He’s My Real Brother, Duke Chapter 165

Caught in a moment of doubt, I didn’t know when to speak. But it didn’t take long for my doubts to be answered.

 

He opened the box, and inside was…

 

“But please accept this as a token of my love.”

 

…a ring.

 

It was a beautiful silver ring with a clear gemstone that sparkled and reflected the light. I turned to him, my voice trembling.

 

“…Are you giving me this ring as a token of your love?”

 

“Yes. I want you to look at it every day and think of me… and how I want to spend many years with Astel.”

 

I bit my lip, but in this empire, the act of a man getting down on one knee and offering a ring to a woman meant only one thing.

 

A proposal of marriage.

 

I raised an eyebrow and asked innocently.

 

“So, if you’re not proposing, can I marry someone else?”

 

He blinked his dark lashes and spat out the words slowly, as if my words had left him speechless.

 

“…No, not anyone else.”

 

“Then why don’t you propose? 

 

“The truth is, I want to propose to you, and if you refuse, so be it. But if it’s not you…”

 

His words trailed off.

 

No, I wouldn’t dislike it at all!

 

I bit my lip tightly. No matter what he wanted, rejection was never an option for me in the first place. I would gladly accept the heart of a man who feared rejection.

 

But there was something I wasn’t sure about earlier. 

 

As I looked at the proposal ring on his hand, I tried my best to feign indifference. 

 

His face twitched in agony at my cold expression, and as much as it hurt, there was something I had to ask for at this moment.

 

With a haughty gesture toward his hand, I asked.

 

“…Before that, your hand. You injured yourself on purpose.”

 

“No.”

 

He shook his head, but I could read the panic that flashed across his face.

 

This shouldn’t be happening. He was supposed to be strong.

 

Not injured on purpose like this, out of the blue.

 

“As I was treating Knox, I thought to myself, that’s weird. I don’t think Knox would get hurt by an idiot like Oscar.”

 

Knox’s body, hunched over on one knee, stiffened more violently than Oscar’s, who had been rolling on the floor earlier.

 

“That’s…”

 

He looked clearly stung. I turned to him, repeating myself for emphasis.

 

“…I don’t know the reason for today, but no matter what, don’t hurt yourself on purpose, and tell me you’ll put your safety before mine, promise me.”

 

There was a long pause after I finished. I could glean from his silence that he would not spare himself if he thought I might get hurt.

 

“I would not sacrifice my life for Astel if she were in danger.”

 

Or, as I suspected, he whispered in a deep voice.

 

Then I had no choice.

 

Deciding to use my last resort of leverage, I crossed my arms in front of my chest. At the same time, I put on a haughty facade and declared in a heartless voice

 

“Then I won’t marry you.”

 

As he looked up at me, his face, which had been languidly relaxed for a moment, stiffened. 

 

The shock was so great that his hand went limp, and the proposal ring nearly fell out of his palm. He stared at me, holding the proposal ring upright.

 

“Astel, that’s…”

 

He said he would still propose to me if I said no.

 

The combination of shock and embarrassment on his face was…

 

It was kind of adorable. I kept my mouth in a straight line, trying not to laugh. 

 

It pained me to see the sullen look on his cute face, but I couldn’t help it. I had to make it clear that he wouldn’t sacrifice himself for me again.

 

I whispered under my breath, “What if I’m widowed later, and I have to go to Knox’s grave all the time, and live alone for decades, withering and dying…”

 

His complexion went white. He stumbled for a moment, then spoke urgently.

 

“There is no way Astel is going to wither away and die.”

 

“Knox will die a quick death from overworking himself, and I’ll be left to live alone and wear black all the time…”

 

Knox quickly retorted to my increasingly sullen tone.

 

“I’ll never, ever make you do that. You can wear what you want every day…”

 

“If you die, Knox, I’ll cry all the time, my eyes will be puffy, and I’ll be called a carp.”

 

“You will never be a carp, Astel.”

 

Hearing his retort, I chuckled low and looked him straight in the eye.

 

“Of course I am. You should take care of yourself, you must. After all, we have the same amount of life left in us…”

 

I now stared at his hand again. Sighing heavily as I stroked the gauze wrapped around the hand that held out the proposal ring.

 

Hearing my worried sigh, Knox lifted his head and gently cupped my cheek with his uninjured hand.

 

“I will never leave you alone, Astel. So… you won’t have to worry about being a widow or a grave…”

 

But then. His words stopped. 

 

I shook my head and stared at Knox. When he met my gaze, his expression stiffened, as if he had been hit over the head with something.

 

“…Astel, yeah, well, you know.”

 

I shifted my gaze from his lips to his eyes. There was a certain anticipation in his blue eyes, rolling in waves.

 

“The widow… thing, I mean.”

 

My eyes curved into crescents as I listened to his stuttering words.

 

He realized what I meant.

 

My desire to marry him.

 

“Yes,” I answered, light and warm as a spring breeze.

 

One moment his face crumpled sorrowfully, as if his world had fallen apart, and the next he smiled like a man who had gained the world. 

 

I watched Knox’s complexion change from one emotion to the next, unable to tell what he was feeling.

 

“Then…”

 

His lips trembled, as if he couldn’t bring himself to utter those precious, momentous words.

 

This man, this mountain of a man, this man who had just disposed of Oscar for me, this man who had been so brave, as if it didn’t matter, even when it cost him his life…

 

The man most feared by the people of this empire trembled before me. As if he was afraid of what to say next, and afraid, terrified, excited by my answer.

 

“Will you marry me,” Knox asked, his complexion as white as a strangled man’s.

 

“Do you mean to say that you will marry me, that you will…”

 

I reached out my hand toward the ring Knox held out. I gave it a little nudge and replied playfully.

 

“Yes, I promise our future. I have a lot of things I want to do, so I don’t know when we’ll get married, but…”

 

He replied urgently, “I’ll wait, it doesn’t matter when.”

 

I answered, looking him straight in the eye.

 

“Okay.”

 

“Then…”

 

With a trembling hand, he tried to slip the ring onto my ring finger. He almost dropped it again, fumbled a few times, and held his breath, reverently.

 

 After what must have seemed like an eternity to Knox, the ring finally slipped onto my ring finger. 

 

As he held the ring still in my hand, he whispered in a hushed tone, “…I swear, I’ll make you the happiest person in the world.”

 

There was a look of reminiscence on his face. He didn’t seem to know what he was saying, but he seemed to mean it.

 

Suddenly, I saw a flashback to our first meeting as adults.

 

‘I’ve been waiting for you to say that.’

 

I was afraid of the Duke of Anais that day. I thought, “I’ve been waiting for you,” as if it were an invitation to death. But less than a year later, the tables were turned.

 

I regained my memories of Knox, and he became the man I loved most in the world.

 

So…

 

I understood perfectly what Knox had meant when he said he’d been waiting for me that day.

 

Now it was my turn to return the favor. I turned to him with all of my emotions and asserted, bluntly but sweetly.

 

“I’ve been waiting for you, those words.”

 

I wondered if he remembered our first meeting.

 

The moment my words resonated.

 

A smile, even brighter than before, adorned his beautiful face. Looking like he had the world at his feet, he whispered sweetly.

 

“Now I want to kiss you with a vow.”

 

Slowly, I closed my eyes. It was an unspoken permission. His lips met mine. Unlike his rush, his breath was so gentle as it drifted across my mouth. 

 

After a long kiss, when I was out of breath, his lips parted slightly.

 

This time, the shortness of breath wasn’t from the imprint. It was only because I kissed Knox. 

 

Likewise, the frantic pounding of my heart, now not because of the imprint…

 

It’s because he’s the one who makes my heart beat, my destiny.

 

I stared at him, my gaze trembling. Not wanting to be separated from me, Knox placed a small kiss on the tip of my nose and whispered softly.

 

“Still, I think the vow is lacking.”

 

Though the words were anything but gentle.

 

“…What?”

 

My eyes widened in confusion, and he smirked, grabbing my chin.

 

“Let’s kiss again, my love.”

 

Before I had time to process his words, he crushed his lips over mine again, roughly. I squeezed my wide-open eyes shut once more as I felt his lips on mine.

 

A dreamy proposal and a beautiful kiss. My heart was filled with a warm feeling of euphoria.

 

We had finally chosen to be each other’s destiny, to be happy together forever, without an imprint.

 

《He’s My Real Brother, Duke! ~ END》