"Brother, can you stand? I didn't mean to hit you hard enough to keep you down, you know."
"...Laila, wh-why are you here?"
"I don't owe you an answer to that. ...Actually, that hit harder than I expected. You look like you want to say the First Prince has never once been slapped by Father."
As Herk struggled to his feet, bewilderment plain on his face, Laila regarded him with a smile laced with provocation—and, somewhere underneath, self-mockery.
"Well, that's about right. ...All things considered, our father never taught us a single thing, did he?"
"...What do you want?"
"I told you—a chat. I never said I wouldn't get physical, though—and don't worry, I won't tell you not to defend yourself either. You don't have the nerve to hit a girl, do you, Brother? So why not try some magic? ...If that wreck of a body of yours still can, that is."
Laila maintained her provocative edge without wavering. Herk felt irritation stir, but bewilderment seemed to come first.
"...Get out of my way. I don't have time to humor your games."
"Says the man who'd have nowhere to go even if he obediently stepped aside."
Laila judged that one more push ought to do it.
"Oh, perhaps I was being a little roundabout? ...Then let me put it more directly. You had quite a lot to say about your grudge against Ermes—grand speeches and all—but the only thing I thought while listening was this:"
With a mocking smile, she declared:
"—
Then
hurry up and
charge right at
that monster
and die in vain
"Then what'll you do? " A scarlet emotion welled up inside Herk.
"Ugh, seriously. Nothing drives me crazier than that. So — let me take my frustration out on you first, if you don't mind!"
With that, she rushed at Herk to land another punch.
That must have finally made him snap — he activated his Bloodline Magic and launched it at her.
"Ha! So you've finally gotten around to it!"
Against the oncoming ice magic, Laila responded with her own. She used the
Spirit veil
to shield herself, let the attack pass, then reshaped the barrier she'd been maintaining — molding it into a wall and positioning it dead ahead—
and then,
straight at
Herk,
she fired
.
"!?"
The
Spirit veil
— repurposed as an attack. It seemed to draw on the technique Ermes had used behind her — a way of wielding magic the saintess had taught her.
Of course, Herk had never seen it before. Unable to react, he took a direct hit from the hardened barrier and was sent flying.
Together with that, Laila herself raised her voice as though venting her own frustration.
"Yes, that's exactly right — wanting to do it all alone without borrowing anyone's help, but not having the power to pull it off! So the conclusion is there's only one thing — only one thing to say,
it's your own self
that you
already know.
And precisely
because
of that —
having someone else
point it
out is the worst
part of all!!"
Ah, he understood. He couldn't help but understand. That was Herk's sore spot right now, and Laila probably understood it better than anyone else here.
It certainly was.
"D-don't screw with me — I don't need anyone to tell me that! If anything, you're the same way!"
"Yes, absolutely — I was exactly the same!"
Because she herself had been the same way.
"I've known it all along! That Mother never looked my way, and that it would stay that way forever! Since ages ago — since long before I was even born, she only ever had eyes for a single person!"
Of course, she hadn't precisely identified who that person was.
But deep down, she was certain of it. Certain enough — because she had been watching her mother all along.
And yet, the longing to be looked at — even just once — was something she simply couldn't let go of.
"Because that was all I ever had!"
"Ghk—"
"Just give up and find another way to live!? Think of some other angle to make your wishes come true!? Oh, honestly, not a single one of you understands—"
She screamed, as though coughing up blood, as though cursing the world itself.
"—that's nothing more than the theory of someone who could actually do it."
"!"
"We're not strong enough for that. Just one single wish was already more than we could bear — we had no room to change it, no room to throw it away, no time, no power, not a single person who would save us, not a thing to our names!"
"Ghk — how — how could you, of all people—"
"Honestly, I wonder why myself. It truly makes me sick — but I'm the one who understands that the most!"
That was surely because they were hopelessly alike.
They shared the same blood, endured the same circumstances. Born into a household riddled with problems, burdened with expectations far beyond their worth, with no path to prove themselves except to meet those expectations. Crushed under the weight of duties and wishes disproportionate to their abilities, unable to go anywhere at all.
The good-for-nothing brother and sister of the royal family — flawed from the very start.
"…Yeah. I knew it too."
Helck spoke as well, his voice scraping up from the depths of the earth.
"Ermes over there didn't receive all that power unconditionally from the start either. There was corresponding suffering and effort, surely — experiences of despair and defeat that we know nothing about. That much is obviously fundamentally different from Aster, and I knew that from the very beginning!"
But then he cried out in anguish:
"I tried my hardest too. It's not like I didn't!"
"——"
"If what you wished for was far away, there was no way you wouldn't reach out. No way you wouldn't search. You had no choice but to struggle, so of course that's what I did!"
"I did everything I could! I gave every second of my free time to it, I reached out for what I wanted even at the cost of my own life!!"
And even then, if it still wasn't enough. If I wasn't even allowed to brush the tips of my fingers against my wish.
"...What went wrong, then?"
"...Yeah."
"Who drew that line? Why did things get split up like that? The ones who were chosen and the ones who weren't—those who fit the world's wishes and those who don't—people who can make their dreams come true and people who can't—what the hell is the difference between them?!"
I know that too.
That probably lamenting won't do a thing, that nothing will change no matter what.
But.
"...Am I not even allowed to vent my frustration?"
"...Yeah. Honestly, I agree."
For a brief moment, a bitter, indescribable expression crossed Laila's face. Then she reached out toward Helc, ramping up her magic power.
"I think it's perfectly fair to have a place to let out your anger, at the very least. Honestly, I've got plenty of my own grievances too. So—"
She said it with an awkward smile.
"Put up with my venting a little longer. ...In exchange, I'll put up with yours."
Hearing that, Helc gritted his teeth as if holding something back, then raised his own magic power as well.
And so, yet another clash of magic began.
I hope I can write this siblings' emotional resolution in some satisfying form within Chapter 3.
Next time, the end of the sibling quarrel. Scheduled for 10/5 (Wednesday)—look forward to it!
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