The Beloved Bastard (3)
“Can't you hear me, you bastard brat?”
Having my forehead jabbed, or being insulted to my face as a bastard—none of that bothered me. I'd heard far worse countless times. Why would the babbling of some kid who still had milk on his breath make me angry?
What threw me off was the eldest son himself.
James Rubrum, firstborn of House Rubrum.
Whenever I laid eyes on that punching bag named James, I suffered from a terrible affliction that wouldn't let me walk past without landing at least one hit.
This was bad.
I had only just become “Nox Rubrum.” I hadn't secured a single thing I needed for the Easy-Play Route. On top of that, because I'd planned to take the Easy-Play Route this life, I hadn't even trained in swordsmanship.
If I messed with James… the first wife would hound me to death with obsessive spite, and my plans would fall apart.
Urgh.
But still…!
How was I supposed to just hold back and not hit him?
James, plump and well-fed, was perfectly in season. One solid tap right now would make the most satisfying sound.
“I asked you a question! Answer me…!”
I caught the eldest son's finger as it poked my forehead.
“Have you lost your mind? A filthy bastard like you, putting your hands on me? Let go!”
Just a little. Just enough that he won't break. Just a tiny bit.
“Aaagh! I said let go!”
But my hand wouldn't stop. I applied a little pressure to the finger I was holding.
His curly hair bounced wildly this way and that.
“Aaagh! It hurts! It hurts!”
I released the eldest son's finger.
“Hic…! You crazy bastard…! Do you even know who my mother is?”
James's finger wasn't broken. It had simply gone bone-white from lack of blood flow. He dripped fat, chicken-drop tears and called for his mother.
That reaction right there. That was why I could never quit punching this sandbag.
“Heh heh. Elder Brother, what is this disgraceful scene in a hallway where everyone can see?”
“E-Elder Brother? Why would I be your elder brother?”
“You are. Starting today, I'm Nox Rubrum too.”
“Grr…!”
James ground his teeth and glared at me.
“Well… I understand. A handsome alpha male like me suddenly appearing as a rival—how anxious you must feel.”
“Alpha… what?”
“Don't you have any friends, Elder Brother? I hear that's the current high-society term for a cool guy. Even Susan knows it. Why don't you?”
At my words, James's face flushed red and purple by turns.
In truth, our Elder Brother James had no friends. Being ugly was one thing, but with a rotten personality like his, friends were never going to appear.
“W-What kind of bullshit is that? A bastard like you, daring to mock me?”
Like a clam sprinkled with salt, James convulsed and shouted.
“Oh, so you do understand you're being mocked. I thought you wouldn't get it.”
“Y-You…! Die!”
James's thick double chin quivered. In the end, our elder brother couldn't hold back and threw a punch.
I would have preferred to just take it, but the punch was so painfully slow it was hard.
I twisted my body slightly to the left and hooked his leg.
Our Elder Brother James, five years older than me, crumpled forward in a pathetic heap.
“Augh! My knee…!”
“Oh dear, of all places to smash it against the stone floor. They say if you hurt your knee, you stop growing. Elder Brother, what will you do if you're stuck at that height for the rest of your life?”
“N-No! That can't happen!”
James clutched his knee and rubbed it frantically.
“Heh heh.”
The James sprawled right in front of me was this fragile. Amusingly, there had been a time I'd thought of him as something like a Demon King.
Around the fourth regression, maybe. Back then his relentless bullying had driven me to take my own life.
That was why a person needed power.
“Ah, but Elder Brother James, you only smashed the left knee, right? Doesn't that mean only one leg will grow longer?”
“What?”
“Come here. I'll smash both knees nice and evenly so you can be a proper dwarf.”
“H-Hiiik! D-Don't come near me!”
“Now, now. I'm very gentle. I've been on the receiving end from you before, after all.”
“When did I ever—! Stay away! Get lost!”
I widened my eyes into a terrifying glare and crawled toward him on all fours to scare him more—
At the far end of the hallway, around the corner, I heard footsteps. Someone was walking this way.
Damn.
If I got caught looking like this, it would be hard to pass it off as a joke.
Time to switch roles. From perpetrator to victim.
“Elder Brother, are you just going to take it? You should hit me back. You're not some weakling, are you?”
I provoked the fleeing James with the most annoying expression I could muster.
“You son of a bitch! Die!”
Thankfully, James threw a punch at the perfect moment.
I couldn't miss this chance.
I shoved my face straight into the cotton-soft fist James threw.
“Kraaagh!”
I let out a blood-curdling scream as if bone and flesh were being torn apart, then clenched my abs hard and flung my body backward.
I'd trained consistently enough that pulling off this level of Hollywood stunt work was easy.
“Wh… what?”
The sensation that had reached his hand must have been no more than tapping a pillow, yet when I went flying backward, James gaped like an idiot.
Perfect.
To any third party walking down the hallway, it would look like a pitiful bastard sent flying by the devilish punch of James.
With a heavy thud, I rolled across the floor.
Any second now for the reaction…
“Kyaaah!”
Right on cue, the witness screamed.
But… the voice was wrong.
This wasn't a servant…
Don't tell me—Emily?
With a sinking feeling, I lifted my head.
At the end of the hallway stood a brown-haired girl covering her mouth and screaming.
She was Emily Rubrum, third daughter of House Rubrum and daughter of the second wife.
Why is she here?
“Oppa!”
She cried out in a shrill voice, then hurried toward me with quick little steps—not toward her real older brother James, but toward me.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Let me see.”
“Uh? Uh… y-yes, I'm fine.”
I was so startled that formal speech slipped out without thinking.
After confirming my nose was intact, she turned her head and glared at James, who was sitting awkwardly on the floor.
I couldn't see Emily's face, but the look must have been fierce enough—James flinched.
“Oppa, have you completely lost your mind?”
“…What?”
“Why are you bullying Nox, who hasn't done anything wrong?”
At those words, James's expression crumpled as if the world had ended.
He never could have imagined that Emily, of all people, would take the bastard's side instead of his.
But I was the same.
I couldn't close my mouth. Emily had never been this kind of girl.
She was supposed to be a sickly, mentally fragile beauty so deep in her middle-school-syndrome angst that she was swallowed by every sorrow in the world.
“What are you going to do if Father finds out? Does First Oppa even have a brain? Today is our Nox's birthday, of all days…”
Honestly, even my own mother wouldn't have defended me this hard. What on earth was going on?
“Nox, get up.”
“Ah, yes.”
“Why so stiff with the formal speech? Talk casually. You know who I am, right?”
“That… you're Lady Emily, aren't you…?”
“Hoho! That's right! I'm your big sister!”
Emily laughed and patted my back.
I turned my head and looked at James.
In ninety-five regressions, this was the first time James and I had ever shared the exact same thought.
“I'll let it slide this once, but First Oppa, be careful from now on. If you lay a hand on Nox carelessly again, I won't hold back either.”
“….”
“….”
James and I couldn't say a word.
“Come on, let's go eat some snacks. Big sister asked them to prepare something really delicious.”
Emily dragged me off by the hand, and I couldn't bring myself to resist.
Not a cramped little room, but the spacious chamber given to the youngest son of House Rubrum.
Surrounded by lavish decorations and antique furniture, I was rolling around on the floor.
“Urgh…”
Emily had taken me to the garden and subjected me to a horrific force-feeding.
There hadn't been any malice in it. She had purely and simply brought every delicious snack she could find for the boy who'd been locked away in a tiny room.
So I hadn't been able to refuse.
“Ugh… I want kimchi…”
They were tasty, sure, but the greasy snacks had packed my stomach so full that I automatically craved something fermented and sharp.
With no other choice, I got up and did jumping jacks in place to help digestion. After working up a full sweat, the snacks that had sat heavy finally settled.
“Hoo…”
I wiped the sweat with a towel and thought.
Emily Rubrum.
What exactly was she?
The first and second wives' behavior had been off as well, and running into James today hadn't been in my scenario either. But those incidents still fit within the larger framework.
The two wives were still planning the birthday party that would shove me into hell. The sudden appearance of James wasn't enough to derail the overall flow.
Emily was different. Her personality had changed completely—frighteningly so.
I'd probed her casually during tea time, but I hadn't learned a single useful thing.
“Is it you again, butterfly effect?”
If it really was a butterfly effect, finding the cause would be nearly impossible. And I had no idea what kind of impact Emily's transformed personality would have on my Easy-Play Route.
Coldly speaking, the correct move was to figure out why Emily had changed, then quickly end my life and move to the next regression…
But I didn't want to.
Thinking back, across countless regressions Emily had never once smiled. Every time she simply stared out the window with a gloomy face until the first wife cruelly poisoned her.
Pitying that sight, I had once buried both elder brothers and the first wife and made Emily the heir—yet she still never smiled.
So I had always believed she simply didn't know how.
But during today's tea time, Emily had laughed again and again.
The way she smiled… was striking. Enough that I found myself grinning without realizing it.
“Tch. She's going to be a real handful for a while.”
Still, at least it wouldn't be boring.
In this loathsome House Rubrum, looking forward to tomorrow was something I hadn't felt in a very long time.