The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

ALTHOUGH he was very shocked by this sudden turn of events, Astrid quickly forced himself to calm down.  If he showed any weird reaction here, it would surely just have a negative effect on him and his brother. 

But even though he recovered fairly quickly, Reas still noticed his abnormal reaction.

He leaned down a bit and whispered, "Are you okay?"

Astrid raised his head and saw the inquiring and worried gaze of his brother.  Reas probably noticed his reaction.  Which didn't surprise him.  After all, the two of them were pretty sensitive to one another's emotional changes.

"Yeah," he said but grasped his brother's hand and wrote something on his palm.

'Cassius Grimaldi'.

Reas eyes widened a bit when he realized what his brother wrote.  Cassius Grimaldi?  The captain just now called the silver-haired man 'Cassius'.  If that's all, then wouldn't mean much.  But Astrid added a 'Grimaldi' to that name, then it would have a totally different meaning. 

Of course, he knew who Cassius Grimaldi was.  The younger brother of their mother.  Although he didn't know how Astrid found out that the guy was a Grimaldi, he wouldn't doubt his brother's words.  He glanced faintly at the silver-haired man.  So, this guy must definitely be that Cassius Grimaldi.

It's a good thing that he had a poker face most of the time.  Or else his annoyance would definitely be written on his face.  Why would he be annoyed?  What else would he feel then?  It's already a good thing that he was not spouting curses right now. 

This was only their first day here in the capital and yet they really just had to meet one of the people they should be avoiding.  As if encountering a hostage taking/bombing incident was not enough to make this day worse than it already was.  They really had to meet someone from their mother's family.

He honestly didn't have any opinion regarding the Grimaldis.  Except probably for the duke.  He seriously thought that person had problems.  Sending your daughter to act as a bait for a rapist and murderer was just not right.  No matter what reason he had, it's just wrong.

In their mother's story, the only one who's normal in the family was her younger brother – this person standing in front of them.  So, he didn't have any negative emotion towards him.  He was sure that Astrid was the same.  But that didn't change the fact that they still didn't want to meet him or anyone from that family.

He then looked at the silver-haired little boy.  So, was this boy his son?

Reas simply copied his brother and acted like there was nothing wrong.  Although he's not good at acting, having a poker first was enough for this.  And he really had a very good poker face. 

He wrote on his brother's palm, 'I understand'.

Astrid glanced at his brother and didn't see any weird expression on his face and he knew that the other already returned to calm.

So, the twins just quietly stood there.

"Lord Cassius, is the little master okay?" the captain asked the silver-haired lord.

"Yes, Nikki is fine.  All thanks to these two brothers," Casey said looking at the brothers who couldn't be anymore different from one another.  "Thank you again for saving my nephew."

The captain nodded.

Oh, so the boy was his nephew – Reas thought.  So, the kid was the son of the older one?  Either way, he still turned out to their cousin.  Not that it mattered that much anyway.

"Excuse me, sir, since this unfortunate incident is already over, can my brother and I leave?" asked Astrid to the soldier.  "We still have to meet someone, you see."

Captain Moore glanced at this overly beautiful teenager.  He felt like it would realy hard to reject any request from him.  It's a good thing that they didn't really need to retain them here.  Since he had already asked the other brother about the details of what happened and there's also the security cameras around that could back that up. 

"Yes, you can go.  But do leave your contact information to one of my soldiers just in case we needed to contact you for any follow up," he said.  Then he thought of something and changed what he said.  "Never mind that, just give your contact information to me."

It wouldn't be good if one of his soldiers tried to contact this black-haired teenager using that.

The twins nodded and send their contact information to the captain's Terminal.  After that, the captain first left and went to the reception area where the injured section leader was.

"Then we'll be leaving now," Astrid said to the uncle and nephew pair.

He and Reas were about to leave when a milky voice stopped them. 

"Brother, wait!"

Astrid had an urge to just continue walking, but that would just be too cruel for the innocent Nicol.  So, he stopped and looked back.

"Yes?" he asked with his usual gentle smile.

"Brother still hasn't told me his name," Nicol said, looking at him full of anticipation.  As if he couldn't wait to know his name.

"The young master can just call me Aster," Astrid said, deciding to just give the other his nickname.

"Aster… Brother Aster.  This name really suits my brother!" Nicol said with a smile.

Reas almost muttered 'who's your brother?'.  But he stopped himself in time before he appeared childish. 

"Can the two also leave me your contact information?  So, I could repay you some other time for saving my nephew," Casey asked.

"Can't Brother Aster just go with us?" Nicol said innocently.

"Silly Nikki, didn't you hear what your brother said earlier?  They had to go somewhere," Casey explained.

Nicol frowned a bit but still understood.  He nodded and raised his head to look at the pretty brother.  "Then, Brother Aster, can you let my uncle contact you so we can meet again?"

Astrid stared at the pleading blue eyes of the little boy.  He almost couldn't resist the urge to tell them his contact information immediately.  But he knew how troublesome it would be if they continued to have contact in the future.  On the other hand, directly refusing without any viable reason would just be more suspicious.

But before he could think of how he should response, his brother already did that for him.

"Sorry, but we're really in a hurry right now."

Then he pulled Astrid out of there.

Casey looked interestingly at the back of the two, thinking amusedly how it felt like they were running from something.

But really, what interesting kids.