I Am the Hero's Immature Younger Brother

Two months or so since leaving the royal capital.

The brief spring had passed like the wind, and before anyone knew it, the season when insects screamed disgustingly had arrived.

Peruan, who had been staring at the black insect crying so persistently that it made his ears ring, pressed a hand to his forehead. Even so, he was not particularly the type to hate the insects called kaders, which cried every summer. Only, the reason their sound grated on him especially today was because of the news he had belatedly received.

“He left the royal castle......”

Peruan was not originally the sort to stay in one place. In particular, the time he spent in the capital was shorter than in other places. He hated complicated and foul-smelling things. How could the royal capital, where money and power lingered, not stink? As the son of a count’s house, he also had duties he ought to fulfill, but his father was still hale and hearty. And so Peruan had been living while carrying out only the bare minimum his father ordered him to do.

He had come to the capital because of the aftermath of the slave caravan, but Peruan could not stay long for several reasons. There was the business he had spread out overseas, and there were very many “woman problems” he had to settle. Even he had not imagined that the moment would come when he would have to clean up the things he had scattered in order not to become a target of political attack.

The boy he had met like fate when he infiltrated the slave caravan on an unavoidable mission, Ren.

The rapture from when he had collided with the boy inside that deep underground building where unpleasant air lingered still had not disappeared.

The sensation of that thin body he had collided with, the wide-open eyes, the gaze looking up at him, that look in his eyes that seemed to burn even as he trembled.

That beautiful light was still drifting inside Peruan.

When the feeling that he had been caught in a trap changed into certainty, from then on, Peruan decided to solve his own problem. He had never committed anything dishonorable, but by worldly standards, Peruan was a man who belonged on the promiscuous side.

Peruan, a man who loved beautiful things and freedom, had deliberately dated many women in order to escape from old-fashioned things. The image of “he is originally that kind of man” sometimes attached reasons to his actions on its own, reasons he did not have to explain, and Peruan had fully enjoyed that convenience.

It was Peruan’s mistake that he had failed to predict that someone he would truly love would appear.

This was not an age that demanded chastity from noblemen, and leading flower-like women around was not such a grave flaw. It might become awkward when he married, but the reason he had not kept even that in mind was all because of that.

Because Peruan, who loved himself and freedom most of all, had absolutely not believed that he would come to truly love one human being.

The noise that the images he had deliberately created would chatter endlessly, he could no longer gladly accept with a happy heart.

“Haa......”

“Young Count, you’ll get heatstroke at this rate.”

Tom, who had brought over a drink while sweating profusely, tried not to scowl under the sunlight.

The cafeteria awning shaded their table, but the summer sun was far too strong for that thin shade to block.

“It seems I chose the timing poorly after all.”

Peruan muttered self-deprecatingly.

The seawater, shimmering as it scattered beneath the sunlight, was vivid enough to stab the eyes.

Peruan did not even touch the iced drink Tom had brought.

Tom said nothing in response. That was because, before Peruan had boarded the ship leaving overseas, Tom had already tried to stop him once.

Both of them knew that the royal castle’s movements were far from ordinary. It was not only because of the war. Peruan had heard through his father that there was also an internal problem.

The fact that Ragniel was strange was already news that had spread little by little among the high nobles of the capital. The count, who had attended the previous royal castle conference, was also watching the royal castle’s movements, so it was not very difficult to find out.

It was not that he felt no unease about the Heroes leaving for the lands of Media and Ren having to remain in the royal castle alone. However, after learning that Ren was close with Lady Gannion and that she would gladly step forward for Ren’s sake, Peruan had boldly boarded the ship in order to settle his own affairs.

It was also because there was nothing he could do even if he remained. Peruan, who was only a young count, could not freely enter and leave the royal castle in a wartime situation. Even delivering a letter was possible only after going through quite a number of procedures. And replies to the letters he had sent with difficulty rarely came back.

Time flowed steadily, and Peruan assumed that both Ren’s situation in the royal castle and the war that was just beginning would remain sluggish. He was the type to solve what he could do rather than cling to things that could not change. He wanted to shake off the burden in his heart and stand proudly at Ren’s side.

The paper he had obtained with difficulty, pinned down by a teacup so it would not fly away, fluttered.

The writing in a foreign language was fussily long, but to summarize it briefly, it was this.

[Peruan is pure.]

It was the twenty-seventh certificate.

Beneath it were the full name and signature of the woman who had written this “certificate,” and even the witness signature of the lawyer who had observed their discussion.

“They say they can’t know where he left for?”

The news that had crossed the sea told him that already two weeks had passed since Ren had left.

Purple eyes looked out at the sea flashing in the light. In the enormous port, people were working and sweating even under the scorching sun. The docked ships swayed with the waves, and the lines of people trying to board them stretched long as well.

“Yes.”

Tom, who answered shortly, tried hard to comfort his master.

“Wouldn’t a pure man usually be more likely to win someone’s heart than a suspicious and promiscuous man......”

The purple eyes holding the sunlight looked at Tom, who stood with the sun at his back.

“But......”

“......?”

Tom waited for the words that would follow, but Peruan could not readily speak and closed his mouth.

A faint sadness settled over the nobleman’s face. Peruan touched the hand he had hidden beneath the table. His hands, which he had not had time to have tidied because he had come in a hurry, were still covered in scratches.

But could that become an excuse for not being there when he was needed?

He must have left because there was a reason to leave.

Peruan suddenly recalled the hand he had firmly held.

Ren’s voice, asking him to hold his hand, gnawed at Peruan.

Whether, somewhere, he might be asking someone to hold his hand.

Whether something that painful might happen, whether there might be no one beside him to hold it.

Worry for Ren pressed heavily down on his heart, but the most painful thing was not that reason.

Even if Ren reached out a hand and someone saved him, that someone could not be Peruan himself.

“What a selfish feeling I have.”

Peruan gripped the glass. The cold droplets gathered transparently on it wet his skin with a chill.

“What feeling do you mean?”

“The feeling of wishing that the greatest trial remains for my skylark, and that the only person who pulls him out of that trial will be me.”

Like when they had collided in the underground corridor of that shelter, like that time when Ren had had a seizure in front of him, Peruan wished he would have a chance to save Ren.

Not a bond that scattered emptily like this, but something that could bind them to each other.

If only there were such a chance, perhaps Peruan would gladly throw his body into it.

The moment he thought so, Peruan realized.

That the reason he had gone out of his way to leave the capital was not because of his own incompetence.

That waiting for letters with no replies had been more painful than he had imagined.

And that Ren’s absence was something he could not endure.

“It seems I will have to find my skylark.”

“Yes?”

Tom was flustered. Because he had seen a dangerous light brush over that smooth face.

“Young Count. That is something you must not......”

Had he already forgotten, even though he had been told that Ren’s absence was connected to the royal castle?

But Tom, who looked straight into those clear, dangerously intelligent eyes, realized that thought was wrong.

Peruan did not care. If only he could find Ren, even if it meant making an enemy of the royal castle.

Peruan lightly ignored Tom’s face, which had gone white, tucked the “certificate” into his coat, and stood.

“Tom. Don’t just stand there blankly. Go find a ship leaving for the kingdom. I don’t care how much it costs, as long as it can set sail within two hours.”

***

Peruan returned to the kingdom in a hurry with his attendant Tom. And that day, he would hear the news of the death of the highest-ranking priest Kirky, who had supposedly left together for the lands of Media.

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