Short Story

I was born a blind child. My vision was completely shrouded in white, and I didn't even know where my limbs were. The first emotion I recognized, once I was conscious, was terror.

I was afraid to move my hands. Afraid to walk. Afraid to get out of bed. I couldn't even drink water without my mother's assistance, and I spent my days in the white world, cowering.

My turning point came on that day. A day I would never forget, a late afternoon in early summer.

A high-pitched scream that pierced my ears. It was the crying of a new life that my mother had brought into the world, desperately asserting its presence.

"Lucas, this is your little sister. Will you hold her hand?"

Urged by my mother, I fearfully reached out my hand, relying solely on that cry in the pure white visual world. I had never seen a person, let alone a baby, so I had no idea where her hand was.

As my hand blindly searched, something suddenly brushed against my fingertip. And that something fiercely clenched my index finger. Immediately, the high-pitched crying that had been ringing so painfully in my head stopped, and I soon heard calm breathing.

"Hehe. My little Teya was relieved after holding her big brother's hand, wasn't she?"

"Teya?"

"Yes, Lucretia. That is your sister's name, Lucas."

My mother told me, gently stroking my head. The name of the sister who was strongly grasping my index finger with her tiny hand.

I, who had always been the one who was protected, realized for the first time that I had someone I had to protect. I wanted to guard this small, lovely sister, no matter what it took. For that, I needed to become strong.

From that day onward, I desperately confronted my terror. I moved my hands, actively touching things around me, and moved my legs, walking all over the Royal Castle. I couldn't count how many times I jammed my fingers, how many times I tumbled down stairs and uneven surfaces, or how many times my Father was angry and my Mother was worried.

Three years later, I could freely walk around the Royal Castle. I had also acquired the technique of grasping my surroundings by relying on my hearing, which had become more acute since I couldn't see.

"Good morning, Prince Lucas."

"Good morning, Marquis Puridy. Lily is with you today."

"Ah, yes. She pestered me about meeting Princess Lucretia, so I brought her. Come on, Lily. Greet His Highness."

"G-Greetings to you, Prince Lucas."

"Greetings, Lily. Thank you for being friends with my sister. Let's continue to be friends, okay?"

"Y-Yes!"

I smiled at Lily, who curtseyed while holding the hem of her dress. Marquis Puridy was probably surprised that I noticed Lily's presence even though she hadn't said a word. I could somewhat sense that much through their breathing, even if I couldn't see their faces.

I bade them farewell and headed toward the courtyard. A single Knight was there.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Roan."

"No worries. You're right on time, Your Highness."

Roan Ashblade, a young Knight belonging to the Royal Knights. He was the sword instructor I had asked my parents to find for me. No matter how busy Roan was, he always made time to come to the Royal Castle once a week to teach me swordsmanship.

It must have been painstakingly difficult to teach swordsmanship to a blind person like me. Still, Roan persevered, and he continued to teach me, just as he would teach a normal boy who could see.

Then one day, I heard Roan had been put under disciplinary house arrest after a massive brawl with another Knight. Apparently, the Knight had insulted Roan for continuing to teach me swordsmanship.

Roan laughed and told me it was perfect timing since he was bored with the house arrest anyway, and came to teach me as usual.

"You should have just ignored him. It's a waste to damage your career for someone like me."

"Don't be silly, Your Highness. I wasn't angry for you. I just couldn't tolerate a guy insulting a man who was determined to become stronger for his sister."

"...You're strange."

"I could say the same about you, Your Highness."

Roan's swordsmanship lessons continued until I was eleven. I actually wanted to learn more, but unfortunately, an epidemic had spread in the Royal Capital, and I could no longer casually invite Roan to the Castle.

Around that time, my mother's health steadily worsened. It was clear from her symptoms that she had contracted an illness different from the epidemic. But because the epidemic had spread from my mother's maternal home, the Drephon territory, Father isolated Mother and Lucretia in the spire.

In hindsight, Father must have tried to protect Mother and Lucretia in his own way. With deaths from the epidemic starting to occur inside the Royal Castle and the women's quarters, the Castle was a tense, volatile place. It was undeniably a situation where ill will could be directed at Mother and Lucretia at any time.

But because of that, Mother couldn't receive proper treatment. Mother wasted away and passed away right in front of Lucretia.

The fact that this left a profound emotional scar on Lucretia and that Father abandoned Mother were undeniable truths. I would probably resent my Father and my own inability to do anything for Mother and Lucretia for the rest of my life.

Time passed, and a while after the epidemic subsided.

On my fifteenth birthday, I was gifted a Skill from God.

The Skill, 〈Evil Eye〉.

This Skill, which could see everything but at the same time see things I didn't want to see even better, drenched my world, which had been shrouded in white, in a chaotic storm.

My brain screamed from the endless inflow of visual information, and a severe headache scrambled my head. I was barely sane for the next two years. It wasn't until two years later that I could somehow manage my daily life by covering my eyes with a blindfold.

Even through the blindfold, 〈Evil Eye〉 relentlessly provided me with information about my surroundings. It was a curse-like Skill, but thanks to it, I was able to see my sister's face for the very first time.

"Brother Luc..."

A delicate girl huddling on the bed in a dim room. It took me a little while to understand that she was my sister.

The girl who strongly grasped my index finger when she was a baby, the one who would cling to me, calling "Big Brother Lu~" whenever she visited Mother, had become so frail and weak in the time I had procrastinated.

I had decided to protect her, but...

"...It's been a while, Teya. Are you doing well?"

"Yes, Brother Luc."

Teya smiled fleetingly, her face thin and gaunt. Since Mother died, Teya had withdrawn into her room. She wasn't sleeping much; dark circles were under her eyes.

...This cannot continue.

With Father's illness worsening day by day, my two older brothers had started forming their own factions, taking action to become the next King. If either of them became King in this situation, Lucretia would be discarded as a political pawn.

I didn't care what happened to me. But I had to protect Lucretia this time, no matter what.

From that day, I began taking action to enter the Succession Conflict. I begged for cooperation from my older sister, who was the Captain of the Royal Knights, and established my faction with the Royal Knights, led by Roan, as my backing.

With my roots tied to the Drephon territory, the birthplace of the epidemic, I didn't have much support from the nobles or the populace. It was a piece of unexpected luck that Chancellor Marquis Prime and other officials sided with me.

The judgment must have been that I, who simply wanted to become King to protect my sister, was, for better or worse, a preferable option over Older Brother Slay, who prioritized the nobles too much, or Older Brother Blut, who was pushing a populism policy pandering to the military and common people.

The bottle-neck in entering the Succession Conflict was Lucretia's existence. The likelihood of my brothers harming Lucretia during the competition was extremely high. If anything happened to Lucretia, what would have been the point of my aiming to be King?

"Then, how about hiding Princess Lucretia until the Succession Conflict is settled?"

Marquis Prime suggested that. His bold plan was to change Lucretia's appearance using a magic item owned by Father (which only changed her hair color and style) and enroll her into the Royal Academy as a boy.

Prime immediately explained the situation to Father and secured the magic item.

"His Majesty and Lady Rutiana often used that magic item to sneak out of the Castle. Those were the days. There was a girl with the 〈Cook〉 Skill at a popular diner in the castle town, and His Majesty and Lady Rutiana were extremely fond of her cooking."

After having to listen to almost three hours of reminiscing, the preparations went smoothly.

Despite various setbacks, Lucretia successfully received her Skill and began diligently studying for the Royal Academy entrance exam. Roan's suggestion to assign Alyssa, a young female Knight close to her in age, as her attendant also seemed to have been a good decision.

The day of the Royal Academy entrance exam finally came. I was briefly relieved to have sent Lucretia off safely, but then a report came in, before dusk, that Lucretia had been kidnapped by a human trafficking organization.

She didn't stand out much since she had been confined to her room since Mother's death, but apparently, my sister was quite the troublemaker.

Fortunately, Lucretia was saved by a local noble boy who happened to be nearby.

The boy's name was Hugh Pnocis. The only information we could gather about him was that he was the only son of the Baron Pnocis family, whose territory was in a remote mountainous area far from the Royal Capital, and that he had no relatives in the Royal Capital.

The Pnocis family was completely off my older brothers' radar due to their geographical location. It was a stroke of luck that I didn't have to worry about the possibility of my older brothers discovering Lucretia's true identity... but my relief was short-lived.

The next morning, a report came in that the boy was somehow Lucretia's roommate in the boys' dormitory.

How did that happen? I had secured a single room for Lucretia under the pretense of "difficulty accommodating the number of passing students." She wouldn't be able to hide her true identity if she had to share a room with a boy.

...Even so, forcefully changing an already decided room arrangement from the outside would cause suspicion. Someone would surely realize Lucretia's true identity.

It can't be helped now. The boy, by chance, also gained the merit of destroying the human trafficking organization. I would call him to the Castle under some plausible pretext and try to gauge his character.

I asked Roan to draft a summons and immediately sent it to the boy.

That evening,

"Brother Luc! I think I'm in love!"

My sister, who was supposed to be at the Royal Academy, excitedly burst into my private room, causing me a great deal of distress.

To captivate Lucretia, who had been withdrawn and glum since Mother's death, in just one day... She was so ecstatic that she had regained the brightness she had before Mother's passing.

Hugh Pnocis. Just who in the world are you...?