Is that really how you greet your son…? I felt a mix of disgust and disappointment. But there was no point getting upset now. Mother had been this way since I was little. Besides, she was probably too worried about her own situation to concern herself with anyone else.
“Of course not… But will you at least apologize to Big Brother once everything is resolved, Mother? I can’t say you won’t be punished, but I’ll confess and apologize, too. I’ll do whatever it takes to avoid the worst possible outco—”
“Silence!” Mother raised her voice and flung her wine glass in my direction. It shattered against the nearest wall, sending wine splattering everywhere. “You wish to abandon your own mother?! If they find out I made the cursed book, I’ll be locked up inside one of the castle towers!”
I scowled. Elzeria’s second queen—my birth mother—put Big Brother into this predicament in the first place.
It wasn’t her first time resorting to curses either.
The people of Mother’s home country, Sanctoria, believed in supernatural phenomena. There were all sorts of curses like this one—and every last one of them was dubious at best. They were all myths, and not a single curse was capable of consistently producing otherworldly results. Mother had tried and failed many times to curse Big Brother… At least, she’d failed until now.
“Let’s just put Big Brother back to normal, Mother. You can undo the curse with this book, right?”
For some reason, this curse and this curse alone was the one that worked. The curse that turned a person into a cat or dog had only been halfway successful, and Big Brother ended up with cat ears and a tail. When Big Brother suddenly hid himself away and told the world he was ill, Mother was, at first, overjoyed. But then she got scared.
Her curse might have really worked. She was so convinced she would fail again, she didn’t even bother plotting a cover-up. Someone could have seen her putting the cursed book in the library. She begged me to get it back for her—that if she was convicted, she would be imprisoned in a castle tower since she was part of the royal family.
I didn’t think it would go that far, but when I saw what a terrible state she was in, I couldn’t just leave her like that. I ended up requesting a meeting with Big Brother.
Instead, Big Brother fled the castle without even saying a word to me. I couldn’t believe it. I was so shocked, I chased him all the way down to the hot spring resort. That was where I learned the truth of his condition.
If Mother’s involvement with the cursed book went public…then she was right. The worst possible outcome wasn’t unrealistic at all.
Mother had done something awful. But then I made it worse when I recovered the cursed book for her. Still, I couldn’t bear to see my own mother waste away until her death in solitary confinement.
Even though we never had a good relationship, I still had memories of Mother doting on me as a child, calling me her “future king.” I didn’t have it in me to throw her to the wolves.
“The best option is to put Big Brother back to normal and beg for his forgiveness. As long as you’re honest, you might still be able to avoid spending the rest of your life imprisoned. If that’s still not enough, I’ll offer to have my name removed from the royal family. Big Brother should take pity on me that way. …He’s a very caring person, after all. I’m sure of it now that I’ve been talking to him so much.”
The Elzerian king—Father—would decide on a punishment, but I knew my loving Big Brother would intervene to save me. That way, Mother might not have to spend her entire life in prison.
I clutched my bear plushie, trying my best to change her mind. Mother seemed to suddenly regain her composure. She caught her breath and spoke to me calmly.
“The curse will be broken if you burn the book. Everything will go back to how it’s supposed to be. As my darling son says, we have a duty to restore order…”
“Mother…! You understand, don’t you?!”
Mother smiled affectionately at me. I was so happy my words had finally reached her.
This was all thanks to Lady Cynthia. If I’d never met her, I wouldn’t have learned how to get my feelings across to other people. But now I was genuinely confident in myself. Maybe it was a little pathetic that I had to squeeze my bear plushie for strength, but that was only to feel Lady Cynthia’s presence and gain more courage through her.
“Put it in the fireplace. Let’s end this.”
“…All right.”
I tossed the book into the fireplace, allowing the flames to eat away at the pages. Big Brother was finally going to go back to normal.
“Come here, my darling son.”
“Mother…”
She took my hand, leading me out of the room.
“It’s time for a new era.”
Mother said that while we strolled down the hallway, but I didn’t understand.
“A new era…? Mother, what do you—”
“You can finally take your true form. Don’t you find it strange? A Sanctorian princess marries the king, but her son doesn’t get to be the king, too? And to make it even worse, that man wouldn’t let you take the middle name ‘Alan!’ He wanted to make a fool of you; I just know it!”
Alan was the name of the very first Elzerian king, who, according to legend, founded our country. When Big Brother was born, Father gave him the middle name “Alan” in honor of that king, but Mother wasn’t allowed to do the same for me.
Mother had always resented him for that, even though Father had a reason. To be blunt, he needed to protect his first wife—the Elzerian queen.