The Affairs of Those Noble Brothers Chapter 18

There was a time like that.

His parents were busy as they were now, so it was hard to see them, but his brother was at home back then. Tibane, who had gone out for his lessons, didn’t come home until late. Ironically, it was Irodel himself who noticed that fact, and that day happened to be the day he’d played a prank in Tibane’s room. If he grabbed that doorknob, his hand would be covered in paint. With a pounding heart, he waited for the bastard, reapplying the paint several times out of fear it would dry. But he didn’t come. The sun set, night fell, and the lamps blazed bright, yet Tibane showed no sign of coming home.

‘Have you seen Tibane?’

Eventually, tired of waiting, Irodel stopped a passing servant and asked. The servant shook his head with a blank expression and directed him to where his brother Logan was. Meaning he should ask him. Just then, Logan, coming out of the first-floor study, saw Irodel coming to find him and smiled warmly.

‘I was just about to call for you. Shall we head to dinner?’

Come to think of it, it was dinnertime. It was a problem that that gluttonous bastard, who looked like he’d eat even poison, hadn’t shown his face by this hour. Growing unnecessarily anxious, Irodel cut straight to the point.

‘Brother, have you seen Tibane?’

‘Tibane?’

‘He went out this morning and hasn’t come back yet.’

‘Hmm. Maybe he’s playing in the garden or the annex?’

Is that so? But Irodel had never seen Tibane play alone in the garden or the annex. To begin with, that spiteful brat was the type who made it his life’s pleasure to follow Irodel around and torment him—he was absolutely not the type to play quietly by himself.

‘No. He hasn’t come home.’

Seeing Irodel speak with such conviction, Logan tilted his head slightly. His face showed he couldn’t understand.

‘How do you know that?’

How did he know? It was a mix of his own reasoning and twin intuition. But Irodel, unable to explain it coherently, hesitated in his reply, and Logan laughed and reached out his hand.

‘He’s probably somewhere in the house. He’ll come out when he’s hungry. Let’s go.’

‘Okay…’

And so they finished their meal somewhat haphazardly, and Irodel went back to Tibane’s room. He grabbed the paint-dried doorknob and cracked the door open, but there was no one inside. He closed the door again and this time headed to the dining room. At the time, they’d been given rooms on the first floor to prevent any possible stair accidents, so it was easy to go back and forth between the dining room and his room. The servants watched uneasily as Irodel drifted between Tibane’s room and the dining room like a ghost. After wandering around for a long while, Irodel grabbed one of them and asked to be taken back to where Logan was.

‘Kidnapping?’

Logan’s door was open. When voices were heard from inside, the servant quickly retreated with backward steps. Irodel stared in surprise at that swift movement and missed his timing to enter Logan’s room.

‘The barbarians who took Young Master Tibane are demanding an exchange of hostages. Shall I contact His Grace the Grand Duke?’

‘…’

Irodel couldn’t believe his ears. An exchange of hostages. Barbarians took Tibane? Could that pig-like bastard really have been kidnapped by barbarians? It felt like the vague warnings he heard all the time about not following strangers had suddenly become reality. His heart dropped and he was about to run to Logan and cling to him, when a cold voice caught his ankle.

‘Leave him be. If he doesn’t come back, that’s his own lack of ability.’

When he heard those words, what had he thought? He couldn’t remember clearly. When he came to his senses, he was on some unfamiliar roadside, not inside the mansion. He remembered sneaking out during the midnight guard change, but nothing else came to mind. The surroundings were pitch black, he didn’t know where he was, and he’d lost both his home and his way—Irodel was walking along sobbing when a round lamp floated through the air toward him and stopped before his eyes. Above the faint light, a familiar face appeared.

‘What are you doing here?’

‘Tibane?’

‘Are you crazy? Why are you wandering around alone at this hour? Do you know how dangerous it is out here for someone like you?’

He wiped his tear-blurred eyes and looked again. It was indeed Tibane. What are you doing here? Weren’t you kidnapped? But the words that came out of his mouth were different from the questions swirling in his head.

‘I got lost…’

Anyway, at that moment, that was what Irodel found most upsetting. Tibane looked at Irodel, who was sobbing after throwing out that one remark, with a troubled expression. Just then, several cars approached with their headlights blazing. It was the guards, who had been frantic with worry and had come looking for the Lockperth sons, and Logan.

Seeing Logan, Irodel’s sorrow doubled and he wailed. Because the strangely plausible conclusion had been drawn that Logan’s cold words were the reason he’d left the house and gotten lost. Logan approached and looked down at the crying Irodel silently, then glanced at Tibane, who wore a displeased expression, and looked back at Irodel. It seemed that if he didn’t do something, Logan wouldn’t move either. Irodel shuffled over and clung tightly to Logan’s waist.

‘Irodel, shall we go home?’

‘Yes…’

He gave a small nod at the gentle question. Only then did Logan lift Irodel into his arms. Irodel wrapped his arms around Logan’s cool nape. Then he reached out his hand to Tibane, who was standing there with a sulky face.

‘Let’s go home.’

Without a word, Tibane reached out and took Irodel’s hand.

And the next day, as soon as he woke up in the morning, Tibane was staring at him. His attitude was that he wouldn’t rest until he got an answer about why Irodel had gone out at night and gotten lost. He was so persistent that Irodel finally let out his true feelings.

‘I went out to find you.’

I think he only realized that was his true feeling after he said it. Tibane stood there blankly for a moment after hearing the answer, then smiled more brightly than Irodel had ever seen him smile before.

‘Aren’t you an idiot?’

‘…’

That Irodel gave Tibane poison-herb bread as a gift afterward was a story for another time.