Chapter 45

Chapter 45

From Cosmic Rascal to Professor.

Episode 45: Yeah, It’s Me. Your Brother (2).

The door opened, and two figures stepped inside.

One was a mercenary clad in a sleek, black combat suit. A shoulder strap emitting a blue glow indicated the unknown female inspector’s status as an A-grade Inspector.

She was supporting a girl with greasy, yellow hair, whose moist eyes revealed her distress.

Her complexion was pallid. The blue eyes of the blonde girl met Ceti’s, and in that moment, Ceti’s mind—previously occupied with thoughts of the shining stone—went blank.

“Sis?” Her voice was choppy as if being cut off.

Now, Ceti was faced with Rustila in complete disarray.

“Ceti…”

Her mind went blank.

Forgetting her compulsion to pick up the stone, Ceti charged straight toward Rustila.

Gently touching her cheek, she was embraced by Rustila.

While in that embrace, she began to sob uncontrollably.

“You are alive…! Thank goodness, really, thank goodness…!”

She had almost lost the only friend and sister-like figure she had, never to see her again. At that thought, the world nearly fell apart.

Fortunately, Ceti’s waiting had not been in vain.

Rustila gently stroked her head.

Indeed, Rustila was exhausted on many levels. Too much had happened in just one day. She desperately wanted to lie down in a bed.

But Ceti likely felt even more exhausted, waiting for her and her brother.

Therefore, she needed to provide a bit more comfort. She needed to share everything that happened.

Tears poured down. Unaware, Rustila rubbed her eyes and then collapsed.

“Sis?”

Ceti was initially startled but soon sighed in relief. Rustila, gently snoring, had fallen asleep using Ceti’s shoulder as a pillow.

She was indeed very tired.

Ceti nodded her head but then suddenly tensed.

A rolling sound approached.

Turning around, she saw the crystal rapidly spinning and bouncing before it flew out through the open window.

Ceti looked utterly dumbfounded.

What in the world is that stone?

“Ah…”

Curiosity had no room here, not now.

“Brother.”

Rustila had returned, but where was Aidel?

The sound of footsteps approaching brought Ceti back to the present moment.

Behind Rustila, the door swung open to reveal a figure: a young girl with skin as pale as white jade and hair as white as snow, her eyes a vibrant shade of fresh purple grapes.

Zelnya von Adelwein.

Her eyes bore an exhausted look, suggesting she longed to collapse into bed.

Yet, Zelnya entered confidently, unaided, and resolute. Her stride was proud as if declaring her independence.

“What are you staring at?”

After a brief, blank gaze at Ceti, Zelnya chuckled and strolled past her, not sparing another thought.

Ceti felt a surge of happiness seeing her, although a corner of her mind was gnawed by anxiety.

The uncertainty of seeing her third brother again was unsettling.

In that moment of silence, a different noise erupted from outside the door.

It was not footsteps.

It was the sound of voices—two men conversing.

Upon hearing this, Ceti cautiously peeked out of the room. In the middle of the hallway, two men were locked in a tight embrace, their sobs echoing through the space.

“Oh my, student! I was worried about the fate of my lab if you hadn’t returned! With the number of applicants being so low, my anxiety was through the roof, but I am deeply relieved you’re back…!”

“I was terrified I might not make it into graduate school. Wow, I truly thought my end was near when I plummeted off that 50-meter cliff. In that dire moment, your image flashed before my eyes like a beacon, and I couldn’t help but weep…”

Was ‘sobbing’ really the right word to describe their emotional outpour?

Something about this scene was profoundly unsettling.

The two men, their embrace even more intimate than that of many couples, eventually grasped each other’s hands and shook them with enthusiasm. Observing this, Ceti narrowed her eyes.

One man was a stranger, and the other had his back to her, making his identity uncertain. Yet, she suspected he might be someone she knew.

Ceti approached slowly.

She had to verify her suspicion.

“Then, let’s meet again,” one of them said.

That voice.

It was a voice she had heard for years, unmistakably grating and impossible to forget.

Ceti extended her hand towards the man who was turned away from her.

But just as she was about to reach him, the man concluded his conversation and turned around.

He was tall, with black hair and golden eyes that shone with a cunning glint. His eyes lifted at the corners, mirroring the sly smile that curled his lips. Ceti stood there, dumbfounded by his presence.

At first glance, he was ruggedly handsome—a sight that might have stirred feelings in others. However, Ceti felt no such flutter of excitement within her.

She felt something different.

“…!”

With a surge of emotion, Ceti sprinted and collided head-first into the boy who had turned around. Clinging to his clothes like a cicada to a tree, she breathed in deeply. A familiar scent filled her lungs—the fragrance of the detergent used by the Reinhardt family.

Slowly, Ceti lifted her gaze.

“Brother…”

Her voice was barely a whisper.

“Yeah.”

The boy responded.

“It’s me, your brother.”

That familiar voice confirmed her hopes.

Tears began to stream down her face uncontrollably, like a burst dam.

“You jerk… why, why did you have to worry me so…”

Her words came out as a curse, not because she wanted to scold him, but because she didn’t know what else to say first. It wasn’t supposed to start like this, but the right words eluded her.

Then, Aidel placed his hand gently on Ceti’s head.

“Little sis.”

He looked down at her and said softly,

“I’m sorry.”

And with those words, Aidel’s strength seemed to leave him, and he collapsed as if all his weight was suddenly too much to bear.

Students who underwent the reassignment test were granted at least a week of emergency holiday.

Those injured received treatment, and students reporting mental distress started psychological therapy sessions.

Before such treatments, Ceti needed some time to relieve her fatigue.

After a night of restless sleep, Ceti soon recalled her actions, and her face flushed with embarrassment.

“… damn it.”

Her behavior was insane!

No matter how deeply she was worried, how could she have behaved so disgracefully in front of her third brother, with whom she had been estranged for nearly a decade?

She realized that staying up all night could indeed impair one’s rational judgment.

Simultaneously, another realization dawned upon her.

‘I… I no longer hate Aidel.’

Aidel had started to change about six months ago, and much had transpired since then.

Initially, Ceti lashed out at him as if in retaliation. But gradually, they began to grow closer.

Especially during the practical test—Aidel’s method of prioritizing her safety while tackling monsters alongside Rustila had been somewhat admirable.

That sentiment was fully cemented this morning.

“We’re withdrawing our daughter from school. Do not interfere.”

Rustila’s parents burst into the hospital room.

In a four-person room, Rustila, who had been leisurely reading a book, merely shrugged her shoulders as her parents stormed in.

“Mother, father…”

“Rustila, it was just like last time; this school just doesn’t seem suitable. Let’s move you elsewhere. Even if it’s not Stellarium, you can adequately study law at other places.”

Having endured a significant ordeal, Rustila was emotionally and physically drained. She was unprepared for her parents’ abrupt intervention.

“Pack your bags and come out. It might also be dangerous here.”

Rustila’s father grabbed her wrist roughly and pulled her while her mother swiftly packed Rustila’s belongings, stacking them on the desk.

“Sigh…”

Ceti let out a tormented sigh inwardly.

Interfering with another family’s problems wasn’t right. She often told herself she shouldn’t take such actions.

But this situation was too distressing to ignore.

Ceti, think about it. Can’t you see the troubled expression on the face of your dear friend, someone who has been almost like a sister to you?

“Excuse me…”

Just as Ceti found the nerve to speak, a mocking voice interrupted from the bed beside them.

“Look here.”

“Don’t you see this is an ICU? There are three patients here who need their rest, and yet you come and cause such a commotion. Isn’t it natural to be upset?”

“… Who are you, young man?”

“It seems you don’t recall me, even though we met at the entrance ceremony.”

Ceti offered a weary chuckle.

Indeed, Rustila wasn’t the only occupant of this room.

[Rustila Kersil (Present)]

[Zelnya von Untz zu Adelwein (Present)]

[Aidel von Reinhardt (Present)]

A fragile girl lost in slumber and an eccentric lad alert and expressive.

Zeknya, the girl in question, was deep in sleep. She’d delayed her hospital admission under the guise of reporting, only to later succumb to overwhelming exhaustion.

That left the eccentric boy, Aidel.

An annoying enemy is troublesome enough, yet a fool-turned-ally can feel unexpectedly delightful.

“I am currently in a state of both physical and mental exhaustion and need rest. If you two come in and raise such a stir, isn’t it reasonable to get upset?”

“Why do you even speak like that, young man?”

“What do you mean?” Aidel asked with a frown.

At that moment, he was engrossed in a martial arts novel.

His ‘Thought Acceleration’ skill allowed him to read at a speed ten times faster than the average person.

Consequently, his enjoyment of the storyline was exponentially greater.

In essence, he was utterly absorbed.

“Please leave.”

“Ah, right, it was Aidel or something, wasn’t it? I remember now! You’re the one who’s been seen with our Rustila. Good timing. We need to talk.”

“I asked you to leave.”

Aidel repeated his request without looking up from his book. In the passage he was currently on, two villains, laughing menacingly, approached the protagonist, who was accompanying a young lady.

It was a predictable plot twist, but for a newcomer to martial arts novels like Aidel, it was still thrilling.

With a whisper of pages turning, Aidel delved deeper into his book.

Rustila’s father observed Aidel’s detachment, and his irritation intensified.

“Young man, are you ignoring me?”

“Uh, uh? Do not approach any further! Do not cross that line. Should you do so, my beloved weapon cannot remain idle.”

“Such arrogance. You think adults are easy targets, eh? No respect, and what strange manners!”

The Kersils, while strict parents and professionals in the legal field, were not prone to lawbreaking. They had planned only to sternly warn him to ensure he steered clear of their daughter.

At that moment, with resolve set, Rustila’s father stepped forward.

Just then, Aidel turned to a vivid illustration in his book showing the protagonist wielding his favored weapon.

Swept up in the thrill of the story, Aidel inadvertently tapped into his internal power drive, and the calipers deployed with a sudden, ominous click.