Ch.100If We Succeed, It’s a Revolution!

“Princess Kurumi. We just received word from the Villain’s Troupe.”

“Oh? What did they say?”

“A great victory, they said. They encountered a ninja unit but managed to subdue them all with minimal casualties, capturing everyone except the leader.”

“That’s wonderful news. Thank you for telling me, Shinwoo.”

“W-wait a minute… Villain’s Troupe? Surely not the same Villain’s Troupe I’m thinking of? Sister?”

This was Princess Kurumi’s private residence.

I had already made arrangements with the Villain’s Troupe and was now relaying news of their victory to Princess Kurumi, who was with Asuna.

Asuna looked completely dumbfounded after overhearing our conversation.

Understandable, since the ones who went to rescue Kitsune Rokyu, who had sided with her sister, were none other than the ultimate underworld figures.

The Villain’s Troupe leader and his associates—internationally wanted criminals so heinous they were considered less than human.

“Yes. It’s exactly the Villain’s Troupe you’re thinking of, Asuna.”

“S-Sister! Are you c-c-crazy?! The Villain’s Troupe?! They’re extremely dangerous!”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

“Rumors say they eat people! And rape random passersby when they’re bored! They’re the worst of the worst villains!”

“Hmm… those rumors seem a bit exaggerated.”

“No, they’re not!”

Asuna’s shocked reaction to the mention of the Villain’s Troupe was perfectly normal.

If anything, we were the abnormal ones for collaborating with them.

But this was all for our bright future!

This could be considered a revolutionary step for Princess Kurumi and me to reform this rotten Kitsune Family!

“Revolution sounds great! I… no, ‘we’ will cooperate!”

The one who had reacted most enthusiastically when first hearing about our plan was Lorensky, who looked unusually red-faced that day.

‘Something… something about his enthusiasm makes me hesitant to involve him…’

I suspected Lorensky’s idea of revolution was quite different from ours.

Though he was quite disappointed, we ultimately only assigned him the task of monitoring Hosen, the current head of the Kitsune Family.

We had planned to visit him before tomorrow’s duel.

But thanks to Asuna, who came to us first, we could get straight to the point.

“Asuna. Did you fight well with Sister Sakura today?”

“Oh, yes! I almost lost at first, but I managed to pull through and win somehow.”

“…Does it hurt a lot?”

“Yeah… hehe. But she’s also a direct descendant like me. Sister Sakura didn’t have it easy either.”

Asuna sat before us with a bandage over one eye and her right arm in a cast.

Nevertheless, she was clearly trying to appear cheerful, speaking as brightly as possible.

But that didn’t last long.

“Anyway! Don’t change the subject! What’s this about the Villain’s Troupe all of a sudden?!”

Back to the Villain’s Troupe again.

Despite her family head succession ceremony with her sister being tomorrow.

Asuna couldn’t help but ask again about the fact that not only was Sophia behind Rokyu, but the Villain’s Troupe was involved too.

“Asuna. I intend to become the head of this family.”

“Sister…”

“And I’m going to change it! I want to create a Kitsune Family where no one gets hurt anymore. For that, I’m planning to wage war against the current leadership.”

“…!!”

A plan that even Asuna couldn’t have imagined.

If her own death could be compared to throwing an egg at a rock, her sister Kurumi’s plan was like smashing rock against rock—a true revolution.

“Sister, why did you suddenly decide this?”

“Because I don’t want anyone to get hurt anymore. I wish everyone around me, including you and me, would just stop hurting each other.”

“Sister…”

“Asuna, I don’t particularly seek revenge. I just don’t want anyone like me to be born into this family ever again.”

Even if she were to fall in love, marry, and have a child.

Even if that child were to grow up receiving the best treatment unlike herself, like Brother Katsuo now.

The future that child would face would be no different from our present.

Hating family members weaker than yourself and submitting to those stronger.

That wasn’t the terrible future Kurumi wanted to pass on to her child.

“Asuna. Stand with me.”

“……”

“I won’t even ask you to fight alongside me. Just stay behind me. I don’t want to fight you.”

Princess Kurumi extended her hand to her younger sister, stern yet gentle, just as she had done with Rokyu.

Instead of taking that hand, Asuna closed her eyes and then—

Thud.

“A-Asuna?!”

“I’ve… never been happier than I am right now.”

She was performing a dogeza—bowing her head to the floor—before her sister, despite being a direct descendant of one of the World’s 10 Great Families, an act normally reserved only for the family head.

“G-Get up, Asuna!”

“No! I’ll stay like this until you accept my greeting.”

“Greeting… you don’t mean?”

“This is the greeting that Kitsune Asuna, a direct descendant, offers to Kitsune Kurumi, the next head of the Kitsune Family.”

The meaning of her words wasn’t just that she would quietly watch from behind.

It meant she would fight alongside her sister, not from behind but by her side.

With this meaning, Asuna had already acknowledged Kurumi as the family head and was simply waiting for her sister’s next words.

“…Kitsune Asuna.”

“Yes.”

“…Do you, as a direct descendant of the Kitsune Family, acknowledge me, Kitsune Kurumi, as the rightful head of the family?”

These were words that would normally be spoken on the final day of the succession ceremony.

Words that only the direct descendant who survived to the end could recite—yet Princess Kurumi was already saying them.

But Asuna smiled and replied:

“I acknowledge you, Kitsune Head.”

Only then did Asuna lift her head and happily grasp her sister’s outstretched hand with both of her own, as if holding a treasure.

“I swear to stand by the Kitsune Head… no, Sister Kurumi, for the rest of my life!”

“Asuna… thank you.”

***

“By the way, I never knew Shinwoo had connections with the Villain’s Troupe.”

“Haha… yes, it just sort of happened that way.”

Morning came the next day.

Asuna, now completely allied with Princess Kurumi, was heading with us to the castle where the family head resided to enter the underground arena.

I personally explained that the uncomfortable matter of the Villain’s Troupe was my responsibility.

“S-Surely… Shinwoo isn’t a member of the Villain’s Troupe, right?”

“Of course not! …Well, am I? Maybe a Villain’s Troupe member-in-training?”

“U-Ugh… Shinwoo as a Villain’s Troupe member…!”

On one side, a woman—a noble lady from one of the World’s 10 Great Families, considered the most dignified humans.

On the other side, a man—from the Villain’s Troupe itself, considered the most disgusting humans.

What a forbidden relationship this was!

Truly a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.

But just as Eve in the Bible disobeyed God and ate the apple in the Garden of Eden, Asuna felt drawn to such forbidden love.

“B-But I still have the courage to follow Shinwoo to the end…!”

“Ahem!”

“Oh, Sister?!”

“…Stop talking nonsense and let’s hurry to withdraw from the match.”

“O-Okay…”

Asuna’s twisted posture immediately straightened at one clearing of the throat from the future family head.

‘I’m already struggling enough with Sophia, and now it seems Asuna has fallen for Shinwoo too? Well, with his condition, it would be stranger for a Beast Hunter to just ignore him, even knowing what he is…!’

If it were just a trusted younger sister, that would be one thing.

But historically, a trusted younger sister who commits “adultery” behind one’s back would have to be beheaded.

Ring ring.

She subtly pulled Shinwoo, who had been standing closer to Asuna, to her side and linked arms with him.

“Princess?!”

“Let’s just go like this.”

“Your… chest is touching me…”

“That doesn’t matter. If you get bored along the way, you can squeeze them as usual.”

“S-Squeeze?!”

“I never did that!”

Seeing her sister deliberately acting bold and even telling lies, Asuna’s face turned as red as a tomato.

But that peaceful moment was short-lived.

“Kurumi.”

“Brother Katsuo?”

She had thought she would meet him around the third day as the automatic finalist of the head selection ceremony.

Yet there he was, her eldest brother, standing in front of the Kitsune Castle where the family head resided, as if he had been waiting.

Sophia was startled to see him and immediately unlinked her arm from Shinwoo’s, her eyes narrowing sharply.

“Shinwoo. Please step back for a moment.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Brother Katsuo? I thought you would appear on the final day, so why are you here already…”

“And why are you, Asuna, walking together with Kurumi when you’re supposed to fight her today?”

“T-That’s…!”

Asuna was momentarily speechless with fear.

But she had already made up her mind when she pressed her forehead to the tatami floor yesterday.

“Because I’ve decided not to fight Sister Kurumi!”

“…!”

“I’ve decided to stand with Sister Kurumi… no, Head Kurumi, and fight against the Kitsune Family itself! Brother Katsuo.”

“Not against me… but against the family itself?”

“That’s right, Brother Katsuo. I’m going to wage a very brief war against the corrupt leadership of this family starting now.”

Pleased with her brave younger sister joining forces with her, Kurumi extended her hand to Brother Katsuo just as she had done with other family members.

“Brother Katsuo. I want to forgive you.”

“For…give?”

“Yes. Take my hand. Then I’ll forgive everything that has happened until now and forget it all.”

She was trying to give him a chance.

But as if such a chance was never needed in the first place:

“Then I must decline.”

“Brother Katsuo…”

“The head of the Kitsune Family has always subjugated those beneath them with overwhelming power. If you truly want the position of family head, then kill me right here and take that position.”

Katsuo simply assumed a fighting stance like a warrior.

“Kurumi. Power is justice.”

“No. Justice means wiping away the tears of the weak and creating something by holding hands with everyone together.”

“I don’t know such things. So if that’s the kind of Kitsune Family you want to create, then kill me first. And use me as a stepping stone to grow! Kitsune Kurumi!”

Like water and oil.

Like a mouse and a cat.

To him, Kurumi’s ideology was nothing more than that.

As Kurumi bit her lip firmly, Katsuo finished speaking and immediately leaped toward her.

“Here I come! Fight me! Kitsune Kurumi!”