Touch My Brother and You Die - Chapter 45

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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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“Huff!”
Finally, she was awake.
Now that I thought about it, this woman had been speaking the Kingdom’s language from the moment I first found her. Was she from the Alein Kingdom?
I had instructed the Imperial Maidservant to bring me a notebook, and I was documenting the process by which the priest used healing magic, the pathways of mana, and how healing magic worked to mend wounds when I set down my pen for a moment to observe the woman called Lam.
With all the bruising gone, the woman’s face appeared pale and doughy, and beneath the bright lighting, her hair resembled cotton candy the color of the sky more than dandelion seeds.
…How could a person possibly look like that?
Intrigued by the woman who looked as though cotton candy and glutinous rice cakes had been stuck together, I reached out my hand, but Lam trembled and recoiled.
“P-please, please save me. I’m sorry. Please spare me.”
“…I apologize, our Aster has a hasty temperament, so….”
Seeing her so frightened, I briefly wondered if it was wise to have them meet, but I decided it would be better to have Aster apologize once more, so I called her over and had her bow.
As the woman kept apologizing from my direction and bowed, she relaxed her guard slightly and spoke quietly.
“Are you from the Alein Kingdom…?”
“That’s right.”
“I, I….”
When I nodded in response to her question about whether I was from the Kingdom, the woman’s eyes grew moist, and she crawled toward me on all fours, grasped the hem of my skirt, and buried her face in it.
“I want to go home, home~! Please, please let me return to Alein! I’ll do anything!”
…What? Was she taken from the Kingdom without her consent? More than that, there’s an Imperial Maidservant from the First Prince’s Palace standing right there with her eyes wide open—shouldn’t she not be saying such things?
Could this cotton candy-looking girl possibly be simple-minded?
But regardless of the circumstances, Lam belonged to the First Prince, so it wasn’t my place to interfere. At the very least, I had already decided to keep my mouth shut about the assassin I was employing to maintain our relationship, and I had no desire to let my friendly relations with Lucius deteriorate further.
To be honest, once this business was concluded, I wanted to return to the Kingdom and not even spit in the direction of the Empire, and whether it was the Temple’s conflict with the Heretical Sect or the First Prince and Fourth Prince’s struggle for the throne, I earnestly hoped they would settle their disputes only within the Empire and not affect other nations.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have such power.”
“Waaahhh!”
The fluffy cotton candy-like Lam wept into my lap, and I seized the opportunity to gently stroke the woman’s hair.
Wow, the texture is really pleasant. How exactly is her hair growing?
“Now, calm yourself. But I have something I’d like to ask you.”
“Waaahhh! Sniff sniff! Waaahhh!”
“As you know, our Aster has a hasty temperament.”
When I mentioned Aster, Lam’s crying stopped abruptly, and she looked up at me with hiccups. There were no visible bruises, but upon closer inspection, there was a subtle color difference between where the bruising had been and the surrounding skin.
The healing magic the priests used with their so-called holy power was likely the same as the Kingdom’s healing magic—an enhancement of the body’s natural healing ability. If that were the case, there was merit to Sage’s claim that the Empire’s priests merely cultivated illness. Without understanding the specific condition, indiscriminately boosting natural healing would activate the illness as well. If I entrusted the Princess to the hands of an ordinary priest, her condition might worsen and she could lose her sight immediately.
The Pope might possess different healing methods, so I would investigate that later. For now, it was time for questions and answers regarding the dark mage. I picked up my notebook and pen, prepared to take notes again, and calmly formulated my questions before asking the woman. First, there was one thing I most wanted to know.
“Is it true that dark mages make contracts with demons?”
“Yes.”
“I see. Show me for a moment.”
“I can’t show you.”
“Why?”
“Since the time of my contract, I haven’t seen it….”
“You’ve never seen it?”
How peculiar indeed. According to witness testimonies documented in records, black mages frequently mutter to themselves, which suggests the demon bound at the time of contract remains attached to them.
Hearing something contrary to my expectations, I scratched my head with my pen and posed the next question.
“Then could you explain the circumstances of the contract in detail?”
“Yes, first… we prepare a ritual that has been passed down through our family for generations.”
“Hmm, I see. So that’s why nothing about it is known outside—it’s a family secret, then?”
“Exactly! When I was taught it, I was told I couldn’t tell anyone except my successor!”
….
So you’re not supposed to tell me either?
I grew seriously concerned about this child Lam’s intelligence, and I hesitated whether my conscience would ache from pressing further. But then I recalled that I’d abandoned my conscience long ago when I killed and tortured everyone blocking Leon’s path, so I gestured for her to continue.
“And I’ve heard that the composition varies slightly depending on each black mage family’s lineage… anyway, since our household is located in the Southwestern Desert Region of the Kingdom, we mainly use peyote, which is easy to obtain there.”
“Right. Yes. Stop. You don’t need to mention the composition anymore.”
So the demon’s true identity was merely a hallucination induced by hallucinogens. How lamentable.
When I pressed Lam further about other aspects of the ritual, I reached a hypothesis: they open a passage to another world while in a trance state and draw mana from there rather than from the mana existing in this world. It seemed the mana wasn’t from this realm at all—they were drawing from an entirely different world.
“So when making a contract with the demon~ usually you have to offer part of your body or something precious you possess~.”
An offering to a target that’s merely a hallucination? Since the entity doesn’t actually exist, do they impose constraints on themselves while in a hallucinatory state? This was quite an intriguing matter, so I listened intently, only to have Lam pour out something that made my heart sink.
“In my case, I decided to give up a little of my intelligence! Since I figured I wouldn’t need it anyway! Hehe.”
“Ah….”
I see….
Something had seemed off from the first time I saw her, and I’d had my suspicions when she loudly declared her desire to return to the Kingdom in front of the maidservant, but to think it was actually like this….
“Ah….”
The story was so heartbreaking that I couldn’t think of any words of comfort, so I continued making soft sounds while gently stroking Lam’s head.
This is quite addictive to touch. So fluffy and soft.
“Sniff… home, or at least somewhere with people I can talk to….”
How on earth did she end up here?
It didn’t seem like she’d come all the way to the Empire of her own volition, which piqued my curiosity, but I lacked the courage to ask. If I grew attached for no reason, wouldn’t it hurt when we parted later? Besides, the more I kept touching her, the more I thought of Boosil at my grandmother’s house, and it made me feel melancholy.
Lam, who had been pressing her head against my lap and whimpering, slowly lifted her head and looked at me, then carefully opened her mouth while gauging my reaction.
“Um~ could we sleep together?”
So you were quite delighted to meet someone from your homeland.
Even if I couldn’t take her back to the Kingdom, sleeping together wouldn’t be difficult. I nodded in agreement, and since it was late, I decided to retire. I removed Lam’s tear and snot-stained pajamas and changed her into fresh ones, then dismissed the attendants.
The maidservant who remained until the end said she would be in the small room nearby, and if there was anything I needed, I need only give the order. Aster, who had been quietly staying by my side, oddly didn’t return to her assigned room but followed me around.
As I climbed onto the bed, I gently pressed my finger against Aster’s forehead as she tried to climb up after me, stopping her in her tracks.
“This bed is too small for you to sleep here, Aster.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s cramped with just the two of us.”
“I… didn’t quite hear that?”
“Go to your room.”
What’s with that look like the world is ending?
Aster’s eyes widened, and she mumbled something incoherently before clamping her mouth shut and moved away from the bed. On her way back to her room, she stared hard at the chair I’d been sitting in, then kicked it forcefully with her foot and left the room.
What was that? A late rebellious phase?
….
No, twenty-four is the age of rebellion—it’s perfectly natural.

◇ ◆ ◇

I fell into a deep, restful sleep while absently stroking Lam’s soft, fluffy hair. The healing power of such a delightfully plush thing was truly remarkable.
After stretching with a long yawn and sitting up, I reached for the blanket to leave the bed when a peculiar, wet sensation registered against my palm, prompting me to glance down cautiously.
A blasphemous liquid writhed like the depths of the cosmos itself, its color a manic, pale blue.
Rosalite Rocksburg, sanity check commencing.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Mother of gods, what is that? It’s on my hand—how revolting!
Startled, I leaped from the bed and frantically rubbed my hand against the floor, but it wouldn’t come off. No, this is impossible—even printer toner would’ve come off by now!
“What’s wrong, miss!”
Hearing my scream, Aster burst through the door, but her arrival offered no solution to this predicament.
Besides, why are your eyes so wide, Aster? Have you been crying? No, given your temperament, I doubt you’d have reason to cry. An allergy, perhaps? Do you have a down feather allergy?
As I approached Aster to fuss over her and check if anything itched, my commotion seemed to rouse Lam, who wiped her mouth and sat up. And at that same moment, the liquid convulsed.
“Oh? Oh my? Oh dear—I’m so sorry! I slept so deeply after so long that I drooled everywhere.”
…Drooled what, exactly?
As the woman stretched and yawned, gesturing as if gathering the liquid around her,
the manic, pale blue blasphemous forms
writhed and were sucked back into Lam.
How disgusting. I hate dark mages. This is precisely why we’ve never had proper research materials on them.

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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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