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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Pot]
[Proofreader - Kawaii]
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Chapter 103: Irrational Decisions Are What Make Us More Human
"Young Master. How do you find the tea?"
Though Karl's visit was unexpected, Olivier and Peter maintained proper decorum and received him as a guest.
"Excellent."
After Olivier poured the tea, Karl savored it while gazing at the ocean view through the window of the reception room..
"Now that I see it, the location is quite nice. To be able to see such a wonderful view."
"I think so as well."
I also maintained appropriate courtesy towards Karl, who was both my older brother and the Eldest Young Master of Grunewald.
"......You've begun to gather quite a good retinue. Though at the banquet hall, there was still a sense of awkwardness."
If Karl felt that way, most of it was probably due to Peter.
However, he was now receiving etiquette training from Olivier in his spare time and was showing quite a bit of a demeanor befitting a servant.
"Especially Captain Jeffrey is a man with a well-established reputation for excellence even within the Royal Guards."
Jeffrey's expressionless face subtly changed as the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
'He likes that, how nice.'
"Allenvert."
"Yes, elder brother."
Karl put down his teacup.
"The reason I came to find you today is to make a proposition."
Karl cut to the chase and brought up the main point.
"Your younger brother is listening."
"......Allenvert. Won't you join hands with me?"
Karl stared straight into my eyes.
"Pardon?"
I asked back, slightly flustered.
"My talent is not as great as Verdzig's. However, I have excellent retainers and the support of an outstanding maternal clan. The Bisquera County is by far one of the most powerful among all the vassals who serve Grunewald as their lord."
"......"
To think he would make such an open proposal. I hadn't expected it at all since there had been no particular reaction until now.
'The conditions are certainly attractive, but—'
The meaning of me joining hands with Karl now is clear.
The only outcome would be my subordination to Karl's sphere of influence, given that I hold virtually no power.
'Karl wouldn't be saying this without knowing that.'
However, I am not living this second life to make Karl the king.
'That doesn't mean I want to antagonize Karl either.'
Karl was unfazed by my silence and revealed his cards.
"I intend to help you with all the capabilities I have. I will find the survivors of Eisenach and obtain excellent spirit medicines for you. And above all—"
Karl pointed to my chest.
"I will also lend my strength in securing Ereshkigal ."
"......!"
Ereshkigal .
It is the only panacea that can resolve my incurable disease.
"Allenvert, please help me. I need your talent."
Karl looked straight into my eyes and pleaded.
"I need your resourcefulness, your wit, your deep-laid schemes, and above all, your indomitable will that does not break even against Verdzig."
I could hardly imagine how much pride Karl had to set aside to say these words.
"......Brother."
Therefore, even I, for this moment at least, intended to show respect to this young man who, having been born as the Young Master of the Grunewald, must have suffered from inferiority and anxiety in the competition with his talented younger brother.
"Thank you for the offer. It is truly an excessive proposal."
As if sensing the answer that would follow, a look of disappointment flashed across Karl's eyes.
"I also do not wish to antagonize my elder brother if possible."
I added, as if to console his heart.
"Sister Ulbhild's worries are the same as yours and mine."
"......Verdzig, is it."
Karl muttered with a complicated expression.
"Therefore, I would like to propose a kind of gentleman's agreement to my elder brother."
"A gentleman's agreement?"
Karl looked at me with a somewhat puzzled face.
"In short, it means that we should not harm each other while confronting Brother Verdzig."
"......!"
A faint smile appeared on Karl's lips as he looked at me with calm eyes.
"So, what you're saying is that the two of us should make a non-aggression pact?"
"That's about right."
I grinned.
"Then we will be immediate allies and future enemies."
Karl spoke with a smile as if he knew this would happen, and in a way, as if he felt relieved.
"Yes, as expected, you are too great a lion to be contained within my fence."
"The current me is just a weak man who is not even qualified to claim to be my elder brother's enemy."
"Stop with the modesty, it doesn't suit you."
Karl shook his head and then brought up an unexpected topic.
"Then, as a token of our promise, I will give you a piece of information."
"Information?"
Karl smiled faintly.
"It is probably the information you desire most."
***
Karl consistently received reports of Allenvert's movements even while leading the knighthood and training with his sword.
'......Amazing.'
He couldn't help but admire him several times. Allenvert possessed a genius-like brilliance that he could never follow.
Especially impressive was the way Allenvert handled the task of retrieving Countess Webern's tiara.
'Even if I had been there at the time, I would not have achieved a better result than you.'
Karl came to that conclusion after hearing the stories of those who had handled the situation by mobilizing all the capabilities of the Bisquera clan, collecting testimonies from those involved, and reconstructing Allenvert's actions.
'His way of thinking is completely different from mine.'
Allenvert's flexible yet strategic way of acting and his brilliant improvisation.
It was a realm that Karl, who had a somewhat rigid and inflexible side, could never imitate.
'And that is exactly the kind of quality needed to face a man like Verdzig.'
It was not easy to admit that.
Therefore...
Karl had to spend many sleepless nights looking into his own inferiority and jealousy for a long time.
'I thought you were just a man with a limited time to live anyway.'
So, he thought that it would be better for him to quietly help him without interfering unnecessarily, or if he wasn't going to do that, it would be better for him to burn brightly like a torch and then disappear.
'But if that happens, the man who will be most pleased is none other than Verdzig.'
At this point in time, the only brother who could somehow create a confrontational structure with Verdzig was Allenvert.
Having acknowledged that, the path he should take finally became visible.
'Put aside your personal and petty emotions now, Karl.'
Become a man who can discuss strategy with cold reason.
'If you can do what I cannot, then that is a fortunate thing.'
As a result, Karl reached the conclusion of an alliance with Allenvert.
'That child would not try to make me king by any means.'
If so, the next best option would be to keep each other as allies and respond to the common enemy.
***
"Allenvert."
Karl muttered as if confessing.
"From the time we met at the banquet, I have been preparing to bring you into my fold as an ally."
It was something I had expected and anticipated, so I nodded calmly.
"Your intentions were the same as mine, weren't they? Weren't you intentionally showing me a humble demeanor?"
"Because what I needed most was my brother's goodwill."
I admitted.
"But you were cautious."
"Too much is already on my shoulders to move rashly."
"......"
Karl looked at me with somewhat bitter eyes.
"When making a choice in my position, I have to consider truly many reasons. But ironically, sometimes I have to make difficult decisions for only one reason that is undesirable but cannot be ignored."
"Of course, I understand."
That 'Young Master Karl' is a different person from 'the natural Karl'.
"After that day, it is true that I felt threatened by your overflowing talent."
Karl readily revealed his weak side.
"Not only that. I was once overwhelmed by Verdzig's talent, and envied Ulbhild's talent. I am sorry to say this, but I even felt relieved looking at Somerset and Barclava."
Karl pointed at me.
"But Allenvert. You once made me feel relieved, and even made me feel pity, but now you make me feel uneasy and jealous."
I responded to Karl's honest words with silence. At times like this, neither clumsy consolation nor modesty is an appropriate answer.
"Above all, in order to acknowledge that I cannot keep you under me, and yet decide not to turn you into an enemy, I had to go through 'somewhat' intense arguments with my mother and other members of my maternal clan."
"I am sorry for that."
But I no longer intended to live and be discarded as someone else's blade. It would be better to cut off the owner's wrist, or break myself.
"Although I am disappointed that you rejected my proposal, I am still glad that we can remain allies."
"......"
I thought anew about the inside of the man named Karl.
A man born with the blessing of being the Young Master of the Grunewald Clan. Talent that is second to none, looks that are second to none, the support of a powerful maternal clan, even the position of being the eldest among his brothers.
Someone might say that it is a spoiled complaint or a pathetic grumble to feel inferior in front of a jewel named Verdzig, who has even greater talent and looks than himself—
'Karzan from my previous life would have thought so.'
It is the right of those who do not have to send curses mixed with cold cynicism to the well-fed grumbles of those who have.
However, I, who now accept the life of a certain boy who seemed to have been born with everything, yet despaired of fate and went into a cave to wait for death, am different.
'I heard that Karl is a man who trains in martial arts more fiercely than anyone else.'
I heard that even though he is tormented by inescapable inferiority and anxiety as if it were his destiny, he has never incurred the disapproval of others with cruel and heartless actions like Verdzig's.
That is not an easy thing. I came to know that Karl is a man who lives while sharpening his own path like a sword.
"Actually,"
Karl said to me.
"I recently obtained information about the survivors of Eisenach."
"!"
I asked in surprise.
"Is that truly true, elder brother?"
"Yes. However, this is something I coincidentally obtained personally, regardless of the Bisquera Clan."
Survivors of Eisenach.
Finding and gathering my relatives, whom I don't even remember their names or faces, was not only a touchstone for my revenge, but also a crucial matter that could become a new driving force for my mother to break her seclusion and start a new life.
"If you gather your maternal clan thanks to the information I gave you, and if you, who are still just an unrealized possibility, grow into an enemy who surpasses even the illusion of my anxiety in the future."
Karl calmly expressed his concerns.
"I will regret it. But I intend to postpone that regret to my future self."
"......"
I finally asked this.
"Elder brother, why?"
"Despite having many reasons not to provide you this information—"
Karl replied.
"I want to repay you, even minimally, for the joy of securing our current friendly relationship."
And above all, he continued.
"Because you respected me. Regardless of any hidden motives. After all, neither you nor I are permitted to interact with pure, unvarnished brotherly sentiment."
"!"
It was an unexpected answer.
I hadn't expected that the motive of a man like Karl would be this simple and emotional.
"Does my reason sound absurd to you? I understand. It is actually an irrational thing."
"No."
To me, this was a pleasant misjudgment. I smiled, feeling as if I had peeled back several layers of the shell of the man named Karl.
"Brother, sometimes irrational decisions are what make us more human."
"More human, you say."
Karl, savoring my words, nodded.
"Yes, perhaps sometimes I also wanted to be myself, not Young Master Karl."
He was also a human who sometimes felt suffocated by the shells surrounding him.
"Then Allenvert, check this note."
He placed a small piece of paper in my hand.
"Anyway, you would have reached that information someday."
I duly returned his kindness with modesty and thanks.
"There is a proper time for everything. If I can hasten the time with my elder brother's help, this will be a great favor."
Karl smiled.
"I will gladly hear only those words."
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Pot]
[Proofreader - Kawaii]
Join our Discord for release updates!
https://discord.com/invite/dbdMDhzWa2
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