“Your Highness.”
I smiled at them sweetly. “Stale doesn’t know how to read,” I said, “so I’d like to read this book to him. Father said that was a nice idea.”
I’d given the guards outside my own room the same story. It was a lie, certainly, but using my father’s name meant that they couldn’t stop me. They hesitated only a moment before stepping aside.
“Stale? I’m coming in.”
The room lay cloaked in pitch-black darkness when I entered. Once the door closed behind me, I strained to make out anything around me. Only the faint moonlight filtering in through the window provided any help.
“Princess Pride?” Stale said. “Is there something you need from me?”
I’d found him. Stale was sitting on his bed, hugging his knees to his chest. When he looked up at me, he seemed even more worn and weary than he had this afternoon when he’d first arrived.
“I’m sorry to bother you so late,” I said. “I simply had to speak with you before you signed the contract tomorrow.”
I took step by careful step toward Stale, slowly, trying not to scare him. It was like approaching a wild animal without them spooking and dashing off.
“The crown princess wants to speak with me?” he said, cocking his head.
“Tell me, Stale. You want to see your mother, don’t you?”
His eyes widened. All the weariness fled, replaced by sharp focus.
Wait, that’s the exact same line from the game! It’s how Pride introduces the contract to Stale. Shoot.
It seemed that any time I followed the plot of the game more closely, I could also remember it more clearly. Like now. I retrieved the item hidden in my dress and showed it to Stale.
“What’s that?” His eyes went even wider.
“It’s the key for those handcuffs. I snuck into Father’s study and borrowed it. Now you’ll be able to run away.”
Without those shackles, Stale could teleport again. In the game, Pride forced him to use that talent for assassinations. He once even used it to transport himself and the heroine outside the palace. Now, hopefully, it would take him to his mother. With the money she’d surely gotten from giving up her son, she and Stale could escape to the countryside.
“I can’t do that.”
I didn’t even breathe for a moment, stunned into silence. “Why not?” I finally asked.
“Mom said I can’t go see her anymore,” he said. “I’m supposed to serve Your Highness, live a happy life here at the castle, and forget all about her. If I run away, my family will face terrible punishment. That’s what the person from the castle told me before I came here. I don’t want Mom to be punished.”
His knuckles turned white as he gripped his pants and stared at the floor. His eyes shone with suppressed tears.
I see. So that’s why he bought it when Pride said she’d let him see his mother. With Pride’s official permission, his mother wouldn’t face punishment.
Unfortunately, that too was a lie. I couldn’t do anything about the threat hanging over Stale’s family. A boy adopted into the royal family would never be allowed to visit commoners. He had to be protected from assassinations and kidnappings while also exemplifying upstanding royalty to the kingdom’s citizens. I’d heard the adults saying as much, and even my eight-year-old mind could understand it. If the order came from the castle, it was set in stone.
“When the man from the castle first came, he wanted me to leave the next day, but I just couldn’t do it,” Stale said. “I ran away and put up a fight. But His Royal Highness granted me two weeks before I had to leave, so I spent that time talking to Mom, and when we finally said goodbye, I didn’t have any regrets. She told me how much she loved me.” Stale stopped, head hanging even heavier. In a hushed voice, he added, “She cried so much…”
He went on, “I know they’ll just pick another kid if I manage to run away. I have a friend whose only family is his little sister, and he has a special power like me. I don’t want him to end up here instead.”
I could hardly believe my ears. Stale was only seven years old, and he already had such compassion for the well-being of others. Shame burned my cheeks, his words searing my heart. I’d encouraged him to act selfishly, and he’d outright refused. I definitely didn’t remember this from the game. Pride is…no, I’m such a terrible person. How could I be so cruel to this child? How could I make him kill his own mother?
Once he learned that Pride’s promise of reuniting him with his mother was just a trick to get him to sign the fealty contract, Stale came to hate Pride for what she’d done, and yet, due to the binding contract, he had to obey her every order. Then, on the day before Tiara’s birthday, Pride kept her word in the most horrible way possible.
“Stale, remember my promise? I’ll let you see your mother now,” she said. Then she handed him the knife. “Use this to kill her, and be sure no one sees you.”
Stale’s eyes went wide, mouth falling open as all the blood drained from his face.
Pride cackled. “Ah, there it is! That’s the face I wanted to see.”
Unable to disobey her orders, Stale murdered his mother, and in so doing wounded his heart in a way that would never heal.
Is that what I’m going to do to him too?
Without the memories of my past life, perhaps. Maybe I would have been just as cruel as Pride, seeking to torture a new reaction out of Stale every day, using him like a toy, an amusement. Could those memories save me from becoming that sort of monster?
I observed the boy curled up before me, and guilt stabbed into my gut. How could I apologize? He didn’t even know what horrible things I was capable of. I just stood there with the key to the handcuffs, feeling useless and ridiculous.
“Thank you very much for thinking of someone like me,” Stale said, presumably noticing I was at a loss for words. “I’m glad you’ll be my elder sister, Princess Pride. It’s an honor. But I don’t need that key you have, so please go back to your room. I’ll see you tomo—”
I lunged forward, wrapping my arms around Stale before he could finish. He was slender for a boy, even if he was a year younger than me. I felt like I might break him if I used any more force. Just how much strength and how much kindness did Stale carry in those fragile bones?
I wouldn’t be the one to save him, though. That role belonged to Tiara.
Only her compassion and pure love could heal his scars. The more Stale found ways to protect her (unbeknownst to Pride, of course), the more her happiness became his hope in the world. He didn’t lose his way, even when Pride ordered him to interfere in political matters or carry out assassinations using his power. Around Tiara, he was always the kind older brother—a human and never a monster.
I couldn’t save Stale. I couldn’t help him escape. All I could do was bind him to me for the rest of our lives. In that case, at the very least…
“I promise I won’t cause you any more suffering,” I said. “I’ll make it so everyone in this kingdom, including you and your mother, can spend each day with a smile on their faces! I swear it, for as long as I live.”
The tears flowed free before I even finished speaking. How shameful. Especially in front of Stale, who must have held back so many tears in my presence. I swiped at my eyes with my arm and sniffled, still holding him tightly.
Some dependable big sister I’m being right now, crying at a time like this.
Stale stayed silent in my arms for a while. Then a knock sounded on the door, probably the guards here to usher me away.
Glad I managed to stop crying.
I gently detached myself from him. Stale kept his head up, meeting my gaze. The moonlight glistened in the wetness on his cheeks. It looked like neither of us had escaped this conversation without waterworks, but I was supposed to be the one here to comfort him, not the opposite. I wiped the tears from his face with my fingertips.
“I’m sorry to keep you up so late,” I said. “Goodnight, Stale. I hope you get a good night’s sleep.”
I forced a smile.
Stale’s lips trembled, as if he was trying to offer me parting words of his own, but I couldn’t make out anything he said.
Ten more years. At the very least, I could use this time to do everything in my power as the crown princess to improve things for people like Stale. I steeled my heart around that solemn resolution and left the room with that vow in my soul.