After Being Exiled From the Country, I Became the Fourth Enchanter in the World!

Chapter 33 The Younger Brother Admires His Outcast Older Brother

The night when I heard that my older brother was disinherited and sentenced to expulsion from the country….

I saw a dream of the day when I was very young, when I saw my brother standing up against an adult opponent without losing his fighting spirit even though he was knocked down many times and had scars all over his body….

I have a brother, <Jink>, who is two years older than me.

Everyone around me compared me to my older brother and despised him as a failure, but I respect him.

It’s true that my brother is inferior to me in spearmanship, but I’ve never been able to beat him in anything other than spearmanship.

He had a violent attitude and tone towards someone with a lower rank, but his grade was among the highest in his year, even with points deducted due to his bad attitude.

…… And his spearmanship was by no means bad.

The people who despise him don’t realize how hard he’s been working behind the scenes.

When I was young, I looked up to my brother and worked hard at spear training, and years later, I saw him bowing in frustration before me….

I… won against my brother.

Unable to handle my emotions, I ran away from him, not even responding to his bow.

After that, I avoided him for a while.

However, my grandfather ordered me to fight him again… and I won again.

After my grandfather praised me and gave me some pocket money, he scorned my older brother, saying that he was incompetent to be defeated by his younger brother, a disgrace to Duke Nonland’s family, and then left.

My brother was on his knees, biting his lip while holding back his tears.

As for me, I was bewildered, not knowing how to talk to him.

When I heard a loud sniffling sound and turned to my brother, he looked up and said this

「Your thrust is powerful, so it’s difficult to deal with it. I think it’ll be a good weapon. The problem is how to regain your stance after your attack is brushed off. If you can launch the next attack faster, I think the match will be decided at that point. …… Did you have any thoughts when you saw my movements? If so, please tell me.」

My brother had a habit of evading more than necessary when defending against an approaching attack, and this was the cause of him losing his balance during the fight.

When I told him that, he listened to me seriously.

After that, I saw my brother practicing avoiding attacks while imagining the enemy many times.

Even if his younger brother, a child of a mistress, beat him, the heir of the house, he didn’t blame his brother, and he even asked his brother’s opinions and worked hard to become stronger.

As I watched him, my respect for him changed from 「the older brother who swings his spear without yielding to adults」 to my older brother himself.

Whenever I felt discouraged, I worked hard while thinking about him.

As we grew up and the difference in ability between my brother and myself widened, his bad reputation began to be heard everywhere… and my brother’s face grew stern day by day when he learned of it.

Thinking that I had to stop the slander against him, I went around to warn those who were spreading the bad reputation about him, but… after a few days, a rumor circulated that he was a coward who wouldn’t take actions himself and made his younger brother threaten the commoners.

My father, the head of the family, ordered me not to take any action since he didn’t want me to lose my reputation too.

Also, all the periodic matches were ordered by my grandfather, the influential person in Nonland, so it was difficult to refuse, and I couldn’t cut corners when fighting my brother, so there was nothing I could do.

Being pitied and defended by his younger brother, the cause of his bad reputation, was probably something he couldn’t forgive.

Although he didn’t hit me or yell at me, he stopped talking to me after I made that poor move.

As a result of being slandered for a long time… the diligent and kind older brother began to behave violently toward commoners by abusing his authority.

…… The bad reputation is still spreading even now.

Well, he would treat me kindly if I talked to him, but he never talked to me first.

To be honest, I felt sad and wanted to cry when I thought that he was avoiding me, but I knew that it was the result of my thoughtless action, so I had no choice but to accept it.

On the surface, my brother has changed like a different person, but his hard work and dedication have not changed.

Although he was slower than me, I could feel that his spearmanship was improving every time we fought.

Every time I noticed that, I was so happy that I put too much effort into my training and was late for my meal… and being scolded by my mother right next to my brother, who was eating with an expressionless face, became a routine after training.

…… I know it was my fault, and I was reflecting on it, but… it was embarrassing, so I wished her to do it later when we were alone.

「Esther-sama, congratulations! It has just been officially decided that Jink-sama would be disinherited and Esther-sama would become the heir!」

「What…!?」

To be honest, I knew this day would come.

It’s obvious that I’m more talented with a spear than my older brother, and the <Duke Nonland> is famous for their spearmanship.

……My grandfather has always been treating my older brother coldly, and he didn’t even try to hide his plan to disinherit him.

My father didn’t treat him as coldly as my grandfather, but he was treating him, the eldest son of a legitimate wife, and me, the second son of a mistress from a low-ranking noble family, equally.

From my brother’s point of view, it was nothing but cold treatment.

My brother is smart, so I’m sure he knew that this day would come….

「If I visit my brother’s room now… I might be killed.」

I heard that when my brother was removed from his position as the Crown Prince’s close aide, he was disinherited and exiled from the country under the pretext of attempted poisoning of the head of the family.

It was impossible for my older brother, who had been unconscious until then, to poison father, so it’s obvious that it was a false accusation, but… in order to make the second son from a mistress the heir, they probably had to charge him with a serious crime.

If it weren’t for my existence… my brother would have been the only child in the Duke’s family, and he would never have been punished.

From my brother’s point of view, I’m the enemy who stole his entire life.

In the past, no one has been able to leave the country alive when exiled from the country.

Under the pretext of being exiled, they were thrown out of the castle gates without a guard to be eaten by monsters, so it’s natural that there were no survivors….

In other words, being exiled is actually a death sentence, so the punishment wouldn’t be any worse even if he retaliated against me.

According to my father, it was his last mercy, so my brother wasn’t restrained and could move freely.

I couldn’t use a spear in the house, so I was unarmed.

If my brother wanted to, he could easily cut my throat.

My father advised me to stay overnight at a friend’s house, and the number of guards increased somehow.

Thinking about it rationally, even an idiot like me could understand that it’s better not to go to see my brother.

「But… I don’t want to say goodbye like this….」