“You… You!”
With a face flushed red, hands trembling, and eyes fiercely wide, it was not difficult to discern that Joshua’s emotions had reached a peak, even without looking at the <Color of Malice> above his head.
He gripped his cheek that began to swell with redness, and clenched his other hand into a fist.
His stance was quite impressive.
Judging by his confident attitude, it seemed he had undergone some training and was confident in his skills.
“Cough!”
Crack!
Before Joshua could even charge at Julian, his cheek was ablaze once more.
He had picked the wrong opponent.
Julian, hailed as a once-in-a-generation genius.
To his eyes, Joshua was nothing but a pathetic lamb.
Originally, the violence was employed reluctantly, solely to avoid soiling his clothes, but now, it had become a part of ‘playing Julian.’
“Again… you hit me again!? How dare you, a lowly bastard of the family…!”
“Didn’t one of the saints of the Solar Church say, ‘If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also.’?”
Crack!
With those words, I struck Joshua’s cheek once more.
“If the right cheek is struck, offer the left, and if the left is struck, offer the right. It seems I have no choice but to keep hitting, don’t I?”
It might have seemed excessive, but the moment Joshua raised his wine glass towards me, it was inevitable.
A man with a heart of a beast, Julian would thoroughly ‘educate’ even a member of his own family if they bared their fangs at him.
“Uh, ugh…!”
Joshua, with both cheeks swollen red, glared at me with murderous eyes.
Unable to bear it any longer, he reached for the ornately patterned sheath at his waist.
“Jo, Joshua…!”
Renia’s urgent cry.
At the same time, the air around the reckless action of Joshua turned icy cold.
“Are you going to draw it?”
I asked him quietly.
“At this moment, what happened here can be dismissed as a family matter. An excuse to discipline a distasteful brother.”
“Who… Who are you to call yourself my brother, you lowlife!?”
“But! The moment you draw your sword, you cease to be Joshua Crypart of the Crypart family and stand before me as Swordsman Joshua.”
I casually tapped the sheath at my waist with my hand.
Of course, I had no intention of drawing my sword, but Joshua wouldn’t know that.
What he saw was only the infamy and the true nature of ‘Julian Crypart Frason.’
“Still, are you sure about this?”
Joshua hesitated for a moment, his neck’s tendons bulging, and his eyes reddened with white showing prominently.
I slowly approached him, aware that he might draw his sword at any moment.
Around us, some couldn’t hold back their tension and swallowed nervously.
‘Purple’
But the <Color of Malice> above his head whispered that there was no need for concern.
Though he outwardly expressed anger, he too was cowering before Julian’s notorious reputation.
“Wise decision.”
Crack!
***
Julian Crypart Frason.
His presence at Renia Crypart’s wedding and the violence he inflicted on a direct member of the family was enough to make the attendees squint.
Though Joshua Crypart had indeed uttered harsh venomous words, the reaction was over the top.
“Look, aren’t Joshua’s cheeks swollen? Normally, such behavior would merit condemnation.
‘But it feels so refreshing.’
Aileen’s emotions leaned more towards satisfaction than condemnation of that inhuman cruelty.
Joshua Crypart.
A student at Bayer Academy, he was a well-known troublemaker, forming cliques to ostracize commoner students and disrupting the classes of lower-ranking professors, among other things.
Riding on the coattails of the Crypart family’s prestige, he was a student whom the academy found difficult to discipline effectively.
Watching Joshua being chastised by Julian, Aileen felt a strange emotion blossoming deep within her.
A peculiar feeling of exhilaration.
‘I shouldn’t harbor such feelings.’
After calming her emotions with a cough, she approached Julian, intending to tell him to stop the commotion for Renia’s sake.
“Stop it, Julian.”
Before Aileen could intervene, someone else stepped in to mediate.
Herand Crypart, the third son of the Crypart family, hurried into the banquet hall.
“Brother, you’re here.”
Seeing Herand, Julian smiled beautifully, his smile devoid of any guilt or hesitation, believing his actions were justified.
“The other guests are watching. Maybe it’s best to stop now?”
Herand, standing in front of Joshua and sweating profusely, spoke with a trembling voice.
“I was merely disciplining a presumptuous brother. The others will understand.”
“How dare you, a lowly member of the family… Who are you to call yourself my brother!”
“Stop it, Joshua! You were the one who first angered Renia and Julian!”
“But… Brother Herand.”
Herand, who Joshua thought would defend him, instead started to scold him.
“That lowly person being here at all…”
“I don’t want to hear anymore! You’ve caused a commotion at a banquet hosted by the Crypart family! You’re tarnishing the family’s honor!”
“Brother, why me…”
“Just go back! Even if the elders favor you, what you’ve done here today disgraces our family name!”
After Herand’s stern warning, Joshua looked at Julian with a look of injustice.
Joshua then left the banquet hall with a weak stride, after glaring at Julian for a moment with his eyes tightly shut.
“I apologize on behalf of my reckless brother, Julian.”
As Joshua walked away, Julian turned his head back to Herand and met his gaze.
“No, it’s fine. I was prepared for this kind of thing from the moment I arrived.”
“Renia also feels sorry.”
“It’s okay, brother. Joshua is still young, so he can act like that.”
Herand, bowing slightly to Renia, also made eye contact with Aileen and lightly apologized.
“But, Brother Herand. Didn’t the family head come to the banquet?”
“Father, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“Father had some business and couldn’t attend. I came in his place.”
“Is that so?”
A tone tinged with disappointment.
Julian, after straightening his clothes, turned to Renia.
“Sister Renia, I’m sorry for causing such a commotion.”
“Eh? Ah… Yeah, it’s okay. This much is…”
“No. I’ve disgraced such an important day.”
“Well, who knows? Maybe there could be a second time.”
Julian chuckled at the somewhat pointed joke.
After a brief exchange, Herand and Renia left to greet other guests, leaving Julian and Aileen alone.
As an uncomfortable silence fell between them, Aileen’s gaze wandered.
“Ah.”
She noticed Julian’s cufflinks, items she had recommended in a huff when they had encountered provocation at the tailor’s shop.
“Pretending to be so refined about formal wear, but in the end, you chose the items I recommended, didn’t you?”
Aileen lifted her chin slightly, wearing a triumphant smile, remembering how Julian had mocked her artistic sense at the tailor’s shop.
“Did I? I don’t remember.”
Julian responded with a faint smile.
Trying to dodge the issue again?
Aileen pouted her lips at his attitude.
“For someone who ‘doesn’t remember,’ the cufflinks, buttons, and belt are all things I mentioned, aren’t they?”
“A coincidence, I suppose.”
“It doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me!”
Aileen found Julian’s brazen attitude irksome.
This man, wrapped tightly in his pride, would never bow his head or admit anything unless it strayed from his convictions.
Even if it crushed him, acknowledging others was something he avoided.
“It’s a joke. Actually, everything you said is right, Aileen. These clothes… I quite like them.”
“……What?”
“Indeed, you are also a member of the Donassien family.”
Unexpected jokes, compliments, and acknowledgments left Aileen dumbfounded. She had thought praising others would be akin to having thorns on his tongue… Was she wrong?
“Then, I’ll take my leave now.”
“What? Ah… Already?”
Her voice pitched in surprise, causing her face to flush with embarrassment.
“I’m not oblivious. My presence here makes others uncomfortable, doesn’t it?”
The atmosphere in the banquet hall had improved after the commotion with Joshua, but that didn’t erase the infamy ‘Julian’ carried. Glances were thrown his way, marking him as a source of discomfort.
“I only came to greet. Though I ended up involved in an unnecessary affair.”
With those words, Julian left the banquet hall.
A sense of déjà vu enveloped Aileen. She had heard such words from him before. When was it? Ah, during their time at Bayer Academy.
– ‘It’s like capturing stars. Truly, a beautiful magic befitting a member of the Donassien family.’
Memories began to resurface.
The reason this memory was so vivid was simple.
On the day she was recognized by Julian, Aileen was…
“Ahhh…….”
…recalling an event she’d rather forget, she groaned, clutching her head with both hands.
***
The head of the family did not attend.
My purpose here was to secure the ‘Soulstone’ that the Crypart family owned.
Since the Soulstone was in the possession of the family head, and he wasn’t here, there was no reason to stay any longer.
‘I intended to secure the Soulstone, but who knew the head wouldn’t be here…?’
A bitter taste lingered on my tongue.
Would another opportunity like this arise?
Given the head’s dislike for Julian, a notorious member of a collateral branch, it was uncertain if he would even agree to meet.
What a headache.
As I massaged my temples, I heard someone call out.
“Julian!”
Renia was approaching from the direction of the banquet hall, looking the same as when we first met.
“Are you leaving already? I was hoping you’d stay till the end.”
Instead of responding, I simply smiled.
Understanding my reason for smiling, Renia nodded and pulled out a small, ordinary-looking jewelry box from her embrace.
“You came for Father, right? To take this?”
“This is….”
“Your mother’s keepsake.”
His mother’s keepsake?
Hearing that, I cocked my head and accepted it.
The box was quite plain for a jewelry box.
“I found this while choosing wedding jewels from the treasury. It reminded me of you, so I brought it out. Julian, didn’t you have a quarrel with Father over this?”
“Ah, yes. I did.”
I nodded in affirmation, though not entirely understanding what was being discussed.
It appeared Julian had some family history.
“So, I pretended to select it as a wedding jewel and secretly took it to return to you.”
“Thank you.”
Renia smiled warmly at my gratitude.
Although it was my first time seeing the jewelry box, it evoked an inexplicable warmth and poignancy.
And inside it was…
The Soulstone.
The very Soulstone the Crypart family owned, now fashioned into a necklace.
This was once Julian’s mother’s possession.
The term ‘keepsake’ implied she was no longer alive.
I caressed the gemstone at the center of the necklace, the ‘Soulstone,’ which unlike those obtained from the Pyrun Forest, emitted no particular aura, perhaps due to magical treatment.
“I never imagined I’d acquire it this way.”
“……Hm? What did you say?”
“Thank you for finding my mother’s keepsake.”
I expressed my gratitude to Renia once more, then turned my attention to the jewelry box I held.
The longing that was more than the cold touch of metal…
A comfort and warmth unlike any other…
A regretful yet unresolved sentiment…
These weren’t my feelings, but rather, unmistakably, those of ‘Julian.’
Cliche Novel 