Ch.70Reunion (3)

[The One Who Knows / ???

-You have noticed its existence, and it has also noticed you.]

A strange message suddenly appeared before my eyes.

It wasn’t something I could simply see and ignore.

But I had to ignore it despite seeing it. My sister’s gaze was clearly fixed on me beyond the message.

Reflected in her gray eyes—the same color as mine—my face was expressionless. And it didn’t seem like she could see the status window.

I deliberately closed the reputation window, suppressed the goosebumps rising on my back, and managed to open my mouth.

“I’m not sure if you’ve heard from Melody.”

Curiosity subtly nestled in her seemingly innocent eyes.

How could I not recognize my sister’s face?

I recalled three years ago. My sister who would always listen attentively to whatever I had to say.

Most of the stories were nothing special, but that’s how our family had lived.

My sister was an excellent listener.

“I was about to form an alliance with a vampire called Hertol the Red Beast when he suddenly changed.”

“How?”

“He killed a blood mage named Edilum from his own clan, and immediately afterward attacked me. He repeatedly attacked me and my companions mercilessly.”

“So that’s why I smell blood.”

I nodded to my sister, who had unconsciously leaned forward with her chin resting on her hand. Even the way her body weight shifted onto the table was familiar.

Well, with what she’s carrying, it makes sense she’d lean forward.

“And? That sounds rather ordinary by itself.”

My sister tilted her head. I nodded at her question.

“After killing Hertol, he whispered to me.”

It’s still vivid. The last words he whispered to me as he turned to dust.

“‘Beware of the Emperor.'”

My sister’s eyes showed understanding before dimming.

“How did Lady Lucilla find out?”

My sister’s eyes turned to me again. I tried hard to maintain my composure.

I’m not sure how I appeared to her, but my sister tilted her head for a moment, then reached out and took my hand.

Her hand enveloped mine, which I had unknowingly placed on the table. It was warm. Warm enough to make me flinch involuntarily.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Did I look like I was afraid of those events? My sister tried to comfort me, then spoke slowly.

“At first, I thought the noble faction was trying to trap me.”

The story that began that way was pleasant to hear.

Whether it was because of my sister’s gentle voice or simply because she was my sister, I wasn’t sure.

I listened to her voice and didn’t pull my hand away from her grasp.

It was familiar and warm.

Just as she always used to do, my sister held my hand and chatted casually.

But the content of our conversation was cold, unlike her voice or demeanor.

My sister was one of the key figures in the imperial faction.

She had earned the title of Guardian Knight for that very reason.

She was the Emperor’s representative and his foremost guard, and could be called the Emperor’s sword.

Such a sister had once headed to the territory of the noble faction, who were suspected of being behind the civil war, and discovered the truth.

“He told me as he was dying. Normally I would have dismissed it, but there were other things I couldn’t ignore. I had found many suspicious things before. So I investigated.”

She didn’t tell me in detail, but that didn’t seem to be the important part.

My sister revealed a faint killing intent beneath her seemingly innocent face.

It was that of a possessor who had wandered this world for at least three years, perhaps more.

“So I was looking into it and got caught. Since I was caught, I thought I’d confront him directly. The Emperor and I had built a bond… I had worked hard for the Empire. I thought he would listen.”

But it was unexpected, my sister said with a smile.

“The Emperor wasn’t human. He was an appendage of some enormous being wearing the Emperor’s skin.”

“An appendage… you mean controlled?”

“No, it was more than that. How should I put it?”

My sister seemed to notice only then that she was holding my hand, made a small “oh” sound, and let go.

I found that a bit disappointing.

She took her released hand under the table, then raised only two fingers.

“Like this.”

What my sister was trying to express was ambiguous at a glance, but I was used to her vague expressions.

Her two fingers moved according to her will. They wriggled, jumped up, and tapped on the table.

It was, so to speak, her best description of the Emperor’s true nature.

When combined with what she had just said, it could be verbalized like this:

“The Emperor himself is part of it.”

“That’s right.”

My sister smiled brightly. I hid my embarrassment as I looked at her fingers.

Yes, the Emperor wasn’t being controlled.

The Emperor that people saw was closer to a shell worn by a part of that being.

“Like a puppet show…”

“You’re smart. Should I praise you?”

It seems you already did. I shook my head and realized the full implications.

[The One Who Knows / ???

-You have noticed its existence, and it has also noticed you.]

Some enormous being was casting a shadow over the Empire.

Something sensitive and massive enough to notice and watch me just because I had discovered its existence.

The Emperor was its disguise, and the Empire was its nest.

Something that even the Three Clans either didn’t know about or only vaguely knew about.

When I suddenly became curious about something and looked at my sister, she read my thoughts before I could speak.

“You want to ask if I tried to kill it, right?”

I didn’t ask how she knew.

“I think I killed it hundreds of times on the spot. I tried killing it with swords, martial arts, spears, blunt weapons, and all kinds of techniques… but it wouldn’t die.”

My sister, a level 20 homunculus.

The Guardian Knight, also called the Emperor’s Sword, a powerful figure.

Even she couldn’t kill the shadow of some enormous being.

That was the Emperor.

Was there such a thing in Grim Darker? I couldn’t recall anything no matter how much I searched my memories.

Was it something that was going to be revealed in this DLC, or something that emerged when my sister and I came to this world?

I had no idea. There was no point in trying to figure it out. The conversation died down because of that.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to try to find answers. Will you help me?”

“Of course.”

“Don’t you need to think about it? It will be difficult.”

My sister’s already large eyes widened in surprise, as if she hadn’t expected me to answer so promptly.

I was just as surprised as her, not having expected myself to answer so quickly.

“Really, it’s going to be really hard. I’m already grateful that you’re letting me stay here. And I can’t give you anything in return. Are you sure?”

My sister still had a good personality. Naturally, some kind of desire stirred within me.

The desire to say that I was her brother, and therefore wanted to help her.

But I didn’t voice it.

I was afraid. If I said that and my sister avoided me or found it troubling.

I would surely be hurt.

So I couldn’t do it. That’s why I held back.

Above all, I was concerned about Lorian’s expression that I had seen recently.

The expression filled with desire that he had clearly shown me.

The fact that my sister had also made such an expression made me hesitate.

Not knowing what that expression meant or why she had made it.

I hesitated. I hesitated to reveal that I was me.

My sister and I were siblings. Siblings should remain as siblings.

I desperately controlled myself and nodded.

Fortunately, my sister didn’t ask for my reasons.

The conversation naturally ended. What needed to be done was still unclear.

“Then I’ll take my leave now.”

She didn’t stop me, perhaps not knowing what to ask me to do right away.

But she said:

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“You can call me ‘noona’.”

She said that abruptly.

“…”

Did she find out?

Is she certain?

If she found out, how did she find out?

And if she didn’t find out, does she let just anyone call her “noona”?

My feelings were complicated. I had to hold my breath at the sensation of my heart sinking, even though it wasn’t beating.

“You mean… ‘noona’?”

So I deliberately answered as awkwardly as possible. As if I hadn’t expected it.

But only after looking back did I regret it a little. My sister’s expression was beyond the level where emotions could be read.

“Yes, I’m a homunculus and you’re a homunculus too. So you can call me noona.”

She smiled slightly, raising just the corners of her mouth.

It overlapped with what Isla had said once, but the expression was quite different.

I hesitated. Some kind of desire stirring inside me was whispering for me to surrender.

“Noona Lucilla…”

“Don’t be so formal from now on.”

“…Okay.”

So I forced it out. The word “noona” that I uttered for the first time in three years strangely didn’t feel natural on my tongue.

My sister smiled at my expression.

“That sounds better. Sorry for keeping you.”

“It’s not—”

A slight sadness appeared in my sister’s innocent eyes. I drew in a sharp breath and corrected myself.

“No, it’s fine.”

After surrendering, I was surprisingly comfortable.

It felt like returning to where I belonged.

Suppressing that feeling, I left, with only the sound of my sister’s soft laughter tickling my ears.

I tried to forget the words I couldn’t say.

*

“…I guess not.”

The woman whom many called Lucilla quietly murmured in the empty cabin.

Her face instantly shed its usual innocence and took on a sad expression.

“I thought he had found me…”

The woman collapsed onto the table as if crumbling.

Sighing, with her chest feeling tight despite her outstretched arms, she remained quiet without making a sound.

It had been three years since she possessed this body. Throughout that time, the woman had always harbored only one thing in her heart.

Whether time was flowing in her world while she was possessed here or not.

She had always agonized over that possibility.

Even though it was a question that couldn’t be answered without actually checking.

And if Earth’s time was flowing without her.

“…Does he hate me?”

The mere possibility made her heart feel like it was being torn apart.

Would he be feeling the emptiness of her absence, thinking he had been abandoned?

Would he be staring blankly at the empty house with a sad expression?

Was he eating well?

It was sad if he was starving because she wasn’t there, but it was also sad if he had adapted to her absence and was preparing his own meals.

To the point where she had the wicked thought that if only her brother could come here too.

That’s why she made that mischievous request to the person who reminded her suspiciously of her brother.

Hoping desperately that it was her brother, wanting to confirm it was him and have many conversations.

To tell him that she hadn’t abandoned him, that she had been searching everywhere for a way to return.

That she hadn’t forgotten him for even a moment—she wanted to be able to say such things.

But it seemed that wasn’t the case. The woman lifted her face from the table.

“…Should I forget?”

Her brother would surely hate her.

Things that shouldn’t be done, paths that shouldn’t be taken, emotions that shouldn’t be harbored.

Even if she revealed all of that, he would despise her.

If that was inevitable, if that was all that could happen.

Perhaps she should just give up.

‘After holding back for so long.’

As she thought of giving up, a surge of defiance rose within her. Along with the natural feeling of not wanting to.

‘If we were going to part ways eventually, I should have been honest from the start.’

But even such thoughts vanished upon reaching the “present.”

After all, she was his sister, and he was her brother.

This was a thought that shouldn’t be harbored. Love should always be reciprocal, not one-sided.

As long as her brother saw her as his sister, it shouldn’t be that way.

After suffering through various thoughts, she came to a conclusion similar to her brother’s.

‘Ruwellin.’

A man similar to but different from her brother, strangely attractive.

‘If I can get to know him better… and come to like him, then I’ll give up.’

If she could come to like him, she would stop liking her brother.

She prepared words to deceive herself.

Not knowing that she was pushing herself deeper into the mire.