It can’t be helped that older brother is pitiful.
For the sake of obtaining the phantom princess that he loved, my older brother never got himself a fiancee.
My older brother who was the eldest son of an old prestigious duke family, was on good terms with his childhood friend, who was the eldest daughter of a just as prestigious duke family.
Ever since childhood, he has had feelings for her.
Those feelings, since an early stage, were also known by her father the Duke.
However, that duke and our father were on very bad terms.
That’s why, no matter how much he desired it and how suitable their family background was, that wish did not come true.
Years and months passed.
My older brother who excelled at the magical arts since youth, became the Head of the Mage’s Order at a young age. He was just as revered as the Crown Prince, the young genius without a fiancee. He also had the title of the Duke’s heir.
For that kind of older brother, it was only natural that he received marriage proposals left and right, however he never lent an ear to any of them.
After all, my older brother has always only ever loved one person.
The phantom princess that doesn’t appear before anyone. Even I have never met the daughter of that high ranking duke’s house.
The only one ever allowed to be near her was my older brother as her childhood friend.
This was most likely because her father, who knew of my brother’s feelings, felt sorry for not being able to fulfill them, thus allowed him to be in such a position.
Seldomly does she ever attend evening parties. Even so, whenever attendance was required, it was always my brother who served as her escort.
And the following day after that, my older brother would appear to talk about her with a blissful face I’ve never seen before.
I couldn’t help but to think how happy it made him.
But, I knew.
Her father had already decided on a marriage partner for her.
That person was someone not even we, members of a Duke’s house, could do something about; it was his Highness the Crown Prince.
But even then, it seems my brother would not give up on her.
If so, then there was only one hope.
This was for his Highness to cancel the engagement with her.
The possibility of it getting turned down was pretty high. Actually, all talks of marriage up until now have continued to be denied, and even this time he wasn’t too enthusiastic about it. Always displaying an uncaring attitude, seemingly thinking from the bottom of his heart however is fine, and not even for caution’s sake would he even look at the portraits once.
彼女でないとダメだという兄の為に。If his Highness did not desire it then———If that was the case, then won’t you give her over to my brother? That was what I’d thought.
I thought that if whoever was fine, then it didn’t have to particularly be her.
For the sake of my brother, who doesn’t want anyone but her.
Isn’t it fine to give up on the phantom princess?
If we were to eliminate his Highness, then presently there’s nobody more suitable than my brother to be her partner.
It seems my father was also no longer opposing. I knew that my parents have already resigned to giving up on my brother who always refuse to decide on a marriage partner.
More than anything the Duke who knew about my brother’s strong feelings, wouldn’t think to not make him into a candidate.
————anyhow I’d hoped for it to go well.
I wanted everything to fall in place.
While I was thinking that, somehow his Highness had fallen on love. He informed me with a happy face that I’d never seen before that he wanted to annul his engagement so that he can welcome that girl.
When he said that he’d already granted her the「King’s Flower」, I was shocked from the bottom of my heart.
But, with this everything would go well. At least that was what I’d thought.
The woman his Highness loved was, more than anything his own fiancee that my brother was in love with.
[TN: unedited version; will clean up later]