I Am the Real One

Chapter 7

“Sister! What are you doing here in your nightgown?”

“Rosé said you were here, so I came as quickly as I could.”

“Where else would I be? What will Father say if he sees you like this?”

“Father?” Keira froze. “Father’s here?”

“Why would Father be here at this hour? He’s likely in his room.”

“So… this is not the afterworld?”

Zeke’s face crumpled to a scowl. “I think you’re still half asleep. You there, take her to her chamber at once.”

“N-no need. I’ll escort her myself.”

Zeke ordered the maids to fetch her shoes. In her mad dash to her brother's room, Keira had forgotten to put on a pair, and she ran barefoot. It was a good thing she hadn’t hurt her feet on the way.

Keira could do no more than stare blankly ahead as the maid coaxed her feet into the slippers. She had figured she was dead, but there were many strange things about this place that said otherwise. First of all, she was in the exact same building she occupied in her life. Secondly, there were familiar faces, too many of them, and they were all slightly younger than she remembered.

“Zeke...”

“Huh?”

“What’s the date today?”

“The 13th.”

“What month and year?”

“August 13, 1295.”

The look on his face seemed to demand an explanation that Keira couldn’t possibly get into at the moment.

1295... That was the year Keira was twenty. An outrageous notion entered her head: perhaps she was transported not to the afterworld but… to the past?

If so, who did this? Were there others here who retained memory of what had happened since? So many questions filled her head.

“…ter! Sister!” Zeke cried.

“H-huh?” Keira responded, hearing him at last.

“What are you standing there for? You're acting very strange today.”

Could it be? Am I really back to being 20? She could hardly believe it.

“It must have been a nightmare.”

“What nightmare?”

“I dreamt that I had died.”

Keira gazed into her brother's eyes. A peculiar feeling rose up inside her as she looked at the face of her flesh and blood sibling she thought she’d never see again.

“The dream felt so real. I really believed that I was in the afterworld. But then I heard that you were here too... I thought perhaps you might have died as well...”

“Goodness, I thought you were above all that,” Zeke teased, but Keira could hear the worry in his voice.

“A dream is just a dream. Don't you worry.”

“Yes… you're right.”

“More importantly, you ought to go back to your room and get changed. Or rather, I'll bring something for you to wrap around your shoulders,” Zeke mumbled to himself and headed to his room, presumably to fetch her a coat.

Watching his back as he marched down the corridor, she thought of her last moments with Zeke. Through the bars of her prison cell, she had watched him go. That was the last she had seen of him.

“One moment,” Keira found herself grabbing her younger brother by the wrist. Zeke looked back, puzzled.

“...”

“Have you had your breakfast?”

“No, it was interrupted when a certain someone barged in.”

“Good. Let's have breakfast together.”

If she'd really returned to the past, she no longer wanted to cling to an impossibility. Keira didn't want to yearn for the approval of someone who would never truly see her. She wanted to devote her time and energy to a worthier cause. Spending time with her brother, who must have been lonely all those years, felt like a better use of her time.

Keira smiled at her befuddled brother.

“Now? Breakfast? With me?”

“Yes. You said you haven't eaten.”

“But… if you have breakfast with me, you'll be late for your morning audience with Father. You never miss it.”

“Oh, that.”

In the past, she would wake up early in the morning to dress and prepare for her morning audience with her father. It was an old custom that nobody adhered to, but she never failed to bid him good morning every day. This ritual was regarded as eccentric even among her peers.

“Oh, I’ve made up my mind not to do it anymore. Starting today.”

“You’re not? Why the change all of a sudden?”

“I go to see him every morning, but I really only get to speak with him once or twice a week. He's always too occupied to see me. And on the rare occasion that I do see him, he has never looked me in the eye.”

“And yet you went to see him every day? Oh, how filial of you.”

“Yes, that was… short-sighted of me. In any case, I'm going to stop.”

Thinking back, she had been very foolish. Why did she yearn for the love of someone who never gave her so much as a glance?

Zeke appeared impressed by Keira’s latest epiphany.

“Sister, you have learned the concept called ‘disappointment’ after all,” he said in a strangely proud tone. “Well done. Now maybe you can sleep in a little.”

“I’m not disappointed.”

She really wasn’t disappointed. Her previous self might have been, but she had let it all go. There were no hard feelings now. It was such a relief to let go of expectations.

“His Grace is a very busy man. There is no sense giving him one more thing to worry about in his busy morning.”

“Ah...”

Of course not, Zeke’s face seemed to say. Keira would not see the light in a day. It was hard for him to see her long so ardently for Father’s approval. He was the direct opposite of her. Zeke had never accepted that reptile of a man as his own flesh and blood. To think, he was about to congratulate her for giving up on her futile mission.

Huh?

Something caught Zeke’s attention.

“What did you just say?”

“That I don’t need to bother His Grace by paying visits.”

“Did you just call him ‘His Grace?’ Not ‘Father?’”

Keira had always insisted on referring to Grand Duke Parvis as “Father” among private company. And here she was, calling him ‘His Grace.’

“Isn’t that what he is?”

Keira’s tone suggested what she was pointing out was self-evident.

“He is my father, but first and foremost, he is the master of the Grand Dukedom. What’s wrong with calling him that?”

“N-nothing…”

Keira was full of surprises today. Did something transpire between her and the grand duke? She appeared to be in such high spirits, though. The smallest hint of disapproval from the grand duke would have sunk her to the deepest pit of depression.

Whatever the cause of this change, Zeke was happy for it. He had been compelled to refer to that man as “Father” because she insisted on it herself. Now that his sister had given up the practice, he could stick to “His Grace.” Good riddance.

“You're very strange today.”

“I’m sure I am.”

“...”

Keira was very, very strange today. It was the same face see he had seen the day before, and yet she seemed to be a changed person.

What happened to you? Zeke wondered with a quizzical glance. He wouldn’t pursue it further because, whatever the reason, this was not a step in the wrong direction.

* * *

Nino was the grand duke’s scribe. His job was to trail behind the grand duke all day recording his every move. He was faithfully at his post like any other day.

Grand Duke Parvis was a rather easy master for scribes, as he was a man of routine who seldom did anything out of the ordinary. Today, as always, Ludwig woke up at the same time and stepped into his study. It was absolutely no different from the day before. Nino was thinking of copying the log from yesterday when…

“Huh?”

“Hm?”

His gasp broke the pure silence of the study. All eyes were on Nino, including Ludwig’s. Nino froze under his gaze.

“What is it?” came the voice of Ludwig like the winter wind.

“B-beg pardon, Your Grace.”

“As you know, I do not relish repeating myself.”

“N-n-nothing, Your Grace. It’s only… well, the princess has not made her visit this morning.”

The grand duke’s eyes narrowed. He hadn’t noticed either.