Ch.61Alliance (4)

“…saw it?”

Kirsy swallowed hard at Asena’s boldness. Even if she wanted to respond, she couldn’t.

She had perfectly captured the situation, and no excuse from Asena would have fooled her, but she hadn’t expected Asena to be so brazen about it.

“…Sister… what are you doing?”

“…I was just giving him a kiss on the cheek.”

“…That’s a lie. You were kissing him.”

“…So you knew. Then why did you bother asking?”

Her shamelessness was beyond measure. Kirsy felt utterly deflated by Asena’s absurd response.

“…What?”

“Close the door and leave. I’ll see you later.”

Asena naturally pressured Kirsy with the intimidating aura emanating from her body.

Kirsy’s heart sank. If she closed the door and left, she could clearly imagine what Asena might do to Caden, and she simply couldn’t leave them alone.

Her tone suggested that kissing him was natural, a foregone conclusion. She was treating Kirsy as if she had nothing to do with this.

If it had just been a peck, Kirsy wouldn’t have thought anything of it. She could tolerate Asena kissing Caden’s neck or cheek, as she had done since they were young.

But a kiss… that was different. It was clearly an expression of affection reserved for lovers. She had learned this from books and understood it through imagination. As such, it wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

The thought of someone kissing Caden… Kirsy hated it so much.

A kiss should be shared with the one person you love. The fact that for her brother, that person was Asena was unacceptable.

“…What will you do if I leave?”

Kirsy finally asked, refusing to move.

“…You already saw.”

“..Sister. B-brother is sleeping. How could you do that without his permission?”

It clearly wasn’t consensual. She had briefly wondered if Caden had already permitted this, but Asena’s startled reaction and Caden’s peaceful sleeping face told her otherwise.

“Go ahead and curse me all you want. I don’t care. Now stop interfering and leave.”

Kirsy was beginning to understand why siblings shouldn’t fall in love with each other.

Of course, Kirsy knew about Asena’s feelings. Being the same herself, she recognized a kindred spirit.

But actually witnessing Asena kissing Caden made it seem so utterly wrong.

‘Liar.’

Just then, someone whispered to Kirsy.

‘You’re just upset that it’s not you kissing brother.’

Kirsy tried to ignore the voice echoing in her head and glared at Asena again.

“Let’s… go outside. We might wake brother.”

At Kirsy’s words, Asena looked down at Caden tenderly. Her expression softened, revealing a woman in love. She gently caressed Caden’s face and told Kirsy with absolute confidence:

“…It’s fine. Brother never wakes up when he’s like this.”

With those words, Kirsy was certain this wasn’t Asena’s first time. Accordingly, she felt a burning rage in her chest.

The two engaged in a battle of wills for a while before Asena simply turned away.

“Go back. I don’t want to waste time. These opportunities… are rare these days.”

Asena began to lean down again.

It was such a natural movement. Like an animal bending to drink water, she acted as if it were something she naturally had to do for survival.

Her lips approached him.

“Sister.”

For a moment, Asena felt as if hands had materialized from Kirsy’s words, stopping her.

She hesitated.

Turning her head to look over her shoulder, she saw Kirsy emanating a menacing aura she had never seen before.

Her always gentle sister was glaring at her like a true Praester.

With eyes that seemed to emit a fierce light, Kirsy said to Asena:

“…A kiss is something you do only when two people love each other.”

“…I know that.”

“Then you shouldn’t be doing it. The one brother loves most is me.”

Asena finally couldn’t ignore those words and raised her upper body. She slowly turned to face Kirsy.

Kirsy’s words sounded as if she was suggesting that she, not Asena, should be the one kissing him.

“…Why would brother love you the most?”

“You wouldn’t know because you were busy being the family head… but the memories brother and I built when you weren’t around could fill volumes. I’m surprised you don’t know that. Haven’t you noticed how brother’s eyes change when he looks at me?”

“…Sure. He certainly dotes on you. But that’s different from love. Love isn’t determined by chronological order anyway.”

“………”

Kirsy gritted her teeth. Asena continued coldly without stopping:

“…You know it too. Brother loves us… but only as sisters. He doesn’t see us as women. So drop that nonsense about being the most loved.”

“…If you know that, then you shouldn’t be kissing him.”

They had never revealed their true feelings to each other, but they already knew they both loved Caden, and were speaking on that basis. It was too obvious to each other.

Asena let out a shallow sigh. She slightly turned her head and blinked as if frustrated, then began to reveal her honest feelings.

“Kirsy. Let’s be honest. I know you’ve been staring blankly at brother’s lips recently. Do you have the right to criticize me? You’re just upset that it’s me doing it instead of you.”

With her true feelings exposed, Kirsy clenched her fists and her face turned red.

“…Ugh…”

“…But there’s nothing you can do. I loved brother first. As family head, I’ll find you another match, so give up your feelings for brother.”

Kirsy processed Asena’s words for a moment, then snorted.

“…Ha, why are you being so irresponsible, sister?”

“…What?”

“As you said, you’re the family head. You should make a marriage that benefits the family. What good would loving brother do? Are you saying you’ll marry him? You’re the one who should give up.”

“Do you know why I tried to expel brother from the family?”

“I do. But I found it absurd. Like you were chasing an impossible dream. And it still doesn’t benefit the family, does it?”

Kirsy hadn’t said anything about Caden’s expulsion from the family because it would have benefited her too, but she had been uncomfortable with Asena’s plan.

“Grandmother Riana would be so pleased. The family head… saying she can’t properly arrange a strategic marriage.”

In response to Kirsy’s sarcasm, Asena answered lightly:

“Then you do it. Be the family head.”

“…Huh?”

“I don’t care. We’re twins. There won’t be any problems if you do it. You be the family head and sacrifice yourself for the family as you said.”

“……”

“To be honest, I don’t care about the family at all. I just need… brother. I’m willing to do anything for that.”

Kirsy could perfectly understand Asena’s words. She felt the same way.

…But that didn’t mean she could accept it.

“Sister.”

“And I’m warning you, don’t covet brother… not even you. I’ll tolerate actions at the current level. Don’t get greedy beyond that. Don’t worry. If all my plans work out well, nothing will change in your relationship with brother. He’ll still treat you only as a sister. What will change is me. I’ll become… brother’s most precious woman. Kissing him every day… and I even plan to have his children…”

Asena couldn’t control her words. The feelings she had never expressed to her sister came pouring out. Even though it was Kirsy, Asena had accumulated a slight jealousy toward another woman who could freely express affection to Caden.

Especially when Asena had to work as the family head while Kirsy went out to play with Caden. At those times, she definitely envied and resented Kirsy.

She had suppressed those feelings with kisses… but now she was venting her pent-up emotions. Though she usually didn’t act emotionally, whenever Caden was involved, her emotions would burst forth. Asena spoke to irritate Kirsy’s nerves.

“…My child with brother. I think it would be cute… Maybe they’ll become a great Praester like Grandfather Aiden.”

Kirsy’s chest boiled at Asena’s declaration. She had never seen Asena speak so explicitly before. She seemed like a different person.

And at Asena’s words, Kirsy felt a fierce anger she hadn’t felt in a long time. She never thought she would harbor such emotions toward Asena.

In the end, she blurted out childish words designed to hurt Asena the most.

“Sister. Wake up from your dream. Brother has never liked you. If he did, why couldn’t you reconcile after your recent fight?”

Asena’s eyebrow twitched.

“I’ve reconciled with him. Just looking at that, you have no chance. Don’t throw yourself at brother recklessly or you’ll get hurt.”

Asena gritted her teeth and suppressed her anger. She tried not to show it, but Kirsy’s words had struck a nerve and couldn’t be easily dismissed.

Finally, Asena coldly replied to Kirsy:

“…It’s fine. Brother’s first kiss belongs to me anyway. Oh, and the thousands of kisses after that too.”

“……”

This time it was Kirsy who glared at Asena. It didn’t have much effect on Asena, but Kirsy’s face clearly resembled the snake in the Praester family crest in its intensity.

“…You’ll never know, Kirsy. How good brother’s tongue… feels.”

“Even so, you only did it creepily while brother was sleeping. Don’t you feel any guilt?”

“Do you think I, who as family head have sentenced hundreds of criminals to death, would feel such a thing? You don’t know… Kirsy. When you kiss brother… you can’t think of anything else, you just feel happy. I can’t explain it in words.”

“…Huff…”

Kirsy closed her eyes to suppress her anger, then suggested to Asena with a trembling voice:

“This won’t do. Sister. Let’s go back to the dormitory. If we stay here… we might wake brother.”

“…He definitely won’t wake up… but fine.”

Asena looked down at Caden and skillfully wiped the saliva from his lips with a practiced hand.

Kirsy watched this scene and finally couldn’t bear it anymore, leaving the room first.

The two eventually returned to the dormitory.

Caden remained sound asleep.