STVWDTD Chapter 32

Two Men's Jealousy

Trudge, trudge. Powerless footsteps carried her from Rodrick's room down the corridor.

"Hey."

She bumped into someone, but Diana wasn't in a state to care.

"Diana!"

A hand grabbed her shoulder, yanking her back. Lifeless pink eyes slowly lifted.

"What is it, what happened?!"

Diana blinked twice and collected herself.

"Ah. Brother."

Nathan was looking down at her, his face furious.

Sweat-dampened hair and a face gone deathly pale, covered in tear tracks. On top of that, her thin nightgown was disheveled in complete disarray. She looked as if she'd been forced.

Flames like a boiling furnace began rising in his red eyes.

"......"

"I'm tired. If you have something to say, later... Brother?"

Nathan passed her wordlessly and strode with angry steps down the path she'd come from.

BANG—! The door flew open as if it might shatter. The man who'd been resting, body suffering backlash from excessive mana use, turned his gaze toward the door.

"You fucking bastard!"

Nathan erupted with tremendous killing intent and grabbed Rodrick by the collar, hauling him up.

"Brother!"

Before she could intervene, Nathan's fist connected with Rodrick's face. Thwack— The blow landed square on an already swollen cheek.

"I didn't think you were like this. I trusted you—a comrade who shared life and death. I didn't care if you went berserk, mad with bloodlust."

"......"

"But not my sister. You son of a bitch!"

Nathan's fist wasn't permitted a second strike. The man with one cheek puffed swollen caught Nathan's fist firmly.

"I don't understand what you're talking about?"

"Ha, what?!"

"Why should I be hit?"

Nathan's mouth corners, raised to the limit with rage, trembled visibly.

"You need a beating before we talk."

"......"

Those blue eyes turned not to Nathan but to Diana. As if demanding she explain what this was about. Diana sighed deeply.

"Stop it. Brother."

Diana grabbed the arm where tendons bulged, but Nathan didn't release Rodrick's collar.

"I don't know what you're imagining, but Rodrick did nothing wrong. Stop."

You see how you look and still say that?! Nathan ground his teeth and glared at Diana.

Watching Diana take Rodrick's side to the bitter end, he swallowed his frustration. Nathan released the collar roughly.

"If this is Northern hospitality, my disappointment runs deep."

Thorns bristled in his suppressed voice. Nathan grabbed Diana's wrist and turned away.

"Let's go."

"Wait. Brother."

Nathan ignored Diana's words and led her from the corridor toward her room.

"Pack. Now."

"What?"

"This place isn't fit to stay any longer. We're leaving."

"Brother."

"No. Just change clothes quickly. I'll buy you whatever else you need."

"Nathan!"

Nathan, thoroughly agitated, looked unstable. He seemed desperate to escape what he'd identified as a dangerous place as quickly as possible.

"Calm down. Not now. Where would I go right this moment?"

"Anywhere! Better than here."

"Sister?"

At the loud voices, Noel, who'd been sleeping obediently in her bed, woke. Nathan's gaze turned to Noel.

"Hey, kid. You get dressed too. We're leaving together."

Noel, who'd been rubbing half-open eyes groggily, stopped. Seeing Diana's condition, he ignored Nathan's words.

Urgently rising and crawling down from the bed, Noel clutched Diana's skirt tightly.

"Sister! What happened?!"

Why is everyone overreacting like this? Diana placed her hand on Noel's head and smiled softly, as if to reassure him.

"Nothing happened."

"Liar."

"Hm?"

His voice was too small to hear. Noel fiddled with her hand, then—whoosh—wordlessly bolted from the room.

"Noel!"

"Where are you going. Hurry and change."

She tried to catch Noel but Nathan grabbed her wrist. What on earth has gotten into this brother? Her head was already complicated enough to burst.

"Where would we even go? I can't just return to the family estate right now."

"I have a residence in the West. Let's go there. I'll handle the family and come back. Stay there meanwhile."

"Run away like you did, brother?"

Nathan's body, which had been heading toward the dressing room to pack clothes himself, stiffened.

"What did you say?"

"Right. You didn't run away—you abandoned the family. How are you going to step up and solve anything now?"

He'd definitely used military service as an excuse to abandon the family and wander.

It seemed he'd abandoned the young sister who remained at home too, and Nathan always felt uneasy about one corner of his heart.

The two accomplished older brothers built their own power bases and lived well, but the youngest was different.

So he'd thought Diana, like him sick of the family and abandoning everything, had lived confined to the estate with her back turned to the world.

"I'll manage somehow."

His mouth felt rough, words wouldn't come. Regret like guilt seemed to press down on his tongue like a heavy weight. Should I have taken you with me then?

"You can't even solve my physical condition right now, brother."

Harsh words, but true.

"If I stay here, it can be solved. I can find a way. It won't take long. I'll leave then. Okay? Brother."

Watching Diana hold his hand affectionately, Nathan bit his lower lip hard. He couldn't force himself to say "let's leave" more strongly. How could I ever win against you?

"......"

"But, brother."

He should have noticed from that gentle tone.

"There are fragmentary memories coming back to me. And it seems like you know all of it accurately?"

"Huh? Wh-what?"

Danger alarms blared. Beatus women were most frightening when gentle. Nathan felt unconscious cold sweat forming.

"What I don't remember."

She was smiling, but her eyes weren't.

"You know, don't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about?"

With his hand held firmly, Nathan turned his head to avoid her gaze. Run. Must run. Nathan's flight instinct was surfacing again.

"You said to me, brother. Asked if I was still sulking at you. Said I went around in a daze for a while, not even talking. When exactly was that?"

"......"

"Being dragged there. It wasn't just once, was it?"

That space where she'd been taken captive. She seemed to have been cursed there. The sigils on her back must have formed then too.

His flustered red eyes shook back and forth.

"You remember?"

"Not all of it. I don't know what that place even was. I didn't know I had scars on my body."

Ha. Nathan sank heavily onto the bed. He'd hoped she wouldn't remember.

"I don't know the location either. They took you with eyes and ears thoroughly blocked. Even when I tried to follow, I couldn't catch up. Whatever magic they used."

Nathan continued, cracking—crack—his stiff neck.

"You know what? Coming back from there drives people mad. In the past it seems they experimented on branch family members, but since no one came out normal, they started using only direct descendants."

"What experiments?"

Nathan shrugged.

"Don't know. What experiments. But I know they used mana. And it was probably employed for the imperial family. That's what our family does, right?"

The imperial dogs. Beatus's infamy ran differently than the militarily powerful Schwartz—but just as notorious.

A greed-soaked family that seized power by offering anything for the imperial household.

Even the novel stamped them as a villain house.

"I need to meet my sister. Or at least eldest brother."

If it was her sister and brother, if it was them, they'd know precisely. About the past she'd forgotten.

"You said you can't even contact them?"

"Help me, brother. If you go directly, eldest brother will meet you."

For some reason, the Beatus eldest son and mastermind Devir Beatus had cut off all contact and wouldn't accept any. Even channels through the underworld were blocked.

"You'll help, won't you? Brother."

"You want me to go meet Devir Beatus?"

"Yes."

Watching Nathan make a face of genuine reluctance, Diana smiled brightly.

"If you help, I can leave this place quickly, can't I?"

"Ha, really. I'm only listening because it's you. You know that?"

"I know. My brother's the best!"

At Diana's praise, Nathan couldn't hide his rising mouth corners despite pretending otherwise.

Through the violently opened door, a small child burst in. The child transformed instantly into an adult male while venting fury.

The man who'd stolen Rodrick's body watched with bland indifference.

Thwack— At the roughly shoved body, one of the man's eyebrows rose crookedly. Today he'd had many unwelcome visitors.

"Why did you do it!"

At the enraged male's roar, the man pressed down on Rodrick's twitching body firmly.

"You—is my descendant watching this too?"

"I don't care."

A handsome man with build similar to Rodrick's height but slender physique. His features were delicate but his solid body was trained no less than any warrior's.

Noel, returned to true form, was using power unstably from rage. His hair rippled above in the air, each strand ungoverned by uncontrolled force.

"Why can't you just leave Beatus alone! Just let her live quietly, can't you?! Even with Angela you went around stirring things up everywhere. You were no help at all!"

Watching seething Noel, the man's eyes sank even darker.

"That's exactly why. To make amends."

"Ha, amends?! Quietly absorbing your descendant's curse and eliminating this family's curse would have let wounds heal naturally. You pried at them!"

"Do you truly think so? The fundamental problem wouldn't have been solved."

At the man's sardonic tone, Noel's straight forehead crumpled.

"It's visible. To you. Where that child's mana is being drained. You need to eliminate the source. Absorbing my descendant's curse is only a stopgap measure, isn't it? Don't pretend to care for that child."

The man whispered low near Noel's ear.

"Why, did you grow fond of playing house after a few hundred years?"

Thwack— Noel shoved the man's body again. A beast's growling sound leaked between Noel's teeth.

"You're the one planning to use that child. To find Angela, you seized someone else's body, didn't you? Wake up. You and she are both already dead."

A bitter smile rose at the man's lips.

"And you? A fool shaken by one portrait of Angela."

No further words continued. At the presence approaching from outside the door, Noel's body shrank instantly.

Fortunately, the door that closed by magic with their entry kept their forms hidden.

BANG— The door suffering today's tribulations opened violently again.

"Noel. Why are you here? Come here."

At Diana's entrance, Noel scurried—patter-patter—toward her. Diana scooped Noel into her arms.

Approaching the man, Diana glared at him with firm eyes.

"Why are you picking on my Noel?"

"What?"

"You were arguing with Noel, weren't you? It was loud all the way into the corridor."

Taking Noel's side with a face resembling Angela twisted the man's mood. Ha. You'll take this brat's side?

Inside one body, two men's jealousy writhed.