3 bar menu

Volume 4 Chapter 74

My Two Brothers and Family Ties

「Here’s your tea.」

Merdi, dressed in a maid’s uniform, served tea and sweets to me, Tina, Rifa and my brother Cain.

Her manners are becoming quite elegant.

This is the result of Tina’s guidance.

「Thank you, Merdi.」

「Welcome, sir.」

After that, Merdi walked out of the reception room with her tail twitching.

「A maid of the beastman race…. I knew there was something wrong here.」

「No, the beastmen and high-ranking spirits are still fine. The problem is the nine-tailed fox. I’m not sure what to make of it. If it gets out of control here….. are you sure you can handle it?」

「Don’t worry. We have a master-servant contract, and I won’t let anything bad happen to you.」

I can’t have my precious fluffy friend, Yoko, kill another human after all.

「Yoko is a very good girl. She will not turn out to be what Cain-sama is worried about.」

Tina also defended Yoko.

「If Tina says so, I’ll trust her. My gut is telling me to leave it to Haruto..」

Hey, brother.

Why is it that you don’t believe my words and even your own intuition, but readily believe Tina’s words?

Well, at any rate, it was good that Cain no longer considered Yoko to be dangerous.

While I was thinking about this, there was a knock on the door of the reception room and Merdi came in.

「There’s a man here who wants to enter.」

「Oh, does the man have blue eyes and raven black hair like me and Haruto?」

Cain asks Merdi.

「If it’s a guy with those features, I know him, let him enter the room」

「Very well.」

「Well, thank you. You’re just in time.」

「Brother Leon is here?」

「Yeah. I invited him to come with me since I was going to Haruto’s place with His Majesty. He said he was busy with the Order and would come later, but he made it before I left.」

「I see. Merdi, can you bring him to me?」

「Okay.」

It seemed that the visitor was my other brother, Leon.

A few moments later, Merdi came into the reception room with my brother.

「Haruto!　Long time no see!」

Leon, a little smaller than Cain but with a sturdy body, came up to me and patted my head.

「Leon, long time no see.」

「How have you been? Have you been eating well? You’re still so skinny. You should eat more and do some muscle training.」

He said a lot of things very quickly.

Leon is always like this.

「He’s thin, but I’m sure he’s of average build for someone of my age.」

Leon-sama, Haruto-sama is thin, but he also has muscles.

Tina followed me.
I’m sure you’ve been checking out his body. You are Haruto’s wife.」

「Eh!? It’s not like that-」

Tina’s ears reddened a little at Leon’s teasing,

「Leon, leave it at that. You came here today to congratulate Haruto and the others, right?」

「Haha. Tina, I’m sorry.」

Cain got a little angry and Leon apologized to Tina.

「I heard you’re marrying two people, is this the other one?」

Leon asked, looking at Rifa, who was standing right next to me.

「Yes, that’s right.」

「Nice to meet you. I’m Rifa.」

Rifa bowed politely.

「Nice to meet you, I’m Leon, Haruto’s brother. Congratulations on your marriage. Take care of my brother.」

「Yes!」」

Rifa glanced at me and replied vigorously.

「By the way, Rifa, are you a member of the royal family of Alheim?」

What? How does he know…….

「Yes, I am. I’m sorry, but have we ever met?」

Rifa doesn’t seem to remember having met Leon.

「No, I don’t think so. I thought it might be because your bowing and such resembled that of the royalty of the elven kingdom.」

「I see, you know it well. But I’m sure it’s not that different from the way people greet each other in Alheim.」

I couldn’t tell the difference.

According to Rifa, there is a subtle gesture that only royalty can recognize, and this gesture allows only certain people to know that they are Alheim royalty.

Leon noticed the difference, which was not normally noticeable.

Strange, did Leon have some special skill like Cain and Charles?

For example, an observational skill?

「Leon doesn’t have any skills. It’s just Leon’s eyes that allowed him to notice a minor difference.」

「What?」

Cain, with his super intuitive skills, guessed exactly what I was thinking and answered me even though I didn’t ask him anything.

He answered me even though I hadn’t asked him.

「Oh, Haruto, did you think I used my skills to find out who you are?　I’m sorry, it was my ability.」

「No, if it wasn’t a skill, wouldn’t that be amazing?」

「I hope you don’t compare me to my brother Kai or people like Charles who were born with cheat skills. I can’t beat my brother Kai even with his skills off.」
My sister, Charles, has a skill called mind-reading that allows her to read the thoughts of others.

She told me that she only told her parents about it.

Leon, however, seems to be aware that Charles has the skill.

I wonder if he can tell if he has the skill just because he has excellent insight?

I’m sure he does, because he notices gestures that only Alheim royalty should know.

So it seems that they know that I’ve been reincarnated.

I’ve obviously changed my behavior since before and after I turned five.

「To be honest with you, all family members noticed that Haruto became a different person around the age of five. You… were reincarnated around that time, weren’t you?」

「What?」

Cain told me the shocking truth.

「It’s a family. You don’t need to have any skills to know that. But I didn’t say anything about it until now, because it wasn’t like someone transferred to my brother Haruto, he was still similar to the Haruto before.」

I was reincarnated into a five-year-old body in this world, but I didn’t reincarnate to take over that body.

I was reincarnated in the form of Haruto who lived in this world and Haruto who lived in the original world for seventeen years, with his experiences and memories added to it.

That’s why the me who was five years old, and the me who is now, are all me.

However, I still felt guilty about telling my family that I was a reincarnated person.

There were times when I wondered if they would ever consider me a real son or brother.

「Does it make you feel any better to know that you don’t have to hide anything?」

Cain could tell.

That’s right.

The idea of having to hide things from family members is something that really gets to me.

We all agreed that when Haruto got married, he would tell us that he knew he was actually a reincarnation. Of course, we’ll accept it if Haruto confides in us before then.

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry I haven’t told you.

Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it, we knew and pretended not to know. You’ll always be our brother, even after we’re married and out of the house.

Hearing Cain’s words, the blur that had been in the back of my mind was now completely gone.