I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 23

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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 23
The Emperor’s gaze upon me had shifted dramatically from yesterday. His eyes burned with the desire to rush forward and shower me with kisses.
He must have mistaken the Sacred Relic’s approval for his own affection toward me. What should I do?
“How could such talent languish in Wynyak! I would spirit you away to Delpiam this very moment if I could! My dear child, is there anything you desire? Oh, what was your name again—En?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Your Majesty? Nonsense! Call me Uncle, if you please! Is there nothing you wish to eat? You haven’t had lunch yet, have you? You there—prepare a banquet for this small hero of the Harem!”
I found myself pitying this man immensely.
How much stress must that Sacred Relic have caused him, impossible to send away or be rid of….
‘I apologize for the misunderstanding. I truly believed you were contemptible trash.’
Fortunately for the Emperor, that Sacred Relic would ultimately fall into Wynyak’s hands. More precisely, into Kalien’s hands, not mine.
Once my brother becomes the strongest in the world, he’ll never be exploited again, will he?
* * *
After enjoying a lavish lunch in the Delpiam Imperial Palace’s Banquet Hall, I rushed back to the Harem, barely heeding the Emperor’s earnest pleas to stay longer.
‘My poor rabbit must be starving!’
When I returned laden with snacks the Imperial Palace’s head chef had packed for me, Kalien was nowhere in the room.
“Kalien?”
I’d instructed him never to leave the room, so where had he gone?
I searched the entire chamber but found not a single golden strand. My face hardened immediately.
‘Could there have been an intruder?’
I instantly suppressed my presence to its minimum. Fortunately or unfortunately, there were no signs of struggle in the bedroom—only the wardrobe door I’d crammed Kalien into that morning stood wide open.
‘Could he have been kidnapped again…?’
I heightened my senses to their absolute limit, entering a state of maximum alertness. That was when it happened.
A familiar voice reached my ears from beyond the door I’d just opened.
“Not now.”
It was Kalien. He was passing through the Corridor, returning to this room.
“Bear with me. It won’t take long. It’s right within reach.”
Though his voice was pitched lower than I’d ever heard before, it was unmistakably Kalien.
“More than that, about Seongyeol—can’t you make his manifestation more certain? Even if it strains him… wait.”
Despite my suppressed presence, he seemed to sense my existence within the room. His voice cut off unnaturally.
I blinked in confusion.
‘Brother, who were you just talking to?’
Was someone else here? As I cautiously moved toward the doorway—
Footsteps echoed again in the Corridor. They drew closer in my direction, then….
Vanished.
“Huh?”
I let out a bewildered sound despite myself. I quickly stepped into the Corridor and looked both ways, but there was no one there.
“….”
Truly, no one at all.
I heard no footsteps retreating the way they’d come. Yet if Kalien had walked toward me, he would have necessarily passed through this open doorway. There were no places to hide along the Corridor above or below.
“K-Kalien!”
Consternation, unease, and a thin veil of dread washed over me.
‘Where did my little rabbit go!’
I hurled the bag of snacks aside and rushed back and forth through the corridor twice, but there was no sign of Kalien.
“Brother, where are you…!”
Seized by panic, I stumbled back toward the door in a daze.
A small voice echoed from within the room.
“Rosy?”
A sound stirred beside the bed. Something creaked open with a groaning noise. I pressed my trembling hand to my chest and stepped back inside.
And there was Kalien, crawling out from the wardrobe, his eyes still tousled with sleep.
“What were you doing in there, Rosy?”
“….”
“When did you arrive? …Rosien?”
Kalien, his hair disheveled like a magpie’s nest, called out to me in confusion.
It took several more seconds before I could find my voice.
“You were… you were in there the whole time, Kalien?”
“Yeah. There were a lot of people passing through the corridor.”
Kalien fully emerged from the wardrobe. His clothes bore wrinkles here and there.
“I was worried someone might burst in, so I just stayed in there… and I guess I dozed off. Did you just arrive?”
“…Yes. But I heard your voice in the corridor just a moment ago….”
My lips felt parched. Kalien’s eyes widened, and then he tilted his head.
“From outside?”
“…No. I must have been mistaken.”
I slowly shook my head.
‘It must be from seeing the Sacred Relic.’
The Power of Stars brings with it supernatural phenomena. Space warping was commonplace, and it could even distort time and space to conjure illusions or phantom sounds.
Could that have been it?
But that wardrobe Kalien had just crawled out of—I had definitely opened it.
I had confirmed with my own two eyes that there was no one inside….
“Rosy, did something happen?”
I snapped back to attention. Kalien was watching me with anxious eyes. He seemed uneasy at my delayed response.
I swallowed hard and shook my head.
“No… you know, Kalien. I just came back from the Holy Temple.”
“Yeah, how was it?”
“…That’s the thing.”
Until I left the Banquet Hall, I had been fully prepared to unburden myself to Kalien about the Sacred Relic. But now, my lips refused to move.
‘Would it be alright to tell him now?’
As I gazed blankly into his jewel-like crimson eyes, words tumbled out without passing through my mind first.
“The Sacred Relic was nothing special!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. I didn’t feel the Power of Stars at all, and it didn’t speak to me like the legends say it would. It was just junk. If I’d seen it outside, I would’ve sent it straight to the trash.”
“Is that so? How strange. I thought something called a Sacred Relic might be more impressive.”
There was no longer any suspicion in Kalien’s tilted-head response.
Yet for some reason, I felt an instinctive reluctance to openly explain the Sacred Relic’s true power to him.
Kalien gently drew me forward as I remained frozen before the door.
“The Emperor and the other Family Heads didn’t give you any trouble, did they?”
“Not at all. I even got plenty of delicious meals. I brought some snacks for you too.”
“Really? Thank you.”
Kalien gave me a quick kiss on the cheek as he always did. There was nothing noticeably different from yesterday.
I watched Kalien settle naturally into a chair at the table as though it were his own home, then impulsively broached the subject.
“By the way, brother, do you know what the ‘Shattered Chaos’ is?”
Kalien, who had been selecting snacks from the five-tiered dessert tray I’d brought, froze mid-motion.
Then came a moment of silence.
“…That is.”
Kalien’s eyes lifted to meet mine.
“Where did you hear that, Rosien?”
“I overheard the Family Heads talking about it.”
Kalien studied me intently, then slowly curved his lips into a smile. Impossibly, I felt as though my true thoughts had been seen through.
Like I’d been caught in a lie.
Kalien’s hand moved toward the dessert tray I’d brought. His gaze lowered toward it, casting his eyes in shadow.
“It’s another name for a dark star that drifts through the cosmos. Another name for absolute evil and the apocalypse.”
“…The apocalypse?”
“Yes. A transcendent being that stands in direct opposition to our Guardian Star.”
“Something like that actually exists?”
I blinked innocently, but internally I was deeply unsettled.
Kirges was both a collective of sorcerers and a gathering place for researchers more devoted to the study of stars than anyone else. I was one of them, and I had thoroughly studied every legend, myth, and historical record concerning the cosmos and stars.
Yet I had never heard of a dark star or something called the “Shattered Chaos.”
Kalien picked up an éclair and continued his explanation quietly.
“It’s a being that cannot be observed by human eyes. Invisible, moving freely beyond the constraints of time and space, devouring everything that approaches it with insatiable hunger. Even stars would be no exception.”
Goosebumps erupted across my entire body. A star that devours other stars.
I buried my nose against my arm and sniffed.
There was no scent at all. What kind of ominous smell was he talking about?
“Then, does it stay only in the cosmos? It doesn’t descend to this land?”
“Who knows?”
Kalien shook his head after taking a bite of the éclair.
“No one can know that, Rosy.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s invisible to everyone’s eyes. Even if it truly did creep down into this world where we live, no one would ever know.”
“Until the moment the apocalypse arrives?”
“Until the very moment the apocalypse arrives.”
The cookie portion of the éclair crackled softly between his lips. Kalien set down the éclair after taking just one bite and concluded with perfect composure.
“Don’t worry too much. It’s merely a myth, after all. Believe it or not, it doesn’t really matter.”
“…That’s true.”
Except for the fact that these words came directly from the Sacred Relic’s mouth.
A chill suddenly ran down my spine. I gazed at Kalien with wavering eyes as he reached for a macaron.
If this “Shattered Chaos” was something humans couldn’t even observe, an entity that remained imperceptible even when standing at arm’s length—if it was truly an inexplicable mystery that had never been recorded in any ancient text across the Continent….
Then how do you know about it, brother?

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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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