NOVEL WEB Chapter 5 - Being an Older Brother is Even Harder (1)
✦ Chapter 5 – Being an Older Brother is Even Harder (1) ✦
「Translator – Creator」
The place that once served as my father Nimrod’s office and study had now become Lady Phoebe’s study. I stood before the study, thinking about exchanging a few words with Phoebe before departing for the North to meet the Paimon family.
“I’m telling you, I can pay it back! Now leave!”
“Please reconsider our offer, young lady.”
Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and several men emerged from the study, brushing past me. They blatantly eyed me up and down, and I returned the favor, scrutinizing them as well. They had oiled hair and their hands reeked of metal.
‘They’re not mercenaries… I see, they’re moneylenders.’
There were only two types of people whose hands smell like money in this world — moneylenders and beggars. It was natural for moneylenders to handle money daily, and beggars, who didn’t have wallets, always clutch the coins they get, leaving their hands smelling of money.
“How irritating!”
As I entered the study, I saw Phoebe slamming her hand on the desk. It seemed she had just had an altercation with those moneylenders.
“What is the matter?”
“It’s because of the debt. Since Father passed away, we’ve incurred a lot of debt.”
“Debt?”
I wondered if Dantalian’s finances were truly in such dire straits. No, Nimrod, who was so diligent he bordered on being a workaholic, should have amassed enough wealth to last at least two or three generations of idleness. It was suspicious.
“How much?”
“A hundred thousand… gold…”
“What? Are you joking? Phoebe Dantalian, have you completely lost your mind?”
A hundred thousand gold was an astronomical amount, comparable to Patricia’s smile. It was an amount that even the Emperor couldn’t dispose of freely. However, Phoebe spoke as if making an excuse.
“It… it’s all because of the Emperor!”
“The Emperor?”
“The Emperor’s army invaded Ardan! We had no choice but to incur debt to hire soldiers, buy weapons, and procure provisions to drive them out which inevitably led to debt!”
“The Emperor’s army invaded Ardan?”
There was no way such a thing could have happened. Yet Phoebe was convinced.
“It was definitely the Emperor’s army. They were flying the Emperor’s banner! Anyway, we ended up in debt because of that defensive battle. To the Andromalius family.”
“Andromalius… those shrewd bastards from the south, right? Didn’t Father warn us never to associate with them? Said they were barely human.”
The Andromalius debt collectors were known to stop at nothing to recover borrowed money. Even Nimrod had helped with their collections a few times and said it was an unpleasant experience.
“How did you end up borrowing money from such people?”
“I told you, we were desperate! Our family and estate were about to fall into the Emperor’s hands! This place is filled with our memories! It’s where Father… rests. I only thought about protecting it!”
“………”
“And I don’t want to hear any criticism from you, who hid behind women’s skirts for five years before coming back! I’m the one who protected the family while you were gone!”
Her words left me speechless. The Phoebe I remembered was a clever child. She must have chosen this path knowing full well how dangerous it was to borrow money from the Andromalius family. She must have been truly desperate.
“Recently, those debt collectors even sent this letter.”
Shhh— Flutter—
Phoebe handed me a letter with rather neat handwriting—
「Lady Phoebe of Dantalian, I sympathize with your distress. However, I’ve heard that the people of Dantalian prefer to get straight to the point, so I’ll do the same.
Lady Phoebe, please become my third wife. If you do, I will forgive all your debts.
Doesn’t it paint a pleasant picture, a union of noble families? Perhaps our union could even give birth to a new royal family.」
“What is this, a proposal?”
“That bastard! He thinks our family won’t be able to repay the debt, so he’s trying to seduce me! Does he think I’d become that philanderer’s third wife? I’d rather die!” Phoebe shouted angrily.
Arranged marriages for money and political alliances were common in the world of nobility. Even ‘Emperor Bael’ tried to increase his political standing through arranged marriages, though it didn’t go well. However, when it worked, it was an effective method.
“If Father were alive, someone like Lang wouldn’t dare approach our family. If only Father were still here…”
Indeed, if Nimrod, known as the Butcher of Ardan, were alive, these money-grubbers wouldn’t have dared to even think of approaching our family.
“So you borrowed money from these people because of the Emperor’s army?”
It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t have happened. I made a mental note to investigate this matter thoroughly upon returning to the imperial palace.
As my thoughts deepened, I was jolted back to reality by these words—
『Tutorial: The Chosen Contractor』
『Overview: You are about to embark on a new adventure. Gather the materials below to learn contract magic and capture your first “Hel”!』
『Moonlight Stone 0/1』
『Sunflower 0/1』
『Hel Captured 0/1』
My purpose lay not here, but with the Paimons.
Whether Phoebe struggled or not was none of my concern since I wasn’t her real brother. I couldn’t bring myself to be indifferent. That wouldn’t be manly. So, what would be the manly thing to do?
“I’ll go and negotiate with those Andromalius people.”
“It won’t matter what you do, brother. They seem to have some incredibly powerful backing. That’s why they’re so brazen in threatening us.”
“If only you hadn’t borrowed money from such unscrupulous people in the first place.”
“…I told you, I had no choice!”
“I know. If someone as smart as you resorted to borrowing from such villains, you must have been truly desperate. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when it mattered most.”
Shhh—
I embraced Phoebe, whom I’d always thought of as a real sister. Phoebe, flustered, said, “W-What are you doing?” before angrily lashing out. “Don’t pretend to be my brother now! You’re just an adopted child! You abandoned our home! You followed her, didn’t you? That witch! Nidi! You followed her!”
“No, I was on the battlefield for five years.”
“Liar! Weren’t you just playing kept man in some widow’s house? I’m sure that’s it!”
“I don’t lie. You know that.”
Sob— Sob—
Phoebe, who had been hitting me, finally burst into tears in my arms.
“Father passed away! You weren’t here! The mercenaries who were like family all scattered because of the war! I was all alone! I tried so hard to protect our family alone! Because it’s filled with our memories!”
Though I could barely make out her words through her sobs, I understood her sentiment.
Though she had become a formidable lady of the house at just about 20 years old, she remained a crybaby. I was suddenly reminded of the time when Phoebe’s secretly kept squirrel died of illness.
— Sob, no! You can’t die! Sob! Come back to life!
She cried for three days straight at the grave even after burying the squirrel. It was even alarming when she learned some strange voodoo to try and resurrect the dead.
“Hey, stop crying. Hey! Don’t wipe your snot on my clothes! Hey!”
“Sob! This is revenge for abandoning me all this time!”
Not wanting to become a tissue for her runny nose, I decided to take action.
“Where is this Lang fellow now?”
“Daniel! I told you, no! He’s not someone you can handle with force! One of the Empire’s Five Swords is among that philanderer’s guards!”
“Empire’s Five Swords? A Swordmaster like Father?”
“Yes! Even you can’t match him, Daniel!”
“Is that so?”
I drew a well-maintained long sword from the old man’s study. The beautifully honed blade sent chills down my spine, indicating that Phoebe had taken good care of the weapons.
⋆༺𓆩☠︎︎𓆪༻⋆
Lang of Andromalius was in high spirits. He was close to achieving his goal.
‘Phoebe, that girl won’t hold out much longer.’
Lang was a man of unparalleled ambition. His talent and skill matched his drive, allowing him to establish himself firmly in just one generation despite being born an illegitimate son of a minor southern noble.
He had his sights set on the Dantalian family.
The Dantalian house was originally a prestigious family, rivaling the 70 royal families that held sway across the continent. Marrying the lady of this long-established Dantalian family could elevate his own Andromalius house, potentially earning a grand title.
‘There’s no law saying I can’t become a King. All the big shots in this continent called themselves kings, didn’t they? So I’ll become one too.’
Lang imagined a crown upon his head. As he did so, someone approached and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Lang. Daydreaming again, I see.”
It was a gentleman with an ashen beard like a ferret’s. At his waist hung a curved barbarian sword, its presence imposing.
“Parthian, I told you not to read my thoughts using mana.”
“I don’t need mana to read your thoughts. You were imagining becoming King again, weren’t you? Give it up. There’s no place for Kings in today’s world. That Emperor doesn’t tolerate the existence of Kings.”
“Emperor Bael, you mean. How ridiculous. I, Lang, even doubt whether this Emperor Bael truly exists. Think about it. Does it make sense that one person defeated all the Kings and created an empire?”
“So in your opinion, the Emperor is a fabrication?”
“Yes, the Empire has the 12 Zodiac families, doesn’t it? They eliminated the other kings and created the false existence of an ‘Emperor’ to consolidate their own power.”
Lang recalled the 12 Zodiac families that could be called the True Kings of this continent. Beings who looked down on people as insects. It was said that some of them weren’t even ‘human’.
“They say only the Barbatos family can have a private audience with the Emperor, right? Think about it. We know how cunning and vile the Barbatos lot are. They must be lying.”
“Vile and cunning – Lang, that’s rich coming from you. But I do agree with you to some extent.”
Parthian was a Swordmaster, considered one of the strongest in the current empire. In his view, the stories about Emperor Bael were akin to legends, myths, or ghost stories.
Many of the emperor’s supposed feats were beyond human capability — for example, withstanding the concentrated fire of Magic Tower mages alone and conquering a city single-handedly.
‘Such feats are only possible for calamity-class Hels from ancient myths. Creatures like the Storm Dragon. Or heroes like Imseti Paimon.’
Unlike Lang, Parthian believed the Emperor was real. He just thought the stories were exaggerated.
‘I was on a different battlefield, so I couldn’t face the Emperor as an enemy. But what if I had faced him? If I, with my fully perfected sword aura now, were to face him?’
Parthian imagined defeating the Emperor and claiming all the glory for himself. It was similar to his employer Lang imagining becoming king.
BOOM!
Suddenly, Lang’s mansion shook violently.
Snapped out of his reverie, Parthian looked out the window and shouted,
“What’s all this commotion?”
“S-Someone is causing a disturbance, demanding to see Lord Lang! We tried to stop them, but we’re overwhelmed!”
“Aaaagh!”
Lang’s security was handled by Parthian and his disciples. The disciples of a Swordmaster were each formidable in their own right.
Who could be giving them such trouble?
“Who is it! Which battalion? How many came! An army!? Or is it an attack from a rival guild!”
“…It’s! It’s one person! Just one!”
One person? Just one? Hearing this, Lang was so dumbfounded and angry that he nearly laughed. But the laughter didn’t last long, and violent rage shook his pot belly.
“Talk sense! Do you know how much money I pour into you, and you’re breached by just one person? When this is over, it’s your heads! All your heads!”
— End of Chapter —
⚘ ⚘ ⚘
If you liked the novel, do not forget to rate and review the novel on ⟿ NovelUpdates.