Book 4: Chapter 12

Two Elder Brothers and Family Bonds

“Here’s some tea, meow.”

Merdie served tea and snacks to me, Tina, Leaffa, and my elder brother, Cain, while wearing her maid outfit. 

Her conduct improved, and it’s now on point.

It’s the fruit of Tina’s guidance.

“Thanks, Merdie.”

“Yes, meow.”

Merdie went out of the parlor with her tail straight up like a pin.

“A beastkin maid? As I thought… It’s really weird here.” Cain murmured as his gaze followed Merdie while she exited the room.

“No, beastkin and high-ranking spirits are still good. The problem lies with the nine-tailed fox. It’s on a level that will require the whole Order of Chivalry to be set in motion in order to subdue it. If it goes on a rampage here… are you sure it’s okay?”

“No worries. We already formed a master-slave contract, and I won’t let her do anything harmful.”

I won’t let Youko, my precious source of fluff, be subjugated.

“Youko is a very fine girl. Cain-sama doesn’t have anything to worry about.”

Tina also vouched for Youko.

“If Tina says so, then I’ll believe it. Well, my intuition also says that I can leave it up to Halt.”

Hey, big bro. You didn’t trust my words nor your own intuition, and yet, why did you believe so easily with just a word from Tina?

Well, at least Cain doesn’t view Youko as a threat anymore, thank goodness.

While I was thinking like that, we heard a knock on the drawing room’s door, and Merdie entered.

“Somebody who wants to meet Halt came, meow.”

“Oh, did that guy have black hair like mine and Halt’s, with blue eyes?” Cain asked Merdie.

I also have some inkling on who might that be, based on those characteristics.

“Right, meow.”

“Is that so? Thanks. Looks like he made it on time.”

“Big bro Leo came?”

“Yeah. Since His Majesty and I are coming over to your house, I invited him to join us. Apparently, he’s still quite busy, so he told me he’d visit later, but it looks like he made it before I returned.”

“So that’s how it is. Merdie, can you bring that guy here?”

“Got it, meow.”

The guest is my other older brother, Leon.

After a while, Merdie came with my brother back to the drawing-room.

“Halt! It’s been a while!”

Leon strode nearer and ruffled my hair. He’s a little shorter than Cain, but he has a muscular physique.

“Big Bro Leo, been a while.”

“How are you? Are you eating properly? You’re still as skinny as ever. Eat more, so you’ll have more muscles, alright?”

I was told a lot of things in a rapid-fire conversation.

It’s always like this with stocky Leon.

I was told off as being skinny, but I think my build is within the normal range for my age.

“Leon-sama, Halt-sama might be slender, but he has muscles too.”

Tina also backed me up.

“Heh, so Tina properly checked out Halt’s body, right? As expected of Halt’s bride!”

“What!? N, no way—“

Tina’s ears turned slightly red after being teased by Leon.

“Leon, leave it. Didn’t you come to congratulate Halt and them today?”

“Ahahaha, sorry, Tina.” Leon apologized to Tina after being scolded for a bit by Cain.

“I heard you’re going to marry two girls, but is this girl the other one?” Leon asked as he stared at Leaffa, who was standing at my right side.

“Yeap.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Leaffa.”

Leaffa politely curtsied.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Leon, Halt’s older brother. Please, take care of my younger brother.”

“Yes!”

Leaffa stole a glance at me, and she answered with vigor.

“By the way, Leaffa, are you part of the Alheim royal family?”

Eh, no way….

“Yes, that’s right. Excuse me, but have we met before?”

Seems like Leaffa doesn’t remember meeting Leon prior to this.

“Ah, no, I don’t think so. Leaffa’s curtsy resembles the Elf Kingdom’s royalty’s conduct, so I guess it might be such.”

“Is that so? It’s nice of you to notice. However, there shouldn’t be that much of a difference from the greetings commonly used in Alheim.”

I couldn’t tell the difference.

According to Leaffa, there are subtle actions that only the royalty understands.

Through these conducts, it is possible to tell apart Alheim royalty from the ordinary citizens.

It is normally unnoticeable, but Leon detected it.

Don’t tell me Leon also possesses special skills just like that of Charles and Cain? 

For example… a skill like an observing eye?

“Leon doesn’t possess any skill. He noticed the fine details because of his competency.”

“Eh?”

Cain picked the question right off my mind through his super intuition and answered it for me even if I didn’t say anything.

“Ah, Halt, did you think I used a skill to see through Leaffa’s identity? Too bad for you, but it’s just my very own ability.”

No, isn’t this more amazing since it’s not a skill?

“Don’t go comparing me with brother Cain and Charles, who possess cheat skills since birth, okay? Well, I don’t stand a chance against brother Cain even if he deactivated his skill.”

My older sister Charles possesses the telepathy cheat skill of being able to read what her opponents are thinking.

She said that she had told no one else except our parents about it. But Leon’s already aware that Charles has that skill.

Is it possible to discern the possession of skills just by merely having acute perception?

—Yeah, it might be.

It’s to the point he recognized a mannerism that no one else besides the royal family of Alheim had knowledge of.

So, in other words, me being a reincarnator is also a cat out of the bag, I guess. There are obvious changes in how I behaved after compared to before I turned five.

“Frankly, everybody in our family knows that you became a different person when you were around five years old. Didn’t you reincarnate at that time?”

“Eh!”

Cain dropped the shocking reality on me.

“It’s coz we’re a family. Even without skills, we’d know. But, it isn’t like our little brother Halt was taken over by somebody else, but instead, you’re still Halt no matter what. Thus, we didn’t say anything until now.”

I reincarnated into this world in a five-year-old body, but it wasn’t to take over that body.

The memories and experiences of the seventeen-year-old Haruto in the previous world were added to the Halt living in this world, and that’s the form of reincarnation.

That’s why the me before five, and the me as of now, are all still me.

However, part of me wanted to hide my reincarnation from my family.

There were also times when I thought whether they could consider me as their real son, as well as brother.

“Do you feel better now that you don’t have to hide anything?”

Cain guessed correctly.

That’s right; having secrets from your own family is quite a burden.

“We decided beforehand to tell you that we know you’re a reincarnator when you got married. Of course, we would also accept should you open up to us before that happened.”

“Is that so? Sorry, I couldn’t tell you all this time.”

“No need to worry. We also pretended not to know anything. Even if you marry and get out of the house, you will still be our little brother forever.”

All anxiety and doubts hidden in my heart vanished completely when I heard Cain’s words.

——— 

T/N: Aww, Halt got such a nice family, unlike the majority of the ln/wn reincarnated protagonists who have trash family members, the kind whose life-long mission is to bully/ kill their own flesh and blood/ gouge their eyes out… Well, you get the picture (which I still read for the drama and satisfying revenge!). ☺ Good for you, Halt! ☺