I Am the Hero's Immature Younger Brother

Ren’s face brightened at once.

“Is that something to be so happy about? Having fewer days left to live than an old man?”

“No.”

The old man poked Ren’s cheek as he answered with a sullen expression and asked,

“Then?”

“It’s good that you’ll live a long time, Grandpa! Hmph!”

“Good grief. This boy.”

The old man clicked his tongue.

“Humans may be the only ones who are happy about living long.”

“Grandpa! What did you say? Let’s eat snacks!”

Whether he was trying to shake off the gloomy mood, or whether he had simply really wanted snacks.

Ren had already slipped back into the room to greet the attendant pulling in the tray.

Telling Ren, who was calling him, that he was coming, the old apothecary lifted the robe he was wearing. Deep dark-blue eyes took in the figure beneath the tree.

“Is it good?”

The old man asked as he watched Ren shove food into his mouth. With his mouth packed full, Ren could not answer and only mumbled before nodding. His brightly shining green eyes looked sincerely delighted, and the old man closed his mouth.

As if he had no memory of crying so much during the day, he looked brave and bright.

But the old man could not help worrying. He wondered whether that wide smile, worn with eyes so raw and swollen, was forced.

Ren, who had left the village, seemed to have suddenly grown up before he knew it.

Though he thought that was a good thing, the old man deliberately drank bitter tea to hide the loneliness in his heart.

They spent the deep night with snacks.

***

“Your Majesty. Today, you must announce the royal command. It has already been several days.......”

“Enough. I know.”

Ragniel, who had been having lunch, waved away the young noble standing close beside him and speaking.

He was the son of a court minister and served as Ragniel’s conversation partner. Also, out of consideration for the king’s dignity, messages were sometimes passed along through that young noble’s mouth.

What he spoke of was something that had already been decided three days ago.

“Halo.”

When Ragniel called his close attendant, the young noble withdrew.

Halo was an attendant who handled Ragniel’s small errands.

“How has Temar been? Is he spending time with his younger brother?”

Ragniel asked in an indifferent tone, as if he were only asking out of boredom. As Ragniel idly pushed his meal around with his fork and asked in passing, Halo told him exactly what he had seen earlier.

“There was no conversation at all. He only drank one cup of tea and returned.”

“Tsk.”

Before he realized it, Ragniel clicked his tongue and narrowed his brow.

Even when told to spend time as brothers, it seemed that was not easy for them.

Ragniel knew very well that Temar cherished Ren, and Ren, too, seemed to feel no small affection for his brother.

There was one thing Ragniel could see clearly, and that was a person’s emotions.

Perhaps that was precisely why someone as foolish as he was had managed to preserve even his position as a puppet king.

Ragniel sighed and set down his fork.

Before handling the matter he could no longer postpone, he wanted to see the boy’s face once.

After he issued the royal command, he would not have the confidence to endure the look in the boy’s eyes. Now was the only time he had.

“Where is Temar’s younger brother staying?”

“I will guide you, Your Majesty.”

Ragniel knew very well where Ren was staying, but he pretended not to and rose from his seat.

That night, when he had put his hands into the fountain and felt the freezing chill, when he had startled and fallen after seeing his own familiar voice inside his head and the unfamiliar expression reflected in the water. That same night, Ragniel had become captivated by the innocent voice of the boy chattering like a lark.

Inside this royal castle, where everything was standardized, only Ren seemed alive and moving.

Ragniel pretended to stroll through the garden and listened to Ren’s voice from below the balcony. It comforted Ragniel’s heart like sweet music. Ren’s voice was like small, glittering music flowing from a music box.

He had things to apologize to that boy for, and things to thank him for as well, so it was only right that Ragniel do something for him.

Ragniel led his attendants toward Ren’s room.

***

“The royal physician died, you said?”

Giselle lifted his eyes from the old paper and looked at the eyes of the person who had come to report.

Under that gaze, which seemed to pierce through a person’s heart, the man flinched and lowered his head.

“Yes. I’m told he died.”

“Find another physician and have the investigation done again.”

“Understood. Should the other Heroes.......”

“Keep silent.”

Giselle smiled gently.

“It is the king’s command.”

Adding that, Giselle headed for the rampart.

A fierce wind swept Giselle’s long hair up all at once.

For Giselle, who had come out dressed lightly to greet early spring, the wind was powerful enough to be troublesome. His hair tangled this way and that, and the hem of his clothes flapped as if it would tear. The attendant who had come up with him trembled, his face faintly pale, perhaps frightened of heights.

“I wish to be alone, so step away.”

“Yes, Lord Giselle.”

The attendant quickly bowed and disappeared inside the watchtower. There was a separate wall there blocking the wind, making it far better than this place where the ground below was plainly visible.

Giselle lowered his head without fear. His hair flowed over his shoulders and spilled down below the castle wall. The swaying strands repeatedly erased and revealed the scenery beneath the wall.

At a certain point, he saw the army stationed at Mount Geroa.

Perhaps tomorrow, they would march out.

The full story of what had happened in the air-raid shelter was slowly coming to light.

Temar’s younger brother, who had been dragged away by suspicious people disguised as a slave merchant caravan. After calling him in and asking him several questions, Giselle had been able to hear an unexpected piece of information.

It concerned the name of the intermediary.

“Mine.”

Following Ren’s words, they drew a portrait of the man called Mine, and not long afterward, they were able to find him without much difficulty.

An intermediary usually knew more of the currents than one might expect. They might not know the truth of a massive incident, but as an intermediary, they necessarily had to be able to read the flow of events. Giselle could fill in the small blanks through investigation, so for him, Mine was an absolutely necessary talent.

For that reason, Giselle had been able to learn many things from him through unstinting torture.

The masked people.

They had tried to awaken anti-Hero weapons.

This suggested several important points.

First, that things like anti-Hero weapons remained here and there as historical relics. Second, that one of the methods for awakening those weapons was human sacrifice. And third, that since they had already committed such acts inside the kingdom, they would stop at nothing to obtain the “treasure” the oracle said could rule the world.

That meant war.

Then the kingdom could not remain still either.

They had no choice but to use the strongest hand the kingdom possessed.

If worst came to worst, Giselle himself would step forward as well.

That was the mission of a Hero who protected the king and the kingdom. Without the slightest hesitation, Giselle would gladly offer his life.

Was being able to see clearly even what appeared as a distant point a blessing or a curse?

There was no more time to delay.

Looking at the mountain ridge, Giselle opened his mouth.

“You use your ability whenever you like now.”

A gentle warm breeze brushed beside him. Clusters of warm light rose like fireflies, then scattered in the wind.

“And you don’t?”

Giselle laughed softly.

“I suppose the written apologies weren’t enough?”

“Don’t say that. I’m still writing them. Here, can’t you see my fingers are stiff?”

Luman grimaced and held out his hand.

A pale, long, beautiful hand, and the tiny wounds covering it. It seemed difficult to leave marks on that hand merely from writing a few written apologies.

Giselle took Luman’s hand and pushed it aside, then straightened from where he had been leaning over.

“Why are you always looking at scenery like this?” 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

As if annoyed by his hair falling loose, he gathered it in one hand.

“Come and look. Though I don’t know whether that head of yours, filled with gold coins, can see what I see.”

Giselle spoke softly and smiled mischievously. He often spoke to Luman in this way. Luman gave a faint laugh as if it were absurd and stepped up beside Giselle. As he stared at the place Giselle had been looking, Luman let go of his hair.

His sun-burned hair scattered this way and that.

“What did you come all the way here to say?”

“People say you are gentle and kind, but I cannot agree. Your heart is sharp as a needle. You stab people to confirm the truth, and you don’t care at all about those who bleed because of it. Am I wrong?”

“Hahaha!”

As Giselle listened to Luman’s words, his eyes widened slightly, then narrowed, and he burst into refreshing laughter.

“Ahahaha!”

It was rare for him to burst out laughing this way, so Luman’s face turned sour.

“What’s so funny?”

At Luman’s scolding tone, Giselle laughed for a long while before wiping the tears gathered at his eyes with his finger. He turned his head fully and looked at Luman.

Golden eyes looked at Giselle with displeasure.

“I know, Luman. I know that if I am a person soft only on the outside, with tens of millions of thorns lodged within, then the one who is soft as jelly and truly kind is you.”