The Affairs of Those Noble Brothers Chapter 2

Not many noble families gathered together to share meals as a family. It would be more accurate to say that most didn’t even care where each other was holed up or what they were doing. But the Lockperth family had produced warriors for generations, and since all of them were alphas, they tended to invest considerable effort in controlling their children. Of course, that was hardly relevant to him.

“I heard you failed to get into the medical corps again this time.”

The knife he was using to cut his steak paused briefly. Both Herod, who had brought it up, and Logan, sitting beside Irodel, wore calm expressions. Irodel bit down hard on the flesh inside his cheek with his molars.

“Why don’t you just give up and find a decent place to commute to and from?”

“There’s still one more chance left.”

“The military isn’t a good fit for you. Think about my subordinates who have to report your rejection every single time.”

“Then you could just stop paying attention to me.”

“If you were an alpha, I would.”

There it was. The alpha refrain. Irodel clenched his fist beneath the table. Logan, who had been waiting for the tea being poured by a servant, glanced sidelong at Irodel.

“I’ve told you countless times, but if I left you, who are deficient in so many ways, to your own devices and you got abducted by savages or something, the entire nation would be in an uproar. You are my son, and the Emperor’s nephew.”

“That’s exactly why I’m saying I want to join the military.”

“The military doesn’t want you.”

With that cold reply, the conversation ended, and for a while, only the quiet sounds of the servants attending to the meal echoed. Fine, whatever. This was the usual conversation, so familiar it was nauseating; he could concede this much. In truth, it wasn’t just once—he’d always lost—but Irodel didn’t back down and brought out the main point he’d been holding in his heart.

“Then, give me a research institute.”

At the unexpected remark, which wasn’t the usual ‘I want to join the military’ refrain, Herod and Logan’s gazes fixed on Irodel.

“If I get a job at a private research institute or hospital, everyone will find me difficult to deal with. It would be better if you set up a private research institute for me in a somewhat remote location. I could just live there, eat, sleep, and devote my entire life quietly to research. Isn’t that better than dragging around an escort just to commute?”

There was some logic to Irodel’s words. As a noble, he couldn’t just live idly, and if he had to enter a private institution anyway, setting up a decent research institute under the family name might be the better choice. Herod looked intrigued and glanced sideways at Logan. Logan, who had finished his meal and was elegantly drinking his tea, turned to Irodel.

“How are your studies at the academy going?”

“Yes? Well… yes…”

He had no idea why the academy had suddenly come up. Irodel, who had been brimming with anticipation for a successful negotiation, blinked like a turtle. Logan smiled gently.

“I hear you’ve been getting along well with the academy students lately.”

“Yes? Well, that’s…”

It was a stretch to say he was getting along, but he did at least acknowledge his classmates’ greetings. When he’d thought he could join the military, he’d ignored them, figuring he wouldn’t have to deal with them much anyway thanks to rapid promotions, but now that his life had taken such a convoluted turn, a certain anxiety about how things would unfold had spurred him to exercise what social skills he had.

“Academy students? You mean commoners?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

In response to Herod’s question, Logan gave a short, polite answer. This was their home, and the people in it were family, but aside from himself, the rest of his family sometimes acted toward each other like superior and subordinate. The habits they’d developed outside had carried over into the house. They were minor habits, but to Irodel, these things accumulated one by one and turned into a sense of alienation.

“Socializing with commoners?”

“Yes? No, that’s…”

While he was feeling a brief twinge of bitterness, the atmosphere had somehow turned strange. Irodel’s blinking speed increased.

“Surely, you’re not planning to use the research institute as a pretext to create your own space and mingle vulgarly with commoners for fun, are you?”

“Wha—?”

He had no idea what nonsensical notion that was. In the first place, Irodel didn’t even have anyone to hang out with. His disagreeable nature made no distinctions between men and women, young and old, or insider and outsider.

“Absolutely not! I just want to live on my own, away from— ah.”

He’d messed up. His true feelings had slipped out all too plainly.

“…”

Herod stared fixedly at Irodel, who had clamped his mouth shut. With a gaze that seemed like it could pierce through stone, cold sweat beaded on Irodel’s forehead. Herod was the type who thought “speaking one’s true intentions indirectly” was noble, but “speaking one’s true intentions outright” was vulgar. Just as the research institute and everything else seemed about to go up in smoke, it was Logan who threw him a lifeline.

“It is about time for Irodel to yearn for some freedom, I suppose.”

“Brother…”

As Irodel looked up with teary eyes, Logan smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

“If that’s truly the case, how about creating a research space in the annex instead of going far? You wouldn’t have to worry about commuting, and there’s no better place for a lifetime of safe research than the annex.”

“What!?”

Irodel was so dumbfounded he shot up from his seat, but met Herod’s icy glare and carefully sat back down. This wasn’t a lifeline—it was a rotten rope. How was that any different from just moving his room from the main house to the annex? Not only would the sense of alienation he felt from being in the house remain, but he’d be kicked out to the annex, making it even more pitiful. No, in the first place, what noble commuted from home? Being the only beta in the family wasn’t enough—the world would laugh at him for being a pathetic show-off.

“What a splendid idea. A truly splendid idea. I must give orders for preparations immediately.”

“W-Wait just a moment!”

“I’m giving you exactly what you asked for, so what’s the problem? Surely you don’t have some other ulterior motive, do you?”

Herod narrowed her eyes and glared at Irodel. Weak to silent pressure, Irodel lost his words and just flapped his mouth uselessly. He’d already confessed his ulterior motive. Wanting to live outside. That was the only one, but he couldn’t enlist, and the research institute was flying out the window. He simply couldn’t understand why things kept going wrong.

And starting the next day, construction began on the annex for the research space.

∞ ∞ ∞

A bird that signaled the end of class flew one circle around the ceiling and chirped, and a wave of noise rushed in all at once. Everyone chattered noisily about where they were going afterward, who they were being introduced to, and filed out of the lecture hall. Irodel too began packing his things, then gave up and slumped back into his chair. He didn’t want to go home. It was always like that, but today was worse. It was the day that damned laboratory was being completed.

Fortunately or unfortunately, he hadn’t been kicked out of his room in the main house, but it remained unchanged that he’d have to commute to the annex as his workplace. What a bolt from the blue. And on top of that, he had no idea where or how the news had leaked, but the word had spread through both noble society and within the academy until there wasn’t a soul who didn’t know about “Irodel’s laboratory.” For a while, he was congratulated every time he walked down the street, and he nearly developed a phobia of people.

“You’re not going home? Today’s the day your lab gets finished, right.”

That’s exactly what I mean—how does a nobody like that even know something like that? Irodel glared fiercely at a classmate who felt both familiar and unfamiliar. A dull-faced, gangly fellow, but probably the child of a lower noble at least. If he weren’t at least that, no one would speak to him first.

“Oh, is Lieutenant Tibane coming to pick you up again today?”

Who cares about a bastard like that? Just hearing the name irritated him, so he stood up abruptly. He’d planned to kill as much time as possible in the library before heading back. But at the next words, he stopped in his tracks.

“If you’re free, how about grabbing a drink? Everyone’s getting together to hang out today.”

“Hang out?”

“Yeah. Oh, but they’re commoners, so is that a problem? Yeah, I guess it would be. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

Irodel stared at the classmate who gave an awkward laugh, then set his bag down on the desk.

“I don’t care. Where to?”

“What? You’re actually coming?”