The Tyrant Wants To Live Honestly

At Joy’s words, Ethan’s eyebrows wrinkled slightly.

 

“I mean, I’m not good at consoling the princess, so you must do it! Because the princess likes you!”

 

Eventually, Joy closed her eyes and yelled at Ethan.

 

Then Ethan’s eyebrows twitched gracefully.

 

“Do you think she is having a hard time?”

 

“Yes.”

 

At Joy’s words, Ethan’s expression hardened even more.

 

Joy, who doesn’t usually talk about Dorothea, Ethan realized that Dorothea was really struggling.

 

“She hardly slept these days. Even at night, if I stand guard, the light in the princess’s room is on.”

 

“…”

 

“The maid, Clara, is worried too. Even if she turns off the lights to tell the princess to sleep, she didn’t sleep.”

 

At Joy’s words, Ethan bit his lip.

 

Dorothea suffered from insomnia even before her return.

 

Instead of sleep, the feeling of burden, guilt, anxiety, and loneliness. All sorts of emotions engulfed her at night.

 

The imperial doctor said it was a disease of the mind, and no medication could cure it.

 

“She does whatever she wants, but I’m afraid she’ll collapse one day. The people of Lenaskor Palace are also very worried.”

 

So Joy is so worried about Dorothea that she turns to Ethan, whom she doesn’t like very much, for help.

 

Joy is angry, but it seems that Ethan is the only one who can help Dorothea in this situation.

 

“Okay. I ask for time so that I can visit her princess separately.”

 

“Come as soon as possible. Before she collapses.”

 

“Of course.”

 

Ethan nodded and started walking again.

 

***

 

Ethan returned to the mansion and took out an old book from the inside of the drawer.

 

The very old book, which he bought at an old bookstore, didn’t belong to him before his return.

 

A book that Julia obtained before Ethan returned.

 

It had belonged to her as she studied the spirits to help Theon Fried, and now it was in his hands.

 

It was a study on the spirits, and among them was a mix of true stories and unverified stories told only by word of mouth.

 

Ethan has been secretly investigating the spirit since he returned to contract with the spirit.

 

To handle the spirit of light more skillfully and to understand the secret of the spirit that he didn’t know.

 

Thanks to that, he learned that from the old days, Milanaire died or was in danger of dying from a malignant tumor.

 

It’s not a secret, but the story of Milanaire and Fried becoming weak and forgotten.

 

Paradoxically, the reason why Milanaires died a lot from malignant tumors was because of the life force of the light spirit.

 

Tumors were easily created and grown using the energy of life from spirits.

 

The tumor, which became so enlarged and serious that the body owner could not handle it, eventually killed them.

 

About half of the Milanaires died from malignant tumors, and so it was with Carnan’s disease.

 

It is an ironic fate where the power of life corrodes life.

 

So light and darkness needed each other.

 

The previous Milanaires used Fried’s power to suppress and heal tumors.

 

With the balance of the two powers, the two families and Ubera lead a better life.

 

However, now that Fried also lost their power, there was no cure for Carnan’s tumor.

 

‘There is Theon Fried, but…’

 

He also consumes his own life because he cannot properly handle Fried’s power. So, he could not entrust the life of the emperor to him.

 

But something more important than that. A chapter that turns into a thorn and pierces his conscience.

 

[How to improve spirit affinity.]

 

According to this one-page chapter, they can improve their spirit affinity to some extent through training.

 

Of course, although people with low spirit affinity cannot follow people with high spirit affinity, they can at least raise it to a certain level.

 

So, this was a chapter about Theon Fried and also related to Carnan’s treatment.

 

If he increases Theon’s affinity with this training, Theon will be able to control the dark spirits to some extent, and maybe even heal Carnan’s tumor.

 

The reason Ethan has yet to bring this book up is that he doesn’t want to help Theon and Carnan.

 

And it was also because he couldn’t believe this untested chapter of only one-page training methods.

 

Even more problematic is the phrase,

 

[If you do not take appropriate measures, you may die during training].

 

He doesn’t know if it’s real or not, but he could die.

 

So Ethan dismissed it as a part of the book that he did not need to worry about.

 

‘But if, really, this could lighten Dorothea’s burden…’

 

That was then.

 

“Ethan!”

 

His name is called out from downstairs as if shouting.

 

Jonathan was the owner of the loud voice.

 

‘Why again…’

 

At the sound of footsteps, Ethan put the book back into the drawer.

 

The door suddenly opens without knocking.

 

His rude habit seems to never be changed for the rest of his life.

 

“What’s going on, brother?”

 

Ethan asked with a feeling of being confronted with a nuisance.

 

Although the two lived in the same mansion, they tried to avoid encountering each other as much as possible and never interfering.

 

He is exhausted from all the arguing.

 

It’s been a while since he realized that living without seeing Jonathan’s face is the best, but what the hell is going on today?

 

“Is it true that the Crown Prince invited you to the Imperial Palace?”

 

With a bottle of wine in his hand, Jonathan asked, leaning his staggering body against the door.

 

‘Oh, did he hear the news?’

 

Jonathan was still in charge of the castle’s guards and could not enter the Imperial Palace.

 

His rank has risen, but he has been waiting to get much honor for several years.

 

“His aide was busy, so His Highness called me in for a while to help.”

 

“You? Why? Did you even seduce the crown prince?”

 

The drunken Jonathan spit out the words he couldn’t say.

 

Then Ethan’s expression turned cold.

 

If he said something like that outside, he would not have had anything to say even if he had been captured by the knights of the Imperial Palace right away.

 

“You can only think of it that way.”

 

Ethan ignored the pathetic man’s drunkenness, thinking that he was not worth responding to.

 

Then Jonathan’s face wrinkled.

 

“What? What did you say to me now?!”

 

Jonathan staggered closer and swept the candlestick and notebook from Ethan’s table to the floor.

 

Things were scattered on the floor with a loud noise, and candle wax stuck to the carpet.

 

Ethan felt disillusioned.

 

His brother is a graduate of one of the world’s most prestigious educational institutions, who will later become the Duke of Bronte.

 

Surprisingly, graduating from a good institution does not guarantee a person will be good at morals or social skills.

 

“Come on, tell me, Ethan. How the hell did you seduce the Crown Prince? Oh, Did you even have a threesome with the crown prince and the princess?”

 

TL: Threesome is an occasion on which three people engage in sexual activity together.

 

At that moment, Ethan couldn’t contain his anger and clenched a fist in his face.

 

Although Ethan is not good at fighting, it is not difficult to put a fist in the face of Jonathan, who was drunk.

 

“I can tolerate you insulting me, but I can’t stand it if you insult the princess.”

 

Ethan ran completely at Jonathan, smashing a few more fists in the face of Jonathan as he fell.

 

He remembered saving him from death on a hunting ground a few years ago.

 

A good deed done impulsively for Dorothea’s wishes.

 

But what if Ethan just let him die, then? Then he would be able to live comfortably without listening to such bullshit. If he succeeds the duke, Ethan will be able to be an unshakable partner to Dorothea.

 

“Damn it…! I regret saving you.”

 

Ethan looked down at Jonathan and groaned in anger.

 

But soon, Jonathan, who was lying underneath, knocked him down, and pushed Ethan down, and slammed his head into the carpet.

 

“Did you hit me? A bastard who can’t even hold a sword properly…!”

 

Even though he could hit him, Jonathan was the one who learned from Episteme.

 

There, he learned swordsmanship, horseback riding, and archery above a certain level and at least was more adept at fighting than Ethan. 

 

Moreover, although his body was slightly shorter than that of Ethan, he was much stronger.

 

Jonathan had even overpowered Ethan and punched him in the face.

 

Jonathan has always hated his younger brother. No, he doesn’t want to call him a younger brother.

 

Ethan, with a disgustingly pretty face, played with him skillfully from an early age.

 

And Ethan is always recognized.

 

He was praised for being smarter than the one who went to Episteme, and Ethan received more attention wherever he went.

 

After Ethan seduced the princess, and after the emperor showed interest in Ethan, his family also began to show Ethan quite proudly.

 

Jonathan was always compared with him.

 

“He’s more handsome than his brother, he’s smarter than him without going to Episteme. Ethan is also very good at piano and violin! So awesome!”

 

In general, Jonathan wasn’t really that bad. No matter how many times he failed the episteme, he passed the difficult episteme with his own strength.

 

Besides, he didn’t look ugly. Jonathan still thought he looked pretty decent.

 

However, when he was next to Ethan, he became less noticeable than the shadows.

 

And at a meeting he attended today, a nobleman said to Jonathan.

 

“No, the crown prince himself has asked Ethan to come into the palace and help out, but you are still a castle guard, Jonathan?”

 

The nobles surrounding him were all looking down on him, comparing him to Ethan.

 

A guy who’s worse than Ethan, a bad guy, a bad guy.

 

“Who the hell are you to get in my way, huh?”

 

Jonathan unleashed years of anger on Ethan.

 

“Don’t, master!”

 

Butlers and employees rushed to the commotion upstairs, pulling the two men apart.

 

Ethan’s lips ripped, and he looked like he had a bruise on his temple.

 

“Hey! You bastard like a beggar.”

 

As the servants grabbed his arms, Jonathan spat at Ethan.

 

His actions were way too much even though he was drunk.

 

The butlers dragged him away, and Ethan sat on the floor and couldn’t stand up.

 

His hands, curled into fists, trembled.

 

In this life, he was the first to hit Jonathan with the palm of his hand, so he forgot for a while that he had been hit by Jonathan so often before returning.

 

At that time, he was smaller than Jonathan, and it was a time when everything was terrifying as he entered an unfamiliar family and adjusted.

 

In his childhood before the return, there were many days when Ethan hid in a corner and trembled to avoid running into Jonathan.

 

So…Ethan was happy when he died.

 

Ethan shuddered at the old memory that came to mind after a long time.

 

* * *