I sit down alongside Lilia-san under the bright moonlight.
　Lilia-san looks at the stars twinkling in the night sky for a while and is silent, and after a bit, she slowly opens her mouth.

''Kite, you know that I am a former princess, right?
Yes, sir.
'I was in a very delicate position as a princess. I think Luna mentioned before that my brother and I are half-siblings.
Yeah.
"I'm 'the Queen's Son' and your brother is 'the son of the concubine.'
Huh?

　I'm quite surprised inwardly at Lilia-san's words, which she tells me point by point.
　The current king is the son of a side room, and Lilia-san is the son of the queen...I honestly thought it was the other way around.

''As you can imagine, I heard that there was quite a struggle when your brother ascended the throne at the age of 25. I was the Queen's long-awaited first child, who had been unable to bear children for a long time, and there was a faction that argued that I should be installed as the King. In the end, it seems that since I was still very young, my elder brother was able to take the throne.
....
''It would have been nice if it had all ended there, but now I'm in a dispute with my brother's children about the next succession.
...it's, well, I don't know how to put it...
Oh, just so there is no misunderstanding, our relationship was good, just because people were cheering for me. My brother has treated me like his own child, and both the prince and the princess have looked up to me like an older sister.

　Saying that, Lilia-san smiles slightly, and then makes a serious...........................an expression of regret for the past.

''You may already know this, but...........................I currently take the family name of Albert instead of the name of Sinfonia as a royal family. The reason for this is simple I ran away from the struggle for succession...
''........I got the impression that Lilia-san didn't seem to have much interest in the throne or anything, but......''
'There weren't any. But a lot of people expected me to do it, and I didn't want to betray them, so I was ambiguous for a long time. That's the biggest mistake I've made in my life if I had made it clear early on that I would never inherit the throne, not like that.

　Lilia bites her lip in frustration.
　Apparently, that seems to be the most important part of the story.
　Lilia-san wasn't interested in the succession to the throne. But the people around her........the people who were pushing for Lilia-san wanted Lilia-san to be the king.
　As a result, it remained ambiguous, and Lilia-san was caught up in a battle for the succession?

''.......Zeke and I have been together ever since I can remember. Since Ray-san was a court mage working for the royal palace, Zeke used to play with me a lot since I was a child.
Lilia and Zeke have known each other since they were children.
Yes, it was Zeke who taught me the sword. To me, Zeke is like an older sister, a master swordsman, and an invaluable confidant.

　So Lilia-san stops speaking once, turns her gaze to the sky again, and begins to speak the rest of the story with a somewhat distant look in her eyes.

''Actually, Zeke was supposed to be the division commander of the second division, but he recommended me because it would surely be a good experience for my future, and he himself became the deputy commander to support me. Zeke was really always, always there to help me and worry about me in a complicated position... and yet I...
....
Zeke advised me many times that if I wasn't interested in taking the throne, I should clearly state my intentions, but I remained ambiguous, and that was the worst thing that could happen to me.
...worst-case scenario, right?

　Somehow, I can imagine it.
　Zeke-san used to be a member of the Order and lost his voice due to the wound he suffered at that time.
　

At my invitation, it was Luna's second year in the Order when she was an adventurer.
"...what?　Is Luna-san also a former member of the Order?
Yes, well, he wasn't really concerned about becoming a knight, and when I got my knighthood and left the Order, he quit easily and followed me.
'It's so typical of you, Luna Maria, how can I say it?'
'Yeah, really ... me, Zeke and Luna were always together. Luna would tease me, I'd get mad about it, and Zeke would chuckle and soothe me....

　It seems that Lunamaria-san has always been like that, and the scene somehow came to mind.
　You could tell by looking at Lilia-san's face that she really cares about them.
　At that point, Lilia-san paused for a moment again and slowly began to cut to the main topic of the conversation.

''........One day, it was decided that the first to third divisions would cooperate in the mission of defeating the demons that had occurred in large numbers. There were many powerful demons, and the preparations were extensive.......Based on the information we were given beforehand, the plan was for each of us to deploy our forces in three different directions to overpower them.
....
'We moved to a safe zone that had been identified by preliminary research, and I left command to Zeke, who moved with Luna to meet with the rest of the division. And it was there that a revelation was made.
A fact?
''Yes the information given to my division was 'swapped out' and the location where my division was deployed was 'next to the demon's nest'.
What?

　I was astonished to hear the words Lilia-san told me.
　That is to say, Lilia-san's division was caught by surprise by the demons when she thought it was a safe zone and let her guard down.

''As I said before, the demons that were the target of our defeat were quite powerful and numerous, so it wasn't something that only one division could deal with. At worst, they could have even been wiped out... but that wasn't the case.
....
As I hurried back to the camp, Luna and I saw Zeke, defending his wounded knights, covered in blood, fighting a large number of demons all alone.
Mr. Zeke is....
''Me and Luna soon joined in, and the rest of the division moved quickly and the demons were defeated. My division was also very fortunate, thanks to Zeke's desperate fight, but not a single death occurred. However, Zeke was........so badly wounded that he couldn't be healed with his recovery magic, and he wandered between life and death for days.

　I don't know much about battles, but I'm sure that's what he had to fight through with his own body as a shield to stand up to the other knights from a demon that was enough to hit them with three divisions to deal with, and that's what he had to do to keep the other knights from dying.
　It may be a miracle, really, that there were no deaths.

And when Zeke regained consciousness a few days later he had lost his voice due to the deep wound in his throat.
....
''In the end, I couldn't find the person who switched the prior information, but considering the timing, it was more likely to be a murder by some of the princes or princesses who didn't want me to earn any more military honors than I have now...''
....
'I'm sorry I didn't make it clear that it was my fault and that's why Zeke was... ...

　What should I say?　If you ask me if it's Lilia-san's fault, after what you just said, I can see that it's not her fault.
　But Lilia-san, who has a strong sense of responsibility, wouldn't agree with that.
　While I can't think of any words to reply, Lilia-san goes on with her story.

'Zeke didn't blame me. Ray-san and Fia-san also forgave me, saying that as long as their daughter forgave them, so did they. But I can't forgive myself for that.
....
"And so I ran away from the struggle for succession when my brother gave me the title. I couldn't bear to see the people I cared about get hurt anymore and at the same time, I tried to find some way to bring Zeke's voice back, but none of the options I could find were practical. It wasn't there.
I wonder if that's why you're using the fruit of the World Tree...
'Yes, sir. The fruit of the World Tree is an incredibly valuable thing. So precious that even I, a duke, have never even seen one in person...

　Having spoken that much, Lilia-san doesn't continue to speak further and becomes silent.
　I see, that's why Lilia-san's eyes changed color when she heard about the prize of this time's winner... because that's what Lilia-san has been looking for all along, something that can restore Zeke's lost voice... ...

Mr. Lilia.
Yes?
I don't want to say anything clever, but, you know, I don't think it's Lilia-san's fault.
Thank you very much.

　The conversation didn't last any longer, but I felt the tense feeling Lilia-san wore eased a little bit.

　Dear Mom, Dad - I was able to learn a bit about Lilia-san's past. Lilia-san and Zeke-san - they were childhood friends.