Chapter 7 : He’s My Real Brother, Duke

Translated by Niks

Edited by KBJ

I barely calmed my beating heart as I watched the moving magic tools near my hand.

‘There’s absolutely no problem, so calm down, Astel!’

The magic tool swept the back of my hand and wrist without any problems.

The magic that was hiding my identity was done by my parents, archmages using up the last bit of their life.

The reason why we’re still alive, avoiding the eyes of the dark eyes.

‘There’s no way my parents’ magic can be spotted by such magic tools.’

Usually, when children of noble families in the Empire were old enough to crawl, they immediately had to perform a registration ceremony at the Imperial Palace.

All you had to do was to crawl on the ancient magic stone installed inside the palace, and when placed on it, a small magic pearl was carved on your wrist.

Through this process, the royal palace was registered with the personal details of the child of a noble family.

It is a method devised by the old dragon who helped the founding of the empire.

By this magic circle, all the imperial nobles, except for the northern Shapeshifters clan, recognized as a dominion, were forced to be under the protection and surveillance of the Imperial Palace.

My brother and I also performed the ceremony as children of the Count Vietry family.

However, what was on my wrist was a magic circle different from that engraved at that time.

My parents broke the dragon’s magic with difficulty, and they overlaid it with fake identities on top of the magic circle, which indicates that I was the child of the Vietry family.

This magic circle was only visible to me and my brother, but invisible to others.

The name was also changed to a name used only by family members as a child, and my brother’s hair color changed from blonde to dark brown, and my eyes from light green to dark green was part of the magic.

When this stealth magic is broken, the truth behind it is that the brothers and sisters of the Vietry family are alive and will be revealed immediately at the Imperial Palace.

The thought made me nervous and my hands sweat.

Magic tools that touched the back of my hand and made a beeping sound.

“…”

I breathed a long sigh.

Fortunately, the magic stigma remained intact.

It meant that no one had guessed our identity yet.

Rudel’s eyes narrowed.

“You haven’t been enchanted by any other magic. Confirmation is over.”

After sticking to her business-like attitude throughout the examination, she finally entered the room.

“You must have heard from the Duke yesterday. However, I will tell you about the condition of the room in detail.”

Detailed explanations on how to use the morning room, how to use the shower room, and how to organize your luggage were followed.

“By the way, I was careful not to get dust on the window frame…”

With my mouth wide open, I quietly listened to Rudel.

I stopped in a moment of silence.

“…”

“You can still see a lot of deficiencies. Excuse me.”

I tilted my head and brought my eyes closer to the window sill.

I couldn’t see a single grain of dust.

The sudden luxury of living in a small room since childhood is puzzling, and Ruddel must not even like this enormous room condition.

Furthermore, the discomfort caused by it seemed to be out of control.

Shapeshifters often humanize when she is angry to the end of her head, and so did she.

For a very short time, the human form of the hand changed momentarily.．

There were definitely hard claws in the shape of a curved hook on the blunt hand.

‘Huh? What about that foot?’

That’s strange, it can’t be…

I was very familiar with the tribal characteristics of the human figures.

I’ve been treating different kinds of Shapeshifters at the treatment center for years.

So, just by looking at the humanized state, it was possible to guess what kind of person it was.

However, Rudel’s foot, the maid of honor, was quite surprising.

‘Did I see it wrong?’

I didn’t know exactly what Rudel’s race was.

But when I heard the rumor about her earlier, I assumed it was Jaguar.

Because of the meticulousness, delicacy, and difficulty of the characteristics of the Jaguar Shapeshifters.

“In addition, it is a rule for a noble family to have a woman of noble descent as her maidservant.”

The Jaguar family, along with the wolves, sharks, and silver foxes, was one of the four great families of the Duke.

So I had to believe that my guess was credible…

‘That’s weird. It can’t be…

I tilted my head and sank into thought.

That foot was definitely ‘shapeshifters’, but Rudel didn’t look like ‘that kind of shapeshifter.’

“If you need a maid, pull the rope on the bed.”

Rudel, who seemed to have felt my eyes, bowed his head with a hard look on his face.

The claws of the hard beast, which had already been seen at the fingertips of her hands, had disappeared.

“Yes! I will organize my luggage.”

Rudel’s eyes were slightly distorted, but that was all.

She bowed her head to me as sharply as she did when she came in.

“Okay, I’ll pick you up before dinner with your Excellency.”

Rudel made a clean exit.

The way she looked at me felt cold in a different sense from the Duke.

I didn’t think you’d like me from the beginning anyway.

In the meantime, there was no one who liked me from the beginning.

I glanced through the room once and shook my hand.

At first glance, everything seemed to be in order.

‘I’m not sure what Rudel, the maid of the Duke, will like.’

I wiped the sweat on my forehead.

It was vague how to attack, but fortunately there was one thing I knew.

‘The important thing is that all of the men in the original had strong ethnic characteristics.’

According to the law of cats for cats, and for foxes for foxes.

Fortunately, I learned a lot about Shapeshiter’s habits during my time at the clinic, so I was confident that I could handle them well.

I pondered over the characteristics of Rudel that I had heard through the rumor.

It was unexpected that it wasn’t Jaguar, but beyond that, I’ve been working hard on Rudel and trying to figure out a way to prepare just in case.

I searched my pocket and held the medicine I always carry.

Before dinner with the Duke, let’s plant my eyes and ears on this fortress.

‘I have to get in touch with my brother!’

All right, let’s get in there quickly.

• • • •

Just then, the castle’s ‘Maid’s Room’ was bustling with news related to Astel.

“A human being who is the benefactor of the Duke has come in?”

It was a closed building, but rumors circulated quickly inside that much.

The topic was Astel, a human who came to the Duke’s castle at her own discretion.

“What? Human! Ooh! Human!”

The Gorilla Shapeshifter on the sofa shuddered.

She scratched her cheek down with a haggard look.

The other girl sitting next to her opened her mouth and clenched her fist.

“Oh, I hate humans!”

“It’s still the Duke’s benefactor. Don’t worry about it.”

“To be the benefactor of the Duke, she must be a terrifying human…”

“Well, it’s still human. Have you forgotten the days when you were slaves to humans? Our men and women don’t forget the grace, but you don’t know that the enemy doesn’t forget more?”

A long time ago, many of the Shapeshifters were slaves to humans.

Humans seized poorly humanoid Shapeshifters, and enslaved them, used them as trinkets, and killed them for amusement.

Then, finally, about a hundred years ago, the Shapeshifters succeeded in escaping from the capital.

After establishing a site in the northern part of the empire, they destroyed the creatures, strengthened their power and threatened human society.

Numerous Shapeshifters gathered one by one to the north, and among them, pure-blooded Shapeshifters who contributed to the war of monsters were each recognized as a vassal.

In the process, the emperor of the Empire gave the Shapeshifters, who were then the frontier, the northern self-governing province and the castle, and the northern part was sentenced to 4th Major Clan, centered around the ‘Duke of Anais’.

Perhaps the current duke is the third Duke of Anais.

This place, which was obtained by the blood of men, was different from human society in every aspect.