“Don’t help until it’s fully restored.”

The duke earnestly requested the employees. The employees swallowed dryly and turned their gaze to the garden visible through the window.

In the garden, two boys were busy moving about.

Besides the twins, only one gardener was allowed to enter the garden, and he was informing the twins about the locations of the uprooted trees.

“Where? Should I put it here?”

“Yes, yes! That’s right!”

Daiban, using magic to lift the tree, drove it root-first into the sunken ground.

A thudding sound spread around, and the ground trembled slightly.

“What’s next?”

“N-next is over there, that fallen tree…”

Moving the trees was Daiban’s job. Michael was replanting the uprooted flowers and grass.

“Um, young master.”

“What?”

“That flower doesn’t belong there…”

At the gardener’s cautious words, Michael slightly raised one eyebrow. Intimidated by that gaze, the gardener shut his mouth tightly.

“Ah, it’s nothing…”

After the gardener retreated, Michael narrowed his eyes and watched his brother wasting magic to move trees.

As punishment for causing trouble in the garden, they had to restore it exactly as it was. The time limit was just one day; if they couldn’t solve it within that time, they’d have to write 100 pages of reflection.

Daiban, who was the worst at sitting still and passing time, was working harder than anyone to restore the garden quickly after hearing that.

Michael, who originally spent a lot of time sitting and reading books, didn’t care much about how many pages of reflection he had to write. So unlike Daiban, who was busily carrying trees and moving around, Michael’s actions were leisurely. Seeing this, Daiban fumed.

“Hey, aren’t you going to hurry up?!”

“You just…”

At that moment, Michael noticed a faint red energy mixing into one of Daiban’s eyes.

Seeing this, Michael narrowed his eyes.

After silently glaring at Daiban for a while, Michael sighed deeply and stood up.

It was clear as day that if he rebutted once more in this situation, it would lead to a second round.

“You take care of that side.”

Leaving Daiban behind, Michael gently flowed magic between the uprooted flowers.

Using magic, he instantly restored the broken flowers. It was noticeably faster than when he had been planting them one by one by hand just moments ago.

His gaze also went to the broken trees Daiban was carrying.

Michael tried releasing a bit more magic than before. A hot energy swirled around his hand and then spread out wider into the surroundings.

At that moment, Michael flinched his hand. As if feeling a sharp pain, he furrowed his brow and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist.

Daiban, who had planted the last tree root and all with one hand, approached Michael.

“I’m done, how about you?”

“…Me too.”

It wasn’t perfectly the same as before, but it was at least somewhat better than the mess it had been earlier.

Michael also confirmed that most things were in order, dusted off his pants, and stood up.

At that moment, a momentary strange energy spread from the mansion.

Daiban’s gaze immediately turned towards the mansion. He nudged Michael beside him.

“You felt that too, right?”

Michael tilted his head slightly. He had felt it, but it was for such a fleeting moment. Now, as if that energy had been an illusion, he couldn’t feel anything.

“I’m not sure…”

“It was from that room.”

The room Daiban pointed to was where the new sibling was staying. Michael didn’t deny it since he had felt the energy from the same place.

“Let’s go check it out.”

Unlike Michael, who showed clear signs of annoyance, Daiban’s eyes sparkled like a predator that had found its prey.

[This is the timeline separator]

In the original work, Elizer contracted with the divine beast as soon as it approached him. The divine beast didn’t need to persuade Elizer.

Elizer had no reason to refuse the contract with the divine beast. Rather, he needed that power.

At that time, Elizer was just a powerless child, so he would have made the contract immediately without thinking twice, right?

This time too, the divine beast came to me first.

I couldn’t help but wonder. Why does this divine beast try so hard to contract with humans?

Moreover, another name for the divine beast is dragon, said to cause earthquakes that dry up the sea when it roars and make the world tremble when it strikes its tail. So why did the divine beast appear before me in this small form of a white snake, rather than its true form?

Even in the original work, the divine beast doesn’t reveal its true form from the start. It gradually transformed into its true form as time passed.

‘Maybe it’s not that it didn’t show, but that it couldn’t show.’

[Yes, what do you know?]

The silver snake showed clear signs of displeasure, tapping the table with its tail. Having spent a few days with the silver snake, I could immediately recognize that expression.

The look of embarrassment evident beyond the displeased expression.

“You wouldn’t contract just to save a mere child like me.”

[Oh, my! Has this lowly creature been deceived all along!]

“You have a reason why you must save people, right?”

[Th-that…!]

I had just picked one of several possibilities, but the divine beast’s mouth fell open. Anyone could see it had been hit right on the mark.

“Why? Why do you need to save people,”

[A-Another lowly creature is coming!]

At that moment, the silver snake quickly hid under the bed. Simultaneously, someone roughly knocked on the door from outside. It wasn’t the sound of knocking with hands, but kicking with feet.

It couldn’t be Sophia or Delma, and neither the duke nor Clemens would knock like that.

In the end, only one person came to mind.

“…Daiban?”

“What, how did you know?”

Sure enough, standing in front of the door were Daiban and Michael. Their hands were covered in dirt, and soil dust was still scattered here and there on their clothes.

‘They must have come from cleaning up the garden.’

I had heard earlier. As punishment for fighting and causing a commotion in the house, the twins were cleaning up the garden.

‘Looks like they’ve finished.’

Looking out the window to check the garden, I could see the fallen trees had found their places and were standing quietly in the ground again.

‘Though it’s not as perfectly organized as before.’

Considering how messy the garden had been earlier, it was impressive that they had cleaned it up this much in less than an hour.

“Is this your bedroom?”

Daiban, who had entered the room, crossed his arms. When I nodded, his gaze scanned around the room askew. He seemed to be looking for something.

“What are you looking for?”

“Don’t you have any other rooms besides this? Where’s the library? Where’s the playroom?”

“I don’t have such rooms…”

“Then what about the dressing room?”

“Don’t have one.”

“You must have a study room. Show me.”

When I shook my head, Daiban frowned deeply.

“What? If you don’t even have a study room, where do you study?”

“I just… in this room?”

“How can you study in a bedroom? Where do you keep things like books? There doesn’t seem to be anywhere to put writing materials!”

Daiban asked, pointing out each detail. I looked around the spacious room once and thought.

‘Can’t I do everything in this room?’

Although it’s called a bedroom, my room was actually very, very spacious.

It was incomparably larger than the house I used to live in, with a separate bathroom connected, and there was even more space in that corner to roll around and play if it were filled with toys.

In fact, although I hadn’t studied much until now, there was a table over there, so there was no big problem when practicing writing or reading books.

Daiban shook his head as if he had heard something ridiculous.

“Anyone who hears this would think you’re a kid who studies really hard.”

Seeing this, Michael lightly mocked him. Daiban glared at Michael with a sharp gaze.

‘Oh no, they shouldn’t fight in my room!’

I really had just one room. I had heard that Clemens and the twins had other rooms, but I didn’t need that many rooms yet.

I was nervously watching, worried about what would happen if these twins fought in my room again, when Michael was the first to turn his gaze away.

“We came because we felt a strange energy from your room.”

“Strange energy?”

“Yes, we felt an unpleasant energy.”

‘Could they be talking about the energy the silver snake used?’

Just earlier, the silver snake had suddenly enlarged its body in front of me. Though not its complete true form, it had transformed into something very similar to its true form.

‘So that’s why the twins noticed.’

“Well, it’s not like you would know anything if we told you.”

Daiban shrugged his shoulders and started looking around the room again. I followed him around, hiding my anxious feelings.

“Nothing happened to me! Could it be that you two were mistaken?”

“What do you take us for!”

I had only casually brought it up, but Daiban flared up. This time, he was heading towards my bed.

“I definitely felt it-”

“Da-Daiban!”

“?”

“Come to think of it, weren’t you hurt earlier?”

“What, are you worried about me now?”

Daiban grumbled but spread out both arms wide.

“Here, take a good look. As if I would be affected by something like that…”

At that moment, the door burst open again. The duke, who entered the room first, narrowed his eyes. Clemens, who followed, didn’t look pleased either.

I could guess what they were thinking. It seemed the twins thought the same, as their expressions also showed shock.

“To your younger sibling again,”

“Daiban!”

As the duke started to speak, I quickly grabbed Daiban’s hand and said.

“I’ll accept your apology! I’m fine!”

Then I quickly ran to Michael and snatched his hand as well.

“Michael too! Don’t worry too much, I’m not hurt at all!”

“What do you mean? Are you saying the twins came to apologize to you?”

The duke asked to confirm.

“Yes, they both apologized and played with me too!”

Then I grinned at the twins.

“Right?”

[This is the timeline separator]

‘We didn’t get scolded.’

Daiban stared blankly at the ceiling after returning to his room. It was all thanks to Diane defending them.

‘This is really absurd.’

Soon, he got up abruptly and started throwing toys out of the box full of toys behind his back.

“How impertinent.”

He hadn’t gone to apologize to Diane, as his father and older brother thought.

Apologize? No way. He had even thought about catching proper evidence of the strange energy he felt from that room and using it as an excuse to kick her out completely. Whether she knew this or not, she carelessly defended them.

After clearing away the toys piled on top, he noticed a few blocks they used to play with when they were young.

‘The young miss likes block stacking games the most.’

That’s what Sophia had told him. He hadn’t asked out of particular curiosity, just casually mentioned it in passing.

Daiban rummaged through the box and took out all the block toys. He hugged them in his arms and strode out of the room.

Michael narrowed his eyes at Daiban’s actions.

He had been hoping for him to leave his room, but why was he taking things from his room?

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to properly fix some habits while I’m at it.”

“Whose?”

“The youngest’s.”

As the gray back of his head left the room without looking back, Michael sent a bitter gaze and thought.

‘If you’re grateful, just say thank you.’