I stared intently at Vientin. “…You really can’t be fooled.”
Vientin was right.
On the surface of the apple brooch handed over to Arseno, there had been an inscription. <Time traveler, to avoid death, disguise yourself as death.>
To live is to die, and to die is to live. I felt like something along those lines had been written as well.
“…Then, my older brother chose to live by deceiving everyone into thinking he was dead, just as you said.”
“Yes.”
“…”
“I don’t know how he figured it out, though. To be honest, even when I handed him the brooch, I thought it was a rather poor move.”
Vientin had a quite troubled look on his face.
To reinforce his certainty, I added another remark. “Without affecting any point in time, right up to this very moment.”
“So it’s kind of a deception. Since living that way is no different from being dead.”
In truth, I had no idea whether it was possible to attach any sort of logical explanation to this time leap. Perhaps it was a divine blessing that one would be wise not to attempt again next time. But there was one thing I knew for certain.
“If Lord Arseno is still alive, perhaps we can find him.”
At the end of countless timelines, perhaps we would be able to meet his older brother once more. And it was right then that it happened. A servant approached us hurriedly, his face pale.
“That, the person who had been, missing…”
“Hmm?’
I had a bad feeling about this. And as if to confirm that my premonition was correct, a shaggy wild beast emerged from behind him. I hurriedly stepped backward. What is that?
But Vientin was faster than I was. He murmured quietly. “…It can’t be.”
“…?”
I didn’t think that was it, but…
“…Is it someone you know?”
Had my husband always been this free of prejudice?
At that moment, the enormous, shaggy beast, whose face was impossible to make out clearly beneath all that fur, spoke. “It’s me.”
“…?”
I mean, who on earth are you…?
Ignoring my bewildered expression, Vientin muttered, “Brother?”
…? What? That face was completely different from the one I saw before the time travel! And yet, his eyes were unmistakably bright and clear.
“That’s right, Vientin.” He plopped down onto the sofa and muttered wearily, “Well, shall we catch up now?”
“How… did you return?”
“Well, you see.” He gave the servant a casual glance before continuing. “First, would you like to listen to the story of my past few years?”
For Vientin and Me, who had traveled through time, barely a minute had passed. But he must have endured several long, arduous years all by himself. It seemed like it would be a long story.
* * *
Arseno Kalinos. He had actually thought that the strange fellows at the stable subtly resembled time travelers. Coincidentally, what he was researching at the time happened to be related to the future and time. But then…
What is this inscription on the apple brooch? Arseno pondered the words engraved on the apple brooch.
He then took Vientin with him to face them again. As for why he had specifically brought Vientin along… Since Vientin is so tenacious, I thought he might know more about the inscription on this brooch than I do. Besides, his younger brother was quite interested in ‘time travel.’
But on that day, Arseno ultimately discovered the grown-up Vientin sitting on the top of the roof. And then, as though the final piece of a puzzle had fallen into place, the realization came to him in an instant. …Did they come from the future?
Was it because he loved his younger brother and knew that Vientin would develop time-travel technology? Or was it because, as an academic researcher, he had always taken pride in being rather quick-witted?
Then those suspicious stable hands are…
In truth, Arseno wasn’t certain about them. At least, until he visited the stable again the next day. However, the suspicious stable hands had long since vanished without a trace. Having gained certainty from that incident, Arseno frequented the library just enough not to disrupt his daily life as if everything were normal.
For reasons unknown to him, he was going to die in the future. Perhaps that was why Vientin had come to see him. The woman beside Vientin might have been his wife. The way they looked at each other was full of affection.
He looked down at the apple brooch and turned the matter over in his mind again and again. But if I survive, it will create a time paradox. If a time paradox occurred, there was no telling how the future might change.
…What if I faked my death?
Human beings were called human because they were beings who lived through interactions with others. But what if someone remained alive while pretending to be dead, doing nothing but breathing and having no contact with anyone at all? Could such a person still be called human? Could they be considered to have survived?
And so, Arseno made his decision. Driven solely by the blind belief that he couldn’t become a burden to the future Vientin, he endured, endured, and endured again. Sometimes he suffered, while other times he silently endured. He waited for the time when he would need to emerge. Fortunately, he could instinctively sense when the temporal rifts would begin to shift.
And today, at last, he understood. It was time for him, after remaining dead for so many years without catching anyone’s eye, to appear before his family.
…I should leave now.
For some reason, he had grown rather curious. Vientin, what kind of face will he make? Arseno pressed his lips together thoughtfully. The most important person, of course, was his son, Riwes. And so, after passing through several years, he finally returned to the duchy.
After finishing his entire story, Arseno curled his lips into a grin beneath his beard and said, “It’s been a long time. Good to see you.”
“Mmm…”
“Why are you making that face?”
Vientin wasn’t shocked after hearing the whole story. To be precise, even while looking at his heavily bearded brother and hearing that he had lived like a feral hermit for a long time, he didn’t make a shocked expression. Rather, he merely stared at his brother quietly as if he had expected as much. Then, he whispered in a low voice. “First of all, because it hasn’t been a long time for me.”
Beside him, Giselle muttered with a horrified expression, “What are you, a robot?”
Though he didn’t know what a robot was, Arseno shrugged with a somewhat embarrassed face. “I don’t know about my sister-in-law, but I thought you would shed at least a few tears of emotion, Vientin.”
But his younger brother, Vientin, had grown rather stiff in the meantime. Instead of shedding tears or throwing his arms around him, he quietly sat down beside him on the sofa.
“First, Brother, I think you need a shower.”
“Huh?”
“You need to meet Riwes, too.”
Riwes. The son who had lost him due to an unexpected accident. And… My precious child. The second reason he had resolved to survive no matter what and return here.
“Yes, of course.”
Glancing at Vientin as he rolled up his sleeves, Giselle beamed and clapped her hands. “Sounds good. Riwes might be shocked, so let’s start with a shower!”
Had I really become that much of a hermit? But it was fine. Just returning to his family made everything seem perfect. So he pretended not to notice Riwes peeking at him from the far window frame and grinned.
“I’ll take a quick shower and meet you looking handsome, my son.” Thinking of Riwes, whose earlobes must have turned red at this unexpected situation, he stepped into the shower room.
“Um…” Arseno blinked for a moment. Well, his reflection in the mirror looks like an ogre. He then squeezed his eyes shut, opened them again, and smirked. At any rate, I’m alive, aren’t I? That’s enough.
Savoring the pleasures of life, he began enjoying a bubble bath for the first time in ages. While he had been living as though dead, the world had changed quite a bit. But with his beloved family by his side, he was sure he could adapt to all of it.
…I need to return to my world.
This was precisely the story of how a lunatic, whose disposition had turned somewhat twisted after living like a hermit for a while, returned to the Kalinos Mansion. The fact that the entire family cried for quite some time at the eldest son’s return was a story for a little later.
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