Chapter 9
I’m About to Ascend to Heaven From the Double Combo of Hug and Hand-Feeding by My Absolute Fave

Father built a laboratory where he gathered only the best and most reliable people under his command. Or so I heard. For this matter, he had only told the royal court that he was thinking of branching out into a new business, and he had received proper permission from His Majesty. 

It was considered to be common sense not to write down too many details about the business. In the past, I heard there was a homicide at the Royal Palace following the submission of a very detailed business plan after it was stolen and then imitated; since then, it was no longer needed to write plans so meticulously. 

The killing of noblemen in the Royal Palace was said to be a disgraceful affair, which affected trade with neighbouring countries and had served as a bitter lesson. Nevertheless, if any illegal business was discovered, they would be caught, and if necessary, the whole family could be executed, for the Royal Palace were very proficient in handling matters like these, or so I’d heard.

I had been repeating ‘It was said’ or ‘I heard’ since these were all things I’d heard from Father as he’d happily explained it to me, even though I could only understand about half of it. I was just terribly bad with political matters, okay! I had zero interest in the world’s news and events.

My whole interest went to my absolute fave after all!

Thus, Father, who had legitimately started the greenhouse and the laboratory, immediately involved someone who seemed to be his right-hand man. This person had been invited to dinner with us. 

I was greeted as I held Brother’s hand.

“Alba, this is my friend, the Marquis of Wald.”

“Marquis…Wald,”

The man my father casually introduced me to was, to my surprise, the Prime Minister of our country. He had wrinkles between his eyebrows and his glasses were shining. The man with the dour face had the air of a man at a high seat of the country. 

And then, behind him was a boy.

“I’m Bruno En Wald.”

The one who greeted me with a dour face just like his father was… unexpectedly one of the capture targets—but the shota version.

Even if my preferences had widened lately, my capacity for shota was already full with Brother. There was no space for another.

If I was not mistaken, this person was an aide to the prince and always strived to make the prince appear great. I couldn’t remember in detail, though.

“Bruno will be helping me with my research. He’s a very clever boy, a genius.”

So, he is a genius. If they say that, it must mean that he’s really insanely smart. But wait… 

I tried to jog my memory about him; I remembered he was always ranked lower than the prince in the examination results announced at the school. Brother would lead with first place, while the prince would hover around second to fifth place. And Bruno seemed to be going up and down to suit him.   

The names of all the capture targets would appear every time on the examination results. Of course, the name of the MC—as chosen by the player—would be there too. In the game, the list would be cut off in the middle with ‘…’; but it left me wondering, would the names of all students be posted in the corridor? Urgh, I’d hate that.

“Even more of a genius compared to Brother?”

Brother had never lost to this guy ever. Leaking such fierce emotions, I asked Father, to which he chuckled and replied, “I’ve never compared them.” 

“Alba, I’ve heard that Bruno finished a book in a few hours that I had a hard time reading. Rumour has it that he remembers even the most trivial things. He must have a very good memory. You can’t compare me to him.”

“‘Oh, really? I’m sorry.”

“Why is Alba apologising?” My brother smiled at me, and I felt so much adoration for him that I couldn’t help but hug him. It was too late for me to realize that I was being immodest in front of the guests.

I timidly raised my head and looked up at the Prime Minister, who, perhaps because of Father’s presence beside him, had not said a word, but had clinked his glasses.

“Well, Alba. Father has to talk to his friend, see you later.” Father stroked me on the head while I was still clinging to Brother, and then he left the parlour with the Prime Minister. 

We were having snack time with just the kids. The pastries were served in front of us, but none of us had touched them yet. I was taught not to reach for it until Father or Brother said it was okay to eat it, but to be honest, the older brother in my arms was more fascinating than the sweets, so I could put up with it.   

“Come on, Alba. Now that the fathers have left the room, you can eat the sweets. You can have some too, Bruno.”

“Thank you. I’ll have a bite.” Bruno replied very politely to what Brother had said, and a maid came over quietly to distribute the sweets onto each of our plates.

Brother bent down and picked up a piece of pastry and held it out in front of my face while I stayed glued to him.

“Come on, Alba, let’s eat. Well done for being patient.”

“Brother,” My belly was already full looking at his bright smile as he tried to feed me.

I’d still eat it anyway. I’d fully savour this precious pastry that my brother personally fed me, okay! 

When I think about it, the fact that I was being cuddled up to my brother while he fed me was heaven! I couldn’t help but wonder if I had just ascended to the heavens!

I found out later from our conversation that Bruno-kun1 was called upon not only because he was a genius, but also because he could use earth magic. When he heard that a laboratory had been built in our house, he showed great interest in it. The way he spoke about wanting to study flowers and plants, with a twinkle in his eye, was appropriate for his age.  

“Besides, my family lineage’s attribute is actually water. So, in order to maintain the water attribute in the family, it is better for my brother to take over as the next head. My father said that I should study hard and take over the position of Prime Minister while my brother should take over the family, but actually, I have never really wanted to be Prime Minister.”

I see… I listened to Bruno talking while eating the pastries.

It might have been explained in the game setting, but I really didn’t have much interest in anything other than Orsis-sama. But in Bruno’s route, there were a lot of scenes where he and Orsis-sama talked in a friendly manner, so I didn’t dislike him. After all, I believed that anyone who got along with my absolute fave could never be a bad person. 

On the other hand, the son of the the knights commander—another capture target—had quite an unpleasant relationship with Orsis-sama. A musclehead vs a cool, intelligent type. You could only imagine the repulsion between those two.

But it was only in the route of this knights commander’s son that I could see Orsis-sama become unusually furious, so it was also valuable in a way. But the fact that he had made Orsis-sama furious already lowered his merits in my eyes. 

The three of us spent some time walking around the garden and reading books in the library until our fathers finished their discussion. Bruno had heard about my chronic illness and was very kind to me, looking out for me the whole time; he was indeed very courteous. Perhaps he was just an incredibly considerate person. That would explain the aforementioned exam results.  

As I glanced at Bruno, who was happily discussing a difficult book with Brother, I grimaced a little. As I remembered, regarding Bruno, he would overtake Orsis-sama’s ranking and become the first when the player did something. I recalled some of my friends making a fuss about how he was overtaken. 

Yeah, I was also shocked at the time, so I wouldn’t do that particular thing to avoid seeing Orsis-sama fall into second place.