I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 44

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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 44
“Well, first I need to figure out what my Master is thinking. …Ah, damn it. I’ve already said it….”
“Your Master is Regina Kirges. Right?”
“Yeah….”
I ended up nodding reluctantly.
Ah, I’ve already revealed with my own mouth that I’m from Kirges, so how am I supposed to answer the interrogation that’s about to come?
Since the Wynack Heir has now discovered that I’ve been gradually borrowing Kirges’s power all this time…. I closed my eyes with a sense of half-resignation.
“If there’s anything you want to ask, ask away, oppa.”
“Hmm. Are you really sure about that?”
“Yeah.”
I sensed Kalien straightening his upper body and sitting close beside me. Soon he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and patted me affectionately.
Instead of the interrogation I’d anticipated, an unexpected question came back.
“Rosy. Did those people who were your family in your past life treat you better than I do?”
“Ah… That wasn’t really the case.”
I’m not sure if it’s a trait of all scholars, but Kirges was particularly individualistic.
Even my Master, who was closest to me among them, and Alpien were no different from strangers compared to the affection Kalien showed me.
‘My fortune with people, what on earth is happening….’
As I let out a complicated sigh, my body suddenly lifted upward. My feet left the ground.
Before I could even react, I found myself sitting on Kalien’s lap. He had lifted me as lightly as if I were a stuffed doll and placed me on his lap.
When I looked up in surprise, Kalien spoke matter-of-factly.
“I couldn’t see your face.”
“Ah….”
I felt a bit unfamiliar with the situation and shifted my body to find a more comfortable position. Just now, he had lifted me so easily….
Kalien toyed with a strand of my hair and murmured as if talking to himself.
“Rosy’s family members were bad people.”
“…That’s right. Even after I died, they didn’t shed a single tear.”
“Don’t you do that either, Rosy.”
“What?”
“Don’t even hope for them, and don’t be disappointed by them. Don’t grieve for them. It’s a waste of your emotions to pour them out on useless people.”
As his words continued, Kalien’s voice grew cold, as if it had never been tender.
I looked at him in surprise, and his dense eyelashes were lowered coolly.
Kalien, not smiling.
Suddenly, I recalled him from when he was trapped by something called “Broken Chaos,” and I flinched, but it was only for a moment.
“Your life, Rosy, would still be insufficient even if you only received love.”
Kalien’s voice became sweet again, as if honey had been spread on it. He looked down at me and closed his eyes in a butterfly-like manner.
“So stay by the side of someone who loves you, Rosy. Someone like me. Someone who is ready to pour unconditional affection upon you.”
As Kalien finished speaking, he touched my cheek lightly with his index finger. Then he gazed at me intently as if observing my reaction.
A warm breeze seemed to blow through my chest.
That’s right. Kalien was the only person I could call family.
I smiled broadly and nodded in agreement.
“That’s right, you won’t betray me.”
“Of course….”
“You won’t suddenly confess something out of the blue.”
“….”
“You won’t transform into someone I don’t know at all and destroy me. You’re absolutely right. You’re the safest person in the world, Kalien.”
“Ah… mm.”
Kalien agreed a beat too late. The warm spring breeze that drifted in seemed to caress my body tenderly.
While I felt immensely proud to have someone absolutely on my side, the thought that I only had three years left before I could no longer embrace my brother like this hollowed out my heart.
‘I made the right choice revealing the secret.’
I needed time to prepare for my eventual departure, not just for Kalien but for myself as well. Next time, I should casually mention that I’ll return to Kirges once I come of age.
After that, I’ll say that the existence called ‘Rosy’ will disappear, disguised as an accident, and I’ll return to my true self, Lozietti Kirges.
Even after I become Lozietti Kirges, I’ll be able to keep meeting him at the Continental Conference once every five years.
Once I completed the plan, my heart found peace. I buried my nose in Kalien’s collar and inhaled deeply. It carried the cool scent of grass.
It was a fragrance that calmed the mind.
‘Acting like this makes me feel like a child again….’
Perhaps because I’d been on edge for nearly two weeks, my body gradually began to grow drowsy.
The late afternoon sun was warm and pleasant. It was the perfect time to doze off. I’d been sleep-deprived for days from pulling all-nighters while working on the Planetarium.
As his hand slowly combed through my hair, a languor so intense it sent shivers down my spine washed over me.
“So what are you going to do about Rosy now? I mean, Regina Kirges.”
“The Planetarium… I just need to confirm that.”
“Once you confirm it and reveal that Kirges is the culprit, all the questions will be answered, right? You don’t even need to find that monster.”
“Well….”
It wasn’t quite that simple, but I was too lazy to explain at length. Sleep weighed heavily on my eyelids.
I buried my face in Kalien’s embrace, ready to drift off completely.
“But I can’t think of a way… Even for me, it’s difficult to subdue Regina easily….”
“That doesn’t sound like you, giving up before you’ve even tried, Rosy.”
“Is that so…?”
Perhaps because I was with someone I didn’t need to be wary of, an irresistible sense of security and drowsy numbness washed over me simultaneously.
I felt like I’d experienced this feeling before. It was familiar….
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”
Kalien’s final whispered words didn’t reach my ears but scattered at my temple.
That afternoon, I was able to sleep soundly for the first time in days, without even a dream.
* * *
That night, in the Kirges Observatory.
“You’re telling me you remember nothing from that night?”
Regina slammed her fist on the table in frustration.
Alpien, kneeling before her, nodded with a pale face. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead.
“My apologies, Master. It appears to be a memory manipulation spell similar to what happened to Luize Whezel four years ago. It’s likely the work of Lozietti….”
“Why didn’t anyone stop her while she was approaching the Observatory!”
“My apologies. If Lozietti deliberately hides her presence, it’s difficult for us to apprehend her….”
Alpien’s pathetic excuse was swept away helplessly by Regina’s sigh. She pressed her temples as if a headache were building, then suddenly cast her gaze toward Alpien.
“Do you still have Rosien’s Planetarium? Where did you put it?”
“Y-yes, it’s here, Master.”
Alpien handed a small disc to Regina with trembling hands.
On the surface, it appeared identical to the broken Planetarium of Rosien’s that she had been safeguarding all this time.
But.
“No.”
Regina shot to her feet.
“This isn’t it!”
The invisible mark she had etched into the Planetarium to prevent theft had vanished without a trace.
It had been switched.
‘She took it…!’
Regina dragged both hands across her face, releasing a troubled moan.
“Rosien, what on earth are you thinking….”
Even after dismissing Alpien and her disciples, she could not find sleep that night. Pacing anxiously through her bedchamber, she eventually gathered her robe and made her way to the Observatory. She meant to offer a prayer to Kirges’s Guardian Star.
“Omniscient Word Sorcerer, what am I to do with that child….”
Rosien had always been Regina’s most cherished disciple, then and now. A portrait of the girl still hung in her bedchamber.
But when had she ceased to treasure and love Rosien in her heart?
‘Why did you grant that child such genius, Star? Why do you favor only Rosien so dearly?’
Seeing the girl return from death, I understood at last. She was the Sorcerer most befitting Kirges, and now I had to acknowledge that truth.
But how could I?
How could I recognize such a child as Kirges’s Sorcerer?
‘That cursed prophesied child…!’
Kirges possessed a prophecy passed down for centuries.
Approximately four hundred years ago, the Family Head of Yeljewa at that time had secretly conveyed it to Kirges’s Family Head.

Following that ancient prophecy, Kirges had for centuries secretly eliminated Sorcerers specially favored by the Omniscient Word Sorcerer.
After all, the Star did not greatly lament when those it favored died. It harbored no wrath against those who killed its favorites. Invisible ants fighting amongst themselves meant nothing to them—such matters lay entirely beyond their concern.
‘I cannot ignore Yeljewa’s prophecy. Rosien must die.’
Within me coexisted the self that rejoiced in this fact and the self that hung its head in anguish of conscience.
Regina felt dizzy as she steadied the turbulent heat swirling within.
‘There is no choice. This is the path for all Transcendents of our Rahnar….’
It was then.
An artificial wind swept through the Observatory.
“….”
Regina slowly tensed her body at the eerie sensation brushing the nape of her neck. Someone was approaching. But it was not the presence of any disciple.
‘Could it be Rosien. Again?’
Regina pushed open the Planetarium’s lid with her thumb, positioning it so she could unleash her sorcery the moment she needed to.
When that ominous presence finally drew near enough to press against the back of her neck, Regina spun around sharply.
“Who goes there!”
Rosien, or perhaps another Transcendent of comparable power—she had anticipated no more than that. Yet what Regina now beheld transcended the boundaries of imagination entirely.
‘What… is that…?’
All she could properly perceive were two blazing crimson flames.
“…!”
An indescribable entity of unknowable nature lunged toward her as if to devour her whole.

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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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