I Am the Hero's Immature Younger Brother

Ragniel ran frantically.

His heart was crying terribly, yet not a single tear fell.

It was a night bright with moonlight. The royal palace was noisy with the banquet. But Ragniel ran while hiding himself within the shadows.

In a complete mess, he sprinted down staircases, hid behind walls and pillars while checking for signs of people, and slipped out of the palace like a thief.

He was barefoot.

Only after leaving the palace grounds did Ragniel realize that fact. A cold, stinging sensation scraped against the soles of his feet.

He could not even feel the blood flowing from the cuts left by stones against his feet.

Whenever he heard voices, Ragniel unfailingly hid himself among bushes and trees. The entire time he ran toward the watchtower, he concealed himself within shadows.

Yet the watchtower was still far away. He had run desperately, but Ragniel realized he had not escaped the palace grounds at all.

“Hahk. Hahk.......”

His ragged breathing filled his ears, and his entire body was drenched in cold sweat.

I have to go. I absolutely have to go.

Dragging along his exhausted body, Ragniel repeated it to himself countless times.

I have to go.

I have to undo the choice I made.

I have to retract my arrogant self-righteousness and ask for their opinions.

Running wildly, he eventually tripped over his own feet. Ragniel crashed onto the ground and rolled violently. Only after rolling several times did he finally stop. His entire body was covered in scrapes, and his precious clothing had been torn and dirtied. His distorted reflection appeared in a fallen golden button.

Ragniel groped around and picked up the fallen button.

This appearance was Ragniel’s current state.

Filthy and ruined. A miserable figure with not even a trace of a noble king remaining.

Had he truly become a ghost?

Had all the spells already been completed while he was making decisions on his own?

Could it not be reversed?

Just because they had pledged loyalty to him did not mean he could take their lives.

Deep regret tightened around his chest.

Ragniel abruptly rose to his feet and ran again.

There was no way he had become something like a ghost. He could not give up this easily.

However, regardless of his desperate wish, Ragniel could not leave the palace grounds. Now even the soldiers patrolling the area had disappeared. There was no longer any need for him to hide within bushes. The noisy sounds had vanished into the darkness long ago, and the only thing Ragniel could still see was the bright light stretching splendidly beyond the palace windows.

“Hahk. Hahk. Hahk.”

He was so out of breath he could no longer run.

Ragniel stood still and looked around.

Everything felt disconnected from him. It was as though no sound could reach him, and no person could touch him. In a space where even the air itself seemed frozen, Ragniel stared at the unmoving moonlight.

“.......”

Ragniel’s eyes shook helplessly.

He truly had become a ghost.

He truly......

could not leave this place.

Ragniel sank down where he stood.

He could not think of anything he should do. He could not stop the deaths of the Heroes.

There was a metallic taste in his throat. Ragniel repeatedly swallowed thin saliva.

This was how it was always meant to become. My judgment was correct. I become the ghost of the palace, and they become free.

Ragniel thought calmly.

His resolve had not been something simple. His belief that he should free the Heroes from their shackles was an ancient conviction to him, an unbreakable will. Ever since he could remember, the Heroes had been with him. To someone treated like a doll, they had been the most human thing placed into his hands. They were the reason he had continued living.

How could he continue using the Heroes who had saved him...... merely as tools?

The wars upon this land would never cease.

The Sorse Girls had prophesied a new weapon, saying that whoever wielded it would gain the power to rule the world. Ragniel thought that weapon might perhaps be a “star” that had not yet appeared.

And perhaps an additional prophecy regarding it had already emerged, with only Giselle having heard of it, Ragniel speculated.

Giselle also would not want it. The emergence of more existences like themselves.

The Heroes had changed. They had begun to desire human hearts.

The beginning of the seven-year war. Back then, they had lost every emotion except loyalty toward their master, Ragniel.

What they could imitate were merely superficial fragments of emotion; the Heroes could not properly possess emotions themselves. That was why the King had been able to respect and honor them solely as the kingdom’s Heroes. He loved them deeply, but Ragniel had always drawn a line within his heart, and he had never taken a single step beyond it.

He had felt the impulse to cross it. It was also true that he had relied on them too much. But, but, Ragniel had never crossed that line.

He as the king of a nation.

They as the Heroes of the kingdom.

That was the relationship binding them together, something like an oath that could never be severed.

Burying their human hearts beside the companion who had died seven years ago, Ragniel and the Heroes had made a vow. In this lifetime, rather than living as individual humans, they would become objects for the kingdom.

He believed firmly. Believed that resolve would never break.

But the day a certain boy arrived at the royal palace, Ragniel felt unease blooming inside his heart.

And then, at some point, he suddenly realized it.

That when they called “Ren,” they carried different emotions.

That they suffered because they wished to possess human hearts.

That they longed for true love.

And that the end of that longing could never possibly be happiness.

A kingdom that lost the treasure called Heroes would collapse.

And the King who lost the Heroes would also disappear helplessly.

His own end, after remaining a doll until the day he exhausted his usefulness, would surely be upon the execution block.

Ragniel wanted to stop that tragedy.

He decided to remove the Heroes’ shackles and set free the boy they wished to love.

‘Leave it to me. I’ll achieve what you desire in your place.’

Ragniel squeezed his eyes shut.

The voice that stirred the confusion buried deep within him was a voice identical to his own.

The moment he saw himself reflected in the fountain water.

Ragniel felt as though he had come face to face with a nightmare.

Memories of the past reflected upon the water’s surface that day, shattering into countless fragments before digging back into his mind once more.

“Hhhuuhk.”

As though waking from a nightmare, Ragniel trembled violently.

He felt his scattered thoughts beginning to flow together into one path. Yet he still could not think clearly.

‘If a new star appears, the kingdom will collapse, and you will live as a shadow.’

He was afraid.

Yes, all of this was what that child had told him. The child who could not emerge into the world because of him. The boy who had lived trapped within the mirror for over a decade had told him these things.

Ragniel had fallen easily.

Because losing the Heroes’ affection was unbearably painful to him. Even while cheering on their feelings, jealousy and anguish bloomed deep within his heart. If not for him, if they had not devoted unbreakable loyalty to him, would they not have been able to leave freely? To abandon him.

Perhaps it had been selfishness.

No, he did not know.

Which thoughts belonged to that child, and which judgments were his own.

But it was true that he loved the Heroes and wanted to free them from their shackles.

And it was also true that he wanted Ren to live freely.

When he decided to let Ren go, Ragniel read the emotion within Giselle’s eyes. It was “a certain pity,” and Ragniel keenly realized that the target of that pity was Ren.

The moment he saw that gaze, Ragniel also instinctively understood the prophecy of the Sorse Girls.

That the new weapon, regardless of what form it took, undoubtedly referred to “Ren.”

If that was the case, then Ren had to be freed even more.

Because the Heroes’ strongest wish was for Ren to live freely.

That was why he had placed Ren atop the vast and magnificent ritual spread throughout the kingdom.

He sent him into the sacred Forest of Aked, and dispatched Verdi for the ritual’s conclusion.

Did it succeed?

His thoughts raced frantically.

It must have succeeded.

Because his loyal Hero never failed a mission.

You did the right thing.

The moment I saw myself shattered into dozens of pieces in the mirror fragments.

The moment I handed this body over to that child and asked him to make the decision.

I should have realized there would be no turning back.

Yes, I made that choice precisely so I would not turn back.

The palm pressed against the button stung painfully.

Ragniel, for your sake. I’ll offer up anything.

At some point, Giselle’s voice seemed to brush against his wet cheek.

Giselle is in that watchtower.

I also want to offer something for their sake.

Ragniel thought that.

Then do it.

The voice within Ragniel whispered.

Admit it. I did not make a decision, I merely ran away.

I simply handed myself over to that child because it hurt too much.

The one capable of giving them true freedom is not me. If they can find freedom through love, then I must respect that.

I should listen to the voices of the Heroes who protected me and decide afterward.

This is something I caused, so I must stop it.

Let’s turn it back, Douglas.

My twin brother hidden behind the fog.

Light filled Ragniel’s eyes. The golden button clenched in his hand shattered, and Ragniel’s form completely vanished. He felt his consciousness split apart thousands of times and recombine tens of thousands of times. When his body appeared again, it was upon the watchtower stairs. Ragniel lay sprawled beneath those stairs.

“.......”

Voices came from above.

Even though he could not hear the words clearly, Ragniel realized Giselle was there.

Because Ragniel knew Giselle’s breathing. Breaths always perfectly restrained. He was someone who controlled even his breathing.

That carefully controlled breath trembled for a single instant.

Ragniel moved on instinct. His body was faster than ever before. The stone stairs could not obstruct him, and Ragniel saw a gleaming silver blade.

That blade reflected Ragniel’s face.

He had feared everything that reflected images. Ragniel could not bear seeing his own face reflected there. But not anymore.

Ragniel understood completely.

That he was an unstable existence, and that he had a twin brother.

Ragniel threw himself forward and embraced Giselle, and Douglas’s blade buried itself deep into Ragniel’s abdomen.

Drip. Drip.

Blood poured out as the newly formed body, impossible to recognize, collapsed.

Ever since the moment Saint Leviantehnuk’s name had been mentioned,

perhaps this had been inevitable from the very beginning.

Part of him even thought it might be better to die here like this. If he died, then they too would no longer need to remain within the kingdom beneath the title of “Stars.”

To remove the shackles forced upon them, and to wash away with death the sin of having used them as swords for his entire life.

If there truly was an afterlife, if God mercifully watched over him.

Then perhaps at the end of death, he could reunite with them.

The swords who had offered him their loyalty......

Ragniel clenched his fist tightly and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Hahk.”

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