What was this supposed to mean now?
“The world...... is destroyed? In the future?”
For an instant, my head rang, and I looked at Edelred without realizing it. As my attention wavered, the purple-glowing formula lost its shape and scattered. Edelred, who had been watching with an anxious expression, nodded with a slightly relieved face.
“That is so.”
“H-How?”
“That is.......”
As if searching through his memories, Edelred stared into the air and fell silent for a moment before opening his mouth again.
“After Harriet died, the Grand Duke of Villant pushed for the abolition of the ‘law excluding children born outside marriage from the royal family.’ He used the excuse that Harriet had lost her life at too young an age and had left no heir.”
“Well...... she definitely doesn’t look like she’d have anything like an heir.”
Nodding, I turned my gaze toward Edelred’s younger sibling. The little girl, who was whining and asking where her brother was, looked seven or eight at a glance, or ten at the oldest. Her appearance certainly did not make one think she might have a child.
“But your uncle is an illegitimate child.”
And not someone who had unfortunately become a child born outside marriage like Edelred, but a true illegitimate child. The kind of “flaw that must be excluded” that nobles, who valued bloodlines, hated most. They were the sort who, if there was no heir, would adopt from a collateral line, and if even that collateral line did not exist, would simply let the family die out. Nobles like that would surely prefer selecting the next king from among the collateral royals over allowing an illegitimate child to ascend the throne.
“Of course, that would usually be the case, but...... unfortunately, in this period, Harriet is the only legitimate royal. The collateral royals were all killed when the previous king and my uncle were in the midst of conflict.”
“Th-Then...... other siblings besides you......”
“There are no other siblings. If my mother, the previous queen, had not met with an unforeseen accident, perhaps there might have been one more sibling...... but in any case, I am Harriet’s only sibling.”
The previous queen met with an unforeseen accident? When I tilted my head at the newly added information, Edelred let out a short hum and added an explanation with a slightly gloomy expression.
“It happened when I was thirteen and Harriet had not long been born. During the hunting festival held to commemorate Harriet’s birth...... there was an accident where a captured beast broke through its cage and attacked the spectator seats.”
“Th-Then the previous queen died in that accident.......”
Instead of answering in words, Edelred only nodded and squeezed his eyes shut. Seeing unrefined deep green light spark from his trembling body like embers, it seemed he was trying hard to suppress the intense emotions stirred up by the memory of that time.
I was wavering, wondering if I should offer some words of comfort, when Edelred ground his teeth and opened his eyes again.
“Everyone called it an unforeseen accident...... but I did not think so at the time. I still do not think so now.”
“Uh, then...... are you saying that accident was caused intentionally?”
“The cage, which had even completed its safety inspection beforehand, broke far too easily. Moreover...... that beast attacked precisely the royal viewing stand alone. The place placed innermost for safety, as if it had been aiming for it.”
Then someone must have used magic to control the beast - to be precise, to guide the beast’s actions with something like an illusion. The one who used that magic was probably one of the uncle’s people.
Huh, then why did everyone call it an unforeseen accident? If they had caused an artificial accident with magic, there should definitely have been traces left behind. Surely the royal court mage could not have missed that? Or did they use some method other than magic? What in the world could that be?
“......It would be best to stop talking about that now. It is not the immediate problem.”
“Ah...... hmm, right.”
Only then did I gather up the thoughts that had strayed down a side road and quickly nod. Edelred showed me a slightly painful smile. Then he soon collected his expression and returned the topic to its original flow.
“In any case, after Harriet died, with no legitimate royal remaining to succeed her, the nobles had no choice but to choose. Whether to place even an illegitimate child on the throne and preserve the kingdom, or to survive an age of chaos until a new kingdom was founded.”
Naturally, nobles would choose the former one hundred percent of the time. Even if the royal court was tainted by the “flaw” of an illegitimate child, only by preserving the kingdom could they avoid losing what they already enjoyed. Moreover, if the royal bloodline was tainted, royal authority would naturally weaken, so for the nobles, it was killing two birds with one stone.
After thinking that far, one possibility came to mind. Perhaps that uncle bastard had planned to ascend the throne this way from the very beginning. He pretended to try to drag down the previous king, who had already been confirmed as the crown prince at the time, while clearing out the surroundings; got driven north for the crime of aiming for the throne and raised his status from commoner to Grand Duke; kept the previous king and queen from timing their wedding properly because of their struggle with him, forcing them to make a child their heir - this part was simply my guess - then killed the previous king and queen one after another, isolated the child, and killed her, thereby completing the justification that made him the only one who could ascend the throne.
When I cautiously expressed that thought, Edelred fell into thought for a moment with a complicated expression, then nodded.
“Yes...... perhaps it is as you say. Considering that the previous king also passed away from an illness of unknown cause, and immediately afterward, as if he had been waiting, my uncle began planting his own people inside the royal palace.”
“Ah, I knew it.”
“Now that I look back on it, that was...... an extremely calculated movement. In just three years, the entire royal palace was filled with my uncle’s people, and no one treated Harriet properly anymore. Even though she had ascended the throne as king.”
“Uh, then perhaps...... what you said about there being nothing to eat, so you tried to cook grass porridge.......”
“It was something that truly happened. Those bastards did not merely ignore Harriet; they would not even properly provide her meals. So I tried to do something somehow...... and mistakenly fed her a poisonous plant.”
“Even thinking of that time chills my heart now,” Edelred said, turning toward his younger sibling. His younger sibling had stopped whining and was drinking something the middle-aged woman had handed her. Thinking it might be some suspicious medicine, I quickly examined it, but fortunately, it was not poison. It was merely strangely pitch-black water.
While I examined that, Edelred had buried his face in both hands with an expression of surging emotion. Apparently, it was because of what the little girl had said before drinking the liquid.
“I thought she was merely a child who knew nothing, yet she had such admirable thoughts because her older brother worried for her.......”
“Uh...... hmm....... R-Right...... She’s an admirable child.......”
“For a child like that to have to die, why must it be so? Why must Harriet die, and not the lawless one?”
“Th-That’s.......”
Because the future flowed that way, I suppose......? To avoid going against the order of the world, that child would have to die again this time.
......I could not say that aloud, so I hurriedly decided to change the subject.
“B-But where were you during this period? From what you said earlier, it doesn’t sound like you were beside your younger sibling.......”
Now that I said it, it felt a bit strange. Why was this bastard, who knew full well that the royal castle was crawling with his uncle’s people, not stuck right beside his younger sibling? He had even tried cooking grass porridge because he could not stand seeing his younger sibling unable to get proper meals.
Moreover, Edelred had already reached intermediate Sword Expert at this time. At that level, there were bound to be knights who would be amazed by his talent and try to form connections with him. Then it seemed likely he would at least have tried to use that to build a faction to support his younger sibling.
“I became a wanderer and headed to the Marquisate of Richelieu in order to make that effort. By remaining only in the royal capital, I could not broaden Harriet’s position. Of course, I did think Harriet might be in danger...... but in any case, I had no choice but to move.”
Hmm, if that was the case, then it could not be helped. With nothing else to say, I could only nod bitterly and agree with Edelred’s words. Honestly, as a third party who had not experienced that time, that was the only thing I could say.
“In any case...... while you were away, your uncle bastard killed your younger sibling, right?”
“The official cause of death was illness. They said she lost her life after suffering from an illness of unknown cause, just like the previous king. I thought it was absurd and tried to hurry back to Neuschrun, but by then, my uncle, who had already seized full authority, had blocked the roads.”
Edelred bit his lower lip with a look of bitter resentment.
“Thus, I never even saw Harriet’s final moments. I heard that the bastard held a funeral for her in his own way, but whether that was truly the case...... I cannot know.”
And so Edelred said he had devoted all his strength to stopping his uncle’s enthronement. He gathered those who would be in trouble if his uncle ascended the throne, organized them into a faction, and based on their support, tried to ascend the throne himself - he still had no desire for the throne, but it seemed he did not want to see his uncle ascend under any circumstances. He chose the path of clashing head-on with his uncle’s faction.
However, because the situation was overwhelmingly favorable to his uncle, Edelred’s side had no choice but to struggle without achieving any notable victory. His uncle’s faction had been scheming for a long time and increasing its power, while Edelred’s side had only just gathered and was in no position to properly exert strength, so that was only natural.
“Moreover, on my uncle’s side, there was an archmage of tremendous skill. Their exact identity was never revealed, so I do not know who they were...... but they freely deployed formulas I had never seen or heard of before.”
“Just like you,” Edelred added, gazing quietly at me. Rather than looking at me, he seemed to be recalling the mage who had been attached to his uncle’s side.
“They were truly mysterious. Even in battles where our side was clearly on the verge of victory, if that person became involved, the situation would suddenly change and end with our side’s defeat.”
“What, did they pour out attack magic like mad?”
“Rather than that...... it was as if cause and effect strangely stopped matching. It was not that the superior side won, but that the superior side came to lose...... something like that.......”
What did that even mean? When I frowned, Edelred also furrowed his brow and gave a bitter smile. It seemed he still did not understand what that mage had done to make Edelred’s side lose.
“In any case, after we were pushed back again and again, and I thought this time would truly be the end, the situation changed suddenly. Those who had died in battle suddenly came back to life, mutated into strange forms, and began attacking everything around them.”
Uh, don’t tell me that was. Startled, I unconsciously shifted my gaze toward Edelred’s right leg. Edelred nodded and added,
“Yes, that is right. They were .”