His thoughts had twisted into a mess, like a tangled skein of thread. Trying to flee with Kiel had been the first and last decision of his life, the one and only attempt, the one and only experience. For the rest of the more than twenty years, Andrea’s life had been profoundly closed off and restricted. Everything from the outside world that could be touched was thoroughly cut off, and the only thing he could know about himself was the name Andrea.

After the tragedy that ended life in the mansion, Andrea had lived in a monastery without even a mirror to look at his own face. By now, he was at the point where he could barely remember what his own features even looked like. To that Andrea, the man called Duke Fernan was throwing words he could not understand.

Duke Fernan closed his mouth and sent Andrea a lingering look, as if giving him time to understand what he had said. It was an observing gaze. But Andrea had no room to spare for Duke Fernan’s stare.

“Your Majesty. You must be very confused, but….”

“Why am I ‘Your Majesty’?”

Andrea asked Duke Fernan with a bewildered expression. Duke Fernan returned a look that seemed to say he did not know how to explain. Andrea wet his dry lips with his tongue and asked again.

“Was I always ‘Your Majesty’?”

Andrea at least understood what Duke Fernan meant by ‘Your Majesty’. The master of the enormous empire that occupied about half the continent. Wasn’t that a word used only when addressing the emperor?

To suddenly call Andrea, who had lived confined in the mansion since infancy, ‘Your Majesty’. Then had Andrea been ‘Your Majesty’ since childhood, or had he become ‘Your Majesty’ all of a sudden?

“…I see. It would be best to explain that first.”

Duke Fernan spoke slowly. Andrea stared at him. Unexpectedly, he was wearing a faint smile that looked satisfied. It was the smile of someone who had thought Andrea would be horribly stupid, but was relieved that Andrea at least knew how to think.

“More than twenty years ago, the empress at the time, who is now the empress dowager, gave birth to a precious prince rather late in life.”

“….”

“Just as everyone was swept up in joy at the birth of the precious prince, the empress began labor again…. And gave birth to another prince. Yes, that’s right. She gave birth to twins, and ominously, they were identical male twins.”

Andrea could roughly guess the rest of the story just from hearing that much.

The empire of Andor relied on bloodline and divine revelation to legitimize imperial authority. In the empire, the prophecy from the Great Temple had been passed down since long ago, that ‘two suns burn the empire’.

So when the first heir of an imperial or noble house was born as an identical twin, one of the two was quietly killed off to prevent future conflict. That was the unwritten custom.

If the imperial family had produced its precious first prince as identical twins, then naturally the younger one, or the weaker child of the two, would have been quietly killed and buried.

Andrea’s eyelid twitched. Noticing that he had roughly grasped the situation, the satisfied smile at the corner of Duke Fernan’s mouth deepened.

“At the time, His Majesty the former emperor ordered the younger twin killed at once, but the empress, fresh from childbirth, begged and pleaded desperately, and the matter was settled by secretly sending the younger one far from the imperial palace to a mansion, where he was raised in secret. Sir Andrea was thus fated to live his entire life without ever knowing his own identity.”

“Then, why now….”

Andrea could guess the reason, yet could not help asking. Duke Fernan, who had placed his hands together on his knees, tightened them hard.

“Sir Andrea’s twin brother, His Majesty, ascended to the throne safely three years ago at the age of seventeen.”

Unlike before, Duke Fernan’s voice had gone rigid as he explained the situation.

Three years ago.

Andrea remembered too. Three years ago, the elderly emperor died of illness, and the only crown prince safely inherited the throne. That day had been a blessed one, one when even the secluded monastery was able to enjoy soft bread and wine for a rare change.

“And a few days ago, His Majesty fell from his horse in an accident during a hunt….”

Duke Fernan stopped there for a moment. Then, after barely swallowing once, he forced out the rest.

“He fell… and was trampled under the horse’s hooves, breaking his neck and spine and dying instantly.”

Hah.

Andrea sucked in a sharp breath and held it. Duke Fernan looked at him and gave a bitter smile.

“Do you understand why Sir Andrea must live as ‘Your Majesty’ from now on?”

Andrea tossed his wavering gaze around the carriage.

“But I…. I am a person who knows nothing. Please find someone else to be ‘Your Majesty’ instead of me….”

“No.”

Duke Fernan cut him off sharply. Then, as if irritated, he reached a finger into the shirt collar that seemed to be choking his neck and tugged it lightly.

“For now, His Majesty the former emperor has no lawful heir other than the current ‘Your Majesty’. In simple terms, you are the only rightful heir.”

“But the imperial family has many people, doesn’t it? If you choose one of them….”

Andrea brought up the most common-sense answer. This situation was too much to bear. But Duke Fernan ignored the faint tremor in his voice and gave a cold reply.

“No. That will not do. I, and the empress dowager, want a ‘Your Majesty’ whose blood is mixed with that of the imperial family and the House of Fernand. We cannot accept an emperor with blood from any other line. Especially now that Sir Andrea is alive and well, there is even less reason to do so.”

“So….”

Andrea could barely force the words out through his shaking voice, and it took several breaths before he could continue.

“So Duke Fernan wants me to act as my twin brother, ‘Your Majesty’, instead of being Andrea.”

“I’m glad you are quick to understand. That’s right. ‘Andrea’ was a ghost that did not exist in this world, and if nothing had happened, you should have lived as a ghost until the day you died. Of course, that is still the case now. From now on, you will live not as ‘Andrea’ but as His Majesty before his passing, that is, Mikael Andor.”

“I know nothing, truly nothing.”

“That is fine. Everything you need can be learned anew. It will be explained that His Majesty suffered a severe blow to the head in the unfortunate riding accident a few days ago and is recovering in secret, and that when he awoke, he had unfortunately lost all his memories.”

“But if someone notices that something has changed….”

“Absolutely, that will not happen. Even this maternal uncle, who was closer to His Majesty than anyone, can see that you look exactly like His Majesty, as if you were made from the same mold. So you need not think about anything else.”

Duke Fernan’s voice was gentle, but it carried a firm intention to permit no refusal.

Andrea clenched both hands together tightly. The life that had been still and motionless, without even the slightest movement, was being swept helplessly away by a huge wave. And Andrea had no choice but to stare blankly at the wave crashing over him.

As always, no choice of any kind was permitted to Andrea. Andrea closed his trembling eyes tightly and prayed.

God, please watch over this poor child of Yours.

***

The carriage ran for two full days straight. Aside from the times when the horses were changed along the way, it never stopped for a moment. It seemed to be that urgent a situation.

Andrea merely spent his time in the carriage eating and sleeping in helpless repetition. It seemed Duke Fernan had decided to fully immerse Andrea in the role of the ’emperor who had lost all his memories’, and so he gave no other information beyond that. He appeared to have judged that a blank slate was better than knowing things halfheartedly.

Andrea could not escape the helplessness at all. Even just bearing the dread of how he was supposed to go on living was overwhelming.

Even with his mind blanked out like that, there was one thing he could understand with certainty: from now on, he was fated to live as a puppet of his mother, the empress dowager, and his maternal uncle, Duke Fernan. The knowledge he had gathered from countless books he had read day and night to endure years of boredom told him so.

The carriage, which had run for two full days and nights, finally came to a complete stop in the middle of a deep forest.

Across the forest, a large stone mansion came into view. Andrea did not even have the chance to admire it before he was wrapped tightly in a pitch-black, oversized cloak and stumbled through the forest, unable even to see ahead of him. Then he was dragged into the mansion through a small side door.

Duke Fernan led Andrea with somewhat hurried steps. Dragged along like that, not even knowing where he was walking, he entered a room.

The black cloak that had blocked his entire view was yanked away in a sweep. Before he could even blink and look around, a thick scent of roses, so strong it seemed to choke him, rushed in. The oddly unpleasant rose fragrance was so dense and strange that it needlessly made his stomach turn.

“Please say your farewells.”