. He’d called her Cecil because they were in public. “Getting used for her filth and with His Highness to boot.”

“It’s not like it’s anything explicit, and while the characters may be based on Oscar and me, the names are different. It isn’t worth making a stink about…” Cecilia sighed.

Lean had indeed modeled her characters on Oscar and Cecil, but since she’d altered their names for publication, Cecilia had lost the right to complain. Lean could shut down any of her objections simply by insisting that they were original characters. Nevertheless, everyone could vaguely intuit who they were from their mannerisms and styles of talking.

“I disagree. Original novel or not, I don’t like it one bit,” Gilbert stated flatly. In other words, he didn’t like seeing Oscar and Cecil flirting and kissing in the story. He glared at the text like it was dirt. “And what’s worse is that you’ve actually gotten closer to His Highness…”

His voice dropped even lower. He seemed quite perturbed that Oscar and Cecil had developed an oddly friendly relationship ever since coming back from the school camping trip.

Cecilia scratched at her cheek, grinning sheepishly. “A lot happened on the trip. I learned that Oscar’s not such a bad guy after all. Although I’ll admit I was pretty worried when I found out we’d be sharing a room.”

“Excuse me? Sharing a room?”

“Oops.”

Gilbert eyes widened as he stared at her in complete and utter disbelief.

She broke out in a cold sweat. Since she’d known him for so long, she was well aware that she’d just hit a sore spot.

He stopped dead in his tracks before stomping right up to her. Trying to edge away from him, Cecilia ended up with her back pressed against the building.

“What does that mean, you shared a room? At the school camp? You didn’t have single rooms?”

“Ah, um, well… We had to draw lots and then by coincidence…”

“Draw lots…?” Gilbert repeated, his face darkening by the second. He glowered at her with eyes as black as obsidian. And the scariest part was how his face was half covered by shadow.

She wrung her hands nervously. “Ah! But I didn’t get caught! We did sleep in the same bed, but nothing happened!”

“The same…bed…?”

His expression went blank in an instant. At that moment, Cecilia learned firsthand how truly terrifying an expressionless face could be.

“Why? Did he pull you in against your will?” Gilbert demanded.

“Umm, well… A lot happened, and I got scared…”

“You got in his bed voluntarily?”

“It kinda ended up that way?” she squeaked before hearing Gilbert audibly grind his teeth in frustration. She braced herself for a scolding.

But it never came; he didn’t yell or even raise his voice. Far from it—he turned aside and marched away. His strides were huge, like he wasn’t waiting for Cecilia to catch up.

“Hey! Gil, wait up!”

“Sorry. I don’t think I can look at you right now.”

“Wh-why are you so mad?! This is different from your earlier funk, isn’t it? Did I do something?” she called after him. He was so incensed that it made her panic.

He kept walking farther and farther away. She caught up and grabbed his arm to stop him, but he shook her off.

“Gil, please!”

“Leave me alone for a while. I’ll cool off by the time I see you again,” he barked, leaving her with that as he strode briskly into the school.

She watched him go with a tight expression on her face. “Yikes. I really pissed him off…”

Duke Coulson, a distant relative of the house of Duke Sylvie, had three sons.

The first two were terribly brilliant, so talented that either could inherit the title. Their parents doted on them, showering them with as much love as was humanly possible.

However, their youngest—Gilbert—had a rough upbringing and was often referred to as his brothers’ watered-down knockoff.

He lived in a separate house from the rest of his family, and his parents only came to see him once a month. He yearned for his mother’s affection and appealed to her for it countless times, but she never once indulged him. It was always up to the servants to care for and play with him.

They were his family, but they didn’t act like it.

Such was Gilbert’s place in House Coulson. Talk of him getting adopted into House Sylvie started right around when he began to completely despair about his life there.

At the time, Duke Sylvie was anxious because he had a five-year-old daughter but no male heir. Ancient tradition dictated that only men could inherit hereditary peerages. Exceptions were allowed for very unusual cases, but they were practically unheard of.

Nobles were duty bound to leave behind heirs and inheritors. Accordingly, Duke Sylvie selected the Coulsons to adopt from, as they had three sons.

At first, Gilbert’s second eldest brother was going to leave. If things went well, he would inherit the Sylvie dukedom. However, the possibility remained that if the Sylvies had a son, the second eldest brother could get the cold shoulder. The duchess was still young and could very well get pregnant again.

Owing to that concern, House Coulson selected Gilbert, since it wouldn’t matter if he was neglected.

The day he left for the Sylvie manor, not a single member of his family saw him off.

“Did they just abandon me?” Gilbert asked a servant.

The servant bowed deeply and told him, “Please have a safe journey.”

 

The Sylvies had given Gilbert a warm welcome. In fact, they were overjoyed to have him.

His new adopted sister Cecilia was especially thrilled, crying out, “I finally have a little brother!” and hugging him.

Despite how she received him, Gilbert didn’t like her at first.

That was an understatement: He loathed her. Despised her. As someone who couldn’t inherit the family title, she was in the same position as him, yet her parents had adored and spoiled her. So strong was their love that she was almost drowning in it.

“Why are things so different even though our circumstances are the same?”

That thought plagued him after coming to live at Sylvie manor.

 

One day, after he’d been there about half a year, Gilbert fell ill. In addition to having a high fever, he was so fatigued that he couldn’t get out of bed on his own for a while.

Gilbert’s constitution was delicate by nature. That had been true at Coulson manor as well, and he was always getting sick. His parents didn’t like that about him, so every time he came down with something, they’d let slip to the servants remarks like “What a bother” and “Quite pathetic.” He couldn’t remember them ever showing concern for him.

“Gil, are you okay?”

Cecilia had come to check on him many times since he’d fallen ill. Sometimes it was to change the cool cloth on his forehead, while other times, it was to play nurse. Gilbert found it all so irritating he could hardly stand it. With how clumsy she was, she didn’t make much of a nurse, so it seemed very much like simply an extension of playing house. She treated him like a doll.

When he thought about it in that way, it infuriated him.

But if he drove her out of his room then, he could lose his place in House Sylvie as well. So he resigned himself to swallowing his complaints and playing the role of her doll.

She never tired of it and came to visit every single day. She would sing lullabies and read books to him to her heart’s content.

At the end, she always asked him if there was anything he wanted. He always shook his head no.

 

That day had been much the same.

After wiping his sweat away and reading books to him until her throat had gone dry, she croaked, “Do you want anything?”

Normally that was when he’d shake his head, but Gilbert was feeling a little different that day. He wanted to be a little mean to his hypocrite of a foster sister.

He pointed to an illustrated page in the book Cecilia had read to him. It was a picture of a blue rose said to be capable of granting any wish. “I want that,” he answered.

Blue roses didn’t exist. Gilbert had known that when he made his request. He wanted to see the distressed look on her face.

But after humming thoughtfully to herself as she looked at the picture, Cecilia cried, “I’ve got it! I’ll find one by tomorrow!”

Though he was surprised, he let it go, reasoning that she was just unaware that blue roses didn’t exist.

Sure enough, she didn’t show up the next day around the time she always came. She must have been in a serious fix. Thinking about that improved his mood a lot. But he simultaneously felt lonely in his room, which was so much quieter than usual.

That night, Gilbert awoke to a tapping sound. When he sat up and looked around, he saw Cecilia at the window. Her cheeks were smeared with mud, and she was clutching something in one hand. He rushed to open the window, whereupon she presented him with a single flower.

“Sorry. This was the only blue flower I could find!” she told him, holding out a blue gentian. “Apparently, it can be made into medicine, too! It grows halfway up the cliff, so it was pretty hard to pick.”

“The cliff?!” he yelped. Yes, there was a cliff behind the main estate, but surely she hadn’t really climbed it all alone?

Upon closer inspection, her dress was dirty and its hem was torn, like it had gotten caught on something. Her face was lined with scratches, and a red lump sat on her forehead.

“I skipped out on my lessons today, so Mother will be ever so upset with me,” she announced, grinning all the while.

Gilbert accepted the gentian with shaky hands. “Why…?”

His voice quivered, too. Why would she have gone to so much trouble? He couldn’t understand.

“Because I love you, Gil! I’ve been so sad that you haven’t been feeling well!” she declared honestly, beaming an innocent smile at him. Then she patted his head with one muddy hand. “Right? I hope we can play together soon!”

“Mmm…”

His eyes welled up. The tears fell and rolled down his cheeks. No one had ever told him they loved him in his entire life. This was the first time he learned how heartwarming those words could be.

“What’s wrong, Gil? Does something hurt?” she fretted, peering closely at him from outside the window. Now he noticed that her honey-blond hair, usually beautifully combed, was all tangled. She must have tripped over and over.

Gilbert wiped his tears. “No, I’m just thinking that I love you, too, Sister.”

“Oh!” she gasped, giving him the widest smile he’d seen from her yet.

From then on, Gilbert adored his new big sister. It didn’t take him long to realize his feelings for her were romantic, and by the time he did, he was past the point of no return.

Cecilia still viewed him as her little brother. Since he understood that, he would never make any sort of move. And yet, neither could he give up on her, so he was steadily taking steps to remove obstacles from his way.

He’d already gotten permission from Cecilia’s parents to propose should her engagement with the crown prince ever get called off. They were brother and sister on the family records, but that didn’t mean it was impossible for them to marry.

“So then, why is some other random guy just strolling on in…?”

He didn’t hate Oscar. But it was a different story with Cecilia involved.

Awful feelings filled his heart.

As if a black mist had risen from his tightly clasped hands.

The same day she’d upset Gilbert, Cecilia lunched in the dining hall. “What do I do…?”

Leaving her fork stabbed into the quiche that came with her meal, she fell prostrate onto the table. Normally, she would have lunch with Gilbert, but considering what had just happened that morning, she obviously couldn’t invite him. And judging by how her brother hadn’t sent out an invitation of his own, he probably didn’t want to see her today.

Incidentally, the female students besotted with Prince Cecil no longer approached her indiscriminately, evidently due to some pact they had made among themselves. They still gazed at Cecil ardently, of course, but gone were the brazen girls begging to share a table with him. That was why she was able to lose herself in her reverie without interruptions.

“I’ve gotta do something about Lean, but I can’t ignore the situation with Gil, either…”

Ultimately, she didn’t know if Jade and Lean’s camping trip event had succeeded or not.

Jade hadn’t gotten injured protecting Lean, but they’d been tighter than ever since the trip. From an onlooker’s perspective, the way they shared secrets, and the fact they got on like a house on fire, may very well have suggested they were dating.

But to Cecilia, who knew the truth, it was clear their relationship was not romantic in the slightest.

“She’s not exactly avoiding events with other characters, but that doesn’t mean she’s trying to get close with them, either…”

While the same could be said for the other characters as well, protagonist Lean was the one who most refused to behave as expected. Since she was the main character in a dating sim, Cecilia had expected she’d act like one, but so far, it had been the opposite. She seemed to have little interest in her own love life. Instead, she was busy pairing other people off.

Cecilia ate a bite of quiche. “Anyway, I’ve gotta settle things with Gil first!”

He was a precious member of her family, the only person she wished to cherish more than herself. To her, Gilbert was a foster brother, a companion, and a best friend she couldn’t afford to lose.

“Why is he so mad in the first place?”

She did think it was wrong of her not to mention that she’d shared a room and even a bed with Oscar, but he hadn’t found out she was a girl, so what was the big deal?

That was Cecilia’s take on it, so even if she had gotten busted, she’d expected him to give her a disgruntled lecture; she hadn’t foreseen that he would be almost completely overcome with fury. She’d never seen him so angry before in her life.

“Oh, Cecil. Are you alone today?” came a voice from behind her. She turned back to find Oscar. The female students started to buzz excitedly at the sight of them together, probably partly due to the influence of Lean’s book. There were even a few squeals.

You guys all have such active imaginations…

An unintentional half smile came to her lips.

Oscar knew about the novel, of course, but didn’t seem bothered by it. Without asking permission, he sat down across from her at the table. Once he did, a server immediately brought a cup of coffee.

This was, after all, a dining hall for nobility. Service was much more attentive than at any café or restaurant, and the interior was impeccably decorated.

Oscar took a sip of his beverage. “You’re not usually by yourself. What happened to Gilbert?”

“Just some stuff… What about you?”

“I didn’t have time to eat lunch today. I’m here to distract myself,” he replied, lifting his coffee.

“Distract yourself? As in from your hunger? You should get the king to help you during lunch breaks. It’s not good for your health to skip so many meals,” she protested.

“Yeah, but I’ll have to do all this someday. Won’t it be better in the future if I get used to it now? Time is a finite resource.”

“I mean, I guess that’s true, but still…” Cecilia sighed. She’d found out after getting to know Oscar better that he also had royal duties to carry out in addition to his studies. Naturally, those involved documents he couldn’t take outside, so at lunchtime he’d return to his dorm. The king also summoned him often, so he was frequently absent for the afternoon or the whole day. Academy courses were fairly rigorous, too, so he must have been swamped.

“You must be starving, then! Eat some of this!” she implored, stuffing a piece of bread she happened to be holding into his mouth.

“Wha—? Mmf!”

“Be sure to chew properly, or it could upset your digestion!”

“…”

Despite initial objections, he eventually started to chew the bread, then finished it off. He must have been starving.

After making sure he’d swallowed it, Cecilia broke into a grin. “Can’t fight on an empty stomach, you know!”

“You just try doing that at the palace. You won’t get off with just a lecture…”

“Huh? Why?”

“My food all has to be tasted.”

“Ohhhh…,” she realized; it was clear she’d forgotten all about that.

Every dish served at the school underwent strict inspections. Food tasters checked for poison every day, and the tableware and cutlery were managed meticulously. Considering how many children of noble families attended, it was all in the interest of preventing a worst-case scenario.

As the crown prince, Oscar even had his own personal taster. This extra precaution was taken because nothing could happen to the royal heir. The coffee he held now must have already been tested for poison before being served to him. Because no one else but him had their own taster, Cecilia had completely forgotten about it.

“Can’t believe you really did the exact same thing Cecilia did…”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Just be careful in the future,” he said, the tips of his ears tinged a little red. “Anyway, why isn’t Gilbert around? I thought he would’ve shown up by now to interrupt us.”

“Interrupt…?”

“He would, wouldn’t he? Normally,” Oscar asserted, as if it weren’t up for debate. True, whenever Cecilia spoke to Oscar, Gilbert would pop by and intrude with uncanny timing.

Cecilia just thought it all a coincidence, but Oscar seemed to believe Gilbert purposely swung by to interrupt them.

“Did you two have a fight or something?” Oscar asked, hitting the nail on the head. Cecilia gave a visible start, which he didn’t fail to miss. The crown prince narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing her.

“What happened?” he asked in a gentler tone than usual, and Cecilia resigned herself to admitting the truth.

 

“So he’s jealous.”

“Jealous…?” she repeated doubtfully, stroking her chin. The thought had definitely crossed her mind—that maybe Gilbert felt like his sister was stolen from him when he read Lean’s novel. But…

“But would it upset him that much?” she wondered. Maybe over someone he was deeply in love with, sure, but she was his sister. They were very close, but they were still siblings.

“Well, that could be just how important you are to him. I mean, wouldn’t you be out of sorts if a close friend suddenly bonded with someone you hated?”

“I guess…”

She could maybe understand that. While Cecilia didn’t have very many friends due to always staying home from parties to maintain her male persona, she’d had a large social circle in her previous life.

“But you two get along pretty well, right?” she asked.

“A little, I guess, although we’re not best friends by any stretch. He really wants to draw a line between us,” he answered. Gilbert unfailingly called Oscar “Your Highness” and used formal speech with him. Although Oscar had told him to stop, he’d refused to change his behavior.

You could see a bit of a stubborn streak there.

I didn’t take him for the possessive type, though…

Gilbert acted aloof about everything as a rule. He didn’t form many attachments, nor did he care much about his belongings, either. The idea of him displaying such strong devotion to her felt strange, wrong even.

But since she couldn’t come up with any other explanation, she had to accept Oscar’s theory.

Possessiveness, huh? I could understand if it was Gilbert from the game. There’s even an event like that…

The Gilbert of the game is much gloomier in nature, doesn’t open up to anyone, and refuses to go to school. Cecilia considers him the shame of the family and refuses to associate with him.

Everyone around him writes him off as a worthless shut-in, so when he is chosen as knight, they whisper behind his back that there must have been some mistake. Only Lean, the protagonist, sees something in him.

She speaks with him from the other side of the closed door to his room in the dorms, encouraging him. Occasionally, she brings him snacks and whiles away the hours with him. As she does this, he opens up to her, and she becomes the only person he lets into his heart.

But as he grows dependent on Lean, so too does his heart grow ever frailer. An Obstruction takes control of him, and his possessiveness leads him to attack the boys who are close with her.

Ultimately, Lean is also the one to stop Gilbert. Despite her injuries, she touches the mark on his skin and pleads, “I want you to go back to the sweet Gilbert I know.” Released from the Obstruction, he bitterly regrets his actions and vows never to hurt her again.

Ah, that’s such a moving event… Hmm? Hold on.

She realized something. “Does that mean an Obstruction will attack Gilbert if he’s left alone?!”

“What are you talking about?” asked Oscar, losing the thread and staring up at Cecilia as she leaped to her feet. But she didn’t have time to pay attention to him right now.

No! If I don’t do something…

Panicking over her adorable little brother’s predicament, she broke out into a sweat. She hoped someone would stop Obstruction-possessed Gilbert immediately, like in the game, but there was no way reality would unfold that smoothly. This past month had drilled that painful lesson into her over and over again.

Her brother had a sharp tongue, but he was a good person. If he hurt someone under the Obstruction’s influence, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for as long as he lived. What was the best course of action here?

“Lean?” she said to herself, as a face flashed in her mind like a divine revelation.

It was always Lean who rescued him. In the game, Gilbert says that he fell in love with her at first sight. Thus, his present counterpart must also have feelings for her deep down.

Cecilia hurriedly tidied up her dishes. Across from her, Oscar cocked his head. “Where are you going?”

“To Lean!” she answered, just as the heartless bell signaling the end of lunch rang throughout the academy.

After school, Cecilia found herself in the fine arts classroom.

Before her stood Lean, with Oscar next to her for some reason.

“So…what do you think?” asked Cecilia, with the desperate energy of someone about to fall to their knees at any moment.

“I’m not quite sure what to say…” Lean frowned, uncomfortable. “To sum everything up, your friend Lord Gilbert has been having some troubles lately, and you want me to go talk to him about that?”

“Y-yes, pretty much…”

“Why me?” Lean inquired, which was a perfectly natural thing to ask.

If he’s your friend, you should be the one to counsel him.

If it were Cecilia in Lean’s position, she would have thought the same.

“I mean, you just seem…like the type of person he’d open up to about anything!” Cecilia answered, clearly stringing words together as she went. It was a last-ditch excuse.

But Lean opted not to pry, merely saying, “I’m grateful if that’s how you think of me… Lord Gilbert, hmm? I would very much like to help him, too, but…”

“But?”

“But actually, I’m swamped with work on my next novel,” she admitted, lifting up a pile of hundreds of pages to show them. Of course, this one also featured characters based on Oscar and Cecil.

Dispirited, Cecilia could practically feel herself deflate.

“Jade says he’s acquired a big print shop, and we’re discussing printing books on a very large scale. So I’d like to put out something even better…”

This conversation was going off the rails fast.

Obviously, there isn’t an equivalent event to this that occurs in the game. If there were, people would have complained to the game developers. What kind of dating sim has the main character printing fan-made romantic novels pairing off her own love interests with each other?

At the same time, she was the only one who could save Gilbert’s soul.

“Okay, then! I’ll help you!”

“What?”

“I’ll help you write your story! I bet I can do stuff like collecting reference materials and proofreading! So whenever you’re free, could you just talk to Gil—?”

“Oh! Oh my! My, oh my! Really?!” Lean cried, eyes sparkling as she grabbed Cecilia’s hand.

“Uh, yeah…”

“In that case, as a little advance on your work, could you help me out with something now? If you agree, I’ll do as you ask!”

“O-okay…,” Cecilia agreed vaguely, overpowered by Lean’s intensity.

Next to her, Oscar sighed. “You idiot.”

 

“All right, you two. Bring your faces a little closer. Yes! That’s it! Now place your hands on each other’s shoulders! Lord Cecil, please try to give off more of a sensual feel!”

“Ah, I’m not sure I’m capable of sensual…”

“And Prince Oscar, look more like you’re getting overwhelmed by him!”

“…”

Cecil and Oscar—and Lean—were behind the school. Oscar had his back to the wall, while Cecilia was posed before him to look as if she wanted to trap him.

It was like their pinned-up-against-the-wall moment from a while back, only with the roles reversed.

At Lean’s direction, Cecilia had placed her leg between Oscar’s knees.

“I wanted to add illustrations to the book, but without models, I simply couldn’t get anything looking right! Thank you so much, Lord Cecil and Prince Oscar!”

“Mmm…,” Cecilia replied dispiritedly. When she’d offered to help, she hadn’t meant doing this. To the other victim, who was following Lean’s commands obediently, she said, “Oscar, I’m sorry I dragged you into something weird.”

“I’m fine. Unlike you, I’m just standing here.” Oscar shrugged.

While they spoke, Lean held out her sketchbook, pencil frantically scratching away. She was the picture of concentration. Since they had nothing to do besides stand there, Cecilia decided to ask Oscar something she was curious about. “By the way, what did you think of that novel?”

“What novel?”

“You know, the one based on us…”

On top of it being about two boys, Cecil was a baron’s son. While it would have been acceptable if the crown prince was paired with the duke’s daughter, Cecilia, normally someone of that rank would’ve had nothing to do with a baron’s son. Her guilt over whether that element offended Oscar drove her to ask him directly.

“I don’t have much of an opinion on it. First of all, it’s unrealistic for you to be doing this and that to me anyway. A person with noodle arms like yours couldn’t force someone back using just one arm,” Oscar said indifferently. It sounded like he really wasn’t bothered by it at all, which relieved her.

“Right, there’s no way I could push you down onto your back. Although the other way around could work.”

“Yeah, the other way around would at least feel more realistic… Wait, the other way?” Oscar stuttered, momentarily freezing.

He flushed instantly. Who knew what he’d just imagined? Since her face was so close to his, Cecilia noticed it right away.

“Oscar, are you all—right?!”

The moment she tried to get a better look at his expression, he pushed her away. “Don’t get so close to my face right now! You startled me! You really startled me!”

“I was just worried about you.”

“I have Cecilia!”

“Not right now, though?”

“That’s not what I mean!”

“I wasn’t trying to say that, either,” Cecilia protested.

Oscar had been acting a little strange lately. Most of the time he was his usual self, but whenever she got close to his countenance or touched him somewhere, he overreacted just like that.

It hurt a little for him to keep that distance between them even though they’d become friends and everything.

After Lean finished her sketch, she turned the page. “Next, Prince Oscar, could you undo two or three buttons? Please!”

“What? You’re going to draw more?”

“Of course! I can’t waste this opportunity! And Lord Cecil, insert your hand in there!”

“What?!”

“Like you’re just slipping your fingertips inside his shirt! There, freeze! That’s perfect. Stay just like that,” she drooled, dropping her gaze back down to her sketchbook. What a shameless girl.

Frankly, posing like this with Oscar was embarrassing enough to send her to an early grave, but she thought of Gilbert and persevered.

“Okay, now I want—”

“Um, Lean?”

Cecilia turned around. On the tip of her tongue was This is really getting too embarrassing—could we stop?

Then she noticed who was standing beyond Lean and staring at them.

“Oh, Gil…”

It was Gilbert. Without a word, he marched right up to the three of them. Then he grabbed Cecilia’s wrist.

“Hey!”

He seemed intent on silently dragging her off right there.

Oscar piped up, too. “Hey, Gilbert!”

“Your Highness, please be quiet right now. I’m in a very bad mood,” Gilbert demanded, not even turning around to face him. Then he yanked Cecilia out of there.

 

He brought her to their usual greenhouse. Sure enough, they were the only two people there. Gilbert hadn’t spoken the entire time, so Cecilia ventured meekly, “Umm…Gil?”

“What was that back there?”

“Back there, um…”

He must have meant how she and Oscar had been pressed up against each other. She flinched at his scathing tone.

“Umm, that was us helping Lean out with an illustration for her book, since she asked…”

At that, Gilbert faced his sister for the first time. His expression was even more blank and impenetrable than she’d imagined.

“Helping? She asks you to help, and you’re totally fine doing that?”

“Well, not really…”

Of course, she wouldn’t have done it if Lean had asked for it as a favor. But since Gilbert was on the line, she’d agreed. And now he was criticizing her for it.

“I’m amazed you could put yourself on display like that. Do you have no shame? Do you know what would happen if people found out that a duke’s daughter was doing that without batting an eyelid?”

“Um… But I’m Cecil right now!”

“Are you sure you’re not conflating ‘dressed as Cecil’ for ‘I can do whatever I want’?” he pointed out acidly, making her cringe. That wasn’t…entirely untrue.

“Even if you’re dressed as Cecil, you are still a woman, and the prince is a man. Aren’t you aware of a little thing called restraint?”

“But…”

“So I guess that means…,” Gilbert threatened, suddenly stepping right up to her. Dropping her wrist, he wrapped a hand around her waist. This left her immobilized, unable to escape. “…I can do to you what you were doing back there?”

He brushed the thumb from his other hand over her lips.

“Wait, wha…?”

Reflexively, she tried to push against Gilbert’s chest, but he wouldn’t budge. As he came closer and closer, she was at a complete loss. All she could see was his face.

Hey, this is kinda… Huh? It’s like he’s going to kiss me… What?!

“Ngh…”

She squeezed her eyes shut, and her whole body seized up.

Then, instead of a kiss, a sigh fell on her lips.

“You get it now, right? Be more careful in the future,” Gilbert chided, releasing her. Then he turned to leave.

“Gil!” she desperately called out to stop him.

“Bye,” he said, leaving the greenhouse without so much as turning back.

 

Now I’ve gone and done it…

Back in his room, Gilbert was mortified and dejected. As he recalled the sensation of her lips against his thumb, his face heated up.

That was going too far for just losing my temper…

He’d decided not to do anything to make Cecilia more aware of him, and yet when he’d witnessed the two of them crossing that boundary so quickly, he’d relinquished all his self-restraint.

If Cecilia’s body language hadn’t made her resistance clear, he absolutely would have kissed her right then and there.

“I bet she hates me now…”

The truth of it cut deep. She had probably just closed her eyes without thinking too hard about it, but to Gilbert, her rejection was obvious.

Pressing the backs of his hands to his eyes, he let out a pathetic groan. “Aaahhhh…”

The next day, Cecilia had turned to moss.

She sat on a bench along the route from the dorms to the academy, dazed and staring at the ground.

All the students passing by noticed her abnormal state, but she appeared so unapproachable that everyone just pretended not to see.

The cause of her transformation was Gilbert, of course.

That morning, she’d gotten ready to go to school earlier than usual so she could make a proper apology to him when he came to get her as he did every morning.

He always swung by early, and since she was never ready on time, she would always end up making him wait. But today she was eager to use that time to apologize to him.

Yet today, he didn’t show up—neither at his usual time nor many minutes later. Fed up, Cecilia headed for his room, but he’d already left for class.

In other words, he’d left her behind.

But this has never happened before…

They’d been brother and sister for twelve years. They’d quarreled, but they always made up the next day. This was the first fight of theirs that spanned more than a single day.

“What are you doing there?” someone asked. She looked up to find Oscar gazing down at her with a mystified look.

Her face crumpled when she saw him. “Gil…”

“Mmm?”

“Gil hates me now…,” she said, bursting into tears. Oscar’s eyes darted around in a panic before he evidently decided to start by sitting down next to her. Feeling the wood of the bench creak, Cecilia sniffled and turned to him.

“Just stop crying for now,” he said gruffly, holding out a handkerchief.

She took it and sniffled. “What do I do? He completely hates me now.”

“…Is this about yesterday?”

“That, too, but I think he’s mad because he’s disappointed in me over a lot of stuff.”

Gilbert’s statement about “If you’re dressed as Cecil…” looped over and over in her mind.

She hadn’t gone so far as to think she could do whatever she wanted dressed as Cecil. But she did feel freer as him. To hold the title of a high-ranking nobleman’s daughter meant putting up with many, many more restrictions and constraints than most people lived with. No matter what she was doing, she always had to execute it with perfection.

Gilbert must have seen through to how she really felt about that.

“Well, I don’t really have that many friends, so I can’t say I know that much about arguments,” Oscar falteringly admitted. “But if you upset him, you should apologize, right? If you know you did something wrong, give him an honest and sincere apology.”

Cecilia gazed up at him. The crown prince looked even more put out than usual, probably unused to the very concept of giving someone advice.

“I contributed to what upset him, too, so I could say sorry to him, but I think it would have the opposite effect this time, right?” Oscar ventured.

“Y… Yeah.”

Gilbert was mad at Cecilia, and an apology from Oscar wouldn’t change that. If anything, it might make Gilbert scorn her further for making someone else apologize on her behalf.

“How do you think I should express regret to him?”

“Ah… Hmm. I’d start by bringing him something he likes, maybe?”

“Something he likes…?”

Gilbert was someone who held no real attachment to anything. He had food he preferred, sure, but he could still eat the things he didn’t care for, and he wasn’t particularly bothered if he couldn’t scarf down his favorite meals. That attitude carried over to his material possessions and interpersonal relationships.

“What does Gil like…?” she mused.

“You can’t think of anything? Like something he’s treasured since childhood or his favorite food.”

“Umm… Oh!” she cried, popping her head up. She’d thought of one thing—something he’d treasured for years and kept safe even now. “Oscar! Are you familiar with this?!”

“I wouldn’t say I’m an expert…”

“Tell me whatever you know. I’m all ears!”

“Sigh.”

Gilbert was seated on a chair in the courtyard at lunchtime. Report sheets were spread out on the table in front of him. He didn’t feel like eating, so he was silently chipping away at the homework assigned during his previous period.

He couldn’t stop worrying about his conversation with Cecilia from yesterday. He’d walked to school alone in the morning without coming to get her since he’d felt so awkward about it, but that ended up distressing him, too.

I probably hurt her feelings.

Even though facing her was too difficult, leaving her behind had also aggravated his feelings of guilt. To drown all that out, he focused his attention on answering his assignments.

“Lord Gilbert, is there something bothering you?” came a voice just as he was almost done. He looked up to see Lean.

“Do you need something?” he asked, uncharacteristically curt. Though Gilbert outranked her in terms of social standing, he was faultlessly polite to everyone as a general rule. Cecilia was the only person at school he treated casually.

“I was just wondering what you’re doing,” she replied.

“Is that so? As you can see, I’m very busy,” he stated, smiling at her. Implicit in his answer was Go away.

But she simply smiled back at him, undaunted. “I can wait until you’re done. How about we have a little chat? I’ve been curious about you for so long now. I’d love to discuss all kinds of things with you…”

“Curious? Please.” He snorted. There was no way Lean had any interest in him. That was obvious in her behavior this whole time.

His homework completed, Gilbert set about tidying up his pens and report sheets. “Cecil put you up to this, didn’t he? To check on me or something? I’m perfectly fine, so please let me be.”

“Oh. You’ve seen right through everything, then.” Lean giggled, admitting it quite indifferently.

As he cast a sidelong glance at her, he continued putting away his school supplies. “While Cecil may be an utter fool, he wouldn’t offer to assist you with something untoward of his own accord. If he did, it would be in exchange for something else. So he told you to come talk to me in return for him helping you, didn’t he? Because he thinks I like you or something…”

“I’d hate for you to get the wrong idea. It was Cecil who first proposed doing something in exchange.”

“I can tell as much,” he grumbled, irritation building into a headache thanks to this conversation.

Cecilia was always whining about Lean not acting as she expected her to, and indeed, she would never act in compliance with the whims of others. If anything, she made other people bend to her whims.

“Were you upset to see them posing like that?” Lean inquired.

“That has nothing to do with you, does it?” he retorted, displeased at how she made it sound as if she’d read his emotions.

“Lord Cecil really is a fool, isn’t he?” she commented.

Gilbert had let all this slide off his back so far, but that one offended him. It was one thing for him to point out Cecilia’s flaws, but he’d be damned if he let anyone else do it. He threw Lean a fierce glare without saying a word.

But Lean kept that same placid smile on her face, not intimidated by him in the slightest. “Don’t you think you’re being presumptuous trying to get him to realize things on his own? At the moment, he doesn’t have the presence of mind to notice feelings that you haven’t conveyed to him.”

“What are you implying?”

“I’m only saying that if you’re planning on apologizing, you should do it quickly.”

“… …”

“And give me a more interesting story to work with,” she demanded with finality, sweeping into a ladylike curtsy before turning on her heel to leave. Then she looked back over her shoulder charmingly and added, “Oh, that’s right. I forgot to ask you something. Lord Cecil hasn’t come to class all day today. Do you know anything about that?”

“Excuse me?”

After a pregnant pause, she added, “I do hope he’s all right. The world can be such a dangerous place.”

Then Lean left, having said her piece and nothing more.

Her words struck true, gnawing at Gilbert from the inside out. “She didn’t go to class? That can’t be right!”

At her core, Cecilia was dedicated and earnest. It was difficult to conceive of her missing school for no reason. Did something more important come up, or had something prevented her from going? From a logical standpoint, it had to be one of those two scenarios.

The possibility of the Killer flitted through his mind.

That mysterious murderer of potential Holy Maidens. If the Killer had attacked her…

Once he got on that train of thought, he could remain still no longer.

I’ll just go to her room to check, Gilbert thought, getting to his feet. His face was the picture of calm, but sweat had started to bead on his forehead.

“Maybe she just stayed home because she’s not feeling well today,” he reasoned, attempting to reassure himself.

He shouldn’t have been panicking so much, but images of the worst-case scenarios kept filling his thoughts.

In the game, Cecilia is found with a knife through her heart, or drowned in a river, or hanged in the mountains…

All those tragedies played out in his mind with the face of the sister he knew. It was so chilling that he found it hard to breathe.

After he exited the courtyard, turned down a corridor, and was almost out of the school building, he ran into the one person he didn’t want to see that day.

“There you are, Gilbert.”

“Your Highness…,” he hissed, the words coming out in a groan despite himself. That made Oscar squint at Gilbert for just a second before he blinked and returned to a mild expression. Gilbert tried to rush past Oscar to get to the dorms.

“Hey, don’t ignore me,” he demanded, catching hold of Gilbert’s arm to stop him from running away.

Gilbert shrugged him off. “I’m in a hurry!”

He’d never spoken or acted so roughly with Oscar before. Because he would one day serve the king as his subject, he wanted to keep their relationship nominally pleasant. His own sense of self-interest, along with a cost-benefit analysis, had informed all their interactions up until now. Currently, however, being levelheaded was beyond him.

Oscar merely sighed, evidently not offended in the slightest. “I didn’t know you could be so emotional.”

“Oh, really? I’ve always been like this. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

“I’m telling you to hold on a second!” he protested, blocking the path.

“Get out of my way!” Gilbert roared. Fortunately, there was no one else around to witness their spat, because gossip-hungry nobles would have delighted in witnessing the crown prince laying into the duke’s son.

“Listen to me; it’s about Cecil,” Oscar managed, which made Gilbert freeze in place. “He’s in the nurse’s office right now. I just wanted to tell you—”

“He’s not hurt, is he?!” Gilbert interrupted loudly. Alarm bells clanged in his head as he jumped to the conclusion that the Killer had actually attacked her.

“Yeah, but—”

As soon as Gilbert heard that, he reversed directions and took off. Oscar trailed close behind, shouting at him to stop, but this time Gilbert ignored his pleas. As the door to the nurse’s office came into view, he put on a burst of speed. Without checking to see who was inside, he opened the door and shouted out, “Sister!”

Only Cecilia was inside, sitting on a stool with her back to the door. He could make out the edges of white gauze patches on her face and a bandage wrapped around her ankle.

“Oh, Gil!” she cried, turning to face him with a joyous look on her face.

Once he saw she was safe and sound, Gilbert slumped against the wall. Though he covered his face in one hand, his expression was one of sheer relief. “Thank goodness…”

“What’s going on?”

“Ah, I just heard from Lean that you hadn’t come to classes today. I got worried that maybe the Killer had done something to you…”

“Gil…,” she trailed off, guilt flashing across her visage as she saw him express rare, genuine concern for her.

“You didn’t get attacked, right?”

“Nope. My own clumsiness did this to me…”

“What do you mean? What did you do?”

She giggled sheepishly. “Fell down the side of a mountain.”

“WHAT?!”

On closer inspection, he saw that her school uniform was caked in dirt and that leaves were still stuck in her wig.

“But thanks to my hike, I was able to find this. Here!” she announced proudly, lifting up a potted gentian flower that had been sitting on the floor.

Something clicked for him. “Wait, you don’t mean you went and picked that?!”

“Yup. I remembered that you’ve never been very attached to anything, except for the gentian I gave you a long time ago. You even pressed it into a bookmark to keep forever, so I thought you must really love them!”

There in the pot bloomed a flower that was just like the one she’d given him as a kid.

“This time I dug up the roots, too! That way you can enjoy looking at it for longer, right?!”

“That’s why you skipped class and got all dinged up? …You really are stupid,” he said, despite an irrepressible smile curving his lips upward. While his grin was at war with the furrow in his brow, right now, happiness was winning out.

That happiness all stemmed not from the gentian but from the fact that she’d remembered something from so long ago.

Cecilia held the flowerpot out to her brother, bowing her head low. “Gil, I’m so sorry. I guess I really thought that nothing was off-limits as long as I’m Cecil. That was shortsighted of me, so I understand why you got upset.”

“I…”

“Also, I know you wanted me to pay attention to you, too, and not just Oscar! You felt left out!”

His eyes narrowed as she suddenly switched to treating him like a kid. It really drove home that no matter what he did, he would always be her baby brother. But before he could feel too sorry for himself, what happened next completely derailed his pity party.

Cecilia threw her arms around him in a hug, then rubbed his back like she used to when they were kids. “Sorry, Gil. I’m sorry I’m such a good-for-nothing sister.”

At that moment, what Lean had told him rang in his ears: “Don’t you think you’re being presumptuous trying to get him to realize things on his own? At the moment, he doesn’t have the presence of mind to notice feelings that you haven’t conveyed to him.”

Gilbert wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her in close. She gave him a soft, sisterly smile, as he knew she would.

“Um…so I love you,” he blurted out, the words sounding more stilted than he’d intended. But once he started, he found his emotions were pouring out of him like tea from a cracked cup.

“That’s why I objected so much to finding you with His Highness, and got angry, and said all that. I hate seeing another man touch you.”

“Gil?”

“I love you. I really do.”

She stared up at him in shock for a while, frozen on the spot. Then, like ice melting, a warm smile spread across her face, and she hugged Gilbert tight. “I looove you, too! I really do. You mean the world to me!”

Her response hadn’t been romantic—it was what you’d say to your brother. But for some reason, it wasn’t that disheartening.

I suppose that’s all right for now.

If that was how things were, Gilbert would just have to keep being proactive and pursuing her until she realized the truth. Deep inside his heart, he tore up the vows he’d made to avoid making a move or telling her how he felt. He no longer needed to hesitate. In the end, making one attempt or a hundred would amount to the same thing.

But there was one final thing he wanted to confirm. “Who do you like better, me or the prince?”

“You or Oscar?” she asked, blinking. “You, of course!”

She declared this without an iota of hesitation. He felt as though a weight had lifted right off his chest.

“Hey, Cecilia, I love you.”

“Yeah. I love you, too, Gil! I love you the most!”

He knew she didn’t mean it romantically. Cecilia’s feelings for him were of a sister toward her brother.

But that was fine. At the very least, he was the one she loved the most for now.

Now he just had to gradually wear her down until he’d wrapped her around his little finger.

“If you’re done getting treated, want to head back? I’ll walk you to your classroom.”

“Okay. Oh, but wait up!” she cried, rushing to start getting ready to go.

Like hell I’d let that disgusting prince take her from me, Gilbert vowed bitterly.

 

“Oh my! How very lovey-dovey!” Lean whispered, peeping in on Gilbert and Cecil from a crack in the door. She made a rectangle with her fingers and captured them inside it.

“I can just feel the creative juices flowing!” she said excitedly, her entire body vibrating.

She knew that Oscar had brought Cecil to the infirmary, as she’d happened to see them going in together. That was why she’d given Gilbert a little nudge. She’d been hoping to see a bit of drama, but what she ended up with honestly exceeded even her wildest expectations.