I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 33

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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 33
I immediately leaned out the window, stretching my body as far as it would go. A familiar face greeted me below.
“Family Head!”
The figure who had just crossed the main gate startled and looked up. It was a black jaguar.
I quickly stepped on the windowsill and leaped toward the jaguar.
“Our little Family Head, why did you arrive so late?”
After landing on its back, I rubbed my face against the soft fur that gleamed with a lustrous sheen, and the jaguar rumbled low in its throat. Then it immediately transformed.
Luize Whezel—the young Family Head of Whezel who had just come of age last month, now too tall and broad-shouldered to be called a boy anymore.
I clung to his back like a snail to its shell.
“I thought you weren’t coming today! I figured I’d have to spend another night here.”
“… I can almost see a tail that isn’t there. Are you a puppy?”
“Because I’m happy to see you! Don’t you miss me, Family Head? We haven’t seen each other in a month. And how is the previous Family Head doing?”
“He was just being dramatic about a simple cold. He’s still spry and healthy. So if you could just let go… Hey, stop that.”
“I’m so glad! You must have worked hard traveling so far, little Family Head. A kiss!”
“Ah, please… let go, Ros… ien.”
The tips of Luize’s ears flushed crimson.
Ah, so he doesn’t dislike it?
I planted a quick kiss on Luize’s black tousled hair and jumped down.
‘He’s grown quite a bit, the brat.’
They say boys continue to grow tall even after coming of age, and Luize had shot up like a bean sprout over the past year.
I wonder how much my soft one has grown over the past year too?
‘I miss you, older brother.’
Even though we spent so much time together in Abuye, the moment I came to Delpiam, I found myself missing Kalien terribly. I worried whether he’d gotten himself into trouble again.
Of course, while I was away, I’d put him through rigorous training to prepare for my absence.
Intensive education could reshape even an inborn temperament, and Kalien, having suffered through my relentless special training, had finally grasped the lessons of ‘how to refuse a request’ and ‘did you think before speaking?’
In just a few more months, Kalien would come of age. But since I still hadn’t found his Elixir, I planned to dedicate myself to searching for Kalien’s Elixir once I returned to Abuye.
Someone called me from behind. It was Regina, her reddish-brown hair cascading in waves.
“Are you all packed, Rosien?”
“Ah, yes. Tea… ”
Oh no, I almost called her Master without thinking.
“Yes, Kirges.”
“Good. Since Whezel has arrived, shall we head to the Imperial Capital now?”
“Yes.”
She always observes me so carefully like that. As if searching for traces of Lozietti in me.
Even Alpien, standing beside Master, had been watching me with an unusual intensity lately.
I absently scratched my right cheek with my hand. I could feel the thin blessing of the stars layered across my face.
‘Strange. There’s nothing that should be exposed, yet why do I keep feeling so uneasy?’
* * *
This was my fourth year of living like a migratory bird, changing residences every year.
When I return to Abuye next month and celebrate my birthday, I’ll turn sixteen—nearly the same age I was in my previous life when I lived to seventeen.
“In just two weeks, I’ll be heading back. Why are you writing letters with such enthusiasm?”
“If I write without sincerity, he’ll feel hurt.”
“…Seeing this, it seems En truly cherishes that small Wynyak in his heart.”
The Emperor of Delpiam, Dantelion, displayed a displeased expression.
I had come to the Imperial Capital alongside Regina and Luize.
With the day of my return to Abuye drawing near, this would likely be my final visit to the palace this year. Perhaps that’s why the Emperor had been lingering for hours, presenting me with desserts.
“What’s so beautiful about him that you write letters every day? Yet when you’re in Abuye, you don’t send a single letter to Delpiam.”
“My brother is different. He’s practically family.”
“Then what am I?”
“You’re just some uncle I know.”
My blunt reply left the Emperor looking dejected.
I felt almost apologetic for having so thoroughly misunderstood him years ago as a tyrant with dark proclivities.
“Isn’t Delpiam a pleasant place to live? En has already spent three years here by now. Haven’t you considered naturalizing as a Delpiam citizen?”
“I’m afraid not.”
Though I might be Rosien, I am Rosy of the Abuye Kingdom. I flourished my quill across the letter’s closing.
【Wishing you health always, and longing to return to Abuye soon, Rosy.】
Luize, who had been quietly sipping tea, snorted.
“If he stays healthy twice more, he’ll easily destroy Abuye itself.”
“What are you saying? He’s bedridden constantly—we’re all worried sick.”
When I left him in Abuye last year, he cried and clung to me so desperately that he fainted, delaying my departure by an entire month.
Just as I was sealing the envelope, an attendant entered carrying a letter on a tray.
All correspondence sent by the Transcendent Families abroad undergoes rigorous inspection. Luize, who examined the letter first, made a nauseated expression.
“So… is this what you mean by him being ‘sickly’?”
He slapped the letter down on the table. Tiny characters, no larger than millet seeds, covered the enormous sheet of paper.
【Miss you Rosy miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you when are you coming? miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you miss you when exactly are you coming? miss you miss you miss you I miss you…】
An indescribable silence fell over the table.
“Isn’t this a curse? The more he keeps saying it, the more his dark intentions are laid bare…”
Yet Regina could say no more, for I was dabbing away tears that streamed down my cheeks with my sleeve.
“Oh, my poor rabbit. How lonely and bored he must be all by himself.”
“…”
“Here, give me my letter back. I need to add a postscript. Goodness, why is he being so pitiful…”
Luize rubbed his brow wearily.
“What kind of illness is that, anyway…”
* * *
After safely sending the letter to Kalien, I returned to the harem I had first entered four years ago.
The preferences of Wynyak’s Sacred Relic that I possessed remained unchanged. Each time I came to Delpiam, I would release it into the harem.
Since I couldn’t simply dismiss the three hundred handsome men summoned from across the realm to appease the Sacred Relic, they had all been repurposed as attendants, and the harem itself had been transformed into a residence for foreign envoys.
Yet the central chamber, once a holy sanctuary, remained as it had been.
A Star Fragment Fairy sat arrogantly atop a sword hilt, surrounded by dozens of handsome men. It was the fragment of a star that had been dormant within the Sacred Relic.
‘Should a Sacred Relic really be indulging in such worldly desires like this?’
【You’re here?】
The Star Fragment Fairy held up a small glass and called out cheerfully. Grape juice sloshed inside the cup.
‘Can’t even drink it, yet you’re always holding that thing.’
【Have a drink, Master!】
“No thanks. I’m leaving now. Time to go back.”
【What? Not even half a day has passed?!】
The Star Fragment Fairy shrieked in that sharp, tinkling voice.
【Then bring me the most handsome man in the cosmos! Not that fake merchandise you brought a few years ago!】
“Fake merchandise?! What’s wrong with my boy?!”
【Is anyone who glitters on the surface considered handsome? True beauty—especially in a young man—requires a pure and healthy body and mind, an upright and clean spirit. One must inspire dreams and hope in this world! By that standard, that little Wynyak who carries traces of Lost Souls is disqualified from the start!】
“Ugh, you’re so annoying!”
The Star Fragment Fairy dodged my hand and fluttered away. She soon landed on the shoulder of someone leaning against the temple entrance.
【Look at this sky-blue hair. That cool, incorruptible, intellectual impression. Little Kirges, my greatest regret in this relic’s lifetime is not seeing you in your boyhood.】
Only then did I sense the presence of the one standing at the temple entrance. It was Alpien Kirges.
“What brings you here, Alpien?”
“The Family Head ordered me to bring you. It’s time to go.”
I had no intention of going willingly anyway. Not wanting to waste words, I snatched the Sacred Relic and strode past him with long steps.
The Planetarium hanging around Alpien’s neck swayed as if trying to seduce me.
‘Damn it. Every time I run into him, he’s wearing that thing. Like he’s deliberately showing it off.’
Though I deliberately lengthened my stride, Alpien caught up with me in no time, his long legs moving effortlessly.
And as if that weren’t enough, he started talking.
“Did I ever tell you I had a twin-like sibling?”
“I heard that Kirges members call all their peers siblings. With over thirty classmates in a single cohort, you must have quite a few siblings.”
“No, this one was special. The name was Rosien. Pretty, isn’t it?”
“Sure.”
I gave a vague answer—acknowledging the beauty felt suspicious, but denying it felt like insulting myself.
Why are you bringing up my story now? I hate even hearing my name from your mouth.
“Want me to show you the face?”
“No, I’m not curious.”
‘I see it in the mirror every morning, you bastard.’
“Really? Your impression might change once you see it. You’re becoming more and more like Rosien as the years go by.”
“I wouldn’t know. They’re a stranger to me.”
‘Of course, idiot. We’re the same person inside.’
No matter how much I disguise myself with the Star’s blessing, the core can’t be hidden. While I wore an expression like I’d bitten into something foul, Alpien flicked his Planetarium.
“Still, I’ll show you. She was someone I cared for deeply.”
‘Stop saying creepy things and get lost! You grew up together like twins since infancy—how could you see her as a woman?!’
Yes, this was when things fundamentally broke between us. When Alpien confessed that he liked me.
‘That’s not even natural!’
While I fumed internally, Alpien’s Planetarium, which had been only the size of two finger joints, suddenly expanded. A small screen appeared above the celestial bodies orbiting along their trajectories. I forgot all the curses I’d been hurling and opened my eyes wide.
Small screens appeared on the celestial bodies orbiting along their trajectories. I forgot all the curses I had been hurling just moments before and opened my eyes wide.
‘Memory storage…?’
Lozietti Kirges at seventeen appeared on the screen. Her raspberry-red hair was bound in a ponytail, her eyes languidly half-lidded as she carved through the crowd with confident strides.
But my attention was drawn elsewhere.
‘The crimson-eyed monstrosity.’
Crouched at a distance so far that one would miss it without careful scrutiny, that creature lurked. The very aberration that had occupied the moment of my final breath in that dream.
Two blood-red eyes embedded at its center. There was no mistaking them.
‘What is this. It wasn’t a dream…?’
The moment I leaned my face closer to the screen without thinking.
The screen went dark. The Planetarium, now shrunken once more, snapped shut in Alpien’s hand like castanets.

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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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