You’ll Regret It
After lunch, they dragged me to a general store.
“I’ll wait in the carriage.”
“There might be something interesting, you know.”
Yeah… ribbons and trinkets, right?
There’s nothing for a man like me to look at.
But if I don’t at least go inside once, Brigitte will nag me, so I’ll go in and then slip out.
Inside, it was exactly what I expected—ribbons, hair ornaments, stuffed animals, little accessories, all the things women like.
“Sorry, I’m heading out. There’s a bookstore across the street, so call me when you’re done.”
We also had female knights as guards today, so leaving the three of them together should be fine.
It was good that the bookstore was right across the road.
A bookstore in the royal capital should have new releases, so this looked promising.
Near the entrance, there was a display piled high with new adventure and romance novels.
The deeper into the shop, the more it shifted to specialized books.
I scanned the titles from the top shelf down, hoping for something interesting about plants or grains.
“List of Inedible Plant Fruits”
“List of Grain Varieties Not in Circulation”
I found those two and picked them up to skim through when someone said, “You’re looking at something unusual.”
I turned around and found an elderly man with white hair.
“Those books are so niche they don’t sell at all.”
“Are you the shopkeeper?”
“That’s right. Sorry if I startled you.”
Apparently both books were written by the same author, and because I seemed genuinely interested, he got curious and spoke to me.
“They looked interesting, so I was checking them out. I’m planning to buy them.”
“I see. If you ever have questions about those books, send me a letter and I’ll answer what I can.”
The card he handed me had the shop’s address, its name, and his name on it.
“This is the same name as the author…”
“I wrote those when I was young.”
I bought those two plus one new adventure novel—three books total—and left the store.
I never imagined the author himself was running a bookstore…
Just as I got into the carriage, the three came out of the general store, looking satisfied with their purchases, so we headed back to the mansion.
There was a knock at the door.
Georges opened it, and it seemed Brother Gerald had come.
“Hardt, do you have a moment?”
“Brother Gerald, what’s wrong?”
“‘What’s wrong,’ you say. Go talk to our older brother already.”
“… We’ve been talking.”
“You know that’s not what I mean. Don’t dodge this.”
“Father told me the same thing. But the decision won’t change.”
“If you don’t settle this properly, you’ll regret it.”
“...…”
“Come on. I’ll go with you, so say what you need to say to him.”
Brother Gerald grabbed me and dragged me to Brother Chris’s room.
“Hardt, sit.”
Brother Gerald pushed my left shoulder down and sat me on the sofa.
“Go on, Hardt.”
“……”
“You still think this is your fault?”
Brother Chris was the one who asked.
“I can’t say it isn’t. Normally the third son would be the one adopted out.”
“There are exceptions. This time is one of them.”
“But…”
“There are people in this country suffering. I want to make them smile like the people of Westland. I also want to test how far I can go.”
“You can do that in Westland.”
“Hardt, you already developed it. If I inherited it now, all I’d do is maintain what he built.”
“… Because I overdid it.”
“Hardt, don’t say it would’ve been better if you hadn’t made the people prosper. Even if we live apart, we’re still in the same country. We might not see each other often, but we’ll see each other a few times every year.”
“That’s right. Atre will probably be one of the guardians of the Great Forest, and Lucas is there too. Just accept it already.”
Brother Gerald ruffled my hair roughly.
“Hardt, take care of Father and the others. We can trust Westland to you.”
Brother Gerald nodded as well.
“But you didn’t have to choose the problematic former Bright Margrave Territory…”
“It’s not that I have no chance of success. I just need a bit of help from you and Gerald. Think of it as a gift from the two of you.”
Brother Chris said that with a smile.
“If anything happens to either of you, I’ll come running. If you need advice, I’ll give it. And if something happens to me or Gerald, you’d come running too, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course.”
“Then nothing changes. Even if we live in different places, the bond between brothers stays the same.”
What do you think about this chapter?
