I Am the Hero's Immature Younger Brother

"Brother-!"

"Brother Temar-!"

Eyes curving deeply, a voice ringing clear.

The thin body that came running in one breath and threw itself into his arms.

Temar’s entire body shook.

He gasped for breath with his knees buckled deep beneath him.

It felt horrifying, as though his skull had cracked and his brain matter was spilling out.

Blood suddenly poured from his mouth, which could not even let out a single groan.

His whole body trembled violently. Inside his fog-filled head, lightning struck countless times. Memories came pouring down together with flashing lights.......

Kwaaaang! Kwagwagwagwang---! Kuuuuung!

With an enormous roar, their voices tangled together. Perhaps they were screams.

He could not know how much time had passed.

The light showing through the curtains changed colors,

and at last, when blue light could be seen again.

Temar raised his trembling body. Beneath his feet, the wreckage of broken objects was crushed.

It was a memory he could never dare forget.

"Giselle."

The suppressed voice held anger that seemed to span eons.

"Ren......."

Luman’s faint weeping voice could be heard. Geloman’s heavily restrained breathing was filling the room.

So that was it.

It was not only himself who had forgotten the memories of Ren.

Temar realized that everyone in this room had had their memories related to Ren forcibly taken away.

Even taking one step felt difficult, as though weights had been hung from him, but Temar did not hesitate.

One step, then another, he lifted his heavy feet and moved his overloaded body.

The moment the lukewarm handle touched his hand, Temar threw the door open with a bang.

Dust rose thick from the wreckage of the broken building.

The curtains had torn, and blue light rushed into his eyes.

For an instant, his vision distorted in the brightened sight.

Giselle was sprawled miserably on the floor. His condition looked worse than a beggar wandering the streets. Cold sweat covered his bloodlessly pale face, and blood was flowing from every hole in his face.

But Temar had no room to take his circumstances into account.

"Giselle. I need an explanation."

Behind the half-torn terrace door,

Luman and Geloman were also standing behind him before he knew it.

Their pressing gazes seemed to tighten around Giselle, carrying the light of authority.

Behind him, the sun began faintly to rise.

Red and yellow light spreading like a rainbow was illuminating the night they had almost lost forever.

As it pushed away the blue light of dawn, the brilliant sunlight so very like the color of Ren’s hair returned their precious memories to them.

"Naturally...... I should."

Giselle swallowed blood and forced the words out.

His gaze swept over the faces of the three men.

Luman, pouring out tears with an anguished face, unable even to open his mouth.

Geloman, staring at him with a gaze frozen blue like a winter lake.

Temar, looking as if he would cut off his breath at any moment.

It seemed Ragniel’s wish would not be realized after all.

"Ragniel."

Giselle murmured the king’s name, closed his eyes deeply, then opened them.

But there was no regret in those eyes.

"We will talk inside."

Geloman gathered up the sprawled Giselle. Giselle’s body dangled in his hand.

A complicated look brushed over Giselle, and soon sank coldly again.

Seated around the table farthest from Ragniel’s bed, they looked over one another for a moment.

Not one of them looked sane.

Even when they had run wild on the battlefield, they had looked better than this.

"I do not know where I should begin asking. Giselle, I would like you to answer honestly."

The one who managed to speak with difficulty was Geloman.

Temar was barely holding back the impulse to seize Giselle by the throat, and Luman was barely swallowing down his screams. A series of memories rose and sank inside his mind, and he felt as though he wanted to curse himself for having asked, without knowing anything, whether he had had someone he loved.

To almost forget something he never wanted to forget—

was that not like a curse worse than death?

"Giselle. You will answer without leaving anything out."

It was a gaze that seemed about to strangle him.

Giselle could still feel the enormous hand striking down on him and the pain twisting his insides, but he also knew this could no longer be put off.

As if he had prepared it, Giselle explained with fluent ease.

"There was an old prophecy among the Sorse."

His words began with a prophecy.

An old prophecy he had told no one.

It was a prophecy about the last star.

A prophecy as if saying to hide that star if freedom was desired.

"......It was a prophecy that the stars would devour one another, and only the very first star could offset him."

Giselle concealed the story about Douglas.

Silence flowed.

Within that silence, which omitted so very much, they had no choice but to recall a face they did not want to recall.

"The very first star means......."

A wet voice trembled through the room very faintly.

The one who cut off Luman’s words was Geloman.

"Ren?"

It was a voice full of lament.

The Heroes were not surprised. Countless signs had already been pointing to Ren. They had only pretended not to see because they did not want to place responsibility on him.

Giselle nodded.

"So you tried to get rid of Ren. For a reason that small?"

"Haha, Temar. Small? We are the king’s knights. Swords for the kingdom. Did you not clearly say that we could offer anything for the greater cause?"

Giselle’s eyes were not smiling at all. The curve of his mouth soon lowered as well.

It felt as though fire flashed through Temar’s head.

"If one person’s life could fulfill the greater cause. Would it be right to do so?"

"Yes. I believe that is right."

"Think again. Is that truly right?"

His private meeting with Ragniel came back to him. Those golden eyes, holding countless worries, looking at Temar as they asked that question.

At that time, Temar had.......

"I have lived that way all my life. To me, it is only natural."

He had certainly answered that way.

For an instant, his bloodshot eyes went empty, and a hollow voice flowed out.

"Was it Ragniel’s will?"

To think that question had pointed to Ren.

Temar clenched his fist. A splinter that seemed to have lodged there when he broke the door dug deep into his hand.

If he had known the meaning behind it, Temar would never have answered that way. Because the greater cause Temar could offer held absolutely nothing connected to Ren.

"I have lived that way all my life. To me, it is only natural."

That stupid voice, knowing nothing, seemed to circle around his ear.

Looking at Temar’s face, distorted in pain, Giselle steadied his breathing.

Cold sweat ran down the side of his face.

"It was my will as well. Because I have a duty to arrange anything that throws the kingdom into disorder."

For them, it was ordinary.

Offering something for the kingdom.

Of course, for Temar as well.

The resolve he had made when volunteering as a child soldier, the countless things he had laid down beneath his feet.

Temar had no intention, now, of taking back what he had abandoned.

Because the firm choice he made then had placed him here.

In the very position where he could protect Ren.

And so, the one thing Temar alone had not abandoned was Ren.

Had they truly not known that the premise of Temar’s entire offered life was Ren’s safety?

He had almost lost the reason for his whole life.

"What you did to me."

Temar stopped breathing.

Those few seconds when even breathing felt horrifying.

That was his world without Ren.

Dark brown eyes stared at Giselle.

"What you almost did to me."

"......."

"Do you know?"

Rough breath burst out.

They would not know the world Temar had nearly been imprisoned in.

Because it could not be described in words.

If the light across the entire continent went out and time disappeared, it might feel similar.

"You tried to take everything from me. You should not have asked me like that."

Blue light began to gather in his hand. A sword pale as moonlight and blue as dawn was held in that hand.

That sword was aimed precisely at Giselle’s spleen. If it pierced him as it was, he would never live again. No authority would be able to remain in his body, and no miracle would be able to settle upon him.

Everyone in this place knew that fact.

Luman, sunk in anguish, did not even have the presence of mind to stop Temar. At that moment, the one who drew his sword was Geloman. A greatsword larger than the body of an ordinary person was gripped in Geloman’s thick hand. He held the greatsword still in its sheath and blocked Giselle at a slant.

Yet Temar’s sword was still aimed at Giselle’s body.

Giselle did not waver. As though waiting for the end that would come.

"You should not have asked as though deceiving me. You should have told me to offer my life instead. If you had, I would have honorably buried my breath beneath his feet."

Ignoring his younger brother’s sorrow. Offering one life of his own beneath Ragniel’s feet, into the land of the kingdom. He could have placed the honor obtained that way into Ren’s hands.

Temar would have been satisfied with that. He had always placed the kingdom’s safety before his younger brother, and prioritized the greater cause and the king of this land.

Because he thought that, even for Ren, who lived with his feet on this land, that was the right choice.

Because he had lost the human heart to gather and look after Ren’s sorrow a very long time ago.

Because the determination and resolve he made when volunteering as a child soldier had been so unwavering that he had ignored the steps of his young brother following behind him, falling and tumbling as he came.

Because his brave younger brother, as always, would swallow the sadness he gave him and live well, strongly.

They should have told him to die instead.

They could have taken him away from Ren. If Ren had a life, then that was enough.

But they could not take Ren, his younger brother, away from Temar.

"That is a betrayal of my loyalty. Because while offering my everything beneath loyalty, I begged for only one thing."

Temar’s voice seemed to break apart like sea foam.

The corners of his eyes faintly twisted, and at last hot tears spilled out.

"Did you not know me like this?"

Temar asked. The tip of his sword still did not waver, aimed at the place where a Hero’s authority rested.

His wet eyes brushed over Giselle and Ragniel. His tightly shut mouth trembled.

"I know, Temar."

Giselle answered softly. His face still held no regret. What stayed in Giselle’s eyes was only “necessity.”

"Even if I carve away your everything, steal the light from your world, place you in the lowest place and make you eat filth, I will never be able to erase my hatred for you."

Temar’s voice sounded as if he were reciting a curse. Paradoxically, the voice that had erased emotion sounded even more wretched.

Giselle did not avoid his gaze.

The blue sword quietly faded, cutting only the air.

"If I stab you tens of thousands of times, that will only become something dishonorable to me."

"I hate anyone who isn’t an honorable Hero!"

He had never once forgotten his younger brother’s words.

Because Temar’s signpost had always been his younger brother.

From the beginning, he had no intention of harming Giselle either.

"Where is Ren?"

Geloman relaxed the strength in the hand gripping his greatsword.

Feeling the gazes focused on him, Giselle looked beyond the terrace that had not fully closed.

The sunlight appearing over the ridge was brightly illuminating the whole world, as though asking when night had ever stayed there.

Red light pierced Giselle’s eyes.

"On a ship headed for the Etaia Kingdom."

The interrogation ended with that.

But not everyone could leave their places. Yet Temar had no intention of discussing it with them. He left the royal castle immediately.

After leaving the room covered in authority and moving away from the royal castle, Temar could feel, through a faint sensation, the place where Ren was. It was as though one clear line of light was seeping into him. If he followed that light, he would be able to meet Ren. Temar murmured his younger brother’s name like an incantation.

Amid pain as if his body were being cut apart, he could use authority to leap over short distances, but he could not reach Ren in a single bound.

Arriving at the harbor, Temar found the fastest ship headed for the Etaia Kingdom.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!