We Hold the Initiative

The eldest son of House Librata.

Roderic Librata sat on the edge of his bed, pressing two fingers to his forehead.

He was wounded — a stab wound to the thigh that demanded rest.

But despite the physician’s insistence, he was putting off sleep.

“Rigen.”

In the bed beside his lay his youngest brother.

Rigen, who had made it out of that burning estate alongside him, had not woken up.

The physician trailed off when asked why, saying something about toxic fumes from the fire perhaps causing unconsciousness — and nothing more.

“Useless quack.”

The words slipped out before Roderic could stop them.

He looked down at his brother and slowly shook his head.

He still didn’t understand what had possessed him to do any of it.

“I was out of my mind. Completely out of my mind……”

What he regretted was what he had done — bribing knight-captain Uros to rough up his own brother.

What had he been thinking?

He had convinced himself that Rigen was making a play for the count’s favor, trying to push past him, the eldest.

That learning Elven script had been years in the making — a deliberate scheme.

He had felt betrayed by his own brother.

“What was I thinking…… it was never going to be something like that.”

Roderic covered his eyes and sat with the full weight of his regret.

House Librata was a minor house. He had never, not even in his dreams, imagined himself as the second emperor.

But as the count’s son — as the eldest — he had resolved to carry himself with honor.

That resolve had shattered in the imperial capital the previous year.

It had felt as though the whole world was laughing at him.

He had been anxious, on edge, consumed by the pressure to recover what had been lost, to do something — anything.

For months, that circular thinking had ground him down, until he had misread Rigen’s actions as betrayal.

Without even stopping to ask. Without looking into it at all.

They were brothers.

“And all of it over a title……”

He regretted it.

The brother who had walked through fire beside him.

The brother who had ignored every plea to be left behind and pulled him out to the end — and now lay here unconscious.

He might never get the chance to apologize. He might never get a chance at all.

“Young Master Roderic.”

“……Amelia.”

Roderic looked up.

Seated in the chair beside Rigen’s bed, the wolf beastwoman spoke in a low, measured voice.

“You need proper sleep for your wound to heal.”

“But Rigen is……”

“I’m watching over him. If anything changes, I’ll wake you immediately. Rest.”

Amelia said it plainly.

“If you push yourself and your wound worsens, my workload increases.”

“Ugh……”

“Lie down. Now.”

Sound logic.

Roderic hesitated, and Amelia’s gaze nudged him along.

This maid, who had carried all three of them on her back since they were small — even Roderic gave ground to her.

He finally lay back against his pillow with a long exhale.

“Amelia…… what if he……”

“Young Master Rigen will wake up. You keep that stern, unapproachable face of yours, and be ready for when he does.”

“……Do I really look like that?”

“Yes. You’re not the sort of person people walk up to easily.”

Roderic let out a short, awkward laugh, and Amelia spoke quietly.

“The composure you chose to carry yourself with, that’s not something I have any right to criticize. But even behind that stern face, Young Master Rigen will always walk right up and talk to you.”

“You’re no softer than I am, Amelia. You’re even colder about it.”

“I keep my professional life and my personal life separate. But……”

Amelia’s voice dropped lower.

“Both of you, all three of you, are more precious to me than anything else in this world. Please take care of yourselves.”

“……”

“So, Young Master Roderic, get some real sleep. And when Young Master Rigen wakes up, treat him the way you always have.”

“Right…… I’ll do that……”

The moment he lay down, sleep came for him.

He was recovering from serious wounds, after all.

Roderic closed his eyes — with a firm promise to himself that when Rigen woke, he would apologize.

My teacher’s last words were still circling somewhere in my head.

At the very edge of a long sleep, I opened my eyes.

Above me — a tent ceiling.

I am Sirik Karakas. And right now, I am Rigen Librata, reincarnated.

Good. Mind and memory were intact.

Pushing psychic power past its limits invited all manner of side effects — memory loss, deterioration. In the worst cases, a permanent wreck of a person.

“Mmh……”

I ran a check through my body and carefully let my gaze drift sideways.

Silver-gray hair. A maid’s uniform.

Amelia, sitting in a chair.

Eyes closed. She had fallen asleep.

“……”

I had seen this exact scene before.

I turned my head the other way. A man lying in the bed beside mine.

A young human man. Roderic.

“You’re awake?”

“Still in one piece, I see.”

“Being treated.”

His thigh was wrapped in heavy bandaging.

“Setting yourself aside, you had us genuinely worried. The physician had no idea why you wouldn’t wake up.”

“I was just tired.”

My mental reserves had bottomed out. The body needed time to recover on its own.

A kind of hibernation — a suspended state.

Usually this would last ten days. In bad cases, a full month of unconsciousness.

“How many days has it been?”

“Three.”

I came around fast.

I studied Roderic’s face.

“……What are you staring at?”

“Just thinking you were really worried about me.”

“Forget about me, do something about Amelia.”

Roderic’s voice had dropped, almost involuntarily.

He was afraid of waking her.

I lowered mine too.

“……What did she do?”

“She’s been in that exact position for three days. Barely eaten.”

“……”

When my mental reserves ran dry and I slipped into that suspended state, my body recovered on its own.

And in doing so, it quietly drew in mental energy from those nearby — an automatic emergency transfusion, but one that was just as selective as always.

In other words, it was Amelia and Roderic worrying over me that had pulled me back in only three days instead of ten.

I kept my voice down.

“So what’s the situation? What’s happened here?”

“Father arrived and is handling things. Marquis Burzak’s estate burned to the ground. We’re in a temporary camp set up near the ruins.”

“The bodies of Marquis Crocell and his knight?”

I had to be sure they hadn’t slipped away.

Roderic nodded.

“Both confirmed dead. No question.”

“……Haah.”

I had half-feared one of them had made it out somehow.

I let myself relax — then caught myself and smiled wryly.

Here I was, coming around from unconsciousness and immediately running through the situation report. Some habits from my emperor days died hard.

Might never die at all, honestly.

“Anyway. We both made it.”

“Yes. Thank God.”

Roderic’s face had loosened into something genuine.

Silence.

“This time…… I couldn’t have done it without you, Rigen.”

“More praise, please. With all your heart!”

“……”

“And going forward, you have to address me properly. Put it in your memoirs, nothing but glowing tributes to me. And leave me your entire inheritance.”

“I’m saying this seriously.”

Roderic’s voice was low, quiet.

“……Do you want to be count of Librata?”

“Hiiieeek.”

“Rigen. I mean it.”

“I know, that’s why I said no. Absolutely not.”

Roderic cleared his throat and continued.

“Listen. If you took the title of Librata……”

“You want me to fuss over the welfare of these mountain villagers, work through tax calculations, handle administrative filings? Absolutely not.”

“The judgment and quick thinking you showed handling this situation were in a different class from……”

“I cannot walk into a burning building.”

I cut him off flat.

“And even if I did, I’d have calculated my odds first. I’d walk in only if I was confident I was coming back out.”

“……”

“But you came charging in without thinking twice, threw yourself through fire, and pulled me out. That’s enough. That’s more than enough.”

Roderic said quietly,

“Rigen. There’s something I owe you an apology for. With the knight-captain, I had a mean-spirited……”

“Let’s call it nothing. You came to save me. That settles it.”

Silence.

As if by agreement, we both found the ceiling more interesting than each other.

……God, I cannot say things like this to someone’s face without at least three drinks in me.

This is embarrassing.

I grinned and broke it.

“Buy me drinks sometime. Introduce me to some women. Cosign a loan or two for me.”

“Alicia was asking about you. She was worried.”

“I’m calling off that engagement, and there’s no way around it.”

The first part was my own preference. The second was political reality.

Once the full extent of Crocell’s conspiracy came to light, what to do with Alicia would have to be addressed.

And when that happened, the outcome would almost certainly be severe punishment, or——

“Ah. I can’t just leave her to that.”

“Hm?”

“She cooperated with me during all of this. I’m not leaving someone who helped me to die.”

It was also a matter of principle.

Roderic replied,

“Father’s been wrestling with it too. He wants to hear your thoughts once you’re up.”

“In that case……”

Thump!

Something toppled over.

“Young Master.”

A cool voice.

The conversation had taken a sharp turn, and I went still.

I glanced carefully to my other side.

Amelia had pushed herself up from her chair and was looking straight at me.

Surprise on her face.

Relief and worry tangled together in her eyes.

Even I — the man who had ruled the entire world — felt my stomach drop for just a moment.

……She’s terrifying.

It felt like being a kid caught sneaking out to a gaming cafe after telling your parents you were going to cram school.

Silence.

Amelia said absolutely nothing. She just stared at me.

I looked to Roderic for backup — he had his eyes clenched shut.

“Hello? Roderic? The man who was perfectly conscious and talking up until a moment ago, where did he go?”

“……”

“Your eyebrow just moved! Don’t you dare pretend to sleep!”

The bond forged between brothers in fire evaporated on the spot in the face of Amelia’s anger.

Neither of us had ever been able to hold our ground against her. She had carried us since we were children.

I gave up and turned back around. Amelia called my name quietly.

“Young Master.”

“……Yeah.”

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine now.”

I pushed myself up to sit — and demonstrated it.

And then……

Amelia began to cry without a sound.

Clear tears ran down her white cheeks.

“Uh— uh……”

She pressed her lips together and tried to hold it back, but the corners of her eyes softened, and her shoulders began to rise and fall.

I was on my feet before I knew it.

Amelia tried to stop me from getting up, but I caught her hand and held it.

“Hey, sorry for worrying you. You’re alright? Don’t cry. Or, go ahead and cry, actually. Cry until you feel better.”

“……”

“It’s my fault. I won’t do it again. Actually, I honestly can’t promise that. But it’s getting shorter each time, right? It was five days before, now it’s three. I’m fine now, honestly. Come on, Mom.”

Amelia was doing everything she could to hold it back, but her shoulders kept shaking.

I pressed a hand to them and said gently,

“Mom, it’s okay. It’s okay. I pushed myself a little too hard. And Roderic got hurt worse than me, save some of this for him.”

“……Rigen, you little——!”

“And the big brother who was playing dead over there can go ahead and disappear!”

“I already got mine! I was scolded plenty while you were out!”

Roderic erupted in indignant protest.

I picked up the pillow from my bed and hurled it at him without a second thought.

Roderic threw it back. I returned fire.

A full, committed pillow fight.

Swish, swish.

Watching the two of us go at it, Amelia pressed the back of her hand to the corner of her eye.

A little steadier now.

A hundred words of reassurance were worth less than showing her we were fine. I had learned that lesson through plenty of experience on the other side.

“You’re really all right now, aren’t you, Young Master Rigen?”

“Yep, good as new. That sandwich you made me before was incredible, by the way. Make it again. I’m starving.”

“We don’t have the sauce here. I’ll make it the moment we’re back home.”

Amelia turned away.

“I’ll go and fetch the count. Both of you stay put and rest.”

“Uh, right.”

“And Young Master Rigen, I’m not your mother.”

She said it cleanly and walked out the door.

Roderic and I exchanged a look.

“……Is she still angry, or not?”

“Hard to say. But if she’s still upset, it’s not because of me.”

“The eldest shirking responsibility, some eldest! Take care of it!”

“I told you not to worry her in the first place.”

Roderic laughed like a boy getting away with something.

“I thought you’d changed, but Amelia still has you wrapped around her finger completely. You’ll argue with Father to his face but the moment Amelia scolds you, you just stand there with your lip stuck out and not a word.”

“And you’re so much stronger when she scolds you?”

“I can’t beat her either. She’s carried all three of us since we were babies. What’s anyone supposed to do? I caught it too. Scolded for being the eldest and failing to protect you.”

“That wasn’t……”

Roderic had been ready to die for me. There was nothing to scold him for.

Roderic waved it off.

“Forget it. Either way, I’ll have a word with Amelia separately later, so don’t lose too much sleep over it.”

“You actually promise? Swear it?”

“I swear, you idiot.”

I settled back against the headboard with a wry smile.

It had been quite the commotion — but honestly, it felt easy. Warm.

Amelia, who worried about me this much. A brother who had run into a burning building without a second thought.

Just……

I was happy.

A little while later, the count came in.

He stopped the moment he saw me, then crossed the room quickly.

“Rigen. You’re all right?”

“Actually it was more mental exhaustion, so I’m perfectly fine. But about this……”

I reached over to the side table and picked up the sword that rested there.

The one the count had fastened at my hip before I left.

It had taken everything from me channeling a magic blade through it — now reduced to a bare hilt, nothing left.

“I’m sorry. I……destroyed it.”

“Never mind that. Never mind.”

The count opened his arms wide and pulled me in.

Hard.

“You woke up and Roderic is safe. That’s all I need. A child coming home in one piece — that’s the tradition, and that alone is more than enough!”

“……”

“Well done, Rigen!”

Words that rang somewhere deep.

I hesitated, and caught Roderic gesturing at me from the side.

I stopped second-guessing myself and put my arms around the count.

As a son holding his father.

“Yes. That’s right. That’s all that matters. You’re both safe.”

When the embrace ended, the count stepped back and looked at me, nodding again and again.

The corners of his eyes were wet.

I gave it a moment, then spoke.

“What’s the situation? I heard Marquis Burzak’s estate burned to the ground.”

“Yes, Burzak will take significant losses from this.”

“You brought our soldiers as well?”

“Of course. But Burzak won’t be causing any more trouble. He’s had enough from all of this too, so……”

I shook my head.

“I’m thinking about the aftermath. Your Grace, set some soldiers to searching the ruins of the estate. Quietly. If Marquis Burzak objects, manage him carefully.”

“What are they looking for?”

“What burned that estate wasn’t ordinary fire.”

I let that land, then continued.

“Imperial military explosives, shell-burst rounds, most likely. Search the rubble and you’ll find what’s left of them.”

“……”

The count’s expression hardened.

If I was right, it meant imperial military weapons had been stolen and smuggled out.

“This incident is over. But the moment the dust settles, interference will come from every direction.”

“Yes, the elves are already sending investigators.”

“Once word of Marquis Crocell’s death gets out, the Noble Assembly will send someone too. In my view, this incident is far from ordinary.”

The death of Marquis Crocell. House Librata — one of the twelve houses — caught in the middle of it.

An event large enough to shatter the empire’s hundred years of peace.

I said it clearly.

“Every power in this empire, the ones in the open and the ones in the shadows, will come rushing in to steer the aftermath to their own advantage. But we cannot let them cook this one their way.”

I looked at the count, then at Roderic, in turn.

I thought of everyone who had been part of this with me.

“We hold the initiative.”

The people who worried about me. The people who cared.

I had to keep them safe from whatever came next from the outside.

That was simply what I wanted to do.