CHAPTER 17: FETCH!

I had no way of knowing what had happened. I had been ordered by First-Born Brat, Hwan-Seok, to cover my ears and close my eyes, so I had. Something weird had come over me, and I had suddenly lost my senses. When I had recovered, Suyeong was gone.

I turned to Hwan-Seong, “Your Majesty!”

He said, “I can’t play fetch with you now. just give me a minute. My arms are so sore.”

Clearly, he had thought I actually liked playing fetch. I can’t wait to show you how mistaken you’ve been!

Still, I had no idea what had happened. I asked, “Your Majesty, what happened?”

“It’s all your fault, Mutt.” W-what had I done?

It was explained to me that, unbeknownst to me, Hwan-Seong had impulsively used magic while Hwan-Seok was there. Using magic in the presence of his superior is a breach of courtly etiquette.

Hwan-Seong sulked, pouting like a petulant child denied of sweets. I laughed inwardly. It didn’t matter that he was a genius, second only to Jinsu or a brilliant swordsman, or that he could literally dodge bullets. I envisioned him being able to do push-ups by his older brother. I was reminded again that he was only a little boy.

Taking care to hide it, I gloated inwardly.

“Oh, poor Brother! How your arms must have ache!” Kneading his arms, I ventured to use the familiar term.

“Yes, they’re killing me,” he answered. “That mean Hwan-Seok!”

“But, Your Majesty,” I said, retreating to safer territory, “What happened?”

“It’s better that you don’t know. Keep out of it.”

He then announced, “My arms don’t hurt anymore. Hwan-Seok forbade me to use magic for two hours, and now, my two hours are up!”

Eh? Wha-what?

Apparently, magic could dispel physical fatigue and aches. In a moment, he seemed refreshed again. Furthermore, I had just learned that two hours had passed during that time. What could possibly have taken two hours? To me, the two hours had passed in the blink of an eye. What had happened?

The Second-Born-Brat spun around, his arms healed. Geh, I suddenly felt an uneasy foreboding and yet somehow familiar…feeling.

“Fetch!” he yelled and the ragdoll came flying.

I’ll kill you. Do you want to go flying too? But I dared not utter my thoughts aloud.

Running as quickly as I could, I chased the ragdoll flying over my head. “Yes. Your Majesty!”

Hwan-Seong complained, “You’re mean, Hwan-Seok. I thought my arms would fall off.”

Hwan-Seok just sat reading, ignoring Hwan-Seong. The rumor was that Hwan-Seong’s magical abilities were superior to Hwan-Seok’s, that Hwan-Seong’s genius was on par with that of Jinsu Han in combat, at least. Actually, Hwan-Seong was a better fighter. Maybe a thirteen-year-old was too young to be given this much credit, but he had a certain charisma. Hwan-Seong was physically stronger than Hwan-Seok, but he still did not dare challenge his brother.

Hwan-Seok gave Hwan-Seong something between a pat and a rap on the head. It was an ambiguous gesture. Hwan-Seong, in spite of himself, smiled, his anger fading.

“What happened to the 17th ranked princess?”

“I gave her a good beating, but not enough to kill her,” Hwan-Seong boasted. “I don’t want to get into trouble with Father.”

“Did she bleed?”

“I was careful not to let her bleed, But why shouldn’t I let her?” (T/n: SEE? THESE BROTHERS doesn’t give a damn about any woman or any of their sister, heck even to their own mother with an exception of Sang-Hee. In this setting were male are predominant, it’s not even a patriarchal level anymore, Sang-Hee as a female is already an exception. -.-“) 

Hwan-Seok sat down again at his desk. He said carelessly as he thumbed through the pages, “The Mutt’s scared of blood.”

“Oh, I see! She’s a Mutt and a scaredy-cat!”

Hwan-Seok then coughed slightly, which alarmed Hwan-Seong.

“Hwan-Seok! What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing—calm down.” Even as he calmed his little brother, Hwan-Seok’s body trembled.

Then another voice inquired, “What has happened? Why’re you coughing?”

Magical powers protected men from illness, so Hwan-Seok’s cough was quite concerning.

“It’s nothing Father.”

“Tell the truth.”

“No, it’s really nothing.”

“It’s a direct order. You are unwell. What happened?”

Hwan-Seong began, “It started after he left Mutt’s room, Father”

Making Hwan-Seok sighed at his brother, then he began to explain.

There was a great turmoil in the palace. The seventeenth-born princess, Suyeong Shin, had been put to death.

What is going on?

But nobody could tell me. Sujin just said that she must have harmed the princes, but she seemed ignorant as well.

I was from the twenty-first century Korea, where the capital punishment was all but obsolete. It gave me chills to even think of execution. It seemed unspeakably brutal. It was frightening that the girl who had approached me a few days earlier wanting to be friends was now dead. I was reminded again of the dangers that surround me making me renew my resolve.

I had to be careful not to do anything that would get me noticed. Girl’s lives mattered little here. Girls, who had no magical abilities, were expendable because they were so easy to produce. Men, on the other hand, had magic. Having ample magical abilities meant you were very fertile and that you could impregnate a woman with ease.

Scumbag could rightly be called a girl-making machine, considering I had thirty-two older sisters, and we are only counting the ones under fifteen (T/n: O_O). I probably had even more who were older, but I wasn’t sure. They were my family, but I wasn’t expected to know them.

I chance to be born in this world…

You see the implications of all this. There had only been three boys who preceded me, which was why men were supreme in this world. The boys were the ones who had all control, and they were extremely rare. A man just had to heave and grunt a few times and girl would appear. Poof!

This sucks.

I was brutally murdered in my previous life. If I had to undergo such a trauma, wouldn’t it have made no sense to be reborn in a world where girls, not men, were supreme? That would have been awesome! The more I thought about it, the more depressed I felt. I felt sorry for Suyeong, too.

If Suyeong had been a boy, she would not have been killed. The news of Suyeong’s death was shocking, but I could not process my feelings the way I would have in my former life. This was not Earth. I hid my pain and fear.

I had the feeling I was forgetting something, I tried to remember…

…

..

.

Oh, right, the second drawer.

I had forgotten until now that Hwan-Seok had casually mentioned “the second drawer” before leaving the room. My memory was terrible, perhaps because of my biological age of eight. It made studying very difficult. I had no intellectual or magical gifts while the two brat princes had magic! They were like supercomputers with fiber-wifi speed while I was a mere 2G phone!

If I had been given any acknowledgment for my herculean efforts, I would have felt a bit better. Longing for words of encouragement only highlighted my deep loneliness.

Oh yeah…back to the drawer. What’s this?