Touch My Brother and You Die - Chapter 109

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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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The woman called Mother sighed while touching my soft belly, then she too carelessly removed her clothes. The body of the woman, who seemed to have no sense of shame and stripped completely without leaving a single thread, was covered densely with wounds and scars.
“Let’s go, it’s Roji’s favorite time—bath time!”
“Let go! I’ll walk on my own, I’ll walk on my own!”
Mother lifted me up again and headed toward the Bathhouse. Before entering the tub, I was rubbing soap on my body to wash up when I noticed something like dirty bathwater streaming down from beside me.
I screamed and mobilized three servants to scrub her thoroughly. Only after thirty minutes had passed did Mother finally look presentable, and after my careful inspection, I permitted her to enter the hot spring with me.
“Wow… it’s been so long.”
You hadn’t washed in so long that you could recite how many days it had been. There was a strange stench that I couldn’t quite pin down as animal hide smell, but it was definitely foul.
I moved away from Mother, twisting my hair up with a towel. The middle-aged woman stretched out in the warm water looked truly venomous and beautiful—the expression “like an evil cult leader” fit her perfectly.
So there was a reason why John Brown said the Duchess of Rocksburg was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen. She’s definitely his type. With that sharp, fierce look about her.
Since he can’t even tell whether I’m a 20-year-old Rosalite or a 60-year-old Rosalite, I had plenty of things I wanted to ask him while I had the chance. Like why Father, who should be the one writing the reflection, is the one raising his voice louder, or that story about Asterion’s biological mother that William mentioned before. Or maybe also ask where I’ve been wandering around for the past 10 years, while I’m at it.
I deliberated over what to ask first, prioritized my questions, and then opened my mouth to speak.
“Mother.”
“Why are you talking like my mother? That’s gross.”
“Who is Asterion’s biological mother?”
The woman who had been laughing and saying it was creepy at the word “mother” rolled her eyes and avoided my gaze the moment Asterion’s biological mother came up. What’s that about? She didn’t seem angry, but her attitude was oddly ambiguous.
“Who are you?”
“Um…, that’s…”
Stop stalling and just say it!
When I burst out yelling, Mother laughed delightedly, saying I had inherited that side of Eddie, and I felt like I was going to die from being upset.
Is this what it feels like? Is this what it felt like when my parents were plucking feathers in front of me? Stressed out of my mind, I tore at my hair, urging the Unknown Woman to answer quickly, and she splashed water on me, telling me to calm down since she understood.
“Mom, water guns hurt, so please don’t shoot them at people.”
“Oh… sorry. I got the same warning from Eddie before about sharing a bathtub.”
So I’m telling you, I don’t need all that too much information!
When I got angry, the woman laughed again with a giggle and told me to kneel in the bath and sit down, saying she would tell me.
Alright, if you get on your knees and listen properly, then I’ll tell you.
I obediently knelt and straightened my posture as the Unknown Woman instructed. Water rose up near my mouth, and every breath I took made a bubbling sound, but I could bear it.
“Actually…”
“….”
I don’t know either.
“….”
I unwrapped the towel that had been wrapped around my head and soaked it in the water. Spinning the water-soaked towel around, I struck Mother’s head with it.
“Ow ow ow! It hurts! Ow ow ow!”
“Nam-eun! I’m serious! Why are you joking! Stop joking!”
When I started hitting Mother with a wet towel—splat, splat—the Unknown Woman thought I was just playing around and laughed with delight. No matter how angry I got, she only saw me as a child’s antics. The helplessness I felt in that moment was indescribable.
“But I wasn’t joking, was I? I seriously don’t know.”
What? Does that even make sense? No, how could it make sense that she became our Father’s wife but doesn’t know how Leon came about? When I questioned her about it, Mother pondered for a long time and brought up Father’s honor.
“No, well, it’s something that hurt Eddie too. It’s not something I can just talk about on my own…”
“Please, I’m truly desperate.”
If it concerned Asterion, it was right to know about it, whatever it was. My biological mother’s affairs might be connected to Asterion’s wish, and they could also be linked to the whereabouts of that locked sword I couldn’t find now.
The more clues, the better. With that resolve, I knelt before my mother, and after a moment of deliberation, she opened her eyes slightly.
“What I tell you is a secret from Eddie, understood?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Well, there’s this strange woman who’s hated me since way back, and she follows me everywhere, harassing me….”
What followed was shocking. The strange woman who followed my mother claimed to be the world’s only mage, and though her personality was utterly unhinged and she wasn’t in her right mind, her magical abilities were so exceptional that even the True Magic Tower Master paled in comparison, and she was the embodiment of an elusive piece of trash.
She’d pop out whenever my mother was bored since childhood and torment her, but when my mother married Father, that damned woman kidnapped him one day.
My mother was furious and spent days and nights searching all across Aleine for Father, but couldn’t find him. Then time passed, and Father returned to the Duke’s Mansion with all his limbs intact.
Father had no memory of the kidnapping, but since he returned safely, my mother thought it was fine. However, an absurd situation erupted a year later. That woman, called the embodiment of trash, brought a child and said he was the Duke’s son, asking them to raise him well, then fled.
Father, who had no memory of any wrongdoing and was shocked by the sudden appearance of a son, deliberated for a long time before deciding to raise Asterion in the Duke’s House without registering him in the family registry.
My mother strongly opposed and wanted to kill or cast out the child, but Father protected him, saying the boy had done nothing wrong. So my mother took young Rosalite and left the house.
“…Schrödinger’s Asterion.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a concept that exists.”
“You really do take after Eddie—you’re quite clever. You use such difficult words so naturally.”
My mother stroked my head proudly. It was deeply humiliating, but I had neither the strength nor sufficient reason to stop her. So I fell into deep thought.
Since I’d met my mother, I should ask everything I needed to. Even if it meant dying by her suspicion of my identity. Learning about Rosalite’s past was worth far more than a single reset. Besides, I had no idea when I’d see my mother again.
“So the Duke’s apology letter wasn’t written because of infidelity, then.”
“Your father, who cherishes life, would never do such a thing. The entire clan of any affair partner would be annihilated.”
“That’s a relief. It seems the Duke intends to keep him alive.”
“Of course. Where would I hit Eddie? I’ve barely hugged him with all my strength for fear of breaking his bones.”
…So that means she has hugged him with all her strength a few times. It’s a miracle Father survived. Well, he was tougher than I thought.
“Then why is the Duke still writing an apology letter?”
“Well…, for the first ten years, I was apologizing for telling her to leave and begging her to come back with Rosie….”
Father told my mother to leave? That’s harsh. It was twenty years ago, so…, Father was young and might have shouted without thinking things through. Still, imagining a young, hot-blooded Father was beyond my comprehension. He seemed to have been born with that personality and face.
“After giving Rosie back, I kept asking her to forgive me and come home. I’m not even angry, so it’s ridiculous.”
“You’re not angry, so why won’t you come home?”
No, you people need to communicate. When I asked genuinely curious, my mother made a scissors gesture with her fingers, pressed it firmly to her lips, and spoke decisively.
“I can’t tell you that. Eddie and Rosie could be in danger.”
So communicate and live together, please!
Even as I was on my twenty-second regression, I was keeping my mouth shut and keeping it secret, so I had no right to say anything. But as I thrashed about crying for communication, my mother laughed heartily and seemed delighted.
She’d worried I’d become a boring person like her, but was pleased that I’d grown so amusingly like Father. Yet the communication gap made me feel like I was going mad.
Why did Father marry this woman?! Besides being pretty, incredibly strong, and laughing a lot, she has no charm whatsoever! No, wait—if a person is pretty, healthy, and laughs often, what could be better than that!
“I have something to say directly.”
“Yes. What else?”
“I have no memory of the past.”
I spoke out of half fear that my true identity—that I wasn’t really Rosalite—would be exposed, but my mother’s reaction seemed strange.
The woman who’d been delighted by everything I did and laughed at everything I said suddenly avoided my gaze as if guilty, then shuffled toward the corner of the bathhouse.
That’s when I realized. This woman had something fishy about my past. I knew it would be like this. The way my daughter instinctively foamed at the mouth when she saw my handwriting was too strange.
“The moment I saw Mother’s handwriting, the blood drained from my entire body and I collapsed, foaming at the mouth. I tasted iron on my tongue, and the flavor of muddy water spread so vividly I could barely stand it.”
“Ah, ah, ah, ah, I don’t understand what you’re saying, ah, ah, ah, it’s so hot, I need to leave, ah, it feels so refreshing after bathing for the first time in ages!”
Where on earth was this woman trying to escape to?
Thinking I had finally seized control of the conversation, I chased after the naked woman with my own bare body.
“Stop right there! What exactly did you do to me back then!”
“I don’t know! Don’t ask! I don’t know! Eddie’s going to scold me again!”
She had done something to me that would earn her a scolding from Father? As I left the bathhouse and the maids dried the water from my body, I poured out complaints to Mother, but she covered her ears and shrieked, saying I was just like Eddie and that she hated me.
“But who will protect Eddie while I’m gone! You need to train and become stronger so Eddie can feel at ease!”
“William is here, so why would I need to protect the Duke!”
“You! That man who falls over if you poke him—how could he possibly protect Eddie!”
A man who could still easily destroy the Royal Palace gates with a touch? Falls over if you poke him? Does William fall over if Mother pokes him? When I asked this question, Mother nodded as though it were obvious.
Ah… I see. No wonder that dignified man was doing all sorts of ridiculous things earlier—sticking his finger up and sticking out his tongue. It seems Mother must have put him through quite a lot.
“Anyway, I’ve already been scolded by Eddie for that matter! So there’s no reason for me to be scolded by you again!”
“Scolding isn’t the issue! Why are you grabbing a child not even ten years old! Are you trying to kill her!”
“Anyway, you talk exactly like Eddie! Ah, I’m sorry! I said I’m sorry!”
“Where are you going! Put on your clothes! You’ll catch a cold!”
Since Mother was still trying to leave the room without wearing anything, I shouted at her to get dressed, and the woman obediently returned, allowing the maids to dress her. Though her feet stuck out a bit from the hem.
“Why are you pouting your mouth like that as if you did something right?”
“Stick-in-the-mud.”
“It’s impressive how well you know my nickname despite never having met me.”
“Ugh… I wish you wouldn’t inherit this trait from Eddie too.”

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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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