Be quiet, you tactless bastard. I muttered to myself and tried to suppress the still-dazed feeling. First of all. It’s not a dream. Okay, let’s sort out the situation first.
I reached out my hand to that pathetic bastard as if doing him a favor and said.
“Will you take me to my room? I’m a little dizzy.”
“…”
Instead of answering, he took my outstretched hand and helped me up. His touch was gentle and gentlemanly. He didn’t even ask why I was suddenly calling him by his name. He must have been too happy to care about such things.
The favorability was soaring rapidly with loud notifications. It passed minus 60 percent, 55 percent, and by the time we reached my door, it had reached minus 49 percent.
“Is there a reason why you’re not feeling well…”
Andrew couldn’t even bring himself to cross my door and stood at the doorway, barely managing to ask. It seemed he had been worried about me ever since he had pushed me over in a fit of anger yesterday.
How funny. Only now?
Everyone has their own way of expressing their feelings, but I have no intention of overlooking reckless behavior that takes advantage of the other person under the guise of being clumsy.
“Yes. I fell twice yesterday, so my back hurts so much. I couldn’t sleep a wink all night.”
“I didn’t mean to do that from the beginning.”
“It’s okay, Brother. It was a very grateful and meaningful birthday present. I could feel how much you cherish your youngest brother.”
As soon as I, who had been chattering Andrew, Andrew, all the way from the office, switched gears, his face turned as white as if he had faced a reality he had forgotten.
“Then I’ll go in and rest. Please take care of yourself, Brother.”
The favorability showed another unmistakable drop. It was an unstable graph, but unlike before, I didn’t feel any anxiety at all. How to play with him in the palm of my hand. How to raise his favorability. I knew for sure.
It was a distant past now, but when I thought about it carefully, my relationship with Andrew wasn’t always this bad from the beginning.
Before I remembered my past life, we were brothers who weren’t so bad. Andrew would often press my cheeks, saying that I was uglier than the real Noah and that I wasn’t cute at all because I looked like a squashed steamed bun, and every time Andrew did that, I would subtly feel self-conscious and put down the snack I was eating.
Then Andrew would say, as if doing me a favor, that if I listened to him well, he wouldn’t kick me out even if I was ugly and would take good care of me. He said that the wealthy Hamiltons couldn’t afford to take care of a small steamed bun like me.
The relationship changed drastically after I remembered my past life around the age of ten and gained a more adult level of consciousness. I no longer swayed by the childish tantrums, and I maintained a certain psychological distance not only from Andrew but also from other family members.
If Frederick had constantly tried to melt my defenses, Andrew had decided to attack me more fiercely because I had become less responsive. As he and I grew older, Andrew’s sarcasm and unprovoked provocations became increasingly severe.
Then, from around the age of fifteen, when I started to form a budding romantic relationship with Kyle, it reached a point where it was beyond repair.
Was that even pathetic jealousy?
“Hmph. So what if he does? If he likes you, he should treat you properly.”
Even after the return of his real younger brother, Allen, whom he had been waiting for so long, Andrew’s one-sided provocations towards me didn’t seem to end. Looking back now, I wondered if he had wanted to disown me by using Allen’s return as an excuse.
Somehow, every time I reached the ending scene, the judgment I received seemed to be a little less severe than what Noah Hamilton experienced in the original game. Perhaps that was also Andrew’s doing…?
System marvels at how well you noticed with that great sense of yours.
(~˙∇˙)~📣
“Shut up. If you knew, you should have given me a hint. It would have been much more bearable if Andrew had tormented me less.”
System reiterates that your frustrated appearance as you try is its greatest amusement and joy. (*๑•̀д•́๑)」
“Anyway… I’m confused about how much of this I can believe.”
Dear Noah, ‘System’ is always working for you.
System asserts that all of these statements are solid truth.
I sighed and looked out the window. The things I had learned in just two days felt much more complicated than the repetitions of the past few rounds.
“So. Is it fun?”
System remains silent.
“If it’s fun, you said you’d make me quit.”
System leaves an assessment that it has been fairly watchable so far, fortunately. Do not forget that the rest is up to you.
The will that I thought had turned to ashes was rekindled. I smiled brightly and warned clearly, as if chewing on the words.
“Then that’s good. Keep watching closely until the end. How much fun I can make you.”
This is really the last time. I was determined to make it that way somehow.
Then that’s good.
Keep watching closely until the end.
How much fun I can make you.
The appearance of the creation, shedding the boyishness and approaching the appearance of a complete adult, was, as always, enchantingly beautiful.
“Then, of course, I have to watch. Where else would there be someone as worthy of watching as you?”
The man smiled. Noah Hamilton’s blue eyes, burning with will, were the only sight to see in this desolate space.
***
Three months had passed since my seventeenth birthday. Contrary to my ambitious will, there had been no major changes in my life. This was because my first Heat cycle had not yet occurred. The System would provoke me by saying, “Is this all you’ve prepared?” but it only said that and didn’t try to reset again, knowing that this period was inevitable.
The timing of the first Heat or Rut cycle varied from person to person, but it was usually between one month and half a year from the day of the Blessing. First of all, the first cycle had to explode like a time bomb within that period. Regular biorhythms would only return after both Alphas and Omegas had safely passed their first cycle.
Since my first Heat cycle had not yet occurred, I was unable to take a single step outside the mansion. Freedom of movement would come after that. From about a month after the Day of Blessing, I was even forbidden from going near the royal guard, which included some Alphas.
Nicole would treat me like a pitiful patient, saying, “Our young master must be bored and frustrated, just hold on a little longer,” but when you think about it, it wasn’t much different from my life at this age anyway.
I was the third son of a noble family. Not the eldest son who would inherit the family, nor the second son who was born with a talent for martial arts and was destined to lead the royal guard from a young age.
In general, the work of such superfluous noble offspring was either to spend the allocated budget lavishly while traveling around, or to stay cooped up in the mansion and enjoy a life of leisure under the meticulous protocol of the servants, and I was the latter from the beginning. The order was to kill time like this, receive some property or land, and leave the family.
Aside from whether it was annoying or not, the sanitary conditions outside the mansion were not very pleasing to the eye from the perspective of a modern person who had lived in the 21st century. I also wasn’t diligent enough to make friends with other noble families and go out to play.
“Young master. How about inviting this musician next week? They say he’s the best harpsichord player. Everyone is competing to pay extra to hire him for even half a day!”
Nicole was chattering beside me as I lay sprawled on the window seat, flipping through a popular novel with illustrations. I lazily accepted the bite-sized fruit that Nicole poked with a fork and held up to my mouth, and nodded vaguely.
“Harpsichord? Not bad… But you said the competition to pay extra is no joke. Should I talk to Father?”
My mother also liked harpsichord performances, so if I moved my father, I could hire him even tonight. Although the Count Hamilton family was not making a big noise in the central government, maintaining neutrality to avoid the storm, they had enough wealth to threaten the power of the Duke’s family.
But Nicole burst into laughter, saying, “Why do you need to talk to the Count?”
“Why do you need to talk to the Count? Anyway, our young master is never interested in his own pocket! Do you know how much budget the young Count has allocated to you these days? You can spend it and still have plenty left over!”