Beware of the Brothers - Chapter 22.2

“Well.”

Lukewarm tea flowed over the face of Lavender Cordis.

She was eagerly looking like she didn’t know I was going to do this. When I saw her face, I felt a little cool.

“If you think I would listen to your insults, you’d be a big mistake.”

I coldly looked down at her and opened my mouth. I wasn’t going to let her make fun of me in front of my face anymore.

“It’s funny, Miss Cordis. They says that the person’s personality comes out when they speak. Every time you spit out a word from your mouth, it smells very damn, so I don’t know who the really dirty person is.”

She wasn’t the only one who knew how to ridicule and twist word.

Indeed, there was no courtesy to show the person who attacked me first.

“Yeah, did you say there’s a sleazy way to go for a sleazy person? That’s what you’re showing right now. Thank you for letting me know. You’ve proved your level in such a frivolous and offensive way.”

It’s the same.

I wanted to say that every time I see Lavender Cordis that is vulgar, dirty, ignorant, and smacking insult, I don’t want to be like you.

“You know how ugly you are right now? Why don’t you look in the mirror once? I used to live in that back street.”

“Even where I lived, I have never seen a mean and dirty person like you.”

I didn’t do this at the first time she did this was probably because I was a coward without confidence.

“Surely, the nobility of a person doesn’t seem to be determined by all the blood that comes from birth. It is pitiful that you can only think about it.”

“What!”

The face of Lavender Cordis, who was listening to what I was saying, like a luminous crab is getting hot.

She was talking to me a little more stuttered than that a little while ago, and her face was blushing at high level and her face was so funny.

“I can’t recognize it…!”

A rough voice filled with anger suddenly rang.

“Do you know that you’re a poor bitch who had been on the streets, you think you could get behind the name of one of Ernst’s surnames and be a real princess who wore real glass shoes? You don’t fit Ernst!”

But her words weren’t even worth laughing at.

I chilled, as Lavender Cordis did to me, without hiding contempt for the person she faced.

“Is there any reason to prove in front of you whether I am worthy of Ernst or not?”

It was a fact that never changed in the past life or in this life that came back once again.

“I already is Hari Ernst by itself.”

The moment I say that, nothing in me seemed liberated.

‘Hari is already Ernst in itself.’

I just realized about what Eugene said a long time ago.

I’m Hari Ernst.

No matter what kind of person I become, whatever I do, whenever I do.

“What rights did you qualify for my origin?”

And I already have people who accepted me and say something like that, so I weren’t afraid of anything.

“I don’t need your acknowledgment. It doesn’t mean anything to me or anything like that.”

Lavender sweetened her lips with my attitude. But she couldn’t say anything, as if she was speechless.

Unfortunate.

“What the hell are you. Do you think you can be such a great person yourself?”

She said with a dry arsenic towards the person she faced.

“I know the topic, Lavender Cordis.”

Lavender became a white face and her breathed exhaled. I don’t like her.

I left the reception room first, leaving her alone.

Whether he heard the conversation inside, Ethan was standing right in front of the door. It seemed that he was thinking of entering inside.

“Let’s go, Sir Bishop.”

“Are you okay?”

“There is no reason not to be okay.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t understand why she was mocking at me.

I was a lucky humble bitch who had been in the back alley and had entered Ernst and was in a position of equality with herself.

She may have hated it herself, but there was no reason why I should have been treated like this.

“Wait!”

Then Lavender came along my back as we walking the hallway of the mansion, but because Ethan blocked her, she couldn’t reach me over a certain distance.

Lavender was staring at me with her sore eyes, and soon she clenched herself and yelled at me.

“What do you know about him?”

I didn’t immediately notice who the “he” she was talking about was.

“Do you know who this person is blocking me in front of you? No, you don’t know! That person would have hidden everything from you!”

But while listening to successive words, I realized that the man Lavender Cordis was talking about was Eugene.

As soon as I was convinced of my thoughts, soon after, she clearly put his name in her mouth.

“Do you know how many people Eugene Ernst has killed so far?”

Lavender stared at me with poisonous eyes.

I stopped breathing.

The voice that continued to laugh at my reaction became even stronger.

“Did you ever ponder how many families have been ruined like Schumaha, Adelgar, Lenoard, and even in the past years, why it should have been, and who made it so?”

My finger slowly cooled to the words pouring out of the mouth of the person in front of me.

She was talking about things I had never wanted to know.

When she said that, I can’t stop Lavender.

Even Ethan, who stood in front of me, paused for a moment, but although her actions could be restricted, he couldn’t stop her.

“The man who killed so far almost all his relative with blood on his hands. He murdered all the children and adults as I exemplified.”

A voice that was shouting against evil relentlessly dug through my eardrum.

“I wonder if Ernst was just trying to build a dead body in Arlanta like a mountain? Ask the person next to you now. It’s hard to be a stern child who killed his father and brothers in the market! Isn’t that right, Ethan Schumaha?”

My gaze was blown away to Ethan’s back.

Isn’t what I’ve heard wrong now? Am I not wrong now?

However, his name, which came out of Lavender’s mouth a while ago, dig my ears so clearly.

Ethan was silent.

Then this time, the red eyes slid towards me. Shortly thereafter, Lavender laughed at me.

“You don’t know everything about him. Could you be next to him? How can you hold his hand without knowing how much blood has been there in the meantime?”

“Even if you know the terrible sins that he has done so far, can you see him with a natural face now?”

I still felt my fingertips cold.

A thorny thorn that had been turned upside down in a defenseless state stabbed my lungs.

The eyes of Lavender Cordis, who had been maliced, seemed to laugh at me.

“So?”

But I see nothing. I opened my mouth.

“It doesn’t matter.”

A dry voice rang out in a quiet hallway.

“What does that matter?”

“Whether he killed dozens or hundreds of people, whether the subject is his bloodline or a relative, what does that matter?”

My face looked pretty bloated as I wished, and Lavender Cordis’ face is distorted.

“Lavender Cordis, don’t be mistaken. I don’t care if everything you say is true.”

I spoke calmly to the end, then turned around.

“For me, That person is just Eugene.”

Just like the words she said a little while ago proved that she didn’t scratch me.

“It doesn’t change until the day I die.”

“Are you asking nothing?”

I heard Ethan’s sinking voice gives me wake up call in my head.

Somehow, he came to my room first and stood sturdy at the door.

After meeting Lavender Cordis, I went straight into my room without having any conversation with Ethan.

And now, after some time, he knocked on the door of my room.

“Do tell what you want to tell me.”

I opened my mouth slowly. It was enough for me to ask him something first, but I didn’t want to.

I just wanted him to tell me what he wanted to tell me. If he tried to hide even the things I deserved to know, I would just tolerate it.

After a while, a soft voice flowed from Ethan’s mouth.

“My original name is Ethan Schumaha.”

Suddenly I remembered a word I had heard of him before.

His words that he said, “I don’t have the qualifications” as if he were confessing.

“I was an illegitimate child of the Count Schumaha.”

Ethan still face me without expression as he calmly told me his story.

Originally, his name was Ethan Schumaha, the illegitimate child of Count Schumaha, the brother of the three brothers.

Count Schumaha, who was concerned about his seed coming out, gave him the surname to take and put him in the house.

Since his father, the count, treated Ethan that way, he said that he was particularly persecuted and harassed by his half-brothers.

“It was a life almost like a slave. When I was hungry, I had to eat old-fashioned foods and sleep in the barn in the middle of winter.”

“It was discovered by chance that my sword skill had a natural talent, and the treatment after that was a little better.”

“Still, I did not know that I was treated as a beast.”

Then Ethan met Eugene.

Eugene had plans to destroy Schumaha and finally gave Ethan a chance to make a choice.

That’s why Ethan said he was able to destroy Schumaha himself without hesitation.

“For whatever reason, I am the murderer who killed my father. Even the Duke has been proud of it. So it’s no wonder others are reluctant to me.”

I looked at Ethan’s face, who had never laughed in front of me in the meantime.

He still had an infinitely dry and calm face like a man who lost all his emotions.

“If you stay with me, you may experience the same thing again today. If you don’t like being escorted by me, you can tell the duke.”

I was silenced for a while, then I looked up to him and opened my mouth.

“Sir Bishop. I have no intention of changing my escort knight.”

Ethan’s stiff mouth shook at my answer for a moment. He was looking away from understanding my decision.

“Maybe it’s presumptuous for me to say something to you. I know your situation only in a fractional part, and I don’t even know your heart. It may be like that.”

In fact, I was also careful to say this, but I wanted him to know that I had no intention of blaming him for the past.

“But I don’t think I deserve to judge like other people… I know that to be a surprise.”

Perhaps I didn’t even know if he was sorry for not convicting himself of being able to get out of his guilt.

“The Ethan Bishop I’ve seen so far has few words and it’s blunt, but he’s actually a warm hearted person.”

After all, I think the vessel is not that big.

The happiness of me and the people around me was the top priority.

The space that my fence can hold was too narrow for other things.

“Brother Eugene also believes in you, I guess that’s why you’re my escort knight.”

So I told the person I met in a calm manner, just as usual.

“I believe in Sir Bishop that I have seen so far.”

“So, thank you from now on, Sir Ethan.”

Then Ethan stood for a long time in his place as if he had heard a word he had never imagined, and then bowed his head as he was covering his face.

There was no answer in return, but the reason I didn’t follow up on the answer because I seemed to know.

The sun leaking out the window slowly faded away.

The time was coming for Eugene to return.

“I thought you would come.”

Eugene appeared in front of me only when the red glow cast a dark shadow in my room.

When I raise my head to the presence I feel at the door, the face of the person I’ve waited for is in sight.

Eugene also said plainly to my little whisper.

“I thought you were waiting.”

He had a face as usual.

It’s a bit cool, and the look is a bit dry. I saw it and laughed bitterly.

“I heard what happened today. I already know what she said.”

Heavy footsteps were stamped like stains in a quiet room.

As he approached me, Eugene also smiled happily. But it wasn’t a smile that made me feel good either.

“In fact, I think I knew why you also say that.”

I looked up at Eugene, who had reached the point. A red light leaked outside the window stayed on his smiling face.

He looked down at me silently for a while, then slowly opened his mouth again.

“I might have put Ethan next to you, hoping to say that it’s okay if you know everything.”

When I heard Lavender Cordis and Ethan, I thought it was strange on the one hand.

Why did Eugene put Ethan as my escort, not to Eugene himself?

If Ethan was by my side, a word like this would have been compelled to come to my ears at any time.

“No, I must have wanted you to accept me even if you knew all I did.”

And Eugene was saying that he probably did it on purpose.

“Yes. It doesn’t matter, it’s okay, I want to hear what you gonna say to me.”

At the end of his word, Eugene laughed.

The laugh made my heart ache more than the smile he had made a while ago.

“I sent you to Vastia and do a lot of work. Ethan was one of the people who helped me.”

The voice that continued without curvature stopped in my ears.

“In fact, I could have given Ethan Schumaha his position after the work. Only I did not. I didn’t even want to leave that name on the ground. I couldn’t stand it, no mercy, and maybe I couldn’t afford it.”

And Eugene easily admitted.

“I don’t intend to make an excuse. Everything you heard is right. I killed everyone.”

While the calm voice that seemed indifferent at first glance continued, I quietly looked at the person I encountered.

“The person who threatened me, and the person who judged me and gonna be a threat in the future. All.”

I knew it. What Eugene hide from me.

Although not all the parts he wanted to hide, I vaguely guessed what he had done.

But I did not want to dig intentionally.

If I dig something deeply and find out, Eugene naturally knows the fact, and when I do that, I feel like I’m going to be hurting his sore wound.

Sometimes it’s better to bury it. Maybe I thought this thing so.

“People are afraid of me. The reason for destruction is obvious. I can do that many times more if I am to live.”

However, the buried wound will not heal by itself.

Looking at Eugene now, I realized it anew. Then, I pushed my shallow breath out of the dark feeling that was in my chest.

“I don’t even regret it. Maybe I’ll do the same thing if I go back to that time again then. That’s Ethan’s and my decisive difference.”

After Eugene said that, I lifted my mouth slightly for the first time.

“Aren’t you tired?”

Subsequently I opened my mouth, but he turned to me as if he refused to hear the answer.

Eugene’s face, which shows an oblique side, now contains no facial expression.

Then I whispered like a self-talking whisper in the air.

“I don’t think I can be a good person to you either.”

Oh, I couldn’t help it. I’d rather be a bad person, to blame me for being selfish, Do as much as I like.

“Don’t say it that way.”

I couldn’t take it anymore and reached out to Eugene in front of me.

“Stubborn, stupid.”

My stupid person.

As I hugged him, Eugene was obviously big enough to never get into my arms, but for some reason I felt that he was small.

Perhaps it was because he was the 14 years old, Eugene, who split up with us when we were young.

Whatever it is, as long as it’s inside, it’s still him.

“Are you lonely alone?”

Eugene hugged me without resistance and moved my body as my small whisper flow.

I felt a hot breath scattered around my neck and gave my arm a little more strength.

“Now let’s stay together.”

No more lonely, no more need to endure that long night alone.

As a 14-year-old boy, I couldn’t even imagine how hard it would have been to do something alone that Eugene did, and had to lean on no one.

Perhaps he wanted to cry many nights. Probably feared a lot in the morning.

In the meantime, a part of Eugene’s heart was irreversibly scattered and broken. The sharp absence felt by him broke my heart.

“Even if everyone in the world is pointing at you, I won’t.”

I know that what he did was inevitable.

The fact that there were people trying to hurt Eugene was dimly guessed after the accident when he hurt his leg when he was young.

Perhaps I would not have left him alone if I know, but now I understand that I was the risk for Eugene being weak.

So I understood what Eugene did to protect myself.

No…

But it didn’t matter that it wasn’t inevitable. I realized that I would probably never let this man go until I die.

I could not turn away from him or hate him. Somehow I have become like a bird being caged that I do not know of.

“I’ll tell you this time.”

If I had to blame this man, I wish I had cursed myself rather than letting this poor man stop.

“Everything is all right, so do whatever you want to do. If you have something you want, you can take whatever you want.”

I told him exactly what he had said to me that day.

“You can be more greedy. Now I’m only living for you.”

Perhaps no one has ever said this to him.

Even in his childhood, without being protected, he had to be an adult.

“Don’t give up anything, don’t sacrifice anything, and you can be a little more of this.”

I will tell him then, if no one ever.

“Be as happy as you can.”

If no one gives him permission, I will say it instead.

“It’s okay to do anything to achieve that.”

I knew he would do anything to protect us.

And I would not hesitate to do anything to protect him.

I did know how dangerous it was to be blind, but it doesn’t matter. I thought so.

If only I could keep this pathetic and lovely person from getting hurt anymore. Eugene took a slow breath, not holding me.

Then he whispered in a low, cracked voice that scratched to the floor.

“You don’t know what you mean now.”

What do you think I don’t know.

“You know, you can’t say this.”

But even if it was for myself, my answer did not change.

“I can.”

I touched Eugene’s back softly, and opened my mouth again.

“Even if my brother commits a mistake that’s big enough to be blamed by everyone in the world.”

Maybe I don’t have any qualifications like that, but still….

“I forgive everything.”

If I could, I was willing to carry all the sins of this person.

“…..Forgive me?”

“Um.”

Eugene asked me.

“No matter what I do?”

“Huuh.”

“Even if I do something very wrong to you?”

The glow became darker and the view was more red than before.

“Yeah, it’s okay.”

Eugene has been silently burying his head for a while. Then he finally lifted his face and meet my eyes.

“You probably won’t refuse if I ask to sleep in hell together.”

Eugene, who said that, was laughing painfully for some reason.

I saw a smile on his distorted face and opened my lips, but Eugene’s words were a little faster.

“In fact, I didn’t want to ask you to hold my hand. This is cowardly.”

The smile that bloomed in front of my eyes was mixed with self-restraint and ridicule.

Soon his hand held my wrist.

As he did when he touched my hand in the wagon last time, it seemed like the place that touched by him was burning hot.

“But will you forgive me?”

He wasn’t asking me again, as he was like he close to memorizing the words again.

Finally, Eugene’s eyes were in front of me.

He looked straight through me. I couldn’t take my eyes off the dark black eyes that had intense light.

“You will regret it.”

He whispered at a distance close enough to mix his breath.

I tried to answer that I didn’t, but Eugene came a little closer to me than I did before, and I couldn’t say a word.

“I might hurt you.”

The tense breath leaked out of my small open mouth. His lips seemed to come closer to touch even now.

The next moment, however, the place where his lips was buried was my hand that held firmly by Eugene.

“But it’s already too late.”

The red glow made a long shadow behind his back.

It seemed that only the two of us existed in this world, in the niche of intense time, where black and enemy were mixed.

“Now….”

His hands were so hot that the flesh touched by his lips seem burning.

“It’s really late now.”

In that state, Eugene said.

Just like he apologize to me for something I don’t know, he’s blowing a desperate breath into my hands.

As if I was his only one.