He’s My Real Brother, Duke Chapter 119

 

Cassian’s eyes narrowed, and he searched the man’s body for a few more seconds. He pulled a small seal-like object out of the chained man’s chest pocket and smirked mischievously. 

 

“This must be the right one, huh?”

 

“…!”

 

Cassian grinned and tapped the seal in his hand.

 

“How do you read it, this one?”

 

Cassian’s rough fingertips brushed against the seal’s nub, and the light from the lid began to float away into thin air. Cassian looked down at the Archivist, whose eyes were closed tightly in despair, then smirked and beamed the light toward the bookshelves.

 

What appeared to be a code began to wriggle and move, revealing the form of writing.

 

[Hessian]

 

The title of the first book he grabbed appeared to be a record of some long-vanished count family. 

 

Cassian turned on the light, and his eyes soon traveled down the page to the records of a falsely accused mage of a vanished tower, looking past the words…

 

[Records of Count Vietry]

 

…and finally reached the one he had been looking for all this time…

 

With trembling hands, he pulled the book out. Cassian quickly flipped it open, and with a snap, the book opened, and the hidden pages began to reveal themselves. 

 

Cassian held it up in the light mechanically, trying to read it. As quickly as the light shone, the secret magic was unraveled, one by one.

 

He bit his lip as the information about House Vietry appeared. There was no room for emotions, now that they were in the enemy’s territory.

 

All of this would be best discussed with Astel later, he thought, closing the last page and placing the book in his pocket. Now it was time for him to make a quick exit and rescue 

Astel.

 

But then, a strange leather-covered book on a nearby bookshelf caught his attention.

 

[The Duke of Anais]

 

‘Wait a second, why is it that the book about the Duke of Anais is found here…?’

 

 It’s the only book here that doesn’t have a secret spell on it.

 

Cassian frowned in confusion and picked up the book about the Duke.

 

 The man, who had just barely managed to break the spell of enchantment, struggled and let out a loud scream.

 

“Argh! There’s an intruder in here—”

 

Cassian, who panicked and quickly grabbed the book about the Duke of Anais and shoved it into his pocket casually, smirked at the man’s body shaking as if in a seizure.

 

“Now let’s sleep, shall we?”

 

Cassian smirked as he used the magic tool Astel had given him for simple memory manipulation.

 

 It worked so well that when he woke up in the morning, he would completely forget everything.

 

Just when he thought everything was going perfectly, Cassian’s breath was cut short.

 

 The sound of a man’s loud voice woke him from his reverie.

 

 The sound of loud footsteps came from a distance. He glanced at his wristwatch, out of habit, before hiding in the shadows, and his expression changed.

 

“I must go find Astel.”

 

But the time he had promised Astel had already passed. Cassian bit his lip nervously, trying to silence his footsteps as he backed away from the library.

 

One step, two steps, three steps. 

 

With an echoing, scary click, the archive door swung closed, revealing the cobwebbed hallways of the mansion. He stepped through the door, taking each step carefully.

 

And then, at that moment.

 

“Aaahh!”

 

Astel’s voice, faint as it sounded, reached his ears.

 

Cassian turned around and ran. If the insane bastard who destroyed his family was going to kill his sister, all the revenge he built up to this point wouldn’t matter.

 

He turned quickly. It was time to save Astel.

 

But he immediately ran into a problem.

 

There were countless rooms in the Cornwall mansion, and every door looked exactly the same. And it was hard to tell which direction the sound was coming from.

 

Where could his little sister be in all of these rooms?

 

He grew even more anxious when he didn’t hear any voices after the loud noise. But if he wanted to save Astel, there was no time to sit still and think. He must search as quickly as possible.

 

Cassian gritted his teeth and ran through the hallway, checking each door for any signs of her.

 

🐾

 

“Aaahhh!”

 

I let out a hoarse yell.

 

“I’m going to torture you to find out how you… knew about my wife.”

 

The Duke of Cornwall’s torture was worse than I expected…

 

“Ah, it hurts!”

 

…Though it doesn’t hurt at all. Which made it harder to act.

 

I faked crying and wiped the tears from my eyes as I tried to control my voice.

 

“You’re going to get tortured.”

 

“No stop, stop!”

 

It really doesn’t hurt at all. Not because I’m a woman of steel, but because I’d inhaled a potion to the limit that dulled my senses and turned my skin to steel.

 

As long as they don’t attack my nerves, or my mind, I could defend myself.

 

I suppressed a grin and coughed hard, faking pain, feigning torment

 

“Tell me who’s responsible for this, unless you want to die a more painful death.”

 

But I had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before he would have to use black magic.

 

I gulped and looked at the Duke of Cornwall.

 

The words picked up in good shape, lasted about twenty minutes before falling apart.

 

The door to the torture chamber showed no sign of opening, and the Duke of Cornwall was beginning to come to his senses.

 

He looked at me and muttered dryly. “If that’s all you have to say to me, I’ll just have to rack your brain and find out for myself.”

 

I tried to stall for time for as long as I could after that, pretending to know the secret about his family.

 

But my brother, who had promised to find me through a secret passageway to the torture chamber by stealing the book of healing, still hadn’t come.

 

‘I’ve done enough for now, and even if I die here…’

 

I was confident of victory, but that didn’t mean I didn’t think the worst as I baited myself. I closed my eyes and then opened them.

 

Not only that, but I wanted Rune and my brother to be happy, no matter what happens.

 

I felt calm and collected. Even though I had been focused on revenge at all times, when I  was about to die, I could only think of one person.

 

The kindest man I’ve ever met in my life, the Duke of Anais.

 

To this day, I still don’t know his real name or what kind of person he was…

 

“You’re going to mess with my head?”

 

…A man who has always shown me his true feelings.

 

“What?”

 

I believed him.

 

“If that happens, do you think you’ll be okay?”

 

For the first time in my life, I spoke with complete trust in a man.  For the first time in my life, I muttered with complete faith in others.

 

“There are people who will save me.”

 

“Funny trick, yes. But how’s that going to work when you’re an idiot? Hmm?”

 

His fingertips flicked and tapped my forehead.

 

A pain worse than the strangling and the tearing of my arm came all at once.

 

I took a long, deep breath, gritted my teeth, and glared at him as my brain throbbed to the 

tips of my toes.

 

“But…”

 

His fingertips rested on my forehead. I looked away, not even bothering to move like my hands and feet were tied.

 

“You can’t touch me even with a ten-foot pole anymore.”

 

Despite my bold words, my body shivered, and my headache from the mental enchantment.

 

A sinister chuckling voice echoed loudly in my ears.

 

At that very moment, a clock tower began to chime in the distance.

 

Ding-ding-ding—

 

Duke Cornwall looked around in confusion.  The clock hadn’t chimed in his mansion for a very long time.

 

“What is happening?”

 

“…”

 

“….Why, why?!”

 

He looked everywhere anxiously.

 

Ding-ding-ding—

 

The bells continued to chime, and he looked confused and jumped up and down, forgetting he was trying to torture me.

 

“You must be confused by the sound of the clock tower.”

 

There was something strange about the Duke of Cornwall’s house.

 

Normally, a noble family home would have bells ringing day and night.

 

But at Cornwall, the bells in the clock tower never rang.

It was not known exactly why, but it seemed that the Duke of Cornwall was unusually sensitive to the sound of the clock tower.

 

As if to confirm this, it was also said that on the day he visited the palace, the bells never rang.

 

It was decided, therefore, that the chimes would be the clearest noise that could break through his mind…

 

“Madame, the Madame… The day you died, the sound of that day… Why…”

 

…My Prediction was perfectly correct.

 

The corner of my mouth lifted slightly as I saw the man on his knees with trembling hands wrapped around my head.

 

But it was only for a moment.  He stood up, stumbling through the wetness on the floor, and glared at me.

 

There was no anger, no hatred in his stare, only puzzlement.

 

“How dare you…”

 

“How dare I?”

 

“Was it you who murdered my wife?”

 

The bell rang again relentlessly. Just as the Duke of Cornwall, already in a dazed state, stretched out his hands to wrap around my head, the door swung open with a rattling noise.

 

No…

 

Bam!

 

With a deafening noise, the entire thick door shattered into pieces, like plywood breaking. The Duke of Cornwall didn’t let go of the hand holding my forehead.

 

“Avenge my wife…”

 

His voice was dark and vicious, as he muttered words in what I assumed to be the warlock’s language. 

 

My head pounded from his hand, my breath caught in my throat, and my eyes rolled back in my head.

 

For a split second, I felt like I couldn’t take it anymore. Through my blurred vision, I could see the black figure behind the Duke of Cornwall.

 

At last, he dropped roughly to the floor.