Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 110

After Charlie finished speaking, the two of them fell silent for a moment. The small mining lamp beside Elena was the only light source in this pitch-black space, and the brothers sat there in the dark, looking at it.

“How long has it been?” Louis suddenly asked.

His question came out of nowhere, but Charlie understood.

Louis wanted to know how long he had been living with this “half-human” appearance.

“Five or six years—not that long,” Charlie said.

Elena had been searching for him everywhere since her graduation, but due to the uniqueness of his identity and his deliberate travels to remote places, it still took some time.

The identity Charlie had left at school was fake, but the emotions cultivated with the teachers and friends he met during those years were real. Elena was actually very meticulous when awake, and she located the northern small town where he was based on a few holiday cards Charlie had sent.

It was also because of this that Charlie later cut off all personal relationships from his school days, not entirely out of fear of Elena. The avoidance and caution he exhibited in front of others towards this girl, who later became a witch, were mainly to amuse naive and carefree people like Eugene and Shiloh, rationalizing his reclusive life and the existence of his “rabbit head”.

But being found by Elena made him realize that his semi-reclusive life was untenable. As long as one was connected to others, someone determined could trace him through his social activities, which meant that his so-called low-profile life was just a self-deceptive mirage. He needed to abandon everything more deeply and thoroughly and truly hide by changing his identity.

So Elena’s rabbit head curse gave him a second chance. Charlie took this opportunity to discard his past, crossed the continent, and finally settled in Maplewood, where no one had ever seen his true face.

“You must have done well. If it weren’t for various accidents, Elena would probably be the last person on the Doran continent to look for Charlie—I should have been more thorough; even changed the name Charlie… but…”

The twins’ unspoken understanding hadn’t diminished despite years of separation. Louis easily guessed what he hadn’t said.

“Did he give you this name?” Louis asked. “It’s a common name. At least three people selling lamb pies on the docks are named Charlie.”

“At the time, I thought he had deliberately chosen such an inconspicuous name to simplify my life. Later, I figured he was probably just too lazy to think of another.” Charlie looked at him. “That fits his character… How’s Fahim?”

“He’s dead,” Louis said calmly. “He died in the Willow Grove Villa four years ago—too sick. No one saw him the month before he died.”

“Including you?”

“Including me. Maybe you could have gone in, but I couldn’t.”

“I couldn’t either. Fahim liked you better, right?”

“If he liked me better, why didn’t he hold my hand and take me to school?”

Charlie finally laughed. “Are you finally admitting you were sulky because you thought uncle liked me better?”

Louis said, “It was my own choice. There’s nothing to be sulky about.”

Charlie moved around Elena’s feet to squeeze next to him. “You don’t think White Wolf Fahim would really hold someone’s hand and take them to school, do you? Or did the river water earlier make you too cold, giving you a high fever?”

Louis moved aside, and Charlie squeezed closer again.

“If you want to leave, I can stay,” Charlie said sincerely, although many years had passed.

Louis couldn’t exist in the form of two people, but there was always room for negotiation on who would take up the role of Louis. They not only had nearly identical appearances but also shared life experiences as if looking in a mirror from birth. Even though their personalities differed, playing each other wasn’t difficult.

Charlie’s words clearly meant that if Louis regretted staying with the Wolf Family, he could now switch places.

Another silence followed. Louis turned his head to look at Charlie’s rabbit head, suddenly stretched out his foot, and flipped the switch on the small mining lamp. With a click, they were enveloped in darkness again.

“Leaving is the right choice,” Louis said in the dark.

Born into the Wolf Family with the identity of the cursed Holy Grail, whichever path they took was bound to be fraught with hardship. From the moment of their birth, they had been deceiving the world and would continue to do so until death.

Charlie thought for a moment, then nudged him with his elbow. “Seriously, since Fahim is already dead, the oath we took shouldn’t count anymore, right?”

Louis didn’t respond.

“Why so serious—how about we don’t disclose the specifics of that one conversation and just check if what Fahim told us matches what he told you?” Charlie continued to coax.

“Throw that woman out, and I’ll discuss it with you,” Louis said coldly.

The stress of a constantly tense life made him instinctively distrust others. Even with Elena unconscious at the moment, Louis was reluctant to touch this dangerous topic in the presence of a third person.

“Alright, I was just curious,” Charlie said resignedly. “Don’t be mad.”

He reached for Louis’s hand again, and they sat in the dark. Although they didn’t speak aloud, they both understood that they were definitely thinking about the same thing.

Fifteen years ago, their uncle Fahim had met with them separately in a conversation that no third party knew about, marking the first time the twins had a secret unknown to the other brother. Fahim had made them swear on their lives never to reveal the content of that conversation to anyone.

Unlike Louis, who left Fortuna City early on, Charlie only remembered their uncle from his younger days. Although it was well-known that White Wolf Fahim’s congenital disease was incurable and he was destined to die young, in his childhood, the other was always youthful, energetic, and always up for pranks.

Even within the entire family, Fahim was a very special figure, both in appearance and character.

It was said that when he was born, doctors declared that this child, with skin and hair so shockingly white, would not survive a week, as he was as frail as the last handful of snow left in early spring, ready to melt away at any moment.

Despite being written off by even his parents, Fahim managed to survive. He used his outstanding talents and ruthless tactics beyond his age to constantly prove wrong all those who mocked and provoked him. By the time he reached adulthood, rumors circulated privately that, if not for the current family head being in the prime of life and Fahim’s short lifespan, he would have been the most formidable contender for the next Wolf King.

Nonetheless, Fahim was the pride of the family, especially when compared to such a sister.

Fahim’s mother was frail, and he was her only son. His father, although promiscuous, had only one mistress, who successfully gave birth to a daughter a few months older than Fahim. Due to the sparse population and the gentle nature of his wife, this illegitimate daughter was also brought into the mansion and raised alongside Fahim, with high familial expectations placed on her. She was even betrothed before reaching adulthood.

However, less than two months into the engagement, her protruding belly revealed that she was already pregnant before the engagement, at a time when her fiancé was still on a merchant ship abroad.

The scandal devastated her father’s reputation. Amid endless arguments and tears, the daughter, who refused to reveal the father of her child, was secretly disowned by the family. To the outside world, it was as if she had never been a family member. Naturally, the engagement was canceled, and the fiancé’s family received considerable properties as compensation for the broken engagement.

Though she was a mistress’ daughter, Fahim had grown up with her, and their relationship was quite good. He secretly arranged for people to take care of his sister, who was exiled, to secretly give birth (according to their father’s wishes, the child, born out of dishonor, was originally to be aborted). Fahim was the only family member to witness his nephew’s birth—a rare stroke of luck among misfortunes. When the Lamp Bearers appeared in that small town, aside from the childbirth woman, Fahim was the only one present who knew the full situation.

No one knows how the young Fahim managed to elude the Lamp Bearers, making them return empty-handed, but the appearance of these immortal beings couldn’t possibly escape the notice of the four prominent Black Gold Families. Their rare numbers also indicated that they needed to identify the Holy Grail of the generation among two newborns with nearly indistinguishable bloodlines. Twins were the only possibility.

Before the Black Gold Families, including his own surname, could react to the news, Fahim had already prepared another pair of deceased infants—perhaps killed by him or perhaps bought. In any case, Fahim ensured one thing: he had only one nephew, named Louis.

Although an impure Holy Grail could attract the Lamp Bearers, it was common knowledge that such couldn’t survive. The two Lamp Bearers, who didn’t stay long in the town, convinced the major families that this was yet another failed coincidence. Charlie and Louis, the twin brothers, grew up in secret, and years later, their uncle brought them to Fortuna City and even eventually restored Louis back to the family tree, taking over the position and influence he had managed for years.

He almost took the secret of which twin was the true Holy Grail to his grave: only a newborn covered in blood could be immediately detected by the Lamp Bearers, and the blue blood of the Holy Grail would turn into a color indistinguishable from that of a normal person within two hours. In other words, aside from the children’s mother and Fahim, who was present at the time, not even the twins themselves knew if they were the Holy Grail.

It wasn’t until they were nine years old that Fahim suddenly came to Fortuna City one night during the rainy season, which had already brought three days of torrential rain accompanied by deafening thunder.

He called each nephew into his study in turn and told them that, although they were getting older, sharing one identity would lead to increasingly noticeable discrepancies. As soon as anyone suspected something about that small town nine years earlier, they could be in danger of being killed at any moment, becoming fodder for the abyssal demon, serving as a beast that the Black Gold Families could manipulate at will.

They had to separate.

Fahim gave them the choice. That night, amid the thunder, this uncle, who was always elusive to Charlie, revealed who had the blue blood at birth.

“Your brother is the Holy Grail with the power to overturn the continent. I pricked your fingertips in order of birth. The firstborn’s blood was red.” Charlie still remembered the calm expression Fahim had as he sat at the large desk and told him this. “So, what is your choice?”

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The author has something to say:

The uncle was both cold and decisive, a true Wolf, but he is indeed dead and won’t be coming back.

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