CH 4

“Pardon me for asking something unrelated, but have you ever been on the decapitation platform, Brother?”

“No, I have never so far. You sure ask a surprising topic. What’s the matter, Nagi?”

“And also, have you ever been decapitated by a guillotine…?”

“…Nagi, you must have had a rather awful dream.”

I couldn’t help but notice a slight twitch in Brother Seth’s face, which was always smiling calmly.

My brother, who had already finished his meal, looked at me with a troubled face as he sipped his tea gracefully.

For breakfast, it usually was just black tea and bread. There was no need to make a big deal of it, but gorgeous tableware was lined up on the royal blue tablecloth. Also, there were napkins that looked like a bird flapping its wings, which made me wonder how on earth they had folded them. There was even a white rose from the garden in the center of the table.

I took a seat as I was urged to, and soon warm tea and freshly baked bread were served. As I bit into the bread, I moved my mouth to chew and talk to my brother.

“Bwoder, do yu hav any dissadisfacshon wif yur… curren laif?” (Brother, do you have any dissatisfaction with your current life?)

“Nagi. How about you stop talking while you eat?”

There were so many things I wanted to ask that I couldn’t sum them up.

It was my fault for oversleeping, but my head was about to explode with so many questions that I felt like I didn’t even have time to eat the bread.

However…

His gentle smile and the way he spoke in an enveloping manner made my shoulders tremble involuntarily.

I was living in a world without my brother until just an hour ago. I saw my brother executed in front of my eyes. When I remembered that, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

My vision was slowly blurred with tears, and just like a broken dam, the tears came flooding out.

“Gh, Brother… I’m glad you’re safe…”

“…Huh. What is it? What happened to you today?”

Brother Seth is— the hope of my life.

Before he was my brother, he was my favorite person. I also liked his troubled face as he looked at me in dismay. In the future where I lost my brother five years later, I just… spent my days crawling on the ground like a wriggling slug.

My life revolved around my brother. After my brother passed away, I became truly isolated. I found myself being called a ruthless, yet lecherous, evil prince, and was burned at the stake just like that.

(What does ruthless yet lecherous mean? Isn’t that too difficult? Something like making someone subdue…?)

I tried racking my brains, but I still couldn’t remember ever trying to subdue someone.

Regardless, I don’t understand why, but the world had reverted to five years ago. No, I guess I was the one who returned to five years ago. Either way, it didn’t make sense at all.

There were so many things I didn’t understand that it just made me want to move around the castle while rolling around for the whole day. But I guess I couldn’t do that. Because—

“That’s enough talking about my decapitation. Rather than that, about your knight. Have you thought about it properly?”

That’s right, knight.

If this really was the world from five years ago, today, on this day, I was supposed to nominate a knight that I would be spending the rest of my life with.

In this country, the Kingdom of Pluvia, the royal family was always required to nominate a knight before the summer vacation of the final year in the royal academy.

The nominated knight would spend the last year of school with the royal family, and after graduation would remain loyal to them for the rest of their lives as their personal knight. Apparently, it was because the first king had a knight who was loyal to him at the time of the founding of Pluvia, and that practice continued to this day.

And then, that grandiose event called the knight investiture ceremony would take place today.

However, as the third prince I’m only a year younger anyway, so I took advantage of it to coincide it with my older brothers’ ceremony.

That’s right, I have one other older brother, —Vincent.

Ironically, we three brothers each had different mothers, so we were born not that far apart from each other. I was one grade below them because of the break. But my two older brothers had a very strained relationship, partly because of their factions.

As I said “Umm…” and looked up at the sky, Brother Seth sighed.

“You must be trying to decide it randomly. You need to pay a little more attention to your surroundings, Nagi.”

That’s right, I also heard this line five years ago.

If I remember correctly, I just responded with a strained laugh. Then without really thinking it through, I ended up deciding on a knight that people around me had recommended.

However—

The scene of my last moments flashed in my mind. That’s right, but, —this time.

“No, I’ve made up my mind.”

“What?!”

Even now, I’m still not really sure about it. But, there was one knight that came to mind.

My brother blinked his eyes repeatedly, but after a while, he smiled gently and said,

“Yes, you should do as you wish, Nagi.”