Rattle, rattle, rattle.

The carriage shook uncontrollably, making it hard to keep my thoughts straight.

It felt like being crammed into a car with no seatbelts and with the cushions all torn out, while driving on a rocky, unpaved road. Actually, make that several times worse.

It felt like being a lone candy rolling inside a tin can, knocking around in every direction.

I was going to die.

I pressed my face against the small window, trying to breathe. Something was pushing up from my stomach. To prevent myself from vomiting inside the carriage, I clenched my throat and turned my face towards the outside.

Gulp, gulp.

I forced it down, and Tatiana began to rub my back gently.

“I didn’t expect you to be this weak, Rafa. I didn’t think your motion sickness would be this severe.”

Her hand was comforting as she rubbed my back.

“I even gave you an herb that reduces nausea, but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. It usually works really well, you know.”

“... Ugh…”

I wanted to respond, but I couldn’t. If I opened my mouth, I would vomit.

I kept my face turned toward the window, straining to keep everything down.

The voice of the man sitting across from us broke through the noise.

“Pathetic, isn’t it? A so-called mage reduced to this... Honestly, I’ve never heard of a barbarian practicing magic before, Tatiana. Perhaps you’re being deceived?”

The man who, at first, couldn’t even make eye contact with me had grown talkative now that I’d become a paper tiger due to my motion sickness.

I guess he’d realized that Tatiana and I weren’t romantically involved.

Anyone could tell by our demeanor that we were merely comrades.

He had been talking tirelessly to Tatiana. In the beginning, it was mostly praise for her beauty, but the topic slowly shifted into boasting about himself—how impressive his own status was.

When Tatiana didn’t react to his compliments, he tried to capture her interest by bragging.

“You see, I am actually a noble. It’s not official yet, but… well, there are circumstances involved...”

He sighed deeply, as if for dramatic effect.

“It’s not easy to reveal such a sensitive matter to others… But since it seems we’re fated to meet like this…”

The man repeated the same thing several times, but Tatiana either wasn’t listening or was deliberately half-tuning him out.

She didn’t respond.

Instead, she was mumbling to herself while gently patting my back, deep in thought.

"... For him to be this weak… if even anti-nausea herbs aren’t working, I’m not sure what else to try. Maybe a sleeping potion would be better..."

Despite Tatiana not paying him any attention, the man still kept going.

“... But keeping this secret all to myself is incredibly painful. Now, I just... I wonder if sharing this secret with someone might bring me some relief...”

Because I was so nauseous, I missed large portions of his words. However, when certain familiar words reached my ears, my attention was drawn towards him.

“... As I mentioned before... my father is none other than Klaus of the House of Valter... I’m sure you've heard of him, Miss Tatiana. My father was captured by that savage, Helga...”

What?

He was my father’s son?

Without meaning to, I turned my head towards the man. Tatiana seemed equally shocked.

Almost simultaneously, both our gazes fixed on him.

With both of us staring at him, the man gave a smile that seemed to be dripping with a sense of tragic drama.

“My late mother always told me that my hair and eyes resembled my father’s... Oh dear, I really shouldn’t have said this... It’s supposed to be a secret, but I’ve let it slip…”

The man lowered his eyes as he smiled.

No, your hair looks like bleached yellow.

My father’s hair is platinum blonde.

While bleached yellow and platinum blonde might look similar on a color chart, they are completely different in reality.

And your eyes... I can’t see any similarity whatsoever.

Granted, I don’t resemble my father at all either, so I’m not one to judge. But speaking of his features, this man doesn’t resemble my father in the slightest.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

If you analyzed each feature separately, maybe he resembled my father more than I did—but that was only because I look so much like my mother. It certainly wasn’t evidence that this guy was my father’s son.

Most men in this world probably resembled my father more than I did.

That was because I looked as if I belonged to an entirely different race compared to him.

"All humanity is brothers," people say, and this was kind of like that.

...

Wow, this was more of a shock than I expected.

Before I left the forest, I hadn’t known anything about my father being the heir to a duchy or about my mother having slaughtered all the duchess’s wives and kidnapped him.

I had naturally assumed I was my parents’ only son.

But now, was I to believe that this conniving con artist was my brother?

After finding out that my father was the heir to the House of Valter, I had considered the possibility of something like this happening. But now that it was actually happening, it hurt much more than I had anticipated.

All the strength drained out of me.

The feeling I had been holding back surged up, spilling out.

“Uurgh!”

The man let out a small scream as the vomit splattered across him.

I didn’t aim for his face on purpose, but I knew that would happen and still didn’t turn my head away.

Panicked, Tatiana formed several water droplets and splashed them over the man’s face.

The vomit washed away slightly with the water.

The self-proclaimed half-brother muttered in shock through the stains left behind.

“A-Amazing… Are you a water mage?”

Ignoring the man’s words, Tatiana glanced over at me.

I was probably pale as a ghost, weakened by both nausea and disbelief.

As if she understood what I was feeling, Tatiana turned to the man and asked, “That… claim of being Lord Klaus’s son—has that been acknowledged by the House of Valter?”

The self-proclaimed half-brother’s eyes brightened as though he had finally caught her interest.

As if trying to hide that excitement, he lowered his eyelids.

“... It was only on her deathbed that my mother revealed it to me, so I haven’t known for long. I sent a letter to the House of Valter, but... waiting was too agonizing, so I’m making my way there myself.”

“Evidence...?” Tatiana asked as she once again looked at my face.

The self-proclaimed half-brother pulled something from his pocket.

“Is that... a button?” Tatiana tilted her head.

The man’s expression shifted, clearly eager to explain.

“Yes, that’s right. My father gave it to my mother as a keepsake. It has the Valter crest engraved on it.”

He held it out so we could see the front of the button.

A button with the crest of the Valter family wasn’t something you’d come across every day.

In this world, a noble crest is akin to an identification card. Using it without permission was a severe crime—it was something you could be killed for.

My father had taught me that, so I was certain it was true.

Therefore, a button with the Valter crest did hold significance.

But that alone wasn’t enough proof that he was my father’s son.

Buttons fall off when snagged or when clothes tear.

As I resisted the urge to throw up, I internally yelled my thoughts.

How could you be Father’s son? How could you be my half-brother? I refuse to acknowledge it.

It seemed Tatiana understood my feelings.

“A single button isn’t proof enough to claim that you’re his son,” she said.

The self-proclaimed half-brother widened his eyes slightly.

“These eyes... I was told that they resemble my father’s greatly. And my wind magic ability... My very existence is proof enough,” he argued.

Tatiana looked at me, her eyes asking the question.

Did he really resemble Father?

No, not at all.

I shook my head slightly, which caused my nausea to surge once again.

I turned towards the window, slumping forward.

The stench of vomit was apparently unbearable.

Above me, Rella chirped as if grumbling.

“Miss Tatiana… since this meeting seems destined, would you care to join me on my journey to the Valter House? I promise I won’t treat you badly,” the self-proclaimed half-brother suggested.

He hadn’t even been accepted by the Valter family yet, and here he was making such presumptuous offers.

I wanted to say something, but I was still so nauseous, my body too weak to even muster a glare.

Ugh, I couldn’t even summon the strength to shoot him a dirty look.

Motion sickness was a real torment.

As I slumped down, Tatiana sighed quietly, rubbing my back again.

It seemed she had no intention of answering the man.

Smart move.

It didn’t seem like he’d been listening to anything Tatiana had been saying.

I could remember her rejecting him at least three times in the past few minutes, using almost identical words each time.

At this point, I was tempted to ask her to use her witch hypnosis to just shut him up, but Tatiana seemed to want to keep her identity hidden during her time as an adventurer.

If she used hypnosis, it might alert someone that she was a witch, and that seemed to make her anxious.

...

Now that I thought about it, whether or not that man was Father’s son had nothing to do with me.

At first, I’d been a little shocked. If I were a teenager, I might’ve felt rebellious. But I was an adult.

Yeah, it really wasn’t a big deal.

Feeling a bit more relaxed, my nausea started to subside.

That’s when the carriage suddenly began accelerating.

The coachman shouted loudly.

“A two-headed dog! There’s a two-headed dog coming!”

“W-What?!” The self-proclaimed half-brother leaned out of the window in alarm.

With the carriage shaking violently beside me, his voice echoed loudly.

“Oh, my God! It’s not just one! There are three of them... No, over there, another one!”

As he screamed, the carriage, which had been bouncing around, suddenly swerved.

“No, no! There’s one in front too! And—over there as well...” The coachman’s voice trembled in fear.

The carriage ran a bit further, then changed direction again, but ultimately came to a stop.

By that time, I had already vomited several times out the window.

I felt like my insides had turned upside down; my vision was spinning.

I had no strength left.

“We... we’re dead. We’re dead for sure. There are so many of them... We’re completely doomed...”

The self-proclaimed half-brother, shaking uncontrollably, suddenly opened the door on the opposite side.

Was he trying to run?

But then, out of nowhere, he grabbed Tatiana by the arm and flung her out.

I reached out to stop him, but I was too slow due to my nausea.

Tatiana tumbled out of the carriage.

Simultaneously, the man opened the door on my side and tried to push me out.

It seemed like he intended to shove me, but I was too big and heavy. Instead, he ended up falling on his rear inside the carriage.

I’d deal with him soon.

I clumsily dropped to the ground.

My body felt weak and shaky.

The horses were rearing up, crying out, and the coachman was shouting frantically.

He seemed to be trying to calm them down.

The self-proclaimed half-brother leaned his head out of the window.

He yelled at the coachman in a voice almost like a scream.

“Hurry! Get moving! This is our only chance while the bait is out there! What are you doing? Do you want to die?”

That bastard—I was definitely going to kill him.

I stumbled towards the back of the carriage.

“… Tatiana! Are you... urgh... are you okay?” I shouted through my nausea.

Tatiana ran around the side of the carriage to where I was.

Her nose was slightly scraped, and there was dirt on her clothes.

That self-proclaimed half-brother or whatever he was would definitely pay for this.

“I’m fine. Rafa, are you... going to be okay?” Tatiana wrapped her arm around my waist, trying to support me.

She couldn’t offer much physical support, but I appreciated the sentiment.

Tatiana created countless water droplets in her hand and shouted at the coachman.

“I can handle them! Don’t move without us! Do you understand?”

The coachman shouted back as he wrapped the reins around the carriage frame.

“In all my years as a coachman, I’ve never abandoned my passengers!”

I glanced over to see a sword in the coachman’s hand.

His hand was trembling, but he looked ready to fight.

A deep growling sound came closer and closer.