He’s My Real Brother, Duke Chapter 128

The Emperor’s body stiffened for a moment as he patted his son and closed his eyes. 

 

The Emperor was a suspicious man by nature, but he had never thought that his son would harm him. But the moment he felt his body stiffen and tighten to the tip of his tongue, he knew.

 

“You…”

 

His son, the Crown Prince, had poisoned him.

 

Unable to move, the Emperor’s expression was one of extreme panic.

 

“This… what.”

 

Unlike the Emperor, who couldn’t grasp the situation, the Crown Prince smiled slowly and wiped the corner of his mouth.

 

“So, I suggest you get some rest.”

 

“You…”

 

The Emperor started to say a word of warning, but his tongue began to twist. 

 

He thought of his guards outside the chamber. But none of them entered. It was as if someone had made sure to block their entrance.

 

“Your Majesty, haven’t you been eating too much?”

 

The Emperor’s brow furrowed at the mocking tone.

 

“You, you, unworthy…!”

 

Despite his father’s outburst, the Crown Prince smirked.

 

“I’m not going to kill you, Your Majesty, I’m not a bastard.”

 

The moment the Emperor’s eyes rolled back, the Crown Prince whispered in a low voice.

 

“Until it’s all over… rest for a while, father.”

 

Thud—

 

As soon as the Crown Prince finished speaking, the Emperor’s body collapsed to the floor. 

 

The Crown Prince opened the door to the chamber, looking down emotionlessly at his father, who had turned into a hard piece of wood.

 

‘I’m just making him sleep for a while. It’s not like I’m killing my father.’

 

After convincing himself that way so many times, it seemed like it was.

 

He looked back at his father’s stiff body and laughed bitterly.

 

It was then that Duke Cornwall, who stood beside him as they sneaked into the imperial palace, muttered darkly.

 

“Your Majesty, let’s get on with the plan.”

 

The Crown Prince didn’t answer, didn’t even nod. The moment he left the room, the doors of the Imperial Palace slammed shut behind him.

 

It was a closed door, as it hadn’t been for the past twenty years.

 

“Hooray! Hooray!”

 

The empire was literally in an uproar.

 

As soon as dawn broke, the newspaper boys rushed to deliver the news.

 

The Imperial Newspaper Bureau, published directly by the imperial palace, quickly spread the word.

 

The story went like this.

 

The Emperor has fallen into a coma. A magic circle has been activated, most likely the work of the Vietry family, known enemies who are now dead.

 

In other words, it was a shocking revelation that a member of the Vietry family was alive.

 

This led to the Crown Prince wearing a black uniform and taking the Emperor’s place. 

 

The Crown Prince took the throne and the Empress and Empress Consort began to live a life of slavery in the palace.

 

 At the same time, countless commoners who loved the Emperor gathered in the plaza to protest.

 

“Bring down the House of Vietry!”

 

“Bring back the blood carnival!”

 

“Kill them!”

 

“Catch and behead the imperial murderer!”

 

Their shouts and yells echoed loudly in the crowded Arvent Square, the busiest square in the imperial capital.

 

The streets of the square were cleared of the municipal vendors and filled with angry protesters, young and old alike, and Cassian Gray and the Duke of Anais sneaked into the scene. 

 

The Duke of Anais glared at the hundreds of protesters gathered in the square, his gaze sharp.

 

“The Vietrys are still alive!” he shouted.

 

“Disguised as Imperial nobles, you say?”

 

“They must be dealt with immediately, these people…!”

 

Finding the masterminds behind the scenes, the people who were organizing the protests and spreading the rumors, was easier than they’d thought.

 

With a quick glance in Cassian Gray’s direction, Duke Anais cast a simple spell on the body of the presumed organizer, causing him to fall behind the protesters.

 

The man, who had been shouting at the top of his lungs, began to stumble as soon as the spell was cast, and then stood dumbfounded, unconcerned by the crowd that was pushing past him.

 

“Let us begin.”

 

As soon as he heard the Duke of Anais’ words, Cassian, with a swift, knightly motion, grabbed the back of the protester who had fallen behind the group. 

 

He looked like he was about to hurt him, and muttered darkly.

 

“Come here, I won’t hurt you.”

 

With that, he grabbed the protester by the throat like a fish by the scalp and dragged him into the darkness of the back alley, where the Duke of Anais stood.

 

“I’ve got him.”

 

The Duke of Anais’ expression grew fiercer as soon as he saw the protester Cassian had brought with him.

 

“I did not cast a spell to make him lose his mind.”

 

Cassian glanced from the Duke of Anais to the protester.

 

“Of course you did, you’re out of your mind, now.”

 

His eyes were empty, his eyes gray as shells. It was hard to believe this was the man who had caused this disturbance.

 

“You’re already under the spell, so hold on to it.”

 

Cassian didn’t know what the Duke of Anais was going to do, but for now, he did as he was told.

 

To his surprise, he grabbed the man’s heart by the back of the head and pulled away.

 

In an instant, the man’s body collapsed into black dust.

 

“…what.”

 

Cassian sighed in disbelief, watching the sand slip from his grasp.

 

“See.”

 

The Duke murmured, holding up a sacramental crystal that was just as black as the obsidian in his hand.

 

Cassian’s and Duke Anais’ gazes met in the midair. 

 

It was the Duke of Anais who spoke first, “The black crystal is a symbol of dark magic.”

 

“…So does that mean that the Crown Prince and Duke of Cornwall are leading the protests…?”

 

Duke Anais nodded. The voices of the protesters, loud enough to make his ears sting, continued.

 

They’re manipulating the situation. The message of this situation was more obvious than I thought.

 

For what was hidden in nature was the way of the many to shout and incite.

 

🐾

 

That night, at the dinner table in the Duke’s mansion.

 

The news that the Emperor had fallen into a coma had caused most of the nobles to break their duties.

 

The Dukes of Anais had only broken theirs ceremonially.

 

The dining room was somber, and three bowls of Bisque, a simple soup of puréed seafood, occupied the table.

 

The Duke, Cassian, and I sat down accordingly.

 

“I’ve heard all the stories. The Emperor is in a coma, beaten by a Vietry wizard.”

 

It was a clever solution to accuse the Vietry family. The people hated the Vietrys, and using that hatred would make everything easier.

 

All they had to do was link the Duke of Anais’ consort to the survivor.

 

The Duke of Cornwall would be able to capture and kill me, the remaining member of the Vietry family, and……

 

The Crown Prince would be able to stir up suspicion against the Duke of Anais, who had taken me under his protection, and create a group of people who would distrust him.

 

Perhaps they’ll push him into a demon war and kill him secretly.

 

Knox looked at my stern expression and whispered softly.

 

“The Crown Prince actually killed him, Astel.”

 

“So he framed someone else for his crime…?”

 

“For one thing, I had a mole hidden in the Crown Prince’s palace.”

 

I’d thought it would be harder to sneak in now that the Crown Prince had the Emperor’s authority, but apparently the beast was different.

 

I looked at him, expecting new information, but Knox shook his head.

 

“Short of getting in there myself, I can’t say for sure. You’ll have to listen to it through a screen.”

 

At that, I cautiously turned to Knox and opened and spoke, “Well, actually, I have a spy planted, too.”

 

I looked at them both cautiously, sliding my feet under the table.

 

“Who is it?”

 

I shivered slightly at the thought of telling them what I had been hiding.

 

“It’s the Duke of Cornwall.”

 

They both stared at me in confusion at my answer.

 

The Duke of Cornwall, to be precise, had unintentionally become our spy.

 

On the day he fled using voodoo, I borrowed Mimi’s power and placed a tracking spell on the Duke of Cornwall’s heart.

 

Mimi’s magic didn’t just track his path. It was a spell that allowed her to share the same field of vision as the Duke of Cornwall.

 

Twice a day, once at sunrise and once at dawn.

 

If I placed my hand on the small butterfly bracelet Mimi had handed me, I would share Cornwall’s vision for the next five minutes.

 

“I wasn’t just going to take out Cornwall, I was going to take out the evil behind him. There is a most efficient way to kill cockroaches.”

 

They have a habit of sharing their food with the family, so I pre-placed sweetened food.

 

If one cockroach takes the bait, they all die.

 

The Duke of Cornwall and the Crown Prince are like a family of cockroaches.

 

So if we could get a hold of the Duke of Cornwall’s behavior, we could tackle the final villain behind him at the same time.

 

“So far, things seem to be going fairly well.”

 

I looked at the two men staring at me and continued, “I put the spell on the Duke of Cornwall when he died. We can share his vision at the same time, though only twice a day, and…”

 

I swallowed hard. The two men stared at me in silence.

 

“I’ve been checking Duke Cornwall’s vision the whole time, and there are two chambers in the Crown Prince’s palace. One is where the poison is cultivated, where even Duke Cornwall can’t go. The other is a chamber full of crystal stones.”

 

Cassian raised one eyebrow in question.

 

“Crystal?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Today, I killed one of the Crown Prince’s ragweed, and the heart came out with a black crystal.”

 

As I listened to his words, I thought deeply.

 

There was something that seemed true, and something that wasn’t.

 

“So it’s black magic, using black crystal.”

 

“And what exactly does the Crown Prince intend to do with black magic?”

 

“We both have spies planted, you’ll find out soon enough.”

 

Knox smiled fondly at me, as if Cassian wasn’t even here, emphasizing the point.

 

“The two of us, I mean. Astel.”

 

I lowered my gaze.

 

…Come to think of it, only my brother’s soup doesn’t have any seafood in it.

 

‘Maybe I’ll buy him something nice later…’

 

I felt sorry for my brother at the unfairness of the situation, but then Knox spoke up.

 

“And the Crown Prince.”

 

A white sheet of paper slid across the table.

 

“Apparently, he can’t wait to get rid of me.”

 

I glanced down at the fluttering, fallen luxury.

 

It was an order from the Crown Prince, ordering a quick return to the Demon War.

 

It was dated today, ordering a march north tomorrow.

 

To my surprise, the letter was stamped with the Emperor’s seal. I looked down at the paper and spoke in a low voice.

 

“What I want to see is…”

 

Today, I had briefly stepped outside the Duke’s mansion. I could still hear the voices of those who disgusted and loathed the Vietry family echoing in my ears.

 

“Kill the filthy wizards!”

 

“Kill and hang the Vietry’s head family, Your Highness!”

 

Not me, not my brother, not my parents…

 

There was no reason at all to listen to such filthy words.

 

“The same goes for you, don’t you think?”

 

Two pairs of eyes pierced through the coldness of my voice.