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Volume 3 Chapter 2: Everyone’s Respective School Festival Part I

For the magic academy’s school festival, I, Keith Claes, as a member of the student council, was placed in charge of the area displaying information about this country’s history and magical research.

As I greet the never-ending stream of students, parents, and guardians with a friendly smile, I wait for my older sister, who said that she would come right away yet still isn’t here.

It’s been quite some time since she said “Once I look around at the booths, I’ll buy some food for you and come back.”

Mary Hart, who’s a friend, a student council member like me, and is also in charge of this area, seems to be pretty worried about my big sister as well. She’s beginning to look rather depressed.

Well, if I’ve read the situation right, my stepsister Katarina probably lost track of time after being totally captivated by the food at the booths.

And then in the end, long after noon, the awaited person finally arrived. On seeing us, Katarina smiled wide and ran towards us, holding many bags. As I had predicted, Katarina had been distracted munching food at the booths and so came late.

“… I’m sorry,” apologizes Katarina, looking downcast.

In response Mary just says “Do not worry yourself over it. The most important thing is that you’re safe,” but… my stepsister is the type to do the exact same thing all over again if spoiled.

“I agree. Nee-san, you’re way too excited today. Please be a bit more conscious of yourself – it’s easy enough for you to get wrapped up in trouble as it is,” I say with a strict face, even as I feel a bit sorry for her.

Since we were small, Katarina has often ended up in trouble thanks to fraudsters and scammers. The incident she got wrapped up in last year was even life-threatening. And yet despite that, this carefree, worry-free stepsister of mine seems to have completely forgotten about that - lately she’s been particularly in high spirits.

No matter how much I warn her about Jared, who’s trying to make Katarina his own day in day out, it just goes in through one ear and out the other. She nonchalantly tries to go to his room on her own.

Katarina appears to be lacking self-awareness that she’s a grown woman who may be looked upon with desire. That’s why in this way I have to keep my guard up every day, eyes peeled. In order to protect her as well.

Even though she probably ate tons at the booths, she ended up having tea with us as well. I naturally commented without thinking that she was eating too much, but I was actually pretty happy that she would be sitting at a table with me.

In truth, I would’ve preferred to walk around with her at the school festival, but thanks to my duties as a student council member I was stuck here. Today really made me regret becoming a student council member. I wondered why I did.

“Wow, it looks so good!” says Katarina happily as she sees the sandwiches laid out on the table.

Her expression when her eyes are sparkling is very cute.

“I concur. It looks very good. Thank you very much, Katarina-sama,” says Mary to Katarina, looking like she’s having fun as she laughs.

However, I still can’t not say it.

“Nee-san, you just ate a lot, so keep it to just a little. You’ll get a stomach ache if you eat too much.”

“Okay…”

Katarina looks downhearted again at my words. I feel sorry for her, but if I don’t lecture her properly she’ll eat too much… everything is for her sake.

For a while she munched down on sandwiches eagerly, but eventually she began thinking about something as she looked about.

Ah, this is probably – just as I thought that, sure enough –

“Hey, Keith. Do you want to split with me?”

Katarina said what I had expected.

“… Yeah. I thought you’d ask that. Sure.”

“Yay!”

Katarina loves eating. And at times, it seems she just can’t go without eating certain unusual things or things that caught her eye. It also seems that she’s determined to eat anything she touches.

Other nobles barely touch food before leaving it on their plates on an everyday basis, so I really think Katarina is strange.

However, before being taken in by the Claes family, I was only ever given minimal portions of food. Thus as I learned that food is precious, I like what Katarina is doing.

I felt much too sorry for Katarina, who desperately ate anything she touched and ended up getting stomach aches. And so I eventually said to her a number of years back: “If you want to eat so many different things then you should split with me. I’ll eat the remainder.”

Katarina was even more overjoyed than I expected at my plan, and since then, we’ve split a variety of food so long as we’re not in public.

Splitting food is like a privilege only given to family members. I was very happy that the only person Katarina split food with was me.

“Here you go, Keith.”

Having gotten my approval, Katarina halves a potato salad sandwich and holds one half to my mouth.

“What’s the matter, Keith?”

Katarina looks at me in puzzlement. She likely doesn’t understand anything.

Don’t say “What’s the matter?” – realize what’s wrong, please.

“Ah, um, nee-san. Why don’t we not do this in front of others?” I say mildly, but –

“In front of others? But you said that it was alright to split things with you so long as it wasn’t in public. You said it was okay a second ago, right?”

“No, it’s not about splitting with you… I mean…”

She just doesn’t get it at all… Mary’s stare pierces me.

“Oh? So long as it’s not in front of others, you two do this all the time?” says Mary, smiling with just her mouth as she continues to glare at me antagonistically.

“Ah, yeah. When I want to eat something but can’t eat it all, we split it and I have him eat the other half.”

That’s true. What you’ve said so far is fine, so why don’t you just stop there, nee-san?

“I see. And Katarina-sama, you always take his half in your hand and offer it directly to Keith-sama’s mouth?” Mary asks about the one thing I didn’t want her to hear.

I look at Katarina, trying to soundlessly convey to her to stay quiet… but naturally, she’s not the type of person to notice that kind of look.

“Yup. I didn’t do that before, but a little while back Keith said that he wanted me to feed him like this when we split things.”

She revealed everything. Mary’s glare increases in ferocity all at once.

It’s true. Originally, I was satisfied in being the only one to split things with her… but Jared’s aggressive contact over the past couple years awakened greed within me.

I live in the same house as Katarina and interact with her the most in the first place. To be honest, if I wanted to do something, I could do it easily.

… I could do it easily, but unfortunately I don’t have that kind of guts.

And anyways recently I haven’t been able to casually touch her since she’s become much more like a woman. Her nice smell, her soft body – just by being close to her, my heart beats faster, my body heats up, and so I avoid her without thinking.

In recent years, I haven’t known what to do with myself.

And during my turmoil, Jared steps in calmly and touches Katarina.

Even though I want to touch her too! But in the end, even as I think that, I can’t touch her like Jared does. And so, I thought to then fight back by having Katarina feed me when we split food.

I did consider myself pathetic for getting Katarina to reach out to me because I couldn’t touch her. But I still felt very happy when she easily agreed to my request and held out her hand to my mouth.

Given that she’s dense and hasn’t realized the feelings I’ve held for her for years, it seems she hadn’t understood the meaning of her actions. Still, I secretly felt superior for being the only one being fed by Katarina in this way.

To think that it would all be revealed in this way.

“Keith-sama, did I not warn you to not take advantage of being family to get ahead?” says Mary, looking at me piercingly.

It’s true that Mary and I, united before our common enemy Jared, temporarily came to an agreement. Honestly, she should forgive me for this much in comparison to Jared.

But in response to my excuse –

“Please do not use Jared-sama as an excuse. He’s just unusual! … I miscalculated, I had thought that he had so many hidden plans that I could not lay a hand on him.”

She responded with a cold gaze and a sharp voice.

When I met Mary Hart, a marquis’ daughter, nine years ago, she was just a little girl with little self-confidence… how did she become such an aggressive woman today? Well, a certain somebody’s influence is probably one of the reasons why…

“I apologize, but I heard that second part even though you said it in a smaller voice. Anyways, Mary, you take advantage of being the same sex as her all the time, embracing her and touching her and all sorts of things.”

Loving Katarina as she does, Mary touches Katarina even more than Jared. This is because they’re the same sex, but despite that, I’ve always thought that they still touch too much.

“My, how rude of you to say that I’m ‘taking advantage’. We are the same sex, so it’s perfectly normal for us to embrace and touch each other. Eventually, perhaps we’ll even bathe together…”

“Um, no, no matter how I think about what you’re saying, Mary, it isn’t normal.”

“My, is that not an issue on your side?”

Even having come to an agreement, given that Mary and I like the same person (though, I’m still not entirely sure if Mary feels the same way as me or if she just feels friendship), once we let our dissatisfaction towards each other free, our abuse of each other just wouldn’t stop.

Furthermore, both of us had been feeling resentful that we were stuck in a place like this thanks to our student council duties - and unable to walk around the school festival with Katarina. Thus, our abuse of each other worsened. And yet.

“Keith, Mary. If it comes down to it, I promise to stand by the two of you, so don’t worry! I won’t let it end in tragedy like with Romeo and his lover!”

We stopped at Katarina’s sudden words.

Just what is she thinking? Well, I can kind of understand what she’s thinking, but I can’t understand how she came to that conclusion at all.

“Nee-san. I don’t even want to know what you’re thinking, but… I am absolutely certain that you’re mistaken,” I say calmly to Katarina, who looks towards us all fired up.

“I concur. I disagree with anything you imagined,” Mary adds on firmly.

“… Um. Keith and Mary, are you two in love – ”

“ – No,” say Mary and I in perfect union.

As I had thought, Katarina had somehow completely misunderstood things. Why does this stepsister of mine always think of the most outrageous things? Despite not noticing the most important thing, my feelings… I’d like to see how her mind works sometime.

“Nee-san, who’s Romeo?”

I can’t ignore the name of an unknown man slipping from Katarina’s lips. It’ll be a problem if she unintentionally seduces someone again. I would like to be spared from my rivals increasing any more.

************

On this day, I, Nikol Ascarot, was visiting the magic academy’s school festival. To anyone who asks, I came to visit my little sister Sophia, but in reality there’s someone I want to see even more than my sister.

I secretly hold feelings towards Katarina Claes, a duke’s daughter and childhood friend of her fiancé Jared.

Unfortunately, having graduated, my opportunities to see her have decreased dramatically. Thus nowadays, I want to see her, even if it’s only for a little bit. I was beside myself from wanting to see her smile.

When I went to go visit my little sister who was at the stage where they were doing plays and performances, I was placed in front of the entranceway for some reason. As I was feeling fed up with all the stares, I was then told to go hunker backstage. To be honest, I was relieved when I went backstage.

I’m aware that I’ve attracted attention from people since I was young. But I feel as though it’s gotten even worse lately. People stare at me incessantly but if I look towards them, they avert their gaze. Honestly, it doesn’t feel that great.

In comparison, it feels so soothing to see Katarina’s direct gaze towards me. Seeing myself reflected in her light blue eyes makes me feel incredibly happy.

I want to see her soon. As if those feelings reached her, at that moment Katarina came into the dim backstage area with a smile bright enough to light up the room.

“Ah, Katarina-sama. I see you came,” greets Sophia, looking overjoyed.

My little sister likes Katarina very much as well. After all, Sophia’s able to walk around outside with a smile because she met Katarina.

“Katarina, it’s been a while.”

I can feel my mouth naturally forming a smile just from seeing her. I’m very happy to see her after so long.

“… Yes, it’s been a while. Nikol-sama,” she responds, looking straight at me, just as she always has. My chest feels hot.

“Why are you two backstage? If you stood out front, wouldn’t people gather just to see you?”

In response to Katarina’s question, Sophia begins to explain what happened up until now. Once the explanation ends, Katarina holds out one of the bags gripped in her hands to Sophia, who looks downcast. She says that it’s food for us.

I felt relieved that Sophia started smiling again after accepting the bag of food. After all, the reason why Sophia looked downhearted was me… I’m impressed with Katarina, who restored my little sister’s smile again.

“Speaking of which, Katarina-sama, in the end you refused to participate in the student council’s play, no?” says Sophia suddenly after regaining her smile, as if she had just remembered this.

Sophia did mention in her letters that there would be a play performed by the student council members, so she’s probably talking about that. She never mentioned who exactly would be acting in the play so I assumed that Katarina would be performing… but it seems as though I was mistaken.

“I’m not a member of the student council, and I can’t act,” says Katarina frankly.

In response, Sophia looks sad and says “I was looking forward to seeing Katarina-sama on the stage, and yet…”

“So I see, Katarina isn’t going to be in the play,” I murmur without thinking. I wanted to see her act on stage – what a disappointment.

Katarina then says:

“I think that the audience would be much happier if Nikol-sama made an appearance. You refrained from doing anything for the school festival two years ago, correct? Would you perhaps like to make a small guest appearance this year?”

Just as Katarina says, it’s true that I didn’t contribute much to any attractions at the school festival I attended when I was a student. Since I’m friends with many people in the current student council and my sister is also a member, I want to help out if I can…

“… But I can’t act.”

“You can’t act?”

Katarina looks blank at my answer. It seems she can’t understand what I said. As I think about explaining things to her properly, Sophia steps in.

“It’s true that acting may be a bit of a burden for my brother… Even ignoring the draw of his position in society, my brother is rather splendid… but unfortunately, his major weakness is that he cannot control his expressions at will.”

After hearing Sophia’s explanation, Katarina says, “Oh, I see… So that’s how it was,” looking as though she accepts the reasoning.

I feel complicated feelings watching the two of them. Yes, just as my little sister Sophia says, I can’t control my expressions at will. Or well, I thought I could control my expressions, but apparently it doesn’t go that well.

When I was still a student, Katarina commented “You don’t seem to smile much when you’re with your school friends, I see,” but I wondered whether that really was the case. I had thought that I had successfully faked smiles to an acceptable extent… but it seems as though I hadn’t.

I had thought that I would successfully smile when Katarina would ask me “Alright, Nikol-sama. Please smile.” … but apparently I hadn’t been able to smile at all.

In this way, I discovered the shocking truth that I couldn’t smile at will… or rather that I couldn’t emote at all at will.

However, now that I look back on things, whenever I met someone’s gaze they always immediately averted their eyes, so perhaps no one ever looked at my face properly. What a pathetic story.

And so, no matter how much I try, I don’t believe I would be able to act.

“Oh, but perhaps my brother would be able to smile if he were talking with Katarina-sama.”

Just as I had begun calming down, Sophia says something like that. I was shocked… what is she saying all of a sudden?

“No, wouldn’t it be better if he were talking with you, Sophia?” says Katarina, looking fairly shocked as well.

“No, I’m not enough. In order to draw out my brother’s smile, we need Katarina-sama.”

“No, I would think that I’m not enough…”

“Most definitely not. I’ve got it! Why don’t we have my brother recite lines from that play right now? If Katarina-sama would be his conversation partner, I’m sure that he would be able to recite them with a smile.”

It’s true that in front of Katarina, I unconsciously let out a natural smile. However… that doesn’t mean I can do that while acting.

But my happy-go-lucky little sister who seems to have latched onto her plan just began to explain some lines and gestures from the upcoming play to me with shining eyes.

At first, seeing how enthusiastic Sophia was I thought ‘Well, I guess it can’t hurt to try,’ and listened to her explanations… but as I heard more and more concrete details, my apprehension rose.

Unexpectedly, Sophia wanted Katarina and me to perform the love confession scene.

It was the highlight of the play, where the prince caresses the hair of the girl he loves, smiling, then confesses softly before embracing her.

In other words, I would confess my love to Katarina, then embrace her of all things. As I hesitated, thinking that I couldn’t do such a thing, Katarina in direct contrast stood up tall and confidently before me and said “Very well, go on, Nikol-sama!”

I don’t really get it, but it’s clear she’s raring to go. Encouraged by Katarina’s spirit, I make my way towards her, but…

“… Sophia, I don’t think…”

While I may be able to confess to her, to embrace someone’s fiancée even in a performance is a bit…

“No. Onii-sama, please do this properly. You’re already at a disadvantage compared to everyone else since you’ve graduated, so you have to take these chances as they come!”

Sophia speaks a small voice, but it’s clear that she won’t accept any objections.

Ever since she found out about my feelings, she’s been passionately trying to push Katarina and me together… but to be honest, I think the way things are right now is fine.

It’s not like I want to steal her from Jared. If I get too close with her, I might end up greedier.

Even as I think this, unable to disobey under my sister’s expectant gaze, I steel myself just for now.

“Katarina, are you ready?”

As I steel my nerves completely, Katarina responds brightly.

“Yes. To help out Sophia, I’ll be a good acting partner for you! Leave it to me.”

“I see… thank you.”

I can feel another smile naturally spreading across my face at her straightforward, kind demeanour. Those light blue eyes that gaze directly at me. Ah, I really do love this girl.

“I love you.”

I don’t know whether those words were just words from the play or my true feelings…

Next Katarina should say “I do too, Prince.”

“… I – I do too. Nikol-sama.”

On hearing those words spill out from her with her cheeks lightly stained red, my mind went blank for a moment. And then my body grew hot all at once.

She responded to my confession. She said my name. Joy unlike anything I had felt before filled me up. The small rational part of my brain reminded me that she just messed up her line, but…

In truth, it’s a lie that I don’t want to steal her from Jared and make her my own. I just tell myself that all the time so I can desperately slam a lid on my feelings. In truth… in truth, I want her. I want the girl called Katarina Claes so much I can’t stand it.

I want to steal her from Jared and make her my own.

The lid holding back my feelings starts to rattle.

“Um, Nikol-sama…”

On hearing my name spill from her lips yet again, I’m unable to hold myself back any longer. And so I embrace her soft, warm body.

“… Katarina, even if you became someone else’s, I would surely…”

I would surely be eternally unable to give up on you. And then, one day, when I would finally be unable to hold back my feelings any longer, I would…