The Brothers’ Misunderstanding (1) Honorable Hero
“Ren. What’s with the nosebleed! That bastard….”
“Temarr. Isn’t it because you’re drawing up your energy?”
“…You’re fine though?”
“Whew. Temarr. No matter how thin my build is among heroes, I’m still a hero, you know. I’m different from this ordinary boy.”
How annoying.
Ruman smiled with his handsome eyes crinkled and patted my shoulder.
Temarr hyung glared at his hand, but Ruman didn’t care at all and opened his mouth with a kind face.
“So what should we do with that scumbag? I happen to have a suitable dagger, want to borrow it?”
Ruman rummaged through his chest and pulled out a sleek dagger embedded with blue gems, sighing exaggeratedly.
“Though it’s a waste to lend it. Thinking about stabbing it into that bastard’s body makes me so disgusted the blade seems to cry.”
You crazy bastard! Really kill him!?
When my eyes widened, Temarr hyung blocked me protectively.
“Ruman! Are you crazy telling Ren to kill someone?”
“Who was it that tried to kill someone in front of his brother?”
“Hyung, move aside. Hey!”
I pushed hyung aside and thrust myself forward.
“Killing is scary after all, right? You shouldn’t carelessly say such things….”
I glared and thumped my chest with my fist!
“Urk….”
“……”
“…Ren.”
Fuck. What am I doing?
Did I hit too hard? I almost died from losing my breath for a moment. How embarrassing!
I felt Ruman looking at me like I was pathetic, and hyung’s piercing gaze from behind my head!
If I get embarrassed here, I lose!!
I felt my nape and face flush red, but I didn’t show it and opened my mouth again.
This time I timidly patted my chest gently! Tap tap.
“I’ll have you know, I’m a hero’s brother? The hero magnificently saved people, but what would happen if the hero’s brother killed someone? I don’t want gossip to stick to hyung.”
“So killing people isn’t the problem, you just hate gossip?”
Ruman blinked and stared intently at me.
“That’s right.”
I answered bluntly, and a smile gradually spread across Ruman’s face,
“Puhahaha!”
He poured out laughter loud enough to make the hill ring.
Agh! My ears hurt!
When I covered my ears with my hands, a hand that was hot rather than warm wrapped around me over them.
It was hyung.
‘What is it, hyung. Why are you suddenly being affectionate, again.’
Still, I don’t hate it.
I pretended not to notice and stayed still.
“Hahaha! Uhahahahaha!”
“So noisy.”
Even at Temarr hyung’s rebuke, Ruman’s laughter continued for quite a while.
Ruman laughed until tears formed in his golden eyes.
“Haah….”
How much did he shake his body while laughing!
Ruman’s thin hair flew around and became disheveled.
“Ren. I really like you.”
“I don’t care for you though.”
Bringing that wicked letter and all. I rolled my eyes.
“Whew. That’s a shame. If you had been the hero instead of Temarr, the past dozen years would have been much more fun, wouldn’t they?”
What?! Are you insulting hyung right now!? My hyung is such a wonderful hero overflowing with a sense of mission!! That guy with a hooked nose!! As I fumed and tried to open my mouth, hyung tapped my back.
With clumsy touches…!
Wh-what!! Hyung…!! Now I can’t even curse.
When I swallowed my words with a sullen expression, Ruman laughed again.
A man whose laughter comes cheap. Hmph.
“Haha. Whew. This is driving me crazy. Ah, right.”
“Wh-what.”
“Nosebleed. I forgot. It stopped? Are you okay now?”
“Well… whatever. Hyung, let’s go inside.”
Ruman wiped under my nose with his finger. Blood smeared on his finger.
I swatted his hand away and wiped it with the back of my hand.
“It smeared.”
“Hyung! Let’s go.”
When I turned around and looked up at hyung, his expression somehow looked complicated. It was the same expressionless face as usual. When I stared at him, hyung also smoothly wiped under my nose with his finger. Blood still smeared.
“Right. What should we do with that guy. Bury him?”
“Forget it! Leave him. It’s not once or twice, there’s no need to deal with him every time and it’s not a big deal. More than that, I have something to give hy—”
“Temarr!!”
“Hyung? Hyung!”
Uwagh!! Wasn’t it decided to let this bastard live!
“I’m dying, hyung!!”
Sweat poured out and my fingertips tingled!
The vicious energy that instantly covered my whole body drained my strength and I felt like I’d pass out, but I threw my body with all the strength I had since birth and hugged hyung’s waist.
Because the blue heat haze rising from hyung’s hand was swelling in form and undulating as if it would summon something!
If that was completed, it seemed certain to devour that man’s life!
A hero who killed a civilian! Of course he can’t be forgiven!! It’s dishonorable! I can’t accept even a speck of dust settling on hyung’s medal placed in the room!!
“Temarr.”
Even at Ruman’s cold warning, hyung’s ears seemed firmly plugged!
Hyung, who approached the unconscious man dragging me clinging to his waist, was truly like a god of death!
In Ruman’s hand too, golden heat haze resembling his eyes rose, enveloping his entire body.
No! At this rate, something terrible will happen!
“If hyung isn’t an honorable hero, I can’t forgive it! I hate hyung! I can never see you again! No, I won’t see you—!!”
If even a small blemish appears on a spotless person! Everyone will only stare at that blemish!
Just like how the humans jealous of perfect hyung tried to grab me, hyung’s blemish! I can’t let hyung suffer that disgrace!!
“……”
“……”
“……”
A silence for three people.
A sharp wind blew on the hill.
The undulating blue energy blazed in the air like flames. It repeatedly formed the shape of a beast then scattered, as if representing hyung’s heart.
And in Ruman’s hand was already a golden spear.
The two’s confrontation was suffocating.
“Ah….”
I think I’m going to faint.
I felt blood not just dripping but streaming from my nose.
I’m dying! I’m dying, hyung!!
I envied the unconscious man for a moment. It would be easier to just pass out! No wait, that won’t do! I can’t watch hyung become a murderer! Somehow it seemed like the man’s mouth foam had increased. Su-surely he’s not already dead?!
As I put more strength into the hand holding his waist, like a sandcastle collapsing, the blue light rising from hyung’s hand vanished in an instant. In sync with that, Ruman’s spear also scattered into light.
“Temarr. Are you crazy?”
“Ren.”
Though Ruman called hyung, hyung’s eyes were directed at me.
“Ren is….”
“?”
“Nosebleed! At this rate you’ll collapse. Hey, are you listening to me?”
When I covered my nose with my palm, Temarr hyung grabbed my hand and lowered it. Holding my nose with his own hand to stop the bleeding, hyung opened his mouth again. Ruman’s sigh followed.
“You don’t like it if hyung isn’t a hero?”
“Of course.”
“…So Ren, you like hyung because he’s a hero?”
“Of course. Hyung. Hyung must be an honorable hero.”
Why is he so serious?
I stopped answering bluntly and my eyes shone seriously.
Actually, I hate it. A hero hyung and all that. Quitting would be a hundred times better. To me, hyung is just ‘hyung’!
I almost got choked up for a moment, but I held it back by biting my tongue.
There’s no way hyung would accept me telling him to quit being a hero.
Right, hyung must be an honorable hero. If hyung has to be a hero even if it kills him, of course he must be an honorable hero!
While pulling myself together from wanting to throw a tantrum, I muttered to myself.
If hyung stops being a hero, what about the years I endured? That would become nothing. The pride that hyung is a hero! Hyung’s sense of mission was my pride. That’s why I waited patiently even when lonely.
Otherwise, would there have been a reason to remain in a village that expects me to be a good hero’s brother and just works me to death?
But a blemish on hyung’s honor?
I’d rather die.
Ah. I’ll die soon anyway though.
Fuck!
My mouth tasted bitter.
Let’s not think about it! It’s a future matter anyway. Hyung will go to the capital too. If it really gets worse, I can just leave alone. If I say I’m leaving to find my dream, hyung will accept it.
As I was thinking this and that, I had lowered my head before I knew it.
So I didn’t see hyung’s face. His face that looked shocked…!
When I raised my head, hyung’s face showed eyes that seemed to have swallowed countless words and a sorrowful smile that seemed dejected. Of course, even that disappeared in an instant.
My vision was too blurred to examine hyung’s expression in detail.
“Okay, Ren. If what Ren wants is a hero hyung, then that’s what hyung should be.”
“? Right, hyung. Let’s go now. I have something to give hy—”
“Ren. Go in first. I need to show this man to the doctor.”
“Huh? Th-that bastard?! Why…??”
You’re even taking the man who molested me to the doctor?!
Thud!
What! Hyung!! I just said don’t kill him, not to treat him so well….
“Right, Ren? A hero can’t ignore someone who’s collapsed.”
“Well…!”
That’s true but! Even to a sexual predator!!
Agh! I stamped my feet alone. I’m pissed!! I suddenly remembered that woman with orc forearms too!! You left me when I was staggering and told me to go first! That was just this afternoon!! You’re doing this again, hyung?!
“That’s the hyung Ren wishes for. Hero hyung.”
