The Terminally-Ill Lord Desires Hospice Care

Rizehl.
My brother had always been indifferent, but whenever he called my name, a warmth like the faint sunlight would emanate from him.
However, now my brother no longer showed that warmth even when calling my name.
His eyes had completely lost their luster, resembling those of a corpse, and his voice was as cold as if it would freeze flesh.
As if his emotions had been worn away, my brother did not react to any stimuli. He only gave pre-programmed responses like a living doll.

That’s why I felt sorry. For I had likely contributed to making him that way. My careless words must have turned my brother into that.
That’s why I apologized. I said I was sorry. Yet my brother said this:

“No. Since that day, all the words you’ve said have become unable to reach my heart.”

I knew better than anyone what ‘that day’ meant. The day I first called my brother a monster. The day my relationship with my brother was severed.
I had wanted to untangle the tangled chains, but before I could do anything, my brother had cut those chains. For that was the most effective way to untangle them..

“Um, miss, when should we depart?”
“Let’s depart right away.”
While I had the determination to untangle the tangled chains, I did not have the courage to reconnect the cut chains.
If so, all I could do was hold the severed chain fragments and distance myself.
I could not be so cruel as to weave chains before the person wounded from cutting them.
If only I had been that selfish. If I was going to show that selfish side, how nice would it have been to be that selfish to the end?

I am a half-hearted person. An incomplete being who cannot be either altruistic or selfish. No, I should say I have neither kindness nor courage.

“Brother…”
I lacked courage. The courage to properly weave the severed chains before my brother. For my trembling hands, afraid of my own mistakes, could not even weave thread.
I fled because I was afraid of that always gentle voice turning cold and listing my mistakes. I am truly just a selfish, half-hearted fool.

“Miss, are you sure you don’t want anything…?”
The coachman attending to my brother looked at me with concerned eyes.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t had anything to drink since the coffee yesterday.
But could a mere day of thirst and hunger overcome years of deprivation?

“It’s fine, let’s depart.”
The carriage set off with a rattling sound.
While the coachman driving, the adventurers guarding me, even the birds flying far away could return to their daily lives, I could not.
I would forever regret the chains I failed to weave today. Even if I had the chance to choose again, I would surely give up.

In the end, time would flow indifferently. Today’s events, regrets, and wounds would gradually fade. We would live on, having forgotten each other in that indifference.
It was that indifference I feared, which made me tear up.

“Brother……”
By the time I had muttered the only word my sinful lips could utter over and over, dusk had fallen.
Even as the sun set, my worries showed no sign of setting as well.

“Miss, the road ahead is rough. You should have something…”
The coachman, well aware of my frail constitution, handed me a soft white bread with concern.
Just as I wondered if having something to eat might make the indifferent time ahead flow differently, the forest began stirring noisily.

“Get back! It seems there are monsters about!”
“Monsters? Haha what a laughable human!”
It was clearly a human language. Yet that voice could not be seen as human.

“Giants…?”
I was well-acquainted with giants from having heard about them.
A race with rock-like skin that had promised the war minister various vested interests and sided with humanity during the war.
And simultaneously, traitors who betrayed the empire to inflict devastating damage on the allied forces. As a result, half their race was slaughtered as an example by my brother, leaving them homeless monsters.

“So the lizard was right, the demon’s sister was in this area!”
“We’ve only been waiting for this day. To take revenge for that day!”
“Killing the demon’s sister should serve as some repayment.”
The giants, numbering around twenty or so, were all properly armed in a threatening manner.
Even I could tell they were not mere bandit dregs, but warriors of the fallen giant race.

“Hurry and flee! If we run all day, we’ll reach the village outskirts…!”
The adventurer swung his sword, but it simply shattered like striking a giant rock.
“As if you worms could manage that!”
When the giant kicked, the massive carriage crumbled like a cracker.
“Today, you’ll return to the demon Raul skewered on logs!”

“Don’t call my brother a demon!”
That word ‘demon’ scratched at my brain, repeating the moment I had called my brother that.
This outburst might have been just to alleviate my own pain. Yes, I was a selfish, half-hearted fool.
But such details didn’t matter anymore. I could no longer tolerate anyone calling my brother a monster or demon.

“You’re the demons! You betrayed us first, so why play the victim now!”
“We simply did not send the reinforcements we promised! You call that a betrayal?!”
“How shameless! Do you even know how many died because of your selfish betrayal!”
I was well-versed in the famous events of that day, to the point of not needing to investigate further.
Even my brother, who rarely showed expression, would occasionally make a grim face when giants were mentioned.

“Enough! No use crying from an insignificant bug!”
The giant tried to strike me down with his club.
My body would surely be crushed to a miserable death. Yet I felt no fear. It seemed better than living to forget this pain in the indifferent flow of time ahead.
A single moment of agony was enough, better than living an indifferent life.

“There are three truths in this world that none can deny.”
In an instant, the giant’s massive club was pulverized to dust.
“The first truth is that all things vanish without a trace when their inherent vibration is reached.”
It was a voice dry and cold like a winter garden, yet containing the warmth of spring within.
A voice I had longed for dearly, which allowed me to recognize it instantly.
Yes.
It was my brother’s voice.

When my brother struck down with his cane on the head of the giant holding the club, it exploded. A body harder than rock bursting like a paper bag filled with blood.

“Thus, the second truth has always been your deaths.”
Without spilling a drop of blood, my brother leapt down from the headless corpse.
He readjusted his grip on his cane, shielding me as if to protect me.

“And the third truth is that I will always be on your side, Rizehl.”
Raul Berger. My brother who achieved numerous merits in the war, yet was scorned everywhere for killing his comrades.
My pitiful brother who, under the peace the bloodsoaked empire had embraced, had to forcibly swallow any insult.
My brother who could not freely extend his hand due to the instability caused by the war.

“That demon came this far…!”
“Even if worms learn to roll in their carapace and wave their forelimbs.”
Yet my brother was renowned as the empire’s strongest alongside the empress.
The giants’ massive weapons, their thick armor, even their bodies harder than that armor – before my brother, they were no sturdier than paper.

“I never gave permission for you to breathe.”
“P, please spare me…!”
My brother extended a hand that seemed to slightly tremble.
“You won’t feel wronged even in death, will you?”
The giant’s head was cleanly severed by my brother’s slashing hand.
After shaking off the blood from his fingertips, my brother met my gaze.

“Rizehl.”

“Brother…”
From the ‘Rizehl’ now, I could feel that warmth as usual.
His voice was no different from yesterday, but today I could feel it.
It wasn’t that my brother had changed. I could feel it because I was assured my brother was still on my side.
My brother was like a winter garden. Always containing spring within that cold dryness.

“Camilla only told me today. That I had spoken such outrageous words.”
“No brother…it was me who spoke such outrageous words. Those words I cannot even utter to call you a mon…no, I’m sorry.”
“Half was mistaken, half was right. I am a human who can become a monster, demon, or traitor. But only for your sake.”
My brother stroked my head like that.
Just like the day he had departed for the battlefield. Those cold hands paradoxically felt so warm.

“Though the chains have been severed, there is no need to deliberately reweave them. It is a matter of forging new chains.”
“Brother…I’m really…really sorry…”
“For we are linked by bonds thicker than any chain.”
After so long, I could embrace my brother again.
That cold body felt so warm that I never wanted to let go.
I would never sever these chains again.