Chapter 122: The Royal Siblings

「Ah, what’s the meaning of this? 」

After what happened, I got out of the bath and went to one of the guest rooms in the palace in order to listening to Shin’s talk.

「…Do you remember the painting you saw when we met in the afternoon at the royal palace, Kyou-san? 」

Shin blushed slightly, then he gripped the hem of the white robe he was wearing tightly and started to speak.

He mentioned the huge painting that was hanging in the royal palace, where only royalty could enter.

It depicted Shin’s mother and a young boy and girl.

I heard that the boy was a child of the King of this country, and the girl was a child of another man before the woman was taken as the official wife.

In other words, when I thought deeply about it, Shin…

「…I’m not the child of the King of this country, but a child unrelated to royalty, born between the King’s concubine and another man. 」

Shin confessed as if he was ashamed of his own existence.

「I see…But wait a second. So where did your brother go? Well, if you were pretending to be a man, does that mean it was your brother who disappeared? What’s going on? 」

I thought about asking about it during the day, but since Shin’s elder brother was there, I decided not to pursue it further.

However, it seemed that the situation was more complicated than I thought, and now that I knew part of the truth, I also needed to know the whole story.

I asked Shin to explain the situation, and Shin was silent for a while as if he was troubled, but then he spoke as if he had made up his mind.

「…It all started when my mother became the King’s wife. As I said before, she was already pregnant with me at that time. But if that was discovered, I would be taken away from my mother and, at worst, banished from the royal palace. 」

「What? …Were they willing to go that far!? 」

I was speechless when I heard that.

In response, Shin nodded quietly with a look of resignation.

「It can’t be helped. Bloodline is absolute in this country. No, not just in my country, but in many other countries. Those who are of royal blood are royalty and rule the country. Those who don’t have that bloodline have no right. Most of this world is made up of aristocratic societies. 」

Shin’s words reminded me once again of the aristocratic system, and the absolute priority that came with blood.

Fitis had mentioned this before.

I had read many novels and stories, and thought I knew the weight of that system but seeing it with my own eyes was indescribable.

When I thought about it, I was reminded once again of how heretical the reforms carried out by the Emperor Hero were, but at the same time, they were the best possible reforms.

「So my mother gave birth to me as the King’s child and announced this to the King and his subjects. After that, my younger brother was born, who inherited the royal blood, and we both spent our days safely in the royal palace, but one day, something happened. Rumors began to spread that “the sister is an illegitimate child who didn’t inherited the royal blood.” 」

Shin trembled as if he remembered something.

Seeing this, I placed my hand on Shin’s trembling shoulder.

In response, Shin opened his eyes slightly in surprise, but immediately smiled gently and continued as if everything was fine.

「I don’t know who spread the rumor or where it came from. To begin with, it’s still a mystery to me how they found out about it. But the important thing is not how it was found out, but that the rumor spread. And once such a rumor spread, there was no way that my older brother, who is of royal blood, his subjects, and the nobles who followed them would stay silent. Naturally, they targeted me…and attacked me. 」

Shin explained that one day, an assassin attacked the three while they were sleeping in their bedroom.

Naturally, the assassin’s target was the sister, who was not of royal blood.

Shin fled with his mother and younger brother to the window.

However, the assassin pursued them, and their mother died while shielding them from the assassin’s weapon, after which the assassin’s weapon pierced the younger brother.

In the darkness, the assassin probably couldn’t tell which was the sister and which was the younger brother.

Or perhaps he had intended to kill all three of them from the beginning.

In any case, the younger brother fell off the balcony after being attacked by the assassin. He fell into the lake below.

Afterwards, the assassin was captured by the guards and interrogated, but he never mentioned his employer, saying, “I was simply eliminating the adulterous woman and her daughter, who had tainted the royal blood, of my own volition.”, and the assassin was branded as the main culprit.

「…So the one who survived…Shin, you pretended to be the younger brother, right? 」

「Yes…I survived because of such farce. But I had no other choice if I wanted to live. 」

Shin nodded in response to my question.

After hearing that much, even I could understand why Shin started pretending to be the younger brother.

Without a doubt, the enemies in the palace targeted Shin because he was not of royal blood.

If that was the case, then if it was discovered that Shin was the sister, who was not of royal blood, he would definitely be targeted again.

To prevent that, they had to let the people in the palace know that it was the sister who died in the attack and the younger brother who survived.

That’s why Shin must have abandoned being the sister and pretended to be the younger brother in order to survive.

Because there was no other way for Shin to survive.

I didn’t know how much resolve and pain Shin must have had to endure after losing his beloved mother and younger brother and being left alone.

Thinking about that, I couldn’t help but sympathize with Shin.

「…Does anyone know about this? 」

「…Only one person. The royal guard who was guarding my mother at the time. He was kind to me, who wasn’t of royal blood, and to my mother, who was originally a concubine, and he was the one who suggested this method to keep me alive. He was the only one whom I could trust in the palace. Even now he’s by my side as my military strategist. 」

Shin smiled as he said this.

I felt a little relieved after seeing that smile.

It was true that Shin had been through hardships.

But even so, there were people who helped and lent a hand in that process.

When I found that out, I once again wanted to help this girl.*

I set aside my motto that it was better to help than not to help.

I simply wanted to help Shin.

Even if it was out of sympathy, I didn’t want to lie about wanting to save her.

「Shin, if you want, I’ll help you. Of course, I won’t tell anyone about this, so don’t worry. 」

Shin blushed slightly when I smiled and turned away for some reason.

「Hmm, I…I don’t doubt you or anything. There’s no need for you to say that now. I’ve managed to get by on my own up until now, so now you should focus on solving this country’s monster problem rather than worrying about me. 」

She acted all cocky like he did when we first met, but for some reason, she seemed cute now.

「Yes, yes, I know. Well then, I’m going now since I’ll get up early tomorrow morning. I’ll go on a monster hunt in the desert like today. 」

Shin stood up as I said this, and nodded, looking at me shyly.

「…I’m counting on you, Kyou-san. 」

—

「Oh dear, it took longer than I thought to catch them. 」

Saying this, the girl named Lily, one of the Seven Great Heroes, also known as the Beast Hero, hurriedly got off the Kobuda she was riding on.

After a long chat with her brother, Lily spent time together as siblings for the first time in a while and arrived at the Arabia Kingdom to follow Kyou.

It must have been a few days since Kyou came to this country.

Even if she came at this timing and couldn’t be of much use, it couldn’t be helped though since she was seized by an inexplicable urge to be by Kyou’s side. Lily headed towards the palace where Kyou was said to be.

But at that moment, she suddenly noticed that the people in front of the palace looked hectic.

Soldiers, servants, maids, and various other people were moving around in a hurry.

Just as she was about to ask someone what on earth had happened, Lily saw the person in charge in front of the palace.

「Is that…Shin? 」

It was the person who had summoned Kyou to this country, and his expression was somehow more anxious than ever.

「Shin, what’s wrong? What’s going on? 」

「…! Lily! 」

Shin looked at Lily with a shocked expression when she appeared.

But the next moment, Lily looked even more shocked at the words that came out of Shin’s mouth.

「It’s serious, Kyou-san…Kyou-san’s gone missing! 」

「What?! 」

It was a shocking truth that made Lily’s heart flutter more than ever before.

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*Kyou will start to address Shin as “She” but not the other characters as they don’t know the truth.