Still, despite his knees buckling under the pressure, Noxian stood his ground. The suffocating aura around Darius made it hard to even breathe, but he wouldn’t back down. Not now.
"He is my brother," Noxian declared with a slight tremor in his voice. "I don’t want to see you hurt him again."
Darius said nothing, but his gaze turned colder than before.
"Do you even know what you did to him, Your Grace?" Noxian pressed on, his voice cracking further. "After he left you that night, he... he went too silent. He kept working non-stop, didn’t rest, didn’t even eat properly. When he saw , he just kept smiling, but... it wasn’t pretty at all."
Faintly visible mana flickered around Noxian’s legs as he quietly reinforced them. Without it, he’d have crumpled to the floor. But his blazing purple eyes never left the Archduke’s.
"He ended up with a fever so bad, we thought he might not make it. A fever! That may sound like nothing to you, but for us commoners... it’s a death sentence."
Noxian stressed the word commoners as if it would bring a distance between them. Nobles and commoners were not supposed to be so close after all.
Those were the social rules they all were supposed to abide by.
Darius’ face remained unreadable. His silence felt colder than anything he could’ve said. Even the air turned icy, and Noxian... he shuddered.
The teenager took a shaky breath "And he’s a healer, damn it," he continued bitterly.
"You know what he did? He ignored it. Said there were patients to treat. Said he needed to write books for the village kids."
Still, the Archduke offered no response and Noxian’s frustration boiled over.
His voice, despite the shudders, rose. "You think that’s fine, Your Grace?"
And yet there was still no response from the Archduke. That silence only infuriated Noxian to the extre. His fists curled.
"We nearly lost him. But by so miracle, he survived and... none of us ever ntioned you again."
Noxian had seen how Xion was on the verge of collapse for days even months. At first, he would try to stay away from Xion, afraid to be another burden.
However, when he noticed how much Xion cared about him, Noxian started using that to his advantage.
Call him a heartless brat, but if getting injured ant Xion would focus on him, then Noxian would take the scratches, the bruises. He would’ve done it a hundred tis over if it helped his brother smile again.
That’s how he got his brother back.
So if the Archduke dared to throw Xion back into that darkness... Noxian wasn’t going to stand by quietly.
The only reason he hadn’t already punched Darius in the face was because, unbelievably, Xion had kissed him.
Damn it.
It burned. It infuriated him. After everything, why had Xion fallen for the sa man again?
He’d pretended not to understand when he was younger. But now... it all made sense.
Noxian swallowed down his anger and said quietly, "I know you like him, Your Grace. I just... don’t want to see him hurt again. He’s been through enough."
Over the years, there hadn’t been a shortage of people who wanted Xion. Even princes from Valeria’s royal family had tried. If it weren’t for Serena, Xion might’ve been dragged back to Myrthia already.
And though it killed Noxian to admit it, truly, there was only one man who had both the power and the audacity to challenge royalty.
Darius Rael Darkhelm. The devil Archduke of the north.
In the end, Noxian was just a younger brother trying to protect the person who’d always protected him.
A long silence stretched between them. Darius’ eyes had darkened, so much that Noxian could barely et them.
Darius’ jaw tightened. A new belief ford in his mind, a dangerously tempting thought... sweet as roses, and just as thorny.
If Xion had felt so deeply... did that not an he had liked him romantically even then?
And if that was true... then wasn’t it his fault? His own arrogance, his pride, his blindness that had pushed Xion away?
All this ti, he had believed he was the only one who had suffered.
But maybe... maybe Xion had suffered even more.
Maybe Xion had felt terrible even while being by his side.
Yet none of that showed on Darius’ face. If anything, he looked colder than before.
Finally, he spoke in a deceptively calm voice. "Xion is the last person I want to hurt."
The words were few, but there was sothing undeniable in them.
Noxian couldn’t argue with that. Not when those scary green eyes looked strangely full of conviction.
The teenager opened his mouth, then shut it again. He had no title, no authority, no ans to oppose a man like Darius. No right, really.
But for Xion’s sake, he could, maybe, trust him.
Exhaling slowly, he let his tense shoulders relax. "...I’ll trust you this ti, Your Grace. But if he ends up sick again, I’ll personally throw you into a swamp full of orcs."
Just as those words left his lips, a weight also lifted from his chest
So long as Xion was happy... Noxian could be generous. Very generous, in fact.
He would even give this cold-hearted bastard a chance to prove he was worthy.
How could this old fox, who played with others’ emotions, couldn’t figure out thoughts circling in that little head?
A flicker of amusent touched Darius’ lips. "Sure, you do that."
And then, with maddening nonchalance, he said, "See you later, my future brother-in-law."
Barely calm Noxian: "..." I might just kill this devil!
He stared at Darius’s back, absolutely dismayed, mana flaring around his fists.
But Darius had already turned around the corner, completely disregarding Noxian’s presence.
The purple furry beast glared at the empty hallway.
"Future brother-in-law, my ass."
He kicked the wall hard enough to put a slight crack on it.
"Next ti, I will definitely punch him in that smug face of his!"
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