Chapter 2. The Catalyst (1)
Clayton L. Klein.
At the age of seventeen, he was already tall and well-built.
A faint trace of hesitation lingered in his blue eyes beneath his gleaming golden hair.
The reason was none other than his older brother, Shane.
Ever since the Academy’s vacation had begun, his brother had shown no intention of leaving his room.
It was probably because word had spread that, shortly before the end of the Academy’s first semester, Shane had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a fellow student.
Nearly a month had passed since then, and Klein had gone to see Shane time and again, only to be met with cold hostility.
Their father, Clayton J. Lowell, had also stopped concerning himself with the matter, merely telling Klein to leave his brother alone.
Their father had never shown much interest in his children, even when they were young.
Klein knew the reason well.
After enduring numerous incidents over the years, Lowell had come to avoid investing his emotions in people altogether, his own children included.
At least Klein had his mother, Lowell’s second wife.
Shane, however, no longer had his mother, Lowell’s first wife.
That had left his brother in a position where it was almost inevitable that he would grow deeply troubled.
Even Klein’s own mother was wary of Shane.
There was no one in this estate whom his brother could truly trust.
Perhaps that was why Shane had always hated it whenever Klein approached him.
‘But if even I stop caring about him…… there will be no one left for him.’
That was why Klein refused to give up and continued trying to grow closer to his brother.
“Whew, all right.”
Standing before Shane’s room again after some time, Klein took a shallow breath and spoke.
“Brother, it is Klein. May I come in?”
He asked in his usual voice, and unexpectedly, an answer came almost at once.
“Come in.”
Klein tilted his head slightly at the sound of it.
Shane’s voice was as blunt as ever, but the emotion within it felt subtly different.
Half puzzled and half concerned, Klein opened the door and stepped inside.
Shane stood by the window with a teacup in hand, looking back at him.
“What is it?”
“Father called for us, so I came to get you.”
“You came yourself instead of sending a servant.”
“Yes…….”
Was that a reproach for coming when there had been no need?
Just as Klein wondered that—
“Your timing is good. There was something I wanted to tell you anyway.”
“Pardon?”
Something he wanted to say?
His brother normally wanted as little to do with him as possible.
What could this be about?
Just as Klein began to tense up, Shane slowly opened his mouth.
“I am sorry.”
“……?”
“I have treated you harshly all this time, even though you did nothing to deserve it.”
“……!”
The apology was so embarrassingly direct that Klein felt as though he had been struck by lightning and could barely keep himself steady.
“Brother……?”
“I simply wanted to say that.”
As though slightly embarrassed, Shane lowered his head.
And for the first time, Klein saw a smile on his brother’s lips.
It was faint, but unmistakably real.
—
It had been an almost painfully straightforward apology.
The reason for it was nothing particularly profound.
Shane had simply wanted to confirm his own resolve.
“I can still change from now on.”
It was not too late.
At this point in time, there were still five years before the Organization would approach him.
Things had not yet spiraled toward the worst possible outcome.
Of course, apologizing to his brother now would not suddenly improve Shane’s circumstances by much.
There were surely still many people outside this room who looked upon him with disdain.
Before his regression, Shane had been slowly but surely broken down by people like them.
Back then, he had believed his family was no different.
There was Klein, with whom he was constantly compared; his stepmother Rachel, who supported Klein while remaining wary of Shane; and Shane’s father, who judged everything solely by its usefulness…….
‘Lowell.’
A thoroughgoing meritocrat.
That was the kind of man Lowell was.
Naturally, the only people who remained close to him were those with exceptional ability, regardless of their character.
Under such circumstances, it was inevitable that Shane and Klein would be compared.
On top of that, despite being the eldest son of a count’s family, Shane was overshadowed by his younger brother.
At the Academy he attended, that must have made excellent material for ridicule as well.
Wherever Shane went, he had lived beneath the gazes of people comparing him to someone else.
And little by little, he had fallen apart.
The Organization had kept its eye on him precisely because of that and had eventually succeeded in corrupting him.
But when Shane saw his brother’s face at the moment Klein led him to both death and liberation from Corruption—
For the first time, Shane had been able to cast aside the gazes of everyone around him and face his brother sincerely.
Even after learning that the executive of evil who had slaughtered countless people was his own brother, Klein’s face had still been filled with guilt over having killed him.
There were people like that in this world.
That was what family was.
And it was that precious realization that had made Shane who he was now.
“It is something I realized only at the end of my life. Something I must never forget.”
Although the power of Corruption had driven his actions, Shane had still played a part in the deaths of far too many people.
Even if those events had now been undone, Shane felt as though a burden rested upon his shoulders—one perhaps as heavy as the burden Klein had carried before the regression, or perhaps even heavier.
“I have to change it.”
This situation might be an opportunity that would never come again.
—
“You seem to have changed.”
“……What do you mean?”
On the day they were to leave for the Academy, Lowell had unexpectedly summoned Shane and Klein to dine together as a family.
It was rare for Lowell, who normally paid little attention to his family.
“I mean that the look in your eyes has changed. Before, they looked worse than a corpse’s. In particular, I no longer sense hostility when you look at your brother.”
“…….”
Shane fell silent at those words, but the one who became restless was Klein.
Since when had their father paid enough attention to the family to notice something like that?
No, more importantly, if his son’s eyes had truly looked that way, had he really never once said anything about it until now?
Klein worried that Shane might be thinking the same thing.
Unexpectedly, however, Shane showed no particular emotional reaction and answered calmly.
“I had a dream.”
“A dream?”
“Yes.”
“What sort of dream?”
“A dream in which Klein’s sword pierced my heart.”
“Pfft!”
Naturally, Klein was the first to react to the sudden story about a dream.
Me?
Stabbing Brother?
Brother, just what do you think of me……?
“Hah.”
Even Lowell, the head of the family, seemed dumbfounded, judging by the rare change in his expression.
“What a strange dream.”
“Of course, it was only a dream. Still, if only to make sure such a thing never happens, I intend to treat him better from now on.”
“……There is certainly no harm in brothers getting along. Very well.”
With that, Lowell resumed his meal, and no further conversation followed.
‘It seems Rachel is away for the moment.’
Rachel was the current lady of the house and Shane’s stepmother.
What would she have said if she had heard this conversation?
Shane could not say for certain, but she would probably have been racking her brain trying to uncover some hidden meaning behind his words.
Not that it mattered.
The servants would tell her about it soon enough anyway.
As their meal drew to a close, Lowell spoke again.
“Do well at the Academy.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Understood.”
Shane and Klein answered his curt farewell, and Lowell left the dining room first.
What had happened in his previous life again?
‘Right. I remember.’
In his previous life, Shane had gotten into a tremendous argument with Lowell on this very day.
The reason had been Shane’s declaration that he intended to withdraw from the Academy.
At the time, Shane had been utterly exhausted.
He was compared to Klein by the servants.
He was compared to Klein at the Academy.
Everywhere he went, there had been nothing but people measuring him against someone else.
Wanting to escape from all of them, Shane had asked Lowell for permission to travel.
Naturally, Lowell had refused.
‘Back then, I thought the head of the family was completely heartless.’
Of course, there must have been social considerations as well.
After all, graduating from the Academy was considered only natural for a noble.
‘But was that really the only reason?’
In the end, Shane had been forced back to the Academy by his father’s threats.
Unable to adapt even then, he had eventually run away.
When he finally left on a journey in search of freedom, what had awaited him?
‘The wastrel of a noble house who abandoned his duties as a noble.’
It was not as though Shane had murdered anyone or behaved like some violent delinquent.
Yet to the public, he had become branded as a nobleman who had forsaken the duties expected of his station.
That was how much significance the Academy held within the Allied Nations where Shane lived.
‘The head of the family must have foreseen that future.’
Perhaps that was why Lowell had gone so far as to threaten him in an attempt to stop him from leaving the Academy.
Shane decided to think of it that way.
He still did not particularly like Lowell, of course.
But perhaps if Shane changed the way he viewed things, the distance between them could narrow.
Just as he thought that he should have a serious conversation with Lowell someday—
“Brother.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
Klein, who had finished eating, spoke to him.
With a determined expression, he opened his mouth.
“I will never point my sword at you, Brother.”
“…….”
“That will never happen. Ever.”
“……I see.”
If the you from my previous life had known who I was, would you still have pointed your sword at me?
Shane remembered the expression his brother had worn in those final moments of his previous life.
That face, steeped in guilt, had been filled with profound regret.
—
That afternoon.
Shane received a bag containing everything he needed from Maria, his personal maid, and left the estate together with Klein.
Today, Shane and Klein were returning to the Academy after a month-long break.
For Shane, of course, it had been far longer since he had last been there.
‘The Academy…….’
There had been many reasons why Shane had fallen apart in his previous life, but more than anything else, it had all begun at the Academy.
The students’ contemptuous gazes and constant comparisons had certainly played a part.
But the first event that had truly set Shane down the wrong path had occurred on the journey to the Academy.
‘The incident that first gave rise to my greatest inferiority complex. This time, I will not let myself be defeated so easily.’
Recalling what had happened back then, Shane climbed into the carriage with Klein, escorted by the family’s knights.
