CHAPTER 5 - MY BROTHER IS GENIUS

The next door of the master room, where the brother is, there is a study room. Currently in this study room, with a large table separating them, Maria sat in front of a warm looking burly, young man with black hair. He has warm mesmerising green eyes, a sharp nose, and square jaws. His body screams out that he is a manly man.

The young man is the father of the brothers, Baron Alfons Douglas.

Currently, with his head down, Alfons looks like he is looking at the yellow paper on the table. But the blankness of paper showed that he was actually in thought, a deep one, as he was not even aware that the quill in his hand had dried a long time ago.

For better achievement in their future, the child of the noble need to learn magic studies as early as possible and make use of the golden time of brain development in childhood. But because children may not yet know what language is, many other tools and resources are needed to make sure the children can learn and absorb knowledge more quickly and rightly.

The House of Douglas of today is in a dire situation economically. The family did not have resources to allocate for two sons. So, today Alfons needs to decide who would be his heir and had the resources for his magic studies.

The answer should have been Martian because that is the reason why Alfons and Maria have Martian in the first place. But it's been almost an hour, and Alfons still can't move his quill.

Maria, who is sitting on the chair in front of him, can't anymore put up with this silence, she bangs the table, "The ink on your quill already dried and you have not written anything, doesn't that mean you still have hope for Bertrand? Why not we just wait, and maybe we can find the cure for Bertrand ailments."

Alfons raise his head to look at his wife, "I do want Bertrand to be my heir…" Alfons green eyes are wavering when he said, his word. His face shows his guilt and embarrassment as a father, "…I hope Bertrand can have my title and live happily even with untreatable heart ailment of his. But as you know, the burden that needs to be shouldered by that child if he became the head of Douglas house would be too overwhelming and may aggravate his ailments…" tears welling in Alfons eyes "Blame it on me I'm the useless one I can't even find a cure for my own son--"

Woom Woom

The mana in the study room is suddenly disturbed as Martian's body absorb some mana from this room to fuel Martian undertaking to open his mana palace.

"It's mana palace opening!" Alfons and Maria look at each other. They then quickly bolt from their chair to the door and exit the room to the corridor. The couple rushed to the next room where the two brothers were.

"Martian!" Alfons opened the door and darted into the room.

Inside the room, none of the furniture is uncharred by the raging flame from Martian. Every piece of furniture on the left side of the room had turned to ashes as Martian raging fire run amok on there. As for the right side. Although some are still standing and staying in shape, their color has turned black like charcoal.

Martian is still in the cross-legged position and levitating in the air with fire raging around him, but none of those fires is hurting him as if they are his guardian.

"Thank god you are safe." Alfons put his mind at rest after seeing Martian is safe.

"Where is Bertrand?!" Maria's face turned deathly pale when she couldn't find Bertrand anywhere in the room.

Alfons face also changes to horror, he looking around the room yet no sign of Bertrand anywhere, "Bertrand, Bertrand! Where are you?!"

Having his parents call as a cue. Bertrand pops out his head from under the bed, "Mama~ dada~"

Bertrand was on the right side of the bed 2 meters away from the left side of the bed where Martian raging fire burning anything near him.

"Hide your head back, son!" Alfons quickly rushed to where Bertrand is.

Bertrand looked at his father and began to giggle and act like a baby, "Da da da~ Da da~"

"Thank god, you also safe my lucky charm." grabbing Bertrand from under the bed into his arm, Alfons give a kiss to Bertrand's forehead and then bolt back to the door.

"Let me hug him." Maria took Bertrand from Alfons arms.

"Mama~" Bertrand clear eyes smilingly staring at Maria and hugging her with his right hand.

"Thank god you are safe." Maria kiss Bertrand on the forehead. "You must be scared at the sudden combustion of your brother, right?" Maria hugged Bertrand hard as if she was afraid of losing him.

Besides Maria, Alfons caress Bertrand in the head, "My knight Bertrand is so smart to hide under the bed."

"da da da~" Bertrand giggling merrily.

Whooossh

The fire around Martian suddenly all disappear and he slowly levitates down.

Alfons quickly grab Martian from the air. In his hand, Martian is fast asleep. With his chubby face undulated, he softly snored, "Hahaha…look, Maria. This troublemaker is sleeping so soundly after making a mess on the whole room."

"Thank god. "Maria relieved founding Martian is also well with no mishap happens.

Alfons gently poke Martian in the nose. He says his thought softly in a whisper, "Like big brother like a little brother. The big one freezes the entire room, and this little one has burnt the entire room. What a lovely freak is the offspring of mine." Alfons kiss Martian forehead and walks back to the door, "Both are genius!"

Hearing Alfons labelling him as a freak, Alfons successfully got on Bertrand's nerve. Bertrand quickly looked at Maria while tilting his head and pointing at Alfons. He softly snitches on his father, "Da da~ freak?"

"Don't hear him. He likes to talk rubbish. My angels will always be angels. Both will never be doing anything that a monster will do." Maria caressed Bertrand's head and glared at the walking Alfons.

"What?!' Alfons face froze, and his step stopped, 'Have I done anything wrong? Did she hear it?! Oh no!' Alfons face changes as he fears about what will happen to him tonight.

Having enough fun seeing his father funny face, Bertrand quickly giggles and struggling as if wanted to escape from her hug and goes to Martian, "da da da~ Martan safe. Da da da~"

Maria caresses Bertrand right cheek full of love, "Yes, Martian is safe, and Bertrand is happy. My angel Bertrand is a good brother."

Getting his ass saved by Bertrand and getting the point from Maria, Alfons quickly caress Bertrand in the head, "Yes, Bertrand is a good brother and always be--"

"Aways?" Bertrand interjects Alfons while tilting his head to the right and looking at Maria for an answer.

"Hehehe… don't care about your father. He always talks rubbish." Maria brushed Alfon's hand off Bertrand's head and glared at her husband, then took Martian from him.

"Let's mama wash both of you and dress you to be two lovely angels again." Maria happily walks out of the room with her two-son, leaving behind the speechless Alfons in the room.

'Woman!' looking at his wife happy back, Alfons swear.

"My two angles will be mama best guardian angels! Hahaha~" Maria's laughter sound loud and clear along the corridor as she was euphoric about something.

"Geez…woman!" Alfons shake his head around in bewilderment about how hard it is to read his wife mind.

Though Maria never says it. Alfons knows that Maria is happy because Martian has opened his mana palace at age seven months. Six months earlier than his brother.

Though Bertrand falls behind far, he could still be categorized as a genius because other children usually needed to be three years old before they could even sense mana.

Alfons clenching his right hand into a fist, "The useless me got two geniuses as offspring." tears fall from the eyes of Alfons. "Maybe this is the sign from the god that my family will rise again after a long decline…"

The duty as a baron had been stressing him out after his parent passed away at a young age. Now, finally, he can put down some burden on his shoulder as he knows there are two great heirs, who he can leave this family future to.