Brothers With Many Similarities
by Afuhfuihgs
Only when someone grabbed my collar and shouted something did I realize I was walking. They were clearly spewing anger close to my face, but I couldn’t hear anything. Someone stopped the person blocking me.
As the person blocking me disappeared, I aimlessly walked forward again. Ttuk-ttuk. With each step, my whole body vibrated with something. It was because something inside me had collapsed.
I stopped a few steps away from the coffin. In that moment, I felt a strange sensation of being left alone in the world. The warmth that had always remained warmly inside me had vanished without a trace.
I took a deep breath and moved the steps I had stopped. Inside the coffin was Luna. Looking as lovely as when she was sound asleep on her bed, but without breathing at all. I was momentarily captivated by her peaceful face.
Strangely, I didn’t feel sad. No tears flowed. I didn’t feel any pain either. I just felt suffocated because I couldn’t breathe. Because Luna’s expressionless face felt so cold.
“Luna….”
It seemed Luna hadn’t heard me because my voice was too small and unclear. I leaned my upper body, brought my face close to Luna, and said again.
“Luna, I’m here.”
There was no reply. That was okay. It was my happiness to wake up at dawn and watch the sleeping Luna for hours. Luna, wearing makeup and a pretty dress, was very lovely even when she was asleep. Yes, there were many things to praise Luna for today as well.
“Luna is always pretty and lovely. So much that I miss you even when I’m looking at you.”
There were many stories I wanted to tell her. Stories about the movies Luna liked, stories about famous manga and novels, and stories about the world I lived in, I hadn’t properly told her yet.
“The main character of that movie eventually realizes his love late and returns to the woman. And he conveys his true feelings, and the movie ends with a happy ending.”
I smiled. Luna would have definitely smiled too, at the fact that it ended with a happy ending.
With a stiff smile on my face, I inadvertently discovered Luna’s hands hidden among the many flowers. I cleared away the flowers covering her hands. Luna’s hands, which had been so white and warm, were a mess of wounds. Her small hands were swollen and twice as big, and some of her nails were broken or missing.
The stiff smile slowly disappeared. The silent world gradually gets closer to me. My body revives the dying heart as it pleases. A strange voice flowed from my drying mouth.
“What the hell are you doing, you dumbass.”
A voice blaming myself. As if reacting to it, words that another me had said echoed in my head.
“Hey, do you have time to be dreaming like this right now?”
The promise I made to Luna when I woke up from that dream, the vow, began to reignite me, who had lost my drive. I put my hand in Luna’s hand. Unlike before, it was a cold, hard hand that felt like touching an object, but it was a touch that could give me more strength than anything else right now.
I gave a bitter smile. I hesitated for a moment, but I eventually apologized.
“I’m sorry. I promised to give everything I had to protect you….”
I couldn’t keep my promise. I, who had promised to give everything, remained intact. It was because I didn’t do what I had to do before losing the most precious thing. While trying to distance myself from the pain, I tried to stay in the silence. Unable to accept Luna’s death, I wandered around as if in a dream, vaguely waiting for her to wake up again.
Luna is dead.
By someone.
The most lovely girl in the world was brutally murdered.
I have lost everything.
Everything inside me burns up and turns into black ash. Guilt and self-disgust all turn to ash and disappear. Now, there is only one thing left for me.
Reviving Luna.
It’s not impossible. Because I knew that there was a Holy Grail that grants any wish. If the Holy Grail can’t do it, I just need to find another way. Because my scale will tip towards Luna even if I put everything else in the world on the other side.
I carefully took out my hand that was touching hers. And I looked for the right words for a moment. I smiled. It must have been a very dry smile to others. It was the biggest smile a person who had lost everything could make.
“I’m a liar who has broken promises so many times, but… I’ll promise again. I will definitely revive you. Whatever it takes, whatever it takes.”
I swallowed. I fully accepted Luna’s death.
For now.
“So I can’t leave you in a place like this.”
I leaned over and kissed Luna’s forehead. Then, I opened the space warehouse and put the entire coffin inside.
“Stay by my side, Luna.”
I closed the space warehouse, ignoring the commotion behind me.
***
Raelan, who attended the funeral as Ross’s guardian, stood in front of the angry Grace family and said.
“Everyone, please calm down a bit.”
“How can I calm down when the body of my murdered daughter has disappeared before my eyes!”
At the sight of Ruinen, who was emitting tremendous killing intent and growling as if he would kill Ross right away, Raelan sighed and looked at Ross over his shoulder.
His face was expressionless, like a corpse. He didn’t care at all about Luna’s family, who were trying to attack him as if they were going to kill him right away. In that moment, Ross and Raelan’s eyes met in the air.
In that moment, Raelan realized. Ross wasn’t driven mad by losing his lover. Those eyes were the same as Roel’s. The eyes of someone with a blind purpose, filled with conviction.
Ross had no intention of losing Luna at all. He was going to take her back from death. He would do anything to do so. Just like Roel had done in countless worlds.
Raelan gave a bitter smile at the thought that they were brothers with many similarities. Eventually, Ruinen and his sons pushed aside Raelan, who had intervened between them, and rushed towards Ross. But when they approached Ross, Ross used space magic without saying a word and left the funeral hall.
Ruinen, who was looking at the place where Ross had disappeared in vain, emitted a terrifying aura and turned to look at Raelan. To leave the aftermath to his strategist… Ross seems to have adapted to the role of liege a little.
Raelan raised the corners of his lips in satisfaction.
***
“Ross is planning to revive Luna. There are surprisingly many ways to revive a dead person.”
Kwaang-!
Ruinen slammed the desk with his fist and shouted.
“With dirty black magic or the power of demons? Do you think my daughter would want that!”
“I promise you in the name of the Perkus family that such a thing will never happen.”
“In the first place, it’s all because of that bastard that my daughter died! If it weren’t for that guy, my daughter wouldn’t have died! If she had returned with her family, she wouldn’t have died!”
At Ruinen’s agitated appearance, Raelan asked with cold eyes.
“Do you really think Luna’s death is because of Ross?”
Ruinen, realizing that he was agitated by the cold voice, bit his lip and controlled his emotions. Raelan, who had been watching him for a while, raised one corner of his lips and said in a voice filled with different emotions than usual.
“I also have a daughter who is the same age as Luna. She was also friends with Luna. I know and sympathize with the fact that you are very heartbroken by your daughter’s death. But Ross also lost his beloved lover in an instant. He can’t accept it, so he’s trying to do anything for Luna.”
“…Can you really revive Luna? Is there a way to revive her perfectly without any restrictions, pain, or curses?”
At Ruinen’s question filled with earnestness, Raelan ended his acting, straightened his back, and looked straight at Ruinen.
“There is.”
“How?”
“Of course, the details are secret.”
When Ruinen made a disappointed expression at Raelan’s answer, Raelan answered in a low voice.
“Ross will definitely revive Luna.”
Silence fell over the head of household’s office for a while. Ruinen, who had been lost in thought for a moment, said with a stiff face.
“…I’m sorry, but I can’t trust your words.”
Raelan shrugged as if he knew it would be like this and said with a nonchalant face.
“Half a year.”
“…?”
“On the condition that the Grace family does not interfere with Ross, if he fails to revive Luna within half a year, I, the head of the Perkus family, will cleanly offer my head.”
It was a light voice, but Ruinen realized that Raelan was serious.
“To that extent… do you trust Ross? A student who is only in his second year of the academy?”
“Of course. Is the head of the Grace family unable to trust the man chosen by his lovely and wise daughter to be with her forever?”
“…”
“Although it is not well known, Ross is the true master of the North. You must have confirmed directly at the inauguration ceremony that Frax and Perkus have joined hands.”
“…I saw the two families together. Many people were wondering if the North had become one, are you saying that Ross is the center of the North?”
Raelan smiled instead of answering.
At that reaction, Ruinen shuddered for a moment. A strange sense of anticipation swept through Ruinen. Ruinen’s head said he couldn’t believe it, but on the other hand, he could feel the hope of being able to get his beloved daughter back slowly swelling in his heart.
Ruinen, who had released his clenched fist and wiped his face, pondered for a moment before saying.
“That you will revive Luna within half a year… can you say that in front of a notary public? That you can revive her without any problems, in a way that is not shameful to God. And you must never desecrate my daughter’s body.”
Raelan nodded his head right away as if it wasn’t a difficult problem.
“Of course. However, there is something I need to check first.”
“…Check what?”
Raelan’s eyes flashed like a snake at Ruinen, who was tilting his head.
“The belongings Luna had when she was found dead.”
Raelan already had a hunch about who killed Luna. Because twisting someone’s plan and using it in reverse was the true ability of the Mad Strategist.
“I’d like to check that.”
The evidence to turn his hunch into conviction was there.
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