He’s My Real Brother, Duke Chapter 144

“What do you mean, you don’t want to…”

 

The Crown Prince trailed off, feigning casualness. 

 

With everything destroyed by the totem, he had no idea how the Empress had survived, or why the totem was there.

 

But it didn’t matter.

 

He was the one who triggered the totem, so he was in control of this situation.

 

‘Worst case scenario, I’d have to kill the Empress to take the totem, and then I’d just have to turn back time.’ 

 

He stared at her frail body and laughed bitterly.

 

It’s easy to subdue an elderly woman with no strength.

 

However, as a side effect of using the totem, he felt weak and unable to stand up. 

 

Deciding to make sure the totem was working perfectly, he first checked it out. 

 

The Crown Prince’s pupils flickered and squinted. He looked around the ruined palace and smiled in delight. 

 

There were only two humans here, the Empress and himself.

 

‘Unless that brute is hiding somewhere, I’m sure he’s already dead before I can find his bones…!’ 

 

The Empress stood still, watching the Crown Prince’s expression change, and then calmly spoke.

 

“You’re looking for the Duke of Anais.”

 

The Prince’s eyes narrowed in frustration, and he turned toward the Empress.

 

“Do you know if he is alive or dead?”

 

The Crown Prince’s gaze sharpened. The Empress stared at him, neither nodding nor responding.

 

“Not even the Empress knows that.”

 

A feeling of foreboding crawled in the Crown Prince’s stomach. 

 

Then he remembered that the sword the bastard always wore was made of mithril. 

 

Mithril was a powerful substance that could survive any explosion, even when everything else was reduced to ash.

 

‘If the body itself is gone, there must be some mithril nearby… No, perhaps this totem has destroyed the mithril.’ 

 

The Prince gritted his jaw as if his molars were about to break open.

 

“I see.”

 

Now it didn’t matter where he was or whether he was alive.

 

All he had to do was turn back quickly, and his dreams would soon come true, he muttered to himself like a half-crazed maniac.

 

“But it doesn’t matter now, I’m going back ten years… and I’m going to find that beast first… and I’m going to kill him. He’s nothing but trouble for the Empire.”

 

The Empress smiled bitterly as she looked around the literal ruins of the place, where all traces of humanity had vanished, leaving only the remains of the building. 

 

The Crown Prince’s Palace, which had stood firm against the invasions of the migrant tribes long ago and in every war since, had fallen. 

 

The palace and a radius of a few kilometers around it must have been destroyed as well. 

 

Unbeknownst to the Emperor, it was the Crown Prince who was the real danger to the empire.

 

“As far as I can see, the Crown Prince is the only one who is harmful to the empire.”

 

“…Oh, there’s that arrogant knight, Cassian Gray. I’d kill him, as well.”

 

The Empress laughed bitterly at that answer.

 

Humans don’t change. Even after destroying the palace and getting people killed, my son was still the same.

 

The Empress took one last look at the desolate ruins of what had once been the Crown Prince’s Palace. 

 

Immediately, all the servants of the Prince’s Palace and all the neighboring palaces were destroyed. 

 

Even if the families of the dead were to come to the palace in the future, they would not know where their beloved children’s bodies lay. Their bodies would be too fragmented to be called bodies.

 

Not even a funeral lament could be sung, and he would still be able to express his frustration.

 

My son was already a monster. I had denied it for so long, but now I had to admit it.

 

As the Empress pondered her regrets, the Crown Prince wiped away the contrived smile from his lips and whispered coldly, ‘How did you manage to survive?’

 

“Mother, I don’t know how you managed to survive this, but… I suppose the imperial family has some kind of defense. It doesn’t matter, now give me the bird in your hand.”

 

She shook her head coldly and answered, “I said no.”

 

“It belongs to me, for surely I cast the spell that activated the totem.”

 

The Empress shook her head. Her gaze swept majestically over the Prince. 

 

Of course, it was the Crown Prince who had activated the totem. The Empress simply knew that the Crown Prince would trigger the totem.

 

”It was just a coincidence that I noticed the Crown Prince’s plot.”

 

She stared coldly at the Prince, who was still unable to rise, as if his body had no strength, and briefly recalled the conversation Astel had shared with her before departing for the Demon War.

 

— ‘While I’m gone, if your headache gets worse, why don’t you visit the Crown Prince’s palace?’

 

— ‘At my son’s palace?’

 

— ‘Yes, I’ve heard rumors that there are many wizards there, and even more knowledgeable healers than I. Perhaps you could tell them of your symptoms and ask for their advice.’

 

— ‘…Yes, I will do so. If necessary.’

 

I didn’t believe Astel’s naive words, but coincidentally, the medicine she sent me had run out early.

 

Although I requested the medicine in person, I received a letter apologizing and saying that it would take about three days to make the medicine due to the heavy schedule of the Demon War.

 

Think about it, she said, adding that the palace must have a brilliant healer.

 

As soon as I read the note, I remembered something Astel had said so many times. That there must be an excellent healer in the Crown Prince’s palace.

 

To ask him to check on the Emperor’s well-being, I sneaked past the Imperial Guard and made my way to the Crown Prince’s palace through a secret passageway. 

 

Infiltrating the Crown Prince’s palace through a secret passageway, she found no cure. 

 

Instead, she received surprising news from the frivolous wizards.

 

A precious totem from the palace’s treasury had been moved to a secret vault in the Crown Prince’s palace, and the question was whether the Crown Prince would really ascend to power.

 

She had an ominous premonition and secretly sent knights to find out the Crown Prince’s intentions.

 

She caught a glimpse of his plot. Only one thing was missing from the palace’s treasure storage, the Totem of Regression.

 

Her son was plotting to use it to kill everyone and then return to the past. 

 

She tried to find a way to deal with it without sacrificing anyone, but it was impossible.

 

Later, while desperately searching for a way to stop the Prince under the surface, a visit to the Empress’s palace gave her a hint.

 

“Come to think of it, when I met Astel briefly, she mentioned something like that.”

 

“…Such a story?”

 

”Yes, she said that the Imperial Palace’s treasury must have a lot of defensive magical tools, and that she was envious of them. If she were to go to the Demon War, she would be safe with such defensive magical tools…”

 

As soon as she heard the words, the Empress immediately recalled the existence of the most powerful defensive tool that could defend against the Regressing Totem.

 

With that defense, even if the Regression Totem was activated, they would still be able to survive and fight back.

 

Thus, the Empress used the most powerful defense tool in the palace when the Crown Prince was cornered by Cassian and Duke Anais and closed his eyes.

 

‘…It was the only thing that kept me awake.’

 

The Empress searched the area around the Crown Prince, who had collapsed from the side effects of using the totem, and found the bird, and moved as far away from him as she could.

 

Then she turned to face him.

 

“Mother, what are you thinking?”

 

The Empress snapped out of her reverie.

 

While she was lost in her shallow reminiscences, the Crown Prince had barely gotten himself to his feet.

 

The side effects seemed to be slowly wearing off.

 

“How did you manage to get up already…”

 

As the Empress stiffened, the Crown Prince whispered softly, “Mother, the power of man is stronger than you think.”

 

Caught off guard. The Empress’s gaze locked on the Crown Prince. His body was wobbly, but he didn’t fall.

 

At this rate, the totem would soon be taken from her.

 

To buy time, the Empress hurried backward.

 

“Mother.”

 

The crown prince’s mouth curved into a calm smile as he watched her.

 

“You can’t run away with what’s mine.”

 

He staggered as his legs gave out, but he didn’t stop moving toward the Empress.

 

One step, two steps…

 

With that totem, he could kill the Duke of Anais in a heartbeat, and he felt his body tense up.

 

‘Now what…’

 

The Empress stumbled backward, trying to think of a way to reactivate the totem and return to the past.

 

It would take some time to get back to the past in a ruined world.

 

She had to draw a complex magic circle in her mind and then recall a specific time and space in the past to return to.

 

At least a minute or more.

 

‘…I don’t have enough time.’

 

She hesitated for a moment.

 

‘Exactly which part of time do I need to return to, so that I can completely stop the Crown Prince.’

 

Besides, simply casting the magic circle was a struggle. 

 

Though she had awakened before the Crown Prince and gotten her hands on the totem, the Empress didn’t know much about magic. 

 

She tried and failed to draw the circle in her head, and took a deep breath to calm herself.

 

Meanwhile, the distance between her and the Crown Prince was closing.

 

One step,

 

Two steps,

 

Three steps…

 

‘I need a little more distance.’

 

As the Crown Prince staggered forward, taking one step at a time, the Empress took a step back, mentally drawing the shape of the magic circle.

 

She drew the largest circle, then a triangle in the center, then another circle in the center… until she had drawn more than half the circle.

 

Poof—

 

Her back, and then her foot, caught on something. 

 

The Empress turned, her face pale. The remnants of the wall were blocking her back.

 

“What the…”

 

The Prince, who had now taken five steps forward, regained his composure and muttered.

 

“Don’t think of running away, Mother, there’s a wall behind you.”

 

The Empress thought desperately, not giving up.

 

But it was just at this point that the Prince’s hand, which had been inching steadily closer, finally reached out to the Empress and the white bird in her hand.

 

A chilly breeze blew through the air as the Prince and Empress stared intently at each other, oblivious to the other.

 

Suddenly, someone appeared from nowhere and held a sword to the Crown Prince’s throat.

 

“Looks like the tearful feud between the mother and son is over.”

 

The ghostly figure looked at the Empress and Crown Prince with an ice-cold gaze.

 

“…You, this!”

 

Panicking, the Prince hurriedly reached down for the little bird. But just as his fingertips were about to touch the bird’s feathers.

 

“You never listen.”

 

The emotionless beast simply grabbed the Prince’s hand and yanked it away. With a snap, the wrist snapped easily.