Chapter 001
1. Potato Farming
“Lady Brisa, I regret to inform you of such news.”
It was the day before the Capital Academy’s graduation ceremony.
“I am told that Marquis Sayers has passed away in a carriage accident. Please accept my deepest condolences.”
I heard the news of my father’s death while reading a book in the library.
“Also, it is reported that the eldest son of Marquis Sayers, who had been missing until now, has been found.”
Simultaneously, I heard the news of my half-brother’s return.
“Therefore, the title of Marquis Sayers…”
The teacher delivering the news placed a hand on my frozen shoulder.
“According to the will, it has been decided that the eldest son shall inherit the title.”
My father’s passing didn’t deal me a great blow. There had never been any father-daughter affection between us to begin with.
During my two years at the Capital Academy, I hadn’t returned to the fief even once.
However, it was shocking that a half-brother I had never even seen had become the Marquis of Sayers.
I had been educated to be the successor of the Marquisate since I was very young. To think that I wouldn’t be inheriting the title…
If my mother, who passed away two years ago, heard this in the afterlife, she would kick open her coffin right now and turn the Marquis’s estate upside down.
‘Surely that son of a maid won’t return? The fact that he hasn’t been found until now means he’ll never be found.’
My father, Marquis Sayers, married twice.
His first marriage was a secret elopement with a maid from the estate, held at a rural temple.
A few days later, he was caught by the family and forced into a divorce.
‘The maid, who was pregnant with a son, went missing.’
Ten years later, my father married my mother for his second marriage.
In truth, my father had been searching for his eldest son ever since the divorce. All he knew about the child in the womb was the gender the doctor had provided when the pregnancy was confirmed.
Furthermore, he desperately wanted to pass the title down to him.
That was why my mother muttered in anxiety every day.
‘Surely that lowly thing won’t suddenly appear one day. With commoner blood mixed in, there’s no way he could become a proper Marquis of Sayers.’
My mother was the last princess of the Liente Kingdom.
Although it had fallen and been destroyed in war, the Liente Kingdom was a nation with a long history.
Thus, my mother insisted constantly: that my bloodline was far superior to that of the eldest son.
‘He’s probably out there growing melons among the commoners. There’s no way a creature like that could live as a person worthy of the historic Marquisate of Sayers.’
However, all those predictions were wrong.
My half-brother, Alpheus Sayers, was no ordinary man.
Alpheus grew up as a mercenary among commoners, but his skills were so outstanding that he caught the eye of the Second Prince, who had gone to resolve the northern civil war.
Called a war hero in the north, he was even promised a title by the Second Prince.
After wrapping up the northern civil war, he discovered who his biological father was on his way back to the capital.
Unfortunately, just before the news reached him, my father died instantly in a carriage accident.
After hearing all the circumstances, I headed to the fief regardless. I had to attend my father’s funeral.
* * *
I met Alpheus for the first time at the funeral hall in the fief.
A strikingly handsome face and a sturdy build.
The same platinum blonde hair and sky-blue eyes as mine.
The young man dressed in mourning attire walked over with long strides and greeted me cautiously.
“Brisa? Are you Brisa?”
My mind went blank for a moment.
“I’m, um, Alpheus… I heard you’re ten years younger than me. That makes you twelve now, right? I don’t know if you’ve heard, but, um, I’m your brother…”
After that.
I couldn’t tell how the funeral proceeded or in what state of mind I entered my room.
My memory was cut short.
Because…
‘Am I going crazy?’
The moment I looked at Alpheus’s face, unfamiliar memories flowed into my head.
This world I lived in was the world inside a novel I had read in my past life.
‘The male protagonist is Alpheus. Right now he’s a kind and innocent young man, but he’ll soon turn dark.’
Furthermore, the future unfolding before me was desperate.
After the funeral ended, I first locked myself alone in my room.
“Young Lady, Young Lady!”
“What is wrong? Yes? Please!”
The loyal maids of the estate were all at a loss. But I didn’t have the mental capacity to answer them.
Neither the death of a father I’d only seen a few times nor the appearance of the half-brother my mother had been so deathly wary of mattered in this moment. The fact that I was losing my mind was scarier than anything else.
The idea that this world was inside a novel was nonsense.
‘It’s just the shock of being orphaned, having a half-brother appear out of nowhere, and suddenly losing the Marquisate.’
Holding a thick book in my hands as usual, I gasped for breath.
‘First, I must not let anyone know I’ve gone mad.’
I could never let the words “I suddenly know the future” escape my lips.
‘Did you know? The last princess of Liente… she had a touch of madness.’
‘Really? Then what about her daughter? Isn’t Brisa Sayers out of her mind too?’
‘It’s highly likely. Why else would Marquis Sayers have spent all that time wandering around looking for the son of a maid?’
Recalling the whispers I had heard behind my back, I squeezed my eyes shut.
If I started talking about past lives or reincarnation, everyone would say I had finally gone mad just like my mother.
‘Maybe it’ll get better with time? I don’t have hallucinations or hear voices yet…’
It was then.
“Um, Brisa. It’s, uh, Alpheus.”
Along with a knock, a mid-to-low-toned voice was heard. Alpheus, whom I had encountered at the funeral earlier, was knocking on my door.
“Uh, I’m that person from earlier who became your family starting today. Um, so, what I mean is that even if Father is gone, you aren’t alone…”
I could smell the scent of a total pushover in the war hero’s way of speaking.
“So, um, is it okay if I come in now?”
I replied immediately.
“It is not okay.”
“Um… shall we talk for a bit?”
“I will not.”
“Then, can I at least see your face for a second…?”
“You cannot.”
The delusions started the moment I saw Alpheus’s face…
‘What if the symptoms get even worse if I face him again?’
Turning him away at the door was easy. I was never a particularly gentle or kind person by nature anyway.
“Ah… are you busy right now?”
“Extremely busy.”
“Is it something I can help with, perhaps?”
“I am in the middle of reading, so I think it would be a great help if you would just leave now.”
“What book? I really love literature too! If it’s a book I’ve read, we could even have a discussion…”
“<Understanding Livestock Volume 17 – Mating and Reproduction Edition>.”
“…”
The literary youth outside the door finally shut his mouth.
A moment of silence passed.
I thought he was leaving, but his cautious voice followed.
“I’m leaving for the capital now. At the Imperial Palace, um, I have to receive the war compensation as quickly as possible.”
“…”
“The fief’s financial situation doesn’t seem to be very good. Of course! It’s nothing, absolutely, not even slightly, for you to worry about.”
I could tell immediately.
‘It’s something very, truly, highly worrying.’
Since I had just returned to the estate today for the first time in two years, I didn’t know much about the fief’s circumstances yet. However, the fief’s situation had always been quite poor.
“I’ll be back in ten days at the latest. I hope… I can see your face then. Try to pull yourself together.”
I gasped for breath anxiously.
Right now, Alpheus was saying the exact same things as the ‘future I came to know.’
‘Surely the butler hasn’t been kicked out for embezzlement too?’
Before that suspicion could even finish, Alpheus added:
“Ah, and… I sent the butler away. It just, um, turned out that way due to adult circumstances. I’ll leave my adjutant behind instead, so go to him whenever you need help.”
I was devastated.
‘Is it possible I’m not actually crazy? Is this really the future that’s about to hit?’
But among truly mad people, no one thinks they are mad.
Even my mother didn’t acknowledge her own madness until the day she died.
‘But if my delusion is definitely the real future…’
If so, Alpheus won’t return in ten days, but in three months, covered in injuries.
Furthermore, there will be no one left in the fief he returns to. Everyone will be dead.
‘If I say that out loud, I’ll really become a crazy girl… No, I might actually be a crazy girl…’
While I was agonizing, Alpheus’s footsteps began to fade away.
I clearly felt like I was going mad, yet everything was proceeding according to my delusions.
If things continued like this… if I let Alpheus go like this according to the original story…
‘Aaaaaargh!’
Eventually, I rummaged through my bag, pulled something out, and shouted toward the door.
“Wait a minute!”
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