Chapter 148: Vacation

“Sister, what brings you to my room?”

As soon as I heard the knock and opened the door to see who my guest was, the question naturally slipped out.

As evident from the greeting, the guest was Ragfrid. However, no matter how much I thought about it, there was no reason for her to seek out her youngest brother at this late hour.

It likely wasn’t to hear about the Magicalization—the phenomenon that occurred during the Academy Graduation Ceremony. I had already told her it would be more efficient to read the report Hard received.

Furthermore, it was too late to claim she came for personal business with Karbaldr. First of all, I doubted such ‘personal business’ even existed, and unless it was incredibly urgent, it could have waited until tomorrow afternoon.

“I came because I have something to say.”

“Ah, I see.”

“……”

“……”

“…Do you not wish to let me into your room?”

To be honest, yes. I didn’t know what her business was, but I wanted her to say it quickly and leave. However, I couldn’t exactly voice those thoughts.

“Not at all. I simply assumed you would leave after delivering your message, so I was waiting for you to speak.”

Inevitably making excuses, I had to let Ragfrid and her Familiar inside.

As if it were her first time entering her youngest brother’s room, Ragfrid’s eyes slowly scanned the interior before she sat in a chair. A white beast of prey with impressive purple rosette patterns—the Leopard—laid down at its master’s feet.

“Shall I call a servant to prepare some refreshments?”

“There is no need for that.”

I asked out of politeness, thinking I should offer something, but she declined. It seemed that while she had business here, she didn’t intend to stay long. As I took my seat, Ragfrid spoke as if she had been waiting for the moment.

“Did you not say that you have no intention of dying now that you have a being to take responsibility for?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Then why did you do it?”

“…Excuse me?”

“I have just come from Father’s office after reading the report on what happened to you today.”

I was confused, wondering what on earth she was getting at, but the context finally clicked. After reading the report that I had drawn the monster’s aggro to save Hailga, she must have suspected whether I had truly given up on my suicide attempts.

I suppose her urgent visit at this hour was because she thought her youngest brother might try to ingest poison again.

“I didn’t step forward with the thought that it was okay to die. I did it because I calculated that I wouldn’t die.”

“Was it not too close for that? According to the report, the monster was right upon you. If the student named Reysir Daudabina hadn’t blocked it, it would have been truly dangerous.”

I flinched involuntarily at the sudden mention of the Original Protagonist’s name from Ragfrid’s mouth. Seeing this, she frowned and was about to say something, seemingly misunderstanding my reaction, so I hurried to explain.

“My calculation was based on the premise that the combat professors would quickly assess the situation and step in immediately. Even if they had never faced such a monster, they are veterans of real combat and educators with a duty to protect students. It was unexpected that those professors did not act.”

“……”

“I simply trusted the professors as a student. I didn’t realize it would be misconstrued as an attempt to die.”

“I was already planning to lodge a protest with the Academy… It seems I must ensure they are held strictly accountable.”

I suspected the professors didn’t act at that time because it reflected the will of the author of the Original Work. If that was truly the reason, the professors weren’t technically at fault. However, recalling that dizzying moment when I almost died, I didn’t have a shred of desire to defend them.

Moreover, weren’t many of the combat professors the ones who had bullied Skadi or stood by and watched? Out of spite for that alone, I would never shield them.

“At any rate, I truly have no intention of dying. No, it’s more than that—I have a desperate desire to live.”

“Truly?”

“Yes. Since I cannot accept the fact that I tried to commit suicide before I lost my memories, I have been diligently attending combat-related lectures for self-defense and even carrying potions just in case. My will to live is firm.”

I made my desire for survival clear so that Ragfrid would never misunderstand again. To that, Ragfrid—

“And yet, the you before you lost your memories…!!”

She muttered this, unable to hide her agitation. The fact that someone who craved life so much had once wished for death seemed to have come as quite a shock.

In reality, it was just because I and Karbaldr were separate people. Or perhaps the original Karbaldr didn’t truly want to die either, but was just willing to risk everything to confirm that his father loved him.

‘Wait, would that be even more shocking?’

Ragfrid sat in a daze for a long time, looking like someone who had lost her soul. Watching her, it wasn’t easy to tell her to leave now that her business was done.

“You… That’s why you forgot us… You wanted to live, but our attitude made you want to die… You threw away your memories to throw away your expectations.”

“I must have made it quite obvious that I wanted the family’s attention before I lost my memories. Seeing as you’ve arrived at such a conclusion so quickly, Sister.”

“O……”

Watching her let out a groan with a face pale as a sheet, I had to admit it. Ragfrid was hoping for a ‘Family Regret’ plotline.

It felt incredibly awkward to me.

‘What’s the point of a third party possessing the body and then having the family regret and vow to treat them well when the actual person who was hurt is gone?’

If the real Karbaldr could see this situation, would he be happy to know his sister wasn’t entirely indifferent? Or would his heart turn cold with a sense of misery?

“I… I….”

“……”

“…I shall take my leave now.”

“Yes.”

Ragfrid stood up unsteadily and staggered toward the door. Should I support her? The thought crossed my mind, but I didn’t act on it. I didn’t want to plant false hope that we could become a close brother and sister.

I also felt that when Karbaldr was staggering, she probably hadn’t held onto her brother even once.

After the Possession Body’s sister left the room with her Familiar, I closed the door and voiced the impression I felt.

“Even though I knew the previous Karbaldr wasn’t loved by his family, I’ve mostly felt like ‘so what?’ until now. But now, he seems truly pitiful.”

“Meow, meow.”

***

The next day.

Even though Ragfrid had left as if fleeing after the shock yesterday, she didn’t avoid me; instead, she summoned me to the conservatory. She even had tea and snacks prepared.

‘I need to do physical conditioning and Whip Technique training, increase my skill proficiency and Aether stats, practice strategic board games like chess, and learn lip-reading. There’s a mountain of other things to do…!’

Although I didn’t like Hard as a person, it was quite convenient that he didn’t seek out his son. In that sense, Ragfrid’s existence was an unexpected obstacle.

“For what reason did you ask to meet in a place like this?”

“I asked to meet because I have something to discuss regarding the second child. As for the location, I received advice from my personal maid.”

“Does that maid happen to know that I’ve lost my memories?”

“She is a child I can trust, who has worked for me for over ten years.”

That meant she knew. For the record, that maid had taken Yon out of the conservatory earlier. She used the excuse of stepping back so that Ragfrid and I could talk comfortably…

‘Did she take Yon to dig for information about Karbaldr’s tastes or interests?’

If that was her goal, it was a waste of effort. This wasn’t a guess but a verified fact. I had asked Yon what the past Karbaldr liked or disliked, and he couldn’t give a proper answer. The reason was that Karbaldr had never spoken of such things to him.

‘Shouldn’t a personal servant be able to figure out their master’s tastes through observation?’

At any rate, the fact that she went as far as seeking advice from a maid meant the Possession Body’s sister was determined to get closer to her youngest brother.

Now, of all times.

“I didn’t ask because I don’t trust your people. I only asked to check if I needed to act as if my memory were intact in front of her.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Yes.”

“……”

“……”

The conversation cut off awkwardly. The person who had summoned me claiming to have business was doing nothing but watching my reactions.

“Did you not say you had something to tell me about my brother?”

“Um…, that is…. I tried talking to him… but it seems it will take a long time to make him sincerely apologize to you. Changing his mind is not easy….”

“Are you referring to his idea that I killed our mother?”

“……Yes.”

I thought she was going to say something significant, but it was nothing special. Thus, I let out a light snort and spoke dismissively.

“I suppose so. It’s a thought that has been fixed for eighteen years. Would it be fixed just because he received a few rebukes? Just leave him be.”

“Leave him be..? Even if you have no memories, how can you be so unaffected when your brother hates you for such an absurd reason?”

“Even if my brother hated me for an absurd reason, haven’t you been unaffected all this time, Sister? Why shouldn’t I be the same? Must I be hurt and pained by every one of his words?”

Even if Valtraus regretted his wrongs toward his brother and apologized, it would only be uncomfortable for me, a complete stranger. Just as this situation where Ragfrid was walking on eggshells around me was burdensome.

“I… I didn’t know the second child hated you for that reason….”

“Don’t say you didn’t know. My brother must have hated me from the very moment I was born. So everyone probably guessed the reason. Is that not why you never even asked him why he hated me until now? Because it was so obvious.”

“N-No….”

“If not, then it means it simply didn’t matter to you whether I was hated by my brother or not.”

“……”

Ragfrid dropped her head with an expression of utter misery. Seeing my master, who had always been cold and composed, break down before me for two consecutive days, had the Leopard Familiar concluded that I was bullying her?

“Grrr…!”

The Leopard Familiar, which had been lying down, pushed itself up and let out a threatening sound.

However, I didn’t feel threatened at all. I had the absolute being, Yor, by my side.

“Liensa! Behave…”

“Kyah!”

Before the Leopard’s master could even finish telling it to behave, my reliable baby Dragon activated Dragon Fear and suppressed the beast.

The Familiar called ‘Liensa’ let out a whimper and flopped back down on the spot. Naturally, this didn’t mean it was lying down comfortably. With its head tucked between its front paws, the posture was closer to cowering in fear or prostrating.