Touch My Brother and You Die - Chapter 237

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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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Anyone capable of fighting was a dime a dozen in our household, but someone with actual military command experience was invaluable. I hadn’t heard that Janet distinguished herself in the recent war, but she’d ventured to the front lines and returned alive nonetheless. Since Alein relied primarily on guerrilla tactics, mountain cavalry certainly wouldn’t have been relegated to rear support.
In war, survival is everything. Losing a battle means nothing if you live to fight another day. Lucilucil apparently valued that principle highly, for he was making every effort to drag Janet off to work with him.
“Please release her. I’d rather not resort to violence against Rosalite’s husband!”
“Just a moment—if Janet truly wishes to handle administrative duties, shouldn’t we respect that preference first?”
Hmm. That didn’t sound like the best reasoning, Glen. I’d witnessed Lucilucil tearing his hair out before, lamenting the lack of suitable candidates for captain, so I wanted to side with him if possible. Yet the usually reserved prince was asking Janet with unusual enthusiasm.
“What exactly sort of administrative work would you like to handle, Janet?”
“Pardon?”
“Administrative aspirations? Accounting aspirations? If it’s administrative work, perhaps there’s a particular policy you’d like to test in Rocksburg? Even minor matters would suffice—specific plans to address inconveniences you’ve noticed?”
“Um, well, I…”
See? You’re only fit for captain. When Janet first joined as a temporary crew member, she handled miscellaneous tasks, but now that she’d become a permanent employee, I couldn’t simply assign her basic calculations and document reviews.
“Couldn’t I just continue doing what I was doing before?”
“I have no intention of hiring a permanent employee merely to perform such trivial work.”
Glen’s firm response made Janet’s face crumple. She immediately shifted her target to Leon.
“Then let me do what Asterion does! There’s no reason I couldn’t handle his work!”
“I’ve memorized all 205 administrative districts of Rocksburg Territory, I know the budgets allocated to each public institution in Rocksburg’s domain for the past three years, and I’m the one who proposed selling regional specialty foods in the historical district.”
“That’s something I could learn if I just applied myself—”
“Of the 205 administrative districts in Rocksburg Territory, there’s exactly one autonomous zone. Where is it? Any Rocksburg Estate resident should know this as common knowledge.”
“…”
“Do you know the updated exchange rates from exactly 10 o’clock this morning? How much is one Alein silver coin worth in Largol rodels? This information appears identically in all three newspapers published by private enterprises within Rocksburg Territory.”
“…”
“This position cannot be filled by enthusiasm alone, you fool. If you were going to interview, you should have prepared. How do you plan to atone for wasting my sister’s precious time?”
Stop it, you’ll make the girl cry. Janet, whose eyes were already glistening with tears, dropped to her knees before Glen’s desk as though it were her last hope.
“Glen, sir!”
“Yes?”
“I want to sit at a desk…!”
At the woman’s cry, Glen closed his eyes gently and smiled benevolently. Then he handed Janet’s resume to Lucilucil.
“I entrust Janet to your care.”
“Understood. I’ll take good care of her.”
“No! Glen! This can’t happen! Rosalite! I’ll do well if you assign me work! Give me anything!”
There’s no position for you here. No matter how busy we are, I can’t poach talent from Lucilucil’s fledgling operation. Besides, if she took on the captain’s role, she’d be far more useful than she is here—there’s no reason to hold her back.
“Haha, if it’s Edanelli, they’re part of the Four Great Ducal Houses of Alein. If worse comes to worst, we can suppress them with authority, and those captains will obey.”
“No, no, no! I hate it! My dream is to work in cool places when it’s hot and warm places when it’s cold! Especially my dream is to work beside Rosalite! If I’m going to be greedy, the best thing is to be beside her privately! I hate it! I hate being a captain!”
“If you love being beside Rosie so much, why don’t you move into my chambers starting today?”
“Really? Is that allowed?”
“This woman has lost her mind.”
Lucilucil laughed heartily, whistling as he dragged Janet away. Peace. The moment Lucilucil and Janet disappeared, peace descended.
Still, this business about Count Crowley showing up without rhyme or reason bothers me. He gives no answer about whether he’ll accept my proposal, just says he’s coming to Rocksburg—I can’t fathom what he’s thinking.
My concern deepened over Leon’s safety, and just as Aster had been sitting quietly, she suddenly sprang to her feet. From the way she was looking out the window—was that a carriage? Which carriage? Had Crolley already arrived? Or was it a Royal carriage?
“Aster! Let’s go!”
“Yes, Young Lady!”
A Royal carriage! Then I couldn’t possibly stay put. It wasn’t anyone’s birthday, nor a national holiday celebration, and while the Crown Prince’s bride-finding ball was no longer being held, there were plenty of other galas—the Four Spans elimination ball, the royal heir’s coronation celebration, and various newly scheduled banquets.
“Jack Brown, you handle William!”
“Isn’t this putting us at a disadvantage?!”
“We still have to give it a shot!”
Even if it was a losing battle, there was no harm in challenging. In fact, repeated failures would accumulate experience—next time, I’d know how to win. Last time, I’d thoughtlessly brought only Aster and lost in numbers. Who could have predicted that cowardly Rocksburg Duke would bring both the Duchess and William simultaneously?
So this time, Jack was coming too. I wouldn’t ask him to fight and win—just to hold back Father’s ankles, and it would become an endurance match between Father and me. Being far younger, I could prevail.
Boom.
Just as I was rushing out of the office, a thunderous crash echoed from outside as if a meteorite had fallen. I hurried to the entrance hall, but it was empty—the dust cloud that had risen outside was settling.
Mother had leaped from the Duke’s office to the entrance hall while holding Father.
“Ha…”
“See? I told you I was no match.”
At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to attend any Royal parties until Father retired. Wasn’t Mother cheating from the start? Running across water was one thing, but a creature capable of carrying a person through the air and landing safely from a ten-meter height could hardly be called a normal human, could it?
In any case, I’d lost again. On the way back, I was resigned to stopping by Eri’s place to shake some rattles for her, when Father oddly called for Jack.
“Jack Brown, this is something the Crown Princess sent to you.”
Huh? Why would Capo send something privately to Jack? What is this—a scandal? A job transfer? The job transfer I’d been dreading? You’re not moving to the Royal Palace, are you? Just because you made some money, don’t think you’re leaving this place! I’ll bury you socially!
“Don’t glare at me. I don’t understand it either.”
It’s your business—why don’t you know? I snatched the item Father was offering with gleaming eyes. Jack Brown is mine. Therefore, Jack Brown’s possessions are mine too. So I had every right to open whatever came to Jack first.
I tore open the letter wondering if it was a job offer and examined the contents. Father and Mother scolded me for tearing open someone else’s mail like that, but when I insisted it was Jack’s and therefore mine, they both offered Jack their sympathetic condolences.
“Sorry about that. You’ve had it rough.”
“Oh my, what can we do? I raised Rosie in the wild when she was young, so perhaps that’s why she’s like this. Your older brother from William’s family is still a few years older than you, so cut him some slack, yes?”
“Please don’t call me older brother. It gives me chills.”
Let me see—it doesn’t seem to be a job offer. Why would the Crown Prince consult Jack about his illness? What’s going on between those two? And what’s this book? With that red seal on it, it’s clearly not for minors?
“His Highness fell ill after reading this book, and apparently he thought you might know the reason, so he enclosed it.”
“My, how did His Highness come to that.”
“Being inadequate as he is, he probably collapsed for some trivial reason.”
“Don’t say such things. Compared to Laios, His Highness is seven hundred fifty million times more competent.”
No, I’d rather have the King. That man actually does his job well when you give it to him. I don’t understand why Father keeps defending Theodore like this.
I handed the book to Jack, and he looked bewildered before opening it, then his face brightened immediately.
“Oh, isn’t this a series by the Blue Ribbon Pirate author? It looks like the writer released a new work?”
Huh? The Blue series? Then that means the Crown Prince’s tutor wrote it? I thought Asterion stopped publishing after changing his fate—did he write a different work instead?
While Jack skimmed through the book’s contents, I examined the cover. The Crown Prince’s tutor’s new book was titled “The Blue Queen”… He really is obsessed with “blue,” isn’t he? Even the Preparikeriyon chronicle had “Blue Galaxy” plastered on the front. More importantly, did he write a new work without finishing that one? At least there’s no numbering, so it seems to be a standalone, which is a relief.
Anyway, printing technology has improved these days, so the cover color was pretty and there was even a dust jacket. There was even a brief book description written on it…
You a Duke, I a pirate captain, a pitiful pair of twins torn apart by fate? What is this?
“Ah…, the author made a mistake here.”
What? What? What shocking story is this? When I peered over Jack’s shoulder pestering him, he cursed at me, saying he’d explain so I shouldn’t panic.
No matter how I think about it, this guy seems to have no respect for his employer.
“This is… a story about the next generation of the Blue Ribbon Pirate’s protagonist, you see.”
“Oh, a story set in the same universe? I rather enjoy those. It feels like the author is providing service for the fans—quite thoughtful, really.”
“The protagonist gave birth to twin sisters. Relatives seized the elder to rebuild the decimated Duke’s House, while the younger followed her mother to become a pirate captain. While the elder sister, now a Duke, toiled for her family’s sake, the younger lived freely and happily as a pirate—and that mix of jealousy, love-hate, and whatever else festered until she captured and imprisoned her sister, and after all manner of twisted torment, they ended up in a hardcore incestuous lesbian suicide pact.”
“….”
“Your Highness, you haven’t recovered your composure for quite some time now, have you?”
That’s… well, the author certainly made a mistake. The Blue Ribbon Pirate—wasn’t that a children’s fairy tale anyone could read? With over twenty years between that work and this one, children who grew up reading it will see this book as adults and… their childhood will be utterly destroyed. What kind of vile human does such a thing?
“Regardless, this fellow has truly crossed the line this time. Shouldn’t Rocksburg respond forcefully?”
“Huh? Why? Our family’s story is in there?”
“The twin sisters here have silver hair with golden eyes and silver hair with dark eyes respectively. The elder is named Rozeta and the younger is named Leon.”
“So what?”
Those are common names, aren’t they?
“Never mind. What would I possibly discuss with the Young Lady?”
Why why why! What line was crossed?! Silver hair with golden eyes?! Silver hair isn’t rare—everyone in the Rocksburg Branch Family has silver hair!
As I protested vehemently, Jack hoisted me up and handed me to Aster, then scurried over to Father. While cradled in Aster’s arms receiving rhythmic pats, Jack explained the troublesome parts to Father, and he nodded in understanding.
“I turned a blind eye when they jested with the Crown Prince and Rosalite, but this crosses the line.”
“Exactly, sir.”
“I shall designate it as seditious literature and have the author brought to trial.”
“Only the Duke could make such a decision, sir.”

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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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