By Zephyria 
“…!”
My eyes snapped open. I shot up as if struck by lightning, gasping for breath, but suddenly felt a strange gaze from one corner of the room.
A gaze suddenly felt in a dark room without a single candle lit would be terrifying to anyone.
“Wh-who is it…? Who’s there…?”
I reflexively asked, pulling the blanket that had slipped down to my waist. My voice was terribly cracked, but I didn’t even think about clearing it.
Thud, thud, thud.
Slow, heavy footsteps slowly began to approach my bed. The moonlight shining through the large window created a subtle silhouette of someone.
The first thing that caught my eye was a pair of neat boots made of soft leather. Boots with long necks that went well over the knees. Above that, a pair of firm thighs stretched straight. I continued to follow the figure of someone gradually emerging from the shadows with my eyes only. A scabbard without a sword was attached to his waist. The loose-fitting shirt was crumpled in a bold, unrestrained manner rather than neatly arranged, and the neckline and jawline revealed above the two or so unbuttoned buttons were particularly defined.
“…Frederick.”
A sigh of relief faintly leaked from my lips. Only then did I notice the cold sweat soaking my back. The clear worry and joy on Frederick’s face barely brought me back to reality from my trembling anxiety.
“I heard you collapsed as soon as you got home. Are you feeling okay? Really, I was so surprised.”
“…….”
It was surprising enough that Allen had suddenly appeared before me at an unexpected time, but this time it was Frederick. Originally, Frederick’s return to the mansion after completing his martial arts training was around the time the main story of the game began, just like Allen. Under the guise of attending my nineteenth birthday party.
If I hadn’t encountered Allen, I would have been surprised enough, but I had already experienced a lot, so I wasn’t surprised by his early return.
Surely not. Not yet. Is this a dream? I was done with simply running away in such a reckless manner out of surprise and fear. In this playthrough, where I had decided to change, there had already been quite a few changes. So, if the start of the game was destined to be faster, then that was just fate.
Now, rather than figuring out and understanding why Allen had stuck his head into the mansion so early, it was more important to set up countermeasures against the surging tidal wave.
“Are you feeling better now? You still don’t look good.”
“…….”
He seemed quite worried about my complicated thoughts. Frederick swept my forehead with a worried expression. His large palm, more than enough to cover my entire face, gently wiped away the un-dried cold sweat, which wasn’t too bad. I didn’t say anything and just rubbed my cheek against his palm, as if acting like a child who didn’t match my age.
The large hand, which would not slap my cheek yet, was just warm. I rested my chin on the calloused palm and closed my eyes again, and only then did the nerves that had been on edge with tension finally relax.
“You don’t even say hello to your brother after seeing him for the first time in a while, that’s too much, isn’t it?”
“Uh-huh, I’m back…….”
“Only in words.”
Frederick’s voice was mixed with a low laugh, but there was still worry underlying it. Yes. This is reality. None of the many miserable futures I had experienced had yet come true. There was no need to be surprised or afraid at all. For a little over a year, hadn’t I worked hard enough to face a powerful opponent who was destroying the probability?
“The doctor said that your Heat cycle seems to have sped up a bit due to accumulated fatigue. First of all, Andrew suppressed it with his Pheromone, but… are you okay?”
Ah, so that’s how they covered it up. For a moment, I was about to burst out laughing in disbelief, but I somehow managed to suppress it because Frederick was in front of me. Just listening to the way he spoke, it sounded like he was going to imprison me in this mansion right away and put me in his spouse’s seat right away.
“Yeah, I’m okay now. Sorry. Did I surprise you?”
“Why is that something to be sorry about? Ah, I should be a little sorry for ignoring this brother who sang so much about coming to play in the South and going to play in the North instead.”
Frederick wrinkled his nose, adding that he had hurriedly packed his bags and returned to the mansion as soon as he heard the news that I had stubbornly refused to listen to him and had gone on a trip to the North.
“Then Frederick must have arrived home quite a while ago? Why didn’t you contact me?”
“I haven’t been back for many days either. Looking at the schedule, I thought it would be better to wait because sending a letter would be a waste. Well, I didn’t know we would reunite in such a collapsed state.”
“Uh-huh, I see…….”
“How was the North? Was it fun enough to reject my ardent request and run off?”
Frederick seemed to be quite upset about that. A faint sulkiness replaced the place where worry had been.
“It was fun. I’m sure Frederick would like it if he went too.”
There was no way this reckless person, who only had youthful vigor, would reject the land of warriors who revered martial arts.
“The South… later. Let’s definitely go together later.”
“Really?”
“Of course. I promise.”
When I made a solemn promise, even sticking out my little finger in a coaxing tone, Frederick’s sulkiness quietly disappeared. The person in question didn’t know, but going on a trip to the South with him was also my desire that had faded a long time ago.
Near the Hamilton Family’s villa located in Bartolo, a key point in the South, there was a fertile vineyard inherited by Noah. Until the last playthrough, I had never coveted it, but in this playthrough, I had desperately grabbed it.
Frederick, who often sent me letters while he was away on training, often wrote that he came to the vineyard I inherited to rest and that it would be nice if I came with him. Even with just a few lines of writing created by the clumsy fingertips of a knight who didn’t know how to show off his fluent writing skills, I felt like I knew how fresh the fruit trees in the vineyard were and how fragrant the ripening grape grains were.
Until now, occupying the vineyard in Bartolo and going on a trip to that vineyard with Frederick had all been Allen’s share, but…….
“Huh? What’s wrong. Our youngest is hugging his brother first.”
“Just. I’m happy to see you after a long time.”
“Yeah, I’m happy to see you after a long time too.”
I wasn’t going to yield or be taken away anymore.
It was the moment when my sense of purpose, which was simply to escape the shackles, began to deviate subtly, but at that time, I had not yet properly recognized it.
“Ah, I’m disappointed. I’m so disappointed.”
“Will the ground sink somewhere if you sigh like that?”
“Really, you don’t know my heart at all…….”
While finishing my noticeably shorter hair, Nicole couldn’t hide his disappointment and only sighed repeatedly. The hair that had been about to reach my shoulders, even if it wasn’t completely long, was now suddenly short to my jawline. Still, this has grown a lot in a few weeks. The jaggedly cut hair was almost dangling from the end of my ear at first.
Nicole, who had no idea what I had been doing while covering up my identity, only knew that when ruffians had invaded the Ducal Palace, I had run away to where Nicole and the knights were, and my hair had been cut by a sharp wall decoration. He said that it couldn’t be helped because it was such an urgent situation, but he couldn’t stop the regret from filling up every time he saw it, or something like that.
“Funny. If you like my hair so much, should I cut off the rest and give it to you? I’ll just cut it as short as Frederick’s.”
“Young Master! What terrible things are you saying!! No, our Young Master is originally so beautiful that he can digest any road, but……. Even so, how can you bring Frederick to our Young Master?”
Nicole shuddered and raised his voice as if he hated even imagining it. Anyway, my attendant was such a bold person that his liver was about to pop out.
“I’m hurt.”
It was when I burst out laughing at Nicole’s sharp reaction. As if he had been waiting, Frederick’s nonchalant voice was heard at the perfectly timed moment.
“I think it would be good to train your subordinates well, Noah Hamilton. This little runt can’t say anything to his superiors.”
Nicole didn’t lose his spirit and glared at Frederick with a growl. They were still not on good terms even after meeting after a long time.
Strictly speaking, he had grown up as my milk brother, but since Mrs. Seymour was originally a close aide who had served my mother since her maiden days, it wasn’t a very important matter in this mansion for Nicole to show this level of language to Frederick.
“Ugh, Young Master. Let’s move quickly. What if his ignorance rubs off on you while we’re together?”
After the incident where Frederick had taken me to the commoners’ shopping district before my Heat cycle had broken out, Nicole often grumbled that he was a muscle-brained seed.
Of course, even if such a thing had happened, it was strange that Nicole hated Frederick to that extent, or that his direct expression was quite excessive, but…….
“There, you. Did you say your name was Allen? Can you move the refreshments here to another seat?”
“What, Nicole. Are you really going to do this?”
“Then am I going to do it for fake? Are you going to move or not, Frederick? By the way, shouldn’t you be in the Imperial Palace at this time? How long has it been since you returned to the Royal Knights that you can be so lazy like this? Hey, Allen! What are you doing! I told you to move it right away!”
First of all, what was occupying all my nerves in this mansion these days was something else. Allen had finally become my exclusive servant.