The room fell into a deathly silence.

But unlike the quiet stillness of the space, the mind of Cordia Maery exploded with an earth-shattering boom, the shockwaves of which shook up all her cogs, making them suddenly click in place. Abruptly, all of the incredulities over the last couple of days, as well as everything Levi said, fell into the right position. Like pieces of a puzzle that have finally been put together.

Levi said the two had met less than a week ago. Levi had first met her brother less than a week ago, too.

Levi claimed to have fallen in love with someone in the last couple of days. But ever since Levi came over to Concordia, he and her brother had been joined at the hip!!

Her little brother praised Levi into the heavens, which made her doubt life, thinking whether her bro had hit his head too hard. But, as it turned out, it wasn’t her brother’s brain that had problems, but Levi’s!

This shameless dawg wanted the other to like him, so he learned how to act cute!

When the two got into an accident, her little brother had written that tear-jerking essay about how Levi needed comforting!

She had found the idea of Astar Levi needing comforting absurd, but now she realized that this scum had put on a show to dupe her little brother into feeling pity for him!!!

And he even conned her brother into sleeping with him by bullshitting that he can’t sleep without his soothing!!!

Fucking hell! No wonder, when she saw the two of them earlier, she had mistaken her brother for the mistress at first glance! It wasn’t her eyes that had problems! It was Levi who was treating the other like his little darling!

Also, her mother had told her that Levi fell for someone, making her rush over here in a fury. But thinking back on it, her mother didn’t seem to be very upset or worried about the marriage alliance! Why would she be when Astar Levi was hellbent on marrying her son?!

And now that Maery thought about it, how would her mother even know about Levi’s romantic affairs? Simple – she had seen him act lovey-dovey with his darling!

Thinking some more, Levi had been trying to talk to her for several days now, mentioning an urgent matter. But things always got in the way of them having that chat.

Wait…

He had wanted to change the bride for several days now?!

Just how quickly did he fall for her little bro?! On fucking first sight?!

The more Maery thought, the more she heaved, the hotter her eyes burned, and the more her nostrils flared.

But wait! If the mistress in this entire story was her little bro… then all those sappy things Levi had just said… holy shit!! Were those his real thoughts?!

Her mind rewinded, replaying all the things that came out of Astar Levi’s mouth since the start of this confrontation, her face constantly switching between red, black, and white.

And then, the words Levi had said at the start reverberated inside her head – “I didn’t hook up behind your back; I only made my move after breaking it off with you.”

“…made my move…”

Abruptly, Levi’s sixth sense tingled, ‘Not good!’ He jumped to his feet. And with the speed of a gut reaction yet the accuracy of a well-practiced gesture, he pushed everything throwable away from Maery’s reach with his powers.

In this moment of “life and death”, the first thing that popped into Levi’s mind was to protect his baby, “My feelings have nothing to do with your brother! It’s all on me! He has no idea I–”

Levi hurried explanation was interrupted by Maery’s outraged screech, “You fiend! Rogue! Scoundrel!! My poor, poor baby brother!!!”

Levi’s battle stance faltered. Just in time for Maery to throw herself on him like a sumo wrestler.

Thwarted by the fact that there was no longer anything in range to throw, not even the chair and table, the only thing she could throw now was kicks and punches.

“Beast! Pervert! Brute! Pedophile!” She frantically started to beat Levi’s chest.

Levi caught her lunging form, preventing her from falling, but didn’t dare resist the smacks. He could only verbally resist the abuse, “Your brother is already an adult,” he quipped, incensed.

He might be a scoundrel and a pervert, but he was definitely not a pedophile!

“He only came of age this year!!!” Maery shrieked with wide, accusing eyes full of indignation.

“And I only fell for him this year too!” Levi defended himself.

“Because you only just met!”

Levi choked on his spit. He… couldn’t argue with that… ╮(╯▽╰)╭

Really hit the nail on the head! In hindsight, should he feel lucky he didn’t meet his baby earlier, otherwise he might have ended up becoming a criminal?

Seeing the other’s choked up “guilty as charged” expression, a vein popped out on Maery’s forehead, ‘You are not even going to attempt to deny it?! What about the other accusations?! A pervert, a rogue, a beast?!? Not going to deny a single one?!? Not one?!?!?’

Levi, “…” (; ﾟ 3ﾟ )~♪

Mary, “…!!!” (ꐦ °Д°)

Unsatisfied by the effect of her smacks, Mary attempted to knee the other in the groin, but then hesitated at the last step, worried that she’d cut off Astar family’s line of descendants. In the end, she settled for kicking Levi’s shin, “What the hell do you think you are you doing?! Three fucking days before the wedding!! Three days before OUR wedding!!! What the fuck is wrong with you?!?”

Levi could only apologize again, “I’m sorry. If I had a choice in the matter, of course, I wouldn’t have wanted such a thing to happen right before the wedding. But what can I do? The heart wants what it wants.”

“No! What I meant was,” Maery pulled Levi by his collar, wanting to just strangle the fool and be done with it. “The wedding is in three days and instead of talking the matter over with me asap, what did you do?!? Avoid my calls and come have a bachelor party with the person you intend to marry?! And you even dared to make a move on him, huh?? Did you even tell him the truth?! Until when did you intend to wait?! The fucking wedding?!”

Levi’s brain stalled, giving Maery the chance to smack him upside the head. “Did you even bother to give our parents the heads up?! You think changing the bride can be done in a snap?! Wedding invitations would need to be resent! And what about the honeymoon arrangements?! And where would you even hold your wedding night?! In OUR house?! Astar Levi, how incompetent are you?!”

Maery gave the disappointing man one last heavy kick before falling onto the barstool (that remained in place, bolted to the floor), gasping for breath.

She shook her head and gave Astar Levi’s frozen form a look of a mother gazing at her profligate son that failed to live to expectations. “So useless! Made no preparations, your intended bride doesn’t even know it’s his wedding, and worst of all, you didn’t even get his agreement!”

Then she looked towards the sky and covered her eyes with her hand.

Maery let out a heavy sigh, fully charged with her indignant disappointment, releasing all the pent-up negativity choking her chest.

“Bah! You are lucky that my baby bro seems to like you, otherwise I’d rather immediately slaughter a pig-brain like you than risk giving you a chance to put your dirty trotters on my family’s cutie pie!”

Really such a pig-brain! Made her all worked up for nothing! There was no dog-blood plot, no scheming vixen of a mistress, no illegitimate children. This dawg just coveted her little bro!

Ai, it’s understandable, ah! (／≧ω＼) Her little brother was indeed the sweetest little cinnamon roll!

- Author Note -

Wait for it. Maery’s reaction to all this is still not over. You’ll have to wait for a few more chapters before everything becomes clear.