Chapter 355: Raphael Silvercrest

“Then I’ll be waiting for a positive response.”

“Haha, yes, I’ll think positively about it, I have a lot to consider. Well, then, I’ll say goodbye.”

’Ugh, that was weird.’

I finally freed myself and ended what could be considered my first encounter with my brother.

I remembered that I do indeed have an older brother, six years older than me. Technically, he’s my stepbrother, because he’s the son of my stepmother Valeria, but that doesn’t matter much.

It’s our first meeting. You could say it’s like fate that we haven’t met until now, and that includes my alternate self.

The reason is that, since I was reincarnated, he has been here in the middle world, as he is part of the kingdom’s first generation of talents.

Now, it was inevitable that when my alternate self’s time at the academy ended, he would meet him, just as I am doing now.

But a few months before graduation, Raphael was involved in an incident that left him almost crippled, and he had to return to the duchy for a recovery that would last years.

I, on the other hand, graduated, came to the middle world, and never returned home. After a few years, the kingdom was destroyed and everyone died. My alternate self never met him until the end.

Two lives so far, and today was our first encounter. That’s why it took me a while to connect who he was until Aurora reminded me that he was my brother. For a moment, I had even forgotten his name.

Until a moment ago, he didn’t appear in any of my plans or my alternate self’s, and I had no thoughts or anything about him.

I realized that I hadn’t fully understood the consequences of the academy moving to the middle world.

All I have of him are Seraphina’s memories, and honestly, now that I’ve started to remember all that, I remembered that he’s basically a younger version of my father in almost everything… even in the way he treats me.

Although I don’t know if that has changed now that we haven’t seen each other for so many years.

’I guess I really don’t know anything about him.’

That’s why I was uncomfortable and didn’t really know what to do, but in the end I followed the woman where I met him.

And I confirmed that my father’s genes are really dominant, because like me, he had blue eyes, platinum white hair, and was damn handsome.

As I thought, if I had chosen a masculine appearance for Chris’s identity from Seraphina, he would have looked too much like him. It was good that I didn’t.

I really didn’t know how to act in this sudden encounter, so I was polite and listened to everything he said, acting correctly, not wanting to get into a conflict over anything.

Even so, the discomfort and thoughts of what to do never went away, and Aurora following me and looking at me as if I were an alien or something the whole time didn’t help.

Curiously, he didn’t bring up the subject of my origins, although I think he knows Tristan, and obviously I’m not his son, maybe my father explained it to him in a letter or something.

In the end, all he talked to me about was his faction and my future plans and all the advantages I would have by joining his faction and so on.

He acted nice and calm, explained everything patiently, and in the end, he didn’t even demand an answer, he just told me to keep it in mind.

Although there was one final question about my relationship with Seraphina, which gave me a bit of a bad feeling, but I told him the same thing I told my father during the banquet.

Except for that last part, I guess it’s the same thing the princess wanted to do when she called me, adding the creation of a contact with William. Only in her case, I was aggressive and didn’t let her say any of that.

That’s why Aurora may have noticed the difference in treatment and couldn’t believe it. But I have to complain: if she thinks she’s hallucinating or in a dream, she should pinch herself, not me.

She pinched me five times, then I will demand fair compensation.

Finally, the first contact with my brother ended like that, and before another faction contacted us, I went straight to the academy. I had a lot to think about.

’I guess I can’t let it happen again.’

’Yeah, I think it won’t be long now… is Willian’s luck working!?’

’The beatings, I mean the training — wait, number two, are you back?’

’Yes, I failed. We lost the doppelgänger, I couldn’t get to him, there are the memories.’

“Damn… there was someone watching him, they’re too cautious, is it because of the demons?”

“Going after a royal butt isn’t easy, and I still don’t know if the appearance I was using could seduce him.”

“Yeah, it won’t be easy to get, let’s try a few more times and if it doesn’t work I’ll go myself, but back to our brother…”

’Yes, we owe it to our parents.’

’Not doing it would really make me uncomfortable, and we’ll lose their support.’

’That’s true, that’s right.’

’That’s right, that’s true.’

I was discussing what to do. In fact, the incident is more or less around this time, and I was thinking about whether or not to get involved in this and the implications that could have.

Technically, he means nothing to me, and I have no interaction with him other than Seraphina’s memories, but…

Recalling the events, due to that injury, unlike now, my father did not accompany me, let alone my stepmother.

They both stayed in the duchy, and that caused my alternate self to suffer greatly, having no support, no one, and if the incident were to happen again, they would probably return.

It’s not really necessary now, but it’s not a bad thing to have. Maybe one day I’ll be short of money or something else and I’ll just have to go through the portal to ask my father for it, it’s convenient, and he the source of the power of my abuse of authority techniques to begin with.

More importantly, I believe I owe this family. It’s not that I feel sorry for replacing that bitch Seraphina, who is taking her time being born while William’s damn crow has already been born.

But rather because they have done so much for me over the past three years and more. They gave me their love and support, including my mother Valeriane, whom I didn’t used to see much.

They were my new family, and I would feel terrible to let that tragedy happen again.

“So the verdict is…”

’Prevent him from becoming crippled.’ (x2)

’But that’s not easy. Technically, we’re still in the academic period.’

’Even if we ask, they won’t let us go, so the legal route is out of the question.’

’Only our Seniors can go. It was a collaborative expedition, right? With the other kingdoms.’

’If two other kingdoms also went, they didn’t come out of it well either.’

’But we don’t really know what happened.’

’Yes, they all came back a very strong binding contract and nobody could break it, although they came back alive…’

’Obviously someone intervened. Could it be the demons?’

’No, they wouldn’t leave them alive, unless they had another purpose. But nothing else ever happened.’

’Hmm, but we don’t have any information about the objective or the location, right?’

’We don’t know much! Since we weren’t involved.’

’But first of all, we need to find a way to join that expedition.’

’We need to gather information, we know almost nothing, we have to go to the local informants.’

Quickly, with my parallel thoughts, I decided that I would intervene. Even though I didn’t really gain anything, I did it because I wanted to.

And in the end, although some of my brother’s faction and the factions of the other kingdoms died, many returned alive like him. So it wasn’t a deadly trap where I would definitely die, and I believed that there would be no problem with going.

I don’t know how much my intervention will actually help, but at least I will have tried. After all, this is for my family.

I also didn’t pay much attention to the changes that all this would bring, even in the power dynamics between the factions I know: going into an unknown future is not a fear I still have.

..

.

“Give me a large Sableon steak, charred black, with a twenty-year-old wine. Make it the best one!”

“…Yes, sir, but about the wine… could you join me? That way you can choose it yourself.”

“Of course.”

“Oh, this is great!”

To find a way to sneak into the expedition my brother would be leading, I needed information to know exactly when it would be and how to sneak in.

So, following what my alternate self knew, I went to the place where I could find information: something he discovered after years of being in the middle world.

It was a hidden place, in a high-class restaurant. To get to the informant, I had to reserve a VIP room and ask for that even though it wasn’t on the menu.

I felt a little immersed in this situation; I even came with a hood, changed my appearance to a tall, mysterious man, and made my hair cover half my face to go with the atmosphere.

The waiter calmly led me down the hallway to the back. We reached the kitchen and walked past the cooks; they didn’t look at me and acted as if I didn’t exist.

We reached the back, in the cellar where they stored food, he moved some vegetables, and a door in the wall opened.

All of this really excited me, but it also made me feel a kind of regret: if I were the Eminence of Shadows, perhaps I would have a lair like this, which could only be reached by hidden methods such as these.

“Sir, you can go straight down that hallway; the wine you are looking for is there.”

“Good, I hope the wine here is of high quality.”

“You won’t be disappointed, sir.”

’Huheuhe… this is really cool! The person who did this is a visionary in this world.’

I was really getting more and more into the atmosphere. I walked firmly and authoritatively, as if I were someone important but in hiding.

I walked down the dark hallway until I finally reached a large room where there was a lamp, and under that lamp was a single, lonely chair.

Without thinking twice, I stepped forward and sat down.

Suddenly, another spotlight lit up in front of me, revealing another seat not far away where someone was sitting.

Only the dark edges it visible. There were two figures standing next to it, also obscured by darkness, and only their outlines were visib—

“ಠಿ_ಠ!”

“Welcome to our establishment. What kind of information are you looking for?”

The outlines of the shadows on either side made me suspicious, but before I could think any further, a deep, thick voice, obviously male, came from the seated person.

But to me, that didn’t match the outlines I was seeing, and in fact, when I looked closer…

“ಠಿ_ಠ… yes, about that. I want information about Raphael Silvercrest.”

“Oh, you want information about one of the lords of this place? You’re not simple. You should know that such information is very expensive. Do you think you can afford the price?”

’Yes, there’s definitely something wrong here. Ah!’

I wasn’t really going to leave it at that, so I activated my skill, and sure enough, it confirmed my thoughts: the person in front of me was someone I knew.

’Hey, number two, abort; don’t waste another doppelgänger. The skill is no longer necessary: I found Lily.’

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