The Sleeping Devil

"Sheriel Beriard, I hereby annul our engagement as of today."

Alphonse's voice echoed through the hall. I am now standing next to Alphonse, witnessing the condemnation of my half-sister.

It is certain that she will be sentenced to death. After all, I have gathered the evidence myself.

Her emotionless gaze, directed towards me as she lay prostrate on the floor, remains unchanged from the first time we met.

Sheriel is the illegitimate child our father brought home from a dark auction one day. Such a thing would never have been allowed by my mother.

As expected, Mother succumbed to jealousy and passed away a few years later due to an incurable illness. Father followed soon after, in battle...

Since then, it has been just the two of us as a family. However, I never took an interest in Sheriel, who was like a doll. And so, we have come to this point.

"As you all know, I was engaged to this woman for the sake of the kingdom. However, she was not just lazy and incompetent. It is well known that she has subjected Maria to various acts of harassment."

Incompetent, indeed, from the perspective of the Beriard family. But she should be far more intelligent than all of you, shouldn't she? Sheriel is a genius, after all. Despite not having proper teachers and having lost all motivation and emotions, she had enough ability to handle Alphonse's administrative work.

Furthermore, it was not Sheriel who harmed Maria. She has no such emotions as jealousy towards the relationship between Alphonse and Maria.

Sheriel has been whispered about as the Devilish Heiress, but it is not just fear or awe toward the Beriard Marquisate. It is the contempt of vulgar nobles who gladly seize any opportunity to look down upon those above them.

Sigh... Why did I get involved in this farce?

"But that's not all! This woman, taking advantage of her position as my fiancée, has been leaking state secrets to rebels. Therefore, she will undoubtedly be officially punished by His Majesty the King. Well, the death penalty is certain!"

Yes, that's right. This is why I went through all the trouble, so I think I could provide more details.

Truly, what an idiot.

Scream!

As the young lady let out a scream, the crowd split into two, and a man, the perpetrator, walked through the gap.

"Teacher..."

Sheriel muttered quietly, without any retort or resistance. I couldn't bear to hear that word "teacher" anymore.

Perhaps because she was not loved by anyone, Sheriel was infatuated with that man. Just a tutor who taught her magic. However, since she couldn't have an official tutor and had restrictions at the academy, that man must have been her entire world.

The man, appearing for the first time in a long while, casually thrust a sword into Sheriel's back.

"What...!?"

Whose voice was that? I thought he had come to help, but for some reason, he ended up killing Sheriel.

Ah, Sheriel is going to die. I had thought it would happen sooner or later, but here it is.

"Hahaha... What's this?"

Are you going to kill Sheriel, my half-sister, who knows no impurity even after killing someone? Sheriel, are you going to be killed by the person you trusted, right here?

Boredom, perhaps. It might be an unpleasant feeling.

From there, it became a scene of hellish pandemonium. The academy students fell unconscious one by one, and Alphonse was trembling, shouting behind his escort knights.

The knights, unable to do anything but hold their swords, couldn't move an inch, and all I could hear were screams and shouts from all around.

How meaningless. Truly, life is so boring.

In an instant, the man moved next to Alphonse and whispered something in his ear. Then he disappeared with Sheriel's body in his arms. Well, he's probably going to use her as research material or something.

Several days later, while handling administrative work in my territory, a magical device that notifies me of communications from the royal palace started to glow.

How annoying.

Reluctantly, I channeled magic into the magical device, and the voice of Prince Alphonse resonated loudly.

"Didier, why haven't you come to the palace!"

"Your Highness, I am also busy. As the lord, I must attend to matters in my territory."

"Just leave that to your aides! We are struggling here because the administrative work is piling up. Due to what your sister did, we are swamped with handling that side of things!"

That can't be right. I have already arranged everything related to that matter and left people behind. It's simply that the work I used to burden Sheriel with is not being managed properly.

"How about entrusting it to Miss Maria? She's going to be your queen, isn't she? Sheriel was doing it, so Miss Maria should be able to handle it as well."

"Well, yes, but... Maria is already doing her best..."

Oh, so they've already assigned it to Miss Maria. If His Highness has any talent, it would be his ability to delegate to others. Well, as expected, I suppose...

To manage the workload that Sheriel was handling, it would be impossible without employing several high-ranking bureaucrats. Moreover, no matter how much work Sheriel was assigned, she never protested and quietly continued to handle it, resulting in a workload greater than that of Prince Alphonse.

"Your Highness, are you ordering me to assist with the administrative work there? As you are well aware, a lord must prioritize his own territory. Your administrative work belongs to you, doesn't it? What have you been doing all this time?"

"You impudent fool! I understand that much! However, the Balkan family, who will become Maria's family, is a mid-ranked noble family without a title. We cannot replenish our staff from the Balkans, so I need you to do something..."

"Why is that?"

"Huh? Well, until now, the Beriard family has been my support..."

"That was only because Sheriel was your fiancée in name, and because Sheriel was my sister, right? That day, Your Highness broke off the engagement, and Sheriel is now dead. You and I are only in the relationship of the second prince and the head of the Beriard family. Why not ask higher-ranking nobles who don't have other territories to manage?"

Ahaha, how far can his idiocy go? If she hadn't fallen for his words, Sheriel might have been better off. It's no wonder she fell for such a man, being a Beriard with the cursed bloodline. If she had, I would have killed her myself.

"W-Why! This is an order as a prince, as the crown prince!"

"That's why, the prioritization of the territory is a rule of the kingdom, not something the prince has the authority to change, you know? And to be more precise, it's not only the current king but also the past kings who have upheld this rule of the country. If you really insist, you'll have to ascend to the throne and change the law."

Well, there are cases where matters such as wars and large-scale subjugations take precedence, but I don't feel obligated to explain everything. It's irrelevant now.

"Do you not have any sense of compassion for others?"

"No, I don't. I am a Beriard, after all."

Why bring it up now... He's truly an imbecile. It is precisely because the Beriard family lacks empathy and guilt that we have resistance to impurities and are suited for subjugating monsters and wars. Forgetting even this characteristic of our lineage indicates that things must be quite dire for him.

Well, it doesn't matter to me how the country turns out.

"Well then, I will end the call as I also have administrative work to attend to. Although I helped you when it concerned my sister, it resulted in a buildup of administrative work in my domain. Ah, by the way, you are aware of the peculiar absolution of the Beriard family, aren't you?"

"...No matter what grave sins an individual within the family commits, they are treated as personal sins, and the family as a whole is not held accountable."

"Oh, so you knew, Prince Alphonse!"

"Well, it's common knowledge that we're lower-ranking nobles without a title."

"Yes, that's right. It can't be helped. Our family occasionally produces such individuals. Well, from now on, please enjoy your time with Miss Maria. Goodbye."

After ending the call, my chief aide, Zaris, let out a deep sigh.

"Didier-sama, you went a bit too far with Prince Alphonse. It seems like your response became quite careless halfway through."

"It can't be helped. Dealing with an idiot is tiring. But he truly is an irredeemable fool. If only we had made better use of Sheriel, we might have been able to compensate for Prince Alphonse's incompetence to some extent."

"Please refrain from speaking ill of Sheriel-sama."

"What? It's not like you cared for her, either, right? Well, you probably just turned a blind eye because it went against our intentions."

Zaris remained silent, keeping his eyes lowered. He's weak when it comes to this topic.

"Ah, how boring."

"Is it because you have a lot of administrative work?"

"Don't you know that's a lie, too, Zaris?"

In the end, whether my sister died or not, my life remains boring. It would have been better if I had shown some interest in swordsmanship like my father.

The next day, another communication arrived from the royal palace.

Does he have no capacity to learn? But I can't help but be curious about how foolish the content might be, so I unintentionally channel magic into the magical device. That's how dull my life is.

"Um, it's Maria... "

Oh, it's Miss Maria. This is yet another level of stupidity that I didn't anticipate.

"Good day, Miss Maria. Why are you contacting me?"

"Well, His Highness entrusted me with various administrative tasks for his sake... and I was able to use this magical device with the key I received, so..."

"I see. So what is your business?"

"Um, could you please come to the royal palace? I can't understand most of the tasks His Highness assigned to me, and..."

Ah, there it is again, a genuine fool!

"Why should I come?"

"Well, because you've helped us in various ways so far, right? I'm really in trouble. Many of the documents are in foreign languages, and I don't know what to do."

It seems like she has some sort of misunderstanding. The help I provided in that matter was following the rule that the sins of the Beraird family are to be wiped away by the Beraird family itself, not for her sake.

"I see. Well, it doesn't concern me whether you're in trouble or not. How do you plan to become a queen? Sheriel, despite being a criminal, was handling all of that alone. You're the one who stole her position, aren't you? Besides, if you weren't around, Sheriel might not have committed such crimes."

"Are you angry? Yes, of course, she was an important younger sister to you. I'm sorry for my insensitivity. I understand that you're going through a difficult time, Didier-sama. I can't sleep at night since that incident. It's so painful... "

She can really get under my skin to such an extent. Amazing, Miss Maria! If she were right in front of me, I might have accidentally decapitated her.

"Well, if Sheriel hadn't died at that moment, she would have received the death penalty anyway, so it's the same, right? Why are you so upset?

"You did it yourself, didn't you?"

"That's... I didn't mean to..."

Oh, why am I so irritated? I feel unusually bad.

Taking a deep breath, I put on a smile that wouldn't be visible to her.

"Let me tell you one more thing. As a middle-ranking noble, it is not allowed for you to directly communicate with me, an upper-ranking noble. It seems like you're not even worthy as a noble, let alone a queen. If you still have any wishes, come directly to the Beraird territory. I'll gladly take care of that useless head of yours."

I heard a gasp before the communication abruptly ended. No apologies or greetings, just a rude woman until the end.

If it were Sheriel, she would have simply replied with a "Yes, yes," and then returned to her duties as if nothing had happened.

Since Sheriel's death, I feel like I'm thinking about her more than when she was alive.

She wasn't an interesting person, but I didn't dislike her. I just wasn't interested.

What is this feeling? It's an emotion I'm unfamiliar with.

And then, a few days later, an anonymous letter arrived.

"Sheriel Beraird sleeps in the Devil's Forest."

After finishing reading those few words, the letter burned into ashes.

I see. So Sheriel, who couldn't be acknowledged by the devilish Duke family, ended up in the Devil's Forest, where no one can enter...

From birth to death, and even after death, she's always alone.

Poor, pitiful sister of mine.

Rest peacefully.