CH 20

When Caliburn waved his hand, the servant closed the meeting room door again.

This time, the meeting room door was closed tightly, and Rosie smiled at Murloc.

“I wanted my grandfather to take care of us a little more, but he must have forgotten because he was busy.”

As usual, her words were spoken slowly and her eyes were innocent-looking, but she didn’t look so dumb anymore.

“Thanks to you, we don’t have to beg for no reason, so how should we repay this favor?”

“You… You…”

“Thank you. Even though Brother’s expression is terrifying, he must be grateful to you from the bottom of his heart.”

“You!”

“Oh, you don’t think that’s what it is? Then maybe that opinion is right…”

Rosie, who finished speaking with a smile, began to support Julian again with great effort.

´⛧ ⛧ ⛧ ´

In a gorgeous, but dark room that didn’t even get moonlight.

“Ugh… euk… ugh…”

A dark-haired boy was leaning against a large wolf, breathing hard.

“Euk… hah… ha.”

Cold sweat ran down the boy’s forehead.

Even in the midst of that, the purple eyes that endured the pain were seeping poison.

“Kiyiing…”

The wolf that was embracing the boy whimpered in pity.

“Fine… ah… I’m fine…”

Even in the midst of this, the boy comforted the wolf and stifled his groans.

This boy’s name was Zahid Diefenril.

He was the young head of the Diefenril family, just turning 11-years-old.

There were four ducal families in the empire, and the head of each duchy could use divine powers.

The divine beasts each had the ability of water, fire, grass, and earth. Among them, the Duchy of Diefenril handled the divine beast of fire.

Zahid let out a shallow breath while standing next to the fire divine beast, the wolf, Pyre.

“Kiyiiiing…”

“I’m fine… really.”

The heads of duchy families possessed far more magical powers than others, as much as they could handle divine beasts. Because the divine beasts had to absorb and use that overflowing power.

However, in recent decades, the power of divine beasts suddenly started to weaken.

This was a phenomenon common to the divine beasts in the four dukedoms.

The divine beasts began to be unable to receive the magic of the family heads. That huge mana that had nowhere to go collided inside the body.

Of course, it entailed great pain. This mana rampage would drive one to madness within a few years.

And there were only two powers that could soothe the pain.

One was a tranquilizer developed by the Magic Tower. However, at the moment, they couldn’t make it due to the lack of materials.

The second was divine power.

The pain could be relieved with the great divine power of the temple’s high-ranking priests. But the temple… they wanted the divine beast in exchange for divine power for Zahid.

“Never… I will never give into the demands of the temple. I will never send you there.”

Zahid held on with his mental strength and gritted his teeth.

A handful of papers were piled up at his feet, all different variations of ‘I want to get engaged to the Duke of Diefenril’. And among them, there was one with the name of ‘Rosie Noart’ written on it.

—

Act 3. I’m Going To You

And so, the monthly meeting was completely over. Now Grandfather seemed really busy.

‘It’s been a while since he returned, so it’s natural. He has to deal with Julian’s void, and…’

Trembling, I watched the back of Murloc as he passed us and went ahead.

But I didn’t have time to look at him and inwardly laugh to my heart’s content. There were many more important things.

‘Grandfather said he wasn’t interested, but he’s sure to find out about the marriage talks with the Duke of Diefenril.’

It seemed sincere that he had no intention of using me as a tool for an arranged marriage.

But still, it was already a marriage conversation. Even if the possibility is small, shouldn’t we consider it first?

‘…It’s about time for them to decide on a fiancée for Zahid.’

The Duchy of Diefenril must have now received a lot of marriage proposals, not just mine.

Recently, Zahid lost his parents in an instant and became a young patriarch.

Even basic movement was difficult due to physical pain. He was a boy who would soon go crazy due to rampaging mana.

The prestige of the Duchy of Diefenril was great.

Isn’t it now a good prey to devour?

In the meantime, Zahid’s aunt, who was currently in power, was trading for his fiancée’s position.

‘The competition must be formidable.’

I blinked and thought.

Zahid Diefenril.

Right now, it was probably hard to even endure each day.

‘Huh, I want to save you quickly, but…’

In my heart, I wanted to meet him soon.

But now I had nothing that could save him.

‘Wait a little longer, Zahid. I’ll go to you soon. It’s really not long now.’

I thought, thinking of the young Zahid I had seen in the newspaper and the wolf divine beast who stood by him.

‘This time, I’ll make sure your divine beast will not be stolen by the temple.’

While I was occupied with my thoughts, Julian was giggling, saying that the work of Murloc was a mess. And with my support, he started walking slowly, step by step.

Our pace was so slow that there was no one in the hallway outside the meeting room anymore.

While supporting Julian, I noticed a bruise on his armpit through loose clothing.

“Brother! What is this?”

“It’s not a big deal.”

Julian picked his ears and replied insincerely.

“Let’s go, little one. I’ll take you.”

Apparently, the bruise spot was where he rested his crutches.

I asked in surprise.

“Could it be because of the crutches? Did you walk too much?”

I knew even when I asked.

I had never seen Julian on crutches before.

He must have used it for the first time today… 

As I walked to the end of the hallway with Julian, Schulva, who was waiting for us, clicked his tongue and said,

“…Why didn’t you come in a wheelchair?”

Julian replied bluntly, after letting out a snort.

“That is not cool. I’m out of shape.”

“…….”

Shape…

The standard of an adolescent boy couldn’t be figured out.

“If it’s a monthly meeting, will this happen again next month? Let’s come together in the future.”

Julian grumbled.

“No matter how our little one spends my money, what the hell…”

Our little one.

My toes felt ticklish at those words.

The old Julian had never called me like that. But even so, the affection within the title was clear.

“It doesn’t matter whether it falls into magic stones or a gambling house.”

“Brother, you can’t mess with the gambling house.”

I said anxiously.

“If you do, you will become like your father, and that is how the butcher shop was ruined.”

“Damn it, how did you know that?”

“Brother told me.”

“Why did he say such a shameful thing? What was he thinking?”

Julian jutted out his lips and muttered curses.

Julian’s father, that’s to say, the kitchen servant who fled with our mother, wasn’t a very nice person either. All the money he earned at the butcher’s shop was gambled away.

When Julian was 19-years-old, he died on a gambling table. In the meantime, our mother, Vallia, was always drunk and lamented about her situation and neglected Julian.

Then one day, she got pregnant with me and ran away.

Apparently, she died a lonely death after being abandoned by my father.

“Little one.”

Julian let out a deep sigh and scratched his head.

“Uh… Actually, I don’t know anything about a harmonious family.”

I stared at Julian.

“Seeing that just now… I think it’s hard to make something like that here. They are all new to me, but they are all bad.”

“…….”

“Still.”

Julian tried to make eye contact with me, but pressed his crutches on the wrong spot and let out a painful groan. Then he quickly managed his expression and continued.

“The two of us are in the same situation, so let’s get along well. We have absolutely no luck with family.”

Strangely, tears welled up.

It was because the image of the old Julian, who had often said similar things, overlapped.

“You and I really don’t have parental blessings. So let us be a blessing to each other.”

At that time, unlike now, Julian was a very neat and well-groomed man, dressed in uniform.

The gist of what he said to me was the same.

Julian added after clearing his throat.

“Unlike those people, um, by being on each other’s side… Let’s treat each other like a real family.”

I looked at Julian with teary eyes.

“Let’s not live like our parents. We should cherish and take care of each other. We are the only ones in the world who are on each other’s side.”

‘Even if you’ve lost your memory… Although you have changed in many ways…’

Still, it felt like Julian had returned.

I looked up at my brother and nodded hard.