"My business is done. Let me out."
"Understood."
Having returned to the carriage of House Rosemary, Rest had it set in motion as if to say he had no further use for this place.
He would never visit House Eberun again, surely.
This was no longer a place he could call home.
"…………"
Rest settled into the carriage seat, propped his cheek against his hand, and gazed out the window at the passing scenery.
What surfaced in his mind was everything that had happened at the honorary viscount's estate.
His father, sunk in despair. His stepmother, shrieking in hysterics.
He had defeated those who had tormented him. He had left them utterly dumbfounded.
There was a sense of a weight being lifted from his shoulders. A refreshing clarity that came from having seen something through to the end.
(But... why is that? It feels like something's left undone, like there's a hollow little hole in my heart) He was supposed to have settled his entanglement with House Eberun for good, yet strangely, he felt no sense of fulfillment.
It was unsatisfying. Like sitting down to a full-course dinner only to find dessert missing — that incomplete, unfulfilled feeling.
Where was this emptiness in his heart coming from... As he turned the thought over, he suddenly sensed something.
"Stop the carriage, please."
"Hm? Ah, yes."
He called out toward the driver's seat, and the carriage came to a halt almost immediately.
"Sorry about this, but it looks like something's come up. Would you mind heading back without me?"
"That's fine with me, but..."
"Sorry about that."
He apologized to the driver, then climbed down from the carriage.
The carriage bearing the Rosemary marquis house's crest started off again, disappearing around the corner.
"...I'm surprised. I didn't expect you to actually chase after me."
"Pant... pant... pant..."
The one who appeared before Rest, gasping for breath, was his half-brother — Cedric Eberun.
After Rest left the mansion, Cedric had used Body Reinforcement to chase after the carriage on foot.
If Diebl hadn't taught him to keep Presence Detection magic active even outside of combat, to guard against sudden ambushes, he probably wouldn't have noticed.
"I was sure you'd been confined somewhere in the mansion and forced to study, but... you slipped out on your own?"
"Pant... pant............Rest"
"Hm?"
"You... Rest... I'll kill... you...!"
Cedric struggled to steady his ragged breathing as he fixed Rest with a killing glare.
"I'll kill you... all of it, all of it, it's your fault... if you'd never been taken in by the Rosemary marquis house, everything would have gone perfectly..."
"............"
"I would have passed the exam, and Viola and Primula would have become mine...!"
"Don't call someone else's fiancées by their first names. You're pathetic."
Rest turned a mocking gaze toward his idiotic brother.
"They're mine, and no matter how fate may twist and turn, they will never become yours. Don't go around claiming ownership of someone else's fiancées."
"If you weren't around… if it weren't for you, I would've become a court magician… Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit! Don't you dare laugh at me, every last one of you… I'm a genius. I'm the strongest magician alive… I'm the man who's going to have it all — status, honor, women, everything…!"
"…………"
(Ah, forget it. This guy's hopeless.)
What a fragile man.
Cedric Eberun had been spoiled rotten by his parents since childhood, and he'd lived his whole life bullying a weakling like Rest.
That was why this man knew nothing of setback. He'd never experienced failure.
Even the incident a year ago — when he'd dragged the Rosemary sisters into the forest and put them in mortal danger — hadn't counted as a failure in his mind. He'd written it off as simply bad luck.
That was why… he was weak. Brittle. Pathetic.
A heart that had never been crushed by failure, never tormented by despair, was far too fragile — and it crumbled easily before a single setback.
"…How pathetic. And this is my brother?"
Even as Rest scoffed, he jerked his thumb over his shoulder in a beckoning gesture.
"If you want to kill me that badly, then come on. I'll oblige. Follow me."
"I'll beat you to death, you good-for-nothing bastard…!"
"This time, it'll be a proper, once-and-for-all settling of scores. I'm going to pay you back for every last cheap shot you've landed on me, so brace yourself."
As he spoke, Rest felt the hollow void in his chest begin to fill back up.
(So that's it… no wonder something felt off — I'd never actually gotten back at Cedric.)
He'd given his father and stepmother a taste of their own medicine, but he hadn't taken his revenge on Cedric.
Dozens upon dozens — hundreds — of magic blasts had been fired at him, and he'd never once retaliated. How could anything be called a proper settling of scores like that?
(This is a rematch. Every last hit you landed on me — I'm returning it with interest!)
Rest bared his teeth in a grin as he led Cedric toward a place where no one else would be.