The Duke raised his hand calmly.
Not with any grand gesture. Just a simple lift of his fingers, slow and deliberate. And yet, the effect was instant. The tension that had settled thickly over the room dissolved in an instant.
There was a flicker of subtle amusement in the Duke's eyes, and while he said nothing more at first, the faint lift at the corners of his mouth told a deeper truth. He wasn't bothered by the bickering between his sons. In fact, it entertained him. Despite the words that would follow, he enjoyed watching them clash, compete, push each other. It made them sharper. Hungrier. More alive.
"Dae," the Duke said, turning his gaze toward the second son, his voice laced with that low, quiet command that always demanded full attention, "you should be nicer to your little brother."
The sentence hung between them like a half-joke and half-warning.
