By the Way, Those Two Are Really Over the Top, Even for Twins

I'm at a crossroads.

Here, I could also say, 'Not my problem. I've paid for my meal, so I'm out,' and kick her out.

That's my usual way of doing things, and it's a hundred times better for me.

But.

'We were already tangled up in this.'

If I back out here, that frail woman will end up caught in my uncle's scheme, be married off to some unwanted old perverted nobleman, and waste away to death.

Knowing that and just standing by?

'I wouldn't be able to sleep.'

It still makes absolutely no fucking sense.

Why the hell would anyone marry some old pervert?

Ah, damn it. My imagination's kicking in again.

Shit!

I irritably raked a hand through my hair.

"Haa... seriously."

As I let out a deep sigh, Lucius's mouth slowly began to curl upward.

He was clearly already certain of my answer.

If Lucius's ultimate goal was really to somehow bind me and his younger sister together and shove us into a wedding hall, I'd naturally have cursed him out and thrown him out.

But if not, and his goal was just to give her a reason to run away from home or a will to live.

If it didn't matter whether I ended up tied to her for life, then I didn't have any grounds to coldly say, 'So what?' and turn him away at the door.

I glared at him again and made my position clear.

"I'll meet her one more time."

"As expected. I knew I could count on you."

"But I don't have the confidence to win her over. If I can't, don't blame me."

At my warning, Lucius gave an obnoxious grin, his eyes narrowing.

"Very well, then."

"……."

Why the hell does he have to say it like that, the bastard?

'Understood' would have been one thing, but 'Very well, then'?

Why does it feel like he doesn't doubt for a second that my saying I can't win her over is complete bullshit?

……Of course, I do feel a little uneasy.

If my sister hadn't been the one to tell me that damn irritation theory, I wouldn't be hacking away at this right now.

It's all my sister's fault.

Swoosh.

Lucius stood up and lightly brushed the wrinkles from the hem of his coat.

"Thank you sincerely for indulging my rude request at this late hour, Lord Cassian."

"It's fine. I'll just consider it part of repaying the debt."

"I'll arrange the place and time, then contact you. Of course, Rohanna will cover all the expenses for this meeting, so please come without concern."

Lucius bowed deeply.

I leaned back on the sofa and waved a hand.

"Go on. I'm really tired, to the point of collapsing."

"Yes. Please rest well. I'll see you tomorrow."

Click, creak.

Guided by old Alfred, Lucius left the reception room.

Only after the footsteps in the hallway disappeared completely did I rest my head against the backrest and look up at the ceiling.

"Haa……."

Unbelievable.

I'm not some revered old teacher being treated like the village patriarch in some clan village, yet now it looks like I'm going to end up fixing another family's mess too.

"I'm seriously exhausted."

I got up, massaging my stiff neck.

I left the reception room and trudged upstairs to my room with heavy steps.

The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, I dove without hesitation into the blanket I'd tossed aside earlier.

Thud!

Buried in the bed, I rubbed my face all over the soft pillow.

"Haa……."

I wanted to deep-sleep like this, but the conversation I had with Lucius in the first-floor reception room just now kept creeping back up.

It's really the kind of tear-jerking sibling bond you'd only see in some third-rate, misery-ridden romance fantasy novel.

I never thought I'd get dragged into such an absurd, forced cliché.

"You two really know how to live in the most exhausting way."

I lay on my back, staring at the ceiling and blinking.

I reached out at the air for no reason, then let my hand fall limply.

Sophia's face, the one I had been sitting across from at Grand Asteria, came to mind.

Her skin was so pale it looked almost translucent, and her eyes curved into a faint smile.

And then Lucius's smirking face from just moments ago overlapped with it.

"Ugh, shit……."

In that instant, a strange sense of unease surged up from deep in my gut.

By the way, those two are really over the top, even for twins.

"How can their faces be so perfectly identical?"

No, logically speaking, if the sex hormones are different, shouldn't there at least be some skeletal difference between masculine and feminine builds?

Even setting the shoulder frame aside, the lines of the features or the angle of the jaw should be a little different at least.

They really look like they could share the same smartphone face-recognition lock without any trouble.

It's basically just Lucius's slick pretty-boy face with a flowing long brown wig slapped on top.

And yet there was something strangely forlorn about her, so objectively she still looked fucking beautiful.

"I hate to admit it, but genetics are a bully."

Lucius is annoying as hell, but if he shuts up and stands still, there's no denying he's got a handsome pretty-boy face.

* * *

Rohanna Manor.

Soft magical lamps quietly lit the hallway.

Tap, tap.

Lucius's footsteps on the thick carpet were very careful, as if trying to erase his presence.

'By now, she'd probably be deeply asleep.'

Since it was late at night, when his younger sister would naturally be asleep, Lucius had sent the servants away and headed straight for his own bedroom.

Creak, thud.

Only after closing the heavy door and fastening the latch.

"Haa……."

A long sigh slipped from Lucius's lips.

He irritably loosened the stiff cravat choking his neck and roughly undid the buttons of the tailored vest.

Only then did his breathing feel a little less constricted.

Lucius sank onto the sofa by the window and stared blankly down at the garden swallowed by darkness.

'I can't believe this really happened.'

Just a few days ago.

Approaching Cassian on purpose had been nothing more than a gamble born from the desperate urge to grasp at straws.

His uncle, who held the real power within the family.

That greedy old man was hell-bent on pushing out the family's legitimate heir and swallowing everything Rohanna owned.

That was because Lucius was only a legitimate heir in name, unable even to decide his younger sister Sophia's marriage himself.

To escape this situation, Lucius desperately needed a powerful outside variable.

'So I chose the second son of House Farne.'

The count's second son.

If they were complacent nobles who staked their lives on the capital's old-fashioned refinement and decorum.

They might have clicked their tongues and made the easy judgment of keeping their distance from Cassian's rough, freewheeling behavior.

But Lucius, with his breath constricted, was in a different position.

Cassian looked like an absolutely indispensable lifeline, one that could turn the family's whole situation around.

And in fact.

'The more I get to know him, the more that gamble is becoming the greatest stroke of luck in my life.'

He wasn't one of those young lords who were all flash and no substance.

He was a man far more impressive than I'd expected.

The more I kept him close, the more strangely compelling he became.

Even Lucius himself, who had approached him with a purpose in mind, had found layers of genuine affection piling up.

That's why.

On a hunch, he had tried connecting him with his twin sister Sophia, who shared exactly the same values and sense of aesthetics.

The result was a huge success.

As if by magic, as if it were a lie, a soft, warm feeling was blooming in Sophia's empty heart.

'Please.'

Lucius clasped both hands together and covered his face.

Please, may this warm hope that had suddenly and impossibly come to the cold Rohanna manor

not scatter away as emptily as it had come.

It was then.

Knock, knock.

A cautious knock broke the silence.

Just from that sound alone, he could tell who was standing beyond the door.

Instead of a curt reply to come in, Lucius sprang up from his seat.

He roughly straightened his clothes and went to open the door himself.

Creak.

"……."

"……."

As expected, standing at the door was Sophia, with features perfectly identical to Lucius's own.

Lucius brushed away the worry from moments ago and gave a sly smile.

"You're not asleep yet?"

"No."

Sophia gave a short nod and stepped lightly into the room.

Even in thin indoor clothes, there was an unshakable elegance to her steps.

"What's the matter? At this hour."

Lucius asked casually as he closed the door.

"Did you come to see this handsome sibling's face one more time before going to bed?"

Normally, Sophia would have lightly brushed off such nonsense and gotten on with what she wanted to say.

But today, she sat quietly on the sofa with her hands neatly folded, offering no rebuke at all.

Lucius chuckled and sat cross-legged opposite his younger sister.

"Yeah. I figured you'd be waiting anxiously, so I hurried back."

"……."

"As for the follow-up, I got her consent."

At that instant.

Sophia's clear blue eyes widened slightly, then the corners of her thin lips slowly curled upward.

A silent, bashful, pretty smile.

Watching that smile bloom brightly like a spring flower bathed in sunlight, Lucius rested his chin on his hand and asked softly.

"Do you like that man that much?"