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“IT’S time for your punishment, Rutherford.”
“…I thought you’d forgotten.”
Big Brother said that to me the next morning. I was supposed to do my punishment from the drinking game the day before, but our plans changed when we went to the festival unexpectedly. I was hoping he’d just forget about my punishment if I kept my mouth shut, but I was naive.
“When I asked Lady Cynthia, she said the forest in the back is made of naturally growing trees, and it’s not part of the property that they manage. That means you can climb any of them you want,” he teased.
“You already looked into all that…?”
Big Brother was eager to get this done. Or rather, I was the one who would actually be doing it. Big Brother used to make me play all kinds of dangerous games like this when we were kids. I was forced to slide down a steep hill, try to sprint across bodies of water, and catch potentially poisonous bugs with my bare hands.
Big Brother used to do the exact same things, but only because he wanted to. I did my best to keep up with him because I didn’t want him to think of me as a coward. I remembered how pale the guards looked as they chased both princes around in a panic. It was a nostalgic memory now.
But…climbing a tree was the one thing I never did…
“Are you really going to do this? Please be careful not to get hurt.”
Big Brother, Siraiya, and I went to the back of the inn and found Lady Cynthia and Elder Sister there as well. Big Brother brought the two guards who knew about his ears with us, too, just to be safe.
Everyone else was busy eating breakfast. Although we’d be swarmed with guards if the rest of them found out I was about to try climbing a tree. The two guards who came with us were only just figuring that out. They tried to reason with Big Brother, but he talked them out of stopping us.
It would have been a different story if my guards were the ones with us. My will meant nothing to them—only hers. I doubted they would let me persuade them of anything.
“This is the tree. It must’ve been struck by lightning long ago. Look how the center splits, branching off into thick limbs on either side. That makes it perfect for climbing.”
When did Big Brother turn into a tree-climbing expert? He looked up at the big tree, stroking his chin in appreciation.
“Let’s climb, shall we? I’m excited. It’s been years since I did this.”
“You’re climbing too, Big Brother?!” I cried.
“Of course. I’d be setting a bad example if I just sat here and watched you do something so dangerous.”
Then why force me to climb it in the first place? No, I bet he just wants an excuse to climb a tree again.
“All right, I’ll go first. I’ll be waiting for you at the top,” he said.
“You haven’t climbed a tree in a long time, Big Brother, so you should probably take it…”
Before I could finish my sentence, Big Brother crouched down, jumped up into the air, and landed on a thick branch that was higher off the ground than any of our heads.
“What?! What did you just do?!” I cried out, startled by the inhuman way he moved. But Big Brother strolled across the tree branch like it was nothing.
“It looks like I have some new physical abilities, too. Being an animal isn’t so bad after all, is it? Now come and join me up here, Rutherford, Siraiya.”
“You want me to come, too…? Are you certain you understand the purpose of a game penalty, Prince Adelberd…?” Siraiya asked.
“Siraiya, Rutherford, which of you will make it to me first? Come and show off for the beautiful ladies who’re watching us.”
As soon as we heard that taunt, Siraiya and I both gulped. I refused to let my rival in love get the better of me. I knew Big Brother was trying to get us fired up, but we didn’t care. The competition had already begun.
“Damn it…! It’s more slippery than I thought.”
I was fully motivated to climb that tree. But I was also the first to run into trouble.
I’d given up on trying to keep up with Big Brother, but was I really not good enough to keep up with Siraiya either?
What the hell is with this guy, anyway? He got the top grades in school, he won his very first dressage competition, everyone calls him the hardworking and earnest young duke, but worst of all, he has the love of Lady Cynthia. You’re telling me he can climb trees, too?! Is there anything Siraiya can’t do?!
“…Here, take my hand, Prince Rutherford.”
“Sh-Shut up! I don’t need your pity!”
I didn’t want his help. He was pissing me off, so I lashed out at him.
“It’s not pity… We’ll have a problem if you get hurt, that’s all…”
“Keep your concerns to yourself…! Wh-Whoa!”
Maybe it was because I was too focused on yelling, but before I knew it, I lost my grip on the tree. Siraiya grabbed my arm before I could even slip, pulling me up to his branch.
“I didn’t ask for your help… but…I appreciate it…”
I grit my teeth, defeated, but I had no choice but to accept the fact that Siraiya just stopped me from getting hurt. I mumbled out something resembling a “thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Your Highness.”
It was such a straightforward response, I almost wondered if he was trying to piss me off. Nervously, I looked down at the women, worried that Lady Cynthia had seen my disgrace. But Lady Cynthia and Elder Sister were sitting on a blanket spread out on the grass, engrossed in their books.
“They’re not even watching!” I shouted.
What was I fighting so hard for? Wait, I’m supposed to be doing my punishment.
“What, tired already? In that case, you only need to make it up to me.” Big Brother had climbed ahead of us already, but he came back down and sat on a branch only slightly above where Siraiya and I were standing. “Take a look, Rutherford. What a beautiful sight.”
“Ah… You’re right. You can see the ocean from here. It looks so pretty with the sunlight reflecting on it.”
It was gorgeous, but not enough to justify everything I went through to get there. I sure didn’t need to be in a tree to see the ocean.
“Do you remember when we were kids, how you always tried to do everything I asked of you? Even though so much of it was unreasonable. You were too adorable; I just couldn’t help myself.”
“You knew it was unreasonable?!”
“But climbing a tree is the one thing you never did. You clung to the trunk, slipped down every time you tried to climb up, and sobbed that you couldn’t do it when I called your name from up at the top.”
He’s right… That’s the one thing I couldn’t do.
I’d tried many times but couldn’t even reach the first branch. I remembered feeling so sad and lonely when my brother left me, easily scaling the tree from branch to branch. But I didn’t give up just because of that setback. After that day, I started practicing on my own, and once I was finally strong enough to do it…
“Then one day, you asked me to climb trees with you,” Big Brother said. “You said you’d finally learned how.”
“That’s right… But you told me you were done playing childish games… You never played with me again after that.”
“I remember. The time had come for me to grow into an adult. I was engaged to Estellise, and I felt ashamed of my half-hearted efforts to become the crown prince. I decided that I had to give up everything childish in my life.”
“…That was when you made Elder Sister cry?”
I see. So that’s what did it.
I understood how Big Brother felt now that I was older, but back then, it seemed like he wanted nothing to do with me all of a sudden. It broke my heart. I cried for days, wondering if I’d done something to offend my brother. The feeling of having no one else in the world left me in despair.
I became desperate for human interaction…so I did something out of character. I lied, said I wanted to be the crown prince, and formed a faction around me. But in the end, they saw me as a pawn and nothing more. My loneliness only grew.