By Some Unbelievable Twist, I Became the Villainess’s Older Brother

‘Why did the Emperor summon Adelio so suddenly?’

…Could he be nearing death? Enoch started at the thought that had slipped into his mind and immediately slapped his own mouth.

Even by his standards, that was a rather irreverent thought. In truth, whatever the Emperor was thinking was none of Enoch’s concern.

Whatever his intentions, Enoch ultimately needed only to learn as much as he could act on. And…

‘That man can protect himself, at least.’

“What are you thinking about so intently? You suddenly slapped your own mouth.”

“…Pardon?”

“See? You were so lost in other thoughts that you didn’t even listen to me properly.”

Only belatedly coming to his senses, Enoch readily admitted his fault.

“Sorry. But I wasn’t thinking of anything important. I was only thinking the mansion was nice. Spacious, spacious, and spacious?”

“What sort of impression is that?”

Adelio furrowed his brow as though he had heard something strange. Yet a smile still played on his lips.

In the strangely gentle atmosphere, Enoch awkwardly scratched the corner of his eye.

Adelio slowly rose from the bed and sat across from Enoch. His playful behavior from moments earlier had vanished, and he had once again become solemn and dignified.

“In any case, I meant to tell you that the First Princess was behind this incident… But clever Sir Enoch already uncovered everything on his own, which rather takes the wind out of my sails.”

“Did you find evidence?”

Adelio nodded.

“I did. But-”

“You gave it to His Majesty.”

Adelio’s eyes widened slightly at Enoch’s words, then returned to normal. He folded his arms and smiled as though amused. The smile appeared genuinely entertained, yet it also felt as though Adelio were testing him.

“How did you know?”

“Your clothes.”

“My clothes?”

“Yes. You don’t usually dress so properly, Your Highness. Even when you visit my home, you always look as though you stopped halfway through dressing. But today you were impeccably dressed. There is only one person you would dress so formally to meet. Besides, you were already in a poor mood before you saw me.”

Adelio listened silently, then stroked his chin and shook his head.

“No. I intended from the start to present the evidence to His Majesty, so that wasn’t why I was in a poor mood. I was upset because you met the First Princess in secret without telling me.”

“…Even so, I can’t have been the entire reason.”

“No. You were the entire reason. What does anything the First Princess does have to do with me in the first place?”

Adelio shrugged as though he spoke nothing but the truth. Enoch regarded him in confusion.

‘But he clearly seems to hate her.’

Enoch couldn’t have misread him. Judging by the emotions threaded through Adelio’s every remark, what he felt for the First Princess was closer to antipathy and loathing than indifference.

‘Almost as though she were his mortal enemy…’

That hostility did not seem recent, either. Enoch had therefore assumed that something must have happened when they were children. After all, the difference in age between Adelio and the First Princess was only one year.

They were close in age and must have been the only children around the same age at the palace, so they had surely grown up together. He had thought Adelio’s feelings must have formed then…

‘Yet he asks what she has to do with him?’

“Come to think of it, after talking for so long, aren’t you thirsty?”

‘…What trick is this now?’

Why was he suddenly talking about thirst? Adelio’s abrupt change of subject only strengthened Enoch’s belief that he couldn’t be trusted. He immediately glared at Adelio with open wariness.

Adelio held up both hands and waved them lightly, as though insisting on his innocence. Then he grinned as if he found Enoch adorable and pulled the bell cord hanging from the ceiling.