How to Live as a Tyrant’s Bastard Brother

Aquinas, the nephew of Duchess Planities and one of my many cousins.

As the son of a high-born empress, he had at least received minimal respect even among the numerous royal illegitimates emerging from concubines—a fortunate one.

That man bowed low in his room in the Crimson Crescent Palace beside Lady Tenitia and me.

Lady Tenitia wore an expression that seemed to indicate she was about to grab his nape and knock him down. I sighed endlessly, feeling my legs give way as if I might collapse onto the floor.

“Aquinus, you fool. Have you completely forgotten what blood flows in your veins? Did the shock of being confined rattle your head? You’re not some orc, and you can’t possibly take responsibility for… let’s not even speak of it.”

I had completely forgotten our statuses and reverted to the tone from my past reckless days.

“Your Highness.”

With a poke from her armored elbow to my side, focus returned to me.

It hurt so badly that I thought I might bruise more if she had pressed harder.

I took a deep breath and left the room together with Lady Tenitia, making a few requests before returning.

Then, as if having made a big decision, I spoke.

“Lady Tenitia.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“I cannot have an honorable knight deal with a royal illegitimate child. I will take care of it. Please turn around for a moment.”

“Excuse me?”

“Valenciaunos! Please!”

Aquinus pleaded, and I trembled as I brought my hand to the sword hilt.

Having a child as a royal without permission from the Empire was an enormous issue.

Because of blood leakage and inheritance rights.

“Aquinus, do you know why you couldn’t go to the Planities dukedom and remained in this Crimson Crescent Palace all this time?”

“I do. It’s because of blood and rights.”

He answered in a somber voice, and I growled like a volcano.

“But if this child goes with you to the Planities dukedom, that issue will arise again.”

“…”

“According to imperial law, those under 16 cannot renounce their inheritance rights. If this child gains manhood around the age of 14, how many heirs with royal blood will emerge in the Planities family? Do you understand?”

“I understand…”

“Renouncing the inheritance rights doesn’t make your blood disappear. However, the Emperor’s decision to send you to your relatives is because he knows you will act wisely.”

I grit my teeth and tried to draw my sword.

Aquinus gasped and shielded the child with his body.

“What crime does this child bear?”

“The sin of being born a royal child!”

“Is it also a sin not to choose one’s father?”

“That father, born of a high noble and royal blood, obtained supreme talent and vast power effortlessly, living lavishly while the peasants starved!”

“!”

“Did you not know that the mother of this child is a member of the royal family and your aunt?”

“Valenciaunos!”

Aquinus’ face flushed with anger.

“Has this child ever been sick when young? Has he cried all night demanding you or the wet nurse or maids? No, of course not. Children of royals and nobles are born with much sturdier constitutions than ordinary children. Will this child ever go hungry or toil for a living in the future? No, he will not. He has the blood of royals and high nobles.”

“So, I must take responsibility?”

I spat it out like a nail.

“Just as it is natural to enjoy rights that come with blood, it is equally natural to fulfill the responsibilities that come with it.”

As I pulled the sword out by about a hand’s length, Lady Tenitia moved.

She pushed the tip of my sword back into its sheath easily, nudged me aside lightly, and took my place standing before Aquinus.

I looked at Tenitia with dissatisfaction but did not push her away.

“Your Highness, you have two options.”

Aquinus asked with the look of someone grasping at straws.

“What, what are they?”

“The first is to leave the child behind and depart; the second is to manipulate the child’s birthdate.”

“Manipulate the birthdate?”

Lady Tenitia spoke theatrically.

“If the child were born after you ceased to be a Duke, then… he would lack inheritance rights altogether. There would be no reason to take him with you. However, there could be issues with this approach.”

“What kind of issues?”

“The Planities family may refuse to accept you. Even if you renounce your inheritance rights, your royal blood will not disappear, and they wouldn’t want the Emperor’s attention drawn to two royal bloodlines.”

“Hmm.”

Aquinus frowned in distress.

“Then, you will remain here with the child. The renouncement of inheritance rights will remain ambiguous, and the Emperor will assuredly not spare you and the child.”

After pondering for a while, Aquinus spoke.

“I will manipulate the child’s birthdate. Can you help me?”

“You’re willing to risk staying here?”

“I can’t just leave my child behind, can I? He is mine, the child of the person I loved. If my aunt chooses not to accept me, both the child and I shall not see the sunlight the next day. If the child must go to the afterlife alone, I will accompany him.”

I sighed and nodded.

“Aquinus, pack your things and come out. It’s better to stay outside the palace until the duke arrives. I’ll try to get the renouncement documents processed as quickly as possible.”

“Thank you, Valenciaunos.”

I left without even witnessing his bow, heading out with Lady Tenitia.

I didn’t know if this was the right thing to do.

As we walked down the corridor, there came a moment when voices wouldn’t be heard anymore. Lady Tenitia turned to me and asked.

“Your Highness, why do you push so hard? Did you have to make such an offer through me? Shouldn’t you have suggested manipulating the child’s birthdate yourself?”

I nodded.

“I don’t know what the duke desires.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean?”

The duke cared for his wife, and the wife cared for her brother.

But the world of nobility runs indifferent to affection.

Before my return, I had not known that Aquinus had an illegitimate child.

So until now, I thought a ‘mysterious force’ had assassinated the duke’s family, leading the duke, having lost his wife, to wage war out of vengeance.

But what if the duke had already known about Aquinus and that child with inheritance rights?

What if the child he had wanted was precisely that one with inheritance rights from the start?

What if he intended to put pressure and schemes on the royal family through that child?

What if Aquinus was aware of this and was taking the child as the ransom for his own release?

Thinking in this manner, the assassination that had occurred before the return might not have been from a ‘mysterious force’ after all.

Jeilliris, who noticed the child, could have sent assassins her way.

My thoughts paused briefly.

If it were Jeilliris, she would have drawn her sword the moment she sensed the child, not merely send an assassin.

After all, she was a sibling who sought governance rather than politics.

Then again, perhaps both possibilities existed.

There might have been assassins sent by Jeilliris and ‘mysterious’ assassins both at work.

“I thought the duke might plot something using the illegitimate child. How complicated.”

I stumbled along with that much just to Lady Tenitia.

“My head aches. Please exclude me from plotting and schemes from now on. Knights should express themselves and communicate through the sword, not words.”

She was not only unquestioning but also requested not to give her things to think about.

“I’ll consider it positively.”

“That sounds like a refusal, doesn’t it?”

“…”

“Your Highness?”

* * *

The upscale hotel, equipped with various facilities and real-time room service, was guarded by elite mercenaries and was dangerously close to the palace.

Perhaps because many nobles and heads of large trading houses stayed there, openly assassins wouldn’t be able to just walk in. Yet, the more distant we were from the palace, the better, considering I could not predict how Jeilliris would react to the child.

The accommodation establishments were clustered around the castle gates of each district and in front of the imperial palace. Valenciaunos headed toward the west gate, the closest to Wyvernfit.

Clattering, clattering, the carriage shook endlessly.

It was not a neatly paved capital road.

As the child cried, Aquinus covered the child’s ears with cotton and lifted him to his chest.

“The carriage sways a lot.”

“It’s because heavy beasts frequent this road. There’s no helping it, so hold the child carefully.”

“Beasts?”

Valenciaunos gestured toward the direction of Wyvernfit.

“How much meat do you think goes in there daily?”

“Ah.”

At that moment, a strong scent of blood wafted around.

It was not the fresh scent of blood but the rotten smell of something dead for quite some time.

Tenitia wrinkled her brow, the baby cried again, and Aquinus seemed at his wit’s end.

Valenciaunos looked out the carriage window, where the curtains were drawn, and asked the coachman as well.

“Is it time for the crocodiles to come out?”

“Yes. It appears the road has become almost blocked. I apologize.”

Step, step, step, step.

Men dressed in thick clothes smeared with blood emerged from the alleys.

They had ropes tied to baskets slung over their backs or pushed carts, with a commonality of blood dripping from everywhere.

They all bore large knives called choppers or cleavers at their waists.

Though some teeth were missing here and there, they looked incredibly sharp.

Men drenched in blood crossed the road under the evening sun.

Step, step, step, step.

“Shh.”

“Come here.”

“Don’t let go of my hand under any circumstances.”

Pedestrians on the street scattered in fear, hastily seeking shelter in nearby shops or freezing in their tracks, trembling.

“What on earth are those crazies doing in the capital?” Aquinus asked, quivering. Valenciaunos responded nonchalantly, as if saying not to get flustered, sinking his body into the chair’s cushion.

“They’re the ones cleaning Wyverns.”

“Pardon?”

Aquinus seemed to think he must have heard wrong.

“When they feed the wyverns, they throw in whole animals like sheep or pigs. Yet, they can be surprisingly finicky eaters. Depending on the season, gender, or age, they may eat only meat or bones or organs or fat. So what happens to the remaining parts?”

“They would rot.”

“Someone has to go in and clean up, right? And they might even take away the parts that aren’t rotting among all the leftover bits. They’re all fathers doing dangerous and hard work for their children. Just because it’s an unpleasant sight doesn’t mean they are bad people…”

Crash!

The sound of breaking glass interrupted Valenciaunos’ speech.

A cleaver lunged through the broken window with a thrust.

Shattered glass poured onto the floor.

Aquinus hesitated, his face turning pale, while Valenciaunos and Lady Tenitia gritted their teeth and kicked the carriage door open.

“AAAH!”

The coachman was dragged from his seat and trampled savagely.

“Your Highness! What you just said seems very different, indeed!”

Tenitia shouted, drawing her sword.

The gleaming plate armor and sword made the crocodiles flinch and retreat, but they soon gathered again, peering into the carriage.

“What is this commotion? Do you know whose path you are blocking? If you don’t answer immediately, I shall cut off your head.”

Tenitia kicked the belly of the crocodile who was trampling the coachman.

Thwack!

No matter how rough one might live, the physical prowess difference between a knight wielding mana and an ordinary person was incomparable.

The crocodile flew off, soaring through the air and rolling on the ground.

Before Valenciaunos spoke, he instinctively glanced at their eyes based on his long experience.

Each was marked by the indistinct border between black pupils and white sclera.

“What a damn…”

He cursed as he drew his sword and slashed at the neck of the crocodile standing before him.

With blood gushing from the fountain-like wound in its neck, the man staggered towards them, yet it seemed he felt no pain, ultimately collapsing with a thud.

“Your Highness?!”

“Those guys are mentally contaminated. It’s already too late.”

Mental contamination occurs when one tries to comprehend the incomprehensible.

It wasn’t solely through something like ancient evil deities or strange documents; it could also arise from touching an introductory grimoire that compiles refined knowledge academically.

Yet the most common reasoning lies in the tangible and intangible contact with evil old things.

“Coachman! Drive the horses! We must escape this place!”

Tenitia half-lifted the coachman and threw him onto the driver’s seat, confirming Valenciaunos was aboard before starting to cut down the crocodiles blocking the way.

Slash!

The enemies were no match for her, making the fight one-sided.

As she carved her path, she pondered.

Mental contamination is a magically mysterious phenomenon.

She too hadn’t received such an assignment until now.

It wasn’t something a teenage prince could easily recognize just from reading what was written in books.

‘Why does His Majesty want me beside him?’

How wonderful it would be if all conflicts could be resolved through the honest duel of knights!

As her thoughts scattered, she wielded her sword.

Slash!

Watching limbs shoot up into the sky, Tenitia smiled like a wolf.

Indeed, pondering was not her forte.

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