The Reincarnated Villainous Young Master's Guide to Happiness

Chapter 14: Coffee

---

The very next day, Aurelion received a letter from the knight patrol captain.

Titus' goons all died in the middle of the night in their jail cells.

Just as predicted, the case with the kidnapping wasn't as simple as it seemed.

There were other powers at play, but he couldn't figure out the intent.

"Aurelion."

In the middle of the hallway, Aurelion found himself once again standing in front of Nazareth.

Today, his brother wore his hair in a small, loose tail. He had forgone a waistcoat and merely donned a white shirt, looking strangely underdressed despite being fully covered.

Aurelion noticed how both of them were carrying a folder. He raised an inquiring brow.

Why did it look like his brother had more paper than he did?

He felt oddly jealous of Nazareth's connections all of a sudden.

Aurelion hadn't spoken to his brother since yesterday.

It wasn't until he crawled into bed, fully exhausted by the day's event, did he realized what he had done.

Nazareth had saved him. Maybe.

Nazareth was about to kill someone for him. Maybe.

Nazareth patted him on the head and told him to keep his knife.

Yes.

The knife was under his pillow.

Definitely.

Guinivere would be very jealous of his new knife, were his last thoughts, before fatigue had dragged him into a dreamless sleep.

Standing in front of him, Nazareth expressionlessly held up his folder and cocked his head in a questioning manner. "Want to compare?"

Alarm bells rang instinctively in the back of his mind. His brother's presence didn't feel as threatening as it did the night before, but it was difficult to trust him.

People expected him and Nazareth to clash like ice and fire, but the reality wasn't as dramatic as some might assume.

There were days when they butted heads, but the two of them knew how to be deceptively pleasant with one another. Other than the assassination attempts, he and his brother tended to avoid each other as much as they could.

The tea party in the western garden didn't count for any of these categories and was just a very uncomfortable experience, overall. Aurelion preferred not to think about it.

Now their father placed both of them in charge of the investigation for the kidnapping. Their success was based on how well they worked together.

Whether or not this was his way of getting them to bond, Aurelion would rather be knifing down another kidnapper.

But, he sighed inwardly. Family came first and the incident could be related to the safety of the Odum Household. As the heir, he was obligated to protect the Ducal from any emerging threats.

Aurelion bit the arrowhead.

"... Sure."

They entered Nazareth's office.

This was his first time in here.

Nazareth's office was more spacious than he imagined... and brighter.

By the windows, there were jars full of dandelions and plant pots with budding sprouts.

He noticed a long table in one corner of the room with some bottles and containers. There were a few tools he recognized from the Alchemy Labs in school taking up some of the space on the table as well.