He's My Real Brother, Duke

“You talk well now. I don’t think you were good at it before. Where did you learn it?”

The child has been eating well these days, so he proudly replied, hitting his protruding belly with his small hand, “Let’s talk!”

“Okay?”

“Yes!”

Standing upright again, the Duke looked down at the child sternly.

Even though I always felt bad seeing the child, every time I think of Astel’s brushing against the child’s cheeks I feel strange.

But that was it. It’s time to put the complicated sentiment aside.

Now he’s done Astel a lot of damage, and he’s even run away leaving his child behind…

I had to prepare and punish Cassian Gray for being insolent.

Duke Anais glared at the child and said coldly closing the door, “If you have nothing to say, just leave.”

But the child did not leave and answered, “I don’t want to.”

The child acted so boldly that Duke Anais could clearly see whose child it was.

“We, friends!” ( We’re friends)

He didn’t know whether the child had more courage than most of the adult servants or if he was simply ignorant.

“I’m not your friend,” said Duke Anais.

However, the child nodded his head with his blonde hair gliding, unyielding to the rejection.

“I know!”

Then with his hand on his waist, he looked up and declare proudly, “Well, be my dad!”

The Duke’s expression distorted at the absurd remarks of a mere three years old child.

“Your father is different.”

He looked down at the child coldly. However, the child did not back down despite the cold and indifferent reply.

“My mom, Aste, and Misto, Dad!” (My mom is Astel and Mister is Dad!)

“…What?”

It was nothing but a trifle. The Duke remained indifferent.

But he soon realized it…

Unknowingly, his lips became strangely loose, and the frown on his face also relaxed gently.

In a nutshell, at that little boy’s suggestion…

He felt a chill…

❆

With a table in between, Duke Anais and the child were seated opposite each other.

He bit the flesh in his mouth as he looked at Cassian Gray’s personal information and tracking reports scattered around the table.

Astel likes Cassian Gray and loves that child.

Duke Anais, who managed to change his expression, which was distorted by pain, nodded at the child.

“Why did you come to me?”

The child, who lightly passed the question, folded the personal details on the table cheerfully.

‘You don’t even know that it’s an investigation on your father, and you look happy.’

He muttered quietly, looking down at the child indifferently, “ So your name is Lune…”

“I don’t know who it is…?”

The child tilted his head innocently. He pretended to be calm and smiled beautifully.

I can’t be called a true adult if I take my anger out on Cassian’s child. I took a deep breath and spoke dryly, “Tell me what you have to say and go back.”

He asked firmly, his chin resting, and the child raised his finger and pointed to the Duke.

“Oh, I like you!”

When the child said, ‘I like you’ the Duke blinked and lowered his gaze.

“So what?”

“I’ll help you!”

“How can you help me?”

His gaze, which seemed to be more interested than before, turned to Lune.

“You like my mother!!”

Lune shouted in a dignified voice, sticking out his belly.

“And my mother likes you, too.”

Round eyes glistened with compassion.

The Duke sighed, thinking that it was difficult to discern what the child was thinking.

“So ​​if you get married, I will help you…”

…Marriage?

“What and how can you help?”

“Um…”

Lune presented a scene torn from a fairy tale book.

“Here, knight!”

On a small piece of paper was a scene with a knight drawn on it.

“Mister Knight saves the world.”

The Duke, who had been listening to the piercing voice of Lune, suddenly got a small realization.

“Everyone loves him.”

I remember the time when Astel said she likes ‘Knights’. Lune’s voice echoed over it.

“So, you’re going to show the knight’s cool side!”

In order to win love, you have to show the coolness that the other person wants.

Even though it was a simple truth, she fell in love with Cassian Gray even if Cassian didn’t even try.

In that sense, it was quite encouraging that tomorrow was the swordsmanship competition. The child stared at the Duke’s round eyes.

“Hey, when is it?”

He also did a lethal move that only works for Astel, the calyx. When I first saw it, it seemed that the calyx was the child’s means of survival.

“…It’s not bad.”

Duke Anais nodded his head with a cynical expression and added another word of praise, “You’re quite helpful, too.”

The Duke didn’t like him because he thought he was Cassian Gray’s son.

“Because I’m very smart!”

The child pounded his chest, praising himself. His well-cut hair shook like a chestnut.

Soon after, the child bowed his head and tried to return to his room in a hurry. However, he groaned for a long time as he struggled to open the door and leave.

He looked quite different from when he came in. Watching from behind, the Duke saw the child’s plump cheeks quivering.

The Duke opened the door in silence.

The child stared at the Duke with glistening eyes and said, “Daddy strong!” (Daddy is strong)

With the door open, he stared at the back of a child, exaggeratedly as small as the palm, twitching with his foot.

I felt concerned about the child’s posture while walking alone in a wide hallway.

…Just a little bit.

❆

After sending Lune out, the Duke of Anais was checking on what the child was going to do next.

Astel said she likes valiant knights, so he was thinking of participating in the swordsmanship competition himself.

‘I’ll sweep them all out, I was thinking the same thing, grabbing some swords in the office…’

Following another knock, the door swung open.

Lune did not return.

There was no one to guard the door, but the Duke with a developed sense could tell who had entered.

“Duke!”

Astel approached him, smiling brightly, like someone who had forgotten that she had given him a white magnolia.

He stared at her somewhat nervously and answered, “Yes, Astel.”

“I woke up because Lune was not sleeping.”

Soon after, they sat down on the sofa.

Asking the Duke if he would like some tea, Astel waved her hand awkwardly and said,  “Well, Your Excellency Duke. I’d like to ask you a little favor.”

“Yes.”

“What are you going to do on the day of the swordsmanship competition?”

Did Lune, who returned to Astel’s room, talk about the event on the day of the swordsmanship competition in advance?

The Duke responded nervously, “…Unless there is anything special, I will be attending a swordsmanship competition.”

… Astel whispered carefully.

“Then maybe… From the plains, can you bring me thirty mammoth shells?”

The Duke answered without asking why, “Yes.”

It’s simply catching thirty mammoths. It was quite a sudden topic, but it was not difficult at all. He nodded to Astel, thinking he should hand it over soon.

But it was then…

Astel blinked innocently with er rabbit-like eyes and softly spoke, “The Duke will go himself directly, right? I think that would be more meaningful.”

I clenched my fists and opened them stiffly a few times, and tried to press down on my heart. [Duke]

It was Astel’s first request. If something like a mammoth could change her mind, would thirty just be a number? I thought that it would also be possible to bring about annihilation. [Duke]

“Yes, I’ll be back.”

“…But if that happens, you won’t be able to participate in the swordsmanship competition, right?”

Seeing the sad expression on Astel’s face, Duke made a promise to himself.

‘I’ll beat the mammoths quickly and then participate in the swordsmanship competition with that shell.’

If it’s only thirty, I’m confident that  I’d catch them in half a day.

Having completed all the calculations in his mind, Duke Anais raised Astel’s hand and kissed it gently on the back, and said, “I’ll be back safely and as soon as possible.”

Astel nodded in relief then answered, “Yes, it’s a shame that you can’t come to the swordsmanship competition! Please make sure to have 30 mammoths!”

❆

So, on the day of the swordsmanship competition, the plains in the northern part of the night were still far and far away from dawn to come.

The voice of Miles, the head of the treatment center, echoed in the air, which was overshadowed by Astel’s sudden request.

“Hey, Urgh!”

Miles was brought in with a leash in the insidious den of the monsters, the northernmost wilderness.