A tense silence drifted between the two brothers, thick as fog, as they locked eyes.
Kaisen, with a sly smile that suggested he'd just told a harmless joke—except it wasn't harmless at all—faced off against Kayden, whose expression was as serious as a tax audit.
Kaisen braced himself. He was almost certain Kayden was about to lose his cool and kick him out of the palace faster than a bouncer at a shady nightclub.
Hell, Kaisen didn't even know why he'd said it in the first place. It was like a little gremlin in his brain had taken control of his mouth, whispering that the outco might be different than he expected.
"Are you serious?"
Kayden asked, his tone as sharp as a dagger. Kaisen imdiately raised his hands in surrender.
"Nah, just kiddi—"
"Of course," Kayden interrupted, his voice smooth as silk. "If my dear brother wants her, she's yours. I'm not angry; I'm actually glad. She's all yours, brother."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Silence. Kaisen's jaw dropped like a cartoon character who just saw an anvil hanging over their head. He wasn't sure if his ears had malfunctioned or if he'd just stumbled into an alternate dinsion.
Seriously, who the hell offers their girlfriend to soone else, especially when that soone is your own flesh and blood?
Sothing was definitely fishy, and Kaisen could sll it like a week-old mackerel.
"Don't want her," Kaisen said flatly, his smile evaporating as quickly as it had appeared.
"Nah, you keep her."
Now it was Kayden's turn to grin, and it wasn't a friendly one. That sly, Cheshire cat smile was back, and it scread, "Gotcha."
"Nope. I was just joking, bro. I know how much you love Helena. She's all yours, no take-backs."
Kaisen said, doing his best to keep his cool, even though his brain was doing cartwheels. Kayden leaned in, giving Kaisen's shoulder a reassuring pat, like a mafia boss about to make an offer you couldn't refuse.
"No, brother. I insist. She's yours."
"..."
Kaisen's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, desperately trying to wrap his head around whether Kayden was actually serious.
Helena was a knockout—any guy with a pulse would be thrilled to have her on their arm. But the fact that Kayden was offering her up like a leftover sandwich? Yeah, sothing slled fishier than a seafood market on a hot day.
On one hand, maybe Kayden's heroic quest to save the world was so intense that he was willing to toss his girlfriend into the deal like she was a bonus prize in a cereal box.
But Kaisen knew his brother better than that. Kayden wasn't the type to sacrifice family, not unless there was sothing seriously wrong with that 'prize.'
"Helena is a beautiful girl. I know you've had your eye on her every ti she visits. I even told her to act all sexy and hot and get you hooked. And guess what? It worked. You're hooked. It's a win-win, brother. Helena gets you, and you get to dive back into the ga world for . So, please, brother, just say yes."
Kaisen's eye twitched.
"What the hell, Kayden?! I know you set her up to make look like a total idiot, but there's no way I'm buying that a sneaky bastard like you is just handing over your most prized possession. Spill it—what's the real deal, Kayden? WHAT'S THE REAL DEAL?!"
Kaisen bellowed, swatting Kayden's hand away like it was a buzzing fly. Kayden didn't flinch, just let out a sigh, and for the first ti in forever, a bitter smile spread across his face.
Kaisen squinted, trying to figure out what was going on. Kayden looked like a kid who just found out Santa was a scam—heartbroken and utterly defeated.
'What the hell is happening here? Did she cheat on him or sothing?'
Kaisen thought, scratching his head in confusion. Whatever it was, he needed to know what kind of ss he was walking into.
Was Helena the type of girl he'd keep around or just another pump and dump woman? That was the real question, and Kaisen's mind was spinning faster than a hamster on a wheel.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized he'd been going about things all wrong. He'd been treating his girls like they were just part of the ga—literally and figuratively—without giving them the attention they deserved.
But now, with the prospect of going back to the ga world, he was thinking maybe it was ti for a change. Maybe it was ti to stop playing around and start making sure his girls knew that he was the only player in their ga, and that they were all in this together, for real.
'Sable and Alice are mine, no doubt there. Aveline? Could be tad more. Elfie… well, that's a bit of a fuckin' puzzle, isn't it?'
One part of him wanted to play nice, be the good guy and all, but the other part, the dark, twisted side, was getting off on the idea of turning Lloyd into a pri-ti cuck, just like that proud knight Maximus who ended up a sniveling cuckold slave.
'Shit, the possibilities are endless!'
He thought, completely losing himself in the delicious depravity of it all, until Kayden slapped a hand on his shoulder—again. The bastard couldn't keep his hands to himself.
"Brother… she's, uh… she's batshit crazy."
"Huh?"
Kaisen blinked, trying to process the words. Helena? Batshit crazy? Was Kayden fucking serious, or was this so twisted joke?
"Yeah, man. All that power's gone to her head, and she's fucking corrupted. She wants to be treated like a Queen—and sure, I can give her that—but she wants to be her fucking slave too. What the actual fuck!"
Kayden snarled, teeth clenched like he was ready to chew through steel.
"The only reason I haven't offed her is because it'd make look bad. If I have her assassinated, it'll make the so-called impregnable Golden City of the new Emperor look like a joke. And if I kill her myself, well, then I'm the cold-blooded, power-hungry monster everyone expects to be. I'm fucked no matter what, brother."
Kaisen's jaw dropped like he'd just seen a unicorn strutting down the street. Helena, batshit crazy? Now he was starting to think Kayden was the one who'd lost his damn mind.
"What the fuck happened between you two for you to even think about killing her? What the hell went down after I vanished?"
Kaisen stared at Kayden like he'd just sprouted a second head. The whole thing was beyond belief, like finding out your pet goldfish had secretly been running a cri syndicate.
But, hey, Kaisen knew all too well that people could change—sotis in ways that made you want to strangle them with their own shoelaces.
Kayden sighed, shaking his head like he was trying to rattle loose the last bits of sanity.
"She's changed, I've changed. Power's like a fucking virus, brother. It's rotted us both from the inside out. I don't even know if there's any love left between us anymore. Fuck, maybe there never was. Co on, I'll spill the whole dirty story. Everything."
With that, Kayden threw an arm around Kaisen's neck, like they were two buddies reminiscing about old tis instead of discussing the collapse of a relationship. Kaisen eyed the arm with a mix of suspicion and annoyance, but he didn't shrug it off.
Kayden led him deeper into the castle, spilling his guts, Kaisen couldn't help but feel a weird sense of satisfaction.
It was like they'd hit so twisted milestone in their relationship, the kind where an annoying little brother and his nagging older sister stop trying to kill each other and start having real conversations.
It was almost like they'd finally grown up—except for the part where one of them was plotting world domination and the other was thinking about ways to screw more won.
A perfect pair of twins, they were.
"It's only been two fucking months, Kaisen. Two goddamn months of busting my ass to conquer the world, and Helena's out there getting jealous of everything that breathes. She wants to treat her like a queen—no, she
expects
it. But ? Nah, I'm too busy playing goddamn emperor."
Kaisen found himself grinning like an idiot, which was a rare sight for soone who usually treated others with the sa level of trust one might give a shady street vendor selling "genuine" Rolexes.
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