Erhan was dressed comfortably, unlike the formal attire he had worn at the banquet. Despite being tired from dealing with the banquet all day, he was still working at this late hour.

“What were you talking about with your ex-wife for so long? There are persistent rumors that you’re getting back together with Genevieve, who’s left the Raven family.”

“What nonsense is that? Nothing happened.”

“Not even in the future?”

“No, nothing will happen then either.”

I smiled at the idle chat and placed the bottle on the desk.

It had been two years since I escaped the Empire and returned here. We had changed a lot in that time. Due to my long illness, I had become gaunt, and no matter how hard I tried, I could no longer be as carefree as before. With so many thoughts in my head, nothing interested me, and I wasn’t happy.

‘We’ve both changed a lot.’

Erhan had undergone changes too. Well, a lot had happened to Erhan. Suddenly inheriting the title, Erhan had matured a lot while preparing to become the head of the family.

Since Erhan had been busy and I had been living half out of my mind, it had been a very long time since we’d talked like this, just the two of us.

“Congratulations on becoming the Duke, brother. Or should I call you Lord Duke now?”

“…Hmm. That’s not bad either.”

Erhan slowly raised his head and stared at me intently.

“I wonder why you’ve come at this hour.”

Seeing Erhan slightly furrowing his brow, I thought that while you might fool a ghost, you can’t fool him. Feeling awkward about getting straight to the point, I deliberately changed the subject and picked up a blanket from the sofa.

“That seat by the window is cold. Cover yourself quickly.”

It was the heartfelt advice of someone who had caught a cold twice from sitting absentmindedly by the window.

But Erhan just stared at my hand offering the blanket, not taking it. Wondering why he was acting like this, I stood up and draped the blanket over his shoulders myself. Erhan said, as if dumbfounded:

“Why are you worried about me? Honestly, I’m not someone who needs to be worried about.”

“Covering someone who’s cold with a blanket is just natural.”

At my answer, Erhan gazed at me steadily.

“…Is that so? It’s natural, huh.”

After a brief silence, Erhan replied thus and gripped the blanket I had draped over him. I looked at Erhan like that, wondering how to broach the subject.

“So.”

Just then, Erhan broke the silence first.

“Coming at such a late hour and trying to put me in a good mood, it seems you have a purpose.”

I hadn’t particularly tried to put him in a good mood, but it was true that I had a reason for coming. Erhan, with his good intuition, seemed to have sensed something. Unable to delay any longer, I took out the paper I had prepared from inside my clothes and held it out.

Erhan unfolded the paper with a puzzled expression. And as soon as he opened it, the first line read:

[Oscar Serpentine requests expulsion from Erhan Serpentine, Duke of Serpentine.]

“…Huh?”

Erhan looked at me with a forced laugh.

“Expulsion?”

This was my answer after much deliberation.

“The Duke asked me to become your person.”

For a moment, Erhan couldn’t hide his surprise. Then he smiled bitterly and sighed.

“…So Father said what I was going to say first.”

“You were going to say something like that too, brother?”

“Of course.”

Erhan’s bitter smile was exactly like the Duke’s. After staring at the paper for a long while, Erhan spoke in a subdued voice.

“Oscar, would you give the same answer if I asked you directly to become my person?”

“…Actually, I’ve been thinking about expulsion for a long time. Until now, I’ve been busy with family matters and trying to reassure Mother, and now that you’ve safely inherited the title of Duke…”

“Still.”

But Erhan cut me off. He hesitated, unable to continue speaking for a moment, then carefully pleaded:

“Can’t you just stay by my side?”

For a moment, my breath caught.

Is it my imagination that the ash-colored eyes looking at me seemed a bit desperate?

Today, Erhan looked particularly lonely. But I had to be firm.

“Even if you and the Duke ask, I can’t. I have a prior engagement.”

“A prior engagement?”

I smiled at Erhan, who asked back quizzically. I narrowed my eyes into crescents. Pulling up my lips to form a straight arc, I said the words I had been longing to say.

“It’s time for me to go find someone too.”

Just saying it makes me choke up. Swallowing the emotions rising inside me, I barely managed to look at Erhan.

“My person.”

It’s strange. Saying the words “my person” out loud, which I had only thought in my head before, made my heart ache.

Erhan stared at me blankly. Having finished all my business, I cleared my throat a bit awkwardly.

“I’ll be going now. I have a long way to go, so I need to start preparing now.”

Erhan, finally coming to his senses, hardened his face. He seemed to have already guessed where I was going.

“That person will kill you, Oscar.”

“It’s okay.”

I immediately shook my head.

“Even if I die, it doesn’t matter.”

I had been thinking about this countless times too. For the past two years, I hadn’t really been living even though I was alive. Every moment without him was too bitter and painful. I’d rather die by his side.

“I’m already living as if I’m dead anyway.”

I had already made up my mind.

Knowing that no words could persuade me, Erhan let out a low sigh. He asked, as if resigned:

“Are you prepared?”

“Almost finished.”

“…Good heavens, you’re fast.”

He muttered, sighing as if he couldn’t stop me.

“Oscar, you truly are a terrible Serpentine.”

“What? You and the Duke are the true Serpentines.”

When I added those words, Erhan burst into laughter.

Unlike when I was young, I no longer found Erhan scary. Perhaps, as Erhan said, it’s because I’ve become a person of House Serpentine.

“You must come back, Oscar.”

But it’s mostly thanks to them truly considering me as family.

Looking at Erhan, who was now no different from my real brother, I smiled gently.

“The night seems long today, doesn’t it?”

Instead of answering that I would return, I slowly looked out the window and asked back.

Despite the pitch-black night of the Serpentine mansion, strangely, it wasn’t scary unlike before.

***

Back in his room, Oscar fidgeted with the paper in his hand.

“…”

He stared silently at the rolled-up paper for a while. Then he slowly walked to the place where a large framed picture hung next to the door. Standing in front of it, Oscar was about to unfold the paper in his hand but stopped. As he hesitated, Erhan’s words from earlier came to mind.

“Expulsion is absolutely not allowed. But I’ll give you some good news.”

The paper he handed over like that.

“Whenever you change your mind, tell me, Oscar.”

Although Erhan hadn’t said anything else, somehow Oscar felt he knew what was written in it.

After hesitating, Oscar finally took down the frame hanging on the wall. A large map hidden behind the frame was revealed. The map, which marked the topography of a specific region, was densely covered with countless letters. As if information had been added over a long period, notes written on paper were layered on top of each other.

Although there were extensive materials with vast information as if pages torn from books had been attached, the map was full of X marks. Only five areas were not crossed out with X marks.

“…Hah.”

Click, Oscar put down the picture and let out a small breath.

“Please.”

Then he unfolded another map that had been folded right next to it. It was a map with coordinates marked in six places.

Oscar narrowed his eyes for a moment, looking alternately at the paper Erhan had given him and the map. Then he immediately went to the desk and began to interpret the coordinates.

Before long, Oscar, having interpreted the coordinates, stared at the map drawn on the wall with a tense face. With trembling fingertips, he began to point to one place at a time. This place doesn’t overlap with the mark either. Moving his fingertip to reach another place, it didn’t overlap either. As he continued pointing one by one, his hand suddenly stopped at a certain point on the map.

“…”

The point where the mark and coordinates overlapped. It was clean without an X.

Oscar stared blankly at the spot he had pointed to for a while, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Beren?”

It was one of the five places Oscar had been suspecting until recently.

Oscar, who had finally drawn a circle on just one place among countless X’s, slumped down in his seat as if sliding.

‘Zachary.’

Oscar’s eyes trembled finely as he looked at the bright red circle.

For two years, Oscar had been searching for the disappeared Zachary.