Atticus [BL]
Chapter 33 Atticus

Chapter 33: 33 Atticus

"Good morning, Young Master Nolan."

As Nolan opened the door to leave, Nathaniel’s valet greeted him with a smile from outside the room. His eyes immediately took in Nolan’s disheveled clothes and still-damp hair. Even Nolan’s pale lips didn’t escape his scrutiny.

"Young Master Nolan, please allow me to fix your clothes and properly tie your cravat," the valet offered in his gentlest, kindest voice, his soft smile never fading.

"No," Nolan quickly declined without even considering his offer, "Is my brother already at home?"

"Yes, he sent me here for you in case you need assistance. He’s in his library, you can come to him after your breakfast."

Nolan closed the door behind him, turned his back to the young valet, and quickly went on his way to the library.

The valet could only watch him leave.

"He’s not correctly dressed,"

*

Nolan opened the door to his brother’s library without knocking. Nathaniel was not at his desk, and Nolan immediately saw him on the balcony, leaning his back on the railings with a book in his hand.

It was the black book that Nolan and Elwin left on one of the library’s tables yesterday.

When he heard a noise from the door, Nathaniel lifted his head and glanced at the Nolan’s approaching figure. His eyes immediately examined Nolan’s messy appearance.

"I sent you my personal valet to help you," he stated, closing the book in his hand, "Why are you looking like that?"

"I’m not comfortable unless it’s my butler."

Nathaniel watched his younger brother tread his way towards him, "You look helpless without Atticus. What do you need my help for this time?"

As he arrived next to his brother, Nolan cast his gaze outside and part of his brother’s garden. Elwin and Nerys were helping the gardener with watering the plants.

"Are you not worried they might damage your flowers?"

He was—that’s why he stood by the balcony, keeping an eye on them. For Nathaniel, nothing was more therapeutic than visiting his garden every morning.

"I wished to tend to my flowers today personally, but I’m waiting for you," Nathaniel responded as he shifted and turned his back, watching the three people watering the flowers in his garden. His gaze settled on Nerys, who was clearly delighted to tend to the flowers, "You didn’t tell me you could summon a Chthon now,"

As expected of him, he thought. There was no need to explain Nerys’s existence in the human realm to his brother. Yet, he refused to admit that summoning Nerys had been nothing more than a stroke of luck. Even he wasn’t sure—he had intended to summon an imp, but instead, Nerys appeared claiming Nolan was his summoner.

It must have something to do with Atticus being the sacrifice.

"Brother, will you tell me more about Atticus?"

Nathaniel threw him a side glance, then back to watching Elwin and the others down at his garden.

"Is that why you did not bring him here with you?"

"That’s right," Nolan affirmed and leaned towards the stone-made railings, "When did he start working for our family?"

"Don’t you think it’s inappropriate to be talking about other people behind their backs?"

"I simply wanted to know, just answer me what you know. He’s my servant, I have the right to know."

He could sense that his little brother wanted to ask different questions but restrained himself from spitting unnecessary information to him.

Perhaps, something he wished to confirm, Nathaniel couldn’t help but think.

"I thought you knew? He began working with us when Mother was still pregnant with you. She was the one who found and hired him."

Nolan fell into disappointment. He was already aware that Atticus had been working for them even before he was born but, he was not aware that it was his mother who hired him.

"Why are you suddenly curious about your butler?"

"What do you know about the evil God named Atticus?"

Nathaniel didn’t look in his direction, his eyes still watching the others in his garden below.

"Didn’t you send me a letter saying you and Elwin are part of an occult group following that evil God? They should hold a certain amount of knowledge about the entity they were worshiping."

Nolan scoffed, "Those people are just a bunch of losers and lunatics. It’s like they only made that group to use as an excuse to murder people."

This time, Nathaniel looked in his direction, his face serious. Nolan quickly avoided his gaze.

His older brother and father didn’t know that he and Elwin were part of an occult group that was infamously associated with the Black Market, killing civilian people for diabolic rituals and sacrifices.

Nathaniel was aware, with his vast knowledge over esoteric knowledge of occultism, he was the sole person that Nolan would ask for help.

"I have not forgotten about the incident regarding Elwin’s parents," Nathaniel suddenly said, "This obsession over dark magic will only put your life at risk, why won’t you ever listen to father?"

The death of Elwin’s parents didn’t cause a major report, in truth no one even cared. They were just another peasant who died from starvation, drugs, or alcohol and the city government couldn’t even care less about it. Those poor people were not even paying taxes, why would they spare help?

Before the conversation turned into a sermon, Nolan cleared his throat and directed the conversation back to his question, "But you should know a lot more about the evil Atticus than those petty groups of his followers."

"You say that like you are not part of his followers."

"Elwin and I are only using them to acquire and collect materials, nothing more."

"If I were that evil God, Atticus, I would certainly punish you."

"Quit that! Just tell me what you know!" Nolan whined in impatience.

"Does this still have to do with Atticus?"

Nolan paused for a moment, "Stop asking questions, I simply wanted to know." he murmured.

Sighing, Nathaniel gave up asking and began to recall the information he had read from one of the books that their mother had given him back when he was still young.

"He was an evil cast out from the underworld, but the reason behind it is not known. His existence in the human realm was the beginning of occultism. The Orthodox Church from the past believed also that with the rampant emergence of occult religions, most of them were following the evil God Atticus, each doing a different method to worship him and to impress him to gain his favor."

Nathaniel paused, recalling further information he didn’t know he had unconsciously forgotten.

"Brother, don’t you think the reason he is here in the human realm is because he’s looking for... for a bride?"

Suddenly, Nathaniel’s thoughts in his head disappeared all at once.

"A what...?" he bemused and turned to look at Nolan.

Without even trying to hold back, he burst into laughter. His face instantly brightened up as he laughed.

Nolan blushed from embarrassment and immediately looked away.

"Nolan..." Nathaniel muttered amidst his laughter, "... You need...H-hold on...."

He nearly dropped the black book as unrestrained laughter shook him. Leaning forward against the railing, one arm clutching his stomach, he laughed freely. The people in the garden below glanced up at the sound of his laughter.

"My, this is my first time seeing Lord Nolan laugh like that. I wonder what they are talking about." The gardener said in a happy tone, thrilled to see his Lord happy.

Elwin stared at Nathaniel’s face, his laughter a slow, rhythmic sound that seemed to brighten the surroundings. In that moment, Elwin saw nothing but the man laughing above the balcony.

What Nerys noticed was Nolan’s shy and embarrassed face as he stood next to his brother.

"He must be amused by his brother," Nerys commented before he noticed how Elwin was intently watching Nathaniel.

Nathaniel finally calmed himself down. Clearing his throat, he glanced at his little brother with a sorry face but was still holding back a laugh.

"I’m sorry, for laughing..." He apologized, "You certainly need to stop this obsession, you’re beginning to...pfft..."

Nolan pouted, unable to take the embarrassment any longer, he turned his back to his brother and quickly walked towards the door.

"Where are you going? We’re not done yet...! Hey, Nolan!"

But Nolan didn’t listen and as he exited the room, he slammed the door closed.

"Is he mad...? I didn’t mean to laugh at him, though..."

Sighing, he shook his head and glanced down at his garden, only to meet Elwin’s gaze from below.

Still in high spirits from his little brother, Nathaniel smiled at Elwin and waved.

Elwin, momentarily dazed, waved back before snapping out of his trance. His heart pounded as he quickly looked away from Nathaniel.

He quickly bent down, pretending to sniff on the flowers. "Did I look stupid? I must have looked stupid...!" he murmured to himself.

He smiled at me... right? He was smiling at me, right? No, I can’t be sure, he must be smiling at the three of us!

To reassure himself that he wasn’t imagining things, Elwin slowly glanced back up at the balcony. Nathaniel was still there, leaning against the railing.

Their eyes met again, and Nathaniel gave him another wave and a smile.

Elwin didn’t look away, his gaze fixed intently on the man above.

He is waving and smiling at me... right?

Watching Elwin’s confused expression, Nathaniel could not help but chuckled.