A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 36
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Open the door! Open it now!”
I pounded against the firmly shut door as if my hands might shatter.
“The child is sick! Open it immediately!”
What I had dreaded finally came to pass. My younger sibling, who had always been frail, had succumbed to illness at last.
Upon discovering the child lying limp, I struck the door with even greater fury. My hands felt as though they were tearing, but I didn’t care.
Bang! Bang!
“Open!”
Crash!
“Please, open up for me….”
“Hyung….”
At the child’s call—far fainter than usual—I slowly turned my head.
For the first time, I felt grateful for this darkness. At least the child couldn’t see my face, stained with despair.
I carefully grasped the small hand reaching toward me. Just moments ago, it had burned with fever, but now it held no warmth whatsoever.
My heart sank. I squeezed the child’s hand even tighter.
“I’m… glad.”
“…Glad about what?”
Glad about what, in a situation like this?!
I wanted to shout, but the words wouldn’t come.
“Now… you can leave, hyung.”
“Don’t joke!”
“I’m sorry, hyung.”
“Be quiet.”
“I’m truly sorry.”
“Don’t waste your strength on meaningless words. Someone will come soon. Just stay still.”
“Hyung.”
Anxiety seized me, and my entire body trembled. The child gripped my hand firmly.
Was it a trick of perception? Even in the darkness, I could see a faint smile on the child’s lips.
“Hyung….”
“….”
“Hyung… you….”
The child’s body suddenly went limp as they tried to speak.
“Sier?”
I called my sibling’s name carefully. But the child gave no response.
“Sier!”
That was the last time.
After that, I never spoke my sibling’s name aloud. I thought I never would again.
“…Sier.”
Ten years later, I never imagined I would call that name again.
* * *
“What are you talking about?”
A touching reunion between brothers. Yes, this is it. After ten years of not knowing my younger brother existed, how touching this must be.
I can understand it.
“I’m asking what you’re saying.”
I can understand… no wait, but why do I have to be stuck in the middle of this?!
“…Candy.”
“What?”
“More candy!”
Damn it! Now I’m supposed to be a ghost interpreter too?!
Camilla watched Arsian with a sidelong glare as he continued conversing with the child through her.
I hate that I can’t glare at him openly! But I suppressed the urge to snap at him as memories of his ignorant past actions came flooding back.
“Candy?”
He hastily patted himself down. As if candy would appear from nowhere.
Sure enough, his gaze soon turned back to me.
“Do you have candy?”
The audacity of this man!
‘I’m giving it because the child is adorable.’
Absolutely not because I’m afraid of you!
Camilla pulled out all the remaining candies from her pocket and handed them to the child. In an instant, they crumbled away like wisps of smoke and vanished.
Sier sucked on the candy and broke into a wide grin. Ever since Arsian acknowledged his existence, smiles had become more frequent on the child’s face.
‘He really is adorable.’
Even more so when he smiles.
How unfortunate that there’s no way to fatten up a ghost. If his cheeks were just a bit fuller, he’d be perfect for child acting roles.
“Can I leave now?”
“No.”
Damn bastard!
“There’s no more candy!”
“I’ll buy some.”
As he hurriedly rose to his feet, Camilla quickly grabbed him.
“Talk to me first.”
“Talk?”
“Yes, talk.”
“About what?”
“Sit down, sit down.”
My head hurts, so just sit. I reached out and pulled him back down into his seat.
“….”
Arsian stared at me silently for a moment before finally sitting back down.
“Since when?”
“Since when what?”
“Since when have you been able to see such beings?”
Camilla’s question caused him to hesitate for a moment before answering.
But then his gaze shifted toward where his younger brother, Sier, was.
“After this child died.”
From that point on, Father no longer subjected him to abuse.
Sensing the presence of the dead—that was the outcome Father desired.
“Hmm.”
Camilla nodded her head.
“So you knew a ghost was constantly by your side and just left it alone?”
It was somewhat strange. He couldn’t perceive it as clearly as I could, yet he simply left it be?
Moreover, he wasn’t exactly the passive type either.
‘Last time, he was so eager to get rid of it.’
The image of him reaching out with murderous intent toward the female student ghost Amy was still vivid.
Yet despite not even knowing that being was his own sibling, he just watched and did nothing as such an entity clung to his side….
“Could it be you didn’t know how to get rid of it?”
After all, not just anyone could eliminate a ghost.
“I knew.”
“What? You knew?”
“All direct bloodline members of the Sefra Family can eliminate such entities.”
Because they are masters of darkness.
Camilla asked in surprise at his unexpected answer.
“Then why did you leave it alone?”
“…Just.”
“Just?”
That damned method truly worked—from the moment Sier died, I could sense the presence of strange entities.
Whenever I saw something like black smoke, I would either eliminate it without hesitation or simply ignore it.
“Yeah.”
But strangely, I couldn’t do that with this black entity beside me.
“I just… wanted to leave it as it was.”
Perhaps deep in my heart, I harbored a faint hope—what if the dead Sier was by my side?
Since he had always followed me around from childhood, wouldn’t he do the same even in death?
‘But….’
It really was Sier.
“He says he’s hungry.”
If not for her, I would never have known for my entire life.
“Go buy him something to eat.”
“….”
“Wait a moment. Your older brother will bring you something to eat.”
The way she spoke so tenderly to the child caught my attention. It was the first time I had ever envied someone.
I envied her.
‘I wish I could see him too.’
That child, my younger brother… I miss him so much.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going?”
At Camilla’s urging, Arsian quickly rose from his seat.
* * *
Creak.
The eyes of Class C, third year, snapped toward the front door as it swung open.
Camilla—the one who had been drawing more attention than anyone else lately—stepped boldly into the classroom.
Thud.
She approached Arsian without hesitation, the very person who had so greatly shaped the atmosphere of Class C.
Slam!
It was exactly like last time. Her hand came down hard against Arsian’s desk.
But unlike last time, a sheet of paper was clutched in her hand.
Camilla set the paper down where Arsian could see it clearly and smiled brightly.
“Sign it.”
“Cough!”
Casual speech?
That single short phrase sent an even greater wave of reaction through the classroom. Her tone toward Arsian had become far too comfortable.
“….”
But the truly shocking moment came next.
Swish.
Without another word, Arsian simply picked up a pen and signed the paper Camilla offered.
“What? You didn’t even read the contents?”
Camilla was the one taken aback by this. She hadn’t expected him to sign so readily.
“You said you’d do anything for me.”
“Oh.”
‘I will raise your credit score to the highest level.’
Camilla let out a small laugh watching Arsian reaffirm what he had said before.
The contents of the document were nothing special. It simply stated that she would actively help in recruiting dark mages.
At least having a scrap of paper like this meant he wouldn’t change his story later.
“I have something to show you, so let’s go.”
“Something to show me?”
“Just come on.”
It wasn’t something I could carelessly pull out here.
Camilla grabbed Arsian’s arm and pulled him to his feet.
Her heart soared at the realization that she had finally grasped the golden thread to create an escape fund.
She had no idea that her casual action had just frozen the entire classroom as if ice water had been poured over it.
“Is that really Arsian?”
“Doesn’t seem like it…”
“He’s lost his mind.”
The expressions of the students watching Arsian leave the classroom, led by Camilla’s hand, were all identical. They all stood there as if they had witnessed something they shouldn’t have.
“Did Arsian just leave with her arm linked through his?”
“Huh.”
That man, who despised physical contact with others to an extreme degree?
There was no one in this classroom unaware of that fact.
A student who had once placed a hand on Arsian’s shoulder—truly a mistake—and had his arm broken for it, let out a hollow laugh.
“He said he’d grant any request?”
“Have my ears gone mad?”
To hear such words from the lips of none other than Arshian Sefra himself…!
Amid the classroom’s bewildered atmosphere, Petro Jebillen gazed quietly at the space where Camilla and Arsian had disappeared, his eyes slightly narrowed.
* * *
“Hello.”
[Y-yes….]
Oh my, just because we haven’t seen each other for a day, you’re being shy again?
Sier, Arsian’s younger brother, greeted me just as he had when we first met—peeking out from behind his older brother with only his head visible.
‘I prepared something for this exact moment.’
I pulled out cookies from the small pouch I’d been holding. They were cookies I’d made myself with the help of Perol, the kitchen ghost chef.
“Your older sister prepared these for you.”
[Th-thank you very much.]
The child finally approached and eagerly grabbed a cookie, munching on it.
Sier found it quite fascinating that even in death, one could eat food.
Crackle.
Just as before, the cookie touched by the child’s hand turned black in succession and crumbled, then quickly vanished into the air.
‘I want to keep bringing him food.’
Perhaps it was because he was so gaunt, or perhaps because the way he crouched and munched on food resembled a hamster. Either way, I found myself wanting to keep feeding him.
“What did you want to show me?”
Arsian, who had been quietly observing the two of us play, spoke softly.
Only then did I pull out a black mineral from the other bag I’d brought.
Arsian gazed silently at the mineral I’d produced for a moment, and his eyes suddenly gleamed.
“A mana stone.”
“Oh, you recognized it right away?”
“Let me see it.”
“Of course!”
I immediately handed the black mineral to Arsian.
“The mana contained within it is quite…!”
His eyes widened. I too stood with my mouth agape.
The moment it touched Arsian’s hand, the mineral’s color changed.
The color, which had been as black as pitch, gradually transformed into a deep blue like the night sky at early dusk.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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