Chapter 413: Brother-In-Law

I didn’t understand anything, but it was clear that Maximilian was calling me. I had no choice but to leave Selene with Eira and get up.

“Maximilian, don’t you think doing it this way is inappropriate?”

“Don’t get involved in this, Celes. I know what I’m doing. There are things I must do as a brother, and this is one of them.”

I approached and listened to their exchange. I didn’t understand anything, but this time it was impossible to ignore: Maximilian was looking at me with clear and direct animosity.

Before, I thought it was my imagination. Now it was very clear.

And the worst part was that I didn’t remember doing anything to deserve that look… a look as if he wanted to kill me.

As far as I knew, even though in my memories he acted like a rabid dog with the exception of my alternate self, deep down he was a good person and it wasn’t easy to really make him angry, unless, of course, it was my fault that his sister died.

’Wait!, did that Celestine accuse me to her brother?’

Now that I think about it, if what I said that day reached his ears, he might have reacted like that.

I mean, he may not like Celestine as much as he likes Aurora and have some reservations about her, since she’s competing for the throne, but deep down he loves her too.

’If that bastard is capable of doing something like that, if she definitely—’

“Sr. Christian, I would appreciate it if you didn’t look at me that way. I think you’re having some kind of misunderstanding. If you’re thinking about the reason for my older brother’s obvious rivalry, your attention towards me is misplaced; instead, I would recommend that you look back.”

At that moment, because I looked at her with suspicion and mistrust, which I obviously did not hide, she spoke to me.

I wasn’t going to believe anything she said, but I had nothing to lose anyway, so I turned to the group.

“…”

There was a momentary peculiar movement that did not escape my attention: Aurora seemed to have been smiling until she saw me turn around.

She is obviously happy about the situation. As far as I know, Aurora doesn’t like Maximilian very much, or rather, since she is a tsundere in the making, she pretends that she doesn’t like him on the outside; on the other hand, Maximilian towards her…

“Ooh! (⊙ｏ⊙)”

That’s when I realized, sometimes I forgot because we were just pretending, but it’s true that I’m publicly in a relationship with Aurora.

I never thought about what that would do when we met the “supreme siscon” known as Maximilian, but now it all made more sense.

’Now the question is, why is Aurora happy?’

I really don’t understand what Aurora is thinking, but I won’t overthink it. Sometimes women are petty for inexplicable reasons.

I don’t think it has anything to do with what happened last night, and it was Seraphina who said she would lick her flat chest in the morning, so I’m completely clueless.

’Yes, women are a real enigma.’

“Stop distracting yourself and take out your weapon.”

Well, it wasn’t the time to think about anything else, and Maximilian seemed to be staring at me aggressively, with a dangerous aura; I could even feel as if there was a golden lion behind him, looking at me like prey.

He was obviously not going to be easy on me, as a siscon he definitely wanted to test me to see if I was worthy of his sister.

Now I’m a little hesitant as to whether Celestine was the one who rigged the groups, since it’s possible that if it’s for his beloved sister, Maximilian would do something like that, but the fact that she’s here too means she had something to do with it. Maybe that’s what she wanted, she wanted Maximilian and me to clash.

’That princess, as always, doing things this way.’

Yes, it was most likely, but regardless of whether it was the truth, one thing was obvious: I wasn’t going to let them beat me up unilaterally just because of some test or a siscon’s jealousy.

So I lunged forward with great momentum; I was unarmed, so Maximilian didn’t react.

Maybe he thinks I’m not a threat no matter what I do, especially if I’m unarmed; he, being one of the strongest in his generation, isn’t wrong to think that way.

Even so, I didn’t back down. I got within striking distance without worrying about the aura of aggression he was giving off.

“Maximilian, right?”

Once I was right in front of him, I spoke to him informally, not as an senior, not as a crown prince, but simply as an equal, which was highly inappropriate from any point of view.

Anyone could deduce that I was deliberately looking for a fight.

“Oh! Well, well!, I see you’re at least someone with guts, huh?”

He responded with even more aggression. Although he seemed calm, his eyes definitely seemed to burn. He definitely wanted to put me in my place, which I wasn’t going to let happen easily.

The tension began to rise and silence reigned over the area; it was so intense that even out of the corner of my eye I could see Celestine holding her breath a little and hesitating whether to interfere or not.

Maybe he was just pretending and inside he was rejoicing at turning his enemies against each other, but that wasn’t important; I had to deal with Maximilian, I had to make my position clear to him and how his sisconery should stay in check when it came to me, so I made the first move.

Click!

*****

’I knew this would happen hahaha~’

That’s what Aurora thought as she waited for the fight to unfold.

She was eagerly waiting for her older brother Maximilian to teach Christian a lesson.

The reason?

The reason is that just last night, as usual, she was one of the guests at the gentlemen’s night, even though she wasn’t one of them.

It’s not that she didn’t like it at all; although from her perspective most of them are hopeless fools, it’s fun to spend time with them.

Spending time with them made any complicated thoughts simply vanish, and last night she really needed it because of the events that occurred regarding her older sister Celestine.

And it did help, but everyone drank something they shouldn’t have, which isn’t that unusual, and things quickly got out of hand.

But luckily, when she went through her demonic growth phase, she had gained more stamina and was able to find a moment of clarity to escape from there.

The problem was that by that time, they had already set her clothes on fire.

Aurora still remembered how it felt to walk back half-naked, both when she passed through the crowded streets and when she passed through the dark and mostly cold streets that were still unknown to her, covered only by an illusion that who knows who it might not affect; and when it might fail because of how drunk she was.

Although seeing what happened before with the rest, it seems that she was saved from an even worse fate.

Still, she couldn’t help but feel a little angry at Christian, who was the one who always dragged her along and was therefore the main cause of that bad experience.

That’s why she was happy when she realized that the person instructing them was her own brother. Although she hadn’t seen him in years, if her brother’s personality hadn’t changed, Christian would be in trouble.

Originally, she planned to intervene and clear things up, but with the resentment still present, she hoped her brother would put him in his place and then she would clarify things.

No matter how monstrous Christian was, he definitely couldn’t handle her brother.

A lesson was about to befall him definitively, and with the tension at its peak, it seemed inevitable, but the next moment Christian—

Click!

“What’s going on!?”

Just when everything seemed about to explode, something happened that left Aurora bewildered. Instead of attacking, he put up a barrier, and then…

There was no then, there was no blow. Instead of fighting, they started talking. Christian seemed to have taken the initiative, saying something to Maximilian, who looked at him doubtfully for a while.

From time to time, Maximilian’s gaze would shift to Aurora, which made her feel nervous, as if she had been caught doing something mischievous.

Maximilian’s gaze not only fell on the nervous Aurora but also seemed to be directed behind her for some reason.

“What’s wrong, Aurora, do I have something on my face?”

Aurora looked back, following her brother’s gaze, and there was Seraphina, along with Alice and Lys, the latter looking a little anxious as she looked where Christian and Maximilian were.

“Ah!, Lys, you don’t have to worry, nothing will happen.”

Seraphina, noticing Eirlys’ state, turned her attention to her and tried to calm her down.

“B-but he’s an Veteran, and for a while now he’s been looking at him as if he hates him.”

“Well, it’s not that serious. I guess at most he wants to test his brother-in-law or something.”

“Brother-in-law?”

“Huh? Lys, didn’t you notice from his introduction? He’s Aurora’s brother, and the one next to him is her other sister.”

“Eh? Oh! Right, I forgot.”

“See, so there’s no need to worry, nothing bad will happen, right, Aurora?”

“Um… I don’t think so. Maximilian should know that he’s my boyfriend.”

Aurora had to say that, but internally she thought that was specifically why she believed this could escalate, and she hoped Christian would learn a lesson.

“You heard her, hmm, oh! Think of it as a situation like in the books I gave you. Have you read the one about the brothers yet?”

“Ah! I haven’t read that one yet. Are you talking about the one titled ’You are not worthy of my sister, only I am worthy of her’?”

“N-no, not that one—”

“No? Then the only one left is the one titled ’Your older sister will teach you your place, forbidden love.’”

“N-no, wait! Why do you have those books? Have you read them?”

“No, the covers and titles seemed a little weird, so I left them for last.”

“Ugh, looks like I gave you the wrong books. I’ll give you the right ones later.”

“Big sister, What’s that last book? I don’t remember reading it.”

“Well, that book…”

Seraphina didn’t know how to explain that those books were from the collection she shared with Astrid, which is very different from the collection she shared with Alice. The genres covered by both collections are very different.

It was a mistake that occurred when Lys asked her for a recommendation for a novel to read, an interest that was born when she saw Alice and Seraphina or even Elena talking about these topics.

Seraphina, seeing an opportunity to pass on her taste, recommended many novels to Lys, in which it seems that more than one had slipped in from the wrong collection.

But luckily, she hadn’t been contaminated yet; she hadn’t read those books, and Seraphina didn’t need to explain why at that moment…

Plack!

A loud impact sound came from where Christian and Maximilian were standing, catching everyone’s attention.

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