The Affairs of Those Noble Brothers Chapter 13

“Wh-what? You didn’t know?”

“How was I supposed to know?”

“But…”

The guy next to him poked the shaggy-haired one in the ribs as he opened his mouth to say something. Do these guys communicate through rib-poking? Irodel furrowed his brow, and one of them cautiously spoke up.

“Sorry, we don’t know anything.”

“What?”

“Sorry. Um…”

A guy so ordinary-looking that you couldn’t remember his name even after hearing it averted his gaze to avoid Irodel’s eyes. He looked as uncomfortable as if he were sitting on a bed of nails.

“We’re really sorry.”

What are they apologizing for? Irodel glared at Orbon’s comrades, utterly unable to understand them, then suddenly lifted his head and scanned the classroom. Just moments ago, it had been buzzing with chatter here and there, but now it was as quiet as if someone had dumped cold water over the whole place. Just then, a student who met Irodel’s eyes quickly looked away. That face was clearly filled with fear.

“…”

The expression vanished from Irodel’s face. Silently, he approached an empty seat and was about to sit down when he suddenly stood up. Class was about to start, but no one tried to stop him from leaving. On the contrary, he even felt as if some invisible force was pushing him out the door, as if telling him to get out quickly.

“Oh my.”

Just then, a professor who was entering through the door saw Irodel and stepped back a pace. He was a passionate scholar who taught students during the day and devoted the rest of his time to research, but even he didn’t stop Irodel as he left the classroom.

The rain that had been drizzling in the morning had turned fierce. Watching the droplets dripping from the awning, Irodel belatedly realized he didn’t have an umbrella. No—it wasn’t just that he didn’t have an umbrella. He had nothing in his hands at all. His parents, his brother, of course, and Tibane, the servants at the mansion, even the students inside—everyone was moving forward holding onto something, but he alone had nothing. He was truly an empty shell of a person, aside from the family he’d happened to be born into.

His hair and clothes were soaked in an instant. As he walked across the rain-soaked campus, Irodel’s gaze fixed on one spot. It was the bulletin board announcing the medical corps passers. Staring down the board as if in a staring contest, Irodel finally carried out what he hadn’t been able to do the other day. He kicked the board without warning, and it toppled over with a thud. He thought it would feel satisfying to see it buried in the mud, but it didn’t.

Should he just… go somewhere? He didn’t know where to go, but surely if he kept walking, he’d arrive somewhere. He wanted to be a needed person there. He wished there were people who would cling to him, begging him to do his part because they needed him, while he just ate, slept, and lazed around.

Like… the way that man always did with his brother.

“…”

Irodel stopped his train of thought and stared blankly at a familiar figure. One of the subordinates who always followed his brother around was standing behind him, holding an umbrella over him. Why is this person here? No, since when has he been here? Where did he come from?

As Irodel faltered in confusion, the man who met his gaze inclined his head as if in greeting. Then, with a courteous gesture, he directed him somewhere. Irodel followed him dazedly, as if possessed. A black sedan was parked near the main gate. The door opened quietly, and someone inside reached out a hand. It was his brother, Logan.

“Let’s go.”

He wanted to ask. Where are we going? Am I allowed to go there? Will they say they need me there… Irodel trailed off in thought and let out a bitter laugh. There was nowhere he couldn’t go. But no one would welcome him. Wasn’t that why he was wandering?

A wave of inexplicable exhaustion washed over him. He’d only walked a little ways across campus, but he felt as if he’d come a long, roundabout way.

“Your clothes will get wet, hyung.”

“It’s fine.”

He thought his brother would say it was fine. Maybe that was what he’d wanted to hear, he mused, as Irodel took Logan’s hand. A strong force pulled his body in, and at the same time, the door closed and darkness descended. If there was such a thing as a kind prison, perhaps this was it. Irodel thought that for no particular reason, and let himself sink into Logan’s embrace.

∞ ∞ ∞

The car drove for a while before entering a bustling district. Many people walked the streets with umbrellas. Crowded places were generally dangerous. That also meant that people themselves were dangerous. Whether they were scions of noble houses, commoners, or even barbarians—impossible to tell from the outside—they were like time bombs that could attack anytime, anywhere.

For that reason, Irodel rarely visited the busy districts. Even when he did come, he was always accompanied by suffocating guards. The last time he’d come was to welcome His Majesty the Emperor, but even then, he couldn’t get out of the car because of the guards. It was so bad that the Emperor had to push his way inside just to see his nephew’s face. Irodel didn’t like the busy districts much because every visit left him feeling stifled by the overprotection.

But today, the escort was remarkably light, and more than that, their destination was a high-rise hotel. He’d always thought he’d like to visit one someday but had never mustered the courage, and now he’d come here unexpectedly. As he got out of the car, passed through the lobby, and rode the elevator up, his gloomy mood gradually crumbled. It was even more so when he reached the top floor and stood before the large windows overlooking the city.

“You can see the whole city.”

This was the first time he’d been up this high. As Irodel stared hesitantly at the rain-soaked city, a towel came down over him from above. Soft fabric brushed over his wet hair and shoulders. Through the window that took up one wall, he could see Logan reflected as he dried him off. It was an unfamiliar scene, yet it felt familiar—was that just his mood?

“You can touch the window.”

“Won’t it break?”

“Of course not. It’d survive even a bomb blast.”

Logan laughed as he said something that might have been a joke or might not. Irodel touched the transparent glass with his fingertips. It was cold and precarious. It felt as if it would shatter with the slightest pressure, yet he couldn’t believe it wouldn’t break.

“Is that mansion over there our house?”

“Yeah. Do you want to go back?”

“…”

Irodel was silent. The mansion was larger than any other building nearby. It was such a big, spacious house, but no one was there. There were servants, but they meant nothing to him. To them, he was equally meaningless. It was a place where no one wanted him, so there was no reason to go back.

“Let’s go to the bathroom first. You can take your time looking around.”

He nodded obediently and turned around. A warm hand wrapped around his shoulder and guided him.

The bathroom was smaller than the one at the mansion, but it was reasonably spacious and luxurious. Was this the hotel owner’s taste? Many of the furnishings looked like they belonged in an old palace. Unfortunately, his own taste leaned more toward modern than antique… but it felt like traveling to a historical site, so it wasn’t bad in its own way.

Was there no attendant for the bath? He’d come in because he was told to wash up, but inside, there was no one to greet him except for the warmly filled bath. Well, of course. This isn’t home. Suppressing a sense of emptiness, he sluggishly peeled off his wet clothes, and his hand caught on something. It was Orbon’s poison—the one he’d mustered up the courage to bring out but never got to deliver to its intended recipient.

Irodel submerged himself in the steaming bath and fiddled with the glass vial. What on earth is this? For someone who majored in herbalism, he didn’t care much for medicinal herbs, but he could confidently say he was quite knowledgeable about poisonous plants. He’d handled things like opium poppies that most people never even got to see, and notorious Southern toxic mushrooms. But none of them had any significant effect on alphas. How did he know? Because there had been a certain subject who’d served as his test subject all this time, so he knew well. Though that subject probably had no idea he was a test subject.

“…”