<Chapter 68>
#7. Journey (7)
Y-younger brother?!
At the voice from behind him, Angel could feel his hair standing on end. Although he had completely forgotten due to its lack of realism, Melty was a member of the ruthlessly vicious Crosel family.
Throughout his time working at the Padrian family mansion, he had sorted through various news and information, but he had never heard or seen a story of anyone who had encountered a member of the Crosel family and survived. The knife aimed at his neck finally drew blood. Swallowing a dry gulp, Angel desperately racked his brain to survive.
“Ah, aha~ You must be Melty-ssi’s older brother.”
He wasn’t sure if this approach would work. Still, it was better to try something than to die a violent death. He hadn’t yet built a tower of gold coins, nor had he built a mansion of gold coins, nor had he swum in a pile of gold coins—he couldn’t lose his life so meaninglessly.
“I’ve heard so much about you from Melty-ssi. Ha, ha, ha.”
The only thing he could remember from his blanched mind was that Melty’s family members were quite protective of him. Angel let out a forced laugh and instinctively realized he had failed, closing his eyes tightly. At that moment, he felt the man behind him hesitate. Angel desperately recited praises that Melty had never actually said.
“The most amazing and handsome older brothers in the world, you are! Oh, it’s true!!”
The lies flowed as if his mouth were greased with sesame oil. Angel kept his eyes tightly shut, praying that his gambit would work.
“A-ahem. Our youngest… talked about us that much?”
“Of course! He’s very close to me!”
“If there’s even one letter of falsehood in what you’ve just told me, I’ll slit your belly and feed you to the beasts, so keep that in mind.”
“……”
Ah, a devil! The Crosel family was indeed demonic.
Angel, who knew that what the man had said was absolutely not an empty threat, trembled with sorrow and fear. It wasn’t just killing him, nor was it simply throwing him to beasts as food. He was threatening to cut open his belly.
“Why are you silent?”
“I will absolutely never lie!”
Startled by the cold voice, Angel hurriedly raised his voice. Seeming pleased by his resounding voice, the man smiled and finally withdrew the knife that had been pointed at Angel. As the blade slowly moved away from his body, Angel let out a deep sigh of relief.
His legs, drained of strength and turned to jelly, helplessly shared an intimate kiss with the ground. Despite having collapsed onto the floor and barely regulating his breathing, chanting ‘I’m alive’ to himself, a shadow still loomed over Angel.
“So, ‘Angel Fryce,’ who claims to be close to my little brother.”
“Yes!”
Angel quickly answered and lifted his head. The small ears characteristic of hamsters perched on the head of the man standing with the moon at his back were cute, but what lay beneath them belonged to something from an entirely different species.
The man, whose combative nature was evident in his face, possessed a smooth physique well-knit with muscle. Though he didn’t appear particularly dangerous at first glance, the faint scars visible on his fists and arms were easily recognizable as stab wounds.
Above all, despite having his back to the moonlight, the vivid sight of red blood splattered on him was clearly visible due to their proximity. The man smiled as he watched Angel frantically feeling behind his back with his hands. Despite his strangely smiling face, Angel found it difficult to breathe.
“You should answer my question. Where is my little brother?”
“W-well… travel! He went on a trip!”
“…Travel?”
At the sudden mention of ‘travel,’ his face hardened even more. Seeing that the man didn’t believe him at all, Angel hurriedly added more.
“Melty-ssi said this village was his first time, so he went on a trip…”
“Oh, really? That’s strange.”
The man languidly whispered and pulled out an envelope from within his clothes. On the thick-looking envelope, there was clearly writing that belonged to Melty. Recognizing this, Angel’s eyes widened. That envelope was the letter he had sent through an assassination request channel under Calix’s instructions not long ago.
“Then why did my traveling little brother send a tearful letter?”
“T-that’s…”
Angel internally screamed, ‘Melty-ssi, what on earth did you write in that letter?!’ But there was no one to answer his scream.
“Come to think of it, I did have more questions. You claim to be my little brother’s friend, but your actions are quite strange, aren’t they? Were you also the one who ruined my little brother’s shop that was doing just fine until a few months ago? What exactly are you plotting…”
“No! It wasn’t me!”
“What exactly wasn’t it?”
Angel waved his hands vigorously at the man who was scowling. He might not know about other matters, but on this issue, he felt wronged. Clenching his fists, Angel spoke the truth with conviction.
“Melty-ssi’s shop was already on the verge of bankruptcy!”
“…That can’t be. My child worked so hard!”
“How can you run a restaurant without even a basic menu? How could that possibly operate?!”
Angel raised his voice toward the man who had frozen in shock. The restaurant didn’t even clarify what food it was selling, just sitting there desolately. There had been a few curious faces approaching, but it wasn’t enough to create regular customers. All Angel had done was slightly hasten the shop’s inevitable failure.
“I just recommended a new job to Melty-ssi. Melty-ssi has also been satisfied with his life here.”
Despite Angel’s passionate outpouring, the man’s rigid expression didn’t soften at all. With his arms crossed and his head slightly tilted to the side, he looked like he was contemplating when to kill Angel. Angel pulled up the corners of his mouth as high as possible and struggled to continue speaking.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to tell you about how Melty-ssi has been doing.”
Angel spoke politely while forcing a smile that was clearly fabricated. The man, who had been scanning Angel’s demeanor up and down, glanced through the window before opening his mouth.
“Then let’s hear your story first.”
***
Nod, nod.
Melty’s small head kept bowing forward. Though he noticed that he was dozing off and startled himself awake, lifting his head, even that didn’t last long. Watching the brown head sink down again, Calix suppressed a laugh.
“Why were you running around so excitedly yesterday if you can’t even handle this much?”
Despite his chiding words, Calix’s eyes were warm as he looked at Melty. Calix moved to Melty’s side quietly so as not to startle him. Then he reached out his hand to prevent Melty’s face from merging with the plate.
Not even aware of the hand supporting his forehead, Melty drifted off to sleep with soft breathing. Seeing him completely unable to stay awake, Calix clicked his tongue softly. Although he had instructed that easy-to-eat food be prepared, it seemed impossible to even feed him that.
“Lord Calix, what shall we do?”
Pel, who had been seated a little away from them, approached on behalf of the others. Pel’s gaze fell upon the soundly sleeping Melty.
“Well, we’re not in a hurry to move, but… we can’t loaf around forever either.”
Calix had deliberately chosen a smooth and comfortable route for Melty, who was experiencing long-distance carriage travel for the first time. Moreover, he had also limited the carriage’s speed, so compared to usual, the journey was taking several times longer.
“If we’re to stay in the village for the night, we need to hurry.”
“…Right. I at least want him to sleep comfortably, but even that’s not easy.”
There wasn’t anything particularly special about sightseeing in the village. Calix wondered why things that seemed ordinary to him appeared special in Melty’s eyes. The voice of Melty, who had called out to him all day with a smile on his face saying ‘Calix-ssi! Calix-ssi!’ was still ringing in his ears.
“Talk to the owner here and ask them to pack some food that’s easy to eat in bite-sized pieces. We’ll depart right away.”
“Yes.”
Pel nodded slightly and moved swiftly. Without even glancing at the others who were busily moving around, Calix carefully examined Melty, who was breathing evenly. He slowly moved his hand supporting Melty’s forehead to help him rest his face against Calix’s chest.
“Mmm… where are we going…?”
“Where would we go? We’re moving now. If you’re sleepy, just sleep more.”
Melty’s eyes, which had looked up at Calix with half-open lids while yawning, closed again. Calix tousled his hair, which only seemed to listen well at times like this, and easily picked him up. Resting his cheek on Calix’s shoulder, Melty breathed evenly.
Calix boarded the carriage, being careful not to wake Melty in his arms. Seated on Calix’s lap, which had now become his designated seat, Melty did not wake up.
“What’s the point of being prickly at first, anyway?”
Calix murmured in a voice tinged with laughter as he gently brushed Melty’s fluffy hair. He was currently in the process of acclimating Melty to him. The one who used to run away in embarrassment was now accustomed to sitting on Calix’s lap, eating what Calix gave him, and holding Calix’s hand when moving around.
The plan was to work harder so that soon, phrases like ‘Kiss me!’ or ‘Let’s really date!’ would come out of those small lips. After quietly cheering himself on with a small ‘Fighting!’ Calix turned his attention to Pel, who was standing in front of the door that had remained open all this time.
As Calix’s gaze, which had been stolen by Melty, returned to him, Pel bowed deeply to show respect and took out a letter from within his clothes to hand to him. The seal imprinted on the envelope of the letter clearly belonged to the head of the Padrian family.
“It seems they are waiting for your arrival, Lord Calix.”
“…Why would they send something like this when we’ll be arriving soon anyway?”
Calix’s gaze fell on Pel’s shoulder. On his shoulder was a small bird that must have served as a messenger, now preening its feathers.
Even accounting for the bird’s leisurely movements, it wasn’t a long distance. There was no reason to be urgent enough to send a letter to someone who was already en route. Calix’s expression slowly hardened as he skimmed through the contents of the letter.
“We need to hurry a bit. Don’t take the detour, and increase the speed.”
