"Get on the bed."
Lena stood up, he placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed, she fell back onto the mattress with a soft gasp.
Alex climbed onto the bed after her.
He wrapped his hand around her leg, just below the knee, and spread out her legs exposing her bright pink pussy.
Her pussy was already dripping wet and waiting to take in the full length of his cock.
Alex gulped. "She’s so wet, years of holding back and enduring all pouring out for me."
He put his hands on his dick and directed it to the entrance of her pussy. He circled it around her pussy lips, making a statement that a bulldozer is about to make an entrance.
Lena shivered, her eyes did not leave his face.
Just as he was about to slip his cock in, a hand touched his stomach. Alex stopped.
It was a light touch, just fingertips. He looked down.
Lena’s arm was stretched out towards him, her palm placed just below his navel, holding him back.
"...Lena?"
Her gaze had slid away from his, toward the door.
’What is this? Is she backing out? Now?’
It made no sense. He had seen the look in her eyes. He had felt her body respond to his every touch.
"Lena. Why are you stopping me?"
She finally looked at him.
"Young master," she said quietly. "Someone is approaching this room."
Alex stared at her.
"...What?"
He listened.
The room was silent. Not a single sound from the corridor outside, only the soft rustle of the curtain.
"I don’t hear anything."
"You would not," Lena said. "I can feel them."
"Feel them?"
"Their mana, young master. They are still on the stairs, but they are coming this way. Quickly."
Alex opened his mouth to ask what on earth she was talking about.
Then he stopped.
’Mana, right. This is a fantasy world.’
The people here could use mana. And apparently, people who could use mana could sense each other.
’It’s like radar. She can feel someone walking up a staircase through two walls and a floor.’
Her expression cooled.
"Lena."
She turned her head toward him.
"Your expression changed," he said slowly. "Just now. Your face. Who is it coming to this room?"
Lena was silent for a moment. Her fingers curled slightly against his skin.
"It is... young master Daniel, your brother."
The words hung in the air. Then very quietly, he clicked his tongue.
"Tch."
Of course.
Of all the people in the estate to have such bad timing, it was his brother.
He closed his eyes for a second and let his head hang forward.
They had never gotten along. Every time Daniel came into this room, something happened.
And each time, the old Alex had sat there silently and taken it, until Daniel had grown tired of the game and left.
Alex’s jaw tightened.
’And the worst part is that as I am now, he can easily beat the shit out of me...’
Daniel had a class and a fully awakened core. If it came down to a fight, there would be no contest at all. The younger twin could break his arm without even trying.
Alex let out a slow breath through his nose.
"Young master."
Alex looked up.
"They are at the door."
The words had barely left her mouth when Alex heard it, too.
Footsteps, right outside.
Alex’s hand was still resting on Lena’s leg.
He let go.
He moved back quickly, dragging the corner of the sheet across his waist and pulling his legs together. Lena slid away from him in the same breath. She sat on the bed, drew the thick blanket up from the foot of the mattress, and wrapped it tightly around her body, tucking the edge beneath her arm.
Then the doorknob turned. A figure stepped inside and Alex looked up.
The first thing he saw was the hair.
It was white, with a few loose pieces brushing the edges of his eyes. And beneath it, those eyes were blue.
A deep, piercing blue. They moved over the room without any hurry.
He was tall. His shoulders were straight. His clothes were dark, finely tailored, with a thin silver embroidery along the collar.
Mana.
Even Alex, with a sealed core, could feel something.
’So this is Daniel.’
Alex stared at him, caught somewhere between irritation and curiosity.
It occurred to him then that he had not yet seen his own face since coming to this world. And this was his twin brother.
’Does that mean... Do I look exactly like him?’
A second figure slipped quietly through the open door and stopped half a step behind Daniel.
It was a woman. She wore the same black maid uniform as Lena. Her hair was a deep black, braided over one shoulder. Her eyes were a soft green and lowered politely toward the floor.
’I know her. She is Daniel’s personal maid and the second maid that can utilise mana in this estate."
"When did you become so high?"
Alex’s thoughts snapped off.
Daniel had not moved from the doorway. His hands were clasped neatly behind his back, and his blue eyes rested on Alex.
"When did you become so high that you can dishonour a summons from our father?"
Alex blinked.
’...What? A summons? Nobody told me anything about a summons.’
His eyes slid toward Lena, she had lowered her head, and her fingers were wound tightly in the edge of the blanket. She did not meet his gaze.
’Lena didn’t say a word about it either. Did she know?’
He pushed the question aside and turned back to his brother.
"Hold on. What are you talking about? I don’t know about any..."
"Shut up."
The words cut through the room like a blade. Daniel’s lip curled very slightly.
"You filthy scum. I don’t want to hear your excuses."
Alex’s mouth was still half open. He closed it. He swallowed it down.
’Calm down. You don’t know this guy. You don’t know what’s going on. Don’t do anything stupid, yet.’
Daniel’s gaze moved. It slid past Alex’s shoulder, down toward the foot of the bed, and stopped.
Alex felt the shift in the air before he saw it.
The blue eyes sharpened. They went from cold to something far more dangerous, and the hairs along Alex’s arms stood up.
Behind him, Lena trembled. A quiet shudder that ran through the blanket and through her shoulders.
Daniel stepped into the room. He crossed it slowly until he came to the side of the bed and stood right beside Alex.
"You were sent here to summon him."
His voice was soft. Almost gentle.
"And you went and fucked him instead."
Lena’s fingers went white on the blanket.
"What a whore."
Lena did not answer. She did not raise her head. She did not defend herself. She just sat there, with her eyes fixed on her knees, as if she had been trained a long time ago to hear words like that and say nothing.
And that was what did it. Alex felt something snap inside him.
He had known this woman for less than a day. But...
"Daniel."
His voice came out low and even.
"Watch your words."
Daniel’s head turned.
For the first time since entering the room, he looked straight at his brother. His eyebrows lifted by a fraction. There was real surprise in his blue eyes.
Then he laughed. He threw back his head, and his white hair swayed with the motion.
And then, it stopped.
His smile vanished.
"What the hell are you going to do," he said softly, "if I don’t?"
He turned back to Lena, raised his right hand bringing it down towards Lena.
Her face went pale. She did not raise her arms or lean away. She only turned her face to the side and shut her eyes tightly, bracing herself for the impact.
Daniel’s arm swung down. Alex moved before he had decided to. His hand simply shot out, and his fingers closed around his brother’s wrist, an inch from Lena’s cheek.
Smack.
The sound of the catch smacked through the room. Daniel’s arm stopped dead.
Lena slowly opened one eye. She stared at the hand wrapped around Daniel’s wrist, then at the man it belonged to, and her eyes went very wide.
Behind Daniel, the green-eyed maid covered her mouth. Daniel stared down at his own arm.
His face had gone blank. He tried to pull back, and Alex’s fingers tightened until the knuckles turned white.
"Call me whatever you want..."
His thumb pressed into the soft inside of Daniel’s wrist.
"...those words mean nothing to me."
Daniel’s pupils shrank.
"But she is mine, my responsibility. If she has to be punished, I will decide it. Not you."
He leaned in.
"Raise your hand to her again, and I’ll take it off at the wrist."