“Because I’m curious! Why are you keeping your mouth shut like this? What, are you dating someone you shouldn’t be?”

At those words, Cecil stiffened his shoulders and stared at Alesia. Her face, asking “Huh?” once more, looked innocent and naive. Cecil gazed at his sister quietly and shook his head.

“No, it’s not that. I’m just embarrassed.”

“What’s there to be embarrassed about! Ah, I’m dying of curiosity! And Cyrus flatly denies knowing anything!”

Alesia flopped back down on Cecil’s thigh. The foxtail grass still waved in her hand like a weapon.

“You asked Cyrus too?”

“Yes. And do you know what that brat said? ‘What business is it of yours, Sister?’ Can you believe it? Such a rude kid, I tell you.”

Cecil let out a low laugh at the typical Cyrus-like response.

“I’m really curious. You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“Sorry. Next time.”

“You don’t mean that. Are you just going to tell me you broke up later?”

“We won’t break up.”

Cecil’s voice sounded firm. At that voice, Alesia looked up at her brother. His clear, refined face held a certain determination. Despite his cautious nature that usually avoided making definitive statements, his tone carried firmness just now.

“…You must really like her.”

Alesia murmured faintly. Just as she seemed to contemplate something, moving her lips slightly, Cyrus appeared with a tired expression.

“What, why are you back so soon?”

“Soon? It’s been thirty minutes. Move.”

Cyrus, looking exhausted from whatever the professor had put him through, pushed Alesia aside. Suddenly rolled off Cecil’s thigh, Alesia looked dumbfounded, but Cyrus claimed Cecil’s thigh with an indifferent face.

“That’s my spot!”

“Why are you both treating my leg like this…”

Cecil muttered about his thigh becoming public property, but neither seemed to listen.

“Ah, I’m tired…”

“Why did he call you?”

“To join the advanced program.”

“You’re still a first-year, and he’s already recruiting you?”

“Exactly.”

“You should have studied just moderately well.”

Alesia giggled and flopped down on Cyrus’s lower abdomen with a thump. Cyrus let out a groan but didn’t push his sister away. A gentle breeze blew, and the three of them silently gazed at the surface of the lake.

“What’s the next class?”

“History, or maybe Artin language…”

“Ah, I don’t want to go in.”

“Let’s get up soon. I left my textbooks in the dormitory.”

Cecil said, urging the two lying down to get up. The two reluctantly rose and straightened their disheveled clothes. Cyrus put his arm around Cecil and leaned on him. Cecil, staggering under the weight, grinned and waved his hand at Alesia.

“See you later.”

After saying goodbye, the two started walking toward the boys’ dormitory. Alesia, who had been waving back, slowly lowered her arm. She stood there quietly, watching her brothers who had already walked quite far. In her eyes, as she stared at them, an inexplicable strange light appeared.

*

A few days after that meeting, the professor called Cyrus again. The reason was that they couldn’t have a proper meeting due to class preparations. This time, the meeting wouldn’t likely end in just thirty minutes, so Cyrus advised Cecil to return to the dormitory first.

Cecil nodded and was about to head back to the dormitory but went to the library instead. Since Cyrus wasn’t around, it seemed like a good time to focus quietly on assignments.

“Oh? Sister is here too?”

Looking for an empty seat and going to the less crowded inner area, he spotted Alesia. Unusually, she sat alone without others around.

“Oh, you came? Sit down.”

“How unusual to see you alone.”

Finding it strange that Alesia, who always surrounded herself with people, sat alone, Cecil smiled as he spoke, and Alesia smiled faintly. Sensing a slightly different atmosphere than usual, Cecil tilted his head curiously.

“What’s wrong? Are you tired?”

“Of what?”

“You look a bit down.”

“Me? No way.”

Alesia laughed cheerfully and lowered her gaze to her book, suggesting that couldn’t possibly be true.

‘Maybe not?’

Thinking it might be his imagination, Cecil silently took out his textbooks and assignments. Since Cyrus’s meeting would probably take quite a while, it seemed best to finish all of today’s assignments. Looking ahead, Alesia also seemed to concentrate on her book, her gaze lowered. The page with diagrams looked complicated.

Cecil didn’t say anything more to his sister and brought the necessary books back to his seat. Thinking that the Artin language professor always gave such strange assignments, he smiled briefly before starting to focus on his work.

How much time had passed like that?

The sunlight falling on the back of his hand as he turned the pages had turned reddish. Only then realizing the time, he looked up to see a dazzling sunset spreading like paint across the window. Looking around, everyone seemed to have left for dinner, leaving only empty seats.

Wondering how long it had been since he’d concentrated this much, Cecil smiled. When he came with Cyrus, his brother would constantly try to play around, and he’d only get through half of his planned assignments.

Wondering how much Alesia had done, he turned his head toward her, and saw her with her head bowed deeply. Her tightly closed lips and determined downward gaze looked serious. Something seemed wrong. Just as he was about to speak up at this unusual sight, he noticed the book Alesia had open.

A page with various diagrams.

Alesia’s book appeared to be in exactly the same position as when she first opened it, never having been turned to the next page. Seeing Alesia’s serious expression that he had never seen before, Cecil finally realized something was wrong.

“Sister. Sister?”

“…”

There was no answer despite his calls. Alesia just sat there in the same position for a long time. Without reason, Cecil’s heart began to beat slowly. An ominous feeling. That dizzy feeling when a sword is about to fall on your head. Cecil instinctively realized something was wrong.

“Sis—”

“Cecil.”

“…”

“I have something to ask you.”

“…”

“I’ve been thinking it was just my imagination so I didn’t say anything, but I think I need to ask now. Of course, I think I’m making a ridiculous assumption. I have to be.”

Alesia’s voice sounded colder and chillier than ever before. Cecil’s fingertips began to tremble. He wanted to run away from this place immediately. Alesia slowly raised her head, and the blood-red sunset completely dyed her face red. With a face exactly like their father’s, but with an incomparably stern gaze, Alesia asked.

“You and…”

“…”

“Cyrus.”

“…”

“It’s not true, right?”

“…”

“What I’m thinking isn’t true, right?”

And finally, the executioner’s question fell upon Cecil’s head. It happened in an empty library as the sunset faded.

The red executioner asked. Cecil sat quietly in his place. His mind went blank. He didn’t know what to say or how to answer. He tried to feign composure.

“W-what are you talking about? What?”

“At first I thought it was my imagination. That the smell was on you because you share a room. That’s all I thought it was. From you two…”

“…”

“Even when I smelled the scent I used to smell from our fathers, I thought I was imagining things.”

“…”

“I still believe it’s my imagination. It is my imagination, right?”

Cecil quietly faced Alesia. Though she appeared calm, her fingertips trembled slightly. Only then did Cecil fully realize.

‘She knows everything.’

Though he didn’t know since when, Alesia knew everything. Realizing this fact, he now questioned himself. Had he really believed that Alesia wouldn’t know anything? Wasn’t he just pretending not to know what could have been guessed, absorbed in the joy of their hearts connecting?

Cecil’s body slowly began to tremble, starting from his fingertips. Alesia knew. His family, the person closest to him, had found out about this terrible, beastly act.

“Sis, Sister, I…”

“Is it true?”

“Sister, please…”

“Ha, it’s really true? You, you’re crazy?”

“Sister.”

“Don’t call me that!”

A sharp cry burst out like a scream. It sounded like glass shattering. Alesia’s face had turned pale. She couldn’t believe it. Her closest blood relatives engaged in acts that even beasts wouldn’t do. Under the pretense of being siblings, they matched their bodies and treated each other as lovers. She had thought the faint scent was her imagination.

“Since when… This can’t be…”

“Sister, please listen to me…”

“What are you going to say? What could you possibly say!”

Alesia’s eyes turned red. Cecil had been crying without realizing it. He had been careless. He believed that thoroughly washing after each encounter would prevent any scent from lingering. He never thought that gradually accumulated scents would eventually reveal their secret and plunge his sister into despair. Suddenly, a cold statement he had heard as a child flashed through his mind.

‘Humans must maintain their dignity as humans. At all times.’

“Uh, Sis, Sister, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“Shut up.”

“Sister, please…”

“Even beasts don’t do such things!”

Alesia cried out, sobbing. It horrified her. The siblings she trusted and relied on had done something forbidden behind her back. Although they were born in the form of beasts, they had grown up as humans. They learned human knowledge and upheld human ethics. So they existed as beings no different from humans.

Humans had rules they had to follow as humans. Not committing incest with one’s sibling clearly positioned itself at the top of those rules. Cecil and Cyrus had committed such an impure act.

Slowly, realization dawned on her. Even when they were young, she had smelled unfamiliar scents from the two. She was too young then to understand what the scent was, but now she realized.

“You two… since when have you been doing this?”

“…”

“S-since when…”

Alesia looked down at her brother like she was seeing a stranger. It seemed strange. This face clearly belonged to someone she knew well, someone she loved more than anyone, but what lived inside that skin felt unfamiliar. Who is this person? Where is my brother? Where is that child I loved and cherished…

Finally, Alesia’s legs gave way and she collapsed into the chair. She held her head and looked down at the desk. She could hear Cecil sobbing as he covered his face. After staring at the floor for a long time, Alesia raised her head.

“Stop it. You’re both mistaken. It can happen. You were too close to each other, that’s why.”

“…”

“You have to stop.”

Cecil listened to that resolute voice with his face soaked in tears. Suddenly, he thought of Cyrus. When he had coldly pushed him away, had Cyrus felt this miserable? Tears fell drop by drop, staining the book and blurring the letters. Cecil sighed deeply.

“…I can’t do it.”

“You.”

“I’ve hurt him a lot. I can’t do it anymore. I know it’s crazy. But I still can’t. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Sister.”

“Are you really insane?”

Alesia stood up abruptly and raised her arm high. Cecil watched her with tear-soaked eyes. Alesia’s distorted face trembled, unable to bring her arm down. Now her face also became completely wet with tears.

In the end, unable to hit her brother, Alesia collapsed into the chair. She stared blankly out the window. How much time had passed? The crimson sunset seeped into the blue water as it rippled. While Cecil watched the sunset with a surreal feeling, Alesia moved to speak.

“You remember the villa I received for my birthday.”

“…”

“Go stay there.”

“…”

“Otherwise, I have no choice. I’ll tell our fathers.”

“Sister!”

“Choose. Let it reach our fathers’ ears, or stay there.”

Alesia, who had stopped crying by now, had regained her usual cold and rational demeanor. Cecil shook his head repeatedly, but it proved useless. He had already hurt his beloved family. There was no way he could do such a thing again. The answer already decided itself.

“Get up. We don’t have time before Cyrus comes back.”

Alesia forcibly lifted Cecil and walked quickly toward her dormitory. He could feel passing students looking at them with curious glances, but he didn’t have the energy to care.

Alesia arrived at her dormitory room, turned her desk drawer upside down, stuffed all the travel money into Cecil’s pocket, and headed to the stable. There was no time to pack clothes or anything else.

“You know how to get there, right?”

“Sister, please, I’ll just talk to Cyrus. Okay?”

“If he finds out? Do you think he’ll let you go?”

“Sister, please…”

“I can’t leave you two like this.”

Alesia, who always looked people straight in the eyes, averted her gaze.

“I told you I’d tell our fathers if you don’t go. I mean it. If you’re curious whether I can do it or not, you can do whatever you want too.”

Alesia spat those words out as she looked at her brother. It created a tense confrontation. Her eyes, which always sparkled with intelligence, now turned red. Cecil had made them that way.

At that desperate threat, Cecil finally mounted the horse. The sky now darkened, and stars began to appear one by one. Alesia stepped back a few steps and bit her lip hard.

“Go.”

With those final words, Cecil kicked the horse’s belly. He couldn’t tell if he did this to protect his family or to run away from Cyrus. He only knew he slowly left his cradle behind.