Nathan was taken aback, clearly not expecting Paul to say that.
"Why, when you're clearly in Alda, are you hiding and refusing to come find me?"
Paul took a step forward, his tone slightly sarcastic.
"What, are you suddenly'shy' in front of your own brothers?"
Upon hearing this, Nathan frowned even more deeply.
Paul didn't press the matter, but followed his gaze to the bound dwarf. "Putting that aside for now, you've thrown this dwarf in front of my horse. Is this some kind of 'gift' you're giving me?"
Nathan's previously furrowed brows relaxed, replaced by his usual nonchalant and flippant expression.
He raised his hand to smooth the wrinkles in his cloak, a half-smile playing on his lips, his tone laced with obvious arrogance: "Hey, hey, hey, can you not be so familiar with me? It's making people feel awkward."
He looked up at Paul, his eyes showing a clear distance, and even a hint of barely perceptible hostility.
"With Mother not here, I haven't figured out how to spend time alone with you, my mortal brother."
He emphasized the word "mortal" with particular clarity, as if deliberately highlighting the difference between the two.
As a Spellcaster who showed magical talent from a young age and grew up with his mother Mariana in the Arcane Society, Nathan never took ordinary people seriously. In his mind, Spellcasters who could control magical elements should be superior to mortals.
But he never expected that after coming to Northwest Bay with his mother, he would suddenly have a blood-related mortal brother, which he found hard to accept.
On the previous occasions when he accompanied his mother to meet Paul, he deliberately chose to stand silently to the side, either looking down and fiddling with the faint magical aura gathered at his fingertips, or letting his gaze drift into the distance, never taking the initiative to say a word to Paul.
Back then, with his mother acting as a buffer, he could barely hide his inner awkwardness. But now that his mother wasn't around, and it was just him and Paul alone, the atmosphere of being alone made him very uncomfortable. He really didn't want to face this ordinary brother who had appeared out of nowhere all by himself.
"We're different after all!" Nathan took a step back, widening the distance between himself and Paul, his tone even more flippant. "You don't understand magic, nor do you understand the world of Spellcaster. There's nothing for us to talk about. If I hadn't run into this sneaky dwarf today, I wouldn't have bothered to stop your car."
As he spoke, his gaze fell once more on the dwarfs on the ground, as if the prisoners on the ground were the only reason he was there, and his encounter with Paul was merely an insignificant accident.
But the moment he lowered his eyes, the fleeting unease in them betrayed that he was not as carefree as he appeared. He truly did not know how to face his brother, who was connected to him by blood but lived in two completely different worlds.
"All right!"
Paul shrugged, his gaze sweeping over the dwarf on the ground before returning to Nathan's face. He asked calmly, "Where did this dwarf come from? And how did you meet him?"
Nathan crossed his arms and scoffed, as if he were talking about something completely ordinary: "I ran into him on the path in that pine forest over there. The short guy was wearing a tattered cloak, walking furtively, sometimes hiding behind a tree to look around, sometimes squatting on the ground fiddling with something. Something was definitely off about him."
"Dwarves are rare in the human world, so I found it interesting and secretly followed them for a while to see what they were up to. I didn't go far before I saw your party— I recognized your carriage immediately after seeing it at Lords Manor last time."
"Thinking back to what happened between Aldor and the Rocky Mountains dwarves…" Nathan kicked the dwarf on the ground, "I figured this dwarf might be connected to the Stonemason Clan, so I might as well just catch him. Your car is coming along, so I'll just leave him here and save myself the trouble of making another trip."
After listening, Paul nodded, his eyes filled with gratitude as he looked at Nathan: "Anyway, you did help me out this time, thank you."
He changed the subject and brought up another matter, "By the way, the orc captives at Winds Breath Keep were plotting a riot, and someone blocked Derrick's path to warn him. I guess that person was you?"
Nathan remained nonchalant, but his tone carried a deliberate coldness: "So what if it's me?"
"I just wanted to confirm something and thank you," Paul said calmly. "If we hadn't received the warning beforehand and allowed the Winds Breath Keep's army to prepare, those orc prisoners might have actually succeeded, and we would have had to spend a lot more time cleaning up the mess."
Nathan immediately interrupted him, his tone somewhat stiff: "Don't overthink it, I'm not doing this on purpose to help you."
"The reason I'm informing you is entirely at my mother's behest. She asked me to provide you with some assistance here. I'm just carrying out my mother's mission; it has nothing to do with you, nor is it for any other reason."
He deliberately emphasized that it was his mother's instruction, as if trying to distance himself from the matter, for fear that Paul might misunderstand something.
In fact, Nathan was the "Master of Arcane Society " that the orc rioters had contacted, but the orcs never expected that this powerful outsider would betray them in the blink of an eye.
Paul then asked, "Do you know where your mother is now? Last time she came to Alda to persuade me to join the Arcane Society, I refused, and she stayed at Lords Manor for a few days before leaving. I haven't heard from her since."
Nathan's arms, which were crossed over his chest, loosened slightly, and his gaze softened for a moment before regaining its composure: "Your mother advised you to join the Arcane Society?"
This wasn't surprising to him. In the past, the Spellcasters operated in the shadows and often had to recruit mortal forces to do things they couldn't do themselves, just like when they supported Giles.
Nathan frowned slightly, his tone clearly puzzled: "But you actually refused? I didn't expect that. It's a great honor to be recruited by the Arcane Society. The power that this organization wields is far beyond what your industrial creations can compare to. Their future prospects are definitely limitless."
He also knew about the doomsday prophecy, so he believed it.
Nathan continued, almost as if offering advice, "I advise you to think it over carefully. Don't miss such a good opportunity because of your stubbornness. Since your mother has come in person, she must have received the emperor's permission. There aren't many people who can catch his eye."