The Impact of the Author's Intervention on a Blank Page - Chapter 14
But the other settings were rather strange. Really strange.
[‘Raijin’ addresses the Grand Duke Izatrix, his ‘brother,’ as ‘hyungnim’]
[‘Raijin’ shows somewhat educated nobility to others but blindly follows and never questions his ‘brother’s’ words]
[‘Raijin’ will offer his body in any way for his ‘brother’]
[‘Raijin’ will not refuse if his ‘brother’ hands him poison one day, and will not resist if his heart is to be extracted’]
“In… Insane. What is this? What reference did they use to create such a character? These settings are way too extreme.”
Something felt wrong no matter how he thought about it. If they had properly read his data, such extreme content shouldn’t have appeared. While it was true that he loved his brother, he wasn’t such a brainless fanatic. It seemed like his data had gotten mixed up with someone else’s.
Ja-hyun sighed. Even just exhaling deeply irritated his aching lungs.
[‘Character settings’ are provided as guidelines and there is no forced compliance to follow them.]
That was at least fortunate. Right, so he should think of this as a vast scenario game with considerable autonomy.
[However, for stable information utilization, it is recommended to act within reasonable bounds of these settings when interacting with external characters.]
Isn’t this basically a threat?
Anyway, it seemed his brother also had this function activated and could act naturally. That was fortunate at least.
Come to think of it, this might have been written in the contract… He’d heard this was one of the reasons for the low difficulty setting, but unfortunately, it was now set to hard mode.
After barely regaining his senses amidst the flood of information, Ja-hyun lifted his head again. His eyes met with his brother’s.
Above all, he wanted to be alone with his brother quickly. He wanted to talk just the two of them, without having to mind his character settings around others.
Ja-hyun stared intently at his brother, conveying these feelings. He spoke using the speech pattern that matched his role as instructed by this world’s system.
“Broth…er. Don’t we have something to… discuss in private?”
However, his brother, quietly looking down at him, wore an enigmatic expression. He seemed to be contemplating how to respond. Ja-hyun could recognize this expression immediately, being familiar with his brother’s mannerisms. Though his brother had been trying to talk more since they started dating, he wasn’t originally someone of many words.
“……”
Why is brother acting like this? I thought he had adjusted completely, but is he still uncomfortable?
“Brother?”
His brother, who had been silent all along, finally moved in response to this question.
Grand Duke Izatrix grabbed Raijin’s shoulders and pushed him down to lie back. It was a clear signal that he didn’t want to talk.
With a soft thump, half his body sank into the fluffy bedding. Though the movement was sudden, even that slight impact made him dizzy, as if his vestibular system wasn’t functioning properly. Despite there being quite a few people in the room, it was unbelievably quiet while his brother moved.
“My brother…”
His brother spoke in a somehow unfamiliar voice.
“…seems to be confusing dreams with reality, having just woken up.”
Huh?
“What?”
Until then, Ja-hyun had thought his brother was just putting on airs to fulfill his assigned role. He had even spent about one second thinking how handsome and cool his brother looked playing the part of Grand Duke.
That was because although his brother’s touch was forceful, it remained careful. The pressure of his hold was being meticulously controlled, as if worried that what lay beneath his hands might break.
“You said you took your medicine. You should rest now.”
No, brother, I said I want to talk. Why is he acting like this?
“Broth…er. Just a moment please.”
Ja-hyun tried to say something to his brother, but his words were cut off by what came next.
“Raijin.”
“……”
“You agreed to be an obedient brother… didn’t you?”
The low voice fell like a command against his ear.
Though the Grand Duke appeared to be merely resting his hand lightly, even that was enough to render Ja-hyun immobile. He felt more powerless than when he wore the ability-controlling necklace.
His brother was treating him as if… he really were the Grand Duke’s younger brother. This wasn’t playful at all. If this was just acting according to his role, there would be no need to go this far, would there?
