NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 138 - 39. Lately, There's Been a Story (3)
5 p.m. that day.
“…”
Terrible news arrived, along with the steady spring rain.
“Older Brother…”
Killieon, who left with a smiling face, came back as a cold corpse.
Carl stood there looking stunned at his dead brother. He couldn’t believe the cause of his death, no matter how many times he heard it.
“Older Brother…”
Andras’s eldest son fell off a horse and broke his neck. It wasn’t because the assassin poisoned his horse or something like that. All that happened because his horse stepped on the soft ground.
“But, how can a person die from riding a horse?”
He was dumbfounded, but it was actually quite a frequent occurrence. There have always been people who died from falling from a horse. It was just a rare occurrence in the Andras family, where many of them were talented at horseback riding.
“Older Brother…”
Soon after, the mansion became a mess. Upon hearing the news of the eldest son’s death, his wife ran and howled like an animal, and the eldest daughter with the second son, who had been away for work, also ran to the mansion.
“Sister! Older brother! Eldest brother is not getting up.”
“How did it come to this?”
Carl was saddened by the reality that he would never see the kind Killieon again. It was the first time he felt real sadness. So he sobbed and explained the whole story.
“While practicing horseback riding, older brother fell off the horse and broke his neck…”
However, Carl suffered a shocking reaction before he could put this sadness away.
“Now… is what you said true?”
“Yes?”
“Killieon died from falling from a horse?”
Except for Carl, the rest of the people in the mansion had a sharp look. In particular, the second son and the eldest daughter raised their blood and screamed at the top of their lungs.
“How can there be a fool in our family who falls off a horse and dies?”
“I’m so embarrassed that I can’t raise my head!”
They got angry as soon as they heard the eldest son’s death, who had fallen off his horse due to inexperience.
Carl even stopped sobbing at their harsh words.
“Living on and experiencing such disgrace!”
This matter seemed so shameful for the head of the family that she had to bite her tongue.
The eldest daughter and the second son soon spoke in unison. They couldn’t recognize this pathetic guy as a member of Andras, so they couldn’t bury him in the family graveyard. It’s because it would be a shame to their ancestors who were buried there while receiving great achievements.
“Yes? Then where will you bury him?” Carl was confused by their decision and asked back, but the answer was cold.
“This guy is not a member of Andras. From today onwards, you know that he wasn’t born here.”
They said they wouldn’t even hold a funeral for the eldest son. The second son raised his voice loudly, asking how their family could send him off when he died for such an embarrassing reason.
“You’re saying he won’t have a funeral!?”
“What are you all staring at so blankly? Take away that ugly thing right now!”
Fearing this disgraceful death would spread, they did not properly hold their eldest son’s funeral and strictly shut up everyone present there.
What’s wrong with dying like a fool? Is what the world thought about it more important than your own brother? What if there is some blemish in the family history? What do their descendants a few hundred years from now have to do with them?
“Older brother, older brother…”
Carl eventually recovered Killieon’s body alone. He wanted to somehow bury his brother on the land close to home. So he had no choice but to bury him in an empty lot nearby, even though the soil wasn’t good.
And in the process, Carl burst into tears again. The whole time he was digging, he was filled with sorrow.
What have I done all these years?
Among the countless populations, only one returns as a star. In comparison to the number of enemy soldiers killed on the battlefield by Andras’ family, it was like a drop of blood. Yet, this feeling of sadness overwhelmed him. Only then did Carl truly understand everything his brother said in the past.
What you said was right, Older Brother. Our family is clearly wrong.
He liked all his siblings so far. Marchioness Andras and the second son, Carlos, had treated him well. But now, a question arose.
If I didn’t like fighting, would those people have treated me as family?
This wasn’t what Carl thought family meant.
I thought my siblings were family because we were born from the same womb, but they say I’m their family because I have talent. If it weren’t for this talent, I wouldn’t be Andras either.
Suddenly, he was fed up with this relationship.
Carl stopped digging and looked at Haniel standing next to him. She, too, was crying to the point of exhaustion.
“Sister-in-law, please stop now. You aren’t feeling well, so please go inside.”
“
Uh, uhuhuhu…
!”
Carl tried to persuade his sister-in-law to let her into the house and finished the rest of the work alone.
He couldn’t find a decent tombstone, so a memorial plaque made of wood was erected at his older brother’s cemetery.
Next time, I’ll save up money and exchange it for something better.
Still, this sadness would gradually get better as time goes by, just like a wound heals. Carl soon stopped crying and held his brother’s keepsake in his hands with a sunken face.
When Killieon was alive, he told Carl where he hid the holy relic. At that time, he asked him to take care of it in case he got caught by Kimen and unable to move…
“…”
Carl pondered for a moment what to do with this.
I don’t really have a use for something like this… Should I return it?
The answer could not be given until three days later. Three days later, Marchioness Andras helped him make his decision.
It was one day, less than a week after Killieon died. Marchioness Andras belatedly noticed that the heirloom was missing. Because of that, the whole mansion was turned upside down. How could they lose an heirloom that had been cherished since their ancestors? However, she quickly realized that the culprit was the eldest son.
When no holy relic was found even after searing all places where Killieon might have hidden it, she searched his grave for the last time.
“Sister-in-law, what did you call me for?”
“Carl…!”
“!”
And a few hours later. Carl couldn’t maintain his senses when he found his older brother’s grave, which had been dug up in a mess. He had never felt anything more unpleasant than irritation in his life, but for the first time, anger filled his mind.
“Y-Young Master, what’s wrong? Marchioness is currently in an important meeting…”
That day, a big fight eventually broke out. It was different from an ordinary sibling fight. All the surrounding furniture was destroyed, and Carl rushed towards his sister with killing intent, which didn’t end up well.
The fight was over after Andras’s second child appeared. Carlos, who came running after hearing the news that they had fought, shouted in surprise when he saw the two people covered in blood. “You brat, what are you doing to your sister!” He immediately blocked his younger brother.
Carl could no longer use his strength when his older brother joined, even though he was already exhausted.
The next day, Carl, who had been completely overpowered, opened his eyes again. Due to the broken leg, he couldn’t walk, but this mansion had many devoted servants, so his daily life wasn’t inconvenient.
“Young Master, I have something to tell you.”
Thus, Carl was bedridden and received the news while taking his morning medicine. He was informed that the Andras family had filed a lawsuit for annulment of marriage against Haniel’s family.
“Is that so?”
Meanwhile, Haniel even suffered a miscarriage due to the shock of her husband’s death. So, the Andras bloodline, which she was responsible for, would have disappeared. It was obvious that the marchioness wouldn’t recognize her as a family, and it was already decided that Haniel would be cast out when his older brother died.
“…”
Carl knew there was nothing he could do. Just like someone said, he was a third son with no title, and even his martial arts skills, which he was proud of, were inferior to the marchioness.
Still, we were family, so they couldn’t strangle her like enemies.
The only thing left was Ganimede, a keepsake left behind by his brother, but Carl had no intention of using it to make a deal. There was a better way to use it than that.
“…”
Carl made up his mind about what to do with Ganimede in the future. And then he stood up. “Doctor, please call the carriage.”
“Carriage? Where on earth are you going with that body?”
“I guess I should go see my sister-in-law.”
He couldn’t stop this annulment but still had to console her. Even as he was sick, Carl was worried about the person who almost became his family. So he headed to the small mansion out west where she was staying.
It was a few minutes later.
“Sister-in-law!”
“…”
Carl appeared in a small carriage without a roof, which noble ladies used for strolling around the town.
“Carl. I’m sorry… I can’t treat you… because I don’t have anything…”
“It’s okay. Both of my legs are broken anyway, so I can’t go indoors.”
“Huh?”
The lady, whom his older brother loved, had a skinny body and sickly-looking white hair, the exact opposite of the Andras family’s tastes. It wasn’t that Carl wasn’t particularly close to his sister-in-law because he didn’t see her often…
It was because Carl always felt anxious whenever he saw his sister-in-law. Because she literally looked like she would get hurt if someone touched her.
Still, it wasn’t all bad memories. His older brother also told his memories with Haniel to him, so Carl already knew how kind and good a person she was.
“How is your health? I heard that news. That… there’s going to be a trial.”
“Are you here because you’re worried about me?”
But today, Haniel looked strange. He ran to her because he thought he must have been exhausted from crying, but she didn’t shed a single tear.
“…I’m fine. What’s the point of maintaining a relationship with the marchioness when he’s already gone?”
“Ah…”
“I have no regrets anymore.”
She looked definitely calm. When Carl faced Haniel, who was sad to the point that her tears couldn’t even come out more, his expression hardened.
“The marriage… If you’re being divorced, the dowry you brought will be returned, right? For the time being, take care of yourself with that money.”
When Carl said something in consideration of her health, Haniel laughed with a sad face.
“I don’t think I’ll get my dowry back.”
“Pardon?”
“Marchioness Andras said that if we really want to get married… I should pay for the ceremony. The dowry was all I had, so I asked her to prepare the ceremony using that dowry.”
“But it’s natural for my family to prepare it!”
So what’s going to happen to Haniel? Carl’s blood drained at the thought of those words. He knew how poor her family was. They had gone to great lengths to prepare her dowry, so it was clear that they were on the verge of collapse.
“I’m sure you receive an inheritance? Right?”
“…”
“O-older brother is frugal. He must have a lot of money saved!”
She smiled quietly as if the little boy concerned about her was cute. But her smile didn’t last long either.
“…If the marriage is annulled, I won’t be able to receive a penny of Andras’s property.”
“…!”
“I don’t have any regrets about money, but… I can’t even get hold of the clothes he used to wear…”
“…Sister-in-law.”
It wasn’t long before Haniel broke down in tears. She made a great effort to be recognized by the marchioness. Still, in the end, her broken body and her collapsed family were left behind after her unreasonable marriage.
“…”
Carl felt guilty for the first time when he saw Haniel crying.
How many people’s lives have been ruined by my family…
He was ashamed of his family’s sins. But what made him even more guilty was that he had Andras’s blood, so his tendency to hurt others was no different. He regretted his younger days when he easily killed his opponent and easily jumped into the war of conquest without justification.
“I’m sorry.”
Carl eventually cried and apologized to Haniel. She said it was okay because he didn’t do anything wrong, but he kept crying.
“I’m sorry…”
He wished he had never known this feeling.
From that day on, Carl carried a heavy burden of guilt on his chest. It was very unpleasant and painful. So, he came up with his own scheme to ease his guilt.