Chapter 27
(I should head to the dormitory first.)
Gilbert quickly cleared up the table and stood up.
His expression was calm, but his forehead was sweating.
He knew that Cecilia was essentially an honest and serious person.
It’s hard to imagine she would take a break from class without previous approval. Was there anything else that was important, or was there anything that had stopped her from attending class? Thinking carefully about it, there could only be one reason.
(It must have been the ‘Killer’…)
Although they couldn’t confirm its existence in this world, it was definitely something that appeared in the facsimile game that Cecilia’s previous incarnation– Hiyono Kanzaki played it before.
There was a murderer targeting the lives of the Saint candidates.
Cecilia was faintly aware of that existence, but Gilbert was on guard from the first time he heard about it. He also asked their father to look out for suspicious people, but he didn’t get any satisfactory results yet.
What if Cecilia had been attacked by the 'Killer’? While those thoughts ran through his mind, he instinctively clenched his hands making the nails dig into his palms.
“Maybe…she was just feeling unwell today and decided to rest for a day…”
He spoke to himself, trying to calm down.
He knew he shouldn’t be impatient during these situations, but only bad scenarios coursed through his mind.
(In the game, Cecilia was found with a knife stuck in her chest, or floating in the river, or hanged by her neck in the mountains…)
Every scene she described before was recreated in his brain with the semblance of his older sister.
Gilbert’s breathing became unstable from all those wild guesses.
As he turned the hallway and left the building, Gilbert met with the person he wanted to avoid at all costs today.
“Gilbert. So that was where you were at.”
“Your Highness…”
He unwittingly let out a snarling tone.
Oscar raised his brows at Gilbert’s attitude for a brief moment but returned to his friendly expression with a single blink.
Gilbert rushed towards the dormitory swiping by Oscar.
“Hey, don’t ignore me.”
Oscar stopped Gilbert from leaving hastily by grabbing his arm. But his hand was slapped off.
“I’m in a hurry now!”
Until now, Gilbert had never shown a rough attitude or spoken brazenly at him.
He knew he would probably attend Oscar as a minister in the future, so Gilbert tried his best at maintaining a good relationship.
He kept this relationship with the Crown Prince through such calculations and a 'profit and loss’ filter. But he couldn’t manage it now.
Oscar, without showing any sign of feeling offended, just sighed once.
“I didn’t know you could be such an emotional guy.”
“Really? I have always been like this from the start. I’m sorry to have disappointed you.”
“Aaah, that’s why I’m telling you to just wait a minute!”
“Please let me go!”
Gilbert shouted impatiently as Oscar blocked his way.
Fortunately, there wasn’t’ anyone around. A dispute between the Crown Prince and the Duke’s son would be great fodder for gossipers.
“You need to listen. Listen to what Cecil has to say.”
Those words made Gilbert stop moving right away.
“Cecil is currently in the nurse’s office. I just wanted to tell…”
“Is he injured!?”
Gilbert exclaimed before Oscar could finish.
As he had imagined before, there was the possibility the 'Killer’ had attacked her, and his heartbeat raced at that thought.
“Well, yes but…”
Upon hearing this half reply, Gilbert changed directions. His legs spontaneously began running.
Gilbert accelerated further when he saw the door of the nurse’s office.
He opened the door and shouted at the same time, without checking who could be inside at the moment.
“Sis!”
There was only Cecilia. She was sitting on a round chair with her back turned towards the door.
Her cheeks had patches of white gauze attached to them and bandages were wrapped around her ankles.
“Oh, Gil!”
Cecilia looked back at him and showed a happy expression.
After seeing her cheerful figure, Gilbert leaned his arm on the wall. Although hidden with one of his hands, a relieved expression appeared on his face.
“Thank god…”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I heard from Leanne that you didn’t attend class today. I was worried that the 'Killer’ might have caught you or something else happened…”
"…Gil…“
Cecilia’s expression showed a bit of regret for making her stepbrother, which rarely expressed his worries, show such an upset expression.
"You didn’t get attacked by anyone, right?”
“Yeah, this is just because I went a bit overboard…”
“Overboard, you say…What did you do?”
“Hehehe. I rolled down the slope of a hill.”
“Huh?”
On close inspection, there was dirt everywhere in her uniform and there were leaves on stuck on her wig.
“But, thanks to that, I actually found it! Look at this!”
Cecilia happily lifted a pot of bluebells from the floor.
At that moment, something dawned inside Gilbert’s mind.
“No way, sis. You went there to get this?”
“Yeah, Gil doesn’t show interest in anything else, but I remember you took care of those bluebells a long time ago and even turned them into pressed flowers. So I thought maybe you really liked these!”
She looked exactly the same as the scene in his childhood memories, framed by the bluebells while laughing cheerfully.
“This time I even pulled out from the roots! You can probably keep them for a longer time, right?!”
“So…this is the reason why you skipped class today? …It’s really stupid.”
While saying that, Gilbert’s mouth formed a smile. The frown between his eyebrows eased before he could admonish her and his elation had won over.
More than the gift, and above anything else, he was glad that she remembered so much of the past.
Cecilia handed the flowerpot to Gilbert and bowed her head.
“I’m sorry, Gil. Maybe I acted like I could get away with anything as long as I was 'Cecil’. I was really thoughtless. It’s obvious you would get angry.”
“That was……”
“And I’m sorry if it seemed I only paid attention to Oscar, I should have spent more time with you! You must have felt lonely!”
“…”
Gilbert squinted his eyes after she suddenly started to treat him as a small child again.
No matter how far she reached out to him, she somehow always had to make him realize he was only seen as her younger stepbrother.
However, just a moment after his mood deflated, Gilbert’s thoughts halted.
Cecilia hugged him.
Stroking his back just like when they were kids, she talked with a gentle voice.
“I’m sorry, Gil. Please forgive me for being such a disappointing big sister.”
At that time, it seemed like Leanne’s words were whispered again to his earlobes.
“So…It’s very naive to think 'please be more aware’ or 'please be more conscious’. He will never be able to notice such unspoken feelings.”
Gilbert placed his hands on Cecilia’s back. He pulled her body closer and smiled while looking at his sister’s face.
“I… I really like sis.”
The words he spoke sounded a lot stiffer than he imagined.
However, once he let it out, it was like tea that was poured into a cracked cup and couldn’t stop overflowing.
“That’s why I couldn’t forgive you for staying so close by His Highness. I got angry. I ended up saying awful things. Saying that you had to restrain yourself… I didn’t mean that. I just… I didn’t want to see you touching any guy other than me. ”
“Gil?”
“I like you. I really love you.”
A stunned Cecilia looked at Gilbert for a while, but then she smiled gently as if a layer of ice around her just melted.
And she proceeded to tightly hug him back.
“Gil, I love you too!”
But her words were meant for him as her brother, not as a romantic interest.
Still, he didn’t consider that fruitless.
(…For the moment, this is enough.)
Since it became like this, he just needs to keep insisting on it until she noticed him. He had already broken all his own self-made promises like keeping his hands off her or refraining from expressing his feelings. There was no need to hold back anymore. One time or a hundred tries were all the same as long as he succeeded.
But there was still one thing that he had to ask.
“Sis, between me or His Highness, who do you like?”
“Between Oscar and Gil?”
Cecilia blinked her eyes.
“Something like that…isn’t it obvious that I’ll choose Gil?!”
She declared without hesitation.
He pulled her even closer.
“Hmm, sis. I love you.”
“Yeah, I love Gil too! I love you the most!”
He knew it wasn’t romantic love. Her feelings were directed at Gilbert as her precious family.
But he still thought it was okay. At least, at this moment, he was still her most beloved person.
The rest will be just fine.
“It seems the treatment is done, let’s go back. I’ll send you to the classroom.”
“Yeah, hmm, just wait a minute!”
(I definitely won’t let that flimsy prince take you away without a fight.)
Gilbert foredoomed deeply in his heart.
◆ ◇ ◆
“Aaaah! How lovey-dovey!!”
Leanne watched Gilbert and Cecil looking through a gap in the door. She formed a square with her thumbs and index fingers and framed them together.
“My motivation to create something great has shot up!”
She said it so excitedly that her body jumped up.
Leanne knew that Oscar brought Cecil to the nurse’s office. She happened to see them entering the room together.
Then, she decided to provoke Gilbert. She had some high expectations about what kind of dramatic events would be ensued, but the result was far more impressive than what she had imagined.
But there was one shadow approaching her.
“What are you doing in this place?”
“Oooh, Oscar. Did you just arrive? I think you missed a good play…”
Leanne was holding a sketchbook with a bursting smile. He glanced at it.
“Are you drawing another one?”
“Yes! This time I have a lot of confidence in the final result! I must also get Jade to cooperate with me!”
It was almost as a raging flame could be seen behind her back.
Oscar smiled as if he had already given up.
“… Do it moderately.”
“Hum!”
Shortly afterwards, the number of novels featuring characters that looked like Gilbert and Cecil somehow increased in the school library…