Touch My Brother and You Die - Chapter 229
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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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I don’t know, you crazy bastard. This is pure selfishness. You’re scared so you want to sleep together, but since the Young Lady is a beast, you won’t cross the line. Doesn’t your master seem ridiculous to you?
“It’s because I didn’t see the Young Lady’s eyes when she went into heat back in Hofen Territory. It was so creepy.”
“Hmm… Jack, your crude language is getting worse.”
“If you’re scared, just cut it off.”
Ugh, I’m more desperate than you, so I’ll bear with it. I threw a game piece at the back of Jack’s head and turned off the lights. In the dark hotel room, lightning flashed intermittently, and Jack kept checking if I was beside him until he finally fell asleep.
By morning, the weather had miraculously cleared.
As I welcomed the Lusilu Ship, which arrived at the Tourist Port first thing in the early morning, I witnessed a peculiar sight.
The sailors had dead eyes. The ordinary passengers we’d brought along on the way had dead eyes. The attendants and maidservants carefully selected by the Largol Imperial Family to accompany the Lusilu had dead eyes.
Most of all, the ones with the deadest eyes were Aster Brown and Lucilucil Iddemock Rocksburg. They were the source of depression and emanated the scent of despair.
If I got close, I felt like I’d become helpless too. What on earth had turned those two into the walking dead?
“Aster! Lucilucil!”
I deliberately called out brightly and waved my hand, but Aster and Lucilucil glanced at me, then returned to their dead-eyed shuffle.
“Yes…”
“Yes…”
What is this? Did you two decide to ignore me together? That’s strange. According to Nerva’s letter, both of them were living very healthily and spiritedly? What happened in three months? Did some zombie virus break out in Largol while I wasn’t looking?
Right, now that I think about it, Nerva, who just took the throne as Emperor, gave me some unsettling news. They found several corpses in the Red Water of the Joraab Heretic Summoning Temple, but they couldn’t find the body of the Heresy Leader and former Pope—Grandmother.
This is ridiculous. I thought I’d dealt with it cleanly. So it’s that kind of ending: “As long as chaos exists in the world, the Pope returns.”
“Let’s go together! Come on, let’s go together! I even prepared gifts!”
I barely managed to catch the departing carriage and board it. Aster and Lucilucil didn’t react to my questions with their dead eyes, nor did they respond to Jack’s teasing. Only when I mentioned galbi did Aster’s eyes flicker with life for just a moment.
I could fix Aster’s dead eyes right away.
I arrived at the Mansion, showed Lucilucil to his room, and immediately opened the prepared galbi warehouse. Jack fanned the brazier to heat it, and as the galbi cooked over charcoal, Aster gradually returned to her senses.
After eating three pieces of galbi, then ten pieces, then fifty-seven pieces, Aster finally settled her empty stomach and barely managed to look at me in front of her, then tears streamed down her face.
“You’re terrible! The Young Lady is terrible! Waaahhhhh!”
Yes, yes, I was wrong. I tricked you into thinking I’d take you straight home and then left you in Largol for three months—I really overdid it.
As an apology, I stroked her head and hugged her. Aster cried and sobbed, tears and snot flowing freely, while she chewed on the galbi.
While I comforted Aster, the servants eagerly expanded the braziers. For Aster’s galbi, we slaughtered over ten cattle for the short ribs alone. We couldn’t waste the other cuts, so naturally we had to eat them.
As we lit the fire and grilled the beef by cut, the aroma of cooking meat spread throughout the Mansion, and people gathered around. I wanted to draw Lucilucil out with this smell too, but it seemed he needed time to adjust, so I left him be. I picked up the galbi ribs one by one, with Glen, who had been drawn by the smell while carrying documents, at my side.
Just as we took a bite and tore into the meat, Glen and I simultaneously turned away and retched.
“Bleeegh!”
“Ugh!”
“Ugh, you’re ruining my appetite!”
No, Jack Brown, I do feel sorry about that, but this is… what should I call it, an irresistible force? I can’t control it myself, blegh!
“Ugh! Doctor! Call the doctor, young master!”
What is this? Could it be… that predictable thing I’m thinking of?
Father didn’t care whether he received orders from Brown or was called young master—he just ran off and brought the Mansion’s physician.
I had my pulse checked, my abdomen thoroughly examined with a stethoscope, and received a mana scan from Sage’s Disciple who remained at the Mansion.
As a result, I experienced the premonition I’d felt since Glen and I retched simultaneously becoming reality.
“You’re pregnant.”
Wow! Really? Pregnant? If I calculate the dates roughly, it would be around when I went to Hofen Territory—that’s a direct hit right down the middle, isn’t it?
“Hahaha! The young prince not only has a robust body but also…! Mmph! Mmmph!”
Hey! Why are you covering my mouth! I’m carrying precious cargo now! What if the baby falls?
As Glen exerted all his strength to seal my lips, I thrashed about, and before long, we both retched simultaneously again.
This is exhausting. Morning sickness is absolutely brutal. Now that I’m aware I’m pregnant, the nausea feels even worse. What should we eat starting tomorrow?
By Father’s order, I was granted pregnant woman’s privileges and exempted from about twenty percent of my daily duties, but honestly, it was a privilege that made no difference.
After that, Glen and I languished. We’d retch even from drinking water alone, so I couldn’t focus on any work. Coffee might have stayed down, but Glen and I, forbidden from caffeine, grew thinner by the day, and Aster’s eyes never dried of tears.
The Mansion fell into paralysis as people rushed about in all directions searching for food Glen and I could keep down.
That’s when Lucilucil, with lifeless eyes, who had been cooped up in the Guest Room like a corpse until now, knocked on the Office door, dragging along the High Priest and Maidservants brought from Largol.
“….”
“Oh, Lucilucil, what brings you here—urgh!”
“I apologize for not greeting you properly, I haven’t been feeling well…, urgh!”
Upon seeing Glen and me with our heads buried in the wastebasket, Lucilucil sighed and gestured to the Maidservants. Among them were familiar faces. Lien and Camille were busily steeping dried medicinal herbs.
The Office quickly filled with fragrance. It smelled just like herbal medicine. That pleasant, subtle earthy scent you often catch drifting from traditional medicine shops wafted through.
“In Largol, pregnant women frequently drink this medicinal tea. There’s nothing poisonous in it, so drink it without worry.”
Ugh, why would I worry about such a thing? What benefit would Lucilucil gain from killing me? Anyway, Lucilucil’s jokes are never funny, so I replied accordingly and took a sip of the medicinal tea Lien offered.
“!”
It goes down! Even plain water made me retch, but I can actually drink this!
Delighted, I gulped down the entire cup and called for another. Glen, who looked in worse condition than me at first glance, had the High Priest pouring divine power into him, and soon a smile bloomed on his face for the first time in ages as he drank the tea.
“That’s all I came for. From now on, I won’t interfere between you two, and I’ll live as if dead, as you wish.”
What nonsense is this?
As Lucilucil gazed at distant mountains with a melancholic expression, I became bewildered. Even Glen, who had already reached an agreement about Lucilucil’s treatment, wore a confused face. Wait, could it be that all this time, while staying at our house, he’d been acting like a prince sent as tribute from an invaded small nation for such a trivial reason?
“Wait a moment, Lucilucil. It seems there’s been some misunderstanding….”
Revitalized by the High Priest’s treatment and the medicinal tea, Glen opened the safe with a click and retrieved the documents I’d brought from Largol.
I grabbed them and rushed toward that plague-ridden fool who reeked of a lovelorn fool trying to present a beautiful back view.
“Wait, Lucilucil! Lien! Camille! Grab that man!”
At my command, the two women firmly grasped Lucilucil’s arms, and I quickly ran and pinned him against the Corridor wall. I’m already exhausted from just that short run—what is he making an early pregnant woman, who must be careful about everything, do?
“Why are you acting like everything’s over? You haven’t finished yet!”
“If this isn’t the end, what is? All you had was the Crown Prince title, and without the Crown Prince attribute, a flat-chested person is just flat-chested.”
“You have more than just the Crown Prince attribute, so don’t be ridiculous. Besides, whether Lucilucil is charming or not is for me to decide.”
What does it matter if you don’t have the Crown Prince attribute? You’ve got the Deposed Crown Prince attribute now. According to my preference scorecard, that pathetic charm and that precarious sensibility of being driven to the edge score pretty high points, you know?
“You’ve already entered my sights. You’re recognized as Lucius Iddemock Rocksburg and as a citizen of Alein Kingdom. Though you’re my second husband, you have the same rights as Glen. When I become Duke, the Duke’s Residence assets and authority will all be under joint names for the three of us.”
“Isn’t that just an empty position? I won’t ask for much, so just treat Gazelle well.”
“Who’s more greedy than you!”
Except me!
I added that remark and held up the documents. People should at least have some sense of proportion before spouting nonsense.
“I’ve obtained an official Countess title from Largol as compensation for defeating Joraab’s subordinate deity, you can never return to Largol again, and your right to succession to the throne has been stripped. Do you understand what this means?”
“That is…”
“Allow me to provide further clarity. I intend to raise my first child with Glen as Rocksburg’s heir. And should I bear your child, I plan to grant you the title of Count of Largol. Do you understand now?”
So he’s finally grasped it. Well, Lucilucil wouldn’t know the details of my agreement with Nerva, so the misunderstanding is understandable. For three months I was exiled to places unknown, tortured without the ability to send word. He must have suffered greatly in silence, his spirit worn thin by the ordeal.
“Wait. That fool Nerva made such a careless blunder?”
“A contract must be settled to one’s advantage when the other party is distracted. Besides, that cherry-haired bastard was too preoccupied with Aster at the time to think clearly.”
At last, light returned to Lucilucil’s eyes. I thought I’d die seeing that vacant stare of his.
I planned to assign the finest imperial tutor to Lucilucil’s child. Though Lucilucil had been stripped of his succession rights, the record of him being Nerva’s older brother and the First Prince of the Empire remained. With such legitimacy, the child born to us would be granted succession rights to the throne.
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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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