I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 16
Kalien rested his elbows on the armrests of his chair, fingertips pressed together, and posed the question once more.
– Is there nothing else you wish to tell me? If you truly see something, surely there must be something you must say.
– Kalien, restrain yourself.
– It’s merely simple curiosity, Father. I wondered how many moves ahead Yeljewa can see.
Kalien’s remark sounded like a deliberate attempt to test Yeljewa’s foresight. It was dangerous territory to voice at the Continental Talks, where every word that escaped one’s lips demanded careful consideration.
‘I should have warned him beforehand. Mr. Yeljewa is stubborn, so don’t talk to him.’
As expected, Chronos Yeljewa’s voice took on a sharp edge.
– Little Wynyak. Continue to speak so disrespectfully to the Family Head of a Transcendent Family, and know that today’s talks will not proceed favorably for Wynyak.
– My apologies. I shall take your words to heart.
Kalien nodded, unable to suppress his laughter. He fell completely silent after receiving Owen’s subsequent rebuke, but I caught the crooked smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
“Strange. Why is he so sensitive?”
As if he harbored some ancient grudge against Yeljewa….
It was in that moment of bewilderment that I sensed movement behind me.
There was no need to turn around. That distinctive, anomalous mana spreading in a net-like pattern.
It had been the most prominent characteristic of the family I once belonged to.
The Family Head and heir of Kirges had arrived.
Soon, voices achingly familiar to my ears reached me.
“Is the ‘Great Extinction’ still unable to settle? Won’t it become dangerous if we drag this out any longer?”
“Even so, we cannot create a picture where we hand the mightiest weapon to such a suspicious fellow. For now, I’m thinking of taking along any one of Wynyak’s disciples….”
A slender beauty with hair a far deeper crimson than mine, twisted up in coils, was stepping onto the Podium.
‘Family Head Regina.’
Regina Kirges, the current Family Head of Kirges. In my past life, she was someone I revered like a mother.
And beside her….
Thud. Someone shoved me from behind. My bag slipped from my grasp.
“Oops, my apologies, little one. Are you alright?”
“Yes, yes. I’m fine.”
He appeared to be a knight of Whiszel. I fumbled to pick up my bag, when I noticed two feet that had drawn close before me.
A bad premonition.
Someone slowly lowered himself before me and picked up my bag. He extended the strap toward me.
“Here.”
Our eyes met inevitably.
I clamped my mouth shut like a clam.
The figure before me was a young man with pale sky-blue hair and navy eyes, bearing an intellectual impression. Unlike the youthful face I remembered, he now carried the unmistakable bearing of a full-grown man.
I bit my lip and clenched my fists.
Alpien Kirges.
Twelve years ago, he was the Kirges brother who had hurled a lethal curse at me during the successor determination tournament.
Since he had been seventeen at the time, Alpien would now be twenty-nine. His lean, slender frame remained similar, but he was far taller than I remembered.
While I restarted my life from infancy, this bastard was approaching thirty.
I was still so young. Without a Planetarium, I couldn’t even exert the sorcerous power I once possessed, yet Alpien stood confidently as the heir of Kirges.
Even a cursory glance at his mana revealed the chasm between us.
“You’re not going to take it?”
“…Thank you.”
I bowed my head as low as I could and snatched the bag from his hands.
‘This is infuriating….’
The power of Guardian Castle, which had been my steadfast ally, had pierced through me like a blade, and the moment it had torn through my body from behind remained vivid in my mind.
I had died instantly without a chance to counterattack. I only learned that I was dead after being reborn.
Because of this bastard, I couldn’t return to Kirges immediately.
For fear he might harm me again.
‘Just you wait. The moment I come of age, I’ll be the first to sever your neck.’
I clenched my teeth so hard they ached.
Then I caught sight of something hanging around his neck.
For a moment, I doubted my own eyes. It was an object I couldn’t possibly fail to recognize.
A small disc, no larger than two finger joints, with tiny spheres orbiting along a circular path.
‘That’s…!’
My planetarium. The shock struck the back of my head mercilessly.
Why does this bastard have it?
“Judging by your attire, you’re from Winyak. Is this your first time seeing a planetarium?”
Alpien, whose gaze followed where my eyes had been drawn, smiled faintly. He held the planetarium up on his palm so I could see it clearly.
“Would you like to touch it?”
“Ah….”
The sorcerers of Kirges each inscribe their mana into their own planetarium. Once inscribed, only the owner could activate it.
I swallowed dryly, driven by instinct.
Even a single finger touching it now would open it.
Within it lay all the secret techniques I had accumulated over ten years, dormant and waiting. My power. The strength I had wielded freely in my past life.
‘If I just snatch it now and open it, the gap of all these years would mean nothing.’
I now carried the power of Winyak’s Guardian Castle on my back. So if I could just reclaim this….
I could return to Kirges!
Without realizing it, my fingers began to twitch. Alpien was observing me intently.
‘Wait.’
He’s observing my reaction?
A strange sense of discord jolted me awake as if a veil had been lifted. My sharp instincts sent an intense signal.
‘…This bastard?’
Let me make one thing clear here: I have keen intuition.
In Kirges, I was a troublemaker who lived by reading the room. I was scolded daily by the Family Head for wielding a sword instead of conducting the celestial research I was supposed to do.
To avoid punishment, I completed research that normally took others ten years in just three years of intensive study.
After that came the jealousy and resentment of the other sorcerers. No wonder rumors spread that I was a freak of Kirges.
The disciples of Kirges began to avoid me. There were countless glances comparing me to Alpien, who was virtuous and sincere.
The number of people who would blush and flee at the mere sight of me was beyond counting.
No matter how composed I was, growing up from childhood to seventeen receiving only such treatment, how could I not have developed a sullen attitude? Eventually, I reached a level of consideration where I would preemptively excuse myself the moment I sensed discomfort.
With eyes honed by such rigorous training, I could sense that something about this situation was deeply amiss.
I fixed Alpien with a cold stare.
“I’ve heard that Kirges does not carelessly display the Planetarium to the eyes of outsiders. They say it’s both their pride and their weakness—an object beyond compare.”
The Planetarium was their weapon and simultaneously an elixir that suppressed Star Fever.
Because of this, the sorcerers of Kirges would never permit another soul to touch the Planetarium. It would be equivalent to turning a sword’s hilt toward an opponent.
Yet Alpien responded without the slightest concern.
“It’s not my possession, so it’s fine. Weren’t you curious? Your eyes couldn’t leave it.”
Hearing those words, my frown deepened further.
Even if it weren’t his own, to wear it openly around his neck for all eyes to see? As if deliberately hoping to catch someone’s attention?
And to thrust it before me, of all people?
Could it be that he knows I’m the reincarnation of Lozietti Kirges….
‘No, that can’t be. Of course not.’
By all logic, I appeared to be nothing more than a twelve-year-old child.
Moreover, right now I was in a state where the confusion sorcery made me look unmistakably like a boy.
‘Then what is this? Why does everything feel so twisted and suspicious?’
A compelling hypothesis soon occurred to me.
Having failed to abduct Kalien, he was instead trying to manipulate some suitable young child from Wynyak.
In any case, there was no reason to obediently touch the Planetarium and broadcast my identity to all corners. Alpien Kirges was cunning—a serpent through and through.
I needed to keep my distance from such a dark-hearted creature.
I smiled broadly at Alpien, who gazed at me without blinking once.
“No, I was simply fascinated. It’s my first time meeting a sorcerer!”
“…Is that so?”
“If we meet again later, please show me your sorcery then! I’ve been so incredibly curious about how the sorcerers of Kirges wield the power of the stars.”
“Sure, I’d like that.”
Alpien answered readily without pressing further.
He gave my cheek a light pinch and rose to his feet.
“Then I’ll see you next time, little one.”
“Yes, goodbye.”
I gave him a casual nod in farewell, then quickly returned to the Wynyak knights, grinding my teeth and my mind churning furiously.
‘Next time we meet, that Planetarium will be mine, you bastard.’
Just wait—when I reclaim my power, I’ll be the first to crush you.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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