"I'm fine, Felix. Let's just skip this one. Because it doesn't matter."
"Isn't it okay?"
Felix was impressed by his brother's unexpected answer.
"What about today? Changing the test paper? It's like I'm stealing your results, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it's nothing."
Adrian looked at Felix with a serious face.
"To the student body president, to the club, to the chief… … I worked hard not to miss out on this and that, but actually, those things don't matter to me at all. What is important to me is you and your mother."
Adrian approached him slowly and gently placed his hand on Felix's shoulder. He said, patting Felix on the shoulder with a friendly hand.
"I really don't mind. After all, after you inherit the title, this will no longer happen."
He added with a faint smile.
"You just have to wait until then. Let's not do anything that will make him angry."
* * *
that morning. Felix, who barely fell asleep after tossing and turning, had a dream.
He was in a room in the duke's mansion. The door is locked and cannot get out.
He pulled on the handle that wouldn't open in succession, then gave up and looked around the room. Opposite there was a large window.
Another self appeared out the window. Dressed in noble clothes, he was using perfect etiquette with a nice smile in front of the aristocrats. It wasn't like that, but he had a gentle and friendly attitude.
Possessed by the graceful gestures and voices, the nobles had ecstatic expressions on their faces. He was truly an impeccable nobleman himself.
At that moment, with a graceful smile on his face, he turned his head to look at Felix.
Felix in the room and Felix outside the window met their eyes. Felix outside the window, staring at him quietly for a moment, let out a weak, helpless laugh.
'iced coffee.'
Only then did Felix realize.
'That's not me.'
Skillfully hiding his helpless smile, Adrian turned towards the people again. And I devoted myself to conversations with them.
Felix knocked hard on the window. But Adrian didn't look back at him.
"Adrian! Why are you there?"
I screamed, but there was no answer.
Outside the window, Adrian continued to fulfill his schedule as Confucius of Berg in place of Felix. Felix was locked in the room and had no choice but to stare blankly at the whole scene.
All of a sudden, all the people outside the window disappeared and a large wagon came running. Adrian slowly approached the carriage and stopped.
"Adrian!"
Felix shouted, knocking on the window.
"Where are you going?"
At his cry, Adrian slowly turned around. He looked at Felix with gloomy eyes for a moment, then moved his lips.
"Libourg Port."
"do not go! Adrian!"
Felix exclaimed desperately. He knocked on the window with both fists. But no answer came back.
Adrian got into the wagon. The wagon carrying him began to slowly move away from the window. The horses gradually accelerated.
"Watch out for the cliff!"
At that moment, Felix cried out without realizing it. With that cry, a cliff really appeared in front of the carriage. While watching with a bewildered look, the carriage vanished down the cliff.
Felix stared intently at the point where the wagon had disappeared, with his empty eyes fixed on the window.
"It's dead."
He murmured with red eyes.
"Adrian is dead."
click.
The locked door opened. It was my father who opened the door and appeared.
The Duke of Berg looked at his mourning son with an expressionless expression.
"Adrian is dead."
Felix said in an angry voice.
"He said yes."
The peacock nodded bitterly. He leaned leisurely against the door and looked at his son.
"Now the future of our family is in your hands. You, the true Confucius of Berg, should lead the family."
Felix clenched his fists. His white hands were trembling.
"The Adrian that my father used is no longer in this world. But do you think I will obey my father's advice?"
"Anyway. You must follow."
Despite Felix's provocation, the Duke didn't even blink. Rather, a strange smile appeared on his lips.
"I have one more word."
he stepped aside
While Felix watched with anxious eyes, another person appeared at the door.
"Elder… … ."
Light brown hair in a single braid. Dumb emerald eyes.
Lucy stood stiffly, staring at him with empty eyes... … .
* * *
"Ugh!"
Felix opened his eyes.
The ceiling was visible. A long shadow of the gloomy dawn hung over the classically painted ceiling painting.
There was neither Lucy nor the Duke. It was just a dream.
He let out a long, deep sigh as he brushed back the hair that was clinging to his damp forehead. My heart was beating fast.
He got up from the bed and sat there for a moment to calm his heart.
Unlike in the dream, the scenery outside the window was very peaceful. There were no Adrian or nobles to replace him. The sky, which was slowly starting to dawn, was just scattering a still, bluish light over the entire campus.
Adrian, whom Felix had sang so loudly in his dream, was asleep in the bed next to him, with colorful, quiet breaths. His forehead was slightly wrinkled as if he was also having a terrifying dream.
Last night, the conversation between the brothers that started in a strange atmosphere came to an end. There were many unanswered questions, but Felix couldn't afford to ask Adrian any further questions.
Adrian looked tired. Even when he was busy going back and forth between the student council and the library, he had never seen such a lifeless look in his eyes.
Felix couldn't sleep until Adrian washed up and changed into his pajamas. He just closed his eyes and lay still, listening to the little sounds his brother made.
Eventually, as Adrian blew out the remaining candle and lay down on his bed, a deep silence came into the room. The autumn wind, which sometimes shook the window and ran away, was quiet as if it had been hidden somewhere.
So I could know better. Adrian, like himself, can't sleep well and is having a disturbing night. No matter how much he waited, the sound of his sleeping brother's breathing could not be heard.
For a while, such stillness and stillness continued, and at some point, it seems that he fell asleep.
Even that, waking up from a nightmare, Felix was still tired, but he didn't feel like going back to bed. Because I was afraid that the nightmare would come again.
So he sat on the bed and looked out the window until the day was full.
Suddenly, the sun poked out its face in the eastern sky, and in an instant, it began to brighten up the world.
In addition, Felix's sleep completely escaped. He got up quietly so that Adrian didn't wake up.
When Felix left the room, the place he headed was neither the bathroom nor the dining room. He went straight to the gymnasium.
My mind was complicated. I had to move my body. I wanted to force myself to stop thinking and shake off the ominous sights I had seen in my dreams.
Felix arrived at the gym and immediately wrapped the sword in his hand. Soon, the sound of blades cutting through the air resounded in the dance hall. He swung his sword nonstop as if he was trying to push himself to a dead end.
It took me a while to move my body like that.
Take it!
Felix threw his sword and lay flat on the floor.
"ha… … ."
His chest went up and down. My heart was beating fast and I felt a piercing pain in my lungs. He collapsed and stared blankly at the ceiling. Lying down like that, the pain gradually diminished.
But that serenity was only temporary. The body, freed from the harsh training, began to call in the sights that it had been trying to shake off at a terrifying speed.
The carriage that disappeared over the cliff... … The peacock's cold face... … And Lucy, who was standing next to him with a pale face.
Nope. it's just a dog dream
Felix repeated.
Perhaps it is a delusion created by Felix's unconscious mind as his worries and anxiety about Adrian and Lucy grow out of control.
shake it off Forget it.
Felix ruffled his hair with a rough hand and got up. A lot of the new time of wielding the sword frantically had passed.
He picked up the sword Felix had thrown away. Leaving the gymnasium filled with his breath and heat, he headed for the bathroom scrambled.
After washing his sweat in the small bathroom attached to the gym, he went to the changing room to change into a school uniform. But when he opened the locker where he had kept his clothes, he was faced with an empty interior.
"what."
He narrowed his brows and muttered.
Immediately, thinking that he had misunderstood the locker, he opened the next locker. But it was also empty. The locker next to it. also next to it.
His uniform was nowhere to be found. It had vanished like hell.
"under!"
In this absurd situation, it took a while for him to let out a smirk while brushing his wet hair. A feeling of great embarrassment crept across Felix's face.
"Allergy medicine!"
The medicine Lucy had made was in the pocket of the school uniform. It didn't matter how many times he washed his clothes, but the drug was different.
Felix ran out of the gym in a gown without hesitation.
He blinked his eyes and looked around. If they saw a suspicious person, they had the momentum to attack him immediately and question him.
A group of first-year students on their way to class in the morning on the road a short distance away looked at him in surprise. Felix looked at them with bitter eyes. It was to see if he was hiding his school uniform. The first graders were frightened by his eyes and ran away.
After they fled, no one walked around. Even a single ant. No trace of the guy who took the school uniform could be found anywhere.