Touch My Brother and You Die - Chapter 164

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

#Side Story: Waiting for RozRoz

I possess countless admirable qualities. First and foremost, I’m exceptionally handsome. My temperament is remarkably positive and gentle. My station is equally impressive—being the First Prince of the Great Largol Empire is a golden thread one could scarcely be born grasping without extraordinary fortune. So I suppose good luck must be counted among my virtues as well.
Yet the aspect I take the greatest pride in, the one I most wish to showcase, is my extraordinary patience. I had my right eye pierced by a blade the moment I was born, and I didn’t shed a single tear—surely that demonstrates exceptional fortitude.
Moreover, I spent nearly ten years—what an eternity that span was—observing my mother’s every expression, currying favor with her relentlessly. I did everything she commanded, learned everything she taught, exerted myself in every endeavor, and offered her everything within my power as the First Prince of the Empire.
My mother shared everything I gave her—every happiness, every joy—with Marius, yet I accepted it gracefully. An older brother must bestow such things upon his younger sibling, so her loyal bodyguard once told me. He had cared for me since my earliest childhood, and because I treated him without formality, he was like a friend to me.
When my mother killed that man, whom I had treated as a friend, I was genuinely, sincerely shocked in my childish heart. When she personally turned his eyeballs inside out and told me this man was my true father, I thought I would convulse and lose consciousness.
Yet I endured. I had been a child of extraordinary patience from my earliest years.
My mother was equally astonished at my birth, or so she said. My left eye was blue, my right eye golden—they so perfectly mirrored the odd eyes my biological father possessed that she had no choice but to act.
Thus my right eye vanished the moment I was born. As I grew and increasingly resembled my biological father, my mother wept sorrowfully, saying she had no choice but to kill him. And she warned me that if the Emperor discovered this truth, we would both perish, so I should conduct myself accordingly.
From that moment, my true history of endurance began. Even if my mother doted exclusively on Marius, it was inevitable. I was merely a child born of an affair with a bodyguard, but Marius was the legitimate offspring of the Emperor.
No matter how I struggled, no matter how many people I gathered or abilities I demonstrated, everything I possessed would inevitably become Marius’s. This was because I was not the Emperor’s son. Should I somehow inherit the throne, my mother would reveal everything with the resolve to perish alongside me, placing the Empire in Marius’s hands.
Ha—did it seem as though things would go according to my wishes? The reason I held my breath was not because I had accepted everything. I could endure indefinitely.
When I married a woman to whom I had opened my heart for the first time, and she took her own life not long after, I persevered. This much I could bear. Going forward, I simply would trust no one and attach myself to no one.
When my political marriage partner suddenly vanished, when I discovered my mother’s involvement in the final moments of both women I had married, I resolved to endure.
It seemed I was fated never to marry until I became Emperor. Then so be it. I would simply refrain from marriage until I achieved my objective.
So when I heard that woman was coming to the Empire, I was so delighted I couldn’t sleep that night. A small opportunity for revenge against my mother and Marius had finally presented itself. That woman appeared on the list of Alein dignitaries Marius intended to seduce. My plan was to prevent him from succeeding, to ensure he couldn’t create the incident he sought to manufacture as a pretext for conflict with Alein.
I would ensure that woman remained completely untouched, then send her back to the Alein Kingdom in perfect condition.
I arrived at Toll Harbor faster than anyone else to receive the dignitary. And that day, I encountered the most amusing woman in the world.
The woman seemed oblivious to any threat to her life, arriving in pitch-black funeral attire with cellophane glasses in hand, observing a solar eclipse as though on a casual outing before heading toward the Imperial Capital.
Upon entering the Imperial Palace, she wreaked absolute havoc, negotiated a treaty regarding fisheries in the Jokgyeongsu Waters between Largol and Alein that favored the Kingdom’s fishermen, secured provisions that Largol’s pirates received no protection from Largol and could be freely captured by Duke Bienar of the Kingdom, and obtained assurances that even if the Kingdom mistakenly attacked civilian vessels, mere compensation would suffice.
When I recall the Emperor’s astonishment, the ministers’ shock, and my mother’s expression at that moment, I can still laugh for thirty minutes straight while clutching my sides.
The woman seemed to fear nothing. I had heard rumors that she had grappled with her own nation’s Crown Prince, but I never imagined she would regard the Empire, the Emperor, the Zoraab Orthodox Church, the Heresy Leader, and even the Heretical Sect wielding the power of the End Scripture and Summoning Priests with such utter indifference.
Indeed, fearing nothing, she walked upon the Empire’s soil exactly as the witch depicted in the End Scripture. And the woman, for some reason, possessed such appallingly poor perception that she seemed unaware of how thoroughly she had overturned the Imperial Court.
The Heresy Leader and my mother, convinced the woman could not be allowed to live, summoned a subordinate deity of Zoraab. I, finding the woman quite to my liking, decided to inform her of a means of survival.
When a monster resembling a giant squid—one of Zoraab’s subordinate deities—appeared, if she boarded the ship I had arranged, she could save her life. That vessel bore the protection of the Zoraab priests and would not be recognized as an enemy by the subordinate deity.
Yet this amusing woman comically defeated the subordinate deity and returned to her own country. I found my mother and the Heresy Leader’s fury so hilarious that I rolled about on my bed laughing, eventually clutching my ribs and summoning a priest. I nearly damaged my diaphragm and ribs from laughing.
This amusing woman’s name is Rosalite Rocksburg, and the name I call her with affection and friendship is RozRoz. Afterward, I frequently exchanged letters with her and occasionally visited Alein when opportunity arose.
Then I discovered something remarkable. This woman was not suited to merely ruling a small nation. Rather, she possessed the caliber to govern an entire vast empire.
For instance, after I became Emperor, she would be more than adequate to serve as Empress of Largol. This was not because I harbored affection for RozRoz, or possessed personal interest in her, or desired to spend my life with her—it was merely an objective conclusion drawn from observing her character and abilities.
As evidence, when I heard that RozRoz was getting married, I gifted her the Saint Brilliant Lusilu Ship….
Damn it, even I’ve gotten the name stuck on my tongue. In any case, I generously bestowed upon her a cutting-edge sailing ship. RozRoz’s marriage was hardly a momentous occasion.
Eventually she would become Empress, and we would be business partners exchanging only work—so it mattered not if RozRoz harbored affection for another man. And me? RozRoz? As a romantic interest? That was absolutely not the case?

In any case, I’d been so preoccupied waiting for Rosalite’s replies every single day that I’d grown careless and committed a grave blunder. I’d failed to notice that my mother—Empress Aidemoc—was making contact with that Masked Woman again.
I don’t know the details about that woman myself. All I know is that she taught the Heretical Sect’s followers how to summon lesser deities, and that she wanders about wearing an absurd mask.
The Masked Woman taught Empress Aidemoc how to summon even more powerful monsters. When she’d summoned that giant squid before, an entire village’s worth of lives had been sacrificed. With a more powerful monster, naturally more sacrifices would be required.
Moreover, those sacrifices couldn’t be ordinary people—they had to be mages or priests. That’s why Mother must have tried to pin everything on me.
If I fought that fool Fourth Prince Nerva as usual and slaughtered the Zoraab priests who formed his power base, then the Heresy Leader and Empress Aidemoc could summon a powerful lesser deity to aid them, and I could hand over all my talented subordinates to Marius.
For Mother, it was truly a brilliant scheme—killing two birds with one stone. Since I had no intention of being easily manipulated, the person I thought of was Rosalite, the future Empress of Largol living beyond that sea.
To create an opportunity for a woman still a citizen of the Alein Kingdom to work for Largol—truly, I was a considerate Emperor-to-be, thinking of the future Empress’s welfare. It absolutely wasn’t because Rosalite was my only lifeline, or because I was planning to use this as an excuse to see her face, or because I was scheming to take her on a date and seize the opportunity to do something irreversible. Not at all.

I slipped out of the Imperial Palace to avoid Mother’s eyes and searched desperately for a way to meet with Rosalite. The one who helped me was Kaina Chatel, the head of Chatel House. He probably extended his hand thinking he could play both sides between Fourth Prince and me and secure his position regardless of who became Emperor, but whatever his reasons, I was willing to join hands with anyone—human or beast—as long as it meant survival.
And when Kaina Chatel brought me seals that could be attached and detached, claiming they were the method to meet Rosalite, I found myself laughing until tears streamed down my face.
I was going mad. What on earth did this woman think about all day to deliberately do things that made people laugh like this? What happened when you collected all types of seals? A daily date chance with the Duke’s Daughter?
She feared nothing in this world, was obsessed with money, and if I made her Empress, she’d be remembered for generations—for both ridiculous antics and unparalleled accomplishments. Besides, just seeing the Empress’s face would make me laugh myself to death, so I could carry out my imperial duties without stress.
With Rosalite, I needed no Empress Mother or concubines. If I took that woman as Empress, I’d probably have to close the concubine quarters entirely.
It wasn’t because I planned to spend my entire life looking only at Rosalite, or because I intended to cater to her whims, or because I wouldn’t need other women if I had her. I’d simply decided in my heart that if I brought concubines into the palace, they’d be pitiful given her temperament.
After successfully completing our first date, I proposed the position of Empress, but she refused. However, she wasn’t the type to be swayed by mere words, so I hadn’t held great expectations from the start. Soon enough, a situation would arise where Rosalite couldn’t refuse the position of Empress. I had tremendous patience and could wait.
Above all, there was much I needed to accomplish for Rosalite’s sake. First, I had to deal with Mother. At last, I could eliminate the source of my misfortune—the woman who’d caused me to lose my wives twice over the years.
Returning to the Imperial Palace with the confession Rosalite had prepared, I seized Mother before she could cause further trouble. If that woman opened her mouth and revealed that I wasn’t the Emperor’s biological son, everything would be finished. So I decided to kill her first to silence her, and explain the circumstances to His Majesty the Emperor later.
When I stormed into the Empress Palace with my men, the woman had much to say—calling me unfilial, asking how I could do this to my own mother. But I had mountains of answers ready. If that were the case, why did she gouge out my eyes in the first place? Why did she kill my biological father? Why did she kill my wives?
It would’ve been simple if she’d never committed adultery. If she hadn’t abandoned her lover when her situation worsened. If she hadn’t used me as a political tool, gaining only wealth and power from my wives’ families before discarding them. She brought all of this upon herself, yet blamed me for it.
No matter how good-natured I am, I couldn’t bear to listen to baseless accusations.
That day, I personally saw Mother off on her final journey, then sought out the Heresy Leader. Having lost Empress Aidemoc as his connection to the Imperial Palace, the Leader quickly switched his allegiance to me and bowed his head, promising to follow my orders.
The anemone-shaped lesser deity had already been summoned, and I decided to blame Empress Aidemoc—now departed on a distant journey—for all of this.

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