I sit down alongside Lilia-san under the bright moonlight.
Lilia-san looks at the stars twinkling in the night sky for a while and is silent, and after a while, she slowly opens her mouth.
[Kaito-san, you know that I'm a former princess, right?]
[Yes.]
[I was in a very delicate position as a princess. Older Brother... The current king is 18 years old at that time, and anyone knows how the ages of this country's first prince and first princess are close to each other. I think Luna should have already mentioned before that my brother and I are half-siblings.]
[...Yeah.]
[I'm the "daughter of the Queen", while Older Brother is the "son of a concubine".]
[!?]
I'm quite surprised inwardly at Lilia-san's words, which she tells me point by point.
The current king is the son of a concubine, and Lilia-san is the daughter of the queen... I honestly thought it was the other way around.
[As you can imagine, there was quite a struggle when Older Brother ascended the throne at the age of 25. I was the Queen's long-awaited first child, who had long been childless, and there was a faction of people who insisted that I should be installed as this country's queen. In the end, since I was very young, it seems that Older Brother decided to take the throne.]
[.....]
[That should have been the end of it all, but now, I'm in a dispute with Older Brother's children about the next succession.]
[...That is, well, I don't know what to say...]
[Ah, don't get me wrong, even if the people around us have some things to say, the relationship between us is good. My brother adored me as he did to his children, and the prince and princess love me like their sister.]
Lilia-san had a slight smile on her face when she said that, before her expression turned serious... as if she's regretting something that happened in the past.
[You already know about this... I'm currently taking the family name "Albert" rather than the royal name of Symphonia. The reason for that is simple... I ran away from the struggle for succession...]
[...I had the impression that Lilia-san didn't seem to have much interest in the throne though...]
[I don't have any interest at all. However, a lot of people expected me to do this and I didn't want to betray them, so it has always been ambiguous. That's the biggest mistake I've made in my life... If I had made it clear as early as possible that I wouldn't be taking over the throne... If I had...]
Lilia-san bites her lip in frustration.
Apparently, this seems to be the most important part of the story.
Lilia-san wasn't interested in the succession to the throne. But the people around her... The people who were pushing for Lilia-san wanted her to be the Queen.
As a result of her ambiguity, Lilia-san was caught up in a battle for the succession huh?
[...Sieg and I have been together ever since I can remember. Since Rei-san was a court mage working for the royal palace, Sieg used to play with me a lot since I was a child.]
[Lilia-san and Sieg have known each other since they were children huh.]
[Yes, it was Sieg who taught me swordsmanship. To me, Sieg is like my older sister, my master in swordsmanship, and an irreplaceable close friend.]
Thereupon, Lilia-san stops speaking once, turns her gaze to the sky again, and begins to speak the rest of the story with a somewhat distant look in her eyes.
[Actually, Sieg was supposed to be the Division Commander of the Second Division, but she recommended me because she thought it would be a good experience for my future, and she herself became my second-in-command, supporting me. Sieg was really, always, always there to help me, worrying about me in this complicated position I have... And yet, I...]
[.....]
[Sieg advised me many times that if I wasn't interested in taking the throne, I should clearly state my intentions, but still, I remained ambiguous, and that decision of mine invited the worst thing that could have happened.]
[...The worst thing that could have happened?]
I think I can somehow imagine it.
Sieg-san used to be a member of the Knights Order, where she lost her voice due to a wound she suffered at that time.
And what Lilia-san just told me about the struggle for succession, and her expression of regret from the past... That is to say...
[At my invitation, that time was Luna's second year in the Knights Order who used to be an adventurer.]
[...Eh? Luna-san was also a former member of the Knights Order?]
[Yes, well, she wasn't really concerned about becoming a knight, as when I got my peerage and left the Knights Order, she readily quit and followed me.]
[That certainly sounds like Lunamaria-san...]
[Yes, seriously... Sieg, Luna, and I were always together. Luna would tease me, I'd get mad about it, while Sieg would just chuckle before calming me down... We had that kind of relationship.]
It seems that Lunamaria-san has always been like that, and that scene somehow came to mind.
You could say that they are rightly regarded as best friends who know each other well, but I could tell from the look on Lilia-san face that she really cares about them.
At that point, Lilia-san paused for a moment again, and slowly began to cut to the main topic of the conversation.
[...One day, it was decided that the First to the Third Divisions will be working together on the mission to defeat a monster outbreak. There are many powerful monsters, and our preparations were extensive... Based on the information given to us beforehand, the plan was for each of us to deploy our forces from three directions and take control of the area.]
[....]
[We moved to a safe zone that had been identified by preliminary research, and I left command to Sieg, who moved with Luna to meet with the rest of the division. And it was there that a fact was revealed.]
[A fact?]
[Yes... The information given to my division was "swapped out" and the location where my division was deployed was "next to the monsters' nest".]
[What!?]
I was astonished to hear the words Lilia-san told me.
That is to say, Lilia-san's division was caught by surprise by the monsters when she thought it was a safe zone and let her guard down.
[As I had just said, the monsters that were the target of our defeat were quite powerful and numerous, and it wasn't something that only one division could deal with. At worst, they could have even been wiped out... but thankfully, that wasn't the case.]
[Sieg-san had...]
[Luna and I soon joined in, and the rest of the division moved quickly and the monsters were defeated. My division was also very fortunate, as thanks to Sieg frantically battling the monsters, it was really fortunate that no one had died. However, Sieg... was so badly wounded that she couldn't be healed with Recovery Magic, and she wandered between life and death for days.]
I don't know much about battles, but for her to fight against a large number of monsters that would need three divisions to deal with them, if she had to fight against them while protecting the other knights from dying, wouldn't she end up battling the monsters while using her body as their shield?
That there were no deaths in that battle could really be called a miracle.
[And then, when Sieg regained consciousness a few days later... She had lost her voice due to the deep wound in her throat.]
[...]
[In the end, I couldn't find the person who switched the information before the operation, but considering the timing, it was more likely that this was planned by someone from the prince or princess's faction who didn't want me to earn any more military honors than I have now...]
[...]
[It was my fault... It's because I didn't make it clear to them... Because of that... Because of that... Sieg had...]
What should I say to her? If you ask me if it's Lilia-san's fault, after what she just said, I can see that it's not her fault at all.
However, Lilia-san, who has a strong sense of responsibility, wouldn't agree with that.
While I couldn't think of any words to say in reply, Lilia-san goes on with her story.
[Sieg didn't blame me. Rei-san and Fia-san also forgave me, saying that as long as their daughter forgave me, so did they. However, I can't forgive myself for that.]
[...…..]
[And so, just when Older Brother was conferring me my peerage, I ran away from the struggle for succession. I couldn't bear to see the people I cared about get hurt anymore... and at the same time, I tried to find some way to bring Sieg's voice back... but none of the means I found were realistic.]
[Could it be... the Fruit of the World Tree...]
[Yes. The Fruit of the World Tree is an incredibly valuable thing. So precious that even I, a duchess, have never even seen one in person...]
Having spoken until that point, Lilia-san doesn't continue to speak further and becomes silent.
I see, that's why Lilia-san's eyes changed color when she heard about the prize of this year's winner... Because that's what Lilia-san has been looking for all along, something that can restore Sieg-san's lost voice...
[...Lilia-san.]
[Yes?]
[It's not like I'm just trying to say nice things... But I don't think it's Lilia-san's fault at all.]
[...Thank you very much.]
The conversation didn't last any longer, but I felt the tense feeling around Lilia-san eased up a little bit.
Dear Mom, Dad—— I was able to learn a bit about Lilia-san's past. LIlia-san and Sieg-san—– They were childhood friends.