Chapter 14. The Brothers’ Joint Operation

“Hey. What are you doing?”

Despite Jane calling from behind, the maid with the spiteful expression stood by the bedside.

El held her breath even more desperately at the approaching presence, pretending to be asleep.

“If you don’t want to become a stain on this household, get out of here.”

Jane temporarily stopped organizing the clothes and approached with quick steps to stop her colleague.

However, the maid who had already reached the bedside unhesitatingly flicked her finger against El’s forehead.

Her finger made a sharp sound as it precisely struck the center of El’s forehead.

El tried her hardest not to show any reaction. But how could she remain calm after being hit on the forehead without warning?

Inevitably, her shoulders that had been holding still trembled slightly, and her eyelids tensed.

Because of this, the maid realized that El was awake.

“Hmph! Such a worthless thing.”

She deliberately mocked El more maliciously and turned toward the door.

She brazenly pulled the door handle, ignoring Jane’s shocked expression.

“She must be crazy.”

Jane, momentarily stunned by her colleague’s behavior, quickly followed to give her a stern talking-to.

“Ah……”

Only after the maids had left did El open her eyes and touch her chest.

Though it was her forehead that had been hit, somehow her chest hurt. The area near her heart throbbed with pain.

Perhaps because her chest hurt, she also felt short of breath.

‘Is it really okay for me to be here?’

The hand covering her mouth trembled. She felt her throat tightening, engulfed in sensations she had never experienced before.

‘It felt so overwhelming and good, but now it feels bad.’

It felt like her mouth was stuffed with hard, dry bread.

A feeling of being unable to chew, swallow, or even spit it out.

A sensation of gagging, breathlessness, aching jaw, and stinging cheeks.

El removed her hand from her mouth and touched her cheeks. Her gaunt, thin cheeks contorted in various ways.

“Should I be enjoying such things? Worthless me. Delinquent me.”

El looked around the spacious, luxurious room.

Again, her throat and breath felt constricted.

El had never received proper rewards or compensation for her actions in her life.

It was commonplace that even when she worked until her hands were calloused and blisters formed on her feet just to survive, all she received in return was a twisted piece of bread.

Sometimes, she didn’t even get that much.

Such was the life of a child abandoned on the street without knowing her parents, living in a pickpocket den in the slums.

A life where she had nothing to begin with, yet even that was taken away.

A life where she had to give everything away despite knowing the injustice, struggling desperately just to survive somehow.

That’s why El felt deeply thrilled and happy about the kindness she received from the Mosteros family, but then suddenly became scared and afraid.

She didn’t dare to handle the enormous things that had poured in when she had nothing in her possession.

“Who am I to… Something will go wrong. I shouldn’t have any greed. Above all, if I become a stain on these people……”

She didn’t even want to think about it.

She had not the slightest desire to cause trouble or harm to the people who had been good to her.

Her hands trembled involuntarily at the thought that her existence might become a burden to them.

El quickly organized her thoughts. Living in the ducal mansion seemed too much after all.

El decided to leave the ducal mansion.

“But if I say I’m leaving, they’ll try to stop me…… I guess it’s better to leave quietly in secret.”

El steeled her resolve.

But after making that decision, Rapellian’s face suddenly came to mind.

The thought of never seeing him again left a hollow, regretful feeling in a corner of her heart.

Nevertheless, El erased his face from her mind.

El pushed aside the luxurious bedding she had never covered herself with in her life and got down from the bed.

The medicine was still working, so there wasn’t much difficulty in moving.

Just then, a cheerful knock was heard.

El jumped in surprise as if caught doing something wrong and quickly climbed back onto the bed.

“Wh-who is it?”

“Can we come in?”

The twins appeared through the slightly opened door.

“Yes. Please come in.”

El was surprised by the sudden appearance of the two brothers as she had been planning to escape, but she blinked while pretending to be calm.

Inwardly, she thought, ‘I guess it’s difficult to sneak out during the day. At night, I’ll leave at night.’

Briel and Riello approached El, put down various items they had brought on the bedside table, and introduced themselves again simultaneously.

“Hello, I’m Briel.”

“Hello, I’m Riello.”

Their similar voices created a beautiful harmony as they reached El.

The only slight difference between the two children was that Briel appeared a bit shy.

“Hello, Young Lords.”

The two waved their hands gently, but El got down from the bed and bowed her head respectfully.

It was the best courtesy El could manage without having received etiquette education, but the twins looked shocked.

This made El quite flustered.

‘Did I greet them incorrectly?’

Caught in confusion, El searched her memory.

She tried to recall and imitate the greeting of a lady she had once seen on the street.

El awkwardly bent her knees and clumsily grabbed the hem of her shirt to spread it.

“Hello, Young… Masters.”

El secretly hoped that even if it wasn’t the proper greeting, they would overlook it considering her sincerity.

But even after her repeated greeting, Briel and Riello’s expressions remained unfavorable.

‘What should I do?’

El returned to her original posture with an embarrassed face and picked at her fingertips.

Then Briel and Riello whispered and bickered with each other before Briel shyly opened his mouth.

“Big brother.”

“Pardon?”

Briel blushed slightly, uttered that one word, and closed his mouth.

El became blank, unable to follow this flow.

At that moment, Riello stepped forward and spoke with a mischievous grin.

“I prefer the more formal ‘Honored Brother’ as well.”

“Pardon?”

“Call us ‘Big Brother’ or ‘Honored Brother’ instead of Young Lord or Young Master. Hmm? Hmm?”

Unlike the shy Briel, Riello demanded quite boldly.

They had already done this among themselves before Michaela could intervene.

El seriously considered whether it was okay to call them that, but she couldn’t ignore their request.

The two pairs of eyes looking at her were shining so brightly and full of expectation.

“Big… Brother?”

“What did you say?”

“Hon… ored Brother?”

El’s tone was full of awkwardness as she tried to use these terms of address she had never spoken in her life.

But the twins seemed to like it.

Riello lifted El up, held her in his arms, and jumped up and down in place.

“Wow! Wow!”

“Me, me too. Me too.”

Briel, who envied Riello holding El and bouncing around, raised his hands and shouted.

“Come here. Join us.”

With Briel added, El became sandwiched between the two brothers.

The three of them bounced around the room.

“She called me Big Brother.”

“She called me Honored Brother.”

The twins were overjoyed at hearing these terms of address they rarely got to hear.

To El’s eyes, their faces looked so happy.

They looked so happy that the world seemed to spin around her, and her body felt a bit painful, but somehow her mood soared.

It seemed she could temporarily ignore the gloomy feelings caused by the maid’s words.

El found herself smiling along with their happy smiles without realizing it.

Silver hair and black hair mingled and fluttered together, while blue eyes and transparently clear red eyes drew the same beautiful arcs.

“El, we’ll play with you.”

“Later, we’ll show you around the house. For now, we’ll play with you here since you’re still sick. Were you bored?”

“Is, is that okay?”

“Of course. It is.”

“Come on. Sit here.”

El didn’t even know how things were flowing, but she was invaded by the twins’ joint attack and soon found herself doing as they instructed.

Thanks to this, El had no time to seriously worry or think about sad matters.

And some time later, while El was deeply absorbed in a puzzle, Briel and Riello exchanged glances.

‘Is it a success?’

‘It seems like a success.’

They pulled up the corners of their mouths with satisfaction and smiled pleasantly, then simultaneously looked toward the bedroom door with a cold gleam in their eyes.

The twins had come to the guest room just a short while ago.

Rapellian had finished his conversation with Michaela and was about to go out to check on the situation at the pickpocket den.

He was heading to the guest room to check on El once more before leaving.

“A pickpocket taking over a guest room and even getting dedicated maids, and now a title? Ha! That’s not even funny.”

Standing in front of the guest room, he stepped back.

Instead of opening the door, he leaned against the opposite wall and quietly listened to the sounds coming from inside.

His face gradually hardened at the outrageous conversation.

Rapellian’s keen senses shone even more brightly when focused on one place.

“If you don’t want to become a stain on this household, get out of here.”

Even the smallest voice came through very clearly.

He could even sense El’s subtly changing breathing.

‘A stain. Who’s calling whom a stain.’

Along with anger, he felt distressed by El’s state of just holding her breath and remaining still even in such an unfair situation.

He recalled her clear eyes saying she had only done what needed to be done, and her face full of wariness yet smiling harmlessly.

A kind being who readily stepped forward to help others, yet lacked the strength to protect herself.

Having lived among people who desperately used and bit others to climb upward, he found El’s existence unfamiliar yet concerning.

‘Purity untainted even in an unfortunate environment.’

Rapellian felt a desire to add strength for self-protection to that purity.

‘For that, perhaps I should first deal with what’s disturbing.’

Rapellian also felt as if he and this household had been disrespected.

El was someone recognized and accepted by none other than Michaela, the head of the family.

Yet to behave like that while living under the shadow of this household.

It was an unacceptable act. Cold anger rose within him.

He straightened up from leaning against the wall and waited for the door to open.

“Hmph, so annoying… Eek!”

The maid’s face contorted with embarrassment as she turned her gaze after closing the door.

Rapellian looked down at the maid with an expressionless gaze.

It was a look that seemed to say, ‘You know your sin, don’t you?’

The maid’s face turned pale blue, and she couldn’t move her lips, only dripping with cold sweat.

“Y-Young Master.”

Instead of the maid who had frozen with a pale face, Jane, who had followed her out, quickly bowed to him.

“Jane, wasn’t it?”

Rapellian recognized Jane who had come out behind and mentioned her name in an indifferent tone.

“What?! Yes. M-my name is Jane.”

“Call the chief butler to my study.”

“Yes. Yes.”

Jane hunched her shoulders in fear and quickly left.

Amid the sound of footsteps echoing in the corridor, a small voice was heard from inside the room.

It was a terribly depressed, extremely gloomy voice.

Rapellian’s gaze touched the guest room door for a brief moment before turning back to stare coldly at the rigid maid.

“Ex-excuse me. Y-Young Master.”

The maid’s hands trembled at his piercing gaze, chilling to the bone.

So it was natural that her voice trembled as well.

Rapellian tilted his head slightly to the side with indifference as he looked at her trembling lips.

His somewhat arrogant attitude seemed so firm that it left no room for excuses.

“I-I was wrong……”

“Follow me.”

Just as the maid was about to kneel, he turned around.