Beware of the Brothers - Chapter 24

Hari’s POV

“Ha, really.”

I sighed as soon as I left the Imperial Palace Library.

It was because I had to wander through the spacious library looking for the book I wanted for an hour, but eventually I had to slump and turn around.

Ha, I can’t do this.

Ethan, who captured the frustration on my face, asked in a soft voice.

“Did you not see the book you are looking for?”

“Yes. I was hoping there were the books in the Imperial Palace library.”

“Have you told the librarian?”

“Well, I’m searching by myself.”

Dang, of course not.

No matter how much I can do, I can’t ask the librarian of the Imperial Palace if there is such a book?

The book I want to see is like the one in Erich’s room. It was a red-rated book similar to what I found.

But, anyway, even if there is such a book in the Imperial Palace library, I did not intend to borrow it. Because the loan record will remain.

Hmm, so if I found the book, I tried to come out after reading it a little.

In fact, it was not unfortunate that I would not die because I didn’t have the book, I wanted to search it because I visited the Imperial Palace library before meeting Dice.

But Ethan told me with a serious face.

“If you tell me the title, I’ll get it anyway.”

Coo, cool. Of course, thank you, but that’s not to be said.

I’d rather have a maid or I myself go to the bookstore alone and get the book.

“Thank you for your heart, Ethan.”

I hid my heart and laughed ahaha towards Ethan.

“Hari?”

But then, someone from far away called my name. I turned my head and found a nice person.

“Brother Johan!”

Light blue hair like cotton candy stood out even at a distance. It was Johannes who visited the Imperial Palace for some reason.

“I think you’re on your way to see his highness Dice?”

“Not yet, now I’m on my way to the inner palace.”

As soon as he saw me, he seemed to notice the purpose of my coming to the Imperial Palace.

The reason I first come to the Imperial Palace is almost the only one for Dice.

“What’s brother Johan doing?”

“I’m learning little by little from my father these days.”

Oh, I see.

Johannes is now a graduate from the Academy, so now he was able to learn the work of aristocracy directly from Count Vastia.

Of course, he haven’t entered the front line yet.

In fact, it was not normal for Eugene to lead the house when he was too young, and usually it was to follow the steps to prepare gradually like Johannes.

“I met Miss Cordis a while ago.”

Then suddenly I stopped at the name that came from Johannes’ mouth.

“I’ve responded in moderation as she’s asking you, but I think you’d better not stay close to her.”

What did Johannes say to me about what he had talked to with Lavender Cordis?

He said she asked my best regards, but if she had just said that, Johannes’ reaction would not have been the same now.

“Yes, I will never get close to her. Thanks for worrying.”

By the way, Johannes knew…

What about Ethan? He saw Ethan before and I recalled what Johannes asked.

‘Ethan Bishop… Did he introduce himself like that?’

Well, if I think about some of the people who have seen me and Ethan talking with each other, they’re so tight keeping words that wasn’t even a secret.

In fact, I would have been able to easily hear from Ethan or Eugene if I had tried to figure out something when I sensed discomfort.

“I want to talk a little more, but I don’t think I have time.”

“Yeah, until next time.”

I wanted to walk with Johannes to the garden, but it was impossible as I have a meeting with Dice.

“Hari, I’m always on your side. You know?”

A bright blue light came into my sight. His eyes were straight and clear as always.

“I know. Thanks.”

I was grateful for his heart and smiled.

Probably because of Lavender Cordis, I don’t know how far Johannes knows the conflict between her and me, but I was thankful to him being on my side like this.

We were so young, as we pledged promise back then.

Johannes is going towards the front door of the palace, and I am turning towards Dice’s palace.

We couldn’t take the escort knight to the inside of the palace, so I walked alone in the hallway leading to Dice’s room, guided by the assistant.

Then I found someone coming from the other side and I stopped.

“Miss Rosabella?”

Honey-like blondes and emerald green eyes. An elegant gait that stands out from a distance.

For some reason, Rosabella Velontia was walking out from the place where the room of the Imperial prince Dice was.

She too, after seeing me, paused for a moment.

I hid my surprise and asked her.

“Are you on the way to meet and see His Highness Dice?”

If I think about it, it wasn’t unexpected.

Just as I was invited by Dice to visit the palace, Rosabella could have been the same.

“Yes. I’m on my way to come out after a short chat. I think you’re on your way to His Highness.”

But as far as I know, Dice has met Rosabella first. It was inevitably a little surprising because he had never asked for her first.

What’s more, I knew that the reason was because of Dice’s heart for Rosabella.

“Then, I’ll excuse myself. See you next time, Hari.”

“Yes, until next time.”

I split up with Rosabella and started walking again towards Dice’s room.

My steps were the same as before, but my thoughts were busy passing through in my head.

It was the same thing when I approached Dice’s for visit.

“Lady Hari Ernst has visited.”

“Don’t ask, just come in.”

After Dice’s permission was dropped, the assistant opened the door.

As soon as I entered the room, I encountered a courtman who dragged the tray out.

I glanced at the plates, mugs, and utensils placed on the tray as I passed by the courtman who politely greeted me.

There was a guest here just before.

As I can tell from the fact, the warm steam was still rising in the liquid half filled in the teacup.

Dice, sitting on the chair watched me and then stood up, kicking his tongue.

“The assistant manager is very knowledgeable. Not even once or twice, but if the Lady visited and told me to meet her as soon as she came, the assistant would report like that.”

I walked along him leading me to the table. Then I sat down facing Dice and said to him.

“I just met Miss Rosabella.”

“Okay?”

Dice’s gaze turned to me.

As I stared at him, Dice sat cross-legged in the chair and raised his hand over his knee. He said with an unknown facial expression.

“Well, from now on, I’m going to take a look at the Lady.”

“What do you mean…?”

As soon as I heard Dice, I became confused.

No, what is this suddenly? What does he mean by imitating me? Suddenly, the flames were smeared, and he just blame it? I guess so…?

“Yes, don’t think too deeply. Should we talk about it more than that?”

Dice turned to me. It was an expression of a powerful ruler who was no longer willing to talk about Rosabella.

I was still confused, but he started to tell another story right away.

I couldn’t ask more about Rosabella.

There was a clear boundary between the crown prince and one young lady, no matter how much I was allowed to ask sometimes, as I was Dice’s companion and his friend.

So if Dice refused and cut the conversation like it is now, I couldn’t even dig this over.

Dice then treated me in the same way as usual, but I didn’t know when the stiffness in my heart would go.

*******

“Hey.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

And over time, when I got up, suddenly Dice called me. And what he said was what I could not understand in this language.

“I might surprise the Lady, but I apologize in advance.”

In his mysterious glance, he laughed with a face that looked somewhat ugly.

“So I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you the details.”

Then Dice seems to have said something suspicious to me again.

I saw him off.

Again, I had no choice but to exit the palace with my head being complicated.

And after a while I found out what was the reason Dice said that.

Surprisingly, Eugene and Rosabella had a breakup. I lost words to say in the unexpected news.

After about two years of engagement, the two ended and the two declared a breakup.

The reason was simple.

They both think each other as a good marriage partner, but because of their disqualification, they are no longer connected.

It was judged that the engagement could not be continued.

However, there was still more surprising news.

Soon afterward, I was shocked to be hit by the imperial announcement of the imperial palace known throughout Arlanta.

That was the news of the engagement of His Highness Dice and Rosabella Velontia.

“Miss Ernst, did you follow Sir Cabel today?”

“Are you planning on holding a dinner party in Ernst soon?”

“Please visit with your older brothers during this picnic!”

Inside the banquet hall, I was busy dealing with people approaching me.

Compared to the usual, today, the number of young ladies was significantly higher than those of young lords who approached me.

Perhaps it was because of Eugene.

After the breakup with Rosabella, Ernst’s fiancée position was now vacant.

‘Have you heard the news?’

It is in spring that Eugene and Rosabella engagement’s broken.

However, as soon as the season changed and it became summer, the news of the engagement of His Highness Dice spread.

Upon hearing it, I was surprised and went to find Eugene.

‘Are you okay?’

‘There is no reason not to be okay.’

However, Eugene met me with a calm face.

‘She and I are already decided. So it doesn’t matter who she is engaged to after that.’

Of course it was like that.

Eugene’s words and Dice and Rosabella’s engagement had nothing strange in their order of mind.

Although the breakdown of Eugene and Rosabella made Arlanta a noisy one, it wasn’t because the reason for the breakdown was that there was a disqualification on either side.

So it wouldn’t be a problem.

In addition, both Eugene and Rosabella were characters who seemed to have no defects, no matter how much they tried to tear them off, and even after the breakup, they acted implicitly and externally with each other, and the unfounded rumors circulated for some time gradually subsided.

However, I continued to worry about Eugene’s breakup and Dice’s engagement.

Isn’t this what I’ve never been through?

Besides, Dice said that he decided to imitate me.

Even if it was an expression of the will to live a life just like I want to do from now on…

In case I am unintentionally doing this, suspicion was raised as to whether or not my change affected the extent.

“Isn’t there any woman whom Duke Ernst meets separately yet….?”

Anyway, for that reason, the nobles who approached and talked to me with a heart of ignorance were throbbing.

Since the breakup with Eugene, I have never met Rosabella. Therefore, it was the last time I met in her in Dice’s palace.

Of course, I don’t know if either side asked me to meet her first, but neither did I or Rosabella done it.

It is also because the relationship between ‘brother’s ex-fiancee’ and ‘sister of the fiancé who annuled had an ambiguous corner.

I guess I was wondering if Rosabella was probably the same as hesitating as me in her mind.

After Eugene’s breakup, I was forced to avoid going out because of the successive days of the flock of nobles like today.

So I never happened to encounter Rosabella in another place.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

I managed to get out of my place by dealing with people alone with a smile.

No, but why isn’t the second brother coming here? Does he take drinks by going to the kitchen?

At the banquet today, I had Cabel as my partner.

However, I was not excited to return to the second brother while he was excited by my request for some drinks.

“Miss Ernst! You attended the banquet today!”

“Hello, Miss Ped. Nice to see you after a long time.”

As it was a banquet that I attended, there were many people whom I saw their faces after a long time.

I haha hoho laughed and greeted the nice people.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“Hey!”

But after a while, isn’t Cabel’s voice heard from my behind?

The voice felt so close that I felt it was next to me, so I turned my head in the direction I heard it.

And then I opened my eyes wide to the sight that came into my view.

“What, what’s going on?”

No, why does Cabel hold Lavender Cordis’ arms?

But in the words of the following Cabel, I noticed the approximate situation.

“No, I think I’m trying to sprinkle this woman on you now.”

So, Lavender Cordis approached me without any sound or word, and tried to spray the champagne I’m holding in my hand, right?

Of course, she denied Cabel’s words. I wonder if her arm held by him is sore.

Lavender Cordis, who was craving for her released, laughed naturally.

“Hoho…! I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just glad Miss Ernst came and want to say hello.”

It looked pretty natural, but I was not deceived. Of course. Where are we supposed to welcome each other?

“No, I was afraid of the angle of the wrist.”

Lavender Cordis’s excuse was aroused as Cabel persistently walked over and drag her.

She grabbed her wrist as if she was letting go, but Cabel pulled her strength from her strong hand. It did not budge.

“Don’t do it, let her go.”

“Okay.”

But as soon as I said, Cabel released the arm of Lavender Cordis very easily. Oh, oh, my second brother is really good.

“I brought something to drink! Do you like this?”

“Thanks. That’s my older brother.”

“Huh hehe!”

I see Lavender Cordis staring at me with an angry face in front of me.

As I dismissed her, I had a friendly conversation with Cabel.

It would be nice to just go when I’m ignoring you. Anyway, she and I are already crossing an irreversible river, so don’t be mistaken.

However, Lavender Cordis quickly rolled her eyes away without leaving.

“There are a lot of nobles coming to Miss Ernst today. Probably because of the lady’s first brother?”

Also, I was not sure what to say with her so much luck. I faced her. And I stared at her face coldly.

I don’t care if I’m not in the place where I’m alone, and I can’t tell them the same story I did last time at the Cordis Mansion to this place where Cabel and other people gathered together.

“Unfortunately, the unfortunate news of the breakup is unfortunate, but I believe that there is a better relationship waiting for him somewhere other than Miss Velontia. Maybe there is one of the ladies in this banquet hall. Why don’t you give the young girls a chance?”

Perhaps I saw people twisting like a bee in the banquet hall today.

Her outspoken attention make them focused on her. Most of them were young ladies who expressed interest in Eugene before.

“Look, there are so many beautiful ladies like flowers around. Besides, your older brothers care about you a lot as a younger sister. If it is a recommendation from the Lady, he will probably listen to you. Do you know? Wow, the kite will make a family.”

The next Cabel said, looking at me with a silly look and said to Lavender Cordis, who was talking to me.

‘Hey, from the beginning what are you talking about?’

“Isn’t it really a pleasure to be the only younger sister if that happens, isn’t it, Miss Ernst?”

With that said, Lavender Cordis laughed.

Still, her eyes filled with malice filled my eyes.

As the thorny words penetrated through my eardrum, my heart gradually became preoccupied.

It was because a certain enlightenment passed through my head while I heard Lavender Cordis speaking face to face with me.

It seemed to me I know why Lavender Cordis is telling me this now.

Perhaps this woman noticed my heart for Eugene.

And she was anxious and blame it to me somehow.

Even if the blood didn’t mix, how can one hold their heart to their brother?

It was evident from the last time I came out of Cordis’ mansion and looked at Eugene’s past history, and it was in this context that she emphasized the fact that I am Eugene’s younger sister.

Oh, then, was the reason she suddenly showed hostility to me because she noticed my feelings?

Was it the same reason in the past life?

If so, it seemed that the angler was right.

Of course, my heart at that time was not completely the same as it is now.

Before, it wasn’t that painful because of such a tender and loving heart overflowing whenever I saw him.

However, when I was awakened at one point, I was following him without notice.

When I saw him, my heart hurt and I was saddened to know why.

Did Lavender Cordis see me and notice something like that? So did she despise and hate me?

If that were the way, it made sense.

“Sorry, Miss Cordis.”

But she told me this way. Even if she didn’t try to tell me, I knew it well.

“If you want me to arrange for the meeting of other young ladies and my brothers with my own hands, I don’t think that will be possible.”

This is my own decision.

I didn’t intend to share this feeling with Eugene, and I wasn’t even more willing to let him know.

“As the Lady said, my brothers always decided everything, so I pay close attention to my small words and even my small actions.”

And I knew that he was not going to have the same feeling like me. Even if his behavior that I see recently has become somewhat subtle….

“So I don’t want to do anything that can be navigating in the sense of coercion to my brothers.”

It is because I am a person who can understand him, not because I am his object of affection.

“All the young ladies are good and understanding, so they will understand my heart.”

So I was fine even if I wasn’t part of his happiness.

If he was able to laugh with someone other than me, if he was happy, it’s more than enough.

As I did before, I will tell him that I sincerely congratulate him when Eugene marrying someone other than Rosabella.

‘Dissembler. Liar.’

At that moment, Lavender Cordis seemed whispering to me like that.

I turned away, ignoring the sound in my head.

No matter what anyone said, it was my only sincerity, and even if it wasn’t, I shouldn’t have admitted it.

“Why are you here?”

Eugene, who just met my eyes in the dark, came to my room and asked me.

“Just a little stuffy. Here I can see everything like my brother’s carriage coming from the front door.”

Immediately after returning to Ernst’s residence, I went to the terrace without changing my clothes.

Eugene’s gaze passed by me once.

“Isn’t it cold? It seems like the air is a little cold at night.”

“It’s already summer, but it’s still cold.”

The dress I tailored this time has a wide neck, so my shoulders is clearly looked visible.

The thin shawl from the banquet hall was already placed on the bed.

Cabel was resting in his room after attending the banquet with me.

As Eugene approached, a slightly different smell rubbed my nose. He seems to have been drinking with the person he just met.

“Dice, did you meet him well? Did you come back from his place earlier?”

“In the first place, there was nothing to talk about.”

While I attended the banquet with Cabel, Eugene was at the Imperial Palace at the request of Dice.

I guessed that it was probably time to meet Eugene because of this engagement announcement.

“Did you fight?”

“There is no reason for that.”

Eugene laughed at my words.

“I already told you that it has nothing to do with me, but I guess you didn’t believe it.”

A soft voice spread out in the lukewarm night air. And in the words that followed, I was a little surprised.

“And I knew what Dice had been thinking of Rosabella Velontia from back then.”

Whether he know them personally or not, Eugene sat down on the railing of the terrace and calmly spoke.

“Maybe I was dimly aware that it may not be a one-sided mind.”

I knew Eugene had the same thoughts as me and was silent for a while.

In fact, it was the part that I had been suspicious of.

Rosabella’s attitude towards Dice.

Even when it is more than when she’s dealing with someone else, even when she smiles as if she is truly happy with his stupid words, or when she is worried about Dice in the New Year’s time, as she is also uncertain in that and she deliberately moves to where he is.

I noticed it.

In addition, the last time I encountered her at Dice’s Palace too.

“So did you really break up?”

I impulsively asked him.

“When I asked, you said you liked Rosabella.”

I murmured and muttered to him.

Eugene’s gaze flew back to me.

On a late autumn night last year when the banquet was held, Eugene replied “Yes” to my question, “Do you like Miss Rosabella?”

Of course, I didn’t think it was a passionate affection, but he was saying yes anyway.

That’s why I kept worrying about Eugene’s breakup and Dice’s engagement.

“I think she’s good to be a good partner and not a bad person, but I’ve never had her in my heart in a rational sense.”

Eugene did replied in an unshakable voice.

His words seemed to be sincere. If not, it would be difficult to show such indifferent appearance to the news of their engagement.

“If I did, they wouldn’t have been married. Do you think I would gave up my fiancee to Dice…”

Eugene smiled like a wonder how could I think so.

“You still think I’m a good person.”

“That’s it…”

He reacted as if it were ridiculous. However, I thought that Eugene’s point was really consistent.

“Because you are a good person.”

Eugene looked at me silently for a moment, and soon opened his lips.

“You wouldn’t be able to say that if you knew what I was thinking right now.”

He reached out to me. I held my hand to Eugene’s and had to take a few steps closer to him.

Shortly thereafter, I jumped through the warmth of our fingers, but Eugene, with or without it, gave my hands a tighter pod.

“In the meantime, I didn’t realize I was so greedy.”

I trembled, feeling his other hand touching my face slowly.

“You’re already giving me plenty of things, but I still want to take another.”

Again, I wanted to squeeze and hold my chest that started to run again.

No, don’t.

You can’t come out on your own.

He’s not someone you can have.

Already up to the limit, my heart tried to overflow.

I knew that my relationship with him now is hurting somewhere, but no matter how sweet he’s to me, I shouldn’t misunderstand it in a different way.

I just dug and listened to his loneliness.

Eugene touches me like this because he simply needs someone to share his body temperature with. And maybe that person must be me.

It will not be easy. Don’t misunderstand.

“Why not refuse?”

A low whisper suddenly rang in my ear.

As Eugene got up from his seat, our eye level quickly changed.

It was obviously a slow move, but I couldn’t do anything like running away from someone in front of me.

“If you do this, you’ll be mistaken that you’ll accept anything I do.”

The air between him and me became tighter. I want to avoid the touch in my cheeks, but at the same time, it’s my desire to lean on it.

As Eugene bowed his head and faced my forehead, his breath drew near.

“I’m sorry too.”

Then, suddenly, a whisper, like a self-talk, dug into my ears.

“Brother…”

“I can’t be the one you want.”

I couldn’t figure out what that meant. But before I asked again, his voice continued.

“But honestly, In my heart I’m not sorry.”

A smile, like a broken moonlight, was in front of my eyes. His dark-eyed eyes were shining more darkly than the night sky.

“It’s your fault that showed me a gap.”

I didn’t even have a chance to recognize the situation.

Immediately after that, a hot thing swallowed up my lips.

When I stepped back unconsciously, the railing on the terrace touched me, but soon I was attracted by more force than before, and my body was pulled forward.

Stuck in a tight arm, my breathing hook.

As I drank it, a flame broke out between my small open lips.

“Eup, ah…!”

A stinging sensation spread over my reflexed lips.

For a moment, I noticed a bitter taste and bit my lower lip. My little moaning softened my lips.

“Every time I see you approaching defenselessly, you don’t know what I was thinking.”

I couldn’t figure out what happened to me a while ago.

Only the pain felt in my mouth that like a bitten mouth makes reality seemed to remind me.

”You can do anything you want.”

The low-pitched voice scraped my eardrum. His eyes pouring from the front were as dark and dangerous as his voice.

“If you had known what was in my head, you wouldn’t have said that fearless thing.”

A whisper that felt sweet at first glance passed by. It was the same with the touch that touched my lips that’s still breathing.

But his orders that follow are not.

“Open. I don’t want it to hurt.”

My distance from Eugene was so close that our lips rubbed every time he spoke a word. I shook my breath out and shivered and screamed at him.

“Eugene op-….”

However, Eugene tilted my head as if he had waited, and overlaid his lips on me again.

The tingling sensation spread to the wounded area for a moment, then faded into a huge stimulus that was pushed in soon.

Even the groan that he couldn’t stand seemed cannot be hide.

Even the trembling that couldn’t be swallowed up by him shook me.

I could feel the fluffy sound from our touching lips, and even the fluff.

I pushed my face down, but Eugene did not move like a huge wall. Rather, his arm around my waist was only tighter.

The back of my leg was released by a thrillingly sharp stimulus, and I finally grabbed his clothes as if hanging with a trembling hand.

“Brother, huh, stop…”

Even if I wanted to fall off my lips for a while, I was forced to hold my breath more persistently than before.

I couldn’t keep my mind on the movements that were constantly driving. It felt as if I was being eaten by him.

Then, I knew later that his breath had come down suddenly passed over my nape.

“Dress.”

I felt my shoulders trembling with a tickling sensation from my neck, but as I’ve done so far, my actions have been just a pointless attempt!

“Eugene… Ah, uh!”

I felt like my toes were squeezed by the slow sweeping of my back.

A strange sensation bloomed wherever he touched me. As if I had a fever, my eyes were dizzy.

After a moment, Eugene took off his lips that buried in my neck and looked down at me, breathing roughly.

Our distance is still very close, so I could see the heat in his eyes.

“How long before I will make you cry, I was scared to see…… ”

Eugene’s fingers slowly touched the edge of my tears. Even the touch was really strong because of the mood.

“It’s a better feeling than what I think, to know you cried because of me.”

I looked at Eugene, who smiled dimly in silence. My body trembled with his hand touching my face line and rubbing my ears.

The person in front of me was more familiar to me than anyone else, but at this moment he feel incredibly unfamiliar.

“Brother….”

“Brother, you said.”

This time, his finger rested on my lips.

Eugene, looking down on the wound he had made, and again fell on his head. Then I gently licked my lower lip and licked it slowly as if trying to heal the wound.

“We’re doing this and you’re still calling me brother?”

There is no more words as my eyes swaying aimlessly met with his serene eyes in the air.

“I said.”

Eugene whispered a little with a sigh of laughter. Despite the soothing voice, my heart was still beating.

“It’s already too late even if you regret it.”

I never said anything to him. Because, without giving me time to rush an answer, his hot lips once again hit me.

The warm summer air heated up the flames.

The night that mark us as we can’t never go back to what he and I was so far.

The starlight pouring from the top of our head was infinitely far away.