Chapter 3
#003
1.
Arbel had pulled out a luxurious sheet of paper with gold-leaf edges.
At the very top, it read, 'Crowley Academy Admission Letter.'
At the very bottom was the name 'Cedric Montraven.'
“Instead of hanging around gambling dens and shaming the family, just get lost. Don't even come within sight of me.”
I had only a vague idea of what Crowley Academy was.
At the start of the possession, I had done some rough research into the world because I wondered, 'What if this is a work I know?'
In the end I concluded it was a world I'd never seen before, but Crowley Academy itself had quite a solid setup.
A place of learning where noble children and gifted commoners gathered to awaken their abilities.
The finest educational institution in the ark city, said to nurture Arden's future.
……
My eyes were fixed not on Arbel or the admission letter, but on the options floating in midair.
[ 1. Go to the academy obediently ]
[ 2. Refuse admission and kiss Arbel ]
Judging by everyone's reactions, it looked a lot like the 'status window' only I could see.
But there were only two lines.
For a status window, though, it was seriously lacking in style.
What on earth is this?
Why did it appear?
The last time I'd seen these choices was right before I jumped to my death.
Back then I chose [ 2. Jump into that square box over there ] and became Cedric of Eden.
From that, I could infer that if I picked one and acted on it, a specific result would follow.
“What are you doing?”
“Thinking for a moment.”
“Thinking? If you were the sort who actually thought, would you be living in this state now?”
It was too on the nose, so I gave up on rebutting it.
Instead, I examined the contents of the two choices.
It's a world with no foundation, but even so, the world still has genre conventions.
Usually, these either-or choices create a branching point the moment you pick one.
It's less like a true/false quiz and more like choosing between left and right at a fork in the road.
From that perspective, option 1, 'Go to the academy obediently,' was a pretty obvious choice.
Cedric, the ruined count family's little wastrel, enters the academy.
The end.
He'll go and do something there, I guess.
“This is the bare minimum the family expects from you. Do something—anything. Got it? Do you understand?”
Arbel said this while humiliatingly poking my forehead with a fingertip.
She looked like she was suffering to stand on tiptoe, so I bent my knees a little.
“Don't live like trash... ngh!”
Apparently she took her little brother's teasing seriously, because Arbel's face twisted fiercely as she glared at me like she could kill me.
Anyway, option 1 wasn't all that tempting.
Because...
It was obviously boring.
It wasn't bad, exactly, but it had the feel of a bland side dish of seasoned greens.
If it was an academy, it would be a place where Arden's foremost talents gathered.
A commoner like Cedric would be a guaranteed underachiever there unless he had some backing.
Right now I could still keep cruising at the casino and make easy money; my bankroll was already nicely fattened up, so why go to the academy just to become an underachiever?
On the other hand, option 2: 'Refuse admission and kiss Arbel.'
Damn.
I'm already excited.
It sounded like a low-rent harassment item, but this definitely wasn't some penalty game that forced absurdity on me.
Why?
Let's look again at the genre conventions I mentioned earlier.
Choice, in other words, a branching point.
These kinds of choices usually don't appear for no reason.
Right?
[1. Go to the academy] [2. Don't go to the academy] was the clean, symmetrical, textbook version.
But option 2 unnecessarily had the add-on 'kiss Arbel.'
Would such an add-on be attached without any basis or context?
Of course not.
It's a clue, a hint, attached because it's a 'valid choice.'
Ha, I knew it.
Arbel, you were an idealist after all.
There was a reason she'd charged at me like a chihuahua every time we met.
There had been friction between the honest feeling of 'I LOVE MY LITTLE BROTHER SO MUCH!' and the moral judgment that this was unacceptable.
Like a messed-up piece of code, she didn't know what to do and ended up acting sharp-tongued instead.
At that moment I realized Arbel's look of disgust, as if she were staring at an insect, was a desperate act of mimicry to preserve the family pedigree.
How cute.
Without hesitation, I chose the option.
2.
No way was I going to the academy.
“Albert, excuse us for a moment. I need to talk with your elder sister.”
“...Is there any reason I shouldn't be here?”
“It's a serious conversation.”
After getting the disgruntled Albert out of the way, Arbel tilted her head with a puzzled look.
“I'm not going to the academy. I like home better.”
“You... are you out of your mind right now?”
As if she'd reached the limit of her patience, Arbel's eyes sharpened viciously.
She's not some random nobody; she's a real mage.
Even if Arbel just flicked a finger, Cedric's flimsy bones would be crushed to pieces.
However.
“Because you won't be there.”
“...What?”
Instead, I took a step forward.
“If I go there, I won't be able to be with you.”
“Y-you...?”
Arbel trailed off, then stared at me in disbelief.
I didn't miss the tiny ripples of agitation spreading through her eyes.
“Could you close your eyes for a second?”
“Now you're ordering me around too? You? Me?”
“It's not an order. It's a request.”
“Answer properly. Don't muddy the point with pointless nonsense.”
Arbel's words came faster.
Even so, she was acting incredibly well.
Which was why I hadn't noticed until now.
“Because I have something I want to give you.”
“If you're just going to give it to me... hah, fine. Do whatever you want.”
Arbel let out a sigh as if she didn't want to exchange any more words.
Her long, dense eyelashes, like butterfly antennae, lowered demurely.
I kissed Arbel.
“Mmph!!!”
A soft, pillowy, moist sensation as our lips met.
“Mm...?!”
Her eyes shot wide open in shock.
“Mmph...! Mmph...!”
She'd had wine this morning.
Her saliva, with its fresh grape aftertaste, and her awkwardly stiff tongue tangled hotly with mine.
“Mmph...! Mmph...!”
It's far more stimulating than I'd expected.
Even Arbel, who'd been so overbearing, breaking down and creaking like a busted machine, was cute.
Her personality may be flawed, but Arbel's beauty was downright demonic.
See? Arbel really is the heroine!
I've actually wanted to confess to you for a long time!
“Phew...!”
After the long kiss ended.
Arbel's face was painted with shock.
“You, you... you... you....”
Her usually pale, almost sickly face had flushed, and her ears were red enough to burn if touched.
“You right now... wh-what are you doing...?”
“I'm confessing to you.”
“C-confessing...?”
“Yeah, yeah. I feel the same way, noona.”
Originally I was only planning to confess that much, but seeing Arbel's reaction, I couldn't hold back.
I had no choice.
It's common sense that a younger brother should lead his inexperienced older sister.
The moment I tried to kiss her again.
“...Stop.”
“Why?”
“I said stop....”
A weak, squeezed-out voice slipped out.
I wasn't a beast ruled by desire, so I let go for now.
“...So that's your answer?”
A chilling silence sent shivers down my spine.
The glass windows surrounding the drawing room trembled violently, and the window frames creaked.
It was like some poltergeist phenomenon.
I'd never seen it before, but I knew what it was the moment I saw it.
This was a resonance of immense magical power.
A pressure of overwhelming force, enough to make the nearly dormant magic circuits in my body ache.
“You think this is funny?”
I could see Arbel with her head bowed.
Rabbit ears stood up fiercely through her blond hair.
Cute as they look, those rabbit ears aren't a headband or some cosplay accessory.
A hallmark of mages who inherit 'The Tale of the Moon Rabbit.'
A premonitory phenomenon that appears when that magic is unleashed.
Arbel's golden eyes were blazing with utter loathing and contempt.
“...Uh, noona?”
Should we maybe make up now?
Cold sweat ran down my back.
It felt like looking at a grenade with the pin pulled, rolling around at my feet.
No, fuck, so this status window was a total fucking scam?
Weren't we supposed to have an agreement?
Here, shouldn't Arbel be blushing and meekly saying, 'I-I actually liked Cedric-kun too...,' or something?
And then.
With a cute 'pop!' sound, Arbel's rabbit ears returned to normal.
The magic that had been pressing down on me like deep-sea pressure dispersed.
“Quit the clumsy acting. I understand enough already.”
“Acting?”
What the hell does that mean?
“I was an idiot to think I should trust you one more time.”
Arbel straightened her clothes and turned away with a cold expression.
“Get the hell to the academy. If I see you tomorrow too, I'll really kill you.”
======
::: Challenge (NEW!) :::
- Kiss a female mage. +1pt
- Kiss your older sister. +10pt
======
2.
“Haaam....”
I sprawled on the bed in my room with a bottle of liquor and let out a long yawn.
Lazy sheep clouds drifted over the towering Human Wall far beyond the horizon.
I still can't get used to that, no matter how many times I see it.
From what I'd seen living here, the ark city's level of development was, at best, late Victorian England.
And yet there was a massive wall hundreds of meters high, and it was so absurdly wide that even trains ran along its top.
Well, magic exists and monsters exist too, so I guess the rest is different.
Anyway.
“Life is good.”
To start with the conclusion: I'm alive.
My bones weren't broken, I didn't lose my life to Arbel, and I even learned a lesson.
“Never fuck with a mage again.”
I already knew mages were Arden's top class, wielding power beyond all restraint.
But the mage I actually saw in person...
Was more than a monster wearing a human mask.
Once, in a Myanmar junket room, I got into it with a gang and had a gun pointed at my forehead; it felt the same when I stood before Arbel's fury.
I was lucky enough to be granted a second life, but I refuse to die a stupid death.
“At this rate, should I take the academy route...?”
Sticking around Arbel after I'd already ticked her off was burdensome too.
But I'd already picked the 'refuse admission' option.
What happens if I make a choice different from the one I picked?
I'll give up on Arbel for now....
“...No.”
Even though my mind was a mess, the innocent, flustered reactions she showed before Arbel exploded into fury left an afterimage in my mind.
Big data says those reactions were nowhere near rejection.
Is it really right to give up already?
I'm going to climb an unclimbable tower.
I'm going to make that Arbel from just now say, 'Cedric, I like you, I like you.'
Wouldn't that be pretty stimulating too?
The gambler's instincts I'd kept dormant for ages started to boil again.
Then.
“Hm?”
Night fell over the messy room.
That is not a metaphor.
I hadn't dozed off.
In less than three seconds, the surroundings abruptly went pitch-black, and a bright moon rose in the sooty sky.
“What the hell is this.”
It's 9 a.m. right now.
Did this place have a polar-night phenomenon or something?
I was staring at the bizarre anomaly for a while, bottle still in my mouth, when—
-BANG!
“Young master!”
The one who burst in, practically smashing the door open, was the old butler, Albert.
I could read the solemn determination on his wrinkled face.
“What's going on? From now on, please be sure to knock.”
“It's a raid.”
“A raid? All of a sudden?”
“We don't have time to waste. Miss is buying time. Please, Young Master, run. I must join her as well.”
Albert was practically spitting as he delivered his fervent speech.
Ah, I got it instantly.
This is it. Circumcision.
The day I went out for tonkatsu.
“Ha, I'm not falling for it, old man. I'm not going to the academy.”
If I obediently went along, they'd probably bind me up and put me on a train to the academy.
That's how this is going to play out.
“Young master, this is no time for jokes. The head of the house has fallen into the intruder's hands.”
“...My father?”
Albert shut his lips tightly, his face twisted with grief.
“......”
That acting is brutal.
It was an act I had no choice but to fall for, because I knew that if I didn't get serious I'd become an unfilial bastard.
For me, he's basically some old guy I barely know, but to Cedric he's Dad.
“Hurry, we don't have much time.”
He grabbed my wrist firmly and led me to a room I'd never once gone into in this mansion.
In the middle of the dusty room stood an opaque full-length mirror.
“We had something like this in our house?”
“It's a magical tool linked to the safe house.”
When Albert did something to it, a distorted vortex formed in the center of the mirror.
This is seriously ominous.
Is he planning to warp me away and get rid of the family's trash for good?
I said hurriedly,
“Albert, there's something I haven't told you. I won 230 million Vios at the casino. So let's talk this out, okay?”
Albert, who didn't really listen, gripped my shoulders firmly as if making me swear it.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't move an inch.
“Young master, remember this. Under absolutely no circumstances must anyone there learn your identity.”
“No, seriously, I really did win the money. There's even a deposit certificate in my room!”
“Saving the young master, the bloodline of the head of the house—that is how I intend to wash away this betrayal.”
“Listen to me!”
“I'll come back in three days! If I don't contact you by then, please... stay healthy.”
Albert threw me into the mirror.
An indescribable dizziness, my vision turning upside down, my body feeling like tissue paper being flushed down a toilet.
“Uweeeek!!”
After my guts were turned inside out as if I'd ridden a roller coaster three times in a row.
After I finally finished retching over and over, I slowly looked around.
“Here...”
About the size of a goshiwon room.
The heavily stained wooden floor creaked with every step, and the bed was nothing more than a rough wooden box topped with rags.
The decayed curtains hanging by the window gave off a gloomy air, like some slum brothel in an ultra-poor country.
Still, it's a relief there don't seem to be any rats.
It's so cold even the rats would freeze to death. You can see your breath indoors.
“Shit... did I get warped to another world again?”
You said safe house! You said safe house!
What the hell part of this dump is a count family's safe house?
I've been the count family's wastrel for a month now.
I had been abandoned.
It was winter.