Ko-fi Chapter 1/2: Thank you for all your support!
Edited by: bafflinghaze
Serian knew what this looked like, hiding behind a bush and overhearing a conversation he definitely had no right overhearing.
He was not, in fact, spying on Lione’s older brother.
Being discovered by Nazareth was not the plan, but the universe had manifested the only thing he had vehemently wished against at that moment and chose to out him like a peeping tom.
A knife went sailing over the bush he had been crouching behind and loudly embedded itself into the tree behind him.
It missed his head by a few feet, but Serian screamed like the coward he was after catching a glimpse of how deeply entrenched the blade was.
“How much did you hear?”
Lione’s brother demanded with an edge to his voice.
It took nearly a minute for Serian to deliberate his next course of action. Sweat ran down his back as he nervously swallowed.
Although Nazareth only stood there, the oppressive nature of his presence was practically forcing Serian to crawl out from his safe haven like a prey animal marching to its death.
With as much dignity as he could muster, he stumbled out as gracefully as he could and nearly tripped over the bush.
After recovering from his near fall, he instantly froze on the spot once he was met with the sight of red vermillion eyes atop an icy countenance befitting of an Odum.
If Serian knew any better, Nazareth almost appeared judgmental with the way his lips thinned and his brows set.
The Crown Prince rubbed the back of his neck and choked out a nervous laugh.
He was a bystander, he didn’t mean to eavesdrop, he was innocent.
INNOCENT!
At least Lione’s brother doesn’t look scary anymore…
He tried to tell himself while internally shedding tears of sadness for his inevitable demise.
Nazareth’s hair was previously unkempt and messy. He had worn it long, and it had covered his face like a demon from hell.
A demon, a wraith, death’s embodiment—he always looked like some crazy psycho belonging to a mental institution, or a wanted criminal chasing someone through the back alleys with a knife.
Both images were very oddly specific, but it looked like the vibe Nazareth was going for!
He was far more approachable now, but it didn’t make him any less dangerous…!
Nazareth took a step forward.
Serian took three steps back and almost tripped over a bush… again.
The older boy paused and stared at him.
Serian stared back.
He had claimed he could take on Nazareth if he ever hurt Lione, but thinking something and actually doing it only led to disappointment when reality hit like a horse.
Forget squaring off with Nazareth, the other would kill him after this and no one would know because his body would never be found.
Serian couldn’t confirm it, but Lione’s brother always looked like he had the power to do anything and get away with it.
It was like the universe was willing to serve him hand and foot while shitting on the rest of them.
Holy shit, if Nazareth didn’t kill him, Lione might!
Lione had been silent about his brother’s recent changes. The rest of their friends had tried to pry, but he was being stubbornly tight-lipped.
It was natural for all of them to worry. Nazareth was a dangerous individual and Lione was his favorite victim. If there were tricks being played, they all had to be on guard.
Generally, Lione usually steered clear of any topic relating to his brother, but with all the gossip going around, everyone would have to be blind not to see how he and Nazareth were becoming more amicable to each other.
“Hey.”
A sharp voice broke Serian from his thoughts.
Nazareth had his brows scrunched together ever so delicately as he moved closer. It reminded Serian of Lione. His friend also made the same expression whenever Serian zoned out.
“Huh?” Serian answered like a dumb peasant.
He was the Crown Prince, goddammit! Where did his manners go?!
But Nazareth didn’t look offended by his less than stellar response.
In fact, he looked calm, if a little confused.
Was it because Lione wasn’t with him?
“You have a leaf on your head,” Nazareth pointed out.
Serian’s carefully styled hair was ruined in seconds as his hand scrambled around for the god-forsaken foliage.
“Um…”
Gods, he was an embarrassment!
A pale hand shot out and plucked the damned leaf from the back of his head. Serian looked up.
T-too close!
The gods were unfair to make the bane of Lione’s life as beautiful as this.
Raven hair curled around the pale face of Nazareth and almost tickled Serian’s nose if he had leaned closer. From this distance, he could see the delicate lashes around Nazareth’s eyes, the faint shadows lining the bottom of his eyes, and the pale pink lips tilted upwards slightly with a hint of fading amusement.
Serian had never paid much attention to Nazareth’s appearance before. The last time he had observed him this closely was nearly three years ago—back when he and Lione were still in their first year of Junior High.
A group of shady-looking people had caught them unaware at their weekly luncheon and chased them through town. Unsurprisingly, his guards went missing and the shady-looking people disappeared after he and Aurelion hid inside a clothing shop. No evidence was traced back to Nazareth’s involvement, but Serian had watched him for weeks after the incident.
He hadn’t been paying attention to Nazareth’s appearance—not that he could really see anything with all that hair—more so, it was the look of pure satisfaction and cruel amusement on the other’s face that sent chills down Serian’s spine.
That dreadful day was a mere warning—to all of them. Nazareth had every intention to make the game he and Lione played even more difficult now that Lione was a Junior student.
Serian couldn’t imagine what would be more challenging than the “accidental” poisoning attempts Lione had often spoken about to him in secret.
Lione had the habit of boasting his successes whenever he was able to avoid being poisoned… by his own older brother.
Unfortunately, there were days when he wasn’t so lucky. Serian used to sneak into the Odum Manor to visit him whenever Lione was “mysteriously” bedridden. Serian would hold his hand while the latter cried because he had let down his guard and got poisoned.
Sometimes, Lione would feverishly ask for Nazareth, of all people, wondering why his older brother wouldn’t visit him to gloat.
Seeing his dearest friend break into a mess of tears and snot while whimpering for a person who put him there in the first place, Serian couldn’t help but think there was something fundamentally broken about his friend’s family.
The last poison attempt Serian had remembered was during midwinter before they entered Noble Academy. Lione had failed to avoid it and had stayed in bed for a week.
Serian had been hiding in his friend’s closet because Nazareth had unexpectedly entered Lione’s bedroom.
For the first time, Serian witnessed the older boy’s elegant steps as he swept his way inside, his presence larger than the room could hold.
Lione was incoherent and delirious, and Serian was ready to tackle Nazareth, in case the other tried something.
But against his expectations, Nazareth didn’t do anything. He had merely watched with an expression Serian had never seen on his face before as Lione writhed in bed uselessly, suffering from the poison’s effects.
It was both odd and felt like the calm before the storm.
From there on, the poisons stopped and assassinations became excruciatingly harder to avoid.
Aurelion became more careful of who he befriended. He started to pull away from Serian, and he tried to lessen the contact he had with the rest of their friends.
If Nazareth’s intention was to isolate his brother, then he almost succeeded if not for the fact that Serian was a stubborn friend who just so happened to be the Crown Prince of the Empire.
Nazareth couldn’t technically hurt him.
Still, Serian took the risk and became the glue that pulled all his companions together.
Even at the cost of being a target of Nazareth’s ire.
“You are Aurelion’s friend,” Nazareth said after a while, his hand still fumbling with Serian’s hair as if it was an everyday occurrence for him to be removing foliage from the head of the Crown Prince.
The resolve Serian had built up flickered out like a candle.
As Nazareth pulled away with a handful of leaves and sticks, Serian couldn’t help the way his breath stuttered out of sheer shame.
“Yes,” he answered in a small voice, avoiding eye contact with the other boy.
He could hear Nazareth hum, a strange but soft sound coming from his throat.
“Is he doing well in class?”
Serian nodded, looking anywhere else but at Nazareth.
“That’s good.”
Nazareth’s voice lacked the emotion to express his intentions, a trait that Lione also shared. It was almost bizarre when he realized how similar the brothers were.
The awkward silence stretched.
—
Neo was waiting for Serian to say something.
The Crown Prince was trying to avoid his gaze with a look of apprehension. He was obviously scared, if not intimidated.
Aurelion had adorable friends.
Neo ended up breaking the silence with a more important question.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Would His Highness care to explain what he was doing behind the bushes?”
That caught the Prince’s attention.
As if a switch had been flipped, Neo watched as a head of white bobbed up and down.
“Sorry…”
The Crown Prince was unexpectedly timid.
Like a rabbit.
The apology was immediate. Serian lowered his head, passing the fifteen-degree mark and into the most formal and apologetic bow Neo had ever seen.
It was as if the boy wasn’t the Crown Prince of the Empire.
And while Neo liked good-mannered people, he felt like the child was missing some severely important curriculum in his personal education.
Dear gods, the court would eat him alive.
He had subconsciously scowled, wondering what could have gone wrong with the Prince’s private education.
He might have unintentionally frightened the Prince even further, as a small squeak was elicited soon after.
Serian bowed even further, reaching the thirty-degree angle this time.
“I really didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation! I was hiding from some crazy stalkers but then you and that other guy came and I didn’t want to interrupt because it looked like a really serious conversation and then you guys broke up and I didn’t want to just appear out of nowhere AND I’M REALLY SORRY!!”
Neo paused.
“… What?”
Did Serian just assume he had a breakup?
“We weren’t having an illicit affair.”
The Prince’s head snapped up immediately.
They awkwardly stared at each other.
“Oh…”
Neo felt his eye twitch.
—
What was the likelihood Lione’s older brother might murder him on the spot?
Crown Prince, he may be, but Serian wasn’t exactly the only heir to the throne. He has a distant uncle a few years older than him who was currently living his best life abroad in the Zhongguo Empire.
He doesn’t want to die…!
“I’m not going to kill you, so…”
Those few words were like the gentle caress of a merciful but equally spiteful god.
While he definitely blew this entire thing out of proportion, Serian couldn’t bring himself to trust in the words of a previously recognized maniac.
Three months of peace was hardly enough for him to hand Aurelion over on a silver platter to the one person who made his friend’s life a living hell.
Neo eyed Serian with some bafflement.
He didn’t remember Serian being so… tiny. Like a small child.
He had started interacting more with Aurelion’s group during his third year, so seeing the prince from up close, he had higher expectations.
Was it the trauma? The lack of trauma? More trauma?
Trauma builds character, Neo thought confidently.
The prince was nearly cherubic with his white, soft downy feathered hair and large, doe-like golden eyes.
By next spring, Serian would be towering over Aurelion, but for now, the boy only reached his neck.
It was the perfect height for head pats.
Expressionlessly, Neo took out a knife from his sleeve and offered it to the boy.
The boy made an adorable gasp as he stared at the weapon.
Neo tried to suppress a small smile.
Jokingly, he thought:
Hmm, can he trade Aurelion in for a cuter brother?
—
“Achoo!”
In his carriage, Aurelion sneezed abruptly.
“Lione, what’s wrong?”
Across from him sat Memphis Deerborn, one of his closest companions.
Aurelion shook his head and glowered out the window.
“My status is being threatened…”
They were heading home together since Serian had some after-school duties to perform. Usually, Aurelion would have accompanied him, but Memphis’ ride had ditched him due to a family emergency and he needed to be home by evening.
Aurelion offered him a ride once Serian assured him he would be safe.
Memphis snorted.
“Must be your brother and one of his stupid plans—”
The boy was quickly cut off by a sharp glare. Aurelion’s sapphire eyes practically froze him in place.
“What?”
Memphis was smart and did not want to die.
“Um, hahaha, what wonderful weather we’re having. It’s almost summer, can you believe it?” He laughed and looked away.
That scummy troublemaker must have really pissed off Aurelion today.
—
Back behind the school building, Neo was having a lovely conversation with the Crown Prince.
“—not a love affair.”
“But he was—”
“For the last time, Your Highness, Elliot, and I were companions. We were discussing a private matter regarding our relationship.”
There was a pause.
“… I don’t see the difference.”
The confused child looked so pitiful, Neo couldn’t help reaching over to pat him on the head.
“Sorry…” Serian mumbled stiffly, “Do you want the knife back?”
“Keep it. You might need it.”
The overall general helplessness Neo was seeing in the kid wasn’t doing him any favors. He’d been friends with Aurelion for how long?
Serian Lupus Romulus, the Crown Prince of the Rhine Empire.
Neo had never deliberately antagonized the other until the shit show that went down in his Third Year.
He was a major part of Aurelion’s childhood and might have been one of his strongest pillars of support.
Nazareth mostly saw Serian as collateral damage and didn’t pay much attention to anything entailing the Imperial Family.
Neo remembered a few times where Serian got caught in the crossfire, but the kid had guts and came out remarkably unscathed despite all the gangs and assassins he was sending.
There was potential to grow.
“So, what were you talking about?” Serian tilted his head and asked, although his expression told him he didn’t really want to know.
Neo wondered if he was trying to make conversation due to being the Crown Prince and feeling obligated to ask and listen to the problems of his citizens, or whether or not he was just as socially inept as himself.
The white-haired boy blinked his large golden eyes kittenishly.
Ah, this innocent lamb. Neo wanted to pinch his cheeks.
“Don’t ask questions that don’t pertain to you. Who is in charge of your personal education?”
As a noble, Serian should be gathering intel from other sources instead of asking him upfront. Neo could lie to him and he wouldn’t know any better.
If the boy’s character wasn’t known throughout the Empire as a charming and kind Prince, Neo would have thought he was a deliberate gossip.
Serian frowned.
“Madam Dolores only talks about her fine china collection and Monsieur Bartemius just gives me readings.”
Well shit.
Noting this down, Neo wondered if the Crown Prince ever got his education back on track.
He seemed perfectly competent when he was able to unearth all the evidence to his crimes in their last life.
Should Neo be concerned if the problems were likely to go away by next spring?
It was impressive how no one had noticed Serian’s lacking grasp on the complexities of politics. They didn’t exactly give Emperor-Training in Noble Academy.
“When Aurelion got sick… Why did you visit him?”
Neo looked down and met the Prince’s wide and timid eyes.
“Pardon?”
Serian rubbed the back of his neck and formed an uneasy smile on his lips, “It’s just… you changed so much, and that time when you visited Aurelion before First Year…”
It took a few seconds for Neo to recall the memory Serian was talking about. It was so long ago, but it was during a time when the haze of madness hadn’t eaten away at his memories.
The last time he remembered Aurelion being sick, before Sutton Graham, was the last time he poisoned him.
But Aurelion was unconscious the whole time Nazareth had been standing in his room, so how did Serian know?
It was either Nazareth was caught by some type of security spell, or Serian snuck in.
The Prince might think he was being sneaky, but everyone in the manor knew. Hell, the Prince’s own mother knew, but since Aurelion seemed happy every time the Prince crawled into his room through his window like an undignified thief, no one called him out on it.
Nazareth just didn’t care.
Aurelion’s friendship had little to do with their game as long as they didn’t get in the way. Some got caught in the middle, but they never actively tried to stop him until Third Year.
Neo blinked and tried to form an answer. He didn’t want to tell Serian that he stopped poisoning Aurelion because it got boring.
Aurelion was practically immune to most of the poisons by that point and due to some of Nazareth’s less than legal poison suppliers, the herbs he got were too precious to be used for their games.
But Serian didn’t ask why he stopped poisoning Aurelion.
He had asked why he visited him during the last poisoning event.
Even Neo didn’t know.
It just felt right to do so… since that was his little brother.
“I wanted to see.”
A simple answer to a complicated question.
“I wanted to see how he was doing.”
Serian stared at him with a tight expression, his lips thinning and his eyes burning brighter than fire.
—
Neo and Serian both recalled the first time the Prince visited the Odum Manor.
It was a memory they both remembered in vivid detail and the story went a bit like this.
Aurelion had been eight, a little tyke with a terrible older brother haunting the manor, and was very excited to have a playdate with his first-ever friend.
The peonies in the Western Garden were in full bloom that year, and little Aurelion forgot that the Western Wing belonged to his big brother.
So he ordered a servant to bring a tea cart over to the little pavilion situated there and brought Serian out for a tea party.
And then, from behind the shadows of a pillar, Nazareth had appeared with a deceptively soft smile and requested to join them.
Serian, being the naïve prince that he was, encouraged the other to sit down.
He hadn’t noticed the way Aurelion paled.
Nazareth had taken the teapot from the maidservant who was serving them and wanted to make tea for them instead.
Except, he had only made one cup and presented it to Serian.
And Aurelion watched, his small face turning grey as his large blue sapphire eyes followed Serian’s hand.
Aurelion snatched the cup out of the Prince’s grasp and drank the tea that his big brother painstakingly made.
Serian watched as a cruel and unkind smile formed on Nazareth’s face.
The smile was strange on a nine-year-old child.
The next second, Aurelion collapsed.
He was bedridden for a week.
—
“Aurelion is far kinder than anyone would like to believe,” Neo admitted quietly, more to himself than to Serian.
Because of him, his little brother’s childhood was ruined.
After the incident, Aurelion formed his icy shell and became colder than the Northern Tundras.
“You’ve changed,” Serian played with his hand slightly in a nervous gesture, “Lione wouldn’t tell me why. Is it true you’ve been possessed by a fairy?”
It was remarkable how the Prince could be so jaded, yet capable of believing someone could be possessed by a fairy.
“No.”
The boy pointedly turned away, his lips jutting out slightly with a disappointing presence around him.
Oh, by the gods, that sad, kicked-puppy face was so cute.
Why hadn’t Aurelion brought him home more now that Neo was no longer crazy?
Thankfully, Nazareth hadn’t ruined his brother’s friendship with Serian. That would have been devastating.
Despite everything, Neo knew his younger brother like the back of his hand, and he was aware Aurelion had trouble making friends, no thanks to him.
If Aurelion lost Serian’s friendship that day, the chances of him meeting the companions he now surrounded himself with would have never happened.
Ah, he suddenly wanted to hug his little brother…
Serian sulked a few seconds more and begrudgingly grumbled out, “But… you’re so different from before.”
Neo was slightly perplexed by this statement and his overall change in attitude.
“We all get tired with time, Your Highness,” he reasoned, holding back a sigh when the Prince narrowed his eyes at him, either with suspicion or something else Neo couldn’t decipher.
“What of Aurelion? Was he part of the reason, too?”
Neo lifted the corner of his mouth into a bitter smile.
This time, he really did sigh.
“If not for him, what other reason was there for me to change?”
It all came back to Aurelion, in the end. His brother, his anchor.
Of course, Rainier and his friends and those companions he procured alliances with were just as important, but Aurelion was different. He was family, yet also the first victim of his madness.
That child deserved everything good in life, and as the eldest, Neo neglected the duties of an elder sibling to torment the very child he was supposed to protect and nurture.
“Speaking of Aurelion, how is he these days?”
Neo changed the topic with a rigid awkwardness that even his stepmother would disapprove of.
The Prince was obviously a little put off by the question but managed to answer him in a confused tone.
“He’s good. You asked me that already.”
“I asked how he was doing in class. You are his friend. How is he doing overall?”
Golden eyes blinked at him a few times.
If someone were to walk in at that moment, they would think they were looking at a small white rabbit facing a dark and vicious predator.
“He’s… He’s doing great. More than great, actually. He’s happier.”
A moment of realization seemed to have encroached upon Serian’s face as he said those words.
Neo hummed, facing the tree line rather than the Prince as he hid a small smile.
“I’m relieved. And what of you, Your Highness?”
According to the social etiquette dictionary, every Odum child was required to read between the age of six and twelve, one should always enquire about the well-being of their conversation partner at least once during the conversation they were holding.
Neo had almost forgotten to ask.
“M-me?” The white-haired boy squeaked.
Bunny, Neo’s brain helpfully supplied.
“Is there a problem?”
“No! It’s just, why? Why are you asking about me?”
“According to the social etiquette—”
“Gods, you two are brothers…”
Neo gave him a half-shrug.
“I don’t use it often,” he confessed.
He would have, but the last few conversations he’d had with other people were too emotionally driven and left no room for him to ask. Also, Royce and the others don’t need him to get technical with them. They understood him just fine.
“I’m doing good,” Serian said, before changing the topic again, “But you and Aurelion, you two are okay now?”
Neo tilted his head, “We’ve resolved some of our differences after he was kidnapped by Titus Phelan. I’m sure he’s told you.”
The Prince immediately shook his head in disagreement, his eyes wide with a childish gleam. It was a wonder how no one had given in to the desire to manipulate and monopolize him by this point.
“Not exactly. Lione can be… secretive when he thinks I can’t handle the news.”
Neo didn’t know what had triggered the Prince all of a sudden, but the boy’s inner extroversion ignited like a bubbling volcano and he proceeded to talk at Neo like he was his personal therapist.
“… he doesn’t really talk to me at all about his personal stuff and it takes so much to get him to speak to us about his problems because obviously, there’s really no one around he can trust because he’s so paranoid no thanks to you, and we’ve all been his friends with him for years, and he just shoulders everything and never lets us help him carry some of that weight and he’s always trying to draw these walls between us that’s basically alienating him and making him more lonely…”
Neo wondered if he looked like someone who knew how to fix a communication problem.
He had broken up an alliance through this world’s equivalent of texting and one of his ex-allies had just confronted him about it barely ten minutes ago.
The confrontation did not end well.
“… since Father wanted us to be friends, we became friends, but it doesn’t look like he really wanted to be my friend. It’s all obligations and politics, and he’s always so serious…”
Neo understood some parts of the Prince’s rant. The history between his brother and Serian was something he wasn’t fully aware of, but everyone in Noble Society saw how Aurelion absolutely adored Serian.
The Emperor and their father introduced his brother and the Crown Prince to each other as playmates when the two were very young. This was a strategic political maneuver since Aurelion was expected to lead the next generation of the Imperial Faction.
Due to the events of the Lesser Krieg War, the Imperial Faction’s influences were weakened and the Aristocracy Faction rose.
Since the balance between the two factions was an important requirement for a better functioning government, many were pushing for Serian and Aurelion to have a close relationship so that the influence of the Aristocracy Faction would not affect the heirship of the next Emperor.
The “conflict” between the Aristocracy Faction and Imperial Faction has always been a problem within the court of the Emperor. Due to the existence of Serian’s youngest uncle, the Royal Prince, the struggle to balance the two factions had grown even more difficult in recent years.
As a quick and temporary measure, it was decided a few years ago to send the Royal Prince abroad.
(The man seemed to be enjoying his long vacation so far, and it might be difficult to drag him back to the Empire once Serian ascended the throne.)
But like all political parties, while the purpose of the factions was to balance the court, the real power struggle was much more complicated than that.
The Aristocracy Faction, led by the Elysium Household, supported the Royal Prince as the next Emperor and was made up of noble houses who sought to gain more political power within the court. Whether this was good or not was more dependent on the personality of some of these noble houses.
The Imperial Faction, on the other hand, led by the Odum Household, only supported the current ruling family and its direct line, so their allegiance was to Crown Prince Serian.
The goal of the Imperial Faction was to keep the power of the court mainly within the Emperor’s hands and not within the hands of the officials.
In other words, Aurelion was incredibly loyal to Serian, saw him as his closest companion, and was willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of the Prince.
Even in their past life, Neo had witnessed his brother’s protection of Serian. How did the Crown Prince not realize this?
“Aurelion’s awkward,” Neo deadpanned, cutting Serian from his ranting.
He seemed to have pierced the Prince deeply with his blatant remark, but there was no other way to word it.
“He’s not good at talking and he acts like a walking ice cube.”
Serian nodded in agreement.
“But he adores you,” Neo conceded.
“You’re his first playmate and the only one who stood by him when everyone else was running for their lives. Without you, he would have been alone. He values your friendship just as much as you value him.”
Serian instantly grew flustered at the surprisingly helpful insight, “Really?”
Neo nodded. “He protects you, cares for you.” He bowed his head in a show of shame. “I almost ruined it, but you stayed.”
“Lione…” The Prince trailed off slightly. “When we first met, he told me you were having a bad day.”
The knowing look in the younger boy’s eyes told Neo everything.
Ah, that child…
“He’s a very uncute little brother,” he said with a small smile, “and he’s always growing taller every day.”
“Uncute?”
“Mm, he grew too fast, but now he’s learning to grow properly.”
Neo wanted to guide him properly this time, as an older brother and not the cruel monster who taught through fear.
“But Aurelion is always like that.”
Serian obviously understood what Neo was implying, but if he wanted to play ignorance then so be it.
“He gets his face from Mother.”
“Duchess Vespera is an icon.”
“Yes,” Neo agreed in an instant, “But her son is difficult to dote on.”
The confession was spoken with a wooden face and in an emotionless voice, but Neo was one hundred percent serious.
“…” Serian had no words.
Neo set his eyes on the small animal disguised as the Crown Prince.
He pinched Serian’s cheeks expressionlessly.
“… Cute.”
This might be the only chance he was going to get to pinch a shorter kid’s cheek before the boy also shoots up like a tree!
“B-brother…!”
Serian’s words echoed through the tree lines.
Neo blinked, fingers frozen as he stared at Serian with a sense of wonderment.
“What did you just call me?”
Serian was internally panicking. He didn’t mean to say that! This was Lione’s older brother, but Lione had been calling him “brother” for three months straight now and Serian and Lione were practically brothers in all but blood anyway, so obviously, Lione’s brother would also be technically Serian’s brother because they were best friends and they shared BUT HE FORGOT THAT LIONE’S BROTHER WAS NAZARETH!!!!
Kill him now. He’s ready.
“I… Shwowwy…” Nazareth was still pinching his cheeks, so Serian could warble out his apology like a sad whale.
In response, Neo gave him a baffled look, before his eyes softened in awe.
“It’s fine,” he answered, amused.
God, this escalated quickly.
“Have you ever thought about visiting the Manor again–”
“What are you doing?”
A sharp voice pierced through the harmonious atmosphere.
A boy with pale grey hair and pale grey eyes suddenly appeared out of nowhere from behind the trees.
Neo paused, and then his eyes widen in recognition.
“Lester?”
The boy ignored him in favor of looking at his hands, which were now squishing Serian’s cheeks. Neo watched as he reached for the training sword on his hip.
He couldn’t blame him. This wasn’t exactly appropriate behavior between the future emperor and someone like him.
Was Lester going to beat him up?
But then…
“Get your filthy face out of Brother Naza’s hands!”
“What?” Surprisingly, the Crown Prince shifted a good one-eighty and proceeded to glower at the intruder with the dignity of a prince.
“No!” He promptly forced Neo’s hands back onto his face just as Neo was letting him go.
Lester screamed out a war cry.
Holy shit.
—
Step 28. Talk to the Crown Prince you traumatized alongside your little brother during your childhood. Someone else may show up during this time. If so, please consult with the Confrontation How-To Guide…
The author has something to say:
Thank you, Ease, roseyposies, Purple_Gravity, aaru, that-one_lazy-child, no<3, and raevie for the wonderful fanarts!
By Ease
By roseyposies: Vespera
By Purple_Gravity
By aaru
By that-one_lazy-child
By no<3: Alouysia
By raevie
Aaaah!
Aaaaah!
….Aaaagh…
thank you for the chapter!
I want to join the fight too to be Nazareth’s lil sis
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thanks for the chapter!
That ended unexpectedly
People wanna be Neo’s brothers or sister, lemme be his mother like I’ll feed him delicious home made food and also do his hair!!
hehehe…i binged this series last night when i saw an update on the front page
i really like neo! his gradual mellowing out even as he stays sharp and cool, his righteous try-hard brother and kicka** sister, his loyal butler (my goodness i’ve been hungering for a BL that has a strong master-butler presence in the story), his lackeys turned friends…it’s been great following his journey and i look forward to reading more!
really am a bit worried for serian though, hope he learns and grows from his naivety haha
thank you for your hard work and deliciously long chapters!
cute cute! super cute! Its nice to see that other than Naza’s friends they can see him changing too 😆😘. Thank you for the update 😍
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR MONTHS AND IT’S FINALLY HERE!! MY WISH CAME TRUE 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Please don’t take too long to update ಥ‿ಥಥ‿ಥ.thanks for the chapter tho but please
<3 Naza’s just collecting a legion of lil brothers! Love it!
Thank you for the chapter!
Love this story ! Tyftc