Episode 7
Win the Harvest Festival?
What kind of bolt from the blue is this?
“W-win…? What do you mean, win?”
I stuttered, totally unlike myself because I was so flustered.
I hoped he’d immediately take it back, but cruel Aphelion only proudly repeated what he had just said.
“I said I’ll win the Harvest Festival for you, big sister!”
“W-why?”
“So you’ll be proud of me?”
His eyes sparkled as if he were about to march off and bring back the trophy right now.
Watching Aphelion wag his invisible tail and tell me to look forward to it left me completely confused.
In the original novel, Aphelion deliberately lost the Harvest Festival.
To show people his flaws.
Chosen as a child of god from the moment he was born, Aphelion grew up under enormous attention.
The entire empire watched his every move.
But endless expectations and support became a double-edged sword.
The pressure to always be perfect slowly strangled the boy.
Aphelion wanted people to know that even he had flaws.
He wanted the duke, who never tolerated weakness, to realize that he was no different from an ordinary boy.
That’s why he intentionally lost the competition.
He thought that if the always-first-place Aphelion failed to win, the duke might finally understand and accept his imperfections.
But because the duchy had bribed the judges in advance, he unexpectedly took first place.
All his plans collapsed.
Worse still, the duke, disappointed at the mere idea of his son’s failure, locked him in the training grounds and ordered nonstop training.
The flaw Aphelion wanted to be understood only ended up fueling the duke’s obsession even more.
“This is what happened to Aphelion in the original story…”
The problem is—
The kid standing in front of me is voluntarily trying to change that future.
And if the future changes, the chances of my deal with the duke falling apart are about 10,000,000 percent.
“Fine. We’ll see whether that arrogance ends or continues at the Harvest Festival next week.”
I had already irritated the duke more than once.
If negotiations failed now, I’d probably be treated even worse than in the original story.
“N-no! You can’t!”
I shouted and threw the pencil and paper from my hands onto the ground.
Aphelion’s excited face instantly turned confused.
“…You can’t?”
He asked again, clearly disappointed by my reaction.
“I messed up.”
If we weren’t siblings and were just an ordinary boy and girl, saying he’d win for me would practically be a confession.
And I shot it down immediately.
“I didn’t mean it like that,”
I needed to explain quickly.
But how do you justify telling someone not to get first place?
Rejecting his ambition wouldn’t destroy our sibling bond, but the best option was to keep our current relationship exactly as it was.
And I absolutely had to succeed in negotiations with the duke.
I needed both.
“Uh… if Aphelion gets first place, I think I’ll end up being compared to you…”
At that moment, a brilliant idea struck me.
Target the soft heart of our future villain.
“…Huh?”
See? He was disappointed just a moment ago, but now that my voice turned gloomy, he already looked worried.
Seeing his reaction, I started making things up more convincingly.
“Father plans to announce in a few weeks that I’m the duke’s adopted daughter. I haven’t even awakened my powers yet. People will laugh at me. And then they’ll compare me to you, who even won first place…”
I exaggerated more and more, and by the end I buried my face in my palms and pretended to cry.
Peeking through my fingers, I saw Aphelion completely panicking.
“Yeah… he’s still just a kid. A very pure one at that.”
He fumbled around trying to figure out how to comfort me, then awkwardly stepped closer and tried to hug me.
It was a weird, clumsy pose, like he’d never hugged anyone before.
“…I-I’m sorry, big sister. I didn’t think it through. I won’t get first place.”
His face pressed lightly against my shoulder, trembling.
“I… I wasn’t planning to win anyway. I was going to give up, but I thought you’d be proud of me, so I wanted to change my plan. But if that causes trouble for you, then of course I won’t do it.”
For someone usually so good with words, he rambled badly.
He looked really nervous.
Seeing him so genuinely willing to give up the victory for me made my chest ache.
“No. This isn’t the time to worry about that.”
I grabbed his collar and gently bit my lip.
“R-really? You’ll really do that for me?”
“Yeah!”
As if trying to reassure me, Aphelion answered in an extra cheerful voice.
Misunderstanding my silence, he hurried to comfort me again.
“A-and don’t worry too much. I’ll help you no matter what. If Father allows it, maybe you can even attend the academy with me someday.”
“So don’t care too much about what other people say, okay?”
Watching Aphelion worry about me until the very end made guilt surge up inside me.
He was already a child who grew anxious whenever training time approached.
“This really isn’t right.”
I can’t shove this kind kid straight into hell just to save myself.
I was about to correct myself—
When a deeply buried inner voice asked coldly,
Then what about your deal with the duke?
Are you going to throw away the original plan and face the same future as before?
It hit the mark.
In the end, I had no choice but to close my trembling lips again.
“…Stop thinking useless thoughts. This is still better than my situation.”
Who do you think I ended up like this because of?
I tried to brush it off, telling myself it was ridiculous to worry about someone else like this.
Even if Aphelion trusts me.
Even if we live like ordinary siblings.
One fact doesn’t change.
Chloe Rehaven must be sacrificed for this child.
“…Thank you, Aphelion.”
I didn’t have the strength to keep smiling, so I lowered my head, pretending to pick up the fallen things.
I gathered the paper and pencil one by one and brushed off the dust.
The drawing wasn’t finished, but I didn’t have the energy to continue. I decided to give it to him as it was.
I wrote my name and the date at the bottom and handed it to Aphelion.
“Here. It’s done.”
“It’s mine?”
“Yeah. A gift.”
Aphelion’s eyes sparkled like grains of sand as he scanned the drawing.
Soon, the curve of his lips told me exactly how he felt.
“I’ve never received a gift like this before, so I might react awkwardly… b-but I’m really happy.”
He’s excited.
“Thank you so much, big sister! I’ll treasure it forever!”
Confessing his feelings so openly, Aphelion looked just like a little kid.
Excited, unable to contain himself, just like children his age.
That pure, untouched smile stabbed straight into my chest.
The dark emotion of guilt I had been ignoring kept resurfacing.
From that day until the Harvest Festival, I was sick for several days straight.
Was it guilt?
Or because I gave away my power?
Or maybe because I was nervous about negotiating with the duke?
I didn’t know the exact reason.
I just suffered until I thought I might die—then suddenly recovered completely.
But even after I got better, I couldn’t go enjoy the festival.
“Who knows what dirty tricks you might pull. Stay inside.”
The duke ordered house arrest, saying he couldn’t trust me.
“And being ‘better’ doesn’t mean fully healed. Just stay here. If you’re bored, I’ll send the maids.”
Aphelion also stopped me when I tried to sneak into a carriage, worried my cold might come back.
“You useless father and son!”
I might miss the moment my fate is decided.
“You think I won’t go just because you told me not to? I have my own ways!”
Of course, I wasn’t going to give up so easily.
Sure, I didn’t have servants to prepare a carriage for me.
No coachman willing to take me just because I asked.
But I do have something else.
Romance-fantasy knowledge gained through countless rereads.
I rummaged through my jewelry box, grabbed a few usable gems, and ran straight to the stables.
“Take me to the Harvest Festival.”
By now, every servant in the mansion probably knew who Chloe Rehaven really was.
The duke must have strictly ordered them not to help me go out.
But all I needed was a breakthrough.
The first possession rule I learned from books:
“Money solves things the easiest.”
