The First Prince, Adrian (3)
“What? Marriage?”
It was no light word for a boy who had not yet undergone his coming-of-age ceremony.
Adrian blinked blankly for a moment, then asked with his usual expressionless face.
“It sounds as though you already have someone in mind.”
“Ah, yes. I… I do.”
At Edwin’s answer, Adrian’s eyes glittered with interest.
“Really? Who is it?”
“…Well, that is…”
Edwin broke into a cold sweat before he managed to speak.
“Lady Brigitte Crowner.”
He had stammered from nerves, yet his voice was clear and resolute.
Adrian’s mouth fell slightly open.
He looked like a man who had just heard the most absurd story in the world.
“……”
A heavy, almost frightening silence descended.
While Edwin fidgeted, wondering if he had said something he shouldn’t have—
“Brigitte? That wild filly of a girl?”
Adrian suddenly let out a bright, booming laugh.
“Ahahaha…”
He laughed so hard it seemed he might collapse. The First Prince, known for his reticence and mature demeanor, was roaring with laughter.
Edwin stared at his half-brother in blank astonishment.
“Haa, you really are an entertaining fellow, Edwin.”
After that absurd dream of wanting to protect everyone, now this grand ambition to marry his own cousin.
Adrian, who had laughed for a long while, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.
“Yes, it’s all good. All of it. But…”
He smiled at the still-dumbfounded Edwin.
“It would be better for your mental health if you gave up on Brigitte right now.”
“Pardon?”
When Edwin jumped as though struck by lightning, Adrian waved a hand lightly.
“Don’t misunderstand. I don’t think you’re unworthy of her. On the contrary, you’d be better than someone like Lloyd.”
“Uh…”
“But you could easily spend your life wrapped around her little finger, never mind her whole hand.”
Adrian rested his chin on his hand and smiled crookedly.
“Still want to marry her?”
“Yes! I’m fine with that!”
Fine with that, he said.
For one so young, the boy’s eyes were completely clouded by infatuation.
Adrian gazed at the innocent Third Prince and asked gently.
“Edwin, do you even understand what marriage means?”
What marriage meant?
Edwin thought for a moment before answering simply.
“It means living happily together, doesn’t it?”
Reckless innocence was no different from ignorance.
Adrian swallowed a sigh and continued.
“…I’m not talking about ordinary marriage. I mean royal marriage.”
Marriages among the imperial family and nobility were a form of family enterprise that had nothing to do with romantic feelings. They were contracts formed solely for the benefit of each house.
“And Brigitte is the Crowner family’s greatest asset. She is the duke’s daughter, the empress’s niece, and the one destined to become the next empress. To say you wish to marry such a girl…”
Had Edwin been an ordinary boy, it could have been dismissed as the light prattle of childish first love.
The problem was that he was the empire’s Third Prince, and she was the young lady of the Crowner ducal house.
“You are saying you wish to be bound to the future empress. Do you understand what that implies?”
He had heard nearly the same words once before—from Brigitte herself.
“And that’s not all. If I become emperor, she will cross to the Eastern Continent and become empress of the Khan Empire.”
Just as the Ventrum Empire ruled the Western Continent, the Khan Empire stood on the Eastern Continent.
Were it not for the Gabi Desert cleaving the land in two, the Khan Empire would have been the greatest rival the Ventrum Empire had to fear.
“With the desert between us, military conflict is unlikely barring unforeseen variables. Yet maintaining friendly relations with them—who control every eastern trade route—is the most vital diplomatic priority.”
If the First Prince became emperor, Brigitte would be fated to travel east for the sake of the Ventrum Empire’s security.
“Brigitte is a clever child. She may behave like a tomboy, but she understands her own worth better than anyone.”
Her feigned fascination with Eastern culture was no coincidence.
She knew exactly what her family expected of her.
The darling of the ducal house—Brigitte Crowner.
“That child is the Crowner family’s favored one. In every sense of the word.”
Edwin listened in silence.
Though he appeared disheartened on the surface, he was not.
He must truly mean it.
Adrian smiled faintly as he studied Edwin’s still-bright eyes.
“Well, it’s not as if there’s no solution.”
He chuckled at the way Edwin’s ears perked up.
“Edwin, you said earlier that your dream is to become strong enough to protect your people. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“But simply growing stronger won’t be enough to protect them in this place. You must become overwhelmingly strong.”
Half-baked talent was useless.
It was no different from a sword without a hilt, or a jewel displayed in an open cabinet—something that would only wound its owner or catch the eye of thieves.
“You know better than anyone that in the imperial palace, the weak receive no human treatment regardless of title.”
Edwin’s face darkened at the memory of his old nickname: the mangy prince.
“Yet those with middling power are dragged about and meet miserable ends. So much so that the lot of an unnoticed weakling seems enviable.”
Adrian picked up another book that lay before him.
“So how should you go about making the girl you like one of your people?”
He looked straight into Edwin’s eyes.
“Become so strong that no one would dare object to anything you say.”
It was an obvious truth.
Adrian smiled kindly at his bewildered half-brother.
“Simply put, Edwin—if you become emperor, the problem solves itself.”
At the word emperor, Edwin felt his heart drop.
He pressed his lips tightly together.
Emperor.
He had once declared boldly before Brigitte that if becoming emperor was the only way to remain by her side, then he would do exactly that.
But.
Realistically, for the Third Prince to ascend the throne was harder than plucking a star from the sky.
First, the First Prince Adrian—the empress’s legitimate eldest son—still sat firmly in place.
Moreover, Lloyd, who coveted that position, had the powerful Radcliffe Marquisate backing him as maternal relatives.
“Haha, you don’t look very confident…”
Adrian had been laughing at Edwin’s grave expression when his brow suddenly furrowed.
He abruptly pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it to his mouth.
Then, as though it had been waiting, a violent cough erupted.
Cough, cough.
“Brother?”
It sounded as if it came from the depths of his lungs.
Startled, Edwin rose and hurried to his side.
Adrian’s coughing showed no sign of stopping.
“B-Brother!”
His complexion had turned deathly pale, as though he might collapse at any moment.
For an instant, the image of the dying Emma flashed through Edwin’s mind.
His face went white; he spun toward the door.
“I-I’ll call someone—”
Thud.
But before he could take more than a few steps, Adrian caught his wrist.
Edwin hovered anxiously, examining him.
“…Don’t make such a fuss. I’m fine now.”
At last the coughing subsided.
Adrian quickly tucked the handkerchief into his robes.
But Edwin’s eyes—honed by endless evasion training with Rachel—could not be deceived.
He had already seen the blood staining the cloth.
“Br-Brother… that’s blood…”
“Forget what you just saw. Especially, you must never speak of it to Duke Crowner. It is a secret.”
“What? But…”
Was he trying to hide his condition?
Edwin glanced around, then lowered his voice.
“Coughing up blood isn’t normal. We need to examine you right away—”
“Edwin.”
Adrian seized the shoulder of his worried half-brother.
His gaze pierced the youngest prince with startling intensity.
“Think carefully. Born into the imperial family, you cannot remain a child forever. With such a spineless attitude, you will never achieve any dream.”
“Brother…”
“Perhaps we could become the most reliable allies to one another.”
Edwin felt the slender fingers on his shoulder tighten.
“If you keep this secret, I will help you in return.”
Help him? With what?
Edwin was confused, yet he could not easily refuse.
He was intrigued by the sudden bargain, and if his half-brother was willing to go this far to conceal the illness, it seemed wrong to speak of it carelessly.
“…Yes. Say nothing, just as you are now.”
Adrian seemed satisfied by Edwin’s silence. He rose slowly to his feet.
“Adrian, Brother…”
His steps were slightly unsteady, precarious.
Yet Adrian quickly straightened his posture and walked with elegant grace.
“I’ll take my leave first.”
At the First Prince’s brief farewell, all Edwin could do was watch his retreating back with deep concern.