Chapter 24:
After finishing his meal, Franz naturally settled onto the living-room sofa and sipped his drink. Kiryann sat across from him.
“I really don’t get how people drink coffee. If you go by taste alone, it’s basically poison. How can that be good?”
Kiryann gave a gentle smile to Franz, who looked at him as though he were some bizarre creature for drinking coffee.
Franz still loved sweets. His childlike taste hadn’t changed at all.
He slowly looked around the living room. The floor, the corner, the top of the fireplace—everything was quite messy.
Catching his gaze, Franz awkwardly offered an excuse.
“This is actually *after* organizing a lot. They make such a mess playing around…”
“You seem to be very close with Yvonne Moore.”
“Uh… yeah. Very close. Ha. Ha…”
Close with *himself*? What on earth was he saying?
She felt like her lies were taking stranger and stranger turns.
“Does Paradi Laurent visit often?”
“He even has a key.”
Technically, Paradi *had* been given a key, but after losing it somewhere, he gave up on using the front door and simply climbed over the wall instead.
At her answer, Kiryann’s eyebrows shot up.
“You gave him a key?”
“Uh… yes. We’re really close, you know. I even have a key to his house.”
Kiryann pulled something from his coat and tossed it to Franz. Seeing what it was, Franz’s expression turned unreadable.
“It’s the key to my house. You’re welcome to come and go anytime.”
“Wha—!”
“Think of it as your home. Come comfortably. If you’re hungry, order them to bring you food; if you need clothes, tell them to buy you new ones. I’ll let the butler know.”
“N-no! That’s really not necessary!”
“There’s no need to feel uncomfortable about visiting your brother’s house.”
“Uh… okay. Then, thank you.”
Trembling, Franz tucked the key into his clothes. Even having accepted it, he doubted he would ever use it.
Not satisfied with giving only a key, Kiryann pulled out a check worth an amount that could make someone gasp.
Her face turned white.
“I-I don’t need that!”
Seeing Franz frantically refuse, Kiryann let out a small sigh.
Money and keys were the most trivial things he could offer. If he could, he would have given far more.
When he didn’t withdraw the check, Franz tried persuading him.
“Um… if you *have* to give me something, just think of it as an allowance and give me regular money instead. Yes. That would be better. Someone like me shouldn’t be carrying around checks…”
Her shoulders trembled, so Kiryann clicked his tongue and shoved a thick wad of bills and several checks into her hands. What he handed her was enough to feed a family of four for a month.
“Don’t go around starving. Tell me if you need more.”
“I eat plenty already…”
“Tsk. You need to eat more. A young man shouldn’t be so skinny.”
*Maybe you’re just big-boned,* she thought, biting back the retort rising to her throat.
To pass the awkward time with her guest, she brought down a box from the fireplace. Games were perfect for that.
Franz plopped onto the carpet, took out a chessboard and pieces, and set them up on the table.
“I’ll show you that small peppers are the spiciest. Whoever loses has to grant the winner a wish.”
“Fine.”
“Okay—here we go.”
Franz, absorbed in the chessboard, didn’t look spaced-out like usual. His sharpened gaze gleamed as the game began.
Kiryann had only started the game to spend time with his younger sibling, but as the match progressed, he realized Franz was no ordinary opponent.
Contrary to his timid and fearful personality, Franz’s attitude toward the game was bold and daring.
“Who taught you chess?”
“Marquis Laurent.”
“The marquis?”
“He’s very fond of me.”
Moving his knight, Franz answered, fully immersed in the match.
“I used to play betting games with him all the time. I always lost, but I learned a lot from it.”
Although Kiryann was the one who first found Franz and became his sworn brother, his sibling now seemed more like Laurent’s second grandson.
It felt like he had lost his family to Laurent over the years, and irritation bubbled inside him.
“Ah!”
When Kiryann threatened his king with a knight, Franz would have to sacrifice his queen. But after a brief gasp, Franz calmly continued the match.
“Does the marquis treat you well?”
“Of course.”
“Didn’t expect that from that raccoon-like old man.”
“Raccoon? He’s a really good person. Oh—checkmate!”
Franz checkmated him in an instant, then scratched his cheek as if it had been an accident.
Kiryann stared back and forth between the board and Franz, unable to believe he had lost without even a chance to react.
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh slipped through his teeth. Franz, sensing his mood, gave a sheepish smile—after all, a game was just a game.
At that, Kiryann’s cold atmosphere melted, revealing a more human expression. His golden eyes softened.
Franz was a little startled by how unexpected that expression was.
“What’s your wish?”
“Uh…”
She hadn’t planned on winning, so she had no idea what to ask for.
“Hm… I’ll think about it.”
“What kinds of wishes do you ask of the marquis?”
“Oh, like ‘live to a hundred,’ or ‘lift Paradi’s curfew,’ stuff like that… nothing big, haha.”
“You can ask me for something bigger.”
“Uh… then I’ll save my wish for when I really need it. Oh, right—Yvonne wrote a letter to Yan. Since you’re here, take it with you.”
Franz hurried into her room and wrote the letter for Kiryann.
She wanted to avoid clashing over the diamond mine issue, so she decided to take care of it while he was here.
Meanwhile, Kiryann found the newspapers Beth had stacked to use as firewood. The crossword puzzles on them were clearly filled out.
But as soon as he flipped the paper to see the front page, Franz rushed over and snatched it from his hands.
Beth had placed *today’s* newspaper in the firewood pile on purpose.
“Here’s the letter.”
Handing over the letter, Franz was trembling, her eyes locked on the newspaper.
“Those… awful people!”
Her eyes reddened instantly.
She had already read it several times, but seeing it again filled her with fresh anger.
Why had Laurent joined hands with greedy Yvonne?
The article was simple:
Yvonne, who didn’t invite even relatives to her engagement ceremony, was a money-obsessed miser. She had supposedly gotten engaged to Laurent only because she held some secret weakness of his.
Franz was furious—spouting nonsense about a weakness they couldn’t even explain properly.
Ignoring Kiryann’s presence, she tore the newspaper to shreds.
“It’s all lies!”
“I know. Yvonne Moore doesn’t look greedy at all.”
If she were truly money-crazy, she would never have rejected a fortune just because rare animals needed protection.
“There’s no weakness! Paradi was the one who proposed first!”
“I figured.”
He had overheard Franz and Paradi talking.
“She didn’t do anything wrong… Why are they doing this every day…”
She bit her lower lip hard, trying to swallow her tears and the lump in her throat.
But she couldn’t hold back. She turned away and wiped her tears.
To Kiryann, it looked like Franz loved Yvonne Moore deeply and was suffering because of the rumors.
Franz truly looked distressed—pained as if it were happening to her. Seeing that, Kiryann made an offer.
“I can take care of it.”
“…What?”
“I don’t know why the great Marquis Laurent isn’t shutting down the papers, but I can put a stop to this filthy fiction about Yvonne Moore.”
Franz’s blue-gray eyes trembled.
She desperately wanted the media to stop attacking her. So his offer shook her deeply.
“Just ask.”
“…”
“I’m your brother. I can grant any request.”
“Please… please do it.”
“Alright.”
His answer was low and calm.
Kiryann stood up as casually as if Franz had asked him to buy lunch. He was going to take care of it.
Franz followed him to the door and managed to say goodbye.
“Thank… you.”
At her gratitude, Kiryann smiled—clear and bright, as though he had gained the whole world.
—
“…Ha.”
She couldn’t sleep at all.
Thinking that people who didn’t even know her were insulting her based on some reporter’s fiction made her too upset to sleep—if anything, it only made her mind sharper.
*“I can take care of it.”*
*“I’m your brother. I can grant any request.”*
Kiryann’s words came to mind.
He hadn’t said them as though he were giving her some special privilege. His attitude had been utterly sincere.
Because of that, she could feel just how much he cared for her.
“…I’ve been so thoughtless.”
She had lived her life forgetting about Kiryann completely. She had been fine without him, but he had remembered Franz for over ten years—so much that he’d come searching first.
And he cared for her exactly as he had back then.
Tap. Tap.
Her balcony window sounded softly. A familiar signal.
Yvonne quickly stood and opened it. Through the gap appeared Paradi.
He sat perched precariously on the balcony railing, the yellow moon hanging behind him and stars spread like a carpet.
The moonlight emphasized his deep eyes and pale skin—he looked like a spirit of the night.
“I knew it. I figured you wouldn’t be able to sleep.”
Paradi assumed she was still up because she’d been hurt by today’s newspaper.
He knew her well.
“Come on. Let’s go for a night walk.”
