22.
Thud, thud, clunk.
The shoddy carriage had a terrible ride.
‘I miss my own carriage.’
Unlike the carriages of other nobles, which were painted white or gold, McFoy’s carriage, with its black paint and gold and purple decorations, looked quite impressive. Not to mention the ride quality.
Again, thud, thud, clunk, clunk.
“…”
I squinted my eyes and looked at Norma sitting across from me. It was fine that he had caught the boy who was about to fall due to my carelessness. Everything was fine until then.
But afterwards, Norma’s condition was completely different. It wasn’t the occasional state of madness I had seen before. After getting on the carriage, he kept his eyes closed the whole time. His face looked worn out, as if he had been cheated out of a fortune or had just been hit hard.
He seemed to be suppressing some emotion, so I decided to leave him alone for now and replayed the recent events in my mind.
Norma burst into tears when he saw the boy. It was a dramatic change in expression for someone who always had a smiling face.
It wasn’t just a fleeting expression. Although I had only seen it for a short time, Norma was good at managing his expressions. But now, he had a completely shattered face and froze in place.
When I sensed something strange and turned my head, I discovered his expression and had countless thoughts.
‘Does he know him? Could he be a hidden son? Was he adopted? Pretending to be adopted? But that doesn’t seem likely. He doesn’t resemble them. Moreover, could the person who was supposed to be the Diazi heir have had an accident at that age? If that had happened, the elders of that family would have been devastated.’
Countless thoughts raced through my mind faster than light. When I asked him why, the nomad replied with trembling lips.
“I mistook someone for another person.”
Does he resemble someone I know? Is that why he’s making such a face?
I looked at the boy in front of me again. With his black hair and bright brown eyes, he appeared to be a year or two older than Archie. Who is this child that Norma seems to know…
As I searched my memories, I furrowed my brow.
“Nicholas Diazi.”
Jet-black hair, golden eyes just like Norma. Brothers with a significant age difference.
“…”
Now that I thought about it, the Norma fell asleep when the young Nicholas was just about that age. That’s according to the narrative of Nicholas Diazi in <Ophelia and the Night>.
Even if you didn’t know the contents of <Ophelia and the Night>, it was a well-known fact for those familiar with it. The story of the young Diazi family searching everywhere for his lost elder brother, Norma Diazi, was famous.
In any case, the story of the male protagonist, Nicholas Diazi, begins when a man he trusted like a brother uses him as a hostage and curses his brother, causing the him to disintegrate before his eyes like black powder.
Nicholas falls into a panic when he sees Norma disintegrating before his eyes like black powder and awakens in that moment. With Nicholas’s awakening, Norma avoids the curse of death but falls into a deep sleep as a consequence.
And in the sudden awakening, while Nicholas is drowsy, Nyx steals Norma’s body.
At that time, Nyx reveals the curse to Norma’s friend and provokes him. From there, the crime begins.
To retrieve Norma’s body, Nicholas searches for Nyx, following clues that lead him westward. Then, at the McFoy estate, which had been massacred, he coincidentally encounters a girl who emerges.
That is the first encounter between the female protagonist, Ophelia, and the male protagonist, Nicholas, and the beginning of their perilous adventure.
In the ending of <Ophelia and the Night>, Ophelia defeats Nyx and finds Norma in Tartarus, leading to a moving reunion between the two brothers. However, it is not described what happens to Norma afterward.
It simply states, ‘The beautiful brothers embraced each other and wept,’ as the conclusion of the character of Norma Diazi in <Ophelia and the Night>.
Nicholas Diazi is a character with a very tearful demeanor, and he cries only twice in the story. When he almost lost Ophelia and when he reunited with his elder brother, Norma Diazi.
In any case, the brother that Nicholas Diazi has been desperately searching for, for over a decade, was right in front of my eyes. I looked up again and saw the Norma sitting opposite me.
‘… The older brother you’ve been looking for like a madman doesn’t seem to want to meet you.’
Norma still had his eyelids gently lowered. I knew it when I saw that dying face.
“…”
Norma feels a terrible sense of guilt towards his younger brother, Nicholas.
‘There must be shame, debt, and other burdens tangled up in it.’
It was obvious that he did not want to go back home, and seeing that he became such a mess because he ran into a boy the size of his younger brother, the estimate came out. He doesn’t have the courage to face him.
The excited feeling that had been building up all along suddenly vanished, as if cold water had been poured over my head. The dream of wandering through festival streets, which had resurfaced with the thought of <Ophelia and the Night>, had already passed its prime.
I slowly lowered my gaze. The Terasas’ condition was similar to Norma’s. All three flowers were crushed by the power of my grasp and withered.
‘Well then.’
When Terasa goes for a week, good luck comes.
A week? My Terasa wouldn’t even last an hour.
‘This is my reality. Wake up, Aisa.’
I bit my lip to hold back the urge to say something vulgar.
For a moment, I had the impulse to throw Terasa at Norma’s face. I didn’t like what Norma was doing.
‘You just sat there, closing your eyes and pretending to be innocent.’
It was like seeing someone I knew doing something similar, and it stirred up resentment in me.
That Norma doesn’t know how desperately his younger brother, Nicholas, searched for him. That’s why he’s acting like this, pretending to be innocent.
The only commonality between me and Nicholas is that we both have someone we’ve been searching for, for over ten years. I seek revenge, and Nicholas seeks to reclaim.
I’ve been chasing after Nyx or Ophelia, and Nicholas has been chasing after Nyx in order to find Norma with Ophelia. Naturally, we’ve encountered each other often. Now that I think about it, there was no such thing as a coincidence.
‘That’s why he said he didn’t know a woman named Ophelia. Nicholas that son of a bitch.’
What’s funny is that the Ophelia I was looking for is with Nicholas, and the Norma that Nicholas was looking for is with me.
‘Is it a reasonable excuse that your younger brother got injured in the head? He believed it was all his fault, and he searched for you.’
Norma, who was busy avoiding and evading without understanding the intentions of the person searching for him, was irritating. Most conflicts between people arise from a lack of communication.
Of course, when I managed to survive and took Norma out of Tartaros, the dramatic reunion of the brothers didn’t happen. But to think that the reunion event was canceled after all the efforts.
Interfering in other people’s business at any time is impolite. I had seen firsthand how a single impoliteness can ruin an entire domain.
I had to choose my words carefully. These pieces of information were fragments of my memory, and Noma didn’t personally tell me.
Still, yes, what did you accomplish by hiding?
Do you think that if you hide and then appear later, after a hundred years or so, I won’t remember? Do you believe that?
It’s ridiculous.
“Hey, Sir Diazi.”
Since this didn’t feel like someone else’s business, I couldn’t hold back any longer and opened my mouth. McFoy wasn’t good at holding back in the first place.
Norma opened his eyes at the sound calling him. When our moist eyes met, the raging emotions seemed to soften a bit.
“Why don’t you ask about Nicholas Diazi? Why don’t you ask about your family, your lineage, anything? Hasn’t it been over ten years? Aren’t you curious at all? What’s so frightening that you’re like this?”
“Lady Aisa.”
Norma’s eyebrows slightly furrowed. It wasn’t anger, but a sad and pained expression on his face.
“I don’t know if you’re avoiding Nicolas Diazi because something happened between you guys, but at least that guy who’s been wandering the continent looking for his brother for decades seems to want to meet you.”
“…Nicholas… has been looking for me?”
“Was that guy just idling around? Are the rumors about the Diazi brothers dying and not living a complete lie?”
“That child… He’s too kind… Innocent and kind, so I thought he might be able to find me.”
Innocent? Kind? Are we talking about the same person?
“Your brother… That black hair and golden eyes, he looks very similar to you, but his eyebrows are a bit sharper and his name is Nicholas, right?”
I asked just to make sure.
“You know Nicholas very well.”
Well… Everyone has a cute period when they’re young, right?
“Anyway. Stop avoiding your brother. You said it was a family.”
I returned to the main point.
“…”
“Even if I don’t know how much you’ve done wrong or what sorry things you’ve done, even if Nicholas Diazi told you to disappear forever. If there’s something that pricks at you, shouldn’t you not just disappear for real?”
“Nicholas is not the type of person who would say that to someone.”
While saying that, Norma made a pained expression and faintly smiled.
‘You’ve done it to me before. I think you do it every time I see it?’
I don’t know what image of Nicholas is forming inside Noma’s head.
“Anyway, if you’re truly family and genuinely sorry, then don’t avoid whatever your brother went through because of you. It’s better to stay by his side and apologize every day.”
“What happened that day was all my fault.”
Norma mumbled with a trembling voice.
“Oh, if it’s your fault, then you should stick by Nicholas, even if he cries or gets annoyed because of you. In the end, avoidance is the easiest and most comfortable option, isn’t it? It’s all just self-satisfaction, isn’t it?”
“…”
“If you’re really sorry, then shouldn’t you do that?”
My voice became more intense. It was no longer directed at Norma. It was directed at that damn dominant figure with bright blond hair and blue eyes.
“If you’ve done something so wrong, then even if you hate it, even if it annoys you, you should stay by his side! Even if he rolls in front of my eyes or dies in front of me, he should die in my hands, shouldn’t he?”
I shouted, hitting the carriage window frame. It was a forceful voice that even surprised myself.
“…Is that so?”
“…It’s just my thought.”
“…”
“So, what I mean is that, as far as I know, your brother has never resented you for a single moment.”
“…”
“Maybe.”
“…”
“So, don’t act all self-righteous for no reason.”
Norma’s expression was perplexed. He seemed somewhat taken aback by my sudden outburst.
“Hmm, well. Anyway, it’s just my thought. The choice is yours. As the head of the family with so many responsibilities, your brother has taken over, and you are also a free person.”
Of course, Diazi wouldn’t leave behind a perfectly intact eldest son.
“Can I do that?”
“What can’t you do? Even if you decide to go straight to Imta, I won’t stop you. It’s a matter of courtesy.”
Imta was the finest resort city in the southern part of the empire. There were daily alcohol parties in its mild weather throughout the year. I had thought about going there if I ever retired.
“You too, even if you roughly violate the damn etiquette and the old imperial laws, you’ll be able to breathe a little easier.”
The corners of Norma’s mouth began to curl up slightly. In contrast, I furrowed my eyebrows. It felt like I had poured out too much unnecessary information.
I deliberately turned my gaze away. When I lifted the curtain pretending to look at the scenery, I finally realized that the carriage had stopped in front of an inn quite a while ago. Outside the window, Lady Stang and a few servants were standing in line, waiting.
I made eye contact with Lady Stang, who was standing at the front. Her expression was similar to the disdainful expression of the noblewoman who used to ridicule me in Thule.
Oh no!
Suddenly, I didn’t want to get off the carriage.
Hope you enjoy ♥️
