Chapter 6
The expression on that child’s face when he saw me panic after hearing the name Kalif wouldn’t leave my mind.
The villain Kallius in the novel ‘Cold Heart’ wasn’t a villain with some elaborate backstory. Far from his past being revealed, he was often portrayed as pure evil.
Even until the moment he died, he didn’t pathetically beg for his life. Having stained his own hands with blood to become a Grand Duke, Kallius drove wedges between the imperial family, nobles, and the magic tower to ruthlessly seize what he wanted.
Though he stood at the pinnacle of dark magic, Kallius trusted no one other than himself. Not even fellow dark mages.
The reason behind Kallius’s path walking on blood-covered roads was never clearly revealed.
The author didn’t describe anything about Kallius’s past, so much so that readers expecting his backstory caused comment terrorism.
└Author, is Grand Duke Chervan really just a natural-born psycho? └No, look at that. There’s more than one or two meaningful scenes! └Author please! I’m curious about that crazy bastard’s past! Author!!
The comment section was in complete chaos when it ended.
Chervan Kallius was quite popular. There were surprisingly many people who willingly crawled into cozy trash cans.
I thought Chervan Kallius was a perfect villain who had no narrative whatsoever. But, but…
It wasn’t that there was no reason!!
That child’s face was the face of a kid standing on the edge of a cliff. The wounds had scarred because he hadn’t received proper treatment in time, and the dark bruises showed no signs of fading. Moreover, his under-eyes were dark as if he hadn’t slept properly, and his thin arms and legs suggested poor nutrition.
What can I do? Is there any way other than killing that child now?
If that child grows up according to the original story, not only me but our entire family will die by his hands.
“No matter how I think about it, removing the possibility of Kallius becoming a villain from the start seems like a better method than me trying to twist our family’s fate after Kallius becomes the villain.”
The image of that child stepping back and shaking his hands, worried the fire might reach the puppy, flickered before my eyes.
Ugh, I have no choice. Should I keep him by my side for now? And then… solve the root cause? Personality reformation?
“But I said I’d call his name plenty and then totally ignored him—isn’t this already a ruined ending?”
Damn it.
I was thrashing around on my bed for a while when I heard footsteps approaching my room.
“Ari, Ari!”
Ignoring the voice humming like a song, I pretended to sleep and put my hand under the pillow. My fingers found the water gun filled with water.
Yesterday it was used for a different purpose, but today it’s not.
“I’m coming in? I’m coming in?”
Sier threw open the door and entered the room. Why are brothers in every world so desperate to torment their little sisters?
“Mom wants to eat lunch in the garden. Get up quickly.”
“It’s 7 o’clock now, you idiot!”
“Oh? You’re awake? Since you’re up, get up. Let’s go play.”
“Ugh, no. Go away.”
“Why won’t you play with your brother lately?”
“I’ll play with you later. Later.”
Your sister is very tired right now. My head feels like it’s going to explode thinking about how to handle Kallius.
“Ah! Ari, get up quickly. Get up!!”
The nagging voice assaulted my eardrums. In what way is this guy the heir to a ducal family?
I opened my eyes wide and pulled out the water gun I’d hidden under my pillow, firing it madly at Sier’s face. Leaving Sier staggering while waving his hands, I ran down to the first floor.
“What’s gotten into you to wake up early?”
“Brother woke me up.”
I secretly raised my middle finger toward Sier, who came downstairs soaking wet, making sure Mom couldn’t see.
This beautifully extended middle finger is indeed a universally effective insult.
“Mom! Ari cursed!”
“When did I? I didn’t even open my mouth.”
When Mom turned around, I quickly lowered my finger. Mom, shaking her head as if she couldn’t stand it, took both Sier’s and my hands.
“Since it’s earlier than usual, I’m not sure if the meal will be ready.”
“Ari, let’s eat breakfast and go out with your brother.”
“You’ve been going out a lot lately to meet friends in the village below, so why aren’t you going today?”
“We fought.”
“You fought?”
Sier is my second brother, two years older than me. Though he laughs carelessly and acts immature, that’s only within the ducal family.
When he goes outside, he tries to act dignified and mature, but to think he fought with a peer—I can’t believe it.
“For you to fight with a friend, that’s unusual.”
Mom was also surprised and asked while looking at Sier.
“When I said I was a noble, he got really angry.”
“Ah.”
Mom and I both let out exclamations simultaneously. The only noble mansion in this area is the Algenfrina ducal family’s villa, and the peers living in the village below would only be commoners or children of wealthy merchants.
So he might not have even thought his friend could be a noble.
Citizens of the Ratarta Empire all possess magic power except for a very small number with special constitutions. In other words, someone born a commoner could become part of the magic tower and become a noble.
Magic power isn’t the exclusive property of nobles.
But even that was only a small number compared to the entire empire’s population, and the gap in social status wasn’t something that could be easily narrowed.
“How many times is this now?”
“The fourth time, I think.”
Sier said it nonchalantly. Every time we moved villas, Sier would go down to villages near the villa to make friends. Whether commoner or nouveau riche child or noble child, there probably wasn’t much difference to Sier.
“He got furious asking if I’d been deceiving him all this time, and I was dumbfounded. Well, whatever. If he doesn’t want to, what can I do.”
“Sier, if staying here is too boring, how about going to the mansion where Father is staying?”
Mom embraced Sier’s shoulders with a pitying expression. Before the word ‘sorry’ could come from Mom’s lips, Sier cut off her words first.
“The moment I show up next to Father, invitation cards to all the nobles’ tea parties will come flying. No no, Mom. Don’t abandon Sier to that scary place. Sier wants to stay here.”
“Ugh.”
When I made a vomiting gesture at his disgusting voice, Sier grabbed my head with both hands.
Until recently there wasn’t that much of a height difference, but somehow he’d grown alone and now was more than a head taller than me.
As we bickered with Mom between us, Mom suggested another option.
“Then how about going to Reyn?”
When the name Reyn came up, the air froze solid as if someone had cast wide-range ice magic.
“Hahaha… absolutely not.”
Sier, who had been flailing his arms and legs as if getting the shivers, grabbed one of Mom’s arms and acted cute.
“How could I leave my lovely sister and mother to go somewhere? I’m not bored, so don’t worry. Mom, I’m already swamped with the homework Father assigned. And brother probably doesn’t want me there either.”
Reyn, my eldest brother, goes anywhere he wants to go, but the problem is that those ‘places he wants to go’ are dangerous areas with a 99% probability.
The places Reyn goes are like places where dark mages are hiding, or where people who committed crimes are, or where nobles with shady backgrounds are.
Reyn was a magic tower investigation enforcer who hunted down such guys. Of course… rather than investigating, it seems like once they’re caught red-handed, he just beats them all up.
Often when we talked to Reyn through communication orbs, the background behind Reyn was menacing more than once or twice.
“Don’t worry about Mom and stay where you want to be. Got it?”
“Got it.”
We arrived at the dining room and were having a simple breakfast while exchanging everyday conversation when Mom asked me about yesterday with sparkling eyes. I almost choked for a moment.
“I heard you went to the lakeside yesterday. You met an injured child there?”
Mom narrowed her eyes and looked at me. I had a guilty conscience for some reason and avoided her gaze while stammering.
“He didn’t look dangerous. Though he did seem like he was being chased.”
“Hmm, we’ll need to be on guard against outsider intrusions for a while.”
“He was skin and bones… And badly injured too. If Shadi happens to meet that child, I hope he won’t threaten him. He was a boy with black hair and red eyes… Mom?”
Mom’s hand moving the tableware stopped abruptly. Mom, frowning and thinking about something, carefully asked me.
“Red eyes?”
“Mm, it wasn’t black but didn’t seem completely red either.”
Mom, who had fallen into quiet thought, put down her tableware on the table, clasped her trembling hands together, and asked me again.
“…How old did he look?”
“Mm, he was so thin I couldn’t tell properly, but he looked over 10 years old.”
“What are you saying?”
