Cinderella's Brother

“Eugene… promise me. Yes, that’s your younger brother.”

 

A woman with wavy blood-red hair and green eyes that seem to be filled with greenery. She was the cousin of Empress Lotesia of the time, and the mistress of the Duke of Tidis, a family credited with founding the Aeternus Empire. She is Beatrice Zenovan de Tidis, who was commonly called the ‘Goddess of Summer’. Eugene, who was only five years old at the time, did not understand the words she said while holding the boy’s small hand before she died in vain. It wasn’t until later, until later, that she learned what it meant.

 

“Don’t get attached to that child.”

 

Even when her father, the Duke of Tidis, said that, Eugene did not really understand what he meant. It wasn’t until later, even later, that she realized what it meant. Anyway, the existence of a newborn baby was amazing. A small, twitchy younger brother with fiery hair and eyes, very different from the all-pale Eugene. As her years passed, the baby began to walk and speak her words. She said the first word the red-haired child uttered with her short, clumsy tongue was ‘hyung-ah’. She was neither ‘mom’ nor ‘dad’. Maybe she didn’t know that was the problem.

 

“He was killed in action.”

 

Widely!

 

The emperor’s sarcastic voice rang out along with the notice of death thrown to the floor of the royal palace.

 

“Are you listening? He was killed in action. Your brother.”

 

“…”

 

“They managed to find the body, but it was in such a horrible shape that they couldn’t even properly clean it up.”

 

“…”

 

“It was this emperor who sent your brother there. You know that, right? The person who appointed your brother as the commander of that damn place, leaving all the other prominent candidates alone, is a burden.”

 

There was silence like thin ice. While the emperor was spouting out sarcasm, Eugene was just standing there with his eyes downcast, undisturbed.

 

“What do you think, don’t you hate this emperor?”

 

“…Is that possible? Sosin’s younger brother died while faithfully following His Majesty’s orders, so it is an honor for the family.”

 

It was a low, dry voice. The answer was so blunt and business-like that it could almost be called emotionless. The corner of the Emperor’s mouth, which had been smiling cynically, began to slightly distort.

 

“Ha… you’re going to stay like that until the end?”

 

“…”

 

“Family honor? Wouldn’t it be better to swear openly?”

 

The emperor’s voice was also cold and cynical, but underneath it lurked something simmering that could not be released. On the other hand, Eugene’s face, which slowly raised his head to face the emperor, was expressionless, as if it were covered with an ice mask. He was extremely expressionless.

 

“You are saying too much. How dare you insult Your Majesty?”

 

“Ha..! It’s truly incorrigible until the very end!”

 

“Stay safe, Your Majesty. Listening ears..”

 

“Stop talking about protecting that damn body!!!”

 

The shoulders of the vassals who had quietly lowered their heads and watched by the shouts that rang through the royal palace twitched and trembled. On the other hand, Eugene, who was the target of that harsh command, did not even raise an eyebrow. Frozen sea-green eyes gaze quietly into the amber eyes of a former disciple, now a man who has become the Empire’s highest majesty. The amber eyes were so different from the Emperor’s, and they were burning brightly and crying, unable to overcome the flame of emotion rising in them.

 

“If you come out here, do you think the luggage will stop here?”

 

“…”

 

“Yes, I can’t bear to break the engagement. This is an engagement that your father and my foolish father somehow made, but as a son, I cannot bear to do such a thing. All he can do is give your lovely sister a hell of a married life.”

 

Despite the life-threatening declaration, Eugene still had an expression on his face that did not change one bit. At this point, it seems like he has an advantage over Ryun, who gained a reputation as a cold-blooded tyrant as soon as he ascended the throne. It is not for nothing that the term ‘the teacher and the disciple’ is floating around among his retainers.

 

“Your Majesty, your newlywed life is not something you should interfere with. If you produce good successors…”

 

“Shit!”

 

In the end, the emperor, who had let go of reason again, threw away the vase next to the throne. The precious vase was thrown mercilessly on the floor with a loud bang and shattered. Even though he almost got hit, Eugene just silently looked at the wreckage.

 

“I don’t want to see you, so get out! Disappear from before my eyes!”

 

“Your Majesty!”

 

“Please fix it!”

 

While other retainers were trying to calm down the emperor, who was raging violently as if he was about to commit a sword attack, Eugene turned around while holding the notice of death that had fallen on the floor. And he just left the palace. Duke Tidis was sitting in the waiting room outside the royal palace. Instead of just passing him by, Eugene glanced back and threw the death notice on the table. The sound of thick paper falling on a crystal table resonates helplessly in the midst of heavy silence.

 

“He died with honor.”

 

“…”

 

“Father?”

 

Duke Tidis did not answer. He just frowned slightly and glared at the notices lying on the table. Eugene, who had been staring at that stubborn behavior, soon widened his eyes and tilted his head.

 

“Aren’t you happy?”

 

“…”

 

“Didn’t it turn out the way you wanted? Everything happened just as my father wanted.”

 

It is a very bizarre scene for a father and son who lost their only younger brother and youngest son. However, for this father and son, it was not such a strange scene.

 

“…Stop it.”

 

“You should be happy. Why are you sitting like that?”

 

“I told you to stop.”

 

“I still have to go because of work. Anyway, it’s really strange, you have a sulky appearance that doesn’t suit you.”

 

“Eugene!”

 

“Why didn’t you say it was the devil’s seed? I thought you would be a little happier.”

 

The duke made no more noise. The same was true for Eugene. His eyes were falling. It’s great weather for him to have a snowball fight and build a snowman. The winter tree located in the yard connecting the main palace and the detached palace is emitting a dazzling white light for the first time in a while. The new guards, who still looked young, were having a snowball fight during a leisurely afternoon, and when they saw the Prime Minister coming out of the royal palace, they hurriedly showed their respect. But Eugene wasn’t looking at them. However, he wasn’t really looking ahead. He is just mechanically moving his steps towards his office as he always did. 

 

The Prime Minister’s office was located on the second floor of the villa, and people he encountered along the long, ornate passageway leading there cautiously spoke to him, but Eugene did not respond. Even when the two women who were closest to him stopped chatting happily while standing at the window of the arched hallway and then hurriedly approached him.

 

“Brother, what on earth is going on? I could hear the sound all the way up here.”

 

“Eugene, are you okay?”

 

The silver-haired daughter is his only sister Levina, and the blonde daughter is Alocia, the daughter of the Marquis of Carbuncle, who became engaged to him last spring. The two ladies asked as if they were genuinely worried, but Eugene didn’t even pay attention to them and headed straight to his office. The aide, who had been dozing off while sitting by the fire, quickly stood up and fell off his chair. Eugene gave strict orders not to let anyone in and sent his aide out.

 

Although he gave strict orders not to let anyone in, there are people whose orders do not work. of course. And in this imperial palace, there were only two people who did not understand that name. One is the emperor and the other…

 

“Hey, Eugene! Hey you bastard!”

 

As always, Eugene did not scold his friend, who burst into the office door without permission, by telling him to ‘get out of here’ as always. Ian, who had been hesitant at this unusual response, soon came to his senses, pulled a chair of his own accord, and sat down across from his friend’s desk.

 

“Eugene, I just heard… what on earth are you doing? I heard your brother is dead? But does it catch your eye?”

 

Whether or not Ian was swearing at him, saying, ‘Look at this crazy bastard,’ Eugene never took his eyes off the document and was focused solely on signing with a pen. Ian, who was glaring at his friend like he was crazy, soon sighed and began to talk as calmly as possible.

 

“Hey, look at me. Stop looking at that. Are you ignoring me? Well, that’s how you behave, but your fiancee keeps bugging me!”

 

“…”

 

“Okay, let’s just say that you’re the one who doesn’t want to say anything to your fiancee, because that’s just the way it is. But am I not your friend? Do you think you could fool me if you pretended that everything was fine?”

 

“…”

 

“Hey, wait a minute. What on earth are you doing now?”

 

Ian’s harsh tone of voice seemed to have changed a bit. Eugene, who was looking up with his eyebrows furrowed as he wanted to know something else, realized that this completely useless friend was glaring at his hand, or more precisely, at the document in his hand, with a very funny expression on his face.

 

“Hey, you crazy bastard… what are you doing holding the document upside down?”

 

Eugene blinked. What does this mean again? What are you holding upside down?

 

“This…”

 

She slowly looked down at her hands and realized that it really was. The top and bottom of the document were turned exactly the opposite way. It was something that would be like the creation of heaven and earth. The Iron-Blooded Prime Minister was reading the document upside down without even realizing it. It is an incident that will be recorded as a rare palace scandal. There was a moment of silence as neither Eugene, the person involved, nor Ian, who pointed it out, could find anything to say. After a moment of devastated silence, Ian finally sighed again and threw the items he had brought down on the desk.

 

“Come to your senses, dude.. This is Ray’s memento. This is all I got.”

 

It was an object that could hardly be called a memento, sitting rather noisily on a neat desk. There was only one worn-out leather-bound notebook.

 

Eugene looked down at it with blank eyes and then slowly stretched out his hand and picked up her notebook.

 

“I took a quick look, but I was so distracted… just look at it slowly. I’ll be out.”

 

Even after Ian, who had been muttering indiscriminately, left, Eugene just stared at the notebook in his hand for a long time. Then, finally, as if I was possessed by something, I moved my hand and turned over his first page.

 

‘It’s hot today. Shit! Why is it so hot that I’m dying! It would be quicker to starve to death than to die at the hands of the enemy!’

 

…

 

Eugene, who was staring at the sentences scribbled haphazardly in extremely bad handwriting, soon burst into laughter without realizing it. He was Ray, who had boasted of quite bad handwriting since he was young. If you don’t look closely, it’s hard to tell what he’s writing, and it seems like he hasn’t corrected his hand habits, even though he was beaten so hard by his father.

 

‘Yesterday it was so hot, why is the fierce wind blowing again today? God, have you abandoned us? Of course, as the proud son of the empire, I can’t give in to God’s pranks like this, but it’s still annoying to be annoyed!’

 

‘I don’t know why they gave me such an unsuitable position as commander, but long live your Majesty the Emperor… this is a mess! You annoying bastard, is it okay if you are my brother’s student? It’s even more annoying because my fellow pups are laughing so hard. Hey, I feel like I just want to slap him, but I have a surprisingly strong sense of responsibility, so I’ll have to hold back.’

 

‘It was revealed that the scalded cub was hiding a painting book in his sleeping bag. It’s really shocking to see my co-workers making such a fuss about how nice they are. Well, I saw some too. The black male bastards look like they’ll die without having a chance to date, but they won’t lose their spirit just by looking at them. Of course, unlike those guys, it’s not that I couldn’t do it, it’s that I didn’t do it! Damn it, so-and-so made me afraid of women! When I made that claim, my colleagues cried and I cried too. Dirty world.’

 

…It was something that even Ian could say was crazy and express his appreciation. Eugene felt himself tilting his head without realizing it. Because the Ray he remembered was always a quiet and timid guy. I couldn’t believe that a guy like that was so distraught that he scrawled something that made it seem like he could clearly hear his grumbling voice. The notebook was filled with grumbles disguised as a diary of that type. There were also graffiti that seemed to depict wild animals near the camp. Wild dogs, cats, rabbits, deer, and even wild boars. Compared to the terrible handwriting, the picture was pretty decent. Hagisa has loved scribbling since he was young.

 

It was then that Eugene’s hand, which had been frantically flipping through the journal for a while, suddenly stopped.

 

‘I miss you bro.’

 

Likewise, Eugene was looking intently at that single sentence written in harshly scrawled handwriting, as if it were some kind of code that was difficult to decipher. Only after a very long time had passed did he turn the page again.

 

‘I think we’re all going to die here. Well, I’m not particularly afraid of dying, but Roxas is already making a fuss, saying he misses his mother. When one person cries, everyone cries together. Wow, it’s really nice to see the boys hugging each other and crying. I didn’t cry. Our solemn father repeatedly said that a man only cries three times when he is born! …is a piece of cake! Of course, Dad, you can say things like that because you don’t even blink even if I die. Sheesh. No, but why are these guys asking me if I don’t cry with them? These bastards, do you think the commander is funny!’

 

‘In the end, I suffered as well. Damn it, whenever people ask why they don’t cry together, the commander always laughs at them and says they are being annoying. Wicked bastards. They are on a more difficult topic. Of course, I never cried because I missed my family like they did. I never want to see my father or Levina again! I miss my brother, but I’m relieved that that heartless person will eat well and live well even without me.’

 

‘I think tomorrow will be the day of the decisive battle. One world, is this bye bye? By the time reinforcements arrive, it will likely already be too late. Everyone is sitting together and writing a will to leave to their families, but I want to tell them to stop freaking out. These are the real commanders who don’t even have a family to write a will to, and there is no other person like this!’

 

‘As night falls, it gets even snowier. Watching the snow fall like crazy reminds me of when I was young. Still, I was pretty close to my brother back then. It seems like a long time ago when we built snowmen together. No, it just feels like a dreamland story. By the way, isn’t your brother getting married? I haven’t been in touch with him for so long that I don’t know how he lives, but I want to tell him to stop working and live with a fox-like wife and rabbit-like children. If you work hard and die as an old man living alone, heaven will laugh at you later. ‘Kyakyakya!’

 

That was the diary scribbled on the last page of the notebook.

 

A snowman… Eugene took his eyes off his journal for a moment and looked out the window. A winter snowstorm was blowing. Perhaps because I read the overly vivid journal, I felt like I could hear the author’s youthful voice.

 

“Meow.”

 

However, the person who actually made the sound was none other than the cat sitting by the window. It was a guy who I didn’t know how long he had been there. It seems that the aide brought him here arbitrarily. The office door burst open once again. By now, Eugene was so used to it that he was sick of it, so he didn’t even turn his head.

 

“Oh, I forgot to tell you… eh? Eh? Eh? Eugene?”

 

Why is that bastard fucking up again? Eugene sighed and turned his eyes to glare at his best friend, Akwoo. Only then did he realize that something was very strange.

 

“Hey, hey, you…”

 

For some reason, Ian’s appearance as he was yelling at his parents looked strangely blurry.

 

“You, you bastard… are you… crying right now?”

 

Are you crying? who? Eugene unconsciously raised his hand and placed it near his eyes. The moisture on my fingertips sparkles in the light of the stove. A look of disbelief appeared in his frozen sea-green eyes.

 

“I…”

 

“Heh… heh heh. You fucking idiot. I knew it would happen.”

 

What made you think that would happen? Eugene lowered her hand and placed it near his chest. Suddenly, I felt my heart pounding. An unfamiliar feeling as if his chest was being squeezed, making it almost difficult to breathe. She felt Ian come closer and put his hand on his shoulder. Then she kept talking and saying something, but I couldn’t hear it very well. My vision kept becoming strangely blurry. My chest was throbbing so much that I couldn’t bear it. This can’t be happening. I can’t do this…

 

‘Don’t give affection to that child.’

 

Even though it was something his father had said repeatedly, it was difficult to follow. He was too hungry for affection to just turn a blind eye to the child who was growing miraculously in that large, heavily guarded mansion, and who always approached him with affection in his red eyes like a rabbit. Would there have been any way to cut it otherwise? His father, who always put the empire and family honor first, and the eldest son, who received intensive training for his successor since he was a toddler. It was like that. All of their family members were severely deficient in some way. Sometimes, he would deal with her child while avoiding his father’s eyes. He even accepted a child who came to visit him every stormy night, hugging a pillow. There was a time when I protected a child who was scolded harshly for a minor mistake. Then things got worse. Not to him, but to the child. At first, I thought it was just that my father couldn’t see his boys playing happily with each other. That is, until later, when I heard the truly shocking truth from my father’s mouth. She had to push. I shouldn’t have looked back. Still, it was not something that could be done easily. At some point, it was not easy to just watch a child walking around with a very timid look on his face. Part of me thought that since he was a boy, he would endure it well. As I watched the child study hard and practice her swordsmanship, I thought that one day, I might be able to sit down on her knees and talk about everything.

 

Then Levina appeared. Her father’s illegitimate daughter, the Ice Palace-like Duke of Tidis. A girl approaches me with a bright smile that doesn’t suit me at all. Funny enough, she wasn’t forbidden from being nice to the girl. The kindness I was allowed for the first time in my life. He really didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to deal with it. Without any defense mechanism, he was swept away by the gentle gestures of his hands, his laughter, and his bouncing steps as if he had nothing to worry about. In a corner of my mind, I was concerned about the lonely, red-eyed boy huddled around, but I didn’t know what to do.

 

When the conflicts in my mind intertwined and intertwined until it finally reached the point where I couldn’t bear it, an incident occurred. One day, when Enga returned home early, he found Levina distraught and crying. She went out with her little brother, but he disappeared, leaving her in the middle of the road. Her first thought was that that couldn’t be possible. However, she grew increasingly angry at the girl who continued to cry pitifully and the boy who showed no signs of returning no matter how much time passed. It was an anger that was almost unfamiliar. Even if he were a man, he was only a 13-year-old boy. What would he do if something happened to him? In the end, he sent out knights to find the boy.

 

While I was waiting helplessly, my father appeared. He immediately told his father, who was furious, that he would take care of it himself. He didn’t even know why he did it, but he said it anyway. Then, when he finally saw the boy come back, unharmed and unharmed, he lost his temper and slapped the boy in the face. He regretted it forever. If it were his father, he would have tried not to touch the child. However, when he slapped me, something hurt that appeared in my rabbit-like red eyes kept disturbing my sleep. So he decided not to worry about children from now on. While playing with the children, he decided that he would not care what happened and would just ignore it as the children’s business.

 

He didn’t know that was his biggest problem. If he had cared, if he had noticed something was wrong sooner, if he had held the child who was crying bitterly after being beaten to death by his father and listened to the story just once, something might have been different. But he didn’t, and in the end, the lonely red-eyed child ran away from home as soon as he had his coming-of-age ceremony and joined the regular army. And he died on the front line. He died like that at the young age of seventeen, when he was in the prime of life’s expectations.

 

“Ugh… Yamma, okay, just cry, cry. I wondered when in my life I would see tears come out of your eyes… Tsk tsk. What a fucking idiot.”

 

The words Ian clicked his tongue became like a knife and stabbed into his heart. What a fucking idiot. It was absolutely correct. How could he possibly be such an idiot? The boy who died at the early age of seventeen, and the broken boy on the throne who drove him to death, were all created by him. Because it was he who instilled despair and frustration in those bright eyes that were once full of admiration and affection.

 

So it’s as if he killed him.

 

His body was shaking. Why didn’t I know? What was covering his eyes? He once had a question. Why can’t he just smile like others? Why can’t I be happy, sad, excited, happy, suffer, and love like others? Why can’t I feel passion or ambition for something like others? Is it just because we are naturally cold-blooded people? Or is it because all the emotional elements that humans should have were trampled on so long ago that they were tied up in one place?

 

Why had he never realized what it was that had made him live so tenaciously over such a long period of time, from the very beginning, from the day he held his dying mother’s hand to this day, when he approached life with such a dry sensibility? What was it that kept him from sleeping every night and tormented his heart even on the day of his grand engagement? Why, until now. Did you think that no matter what situation you were in or how harsh the reality was, if you were just breathing under the same sky, that would be enough? After Ian left, Eugene sat blankly for a long time. His tears stopped flowing. Only his eyes changed, from bleak, dark, and possessed. In the midst of the silence that sank deep within the dry sea-green eyes, someone was crying. was screaming. Remorse was of no use anymore. Tears didn’t help either. Hope and will did not exist from the beginning. And Eugene didn’t want to be here anymore.

 

It was still snowing outside. It was such a weather that I felt like I could hear the boy’s voice that day in my ears at any moment. A voice was heard again and again along with the sound of knocking on the door.

 

‘Brother, let’s play together! Let’s make a snowman!’

 

At that moment, a pale, rough hand moved as if under some spell, opened the lowest drawer of the desk, and began rummaging through it. There was an ink bottle, a music box, a bundle of shorthand quills, and the last thing that came out was something that looked like a small, blue sparkling gem in a glass bottle. The cat sitting by the window meowed again. Eugene glanced at the red-haired cat that reminded him of someone, and then opened the lid of the glass bottle without any hesitation. Then he took out something that looked no different from a bright sapphire and stuffed it into his mouth. As the priest at the Temple of Pros had told me, the pain was only for a moment. Then, long silver eyelashes hung down like sunshades over closed eyelids. Once upon a time, a long time ago, my very cute younger brother grew up in a strict ducal family of a brilliant empire.

 

If we can meet again, let’s play together then.

 

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Translator Note: