61: A Chance Encounter and a Promise
I’d been avoiding Leticia since the [Horse Riding Event].
To be precise, I was the one avoiding her.
For the past three days, I’d been making excuses to dine out, claiming I had work to do in my room, avoiding her even in the dining hall.
While it wasn’t a lie, I could have made time to eat at home.
Knowing I only had about a year left with my sister, I wanted to have meals with her.
But I was afraid.
I knew that avoiding her wouldn’t solve anything.
While my sister wasn’t injured, judging by the timing and my actions, she probably knew that I had deliberately caused her fall.
However, even after I left, Leticia apparently maintained her stance that the fall was just an accident.
There had been no official or unofficial reaction from the Royal Palace, the Eustasia Knights, or the Royal Medical Corps.
As the head of the Vanderwaals, a young girl’s testimony held no weight.
So, even if my sister tried to remove me from my position, it would have been easy to dismiss her.
However, I hadn’t expected her to defend me.
…That was the kind of girl she was.
She believed in family—and she wasn’t entirely wrong.
Even now, my sister was visiting the Royal Castle.
She was probably accumulating [Individual Events] with the [Capture Targets].
However, according to the reports from her guards and attendants—which I inquired about as casually as possible—she seemed to be meeting with all three of them.
Prince Konrad, Knight Commander Felix, Chief Physician Louis, and even the castle guards, knights, and physicians… a wide range of people.
I couldn’t ask for more specific details, like who seemed to be the most promising.
Since Ciel sometimes accompanied her, I wondered if she had noticed anything… but the matters of [Moonlight Liberium] were mine alone to handle.
I couldn’t rely on my most trusted subordinate, my exceptionally competent assistant head of the family, whom other families envied.
Lost in thought about the next [Event], I turned a corner in the hallway and heard a cheerful voice.
“…Oh! Elder Sister!”
――I had let my guard down.
Running into her in the hallway was a possibility.
We lived in the same mansion; we were sisters.
However, since I knew her general schedule, I should have been able to avoid her if I paid attention to her footsteps and presence.
Even though I couldn’t avoid her forever.
I wanted to take a step back and avert my gaze, but my pride as the head of the ducal family rooted me to the spot.
“—What do you want?”
I put on my bravest face, glaring at her, and my sister lowered her gaze slightly.
My confidence in my glare was fleeting.
“I haven’t seen Elder Sister lately… and I’ve been… a little lonely.”
Lonely.
…Lonely?
For a moment, I thought it was a foreign word.
Even with “Tailor,” who was from another country, I sometimes wondered if she was truly speaking Eustasian.
What was my sister saying?
To an older sister who had put her on a pony and then pushed her into a mud puddle?
I didn’t know how much she knew.
But she must at least realize that I wasn’t a cheerful, compassionate, and kind older sister.
My sister looked up and smiled.
“But seeing you now… I feel relieved.”
Relieved.
Did she say relieved? This time, I understood the meaning more quickly.
But I still couldn’t understand her heart.
I felt like I could relate more to some monstrous demon lurking in the dark abyss.
I couldn’t understand people with pure, beautiful, and kind hearts.
――Until now, I hadn’t needed to.
Nobles didn’t need to consider the existence of such people.
…Come to think of it, the ‘sister in the game,’ while sometimes expressing vulnerability in [Individual Events], never expressed jealousy or resentment.
I couldn’t forgive anyone who would hurt such a sister.
However.
The character I disliked the most in [Moonlight Liberium]…
…was ‘Adelheid von Vanderwaals.’
Because of her, I couldn’t focus on the story.
She had the same name as me, looked exactly like me, and sometimes said things I might actually say.
Everything about her annoyed me.
Of course, introducing an unpleasant character and then eliminating them for a happy ending was a common storytelling technique.
However, for a romance story, where the focus was on developing relationships while overcoming various obstacles, I felt like such an antagonist was unnecessary, a shallow plot device.
Leticia, perhaps misinterpreting my silence, continued.
“Elder Sister, can we have dinner together tonight?”
Yes.
I wanted to answer immediately, but I had to let reason prevail over my desires.
…For the sake of guiding the story along the lines of [Moonlight Liberium], it was a good thing that I hadn’t been avoiding my sister too much.
However, it was emotionally taxing.
“Yes… I suppose… I’m free now…”
It wasn’t a lie to say I was free, since I had completed the [Horse Riding Event] without actually injuring my sister.
I felt a sense of accomplishment, having taken another step towards my goal—the guillotine—and the burden on my shoulders seemed to lighten with each step, even as I prepared for the next event.
“Really?!”
My sister clasped her hands together in delight.
Her reaction was adorable… but honestly, I didn’t understand why I was able to enjoy my sister’s company so much.
I had expected her to dislike me more.
I had imagined that in the unwritten spaces between the [Text Log] entries, my sister and I would have a much more strained, distant relationship, exchanging only the bare minimum of formal pleasantries.
“Oh, and Elder Sister, thank you for the other day, for the horseback riding. It was fun.”
“F-fun?”
I couldn’t help but ask again.
Even ignoring the [Falling Event], she had been made to ride a pony and only walked alongside her older sister, who was suppressing a huge grin behind a stern facade.
And she didn’t seem particularly enamored with any of the three men.
“Yes. But I’m sorry I interrupted it by falling…”
“…………”
No, that interpretation was wrong.
…It would be unnatural for her not to realize what had happened.
Leticia had been about to say something at the time.
She had lowered her head, her shoulders trembling, as if suppressing her emotions.
Hadn’t she swallowed her frustration?
Hadn’t she suppressed her sadness, her pain, to avoid making a scene?
…Was this what she meant by “let’s just say that’s what happened”?
“But there’s something I wanted to ask…”
My sister continued, after a brief pause.
“Why was my horse a pony?”
Please don’t ask me that with such a serious expression.
I had thought it was the best option at the time.
I wasn’t sure if I could have successfully caused her to fall if she had been riding a horse of Lillie’s caliber.
If she had fallen, for whatever reason, there was a chance she would be kicked by the startled horse, and the larger the horse, the greater the danger.
“…Riding different kinds of horses… is good practice.”
I did it! That was a surprisingly convincing excuse, considering I came up with it on the spot.
“I see! Then next time, will it be a large horse, like the one Sir Felix was riding?”
“There are… considerations of physique…”
I had received such training from Ciel.
“Oh, right. I’m still a beginner.”
She wasn’t a beginner, since she was able to participate in a long ride.
However, it was dangerous to think you were no longer a beginner, so I didn’t say that.
My sister gazed at me intently with her blue eyes, the same shade as mine.
“—I would be happy to ride with Elder Sister again. Will there be another opportunity?”
――There wouldn’t be.
There were no more official events where my sister and I would ride together.
Things would become busy soon. After summer ended.
I wouldn’t have time.
And I shouldn’t have time.
Going on a leisurely horseback ride with my sister, deepening our bond, would only make things more painful for both of us.
I didn’t want to hurt her.
…And I didn’t want to be hurt.
“…It will be difficult for a while.”
After that ‘while,’ I would no longer have a role to play—or a life.
My sister nodded seriously.
“Yes, even if it’s not soon… someday… definitely.”
Even if it’s not soon.
Someday.
Definitely.
――Someday.
My sister’s words resonated deeply within me.
In the afterlife, perhaps?
…If there was an afterlife, and people were separated into heaven and hell based on their deeds, I would be going to hell.
A noble who didn’t go to hell was a disgrace to the nobility.
While I hadn’t believed in the afterlife, considering the current situation, where unrealistic phenomena like this world being the stage of a romance simulation game called [Moonlight Liberium] were commonplace, I couldn’t completely dismiss the possibility.
My sister took my hand.
I reflexively tried to pull away, but she held on tight with both hands.
“—It’s a promise.”
My sister released my hand.
“See you at dinner!”
She waved and ran off.
I thought about telling her that running in the hallway wasn’t proper behavior for a noble lady, but I didn’t have the energy to yell after her, or to chase after her.
I would scold her later, with a sarcastic remark, as befitting a villain.
I looked down at my hand.
The faint warmth of her touch lingered.
I clenched my hand tightly, and the warmth disappeared.
I opened my hand again and stared at it.
…A promise I couldn’t keep.
I couldn’t even protect my sister.
I wasn’t the one who would protect her.
My ‘role’ was different.
I murmured softly,
“…Someday?”
I didn’t have a someday.
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