CH 22

“I think he ran away because he is afraid of something the size of a mouse. Hahahahahahaha!”

Julian laughed out loud as he raised his slingshot like a treasured sword.

‘No matter how much his mental age is 17-years-old, he looks like a 24-year-old young man…’

The tall adult who once held the title of strongest man was sincerely over the moon in front of the little me and Ethan.

“I just showed up, yes! I have leveled up, yes!”

Julian didn’t stop there. Schulva, who was supporting Julian, was now staring at a completely different spot in shame.

“Yes, but what do I do? Even though I am a genius, I still got all the wits and virtues! Hahahaha!”

It was a very embarrassing moment, for many reasons.

Roystan must have unconsciously thought of the old Julian and ran away…

And Ethan, who was staring at Julian, showed no admiration at all.

But… 

“Th-Th… Thank you.”

Ethan slightly smiled at me. It seemed weird.

“Indeed, violence is violence. Although not a fundamental solution, it was a very appropriate avoidance in the current situation. Good… good.”

Huh…?

‘Seriously, why is he talking like this?’

‘As expected, this one is not normal either.’

I stared at Ethan, curious about something.

‘According to Zahid, this child is…’

Ethan was now a thin, pushover-like boy, but he would later become the greatest wizard in the empire.

´⛧ ⛧ ⛧ ´

Ethan Noart.

The only son of Felide, my second maternal uncle.

Felide didn’t pay much attention to Ethan. In his youth, he had many lovers, and he was not faithful to his marriage to begin with.

Ethan was a nerd, quiet and buried only in magic books from a young age. He didn’t come out of his room except for official occasions.

Thus, Felide neglected Ethan even more, saying that his successor was nowhere to be seen.

‘That’s why Roystan took his anger out on him and harassed him freely.’

Even if he bullied Ethan, the latter had no one to tell.

By nature, the bully didn’t bully just one child. Not only me… Ethan was also a target.

‘Is that why Ethan left this county?’

Before the regression, Ethan eventually left home when he turned 15.

No one stopped him anyway. It was because even Felide didn’t expect much from Ethan.

A bookworm who did not receive any attention from the Noart family.

The boy left the house and headed for the magic tower. He always longed for magic.

And from a certain moment, his natural talent bloomed and he became a great wizard.

‘Upon entering the magic tower, he will throw away his last name and cut all ties with his family.’

And no matter what happened to the County of Noart, he didn’t get involved.

‘Anyway, this means he is a person who lives a life completely unrelated to the County of Noart.’

He was a cousin who had nothing to like or dislike.

Still, I didn’t like seeing Roystan bullying him, so I wanted to help.

Nevertheless, Ethan said, it was not a fundamental solution.

I asked Ethan.

“Does this happen often?”

Ethan shrugged his shoulders and replied immediately.

“It has been like this since childhood. Nothing special. Everyone knows, except for Grandfather.”

“Eh, then my brother knew too?”

When I asked in disbelief, Ethan nodded as if it was natural.

“Of course.”

It was an answer without the slightest hesitation. Blinking, I questioned incredulously.

“Did… Did my brother stay still? Did he just ignore it all this while?”

“Of course. He didn’t care how I was treated.”

Ethan calmly responded.

“How many months ago was it? Roystan punched me like a dog, but your brother passed right next to me while whistling, not even giving me a glance. Ah, his arms were full of presents for you.”

“Nonsense! What the hell is that messed up personality?”

With my mouth wide open, I looked at Julian.

As soon as Julian saw Roystan harassing Ethan, he was enraged!

He didn’t even know much about Ethan, but he was about to storm out right away.

“What? Did I do that? Really?”

It was also absurd to Julian, and he probed with a dumbfounded expression.

Ethan shrugged and calmly said,

“Originally, Julian Noart’s personality is trash. Only his sister doesn’t know. He is so cold-blooded that he could trample on everyone else in this house and become the heir. What do you expect?”

Surprisingly, Schulva did not refute anything. Ethan’s words were true.

Ethan spoke very casually.

“After being treated badly by our demon-like relatives when he first came here at the age of 19, Julian took a more devilish path to overcome them.”

Then, Ethan glanced sideways at Julian, who had a shocked face, and added.

“What… He seems a bit different now… I heard he lost his memory and became an adolescent, is that true? Well, from the moment I saw him at the meeting earlier, he seemed like a completely different person.”

Neither Julian nor I could answer that question.

One thing was certain.

Before Julian lost his memory, he was a perfect older brother to me, but he definitely had personality problems.

“Well, in this world, if there is something lost, isn’t there something to be gained?”

Ethan continued, pushing up his glasses.

“Looks like Julian Noart lost his memory but gained the possibility of rehabilitating his personality.”

“Weird. I saved you, so why do you feel like I’m being scolded?”

Julian frowned and muttered.

I was laughing awkwardly when Ethan’s eyes suddenly widened. He pointed behind me.

“Rosie!”

And he cried out in horror.

“Isn’t that trouble?”

Julian, Schulva, and I looked back, at where Ethan was pointing. And simultaneously, we took a shocked breath.

“Oh my god!”

I was so startled that I ran.

The place Ethan pointed to was the corner where we hid earlier and overheard Ethan and Roystan’s conversation.

“Brother, please stay here. Got it? Please! I’ll take care of it, okay?”

Earlier, when I got in between Ethan and Roystan, I put the envelope on the floor. And inside the envelope was a shell bracelet given to me by my grandfather.

Now, the bracelet was scattered in the corner, broken.

I slowly picked up the bracelet.

The shells were broken. It was a total mess.

“Oh no, what do we do with this?”

Ethan approached and uttered in a trembling voice.

“From my judgment, our grandfather put a lot of effort into it… He wouldn’t be happy to see it ruined like this! He might misunderstand that you didn’t take care of it properly and treated it carelessly!”

Ethan was right. Words were traded, and this was the first gift my grandfather gave me.

Ruining a well-thought-out gift was, of course, unpleasant.

I hadn’t formed a deep relationship with my grandfather yet.

Although I caught his eye by revealing my cleverness, it could be difficult to drive it further with this momentum.

“I don’t think you can get the same thing anywhere… What will you do now?”

Ethan shuddered and bit his fingernails anxiously.

“Because of me… This happened because of me… What can we do, Rosie? What will you do? It’s because of me…”

Julian, who came belatedly, limping because of his crutches, also got angry.

“What, isn’t this because of Roystan? Huh? He is the only one who would do such a thing!”

That’s right. Because there was no one here but us.

And I had this belief.

“It seems you’re arrogant as you caught Grandfather’s eyes today, but it won’t last long. Okay?”

When Roystan said that earlier… He probably already planned to break my bracelet!

Well, of course, it might not matter for a few days. It’s an accessory, I could simply just not wear it.

But what if Grandfather asked, ‘Where is the bracelet?’

From a glimpse of Grandfather earlier, he didn’t seem to be the type to get angry at a child for something like that. But still, it was embarrassing.

‘And since Roystan did it… he will definitely use this to create problems.’

Therefore, hiding the damaged bracelet would not solve the problem.