Chapter 44
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Easily Overlapping Brothers
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“Haa... haa...”
Karl’s ragged breathing scraped across the empty office floor.
His knuckles were white as bone.
Clutched in his hand like a lifeline was a small glass vial.
His lower body felt as heavy as a lump of lead.
It had gone cold, as if it no longer belonged to him.
I have to get up.
Karl gritted his teeth.
He reached out and gripped the frame of his wheelchair.
His twisted muscles screamed in protest.
Pain like his shoulder might dislocate surged through him, but he didn’t stop.
Screech.
The wheelchair rolled forward, lifting Karl’s body from the floor.
“Nngh...!”
He poured every ounce of strength into it, veins bulging like they might burst.
Thud.
After several slips, Karl barely managed to haul his upper body onto the wheelchair seat.
His entire body was drenched in sweat.
He looked like a drowned rat, but his right hand still hadn’t let go of the vial.
The clear liquid sloshed inside.
This is... Mother’s medicine...
She had dropped it in her haste to leave earlier.
Her face had been pale, her body trembling—it was clearly her chronic illness flaring up.
She’d be in trouble without this medicine.
Unaware that the vial contained the deadly poison that was killing him, Karl moved solely out of filial devotion to care for his mother.
With trembling hands, he gripped the wheelchair’s wheel.
But with the vial in his right hand, he had no choice but to clumsily roll it forward with just his left.
Screech, screech.
Using only one wheel sent the chair veering to the right again and again.
Steering required twice the strength and skill.
The wheelchair zigzagged precariously down the corridor.
It nearly crashed into the wall at times, wheels catching on the carpet and stuttering to a halt.
But Karl didn’t stop.
“Oh my! Young Master!”
The head maid, passing by in the corridor, gasped and rushed over.
Servants followed in a line behind her.
Karl, sweating profusely and pushing the wheelchair precariously with one hand, looked utterly pitiful to anyone who saw him.
“How can you be doing this alone! Give it here—I’ll push for you!”
“At least let me hold that vial. Where are you headed?”
The servants reached for the wheelchair handles.
But Karl shook his head and raised his remaining hand to stop them.
“...No. It’s fine.”
“But Young Master! You look awful. If you collapse like this...”
“Leave me be...”
The servants knew.
There was no breaking Karl’s stubbornness.
“Step aside... This is something I have to do myself.”
Karl pushed the servants back and rolled the wheel again.
Screech, screech.
Slow, laborious progress.
His mind was filled only with thoughts of his brother, Kairun.
He couldn’t forget the look on Kairun’s face a few days ago, outside their father’s office.
The moment he’d overheard their father’s vicious words—“You’re an eyesore, stay away”—and been chased out.
That gaze from his brother, laced with pity and sorrow, had pierced Karl’s heart.
Kairun is leaving for the academy soon...
Skipping three years ahead, stepping out into a wider world.
His brother, who would shine among the empire’s prodigies, forging a brilliant future.
Karl couldn’t bear for that brother’s last memory of him to be “the pitiful older brother scolded by Father, unable to do anything.”
He had pushed himself because Kairun looked up to him with respect.
Graduating top of the academy.
Even succeeding in rehab for his injured legs.
All for one more glimpse of those red eyes filled with affection and admiration.
At the very least...
Karl wiped sweat from his brow and pushed the wheel.
I want to leave him the image of me handling something small like bringing Mother her medicine...
Even if I can’t use my legs, I’m still your brother.
Still someone who can care for family.
So go to the academy with peace of mind and show off your talents.
That was the bare minimum dignity and love he could offer as an older brother.
The long corridor from the annex to the main building.
Outside the window, the red sunset already hung thick in the sky.
Karl glanced down at the vial in his hand as he labored to push the wheelchair.
It was exhausting.
His arm muscles felt like they were burning away.
But strangely, he felt good.
Going to see Father was always like walking on thin ice, pure dread.
Each step felt like a march toward hell.
But going to see Mother was different.
There was warmth there.
A welcoming smile, caring hands.
If he brought her this... she’d smile, right?
Thank him... stroke his hair like she used to?
Just imagining it brought a smile to his lips.
Then, suddenly.
He noticed his hand, gripping the vial tightly, trembling faintly.
...What am I even doing?
Karl let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
He could just pocket it and be done.
But no, he was clutching it like this.
Like a desperate kid craving praise.
Mom, I brought it! Good job, right?
He felt proud of himself, yet pathetic at the same time.
I want to be a reliable older brother to Kairun... but deep down, I’m still a child begging for my parents’ love.
He’d only grown older; his heart seemed stuck on the day he’d been confined to this chair.
No. A brother should show the path forward. Not this pathetic side.
Karl shook his head, trying to shake off the shame.
He moved to tuck the vial into his inner pocket.
But.
His weakened fingers wouldn’t obey.
Plop.
“Ah...”
The vial slipped from his hand.
Roll, roll.
The small glass bottle tumbled across the carpet and stopped in front of the wheelchair.
Ah... again...
Karl’s shoulders slumped.
He resented this useless body that couldn’t even hold a tiny vial properly.
Tears welled up.
But he clenched his teeth.
I have to pick it up.
This time, he vowed not to fall.
He couldn’t make a spectacle of himself tumbling in the middle of the corridor.
Karl gripped the armrest tightly.
Leaning his hips against it, he carefully bent his upper body forward.
Reached out.
Just a little more.
The moment his fingertips nearly touched the vial.
Snatch.
Someone else picked it up first.
“......?”
The other’s shoes entered Karl’s view.
The uniform trousers and shoes worn by the men of House Northguard.
Identical to what he himself wore.
But from his crawling gaze on the floor, those feet looked suffocatingly massive.
And as he slowly looked up, a long shadow fell over him.
Ah, Father?
Reflexive terror washed over him.
The trauma of Father seeing his ugly state again and despising him.
You’re an eyesore.
That cold voice echoed like a hallucination, freezing his body.
Trembling in fear, Karl slowly raised his head.
The shadow’s owner stood backlit, face hard to make out.
But.
Perhaps because the sunset from the window melted into that silhouette, softening the usual cold, stern reprimand.
“Huff... huff... huff...”
Rough but warm, laden breaths, heart pounding like it might burst.
Hair matted to a sweat-slicked forehead.
The shadow lifted, revealing the face.
“......Kairun?”
Karl’s eyes widened.
It wasn’t Father.
It was his brother, Kairun.
The brother who should have been escorting Mother to her chambers stood before him, drenched in sweat.
In his hand was the vial Karl had just dropped.
But Kairun’s expression was different from usual.
Bloodshot red eyes.
A face flushed crimson.
And in those eyes looking down at his brother swirled an indescribable sorrow and desperation.
“Brother...”
Kairun called out in a cracked voice.
The brother who had abandoned Mother to race here madly to save him.
Kairun’s gaze, clutching the vial and panting roughly, met Karl’s dazed upward stare in midair.
Relief flooded him.
Brother hadn’t drunk it.
He wasn’t too late.
But Kairun’s mind raced simultaneously.
How do I explain? That Mother dropped it? That it’s poison?
No, he couldn’t.
He couldn’t yet tell his brother the cruel truth that Mother wanted him dead.
Kairun clumsily schooled his expression.
They were already in the corridor.
If the “dutiful son” mask he’d worn before Mother had cracked, he now needed a new one to protect his brother.
“M-Mother dropped the vial... so she said...”
Brother’s misunderstanding and the servant’s excuse overlapped.
But Karl’s ears didn’t register Kairun’s fabricated excuse.
All he saw was his sweat-soaked brother, that massive frame looming over him.
The source of his earlier terror—the enormous shadow—turned out to be his little brother.
Karl’s dazed expression shifted to one swelling with emotion as he looked up at Kairun.
“Kairun... you...”
A faint smile curved his lips.
“How did you grow so... reliable.”
When had that downward gaze, those shielding shoulders, become so broad?
Unaware his brother’s heart was softening, Karl simply felt joy and pride at his physical growth.
Cruel truth and pure joy.
Two contradictory emotions overlapped all too easily between the brothers, intruding boldly.
Kairun subtly hid the vial behind his back and firmly caught Karl’s slumping body, settling him deep into the wheelchair.
“You have to be careful, Brother.”
“Ah... thank you. Could you hand that over? I need to take it to Mother.”
Karl wiped his sweat and extended his hand.
“She seemed really unwell... without that medicine...”
“......”
Kairun’s breath caught.
Brother still didn’t know.
That the vial held not Mother’s life-saving medicine, but poison to kill him.
And that Mother herself had ordered it.
Should I tell him?
No. He couldn’t.
If he said now, “Mother tried to kill you”?
Brother would shatter.
Not just his body, but his heart into pieces.
That alone he had to prevent.
It hurt enough to be sinner and sinner’s son.
Brother didn’t need to bear that pain too—he’d endured far too much needless suffering already.
Kairun circled behind the wheelchair and gripped the handles.
Then naturally turned it around.
Not toward the main building and Mother’s room, but back toward the annex and Karl’s office.
“Kairun...? Thank you. But you’ve got the direction wrong. Since we’re already in the corridor, I wanted to pay Mother a visit and give her the medicine.”
Karl asked, puzzled.
Kairun fell silent for a moment.
Something hot rose in his throat, but he forced it down.
“Mother... just fell asleep.”
“She’s asleep?”
“Yes. I escorted her to her chambers, and she seemed exhausted—out like a light the moment she lay down. I can give her the medicine later. You’ll wake her if you go now.”
“Ah... I see.”
Regret flickered across Karl’s face.
“Well, she did push herself making tarts today. Wouldn’t do to wake her if she’s just dozed off.”
Brother harbored no suspicion.
He trusted his little brother’s word implicitly and settled obediently into the chair.
Screech, screech.
Only the sound of the wheels filled the silence.
Kairun gazed down at the top of Brother’s head, biting his lip.
Good thing.
That I’m behind him right now.
His current expression was too twisted to show Brother.
Good that he could hide his ugly face, tangled with chaotic emotions.
Who knew this moment—facing the same direction as Brother—could feel so precious.
As a child, he’d both loved and hated chasing after Brother’s back.
Brother’s strides were wider, leaving him breathless trying to keep up.
He’d loved and hated Brother’s shadow.
Cool in its shade, but sometimes he wanted to gaze at the sun.
But now, he was grateful to stand behind Brother, protecting him.
As they traversed the long corridor, Kairun’s mind whirled complexly.
I have to drop it.
And he reached a safe conclusion.