Chapter 13 – In which brothers have a conversation

Vern examined Crimo who frantically tried to appear as composed as possible and continued to fail at it miserably.

He had very little similarities with Vern.

His skin was deathly white, while Vern’s was dark.

His eyes though red just like Vern’s, were more in the color of blood and had a silvery touch to them.

His facial features also didn’t appear to hold any similarities, though it was hard to judge because both of them seemed to have starved for weeks, deforming their features.

At least their sunken cheeks looked exactly the same.

‘The children with magical bloodlines of the same parents often share very little similarities. It’s to be expected.’

Then a sudden realization struck Vern.

This person was supposed to be his older brother.

Vern’s mind fell into chaos.

Brother?

Older brother?

What was that?

Vern was the oldest sibling before.

He couldn’t fathom the idea of being a younger sibling.

He was confident he could pretend to act as an older brother even in front of a stranger, but younger…?

That left him so flustered, he just stared at Crimo unsure what to say.

But it seemed Crimo faced a similar predicament, because after the initial outburst he also just silently stared at Vern.

The two spent a few minutes just awkwardly staring at each other.

“Ehem…”

Finally, Sangria, who even with his patience of the saint, couldn’t take this atmosphere any longer, coughed and asked:

“My Lord, do you mind me asking why are you here?”

Crimo slowly turned to look at him.

Now, after assessing that Vern was indeed unharmed, he seemed a bit calmer.

“Why did you let Vern go to that Magic Exchange?”

“... How do you know Young Master went to the Magic Exchange?”

“... So it was indeed Vern?”

Crimo’s eyes sank and he covered his face with one hand. His second hand was still holding on Vern’s arm.

He mumbled:

“It was just my conjecture. Of course, when Scarlen said that Master Sangria was there it was almost certain that Vern was also there, you didn’t leave Vern’s side even for a moment for the past three years, it would be strange if it was to change now, but… But I still hoped… Vern you’re that Crow, right?”

Crimo suddenly looked up at Vern again, his eyes filled with so much conviction, he didn’t seem to need the answer.

Vern blinked, as though he did expect to be found out, he didn’t expect it to happen literally the next morning.

‘What you meant didn’t leave my side…? Does Master Sangria have no social life or hobbies?’

He stole a pitying glance at Sangria, but the sorry man didn’t seem to understand his feelings, because he just tilted his head in confusion.

‘Scarlen is the name of the manager of yesterday's Magic Exchange… It seems he ended up reporting this incident to Crimo. Did he make any other moves? Reporting may be just the first step. He would confirm whether Crimo was involved in it or not.’

Scarlen didn’t know about Sangria treating Vern.

Vern asked about it yesterday when making his plans.

Apparently, Vern’s state was kept strictly confidential and the fact Sangria was treating him was known only to Crimo.

To the public knowledge, Vern secluded himself completely for the last three years, absorbed into some kind of research.

It was widely accepted, as mages often do this, and also because it was well known that Vern’s health wasn’t the best.

If the experiment was related to his health problems, he would want to keep it a secret.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

As for Sangria, he was known to be researching something in secret on Crimo’s orders.

There was no relation between the two on the surface.

Therefore, Scarlen wouldn’t be able to easily connect Vern to Crow like Crimo did.

“... Vern, are you going to answer my question?”

As Vern fell into thoughts, he was suddenly brought back to reality by Crimo’s quiet voice.

“I thought you had no need for an answer.”

… Unintentionally, the first words he said to his newly acquired older brother were quite cold.

He quickly tried to correct himself.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean…”

“No, that’s fine. I understand. You’re right.”

The atmosphere, which was just awkward, suddenly turned depressing.

After some internal struggle, Crimo let go of Vern’s arm and stepped back.

Vern felt his head throb as he observed those actions.

It was awkward and uncomfortable, but the fact was that Crimo was this body’s brother.

And no matter how absent he was from Vern’s past life, it was never because he didn’t care about his younger brother.

As an older sibling himself, Vern could relate to many of Crimo’s struggles and feelings.

He also knew very well what Crimo had to feel right now, even though the man did very well hiding his emotions.

“Okay. I confirmed that you’re unharmed, so I’ll be goin–.”

“Did you eat breakfast?”

“Excuse me?”

Vern closed his eyes for a moment to gather his thought and then asked again:

“Did you eat breakfast? Do you want to eat with me?”

Crimo just stared at Vern blankly, with his mouth hanging open.

*-*-*

Because no one could know that Vern’s health improved yet, the one to serve breakfast was Sangria.

He was surprisingly good at it though, and completed preparations in a few minutes.

After wishing them a good meal he was about to leave, but…

“Master Sangria, please. You also sit down and eat.”

Crimo suddenly spoke up.

Maybe it was just a gesture of kindness, but somehow it felt as if Crimo was afraid to be left alone with Vern.

“... But there are only two tableware sets…”

“Fetch another one then and sit down.”

Vern seconded Crimo’s idea.

Out of kindness of course, not because he was afraid.

After Sangria brought an additional plate and sat down, the three started breakfast in silence.

Vern started by pouring himself coffee, but when he took a sip he frowned.

He forgot something.

He quickly searched the table and found a salt-cellar.

After adding a pinch of salt, the coffee finally suited his taste and he could happily drink it.

He ignored the terrified glances Sangria was sending him.

He then contemplated what to eat.

As his body was still weak, affected by long sickness, he actually could eat very little and very light.

Most of the things were out of the question.

Vern pulled his gaze away from lemon-caramel glaze donuts.

He settled on two things.

One, dark red spicy soup, which Saf liked, because it warmed the body and she hated being cold.

Two, vegetable rice dumplings, which Am liked to make, because it let his hands be busy when he needed to think.

“... I never noticed before how unusual Young Master’s taste is…”

Sangria looked at the unusual assembly of sour (and salted!) coffee, spicy soup and bland dumplings with a dubious expression.

He was especially eyeing the cup of coffee with an odd gaze.

“I didn’t have a lot of chances to eat before.”

This was the first time in a long time when Vern’s body was able to accept food without him immediately turning nauseous.

Even yesterday Vern was only drinking water with salt and sugar.

“... That’s true. Young Master, you do remember what food tasted like, right? You didn’t choose randomly, yes?”

Vern, who voted against retorting ‘Master Sangria, I even remember what food 300 years ago tasted like’, answered:

“Don’t worry Master Sangria, if I ever wish to experiment with food, I’ll use Master Sangria as my test subject.”

“Young Master, you must know that I have had an extremely delicate stomach since childhood…”

“I told you not to worry.”

Thanks to this conversation, Vern relaxed a bit and his headache subsided. He was able to enjoy breakfast now.

But there was someone who still couldn’t relax.

Crimo didn’t say anything since Sangria returned with another plate and sat down, he was only sipping black coffee and didn’t even put anything on his plate.

He didn’t even glance at the food before him, his gaze fixed at some point far away behind Vern.

“You won’t be eating?”

Even though Vern asked very softly, Crimo jumped as if he was struck by lightning.

He quickly looked at food around as he mumbled:

“I’m… not really hungry…”

Vern couldn’t help but examine Crimo again.

Crimo wasn’t cursed or sick like Vern.

Yet he fared no better than Vern who was cursed from his childhood.

He didn’t seem to eat in days and looked so tired as if he didn’t get a wink of sleep for weeks.

Vern suspected that he drank so much coffee he could no longer taste it.

‘Are problems in Rubrun so severe?.. The pressure from guilds must be worse than I thought.’

Vern wasn’t going to press Crimo into eating.

He knew well that when it feels like the sky is going to fall, pushing yourself to eat doesn't always help and only make things worse.

He also knew that if Am was here, he would smack him in the head for being an idiot, because you won’t feel any better if you continue to starve, so just get something to eat and rest, and then think if sky is going to fall or not.

Am would be right of course, because Am was always right about those things.

Perhaps, because Vern fell into thoughts about the past, he forgot to turn his gaze away from Crimo and unintentionally stared at him for too long.

Crimo interpreted that as Vern silently asking him to eat.

He fidgeted on his chair for a moment and then took a few cherry tomatoes and started suck at them.

Vern blinked, thought it was quite an odd choice, but was happy Crimo put something in his mouth. He returned to his breakfast.

Sangria gave Crimo a look similar to the one he gave Vern earlier and then nodded to himself with an expression saying: ‘Brothers are brothers’.

They ate in silence for a while when Crimo suddenly said:

“Come to think of it. It’s the first time in my life I’m eating with you.”

He half-laughed when saying that, but his eyes were sad.

Vern searched the memories of this body and realized it was indeed the truth.

Crimo and previous Vern had almost no point of contact.

As there was nine years of difference between them, there was nothing they really could do together.

When Crimo was a child who had nothing to worry about but his toys, Vern didn’t exist yet.

When Vern was a child who played with toys, Crimo was already diligently studying general and magical knowledge.

When Vern was starting his studies, Crimo was already on the verge of finishing them.

‘I think we only meet in passing, I don’t think we even talked.’

Vern's first memory of talking to Crimo was after the previous Archmage, Belleder, died.

Actually it was mostly Crimo talking, because it was the moment when Vern had his first fainting and coughing blood incident. Vern couldn’t even really remember what Crimo said.

Only something about mother’s notes being complete nonsense and Crimo promising he will keep Vern safe over and over.

‘Archmage Belleder…’

There was something which bothered Vern about this woman, but before he could gather his thoughts, he was distracted by Crimo’s question:

“Vern… Can I ask what you are planning to do on that Exchange next week?”

Sangria also popped in:

“I was also curious about that, Young Master Vern explained to me how that spell won’t cause any damage, but he didn't say what he was planning. He said that he needs some time to confirm the specifics.”

Vern swallowed a dumpling he was holding and answered:

“There are some details I’m still not sure of, but I can tell you the general plan. It’s quite simple, really.”

And then he explained his plan to Sangria and Crimo, without holding anything back.

From the start he assumed he would need those two’s cooperation.

When he finished.

“That’s quite feasible…”

Sangria murmured with a very surprised face.

He seemed to accept this plan, but…

‘What are you so surprised about?!’

Vern decided he would need to educate Sangria later, that he would never think about doing anything absurd and impossible.

He turned to look at Crimo.

His newly acquired older brother seemed to hesitate for a moment and then asked:

“The plan is fine, but…”

He paused, licked his lips and then asked:

“Can I go with you?”

He was giving Vern a look that Saf and Am had to see Vermillian make a lot of times.