Touch My Brother and You Die - Chapter 174

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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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First, I seized the opportunity while Sage was being questioned to uncover why Rosalite Rocksburg Mark II’s mouth hung agape, discharging electricity.
As it turned out, the truth was remarkably simple. Rosalite Rocksburg Mark II discharged excess energy to prevent battery damage when overcharged. Since the doll’s charging typically occurred through solar radiation or external impact, the overcharging could have resulted from Rohil’s regional characteristics—or, more likely, from Theodore’s apparent amusement at striking the doll repeatedly.
“….”
If I ever encounter that bastard at the hunting competition, I’ll unleash a tirade of nagging he’s never experienced before.
While I was making this silent vow, Serena’s turn to answer questions finally arrived. Leon asked her exactly how old she was, and she chose to take a beating instead.
Asterion showed no regard whatsoever for his opponent’s age, lifting a chair. Like exacting revenge from the twelfth loop, the little one infused the chair with aura and struck the True Magic Tower Master cleanly. Though Serena defended diligently with ice, she couldn’t stop the chair fragments that ricocheted off the wall, and splinters of wood lodged deep into her back.
Sage laughed with delight upon seeing Serena bleeding profusely, remarking that she deserved it for letting her guard down. Naturally, she took a hit to her back as well.
So what should I ask? I had countless questions, but the most pressing was the true nature of the magic that Celin wielded. This question might also reveal the operating principles of the corrupted Excalibur.
When I posed this question, the woman sighed deeply and recounted a story from long ago.
“The thing is, it was clearly an unremarkable ability at first. I could manipulate people’s memories ever so slightly, or make them forget. I thought it was mental-type magic, but….”
However, it wasn’t a naturally manifested attribute—it was dark magic born from a contract with an unknown entity, or perhaps self-hypnosis achieved in a trance state.
I’d already made educated guesses through Ram Bart’s nature, but it seemed dark mages could indeed wield stronger magic within the domains they’d established. This woman named Celin had gradually expanded her territory over time, broadening her magical reach from humans to all living creatures, and even to inanimate objects.
Generally, dark mages capable of wielding such formidable power have shortened lifespans, but she fixed even her body’s memories in their prime, never aging nor dying.
What a monster. As I muttered this half to myself in bewilderment, Serena nodded in agreement.
“Right, she’s a monster unlike any other. Thinking we couldn’t leave her as she was, I had Sage create a magical seal. But even that—the very act of imprisoning her—turned out to be our delusion.”
Serena said she’d had one chance to kill the woman, but her heart weakened, and she chose to imprison her instead. However, the woman was never actually bound by the seal from the beginning; she’d deliberately confined herself in the detention facility to keep my mother by her side.
And after that came my mother meeting my father, being pursued, the detention facility’s destruction, and so forth—the beginning of Rosalite Rocksburg’s Capo’s Dance of Ruin.
“The fact that time keeps rewinding means Celin has finally gained influence over this entire planet. Of course, such powerful magic would require proportional conditions and sacrifices.”
So that’s why Sage was talking about this planet and its satellites. True, that woman never left the planet to set foot on the satellites, so she couldn’t have rewound their memories.
But if she could interfere with the memories of everything existing on this planet, isn’t she essentially a god? She rewound time by reversing the planet’s memories. How do we possibly capture an entity that’s already become omnipotent? Rather, isn’t it fortunate that such a being is fixated solely on my mother? Isn’t this essentially saying my mother—Maria—is sacrificing herself to prevent humanity’s extinction?
“….”
Wait. If she can rewind the memories of everything on the planet, why do I remember everything?
As I continued this line of thinking, I circled back to Serena’s first question. Even if Leon recovered some memories through the restoration program that woman had installed, there was no reason to preserve my memories. Unless she deliberately kept me regressing to cause me stress.
Now that I think about it, didn’t that sword activate a runaway protocol when my stress reached its limit? So she really did leave my regression memories just to irritate me? That makes no sense. There’s no merit to it.
Of course, based on what I heard today, the woman’s actions don’t seem to have any particular reason or basis anyway.
“?”
Wait. Now that I think about it, didn’t Number Zero say something strange during the counselor connection? Something about where I came from. Well, I fell asleep reading a book and became Rosalite. If I had to explain it….
“!”
That’s it. My body is Rosalite Rocksburg, but my inner self is not of this planet. I’m not a stakeholder. I was outside the reach of that woman’s magic.
“Ah….”
Only now did I understand. That’s what “the first and last chance” meant.

◇ ◆ ◇

After that, I continued drinking and playing the truth game, contentedly watching everyone get drunk and slam their heads on the table before finally getting up from my seat.
Having defeated them all, I’d head back to my room and sleep with Glen. Hehehehe. The path ahead swayed back and forth, but I could manage to walk well enough. After all, I wasn’t that drunk. I had a strong tolerance for alcohol, so I wouldn’t get drunk. Everyone else had their heads on the table, but I survived.
“I am strong!”
I roared toward that moon hanging straight in the sky at that hour and stopped by the bathroom first. I washed up quickly, brushed my teeth, and gargled excessively. The smell of alcohol. It would reek of alcohol, so I shouldn’t wake Glen who was sleeping.
I’d changed into pajamas, but my hair still carried a mixture of alcohol smell, turkey smell, and Peter’s saliva smell—all sorts of unpleasant odors. I opened the door to my room and crept in, trying to slip quietly into the edge of the bed when I heard Glen stirring.
“…Did you just come in?”
This guy was half-asleep. Go back to sleep, don’t wake up, just sleep again.
Glen seemed to be trying to check the time, so I pulled the blanket over him and chanted “sleep, sleep” like an incantation while gently stroking the man.
“Ugh…you smell like alcohol.”
I know, I know. Go sleep over there. No, wait. Should I just sleep on the sofa? I could go to the guest room that’s cleaned daily.
Just as that thought occurred to me, Glen firmly grasped my hand. While his face was contorted in displeasure even in his drowsy state because of the alcohol smell, he pulled me down onto the bed and wrapped his arm around my waist.
“Don’t go.”
This guy! Who whines “don’t go” in a sleep-choked voice while half-asleep! Seriously! Ugh! If only this bastard hadn’t insisted on taking things step by step! Ugh, I really!
Watching Glen, who was holding me and seemed to be in deep sleep with his steady breathing, with frustration, I pulled his head close and spoke softly.
“If you ever get involved with someone else, I’ll kill them.”
Even though Glen was clearly asleep, he flinched. But I wouldn’t close my mouth once it had opened. Let him listen well even while sleeping and learn through sleep education. I’m serious.
“After I kill them, I’ll destroy you socially and lock you up so you can never leave the mansion.”
“Ugh, uhhh…”
“Sounds like a joke? If I revoke your status, you’ll be stateless. Stateless people won’t be accepted as refugees even if they flee to another country.”
I recited social death, status revocation, and statelessness like a lullaby while stroking Glen’s back. Somehow, the more the lullaby continued, the more painful groans seemed to escape him, but this was all for sleep education, so it was a necessary sacrifice.
I continued singing the lullaby until he fell asleep. After dozing off and waking up after a short nap, I experienced the splitting headache that came as payment for yesterday’s excess.
Why do humans swear they’ll never overdrink again, only to make the same mistake?

◇ ◆ ◇

I slammed my head onto the Office desk. Leon, who’d barely crawled in from Sage’s Residence, had done the same. Glen asked why I was keeping my distance, but I lacked the energy to respond.
Worse still, Janet had suddenly abandoned her post today, so my only son had come to help with work. But with my Mother and Uncle sprawled about reeking of alcohol, the sight was utterly pathetic.
And what was that infernal banging sound echoing since this morning? My head felt like it would split open!
“Ugh, ugh, my head….”
“What is that incessant clattering, where on earth is it coming from, …crack!”
I wanted that sound too—crack. The noise just escaped my lips involuntarily.
As Leon and I covered our ears in agony, Luke, who’d been tapping away at the calculator, launched into his relentless nagging with zero sympathy.
“I saw on the way here that the Annex Building is under construction. They looked like workers sent from Edanelli. And why did you drink so much? I’ve pointed this out before, but does Rosalite have no sense of moderation? Why do you keep acting like someone with no tomorrow?”
“Because I have no tomorrow, you fool.”
“That’s not true. Sister, I’ll create your tomorrow. I’m going to live forever anyway.”
“How can a person achieve immortality, you fool.”
“That old mage grandmother seems to be doing it somehow, so what’s stopping me?”
That woman is an 8th Circle Archmage. You can’t. I’ve never heard rumors of Aura users living particularly long lives. There are certainly people who’ve lived ordinarily long lives, but.
More importantly, don’t call her grandmother in front of Serena. Even if it’s true, you might die.
“Rosalite. The Royal Palace has granted permission, so we need to prepare the hunting grounds.”
Ah yes, that matter. For hunting grounds, we should naturally use ours, right? Of course, the Rocksburg Hunting Grounds are located where they border the Diamond Territory, and they’re spacious with beautiful scenery, so they’re frequently used… But honestly, to be frank, we had nowhere else to go.
If it had to be somewhere close to the Royal Palace, we’d have to pick from the territories of the Four Great Ducal Houses, but Bienar has no hunting grounds, Edanelli has security concerns, Noctram is at war so who knows where cannonballs might fly from.
Most of all, the Royal hunting grounds were seized and demolished by Father. It seems the King once had a hobby of going hunting, but he found the sight of leisurely outings distasteful, so he razed it all and built structures instead.
Really, Rocksburg’s temperament is something else.
I clicked my tongue and, keeping my head on the desk, rolled my forehead back and forth before filling out the documents. Luke, with his sharp intuition, brought me the forms I needed, so all I had to do was write in the name of the person who would oversee the hunting party schedule.

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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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