A Brother's Advice
I must have completely lost it yesterday.
I simply could not hold back the rage that had been boiling over inside me.
But now that it is over, I regret it.
The faces of my family watching me, the expressions of the people who had stayed by my side, keep rising unbidden in my mind.
After I came back to my senses and got up, looking at their faces was…
Too mortifying. Too shameful.
So I asked them to leave me alone.
Those kind people who worry about me actually listened to my selfish demand.
Which is why I am alone in my room right now.
“I’m sorry, everyone… I’m so sorry…”
“Fucking bitch.”
“Crazy goddess bitch.”
“This shitty world… these shitty bitches…”
“Hahaha… hahahaha…”
I stayed alone in the room, muttering to myself without stop.
Even so, I was doing my best to hold back from shouting in anger.
I was glad I had told everyone to leave.
Things that would make someone angry if they overheard, or make them worry even more…
I was quietly spitting them all out by myself.
At this rate I really might end up autistic, a complete wreck…
“Maybe I should just die…”
Ah. That would solve it, wouldn’t it?
But.
I could not help hesitating.
Selfishly…
More than worrying about those left behind who would grieve my death…
“…I don’t want to die.”
Even after experiencing death so many times, I was still stupid enough…
That the thought of not wanting to die made me hesitate even at taking my own life.
I want to live.
“What the hell did I even do wrong…”
If I had done even the slightest thing wrong to those crazy bitches who dunked me into this, I could accept it.
But there is nothing.
“It’s unfair.”
Yes. It is so unfair that I cannot kill myself over it.
It is pathetic, but I want to survive no matter what it takes.
But… is that even possible?
“Haha… what the hell am I supposed to do…?”
Someone watching might ask why I am fretting so much, why I am so scared.
I am the second son of the Grand Ducal House of Frigid, and at my side is Grace, a knight of the escort who is called a descendant of dragons.
There are more than enough strong people to protect me.
With such a solid shield, under normal circumstances I would be able to rest easy.
However.
Even though I was born into the Namgung Clan, one of the most renowned houses in the murim world, and even though I had a grandfather who was the strongest of all…
I still died at the hands of crazy bitches.
That is why I could never fully relax.
That is why I tried to grow stronger on my own, and why I tried never to get involved with women.
Yet every effort I made until now turned out to be completely useless.
And the ones protecting me now—Grace and the Grand Ducal House of Frigid…
They will probably not be able to stop that crazy bitch they call the Hero, Lee Hye-yeong, in the end.
A Hero summoned by a goddess?
No matter how I look at it, the only future I can see is me getting wrecked.
Does that mean I am supposed to become the Demon King or something?
“Ha… what a load of nonsense…”
I wish that were the case.
Why? There are plenty of stories where the Demon King turns the tables and beats the Hero.
“Keh…”
Just as I felt I might start raving again—
Knock knock.
Who is it? I told them to leave me alone.
“No one is allowed to come in—”
Before I could even finish saying not to enter.
Creak!
I could not help being startled by the person who opened the door and walked in.
“My beloved little brother!!”
“Hyung… Hyung-nim?”
Why is my brother coming out of there?
.
.
.
“Is it really you, Allen Hyung-nim?”
The person who opened my door and entered was Allen.
My blood brother who ran away from home long ago, claiming he was eloping for love.
“Ah! It really is my little brother! Even after all these years you still recognize me!”
“Well… of course a younger brother would never fail to recognize his own hyung…”
There was no way I would not recognize him.
Unlike me, he always had a smiling face, and he was the only one who possessed the silver hair that was the symbol of House Frigid—my blood brother Allen.
“That cool tone of voice, yet still so considerate of others! Yes, that is definitely my little brother!”
“Hyung-nim! Men do not hug each other!”
Whoosh!
Just moments ago I had been so exhausted that I could not put any strength into my body, yet the moment he tried to embrace me, strength naturally flooded back into my limbs so I could dodge.
“But women are fine?”
When I avoided him, Allen grinned slyly and asked playfully.
“…I hate that too.”
“Yes, that is definitely my little brother Edward! Hahaha!”
He laughed loudly, as if he had expected my answer all along.
“Pfft…”
He really is impossible.
Just a moment ago I had been so depressed I thought I would go mad, yet perhaps because I was happy to see my blood brother after so long…
A laugh slipped out of me without my noticing.
This laugh was not the despairing sound I had been screaming into the night. It was a sound that came purely because I was enjoying myself.
“Seeing my beloved little brother’s smiling face makes me so happy! But why does your face look so haggard!”
“…Something happened.”
I answered briefly because I did not want to talk about the reason.
Was it that obvious?
Well, after collapsing yesterday I had not washed or eaten anything properly, so of course I would look like this.
Honestly I had not even wanted to drink a single glass of water, but Camilla had begged so desperately…
I had managed a few sips.
What sin had my family and the people around me committed, Mother included?
I really do not want to keep showing them this side of myself.
But I cannot properly control my emotions.
I am not a child, and counting my previous lives I have lived a considerable number of years…
Yet because of Lee Hye-yeong, that crazy bitch who ended my first life, it is hard to stay sane.
“Of course! There must be a reason! This hyung already knows everything! Hahaha!”
Hearing my answer, Allen waggled one finger and spoke with a laugh.
No, if you already knew, why ask? More importantly, you knew everything?
“You knew…? Then why did you ask… No, more than that—how do you know anything when you left the family?”
“Little brother! This hyung left the house, not the family!”
“Ah… yes…”
Ah, yes, of course you did.
Thanks to that there had been absolute chaos at the time…
How did he even survive long enough to get here?
While I was thinking that, Allen continued.
“Little brother. That Hero… no, that crazy bitch is the reason, right?”
“…You really do know everything.”
Had he planted people somewhere?
Or had he been watching from afar?
The way he called the Hero a crazy bitch made it clear he knew exactly what had happened.
“Yes. The truth is I snuck in to celebrate my beloved little brother’s debutante, but that damn bitch ruined all of this hyung’s plans.”
Allen really did not seem to have abandoned the family.
I did not know what methods he had used, but he had kept hearing news of Frigid and had even attended to congratulate me…
If only that bitch Lee Hye-yeong had not been there, I would have been able to reunite with my blood brother Allen after so long and enjoy myself.
Just thinking about it makes me furious all over again.
Now that I think about it… there were so many things I regretted.
Why did I attend the debutante?
Even if Mother Camilla had asked, I should have just stayed in bed again this year.
No, before that—if I had attended the debutante earlier…
“Hyung-nim. I should have listened to what you said.”
Yes. When I was little I should have taken Allen’s advice to fall in love early.
Even if it was not true love, if I had simply settled down with someone decent…
I would never have attended that damn debutante and never would have met that crazy bitch…
“Yes, did I not tell you? Your looks shine even brighter than this hyung’s. That is why crazy bitches cannot help swarming around you…”
“Crazy bitches, plural… what do you mean?”
Crazy bitches…? There is only one Hero.
What is Allen talking about?
“Oh dear… more beautiful than this hyung, yet no sense of awareness, I see…”
“What do you mean by—”
I tried to ask what Allen was trying to say, but—
Slap!
“Anyway, little brother!”
“Yes?”
He clapped his hands loudly and called me again, so I could not ask.
“Will you listen to this hyung’s advice just this once? I think I can solve your worries.”
“…Yes, Hyung-nim. Please speak…”
If it had been anyone else I would not have wanted to listen.
But perhaps because it was my blood brother whom I had not seen in so long.
Or perhaps because he was the one person I had always been able to speak with somewhat openly since childhood…
I had been desperately searching for a way out anyway, so I wanted to hear what he had to say.
“This hyung knows everything. Our little brother is too proud and too kind… so he cannot bring himself to say it, but…”
I am not sure about the kind part…
But the proud part is true.
“You wish someone would protect you, do you not?”
“Th-that!”
Ah, it felt like he had struck the bullseye without meaning to, so I tried to protest, but—
Pat.
Stroke stroke…
Allen placed his hand on my head and kept stroking it as he continued speaking.
“And you think our Frigid is not enough, do you not?”
“….”
I could not answer Allen’s question.
Because this time, too, he was right.
No matter how strong House Frigid might be, it still looked insufficient to stop that crazy bitch Lee Hye-yeong.
“I thought so.”
“I had no intention of insulting our family…”
I tried to make excuses to Allen, who had already left home, but once again he continued with an expression that said he understood everything.
“Yes, of course I know how you feel. And… that the Hero cannot be stopped easily…”
“You saw it too, Hyung-nim…”
No, even without Allen, anyone who saw what that bitch did would only be able to see her as a crazy bitch.
I still cannot understand why the goddess would summon someone like that as a Hero.
That is why I feel I made the right choice in not believing in the Church of Goddess Rabinus.
“Yes. You lost consciousness so you would not know, but from the debutante onward that bitch…”
After that, Allen told me the entire sequence of events from the moment I collapsed until now.
That the first one to subdue Lee Hye-yeong, who kept causing chaos at the debutante after I fell, had been Grace.
And that she had grown even stronger while throwing her fit that night.
“Haha… there really does not seem to be any way out.”
Hearing the story, it seemed the finishing slash Grace had swung last night had truly been the last chance.
Goddess, Pope, you fucking bitches…
There really seems to be no way.
But what advice is Allen planning to give me?
My blood brother is not stupid.
On the contrary, he was so capable that people even said a man might be able to inherit the Grand Ducal House of Frigid in this gender-reversed world.
But Lilith was a woman, and she was capable as well, and Allen had left home, so he could never become the next family head.
Looking back now, I sometimes wonder if he deliberately left to yield the position to his capable younger sister, but knowing how much Allen truly loves women, I shook my head inwardly and denied the thought.
In any case, Allen held up two fingers and spoke.
“There are two methods, little brother.”
“Two methods?”
There are two ways to solve this shitty situation?
“Yes. But in this hyung’s opinion, one of them is something you would absolutely never agree to, so I was not even going to mention it.”
“…Still, please tell me. Start with that one first.”
It sounded like he was saying there was really only one method, but just in case I decided to listen.
“You must not get angry, little brother? I already told you that you would never agree?”
“Yes, Hyung-nim.”
What is it, why will you not tell me?
Either tell me or do not.
I glared at Allen with a look that demanded he hurry up and spit it out.
“…Marry the Hero.”
“Hyung-nim!!!!!!!!!!!”
You! You fucking crazy bastard!
I take back everything I said.
This bastard is incompetent and thoughtless.
He is not my blood brother! I am going to kill him!
“Aaaah! See? This hyung told you in advance!”
When I rose in anger with my fist raised, he hastily scrambled backward and spoke.
“Huff… huff… Yes, you did… I am sorry.”
Ah, right. He did say I would get angry. Still, he crossed the line far too hard.
“No, no… I should never have brought it up in the first place. It is my fault for saying it. I am sorry, little brother.”
Allen seemed to know that as well, and instead apologized to me.
“It is fine. Then what is the second one, Hyung-nim?”
Yes, let us just hear the next method.
“The second is similar to the first.”
“Is it related to the Hero? So it is about subjugating the Hero after all?”
If it was similar to the first, it would be related to the Hero, so of course he must mean we should beat that bitch down.
But aside from the fact that the crazy bitch is growing stronger, it would also be difficult for political reasons…
“…Unfortunately, that is not it.”
“Then what is it?”
Wanting to know what on earth it could be, I asked him.
And the words that came from his mouth were—
“Get married.”
“No, Hyung-nim! I already said I hate that—!”
No, this bastard for real.
The moment I heard that marriage talk again I was about to get angry once more, but—
“To the Imperial Princess.”
“…What?”
Hearing the partner for the marriage, my body froze solid.
“If Frigid’s power is insufficient, then we simply need to increase that power, do we not?”
Yes. Increasing power would work.
“If Frigid and the Imperial Family join forces, then even a Hero backed by the Church…”
If two of the Empire’s three great powers unite, there is no way the remaining one can win.
“They will not be able to interfere with you as they please. Especially not even if that Hero throws a fit claiming she wants you.”
Yes, under normal circumstances it would be impossible.
But… that crazy bitch is not normal…
“No matter how much the goddess bestows her protection upon the Hero and cherishes her.”
There is no way we can stop that crazy bitch who has become a Hero receiving even the goddess’s protection.
“One of the sins written in the goddess’s scripture is snatching away a person who is already married or whose lover has been decided.”
“…What? There was a sin like that?”
This is the first I have heard of it.
As I said earlier, I am irreligious, so I never paid attention to Goddess Rabinus who rules this world of Isania.
Perhaps it is the influence of my first life on Earth, but even if a goddess truly interferes with this world, I never cared.
“Yes. This sin is regarded as an extremely grave one.”
So the greatest sin is NTR!
“Even if that crazy bitch throws a fit, the Pope will stop her.”
I thought she was just a crazy goddess, but at least she made one decent sin.
“And if the other party is the Imperial Family, the conversation ends there.”
The alliance of Frigid and the Imperial Family, plus the sin.
Yes… if those three combine, it might actually be possible…
“No matter how oblivious you are, looking at the reason this Imperial debutante was held at Frigid, and looking at the Princess’s behavior, you cannot help but realize she has feelings for you.”
“Th-that much I know…”
I am not some Japanese anime protagonist. Of course I noticed the way she acted toward me at the debutante.
And Mother had given me a hint before the banquet, so I had been somewhat prepared for it, but Lee Hye-yeong had turned everything into a complete mess.
“You only need to agree.”
“Hyung-nim, thank you. That really is a good method.”
Ah, now I feel like I can finally see a path.
As expected, my blood brother is an amazing person.
But…
“Um, Hyung-nim…?”
I called him while looking at Allen’s face.
“Hm? What is it, little brother? Did you not say it was a good method?”
Allen seemed to think I was about to offer a different opinion on his words…
That is not it.
“Why is your face so swollen? No, looking closely there are bruises elsewhere too…”
Now that I properly looked at his face, it was considerably swollen and seemed to have bruises…
There even seemed to be a lump on his head.
Had he fought monsters on the way here?
“Ahem! Do not try to find out! Little brother, if you learn of it, this hyung’s life will be in danger!”
“What?”
Allen grew flustered at my question and refused to give an answer, so I could only voice my doubt.
Looking at that injured face, it seemed he had fought someone with his life on the line. Would he be all right?
I felt gratitude toward Allen, whom I had not seen in so long, for overcoming even that situation to come find me and give me advice.