Chapter 26
That uneasy feeling I had yesterday.
The letter to Kairon that had been sitting on Lonas’s desk.
The disquiet I sensed in that letter checking on his well-being may have been a warning of a tragedy that could still be prevented.
I hurriedly grabbed Eisen’s arm.
“Count, the letter... You haven’t sent it yet, have you?”
“What? No, Lonas said he’d send it this afternoon... It probably hasn’t left yet.”
“Thank goodness….”
I let out a sigh of relief and spoke with a solemn expression.
“Count, I have a favor to ask. Before it’s too late... could you add even just one line to that letter?”
“Add something? What sort of content...?”
“A message concerning Carl, the Grand Duke’s eldest son.”
It might be difficult to change the future right away.
But if this one line could create even a small ripple in the heart of Carl, the Grand Duke’s eldest son....
If I could only give Kairon a possibility he could choose.
‘I have to prevent the tragedy of Kairon losing his brother right before his eyes.’
His brother’s death would break Kairon, and the repercussions would eventually reach Kara and our child.
This was a world I had thought would have nothing but a simple happy ending.
But the main story had not even begun yet.
A massive rift unlike the original, along with tragedies from the original story that I had yet to prevent, still existed.
* * *
Lonas’s office.
“Uuugh....”
Lonas had his nose pressed against the desk, his eyes hollow with exhaustion.
Regular reports for the Grand Ducal House, letters of thanks, and the territory’s settlement statements were piled up like a mountain.
He had processed all that paperwork through the night with the strength he had gained from a single glass of strawberry juice.
“Now… now… all I have to do is send them…. Then I can sleep….”
Slam!
Just then, the office door was flung open.
Count Eisen and I came rushing in.
“Wait! Stop!”
“Huh? Father, all of a sudden….”
Count Eisen ignored Lonas’s protests and strode toward the desk.
He picked up the envelope containing the letter to Kairon, which he had already sealed with red wax.
“There’s something to revise.”
“What?! Now? I only have to send it!”
Lonas tried to stop him in horror, but the count was relentless.
Crack.
The red wax that had been tightly sealed was boldly torn away.
The seal was broken.
“Why is Mr. Varg with you too...?”
Lonas looked at me, but I had no time to answer.
My gaze was fixed solely on the opened letter.
“Count. Thank goodness we’re not too late.”
I swallowed dryly and spoke.
“Mr. Varg. Before that, may I ask why?”
Eisen’s eyes sharpened.
They were the eyes of a teacher and politician asking about the political intent behind a personal curiosity of Count Eisen’s.
I couldn’t tell him that I knew the future.
Instead, I decided to turn the political insight I had learned from Eisen to my advantage.
“You said this in class, didn’t you, Count? That the House of Northgard is the ruler of the north.”
I calmly laid out my reasoning.
“You said that the relationship with Carl von Northgard, the Grand Duke’s eldest son who will become the next Grand Duke, is just as important as the relationship with the current Grand Duke.”
“That’s right.”
“There was a little friction—no, a threatening situation—between Prince Kairon and us at the border. Of course, it was resolved well, and the prince apologized, but news can become distorted as it passes from mouth to mouth. Especially when it is relayed by someone who saw things from another perspective.”
I put on a serious expression.
“I’m worried that Carl, his elder brother, might hear a distorted version of the news and develop a misunderstanding or prejudice against our Winterfang Tribe. It would be troublesome to fall out of favor with the future ruler.”
“Hmm... That’s a valid point.”
“So please write Prince Kairon a reminder to have a deep conversation with his elder brother, Carl, and clear up any misunderstanding about the Winterfang Tribe.”
I drove the point home.
“If it’s his teacher’s request, it will give the prince a reason to have a serious conversation with his brother.”
That was my aim.
To keep Kairon at Carl’s side.
Count Eisen thought about my words for a moment, then nodded.
“Mr. Varg, your insight is excellent. There isn’t a single thing wrong with what you said. You have developed a keen eye for the Empire’s political situation.”
He picked up his quill and dipped it in ink.
But.
“......”
The pen stopped over the paper.
Count Eisen’s brow furrowed, and the tip of his pen began to tremble.
“But....”
“But? Is there a problem?”
“This letter... I wrote it after thinking all night, perfectly calculating the transitions between each sentence, the meter, and even the rhythm when read aloud.”
Eisen looked at me with a solemn expression.
“But if I suddenly insert a political sentence here... this perfect structural aesthetic will collapse. It will jar with the context.”
“......What?”
I opened my mouth in disbelief.
No, come on.
A person’s life might hang in the balance right now, and he was fussing over context?
That was when it happened.
“F-Father!!”
Lonas, who had been watching from the side, finally exploded.
“You can just add it as a postscript!! This is driving me insane!”
Lonas tore at his hair and pointed out the window.
“Is this really the time to fuss over aesthetics? Can’t you hear the courier’s hoofbeats?! He’s all ready to leave!”
“Hmm... A postscript.”
Count Eisen stroked his chin.
“It does detract somewhat from the appearance... but it is the only way not to damage the rhythm of the main text.”
His expression still uneasy, he picked up his pen again at his son’s urging.
“To avoid damaging the aesthetics of the main text, I’ll leave a gap….”
His stubbornness remained unchanged.
Scratch, scratch.
Writing began to fill the blank space at the bottom of the letter.
「Postscript」.
Count Eisen’s gaze grew solemn.
Since he was writing it anyway, he couldn’t simply make a request.
As a teacher, and as an adult who had watched the two brothers for many years, he included the advice they needed.
『I hope you will share your experience at the border with your elder brother, Carl, the Grand Duke’s eldest son, and clear up any misunderstanding about our new northern ally. That will be the duty of a younger brother who is to support the next Grand Duke.』
Then he paused and wrote one more sentence.
『And the time brothers have together is not eternal. While you are together, have another conversation, allowing a little silence between your words, and take care to understand his heart. That is a courage more important than wielding a sword.』
“Done.”
Count Eisen set down his pen, dripped red wax over the letter again, and pressed his seal into it.
Press.
The letter was sealed once more.
I watched him and let out a sigh of relief.
‘It’s done.’
The political justification was only a pretext.
The true purpose was just one thing.
To keep Kairon at Carl’s side.
The tragedy of the original story.
Carl von Northgard, unable to endure the pain of paralysis from the waist down and his father’s cold treatment, chose suicide.
In the original story, Carl first tried to die by drinking poison.
『Even dying… I’ve become such a wretched body that I can’t even do that easily….』
But ironically, someone had been feeding him small doses of poison for a long time.
The cause of his paralysis had made him resistant, so the poison failed to work.
A neurotoxin was the most effective way to die without pain.
『I can’t keep blocking Kairon’s path like this….』
When even death would not obey him, Carl chose the last resort in his despair.
He would throw himself from the window of his room.
At precisely the moment his younger brother Kairon was heading to the office to see him—right before Kairon’s eyes.
‘But if this letter is there...’
With a request from his teacher, Eisen, Kairon would stay by his brother’s side for several days under the pretext of telling him about what had happened at the border.
The young master’s pride would not allow him to ignore his teacher’s assignment.
As long as Kairon was chattering beside him, Carl could not jump out the window.
If only because Carl would not want to traumatize his younger brother.
‘Those few days... they could change fate.’
Time to notice the poisoning attempt.
Or time to change his mind.
It was my role to buy him that time.
“Here, take these.”
Lonas handed the courier a bundle of documents and the letter.
“You must leave before it’s too late! His Grace the Grand Duke is waiting!”
“Yes!”
The courier mounted his horse and cracked his whip.
Neigh—!
The hoofbeats rang out noisily as the courier raised a cloud of dust and began racing toward the Grand Ducal House.
I clenched my fist as I watched the courier’s back recede.
The Empire’s northern sky was stained red.
As though foreshadowing the fate to come.
‘Please... arrive before it’s too late.’
My desperate wish raced onward with the courier’s hoofbeats.
* * *
After wrapping up the letter incident and returning to the bedroom, I sat down on the bed as the tension left me.
Kara greeted me, leaning against the bed.
“You worked hard, honey.”
“It was nothing. Though I did feel sorry for Lonas.”
I chuckled and took Kara’s hand.
“Well then, shall we begin the final event of today? My queen, what would you like to eat tonight?”
Receiving Kara’s morning-sickness quest for the day had become how I ended every day.
While Kara thought for a moment, I glanced around the room.
“Huh? Where’s our future knight escort?”
Alina, who was always stuck to Kara’s side like glue, was nowhere to be seen.
“Is it bedtime? She hasn’t even eaten dinner. Did she take a nap?”
“No.”
Kara gave me a secretive smile and pressed her index finger to her lips.
“A little while ago, she went ‘Shh!’ to me, then solemnly left with the head maid. She said she had a surprise gift for me.”
“A surprise gift?”
Kara and I faced each other and began guessing where Alina had gone.
“She took the head maid, it’s a secret, and it’s for you, Kara... It’s obvious.”
“Yes. She’s gone to buy desserts again.”
We giggled at the same time.
Ever since she had seen Kara suffering from morning sickness, Alina had been procuring every tasty dessert in the territory.
“But this time it’s more specific.”
Kara said this while trying to hold back her laughter.
“Earlier, while I was reading, I happened to say, ‘Grapefruit is bitter, so it doesn’t appeal to me much,’ you know?”
“And then?”
“Alina opened her eyes wide and said, ‘That’s because you haven’t tried a delicious grapefruit tart, Sis! Our territory’s grapefruit jam isn’t bitter at all!’”
“Ah-ha.”
“So she went out to buy one herself to prove it.”
“Honestly, she’s so cute I could just bite her.”
I smiled fondly.
I wondered what we would have done if Alina didn’t exist in Eisengard.
“That is correct. Tarts made with our territory’s specialty 「Ruby Grapefruit」 aren’t bitter, and their sweet-and-sour flavor is perfect for morning sickness.”
“Right? As expected of Alina... Huh?”
Kara and I turned our heads at the same time.
That voice just now.
It hadn’t been either of us.
Count Eisen was standing in front of the open bedroom door.
With a dignified expression, he adjusted his glasses while holding the doorknob.
“The door was open. I was going to close it, but I happened to overhear your conversation... My apologies.”
“Oh, Count! When did you arrive?”
“Just now. It seems Alina hasn’t returned yet.”
Count Eisen naturally closed the door and entered the room.
But on the count’s shoulder....
“......?”
Something huge was draped over him like a piece of luggage.
Looking more closely, I realized it was a person.
Lonas was half-slumped over him with his mouth hanging open, his expression vacant as though his soul had left his body.
“Count... Is that Lonas on your shoulder? Is he all right?”
When I asked cautiously, Count Eisen hitched the bundle higher and answered matter-of-factly.
“Oh, he’s fine. The moment he finished processing the documents to be sent to the Grand Ducal House, his eyes just shut down. It seems he overloaded.”
“......”
“He wouldn’t wake up even when I shook him, so I’m on my way to toss him onto his bed.”
Count Eisen was casually carrying his fully grown son over his shoulder.
Even while grumbling, the way he looked after his son was unmistakably fatherly.
“By the way, that Alina girl is quite something. She seems to know exactly when that shop’s tarts come out. They’re best fresh from the oven.”
“I see. Then we’ll have to wait a little longer.”
Kara smiled expectantly.
Count Eisen hitched Lonas higher onto his back and smiled.
“Then rest comfortably until dinner. Tonight’s dessert will be grapefruit tart, I suppose.”
Count Eisen leisurely disappeared with Lonas over his shoulder.
Peace returned to the room.
I sat against the headboard and gently brushed Kara’s hair back.
‘If our Yeppi is a boy, he’ll grow up as responsible as Lonas, right?’
‘And if it’s a girl, she’ll be as lovable and spirited as Alina.’
I imagined our future child and became immersed in happy anticipation.
It felt as though this peace would last forever.
I absentmindedly looked out the window.
The sun was sinking, and the streets of Eisengard looked peaceful.
The sunset was beautiful, painted red.
But.
‘......’
A cold sense of disquiet suddenly brushed against a corner of my heart.
Two weeks until the entrance ceremony.
Then that meant now was...
The point in time of Chapter One of the original novel, <The Bastard’s Snowflower Path>.
And the period when the greatest event announcing the beginning of the original story took place.
The time when the original heroine, the bastard princess Elysia, would begin to act in earnest.
And the route along which she traveled was....
‘Could it be...?’
My gaze turned toward the southern boulevard leading into Eisengard beyond the window.
Rule 1, Clause 1 of romance-fantasy novels.
「Incidents follow the heroine.」
And the most clichéd incident of all was…
「Kidnapping」.