REAS looked at the direction where the laugh was coming from. And then there, he saw something that was so unbelievable he might as well be seeing things. There, in front of the room where his brother supposedly be, were two figures. One tall and the other slim. It was Astrid and that annoying prince.
His brother was laughing. It was not a laugh of mockery as he expected. It was one of his more genuine laughs. Like he really was delighted about something. The prince, on the other hand, was just staring at Astrid as if completely mesmerized.
He frowned seeing that and no longer hesitated. He ran towards the two at the fastest speed and put himself between them, pulling his brother behind him.
Astrid was startled suddenly seeing Reas' broad back. But unlike him, Wulfric was not surprised at all seeing the other.
He had already sensed this kid's presence the moment he felt that someone who came from the outside was rushing towards this direction. With such urgency as if he was being chased by some psychotic murderer, he could only think of one person – Aster's brother.
With the way the other was glaring at him, this brat probably thought that he was torturing Aster or something. He felt a bit complicated. Was he really that bad in the eyes of others that that would be the first thing they would think? No, it's more likely because of the bad first impression that he showed to these two.
Now he suddenly wanted to smack himself at that time. If he could have behaved much more normally, then maybe he wouldn't be so bad in the eyes of these two. Maybe not only in these two but their mother as well. For some reason, the thought that Aster's mother might have hated him made him feel even more complicated. As if he didn't want to be disliked by the people closest to Aster.
But what could he do? What's done was already done. Crying over spilled milk was just something the weak would do. Right now, all he could do was to change their impression of him.
Wasn't he already taken the first step successfully? Aster forgave him. He even laughed at his stupidity! You know, that one when he blurted out that he wanted to eat the other's homecooked meal again. Wasn't that already a good sign?
Remembering that laugh, his heart that seemed to have already calmed down started to beat wildly again. The way Aster's eyes bent into crescents, the corner of those pink lips curved up, and that music-like laugh. He couldn't take his eyes off of him. As if he really was under some kind of spell.
He wanted to think that it was only because it was the first time he had seen someone laugh so beautifully. But he knew that it wasn't just that. It was the same reason why he didn't hesitate to bow his head and apologized the moment he realized the wrong he had done. But even though he understood that, he still couldn't pinpoint the exact reason why.
"Reas, where have you been?" Astrid asked his brother.
"Why don't we hear His Highness' answer to that?" Reas said in an almost sarcastic and still coldly looking at the prince standing opposite.
Wulfric wanted to laugh. When was the last time someone actually dared to talk to him like this? But well, having this fearless kind of attitude was good too. At least, he could be assured that no matter who the other faced in the future, if it was to protect Aster, he wouldn't hesitate to go toe to toe against that person.
Astrid already suspected that his brother might have been detained somewhere, so Wulfric could talk to him alone. Seeing Reas' reaction, that was probably really the case.
He was about to say something when he noticed his brother's hand. His fingers were bent into weird shape as if the bones had been broken. He exclaimed. If he didn't accidentally look down, he might have not noticed this injury. It was because Reas' expression was too normal. He didn't even see him wincing in pain.
"Reas, your hand--!" He wanted to touch it, but worried that he might make the injury more serious, he could only stop himself. "What happened?"
"Let's have His Highness answer that question too."
Hearing that from Reas, Astrid turned sharply towards Wulfric. His dark eyes clearly saying, 'what did you do to my brother?'.
Wulfric, who was quite innocent on this matter, felt a sense of crisis. He just got Aster's forgiveness. Would the other take it back because of this? He had also seen the injury on the brat's hand. Just what did Hildred and Edmund do? He swore if Aster became angry with him again because of this, he would send the two to the most remote and barren planet in the farthest galaxy.
As he was thinking of all the punishments he would give the two, he suddenly heard Hildred's voice.
"It's a misunderstanding," Hildred said as he was walking towards the three. "I suggested to Wulf that Edmund and I would temporarily take this little brother away so the two of you could talk peacefully. We just didn't expect that our method would backfire like this."
Edmund, who was not far behind, quickly walked towards Reas. He took out some kind of medicinal spray and directly sprayed it on the other's injured hand. Then he said apologetically, "Sorry, we really didn't mean it."
Reas just felt that some kind of cool feeling on his injured hand. And then after that it was followed by some pain. But it was not something that he couldn't handle. When he looked down, he saw that his broken fingers were already slowly straightening by itself. That must be where the pain was coming from.
Astrid also saw this scene. That advanced medicine was probably something that was only available at the military. Knowing that his brother's hand would most likely be alright, he breathed out a sigh of relief.
He then raised his head. He remembered the two people who just came. One was the bald guy who arrived together with Wulfric at Delryria. And the other was the one who arrived later to fetch the two. Their names if he remembered correctly were Edmund and Hildred. Both have the rank of captains.
He looked at Edmund who had a genuine apologetic expression on his face and seemed much more honest compared to the other captain and Wulfric. "So, what method did you use exactly?"
Edmund, who was asked, suddenly felt unprecedented pressure for some reason. Because of that, he just honestly said what they did. "We- we trapped him inside a barrier. He tried to get out by punching the barrier. When I saw him got injured, I immediately turned off the barrier. T-that's everything that happened! We don't have any bad intention, really. We just want to help General apologized to you. But if your brother is there, he would just try to get in the way. S-so, we could only separate him from you. You can be mad at us but please don't be mad at the General. This is the first time he ever apologized to someone. If you get mad at him because of us, he would definitely send us to a remote planet!"
Hearing his explanation, everyone simply had different expressions on their faces.