Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Before long, the season of harvest passed, and winter found its way. The changing of seasons, looking closely, was like a person's life.

Everyone has a time of growth, blooming, ripening, and then cooling down cold.

Rickart was in the season of life changing. Still early, but change was change.

The mansion of the Caldebern family in Stormhearts, a place usually dark in the middle of the night, had lights on. Two windows leaked light.

And, unfitting for the silent time, a woman's scream of pain echoed through the mansion.

"Aaaaaah! Grrr......"

Outside the delivery room where light leaked, Graut in pajamas was fidgeting touching his chin, and Abelich was silently guarding next to him.

And at the end of the hallway, two boys were holding each other's hands in darkness watching that scene. It was Vilter and Rickart.

In an era where maternal and infant mortality rates were high, birthing a new life was risking one's life.

Vilter's expression was colored with worry and anxiety. But he himself didn't know the source of that worry and anxiety.

Whether the hand held with his brother was to give comfort, or to receive comfort, he didn't know.

The midwife went back and forth several times carrying basins full of bloody water. Then at some point, a sound of the world opening burst out.

"Waaaaah!"

Even the usually blunt Abelich couldn't control his expression at this moment. However, unable to enter the delivery room, he shouted from outside.

"Is anyone there! Is anyone there!"

A while later, the midwife came out holding a baby wrapped in cloth after cutting the umbilical cord and said.

"Congratulations, my Lord. It's a young master. The lady is also healthy."

A young master. That meant a son.

Vilter felt that what had to come had come. The feeling of a heavy stone pressing down on the chest when something one wanted to ignore finally arrived.

Conversely, Abelich and Graut's faces flushed with joy.

"Ricky, we're finished now."

"No. It's just the beginning."

"Huh?"

"The baby, us, and Big Brother too. Father became a grandfather, and Big Brother became a father. We became uncles. Strange thing."

Vilter turned his head and stared blankly at Rickart.

"Aren't you scared? Leaving home?"

"It's regrettable, but I don't think I'm scared."

"......You're better than me. I thought you were just a kid. Indeed, catching that big boar, or talking back to Father...... You do have some grit."

"Billy is smart."

At his brother's words, a smirk leaked out from Vilter. So he roughly stroked Rickart's hair.

Although Vilter spoke thorny words to almost everyone, he wasn't like that from the start, and especially to Rickart, despite the four-year gap, he treated him without reserve. From childhood until now.

So Rickart also regarded Vilter more like a friend of the same age than a brother.

"Shall we sleep together after a long time?"

Vilter asked.

"Why? Scared?"

"Don't be cheeky, bring your pillow."

Rickart also smiled and brought a pillow from his room. Covering themselves with one blanket, playful laughter came out just doing nothing.

Outside, the vigorous cry of the baby could be heard, but Vilter and Rickart found stability in their own time and space.

Embarrassing things, funny things, amazing things, and when Mother was alive. They talked about joint memories accumulated while living here.

As time passed, the noisy outside quieted down, and so without knowing who was first, they fell asleep.

Since the eldest son's eldest son was born, with this, the succession structure of Stormhearts was set on a rock. And, that also meant spare parts were no longer needed.

Not merely stopping at being unneeded, brothers of the successor were seeds that could become threats in the future.

Even without any fault, just staying still, that's how the physiology of noble families flowed.

Though not particularly giving hints, it couldn't be helped that all of the Lord Abelich's attention headed to the grandson. Not only Abelich but also retainers and village people.

Rickart could clearly feel things changing from before, starting from trivial parts. Should he say they became a bit negligent towards him.

Sometimes no one cared if he had a meal or not. And, permission was needed to see the nephew. Distance from family was felt.

Even in winter, the whole manor was vibrant, but Vilter and Rickart felt alienated from the festival-like atmosphere.

Thinking from people's perspective, even if their inner thoughts weren't so, giving attention to the second son in this situation could cause discord or so-called being marked by the next Lord, so they might be careful on their own.

As such alienated time passed, and a month passed since Rickart's nephew was born, when the severe cold was in full swing.

The Lord Abelich called Vilter and Rickart separately. The place he called the two sons was a pond a bit away from the mansion.

Going there, Vilter and Rickart felt that Father would say something important.

Arriving, the pond was frozen solid. The surrounding trees had dropped all leaves revealing bare arms.

Father was wearing a thick fur coat over a cloak, looking at the frozen pond. The sky was grey.

Vilter and Rickart approached their father hesitantly.

"Did you call?"

Vilter said. But Father, as if he didn't hear his son, said nothing for a while staring only at the frozen pond. Helplessly, white breath puffed out sigh by sigh.

Then suddenly, he threw out words.

"Someone will come from the main family."

The main family meant the Count Caldebern family. Stormhearts' Caldebern branched off from the great-grandfather's generation. Back then, divided inheritance was common.

In a noble family, there could be only one head. And, the head decided the fate of members. Education, future, marriage, even death.

So strictly speaking, Abelich wasn't the head of Caldebern. He only held the status of Lord and patriarch within Stormhearts.

However, the main family almost never interfered with Stormhearts. Perhaps because of the homogeneity of being the same blood kin. Or maybe no interest.

But all that didn't matter now. Because Graut's wife was from the main family.

That is, implying the surname of the couple was the same, which meant complete integration. Blood kin from the same root branching out and merging again.

Therefore, even if not for primogeniture, diplomatically viewed, Graut's son had to inherit the territory no matter what.

All these things happening over territory and family were unknowingly pushing sons other than the legitimate eldest son out.

"The person coming from the main family is a doctor who studied at the famous Hantz University. He will help decide your future. This is the maximum consideration I can give as a father."

In fact, it was tremendous consideration. Often they were just shoved into a distant monastery without asking or questioning.

But Vilter and Rickart didn't look very happy. Understandable. However, Rickart seemed to have no thoughts as usual, blowing on his cold hands.

Abelich smiled faintly seeing such Rickart. And stroked his head gently.

"Let me hug you once. Billy, come here too."

"Pardon?"

Abelich pulled the flustered two sons and hugged them inside his cloak. The two sons were extremely awkward and flustered, but warmth was definitely felt. Different from Mother's embrace.

Staying like that for a while, Abelich undid the clasp, took off the cloak, and draped it over the two sons. Then Vilter and Rickart looked like a cute monster with two heads on one body.

Abelich sat on a nearby rock looking at the frozen pond again.

"I first participated in battle when I was fourteen. I followed my father and brother. It was very cold then, like now. We were tasked with leading a few soldiers to detour largely and strike the enemy, but while passing through the forest, suddenly arrows flew in. When I woke up, I had already fled far away. Ashamed even after fleeing, I went back to the battlefield. Wounded and corpses were scattered everywhere. Then, I met my father running carrying my brother bleeding from the neck."

Abelich told a personal story he had never told before to his two sons. Listening while trembling in cold, the feeling was very strange. Somewhat pounding, and burdensome too.

Father, always confident and indifferent in front of others, seemed somewhat shrunken now for some reason.

"Cowardly bastard. Your brother died because of you. Listen well. I will take revenge from now on. You manage to retrieve the body somehow and continue the family. I'll be waiting in the underworld...... These were the last words my father said to me."

Perhaps ashamed just thinking about it, Abelich lowered his head.

Anyway, fleeing from the battlefield was a fault, but they were indeed harsh words. Enough to follow and torment for a lifetime.

How many people can act resolutely in front of the fear of death? That too in the first battle.

But still, one must not back down and fight. At least just stand there. Therefore, protecting honor as a noble was truly severe.

Anyway, Vilter found it hard to even breathe in the heavy atmosphere. He was too young to understand his father now, so he just listened.

"Billy, Ricky. Promise me one thing."

Abelich looked back at the two sons and said.

"Please resent me if there is anything to resent. Do not resent your brother."

Atmosphere being like this, they had to promise even if they didn't want to. Only, now it didn't feel like following an order as usual.

"Yes, understood. Father. I promise."

Vilter answered first with a heavy expression.

When Abelich looked at Rickart, Rickart rolled his big eyes with flushed red cheeks and answered.

"I don't resent anyone. Father, or Big Brother. There absolutely won't be such a thing in the future either. Don't worry. No need to promise, but if you need my small promise, I'll promise as much as you want."

Abelich smiled faintly again and reached out to stroke the two sons' heads.

"I didn't fight as well as my father, and compared to my brother, I lagged behind in every aspect. But I did my best not to shame my family. Tried all my life. All my life. After the first battle, I never ran away from the battlefield once, and always fought at the very front. Actually, I wasn't brave but just trembling in fear. You won't understand now, but inheriting a territory isn't exactly a good thing."

Actually, aside from understanding, the fact that Father talked like this itself was a little touching. No, very touching.

Then Rickart seemed to think deeply alone, then said to his father.

"Everyone has a time when they are a coward. The important thing is when realizing one is a coward, depending on the choice of what to do next, I think there are brave people and people who remain cowards. Father is definitely a brave knight. Grandfather would be proud too. He must have said such words because emotions were too intense back then. So please don't keep it in your heart too much."