Starting with a comparatively minor detail, back in the carriage during our survey, he said he could “read some, but not all” of my Japanese writing—and yet he’s basically fluent in this letter!
Then there’s his memory. Even if it was temporary, he had regained it. Was that why? Was his mastery of Japanese awakened with the return of those missing memories?
He even used all three alphabets—hiragana, katakana, and kanji! If I had to nitpick, the only issue was that some of his characters were shaped slightly weird? So, basically fluent. But maybe his weird handwriting came from using mine as a guide…
Y-yeah, that’s probably it.
And those “two reasons why my memory returned”—what are they?!
That’s kind of super important, brother of mine!
I don’t care if you don’t have proof, just write it down! He didn’t write a rough draft for that letter, so he probably just scribbled it all down as he went—which probably means he accidentally started writing about something he didn’t intend to reveal and had to take it back.
“……” I stared hard at the letter and fell deep into thought.
Based on what he said in this letter…he might have written it while he felt himself returning to the version of himself without those memories…
But regardless, are Sirius’s headaches caused by his missing memories…?
I looked up from the letter and asked the guard, “What were your impressions of Sirius after he handed you this letter? Did he look ill?”
“No, my lady. After he handed me the letter, he seemed to be feeling better…but he did come back once after that to ask some final questions, perhaps in connection with the prisoner relocation.”
So I was right. After he handed over the letter, Sirius turned back to (for lack of a better word) “normal”… Is that the most likely scenario? Maybe he didn’t understand what he was doing there, so he asked the guard for confirmation… Unless, maybe he didn’t even remember writing the letter…? Yeah, no, maybe I should just assume he didn’t remember…?
“When he came back to ask questions—did he ask about the letter?”
“He did not ask about it, no… Should I have shown him the letter once more then?” The guard sounded worried.
I smiled reassuringly. “Of course not. You followed my brother’s orders well.”
If anything, not mentioning the letter was a great move. Going off the contents of the letter, if my brother found out the letter existed—or if he read it—he might be very confused, despite having written it himself…
Then again, calling both of these versions of Sirius simply “my brother” was confusing.
Maybe I should draw a distinction between the two?
One of them can just be called “my brother.” And as for the other… If I want a different way to express the fact that he’s my brother… Big Brother… Brother-dearest… Big Bro… Bro… Brosky?
I already refer to him as “Brother” when I talk to him, so that would be the safest bet, I guess…but I kinda want to make a distinction.
Hmmm…
Then I suddenly remembered.
“Isn’t Big Brother a bit stiff ? You could call me Bro-bro. I heard that’s a cute nickname some people use.”
“……Big Brother.”
When we were kids, Sirius wanted me to call him something cuter and more familiar, but I pretended not to notice.
But when I was Maki, I called my big sister the Japanese version of “sis” all the time—
“Onii-chan—”
Without thinking, I said the Japanese word for brother.
I remembered having this strange aversion to calling him “Onii-chan” or any cute version of the word “brother” back then.
Saying the word out loud now…feels weird.
“…”
Well…okay then, let’s make the distinction some other way!
Like, I could call the version of Sirius who wrote the letter “former brother” or “original brother” or “brother 1”… Isn’t that a bit robotic?
Maybe…I could distinguish by memory.
“My brother (with memories)” and “my brother.”
A bit expositiony, but it works!
Okay, that’s settled.
I looked down at the letter from my brother (with memories) again.
The most important bit of news was that my brother (with memories) had taken action to save Hugh. The very man who gave Hugh the command that imprisoned him had aided him.
And roped Father into it, too?
Let’s just assume we avoided the worst-case scenario and the only people who knew the finer details were as good as gone now. One was Hugh—relocated—and the other was my brother (with memories) who had devised the scheme to have Hugh moved.
Should I just go talk to my brother?
No, wait. I can’t forget that the person who gave the relocation order was my father the king himself…
That’s right, my father!
Should I…go ask my father directly?
It would be nice if I could just bump into him around the castle, but that rarely happened. If I wanted to speak with him, even though I was his daughter, I had to request an audience. And it was proper for me to do so through Matilda, my chief lady-in-waiting.
I can’t meet with him at a moment’s notice!
Such is the plight of having a king for a father. It was easy for my father to see me, but the reverse was abnormally difficult…!
Hey! Don’t be all doom and gloom, Octavia!
Even though everything worked out in the end, I wouldn’t be in this predicament now if I had just acted as soon as the idea came to me! And I’m not under the late-night hype’s influence now, so it’s time to prioritize action over caution!
I did a mental fist pump. With my resolve renewed, I tucked the letter in my skirt pocket and said, “Thank you for delivering the letter.”
“Yes, Princess!”
The guard bowed. His shoulders looked a thousand pounds lighter.
Well, then—
I turned to look at Klifford.
“Klifford, I know where we’re going next.”
“And where may that be, Your Highness?”
Where else?
“His Majesty’s study.”