I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 26

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 26
* * *
After their conversation the night before, Olivia’s gaze had not ceased following Sirius.
“Filthy. Damn it! Why does garbage like this even exist in the world?”
“What brought you to the Academy in the first place? You’ll see far worse than this once you graduate and join the Mage Corps.”
“What? Are you suggesting we test ourselves again—”
“Hey, Olivia!”
She exhaled sharply.
Sirius, it turned out, possessed an impulsive temperament beyond what she’d initially gathered.
“Sirius, where are you going?”
“To rest.”
“Rest here. It’s dangerous if we scatter.”
“I know what I’m doing!”
“Monsters could reappear without warning. This isn’t a safe area, so we should stay together for now.”
He kept slipping away to be alone.
As she grew acclimated to her surroundings, details she’d overlooked began surfacing one by one.
None of his actions stood out individually, but gathered together, they emanated an unmistakable strangeness.
Olivia’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Daisy. Has Sirius always been like this?”
“Hm?”
“Unable to restrain himself, acting so… cruelly…”
She’d encountered Sirius once before—at a party she’d attended with her parents.
‘It didn’t seem this severe back then.’
Olivia’s gaze traced Sirius’s movements.
“Die, die!”
“Enough!”
“Hah, ha… I’m going to be sick from this.”
Crack!
He hacked at the already-dead monster with contempt, then kicked it once more for good measure—a sight that made her frown despite herself.
He’d been promising garbage since childhood. Olivia wouldn’t deny that.
But cruelty of hand was another matter entirely. The Sirius before her now looked like someone wholly unable to master his own negative emotions.
“When I saw him before, it didn’t seem quite this severe. Perhaps his nature darkened as he grew?”
It was possible. Not all values improved with age.
Olivia was beginning to reconcile herself to this explanation when—
“He didn’t become this savage until not long ago.”
“Hm?”
“It’s just rumor, but supposedly a few months back he snuck out of the Academy at night and got into a quarrel with someone passing by.”
A quarrel? Not only had he slipped out of the Academy itself, but he’d clashed with strangers outside and returned with scars to show for it?
She hadn’t known that. So the boy had some nerve after all.
Olivia furrowed her brow and pressed further.
“What does that have to do with his changed temperament?”
“They said he looked like a common sellsword… the Red Stone Mercenary Company? Something like that, anyway. He apparently got beaten soundly without landing a blow. The Academy gossip was brutal for a while afterward.”
“…And?”
“Well, I can’t say for certain that was the reason, but ever since then Sirius has become noticeably more vicious. He seems desperate to crush anything he can see—like he’s itching to dominate something.”
Daisy whispered this to her.
“Since that day, I’ve noticed behaviors I never saw before. Like how cruel he is to small animals… If you watch closely, even Gilleon seems uncomfortable around him.”
Perhaps that was why, even when he first met Olivia, he’d spouted nonsense about protecting her while scrambling for dominance.
Hatred and fear were separated by only the thinnest line. That incident with the commoner mercenary might have touched some nerve of fear buried within him.
Of course, none of that explained away his actions entirely.
Bennett was watching Sirius with barely concealed disgust—his disdain so transparent that despite the gravity of the situation, Olivia found herself releasing a short, involuntary laugh.
“Olivia?”
“It’s nothing.”
In any case, he seemed better for a time, but since entering this Field he’s gotten worse again. You should be careful around him.”
Daisy’s warning was wrapped in genuine concern.
That shifted her thinking considerably.
Was it merely a trauma response, or was something else at play? And what exactly was that Magic Stone he was hiding?
Olivia’s and Bennett’s gazes intersected across the emptiness.
‘Bennett. We need to observe more carefully.’
‘Find evidence?’
‘We’ll have to.’
Searching someone’s belongings without concrete proof would be overstepping. Better to gather evidence first, even if it took more effort.
The two exchanged a silent understanding and nodded before resuming their movements.
* * *
After his collision with Bennett, Sirius had grown more cautious, not even attempting to retrieve the Magic Stone from wherever he’d hidden it.
Even so, monsters continued to emerge. They didn’t need to hunt—merely standing still was enough for them to surge forth, a problem in itself.
Their frequency increased and their strength with it. The only encouraging sign was that they seemed to be drawing closer to the final point—the Field Boss Monster’s lair.
Which meant confirming Sirius’s possession of that Magic Stone had become urgent.
“Gilleon!”
“I’m t-trying!”
“When will you manage a successful Casting on the first attempt?”
“Your constant criticism doesn’t help!”
Dispatch the monsters, secure points, confirm the Magic Stone.
That had been their routine—until these last few encounters shifted tactics.
“Bennett.”
“I’ve got it.”
They had made several attempts to observe and manipulate Sirius’s behavior.
Through repeated trials, they’d discovered that Sirius didn’t covet just any Magic Stone.
Until now, his focus had been solely on desecrating the corpses of slain monsters; he showed no interest in the Stones they carried. That too was abnormal, yet—
‘We’ll need a different approach this time.’
Hadn’t Bennett mentioned that Sirius’s Magic Stone looked a slightly different color?
Though the darkness made misidentification possible, it was worth testing that observation first.
Otherwise, they’d soon resort to more aggressive measures—restraining him and searching his belongings.
Either way meant a point deduction. Olivia found that absolutely, unbearably intolerable.
“Don’t let him catch on. Understood?”
“Do you take me for an amateur?”
“We’re not Formal Knights yet, so technically we still—”
“There’s no reasoning with you, honestly!”
Bennett grumbled acerbically, turned on his heel, and disappeared. With a soft chuckle, Olivia swung her Defensor—now considerably more docile—once more, rapidly dispatching the incoming monsters.
“Sirius! Cover that flank!”
“What? Why should I—”
“Stop saying you don’t want to. We agreed to conduct our Group Activity peacefully, remember?”
Crack!
At that moment, a tree-form monster she’d been striking swung its limb was cleaved in half and toppled sideways. Its transparent Magic Stone bloomed yellow.
“So… could I ask you to help?”
“Th-that’s not a real request.”
“You don’t want to?”
“….”
After a brief silence, the ground rumbled with a dull roar, and the earth holding the roots of the tree monsters quaked. It was Sirius’s Magic.
Having expended considerable power in one burst, Sirius went pale and stumbled, gripping the tree beside him for support.
Of course, it wasn’t actually a tree but a monster extending its branches toward him—a detail that proved unfortunate.
Shriek!
“Ahhh!”
But Bennett was stationed nearby, ready to intercede, so it posed no real danger.
“You really are—”
“Why is that thing here!”
“Forget it. Olivia, I’m done here!”
“There are still monsters on the other side. What do you mean, done?”
Bennett made no complaint and rushed in the direction Olivia indicated. Behind him, a faint crimson gem glimmered at the section of the monster he’d just severed.
‘Clean work.’
The bait was cast; now it remained to see whether Sirius would take it. Olivia’s lips curved upward in a subtle smile.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————