Why Is My Brother Here?
A brief silence settled over the room.
"Heh."
Lena's eyes curved into crescent moons.
"Ahaha, as if! Our Cadet Ethan, a descendant of the vanished Emperor? What nonsense. That was a joke! A joke!"
Playful swats rained down on Ethan's shoulders. She hit hard enough that each one sent him toppling sideways.
"It would be nice if I were an imperial heir, I suppose."
"Haha! You sold it so perfectly I nearly fell for it."
I nearly fell over myself, Professor. And that joke wasn't funny at all.
To be fair, anyone who actually knew Ethan's circumstances would have found the joke hilarious. Lena was one of the rare professors young enough to have a functioning sense of humor.
"Good grief, where was I?"
She pressed a subspace pouch into Ethan's hand.
"You executed the slash I taught you almost flawlessly."
"You're too kind."
"Excessive modesty is its own form of rudeness. The precision was barely distinguishable from my own."
Ethan allowed the corner of his mouth to lift.
"Yes. I am rather good at it."
"Hahaha! Now that's the kind of student I like."
Thwap, thwap, thwap.
Professor, could you please stop hitting me? That hurts…
Lena rose from her seat and straightened her collar.
"I'll be going, then. Recover well, and I'll see you next week."
"Yes, Professor. Thank you for coming to visit."
She opened the door, then paused. Only her head poked back into the room.
"Cadet Ethan."
"I will be attending a session of the Imperial Round Table at the end of this month."
"Is that so? Safe travels."
"However."
She dropped her gaze for a moment, then met Ethan's eyes again.
"I require one companion. Someone who is not a knight."
Ethan nodded as if carefully weighing the matter.
"Ah. That must be a difficult decision."
"…Ethan. Stop pretending you have no idea what I'm asking."
Her eyes turned serious.
"Meeting the Empire's hero-class thieves and its finest knights would undoubtedly benefit you as well."
Her lips parted carefully.
"Would you come with me to the Imperial Capital next month?"
Ethan smiled gently.
"It would be my honor, Professor."
Yes.
I'll use social networking as the cover story and memorize every route through the Imperial Palace while I'm at it.
Lena smiled with satisfaction.
"Thank you for deciding so promptly."
He could have stalled, and yet he accepted at once. A boy this considerate is almost too perfect.
How bright the Empire's future looks. He will become a sturdy pillar for the Imperial House.
"Hehehe."
"Hahaha."
The two of them shared a quiet laugh, each for entirely different reasons.
"Very well. I'll inform you of the schedule later."
Lena's smile lingered.
"Oh—one more thing."
She rummaged through a pouch at her chest and flicked a colorless, transparent candy at Ethan.
"What's this?"
Lena thrust her chest out with pride.
"A specialty of my hometown."
"The label says it was manufactured in the Imperial Capital."
Her eyebrows climbed.
"The Capital is my hometown."
"Most people would just call that a mass-produced product."
"If you don't want it, give the candy back."
"Nom nom… What candy are you talking about, Professor?"
"…I see Felix taught you sleight of hand well enough."
Ethan sucked on the candy and thought to himself.
This feels exactly like a Seoul native handing you a carton of Seoul Milk and calling it hometown cuisine.
After Lena left, Ethan kept sucking on the candy for a long while.
"Still… most Night School graduates never share their personal snacks with anyone."
Nom nom.
Maybe she just likes me because I'm a model student.
Ethan pulled the disinfectant-scented blanket over himself and lay down.
He was discharged.
Not by his own choice, of course.
"You people… have you no conscience, asking a patient to fetch you food?"
Outside the crumbling temporary dormitory, Ethan stood wrapped in bandages. In front of him, the cadets from Temporary Quarters One knelt on the ground with their hands raised overhead.
"We're sorry. We were just so hungry, Ethan."
"W-we couldn't keep living on bugs alone!"
"You always used to cook for us…"
Thanks to Ethan's performance in the Dormitory Scramble, they had secured places in the official dormitories starting second semester. But the first semester still had a long way to go, and for now they were eating and sleeping in this ruin of a lodging.
Taking pity on them, Ethan had occasionally shared food with the starving cadets.
For the record, it had been leftover scraps he would have thrown out anyway…
Telling them that would have crushed their spirits, so he never mentioned it.
"Fine. I'll ask Sera."
The cadets' faces lit up at once.
"Really, Ethan?! Thank you!"
"I thought I was going to starve again today!"
"You're the only one we can count on!"
If they get this happy about it, my conscience starts to sting a little.
Still, eating actual food is a thousand times better than eating bugs.
No harm done, I guess.
The elated cadets' eyes sparkled.
"Ethan! Watching you take down Caion was so cool!"
"Is the Cass family really that strong? My chest feels huge right now…"
"That bastard Caion! All he ever did was kick trash cans around! He was so annoying—watching you put him in his place felt amazing! He picked a fight with you and got exactly what he deserved!"
Ethan's shoulders rose a fraction.
"That so?"
Being treated like a meal delivery service had been a little deflating, but the praise improved his mood.
"Of course, Ethan!"
"How do I learn to use a dagger like you?"
"Me too! Teach me dagger techniques, Ethan! Master! Please take me as your disciple!"
The cadets grew even more excited, now clamoring to become his students.
Of course, taking disciples among fellow cadets without authorization was a violation of academy regulations. Declaring yourself someone's mentor without a professor's approval earned you three days in solitary confinement, no exceptions.
A rule that was, in its own way, perfectly suited to a school full of thieves.
Ethan knew the rule well, so his expression hardened instantly.
"You can't be my disciples, you idiots! Have you even looked at the academy bulletin board?"
The cadets exchanged glances.
"Well… the Sapphire kids monopolize the board…"
"Why won't those guys let other cadets take private commissions? It makes no sense."
"We know we should check the board eventually, but the second you get near it, they beat the hell out of you."
What the hell is this about now?
Sapphire Dormitory was preventing students from other dorms from approaching the school bulletin board and controlling the flow of information?
"What kind of garbage are they pulling this time?"
He couldn't pin it entirely on Caion, either. Upperclassmen lived in the dorms as well. This kind of heavy-handed measure was more the sort of idea a second-year veteran would come up with than a freshman. The senior cadets were busy out on assignments, so they were off the suspect list.
"Why do the people who need a reality check just keep piling up?"
Ethan himself would eventually need to take commissions outside the Thief School campus, so he would have to visit the bulletin board sooner or later.
In university terms, it was like community service hours. Fail to fill them and Donovan—that old man—wouldn't accept the challenge letter required for identity-card theft. Ethan had heard as much from him directly.
"All right. Anyway, have any of you seen Sera?"
The cadets told him Sera had already headed for the Ruby Dormitory annex, trailing the smell of food behind her.
"What did it smell like?"
The Temporary Quarters One cadets tilted their heads.
"Hmm… something sweet and savory, like meat."
"There were big chunks of cubed meat floating in the broth!"
"I think there were green onions and onions in it too."
Ethan nodded with deep satisfaction.
Then he sprinted for the monorail station at the speed of light.
Ruby Dormitory annex.
Inside the room, Ethan tore into brown chunks of meat without so much as pausing for breath.
"Slurp! Smack, nom nom."
Anyone watching would have thought he'd just been released after twenty years of solitary confinement on nothing but dumplings.
"Nom nom… Whoever invented braised short ribs deserves a Nobel Prize."
"A Nobel… what?"
Wearing an uncharacteristically rich expression, Ethan demolished the meat as if erasing evidence. After days of nothing but fried rice weevils as patient meals in the infirmary, the reaction was only natural.
Sera propped her chin on her hand, crossed her legs, and watched him with a look of pity.
"…You didn't eat at all?"
"That was bugs, not food."
"Weren't you the one saying insect protein is the food of the future and we should eat it properly?"
"The entrance exam is over, Sera."
"Honestly."
Slurp, smack, slurp!
If it weren't for the Eastern dishes Sera keeps bringing me… I might have fled Thief School by now.
"Anyway, leave the leftover crates outside the dorm when you're done. The kids from Temporary Quarters One need to eat too."
"Thieves don't have friends, Sera."
"You're a thief too, Ethan!"
Bonk.
Sera's tiny fist landed squarely on Ethan's forehead. He let the blow land purely because dodging felt like too much effort.
With a huff, she started to leave the room.
"…You were amazing, Ethan."
"…"
She watched him, still completely absorbed in his braised meat. Then the tips of her ears turned faintly pink.
"Thanks for stepping in."
Ethan looked up mid-suck on a bone.
"…Hm? What was that?"
"N-nothing! Just don't eat all of that braised meat—you have to share with your friends!"
Sera vanished in a whirl of motion.
Was that a hint?
"…Have I been eating too much lately?"
He patted his stuffed belly and rolled back onto the bed.
"Right—the Doraemon pocket."
Ethan stared at the subspace pouch sitting on the desk.
The day they would enter the Imperial Seventh Vault was only two days away.
"The Fourth Princess is providing the carriage herself, so…"
He needed to organize the money and valuables he planned to store inside the subspace beforehand.
Ethan pulled open a drawer and took out the Unique card he had received as a prize in basic sleight-of-hand class.
"No telling what might happen. I'll keep this on me."
He slipped the card into the subspace pouch.
"Now then… where did I stash my money again?"
I should ask Warden Dermond for a school map.
If I keep relocating the cash like this, I'm going to get lost in a cave and starve to death. And I refuse to starve inside a cave the size of an entire country.
"And… the Piece of the World."
Ethan picked up the holographic mass resting on the nightstand.
What on earth was this thing, that Goddess Vespera had insisted he find it?
A sharp jolt rang through his skull.
"…Show me the memories?"
The thought left his mouth before he could stop it.
Whoosh.
As if he had fallen into a black hole, the edges of Ethan's vision stretched and warped into infinity.
"…Where am I?"
He looked around.
He was standing in the middle of a dazzling corridor lined with gold-plated vases.
An expensive-looking carpet ran the full length of the hall. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
Ethan discovered he was completely naked.
At least I'm not cold?
For reasons he couldn't explain, the servants passing through the corridor never noticed him.
"…"
"…"
Even in ordinary life, stealth was essentially a passive skill for Ethan—people rarely spotted him until they spoke to him first. Still, standing stark naked in the open without being detected was something else entirely.
Ordinarily, if he smashed a vase or did anything conspicuous enough, people would notice him. That was how it had always worked.
I'm pretty sure I've entered someone's dream—or their memories.
In his hand was a single Piece of the World. Somehow he felt certain that if he held the fragment and cried out that he wanted to go back, he would return to reality.
He scanned his surroundings. One by one, the lights along the corridor were going out.
Must be bedtime. They're putting out the lamps.
Why did the Piece of the World bring me to a place like this?
Thud.
Doors closed one after another. The servants disappeared one by one, and the corridor fell quiet.
He had arrived in this strange space, but everything felt half-dreamlike, his senses dulled…
He shuffled forward.
Won't open.
He grabbed a door handle, but his hand slid off as if it had turned into a well-boiled octopus tentacle.
"Seriously? Not a single open door?"
Stark naked, Ethan stood alone in the darkened corridor.
Hmm…
Judging by the design, this was at least a grand duke's castle—maybe even the Imperial Palace.
"Isn't there anywhere I can get into?"
He kept walking along the elegantly gold-trimmed carpet. Rounding a corner, he spotted a bright light leaking through the crack of a door at the far end of the hall.
"Let's try over there."
As if beckoning him closer, a trail of fractured yellow light stretched beneath his feet.
Approaching the slightly ajar door, he found two men inside a lavishly appointed room, deep in grave conversation.
One's dressed like a holy knight. The other… looks like a complete mess. Who is that?
Ethan concealed his presence and quietly pressed his ear to the doorframe.
"…"
"…"
He couldn't make out the words. And from the sound of it, they weren't even speaking Imperial.
Instinctively, Ethan brushed the back of his hand. The circle in the upper left of his tattoo glowed a soft green—
"—which is why we have no time to waste standing around like this."
—and the language began translating itself into his ears.
The voices still sounded as if they were speaking underwater, making them hard to follow, but—
"This… this sounds like Old Imperial."
His ability still wasn't strong enough to translate everything. Even so, he could catch enough, piece by piece.
"So you truly intend to cross the…"
"Not yet, Kazer. I have no intention of defying the…"
"That is far too little. Better to negotiate with the…"
Ugh, this is maddening. It's like filling in the blanks on a standardized English exam.
BANG!
A fist clad in ornate armor slammed down on the table.
"Do not speak of such things in the same breath as—!"
"…Tair. Are you trying to order me around again, the way the—did?"
A blond young man wearing a pure white holy sword at his hip stepped slightly forward.
And then the one phrase Ethan understood perfectly came out of his mouth.
"Valois Solitaire."
Ethan's eyes went wide.
What did he just say?
What's Sol hyung doing here?
This is huge. I might actually get a lead on the location of the Imperial Seal.
Ethan pressed closer, straining to catch every secret of the world that fell from the lips of these two ancient heroes.