Lercier Chloe (2)

Lercier Chloe (2)

As the character Deren was set up as an irredeemable villain,

The author used various methods to prevent readers from becoming attached to Deren’s character.

One of these was not revealing any personal stories about Deren at all.

‘The author didn’t explain anything about what Deren liked, what his relationship with his family was like, what happened with his fiancée… or even what he wanted to do.’

As a result, I had no idea what kind of relationship Deren and his older sister Chloe had.

Every single action was a delicate matter.

“Kiss.”

The person named Chloe in front of me starts making unreasonable demands from the beginning, as if my caution doesn’t matter at all.

‘… This family doesn’t have anything normal, it’s giving me a headache.’

Of course, I’ve benefited a lot from the abnormal structure.

Thinking that this point is too difficult to handle, I pretend not to hear on purpose.

Chloe sighs and speaks softly.

“It feels like just yesterday when you used to follow me around calling me ‘sister, sister’ … It’s truly sad how you’ve become so cold now that you’ve grown up a bit. Why has my little one changed like this?”

“……”

“Oh, how sad, how sad. This sister is truly heartbroken.”

As I grit my teeth, ignore her, and focus on the food, Chloe starts speaking to me in a gradually louder voice while glancing at me.

Honestly, by this point, I should have listened at least once

But due to the gazes around us and the fact that I really don’t know if Deren actually did this, I silently continued eating.

After 10 minutes of this back-and-forth, Chloe seems to have given up.

Pointing to her lap, she speaks to me as if making a concession.

“Haa … Then let’s compromise by at least having you sit here while eating. Oh child … Why have you become so cold after not seeing each other for so long? I really don’t understand my little brother’s heart.”

I shake my head again, meaning no.

Chloe looks at me with a somewhat annoyed expression, then sighs and says.

“Alright … My little one has grown up, so I guess we should stop this now. Yes … yes.”

Chloe, who had been sighing deeply, glances at me cautiously.

Seeing me appear to let my guard down, her eyes sharpened, and she quickly cast an unknown spell.

Witnessing this, I instinctively took ownership of the spell and was about to use it in reverse when I was caught off guard.

Suddenly, Chloe was pulled to my side and clung to me.

“Oh my.”

Chloe seemed a bit surprised by my counterattack, but also looked at me proudly.

She hugged me, nuzzling her cheek against mine as she spoke.

“Did my little brother actually steal his sister’s spell ownership? My goodness, when did you learn such a thing? As expected of my little brother, you’re different from the start!”

It was undeniable that Chloe’s appearance was incredibly beautiful, befitting a human of the Lercier Family.

However, as she continued to act this way in front of the others.

I felt it was beyond burdensome and was starting to get tired, so I briefly said.

“… Sister. Please let go.”

“Hmm. My little brother, this meat is truly delicious. It’s the highest grade beef raised in the Fenral Plains, prepared by the best chef in the academy. It can’t help but be delicious.”

“Sister.”

“Yes. Since we’ve met after a long time, it would be nice if your sister specially feeds you. Come on, say ‘ah’.”

“……”

Is she pretending not to hear me now?

I decided to just give up and accepted the meat carefully entering my mouth.

Chloe smiled brightly and said to me.

“So, where did you learn that magic stealing technique?”

At those words, I couldn’t help but pause for a moment.

Not only stealing someone else’s magic but also reversing it back was a high-level technique that couldn’t be used by Academy students, and moreover.

‘Since Chloe is said to be a 6th Circle Magician in the novel.’

No matter how careless I was, I managed to take away even the 6th Circle magic, which is considered high-ranking.

From Chloe’s perspective, this would be quite suspicious in many ways.

After pondering over Chloe’s words for a while, I slowly opened my mouth.

“I self-studied.”

“… Self-studied?”

Upon hearing this, Chloe looked at me with a dubious expression.

Then, smiling brightly, she shouted towards Delia and Rumi, who were watching us with blank expressions.

“He says he self-studied! Did you hear that? Our youngest learned such an amazing skill through self-study! This is Deren, the pride of the Lercier Family!”

Now it feels more like seeing a doting mother than an older sister.

As I’m thinking about why I feel so embarrassed and squeezing my eyes shut,

Suddenly, Chloe patted my head and said.

“Little one, with such outstanding talent, how about graduating early from the Academy and joining the academic society? With that level of skill, there seems to be no reason for you to attend the Academy.”

In a way, it was a reasonable suggestion.

The reason for attending the Academy is to gain basic skills, build connections that can only be made here, and obtain a diploma.

In my case, if I could acquire the skills, the rest could be resolved within the family.

‘So, rationally thinking, it would make sense to accept such a proposal.’

However, since my current priority was protecting Rumi from the Heaven God Cult, I had no choice but to decline.

As I shook my head, Chloe poked my cheek repeatedly and continued speaking.

“Could it be that you want to keep attending the Academy because of those children? Hmm, well… Academy life won’t come around twice, so it’s not bad to enjoy it now.”

I decided to just nod and accept it as it was.

Chloe, finding me cute, patted my head again before returning to her seat.

“There was an incident during lunch today, but I’ve resolved that issue, so everyone please enjoy yourselves without worry.”

As I was inwardly sighing while looking at the two guys who were just nodding with blank expressions,

Chloe suddenly seemed to have a thought and paused her fork to speak to me.

“Oh, and little one. I’ve captured the kidnappers you mentioned separately, so if you want to do anything, go down to the basement of the mansion. I’ve informed the guards, so you can go right down.”

The moment I heard those words, I could clearly feel that Chloe was a member of the Lercier Family.

Those words made me feel that torture was not something special to even mention, but rather a method that could be used.

‘Well, even Deren’s father didn’t say much about smashing someone’s head with a mace, and was only interested in grades.’

Thinking that such a distorted set of values must have been passed down to Chloe, I nodded.

‘Still, it’s interesting how much she likes her family.’

Thinking it was unexpected that she didn’t reject them despite the intense competition, I decided to go down after finishing my meal.

*

The first thing I saw when I went down was.

The Heaven God Cult followers, who could be described as in a miserable state, covered in blood and groaning.

As I slowly walked towards them, the guards around me greeted me.

“Welcome, Young Master Deren. We’ve already received word from Miss Chloe.”

I nodded lightly.

The guard briefly explained why these guys were in this state.

“Miss Chloe was enraged and conducted torture more severely than usual. Magicians are forcibly keeping them alive, but if the torture continues any further, they might die.”

It seems Chloe has already taken care of everything, leaving nothing else for me to do.

I knew I couldn’t extract information from them due to the contracts or mental protection spells they were under.

I decided to search their bodies for information other than through conversation.

‘It’s unlikely there will be anything.’

The reason they haven’t been caught despite operating on such a large scale.

It’s partly because many have sided with the Heaven God Cult, preventing investigations from even starting.

But it’s also because they’re so good at covering their tracks whenever problems arise.

As I was pondering over these individuals who seemed determined not to give even a shred of information.

An interesting thought crossed my mind.

‘Come to think of it, zombies used to mimic the actions and habits they had when they were alive.’

In other words, if I turn these guys into ‘zombies’ and let them loose.

They might provide evidence that could help catch the ‘Heaven God Cult’ by doing what they used to do when they were alive.

‘Of course, it could all be for nothing given how random it is.’

I smiled, thinking that with their large numbers, if we set them all loose at once, at least one… no, one creature might provide some evidence.

‘Well then, shall we turn them into zombies?’

I decided to proceed with this using the negative energy that was still in a box state, thinking it would be interesting.