[Erik's Perspective]
I had pressed Arielle too far and tried to get her engaged to me while she was experiencing amnesia. She probably felt too much pressure from my actions
that it caused her to break down and take a life-threatening drug to regain her memories. It only further propelled her into the arms of another man, but she seems happier with him, so I have to let her go even though I do not want to.
That person ended up as one of my Advisors not long after Arielle broke up with me.
"I hope that Your Highness will treat me as always, or if you prefer not seeing my face, I will do my best to stay out of your way," Garett said indifferently.
If I reject him and Arielle hears about this, she will think of me as a petty person...
I can act magnanimous if I want to.
"...You do not have to do that. Just go about your business as usual," I said.
"Right...I would have done that without you telling me that. I was just testing to see if you were a petty person," Garett said as he nonchalantly marked something on his clipboard.
"...Say what?"
"I have to make regular reports on your behavior. I was chosen for this position because my superiors heard that I was your cousin. Your Advisors think that you will be more careless in front of me," Garett said.
"Should you be revealing me this?" I asked.
"It would be faster for you to know about your faults so that you can fix them sooner. It is simply inefficient for you to learn about your own faults yourself. Consider the eyes of others a good starting point at reflecting on your own behavior," Garett said.
He is just as nitpicky as he was in my past life, or maybe he is being more relentless because the number of his targets decreased by one, while the other became his lover?
"What does she see in a hardheaded person like you?" I asked.
He showed widened eyes to much of my surprise.
"...Will you be fine talking about her? You did recently get dumped by her," Garett said sharply.
Does this person not realize I am still his superior?
"Throwing salt in my wounds?" I asked.
"...Easily provoked," Garett said as he jotted something down.
"Can you really make Arielle happy with such an attitude?" I asked.
"...I do not know about the future like either of you, so who is to say that Arielle will be happy because of me? She suffered because the other me was insensitive towards her feelings and tried to force what he believed what would truly make her happy onto her," Garett said.
"...Then, why are you with her?" I asked.
"I cannot tell if I make her truly happy because she is the only one who truly understands her feelings. If there is anything that I can guarantee for her by being beside her, it is that will care for her more than anyone and make all of her wishes come true because I love her. If she is truly happy in the end, that is when I have succeeded," Garett said.
He was a bit cool for a moment.
"...What a bland answer," I said.
"...Terribly nosy," Garett said as he picked up his pen and wrote down.
I take everything I thought of just now back...
"Has anyone ever told you that you are shrewd?" I asked.
"No, but I have been called a heinous monster before," Garett said as he turned around after looking at his pocket watch. "Forgive me for not accompanying you longer. It appears that I must leave soon."
...How can he say something like that as if being called a monster to your face had no bearings on your self-esteem?
Since then, I kept him by my side as my Advisor when necessary. He was quick witted and created numerous policies off the back of his mind. He was the same as I had remembered. It did not take me long to get accustomed to this Garett as well.
"...Are you aware that it is possible that you are not an only child?" Father asked.
"Pardon?"
I had not heard of this information even in my previous life.
"I heard the Queen say to herself that she had another child. It could have just been nonsense since I had never seen her pregnant more than once," Father said
"...I think I would have remembered seeing her pregnant unless it happened before I was born or when I was too young to remember," I said.
"It is impossible for her to have a child before entering the Castle. If she had a second child here, it would be very difficult to conceal such a matter, unless the child was born on the same day as you, Prince," Father said.
For some reason, I thought of Garett at that moment.
It was such a strange thought since he was my only cousin and he had proper parents, but when was his birthday again?
"...Why would Mother conceal having another child?" I asked.
"Twins have long been a terrible omen. In the case that a boy and girl are born, the mother is allowed to live as long as the two are separated and their date of births are manipulated on document. When two boys are born, one child is killed along with the mother who had given birth to it," Father explained.
It was such a dark history that I had not known of until now...
"Are you saying that Mother gave birth to twin boys and hid her second child so that she could avoid dying along with her child, Your Majesty?" I asked.
"...I interrogated the only surviving midwife at the time of your birth," Father said.
"By only surviving, do you mean..."
"Shortly after you were born, all of the people present at the time all mysteriously died in various times and places. When I got ahold of one witness, she told me that the Queen did have another child had died at the time of birth...I want to start a search for that child. Even as a corpse, I want to see him. You are to find him," Father said.
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