Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 111
Nine-year-old Charlie sat in an armchair. His toes barely touched the carpet unless he tiptoed, but he sat up straight—a seriously comical posture for a child, though the atmosphere was grave in the study where both the young and the adult took things seriously.
Hearing his uncle’s words, Charlie wasn’t shocked. After all, there was a fifty percent chance, and they were mentally prepared that one of them would have to face this fate.
Charlie’s attention was elsewhere.
“I always knew I was the older brother.” He felt slightly proud because both of them were “Louis”. Fahim always strictly forbade anyone from delving into the details of their birth, so it had never been settled who the older twin was, often sparking fights between them.
“I should protect my brother.” Young Charlie couldn’t help but bounce on his toes. “Please tell him that I am the Holy Grail. Let him stay—he gets uncomfortable in carriages and boats.” His logic was simple: if one day their twin identity was revealed, and those seeking the Holy Grail focused on them, the most dangerous place would also be the safest, and the one who ran away would be the one feared to be the captured Holy Grail.
By drawing away those suspicious gazes, at least his brother could live a stable life under their uncle’s protection. Their mother’s circumstances meant they weren’t recognized by the family, but Fahim was capable, and his status and authority were subtly surpassing that of their grandfather. Under these circumstances, life in Fortuna City was lonely and mundane, but the material conditions were always superior.
Remembering this, Charlie blinked and subconsciously reached out to touch Louis’s cheek—a habit from when Louis was frail as a child, easily getting feverish from cold or heat during the night, and the first thing Charlie would do upon waking was to check if his face was hot.
The commotion at the docks had settled by the time it was nearly dark. The Darby Belly Fish swam smoothly, causing no disturbances. Time here seemed to stand still. Louis had been in the river for half a day without changing clothes, and one could feel the chill on him up close.
Louis brushed off his hand. “I haven’t had fevers at night since I turned ten.”
Charlie reluctantly withdrew his hand, thinking it was because no one shared a bed with him anymore to know if he had a fever.
“Don’t overdo it falling into the river in this weather,” Charlie said. “Brother cares about you.”
Louis said indifferently, “The one who gets fevers is you, and I am the older brother.”
Charlie was puzzled. “I’m the older brother. Fahim himself said so.”
Louis, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them.
“Fahim said that I’m the older brother,” he stated. “I remember very clearly.”
Both fell silent for a while before Charlie said softly, “You’re joking.”
“I’m certain,” Louis replied firmly.
That stormy night was crystal clear in his memory. Fahim sat quietly behind his desk, watching him until young Louis, slightly uneasy, shifted in his seat before he spoke.
“Your brother is destined to bear a much heavier fate than you,” he said. “You were the firstborn. Your blood is red.”
Louis looked at him but didn’t speak.
“You were meant to have an ordinary life, but fate chose your twin brother, and now it’s your turn to make a choice for him.”
Louis didn’t remember how long he thought about it, but eventually, he responded.
“Let him go,” young Louis said, propping his knees with his hands. “I’ll stay—he’s always running out to watch the ships.”
He hadn’t thought too much about it. Twins were mirrors to each other, and Louis could see in his brother’s eyes the longing for the world beyond Fortuna City, understanding that such a person wouldn’t be happy confined to an estate forever. Besides, if they lived unnoticed for a lifetime in the city, unrecognized and mediocre was one thing, but if one day their identities were exposed, the one whose will had been worn down over time would struggle to find a way to escape. It was better to get used to life away from the family sooner rather than later.
“Are you sure?” Fahim asked. “Staying might be dangerous, but the outside isn’t necessarily better—you haven’t even seen the world beyond the docks. Fledglings leaving the nest too soon often die young.”
Louis sternly said, “You wouldn’t leave him to fend for himself in a filthy stable, would you?”
If Fahim dared say yes, he would—
He would complain to their deceased mother in his dreams tonight.
Fahim laughed. “Of course not. But my protection can’t extend across the continent. Once out of my sight, what happens is unpredictable.”
And since he was sending him away, it naturally meant placing him far beyond the reach of the Wolf and other influential families, indicating that if something did happen, the power of the White Wolf Fahim would also be unable to intervene immediately.
“That’s fine. You1 have to protect him until he’s grown.” Although he was using honorifics1, Louis’s tone was assertive. His eyes shone brightly, like a young cub begging its parents for food, unaware of his own expression. “Send him to a safe place. I’ll follow the arrangement—treat me as the Holy Grail if you must.”
1Clarity: He’s using [nin] (您) instead of [ni] (你) for you. The former is the formal way, often used to show respect to the person addressed, while the latter is informal, often used between friends, family, or people of similar age or social status.
After all, he wasn’t really the Holy Grail. Even if someone did bleed him dry thinking he was, it wouldn’t awaken anything, and by then his brother would be living somewhere unknown in the world, unreachable—Louis calculated this was a win.
“Your decision has never wavered.” Fahim smiled. “I will take the one who stays back to the Wolf family.”
Fahim said softly, “Maybe tomorrow, maybe a year from now, maybe in ten years, but this will certainly happen. You let him leave, and if one day he returns… or is brought back, as the Holy Grail, what will you do then?”
Louis thought for a moment.
“Then I will kill him, getting to him before anyone else.” At least one of them, in body or spirit, would be free.
He said.
“Very well,” Fahim said.
That was the last question Fahim asked him that night. When Louis left the study and returned to his bedroom, Charlie was no longer there.
But there were still two pillows and two sets of pajamas on the footstool, and the dim night light continued to shine on each side.
Louis lay in bed all night until dawn, and the bedroom door remained unopened.
Charlie didn’t return the next day, nor the day after.
Fahim offered no explanations, and everyone in the house ceased to mention it, as if Louis had always been just Louis.
No one else.
……
Many years later, upon their unexpected reunion, Charlie and Louis realized something: their uncle had taken the secret of the Holy Grail to his grave. If the brothers truly never met again in this lifetime, no one else in the world would know whether he had lied or not.
“That’s just his style,” Charlie said after a long while.
Fahim was an odd figure, and much of Louis’s standing in the family today was inherited from him—Fahim was an undeniable pioneer.
Their grandfather had no talent in this area. Without Fahim, it was very likely that Charlie and Louis’s mother couldn’t have even secured the bare minimum for living. On one hand, her actions were frustrating, and on the other, she was supposed to carry half the hope for the family’s revival. In a place like White Bridge, where money was squandered recklessly, bankruptcy was common for those who couldn’t manage their finances. The compensation for unilaterally breaking off an engagement only made things worse. In the end, it was Fahim, then still a minor, who took over the reins of the household. By the time the twins were brought back to Fortuna City, the financial situation had greatly improved, ensuring that these neglected, illegitimate sons never lacked material comforts.
As beneficiaries, Charlie and Louis always found him strange yet capable. As an uncle, he didn’t shower them with much affection, but he earnestly took on the responsibility of protecting and educating them as an elder, and they couldn’t have asked for more. However, outsiders saw him as much more complex. On one hand, the White Wolf Fahim was extremely gracious and even refined in his dealings, never seen losing his temper or composure. On the other hand, the list of competitors and adversaries he had personally destroyed to rise to power was so long it could touch the ground, with many methods so horrifying they could chill the heart. Phrases like “a devil without tears” and “even hell has no place for you” were curses he had heard so often they no longer affected him.
Interestingly, as Louis began to make a name for himself within the Wolf family, there were occasional grievances about his actions. “Surely carrying blood as cold as that old White Wolf,” but Louis chose not to discuss this.
“He has always been cautious about this matter,” Louis hummed, stretching his previously bent legs wearily.
Fahim was never the type to tell fairy tales to his young nephews. On the contrary, he always emphasized the significance of the Holy Grail and the worst possible outcomes if their identities were exposed, a reality too cruel for children, such that even as an adult, Charlie still harbored great wariness towards the Lion family—they neither trusted nor accepted power granted by others and didn’t want other families to possess it, thus the Holy Grail had long topped their hit list.
“I really don’t care,” Charlie said. “Fahim is dead, but we have grown up.” Still, hearing of his uncle’s death saddened him a bit. Aside from each other, he was the last relative willing to offer them protection in this world.
“If you’ve grown up, you should know better than to come back.” Louis pointed out ruthlessly.
Unlike the optimistic Charlie, Louis habitually anticipated the worst. Although this unexpected disguise as a rabbit could deceive others, relying on a witch was indeed troublesome.
No one could ensure their powers remained stable, including mages and witches. This time, he almost assassinated Elena, and the fact that his head nearly reverted to its original form proved this.
With that said, Charlie remembered to check, touching his own furry face and long ears, finding no more shedding (?). His touch was still dry and fluffy, very pleasant to the touch.
“It seems Elena is fine.” He fumbled for a while and re-lit the small mining lamp to check on Elena. The young witch’s face was bloodless. With her eyes closed, she looked almost like a worn-out corpse, if not for the faint breathing.
Due to the urgency, the medicine Charlie used on her, although unsightly and foul-smelling, was indeed valuable and not something money could buy. He always carried it for emergencies, never expecting to use it on an adversary.
“What are you planning to do with her? Keep her?” Louis looked up, noticing that although her life was saved, she looked hardly better than dead. Louis’s strike hadn’t killed her instantly but had induced a deep coma.
Releasing her was out of the question. Her obsession with Charlie was both strange and intense. If she were let go, once recovered, she would likely continue causing trouble, especially now that Louis had exposed himself. Who knew what she might do upon seeing a face so similar to Charlie’s?
But since they were keeping her alive due to the curse, they at least needed to find a secure place to restrict her movements, which plainly meant imprisonment, which was safer. But Elena was no ordinary woman. Giving her a house and two maids to live quietly in the countryside wasn’t enough—not to mention maids, even ordinary men were no match for her. To confine her, manpower and meticulous planning were needed—something Charlie, who had spent most of his life in exile, likely couldn’t manage. Although Louis had the capability, being a Wolf cadre, his every move was monitored by the family, and any slip might lead to further investigation.
Charlie also felt the situation was troublesome.
Elena’s magical power was strong. Even assigning two mages specifically to guard her wasn’t necessarily secure, and legitimate mages had to report to the Association, not to mention participating in events like the Magic Congress and regular assessments—’guarding Witch Elena’ was certainly not a job to be made public.
He had indeed known many who later became mages, as well as some mentors with sufficient magical power to be fully trustworthy, but having vanished from the human world for years, suddenly reappearing to ask them to solve a difficult problem felt too presumptuous, even for someone as thick-skinned as Charlie.
“If it were in Pennigra, I could place her in the green forest,” Charlie worriedly said. “Without permission, she definitely can’t leave at will, and outsiders can’t easily enter—it’s a huge natural maze.”
“Don’t they have such places in Doran?” Louis asked. “Both continents are equally vast, with many unexplored, mysterious lands.” If necessary, he could commission a third party to scout suitable locations and personnel at an auction.
“I believe Doran does too. It’s just that this isn’t my territory. To restrict entry and ensure I understand enough to control the place is simply…” Charlie suddenly stopped speaking.
Doran did have such places, but he had always been reluctant to think about them.
Places that couldn’t be easily entered or left, where normal life could continue—someone had lived there for many years, and his friend had melted into a pile of tin there.
Daisy’s castle.
The author has something to say:
Regarding the child, as long as the current Holy Grail is alive, no new Holy Grail will be born.
Priscilla’s pregnancy was accidental (subjectively, she didn’t want a child by Lestrop, and since Louis isn’t her husband, she definitely wouldn’t have willingly had his child), so whether Louis allows it or not doesn’t matter.
Many guessed in the previous chapter, the uncle still played them one last time as a final precaution to keep the secret, because he was destined to die young, and no one can guarantee that brothers who depended on each other as children wouldn’t grow apart as they grew older—that’s how suspicious he was.
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