43. I Did Everything For You

By the time the rattling of the carriage had grown as familiar to me as my own bedroom, we’d made it back to the house.

“Young Master!!”

The instant I stepped down from the carriage, a welcome voice came barreling into my ears, and its owner flung herself into my arms without a moment’s hesitation.

“…I missed you, Young Master.”

“Is this your little brother’s girlfriend?”

Climbing down from the carriage after me, Lillian watched the whole scene unfold with great interest.

“Hmm, so this is the type you like?”

Before the misunderstanding could sink in any deeper, I went to push Elli off.

“She’s not my girlfriend, and back off a little — I think you’re about to crack my ribs.”

I grabbed Elli’s shoulders to peel her away, but she clung to my waist like a leech and refused to let go. It was only now, up close, that I noticed something was different.

“…Elli?”

I fiddled with a lock of her hair. The long-haired country girl I knew was nowhere to be found; in her place was a short bob swishing just above her jawline. The height at which she came up against my chest had changed, too. She’d shot up so much that she now reached my shoulder.

“Did you get taller? And cut your hair, too, looks like.”

Only then did Elli pull back from my chest, glaring at me as she answered.

“Some Young Master I happen to serve up and vanished on me without a word, that’s why.”

“Ah, did he now?”

“It’s not ‘did he now,’ it’s you did!”

She’d clearly worked up a good head of steam, arms crossed, scowling at me. I’d never seen Elli like this before, and it threw me a little.

“When a girl cuts her hair, it means there’s been a change of heart. So from now on, you’d better pay more attention to me.”

“U-uh… yeah.”

“What was that!?”

“Got it.”

That finally seemed to smooth her ruffled feathers, because Elli broke into a smile.

“Actually, I cut it because it got in the way during training. It kept poking me in the eye. Does it look weird?”

“No, it suits you.”

“Hehe.”

Anyway. Never in my life did I think I’d hear the word training come out of Elli’s mouth.

I wanted to keep the conversation going, but we couldn’t loiter around outside forever. So for the time being, I set about hauling Lillian’s luggage out of the carriage.

“Let me… take that, sir.”

Right then, Leo came up from behind Elli and took the luggage off my hands. But there was something off about this guy, too. If Elli had matured, then Leo, you might say, had come loose at a few screws. Unlike before, he was dithering, no strength in his stride.

Then Elli spotted Leo struggling under the weight of the bags.

“Let me take some.”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s heavy.”

“I said I’m fine.”

Leo tried to resist, but he was plainly outmuscled, and Elli lifted the bags away from him with embarrassing ease. Then she said, flat:

“You really ought to work out a bit.”

“…You’re the one who’s weird.”

What was this whole vibe?

To get a read on the situation, I snagged Leo by the scruff of the neck. He flinched, then let himself be dragged over to me.

I turned to Lillian and Elli.

“You two go on ahead. I need Leo to fill me in on what’s been happening.”

At that, Lillian linked her arm through Elli’s.

“How about we have a little chat on the way, Sis to Sis?”

“Huh?”

Lillian hauled Elli off, and once the two of them were gone and it was just us, I cracked a sly grin and got down to business.

“So? Make any progress?”

“Huh? With what?”

“Oh, come on, don’t play dumb. It’s been half a year — surely you’re not still stuck at square one?”

At my needling, Leo let out a sigh deep enough to cave in the ground.

“…How does it look to you?”

“Hmm.”

“From what I caught just now, doesn’t look good. To be precise, it might’ve actually gotten worse than the last time I saw it?”

“Yes. Exactly right. There’s not one thing in the plus column. Honestly, you could call it a net minus.”

Leo answered glumly.

Even so, I could tell that somewhere under all that gloom, his feelings for Elli were still alive. If he’d given up ages ago, he wouldn’t be this torn up about it.

I patted Leo on the shoulder to console him.

“Buck up, man. There’s no tree that won’t fall if you hack at it ten times.”

At that, Leo stopped walking and glared at me.

“This is all your fault, Young Master.”

I try to comfort the guy, and this is the thanks I get. What an absolute riot.

“How is you failing to win Elli over my fault? Did I get in your way? Did I do anything? I wasn’t even at the estate.”

“That’s exactly the problem! You were gone for half a year, Young Master, and Elli went and turned weird on me!”

“Turned weird how?”

Leo answered with a look of pure disgust.

“She’s been training with Lord Valerian!”

I doubted my own ears. Elli’s been doing what, with who?

“Training with Big Brother Valerian? Elli has?”

“Yes!”

“And by training, you mean the kind where you take up wooden swords and beat on each other, right?”

“Yes!!”

“…Why, though?”

“That’s what I’m saying!!!”

Leo stamped his feet in place, venting his frustration.

I mean, picture it. Elli, asking Valerian to train her. And Valerian, granting Elli’s request.

What in the world was that combination.

“And what were you doing instead of stopping her?”

“What do you mean, stopping her? Young Master, if Lord Valerian had said he was going to train Elli, would you have been able to tell him no to his face?”

“Hmm. Yeah, that’d be a tall order.”

“Why on earth would that prickly Lord Valerian take Elli on? Thanks to that, Elli practically lives at the training grounds all day. I’ve ended up handling the work Elli used to do on top of my own. So now I’m pulling overtime more often than not, which means I’m earning more money. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Leo shot me a resentful glare.

Feeling the sting of that look, I cleared my throat and changed the subject.

“…Come to think of it, are you still doing the running crew?”

“Yes. Cutting out the crew leader entirely, very faithfully, every single morning, running ourselves half to death. Elli’s stamina goes up by the day, and it’s killing me.”

“…My bad.”

I’m the one who started it and then never once showed up, so I had nothing to say for myself.

So much for changing the subject. I’d just ended up apologizing instead.

“Forget it. Don’t just say sorry — write your sister back instead.”

“Rio’s doing all right, then?”

“Yes. She’s still not fully cured, but they say she’s even getting out and about now.”

The moment Rio’s name came up, a single thread of life returned to Leo’s face, which until then had held nothing but gloom.

Figuring this was my chance, I said:

“Family’s health is what matters most. Don’t you think so? Hahaha!”

Is love what matters?

Health’s the best. The very best.

We arrived in front of the head’s chamber. We’d come to report to Kairon.

Lillian gripped a fistful of her skirt, swallowed dryly, and said:

“I never imagined it’d take this long to open this door again.”

Her tone was composed, but the tension came through in the hand clutching her skirt.

I decided to lighten the mood a little.

“Just because you see someone a lot doesn’t make them a good person, right?”

“What?”

“Even when I was laid up in a sickbed, that man was off signing documents. For a workaholic who loves his job that much, getting summoned only ever gets you an earful. He’s better in small doses, trust me.”

At my shameless little pep talk, Lillian snorted out a laugh.

“You’ll be in big trouble if you ever say that anywhere else.”

I pressed an index finger to my lips.

“It’s fine. As long as you keep it secret, Big Sis.”

Lillian mimicked my gesture, then said:

“Right. Our little secret.”

Knock, knock.

“Enter.”

Once permission came down, I opened the door and led Lillian inside.

Kairon greeted us, his face as expressionless as ever.

“I’ve brought her, just as you ordered.”

Behind me, Lillian shrank back a little before stepping forward.

“It’s been a long time.”

“…Yes.”

For someone who’d set off through the forest so boldly, she was being awfully shy now. Not that Kairon could see it; he never once lifted his eyes from his documents.

“Your room has been made ready. I’ve also set aside a study for you on the tower floor of the west wing — use it as you like.”

“…Thank you.”

“Good.”

It looked like the conversation was about to die right there. For a long-awaited reunion, it was awfully dry. So dry it bordered on arid, to the point of being embarrassing.

I cleared my throat a few times, then said to Kairon:

“Why did you have me bring Big Sis back?”

This was a man who’d handed me a mission the instant I’d climbed up out of the underground training ground. No way he’d called Lillian home after ten years just because he missed her; he had to be up to something.

“Lillian.”

At my question, Kairon’s busily signing fingers came to a halt. Then he lifted his head, fixed his gaze on Lillian, and spoke.

“Will you, too, enter the succession contest?”

For a moment, silence settled over the room. Lillian and I dropped our jaws in unison.

“What?”

“…Excuse me?”

Whether we stood there dumbfounded or not, Kairon went on as if it were nothing.

“Opportunity must be given fairly. Naturally, Lillian is just as entitled to undertake the trials.”

I let out an incredulous, flabbergasted laugh.

“You haul someone home after ten years and the first thing out of your mouth is asking whether she’ll join the succession contest?”

“Why? Are you afraid you can’t beat your own sister?”

“No, that’s not what I’m—!”

The instant I went to fire back at Kairon’s provocation, Lillian, who had been listening quietly at my side, stepped in.

“What options do I have?”

Lillian’s eyes were serious.

“Is it only a choice between entering the succession contest and giving it up?”

Her voice carried such gravity that for a second I half-believed she might leap into the heir race right then and there.

“No. There is one more option.”

Kairon set down his pen and looked at the two of us.

“Instead of competing directly, there is the path of becoming a ‘guardian’ who backs one of the candidates entered in the contest — just as Seraphina did.”

The instant Kairon finished speaking, Lillian opened her mouth without a shred of hesitation.

“Then I’ll be Arden’s guardian.”

“…Big Sis?”

When I balked at how fast she’d decided, she looked at Kairon and drove the point home once more.

“Arden saved me, so I’ll help him in return.”

Kairon nodded as if he’d expected as much.

“Understood. See that it’s done.”

The whole thing had sorted itself out in the blink of an eye. I grabbed Lillian’s shoulders and said, urgent:

“Hold on, Big Sis. Think it through. You don’t have to do this out of some sense of obligation just because I rescued you in the forest.”

This wasn’t something to decide so lightly.

“If you take my side, you’ll have to make enemies of Big Brother Valerian and Big Bro Lucius. You come home after ten years and the first thing you do is sour things with your own brothers?”

“Why does that matter?”

“What do you mean, why does that matter!”

“You becoming the heir doesn’t turn us into strangers within the family, does it? Same way I didn’t become a stranger just because I spent ten years out in the forest.”

“That’s…”

“Either way, the choice is mine. And so is the responsibility. That’s what you taught me, isn’t it?”

She’d suddenly gotten so good with her words that I had no way to argue back.

While I stood there dumbstruck, Lillian leaned in close to my ear and whispered.

“And besides — you know, don’t you? If the poison ever fills me up again, you’re the only one who can take it.”

Just as she said, it was a plain fact that I was the only person who could take on her DV.

I heaved a sigh, and yet I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from lifting.

If Seraphina was a swordsman strong enough to serve as the Empire’s Knight Commander, then Lillian was a magician the likes of which the world would never see twice.

I held out my hand to Lillian.

“Well, since it’s come to this — make me the heir for sure.”

Lillian took my hand and thumped herself on the chest.

“Just leave it all to me!”

With that handshake, the mood in the head’s chamber finally settled. Feeling a weight lift, I turned to Kairon and said:

“All right, then — head of the house. Now everything’s ready.”

“Ready?”

I squared my shoulders proudly.

“Let me undertake the final trial.”

The succession trials are held in three parts. The Trial of Arms, in which the candidate must duel a hero of the house’s past and win. The Trial of Wisdom, in which the candidate unearths a truth lost to history.

And now all that remained was the final trial: the one Kairon had tried to scare me away from, swearing it could never be beaten, pressing me to give up the heir’s seat.

There’s no time to gather information.

If I was going to wield enough influence to head off the great calamity set to break out at the Crown Prince’s coming-of-age ceremony four months from now, there wasn’t a moment to spare. I had to seize every scrap of authority the house could grant its official heir, and the sooner the better.

But.

“It is too soon.”

“…Sorry?”

“You are not qualified to undertake the final trial.”

I did everything for you, didn’t I.

Isn’t this just way too rigged?