My Brothers Are Not Villains

Chapter 1

Just a moment ago, I was lying on the asphalt. Lying there, dead.

That should have been the end, but suddenly, I felt someone pulling me.

I jolted awake, like someone who had fallen asleep briefly only to be startled awake by a seizure.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a warm atmosphere where people were clapping softly and smiling, and my body was gently wrapped in a soft cloth.

I was just dead… but three minutes later, here I was, swaddled and being congratulated.

Is this what I think it is? Is this really reincarnation?

Is reincarnation supposed to happen this quickly?

Something feels off… It happened so fast that I don’t even think my memories got erased… God, something seems wrong here…

“She’s not crying…”

“Indeed… she isn’t, is she?”

And yet, I understood what they were saying.

It wasn’t English or even the little Russian I dabbled in during school, but I still understood them.

This really meant that something was seriously off.

I didn’t even have time to fully accept the fact that I had died.

I shed a few tears over the futility of my life, but now, tears were the last thing on my mind—I was so shocked that I couldn’t even cry.

Instead, I just gasped, breathing in sharp, panicked breaths.

The only thing that felt real in this situation was the pain in my chest from the sudden rush of air into my lungs.

As a result, I, a newborn baby (or so I presumed), was wide-eyed, making everyone around me sweat nervously.

I’d heard that some newborns don’t cry and just stare straight ahead, taking in their surroundings—maybe they had experienced the same kind of mistake I had?

“Is something wrong? Why isn’t my daughter crying?”

The man who seemed to be my father asked anxiously, causing everyone around him to start fidgeting nervously.

“D-Duke, please calm down…”

“Calm down? My daughter isn’t crying!”

“H-Honey… do you think something is wrong with our child? Oh no…”

“I will solve this, so don’t worry, my dear.”

Belatedly, I realized that my mere blinking had become a bigger problem than I thought. Before I could fully grasp the situation, I felt I needed to do something quickly before the atmosphere got worse.

Since this seems to be my new life…

“Wah… wah.”

A clumsy cry escaped from me, drawing everyone’s attention.

The woman holding me brightened up, and the sound of relieved sighs filled the room.

“She’s crying! The young lady is crying!”

“Thank goodness!”

“Thank you, God…”

People bustled about as if they had just received divine favor.

I felt a bit embarrassed, but I endured it. My awkward cry gradually became more baby-like.

“Wah, wah.”

Air filled my lungs as I cried out more strongly. The woman gently brushed my cheek with a soft cloth and then brought me to the woman who seemed to be my mother.

My mother, exhausted and lying down after giving birth, sat up against the headboard of the bed. With careful hands, she received me and held me in her arms.

I felt something strange inside, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

Mother? Is this my mother?

The title felt unfamiliar when applied to a stranger. But… well, even complete strangers can become family, so maybe as she raises me, we’ll develop a mother-daughter bond?

“My child… my daughter… my precious daughter…”

Her voice washed over me, making me feel ticklish.

“Wah!”

I cried out loudly as if to respond. The mother of my reincarnated life gazed down at me with incredibly gentle eyes.

“Your father and I carefully chose your name. I hope you like it.”

“Wah~ wah~.”

“We decided to name you ‘Aiel,’ which means ‘white flame,’ in hopes that you will always shine brightly. How do you like it?”

“Wah…”

I suddenly stopped crying, completely forgetting the role I was supposed to be playing. This made my mother’s face fill with worry once again.

My father also came closer, murmuring, “Does she not like the name?”

The mood took a downturn again, but I didn’t have time to worry about that.

Aiel… Aiel?

The name felt familiar… Could it be that my last name is Ruedeliz?

“Is Aiel really unwell?”

“Go bring the doctor in.”

The doctor, who had been waiting outside, quickly entered the room.

The midwife stepped aside to let the doctor examine my mother and me. The doctor adjusted his glasses and looked me over.

“She cried at first, and as long as she’s breathing properly, she’ll be fine.”

“Really? Oh, my heart was pounding so hard from the scare.”

“It seems our daughter is quite extraordinary, not even crying.”

“She will become a remarkable young lady who brings honor to the Ruedeliz family.”

The doctor smiled and bowed as if to congratulate us. However, as if to dampen their delight, I immediately lost consciousness right there.

Just to clarify, I didn’t faint because I’m mentally weak or was shocked. I fainted because I realized I was Aiel Ruedeliz.

Aiel Ruedeliz was frail by nature.

If you’re born under a cursed fate, at least your body should be strong, but Aiel Ruedeliz was like a paper doll that could be blown away by the winds of destiny from 500 meters away.

She spent more than half of her life in bed, and most of that time was in a comatose state.

It got to the point where Aiel saw the faces of her maidservants, who nursed her, more often than the faces of her own family, who had grown weary of her chronic illness.

Whenever Aiel Ruedeliz woke from her death-like slumber, the maid would promptly run out to announce, “The young lady has awakened.”

At first, her parents would visit her with hearts full of grief, but as time passed, their expressions became more tired, and eventually, they stopped visiting altogether.

Aiel’s only brother, Maiches Ruedeliz , was no different.

In the beginning, when their parents were still devotedly caring for Aiel, they once brought Maiches into her room.

Maiches  stood there, staring at the weak and wheezing Aiel with an unfamiliar and distant look in his eyes, and then he left the room. He never returned after that.

However, Maiches would later become deeply attached to Aiel, unfortunately because she was the only family he had left.

When Aiel was seven and Meiches was eleven, one day, their parents—the count and countess of the Ruedeliz family—were murdered by unknown assailants who invaded their estate.

“Mother and Father are gone.”

I opened my eyes for the first time in a long while.

Though, I didn’t really have any sense of time passing.

I only guessed because Maiches  was a bit taller than before, and the view outside had shifted from autumn to winter.

Maiches’s ash-colored eyes were filled with a darkness far too deep for an eleven-year-old.

“…While you were asleep, they all died.”

His voice carried a subtle resentment towards me.

I had no words to offer him.

Just as there was nothing I could do.

All my attempts to warn them about the future during my brief periods of consciousness had been thwarted by the disbelief, irritation, and indifference of the maids and my parents.

The unheeded warnings had, in the end, led to this inevitable conclusion.

But my feelings of sadness and regret were merely guilt over failing to prevent the deaths of people who were only family in name.

It couldn’t compare to what Maiches  was experiencing from losing his real family.

It wasn’t hard to understand why his painful resentment was now being irrationally directed at me.

“…I have no one left.”

He was right.

All that remained for him was Aiel. But Aiel hadn’t been a part of his family for the past six years.

Maiches clenched his fist tightly.

I knew the kind of obsession and malice he was harboring at this moment.

From now on, Maiches would devote himself day and night to studying healing magic, driven by a single-minded determination to restore me, his only remaining kin, to health.

Four years from now, as I gradually regain my health thanks to his magic, I, Aiel, would finally begin to experience something resembling a life.

How do I know this?

Because “Aiel Ruedeliz” was someone I knew.

She was a character from a novel I read in my previous life—The Holy Maiden Flomance.

The sickly younger sister of one of the villains who opposed the saintly heroine, and ultimately met her demise.

An insignificant extra with a tragic fate—that was Aiel Ruedeliz, the very body I now inhabited.

“You mustn’t die. Never…”

Maiches’s grim, ash-colored eyes bore into me as he spat out the words.

“I will keep you breathing, no matter how weak that body of yours is.”

His ominous voice sent a chill down my spine.

If I were truly the seven-year-old Aiel, I might have hastily averted my gaze.

But the person I was now had memories from a past life that were clearer than the scattered memories of Aiel’s life.

I understood the feelings behind Meiches’s venomous tone.

Maiches slowly turned away, as if struggling to keep himself from staggering.

“…Maiches.”

On impulse, perhaps feeling a sense of kinship, I called out his name.

It was the thought that maybe Maiches, like me in the past, was just an eleven-year-old boy trembling in the depths of a pit of fear.

Even if he would later become a villain consumed by madness, for now, he was merely a child who had lost his family.

“….”

Maiches froze in place, trembling slightly.

My voice was barely a whisper, yet from the moment I spoke his name, he couldn’t take another step.

I tried to move my fingers, but they only trembled, refusing to obey my will.

“I’m sorry…”

“….”

“For leaving you… alone…”

Even speaking those few words left my throat sore and my breath short.

I quietly steadied my breathing to avoid making a raspy sound.

Maiches had turned to look down at me.

I managed to flip my hand over, but I couldn’t extend it beyond the bed; I was too weak. I had wanted to hold his hand.

Maiches stared at my limp, trembling hand.

“…I wish I could… stay with you…”

A fit of coughing overtook me. Cold sweat quickly formed on my forehead from the strain.

Fortunately, Maiches didn’t storm out, despite my slow, faltering words.

I fought the dizziness, forcing my vision to focus.

I wanted to see his expression.

I was slightly worried that I might have unintentionally stirred up his troubled heart.

It wouldn’t have been surprising if he suddenly lashed out at me for overstepping my bounds.

But instead, Meiches slowly approached me.

His footsteps echoed ominously as he drew closer.

I fluttered my eyelids, straining to keep my eyes on him.

When I finally saw his face, I couldn’t help but widen my eyes in surprise.

“…Mei…”

Maiches was silently crying.

As our eyes met, he crumpled to the floor beside the bed.

“…Aiel.”

Bowing his head, Maiches reached out and took my hand.

Soon, a pitiful sob escaped from him.

“Aiel… Aiel…”

He wept uncontrollably.

Though my hand was too weak to grip his, he neither let go nor tightened his hold.

I witnessed the torrent of emotions pouring from his tear-filled eyes.

He was truly alone, with nowhere to turn, crumbling under even the smallest of my meager comforts—just a young boy, lost and desperate.