Justin David…
Father’s name!
Sure enough, he hadn’t guessed wrong. The person in front of him from outside was indeed his elder brother.
Even in the darkness, Uriel felt the other’s strange reaction, especially after he mentioned his father’s name.
“Howard, do you know my father?”
“Of course, I do.”
“What? Tell me, where is he? How do you know him?”
Uriel tried to locate Howard but only felt emptiness when reaching out, causing him to stumble.
Next moment, a voice came from above him, and a pair of broad and warm hands supported his shoulders.
Amidst the sorrowful voice was a hint of elusive joy.
“Big brother.”
This time, it was Uriel’s turn to be dumbfounded. He asked incredulously, “What did you just call me?”
Howard’s voice came clear into his ears again, this time Uriel heard it very clearly.
“Big brother, you are my big brother, the only family I have in this world.”
Uriel’s mind went blank, instinctively contemplating the meaning behind those two words.
He couldn’t believe that not only was his father not dead, but he had also remarried and had another child outside.
“What you said earlier is correct. Father indeed didn’t die back then. He accidentally fell into the river and drifted downstream.”
“My mother found him by the riverside and rescued him, but because his injuries were severe, he couldn’t contact the outside world, so he stayed to recuperate.”
“Later, my mother married my father and gave birth to me.”
Uriel should have been happy to hear that his father wasn’t dead, as his wish had finally come true.
But facing the sudden appearance of a brother, he didn’t know how to feel.
After all, the reason his father hadn’t come back to find him might be because of Howard.
While Howard enjoyed father’s love, he suffered bullying outside alone.
Even his mother… had remarried and left him.
He stubbornly wanted to find his father because his father was the person who loved him most in the world, he wouldn’t abandon him.
But reality cruelly told him that his father had given his love to another child.
That person was his brother.
The joy had been dispelled by subsequent resentment and jealousy. Uriel took a deep breath.
“I think I don’t recognize you as my unknown brother.”
At these words, Howard first paused, then silently chuckled.
“Do you hate me?”
“Not exactly. Before this, I didn’t know you, didn’t even know of your existence, so there’s no question of hatred.”
He said it firmly, but Howard still heard the conflict and reluctance in his words.
“You can deceive yourself, but you can’t deceive me. You hate me because I’m father’s son, you think I’ve taken away his affection for you.”
Now that the words were out in the open, Uriel didn’t hide anymore.
“Yes, shouldn’t I hate you? If you were you and your mother, perhaps father would have returned, and I would have found him.”
“Instead…”
Instead of living alone in the flames of vengeance, even sacrificing Julia later on.
Everything he had done before was to find his father, but his father was alive and well, yet never came out to find him.
Had his father forgotten his existence?
Howard had thought about how he would feel if he had another relative in this world.
But he never expected that his elder brother would regret knowing about him and wouldn’t like him.
“I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have told you the truth.”
“I hope you won’t blame dad. He was helpless at the time too.”
“Because he was also cursed by the Lost Magic and couldn’t leave this village at all.”
…
This incident was something he only learned about later from Uncle Ronin.
Initially, his mother didn’t allow his father to leave, so she cast a Lost Magic on him. Little did she know, his father’s determination was unwavering. Even if it meant death, he would leave.
After hearing the truth, Uriel’s mood calmed considerably. If only… he hoped this answer was still true.
“You didn’t deceive me?”
“Big brother, we’re in a death trap right now. There’s no benefit in lying to you.”
With this in mind, Howard suddenly became unwilling. He didn’t want to die here. At the very least, he couldn’t let his big brother die with him.
“After all this talk, what kind of place is this? How do we get out?”
In his mind, Uriel already believed what Howard had just said. If their father truly couldn’t come find him for a reason, he could forgive him a bit.
Now, the most important thing was not recognizing kinship but finding a way to escape. However, Howard’s answer was despairing.
“It’s impossible to get out. This is a punishment chamber specially designed by the village chief to punish enemies. The walls are deliberately reinforced.”
“As far as I know, no one who enters the punishment chamber has ever been able to leave alive.”
“Well… you can’t do anything either? I can’t die here now; there are a lot of things outside waiting for me to handle.”
Howard also missed Nora. “I’m sorry, big brother, I can’t do anything either, since this is my first time here too. But I’m sure there are people outside guarding us.”
Perhaps they could make some noise to attract the people outside and escape when the door opened for a moment. This idea was feasible, but before they could implement it, the punishment chamber began to change slowly.
Green smoke started emanating from small holes in the walls. This irregular smoke spread throughout the room in all directions, but because there was no light inside, neither of them noticed immediately.
This method of death was akin to “boiling a frog in warm water” because the poisonous smoke spread gradually. By the time they noticed the smell, the poison had filled the entire room.
“What’s this smell? It’s awful!”
As Uriel spoke, Howard, who was more alert, already understood what was happening.
“Not good, it’s poison… Cover your nose, slow your breathing… and lower your body to the ground.”
The smoke was lighter, definitely rising, so staying close to the ground was safer.
Uriel immediately covered his nose and followed Howard’s instructions, but this only delayed the onset of poisoning.
As the poison smoke filled the room, they would still die from poisoning. Moreover, the temperature in the punishment chamber was dropping.
“Achoo! Why is it so cold here?”
Uriel asked in confusion. At the same time, Howard’s hand touched the wall behind him, and the next moment, he quickly withdrew his hand.
“So cold… the temperature of this wall is dropping.”
When the poison encountered cold air, it would condense into raindrops in mid-air. While he could hold his breath against the poison smoke, the poison rain above had no gaps in its descent. With limited space, they had nowhere to avoid it.