I Thought Your Friend's Sibling Wasn't a Girl? - Chapter 64

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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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Chapter 64
Of course, if one asked whether such power came without any recoil—it did not.
“Cough, hack. So using too much power drains your lifespan, is that it?”
“It’s because this power is incomplete, or so I was told.”
“Tch. Then if I obtained complete power, I wouldn’t have to cough up blood every time I used it.”
That, too, would pose no great problem if only the Priest transferred perfect power to him.
Only the Priest knew how to obtain complete power. They were the ones who had agreed to cooperate with him and receive that power, and when this succeeded, they too would possess perfect power.
He had believed the end was truly near.
If only those mad foreigners hadn’t appeared in this village, it surely would have been.
Crash!
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Terrible pain shot through his thigh. The man had plunged a dagger—sheath and all—through his wound, and now bore down with all his strength while holding his gaze.
Eyes devoid of all emotion stared at the mercenary. He knew instinctively: those were the eyes of someone who had killed before.
The “stone” that had made them gods had long since passed into the man’s possession.
“I’m asking you right now. Why won’t you answer properly?”
So he had no choice but to spill everything he knew. He was now merely a weakling, stripped of all power.
“It’s… it’s… the Power of Dominion. Ugh. The Power of Dominion, he said.”
Fragments of “truth” spilled from his lips.
* * *
The Power of Dominion. They had said what lay within was not Brainwashing, but the Power of Dominion.
The four Divine Powers guarded by the Guardian Families had been thoroughly researched and their characteristics well known, but the Power of Dominion was different.
A Divine Power thought to have vanished entirely after the Demon King War—one of the Demon King’s most formidable abilities.
And now… it had appeared in the world once more.
“…What did you just say?”
“The Power of… Dominion. Cough!”
“Fascinating. A mere mercenary band wielding the Divine Power of Dominion.”
The return of the beast thought long dead, and the appearance of a “lost Divine Power” at almost the same time. A chill ran down the spine.
But what was far more startling was how brutally transformed Aiden had become.
He was cold, merciless, and showed no hesitation at the sight of blood.
This was a side of Aiden that Olivia had never known.
It was Olivia who had removed Aiden’s arm from his eyes. It was she who had chosen deliberately to look at what he wished to hide.
Falter.
Olivia desperately stopped her feet before they could stumble. If she had chosen to expose what he’d meant to conceal, then bearing the weight of it was her responsibility.
Aiden glanced at Olivia once, then turned his gaze away again, empty and distant.
“Gack, ugh. Th-this is all. I swear it’s all!”
“Is that truly everything? I don’t think so.”
“Ugh, ugh… D-die. Die, you monster! Aaaaaaagh!”
The man flailed his arms in a final desperate struggle. A Dagger—pulled from somewhere—glinted in his grip.
The pale blade streaked past Aiden’s face. Seeing it, Olivia’s blade shot up reflexively.
Clang!
The Dagger in the man’s hand tumbled to the ground with a ringing crash. Silence fell over the chamber.
Olivia felt the ringing pain in her right hand as she thought quietly to herself.
What had just happened? So that criminal sitting there had attacked Aiden?
‘How dare he?’
Her gaze drifted slowly toward the Dagger scattered on the floor.
The blade gleamed blue-bright, and at its tip lay the faintest trace of blood. The moment she registered it, her mind went white.
Aiden’s brutal nature, the revulsion and horror that had shattered her focus—all of it vanished cleanly from her thoughts.
Now only one thing filled Olivia’s vision: an Aiden who was hurt. Though, if one were being precise, it was barely more than a scratch.
“Are you injured?”
“…You, the blade you swung was far more—”
“Let me see for a moment. Wait, there’s a wound here…”
“Just a moment, Olivia.”
There really was an injury. The realization transformed the look in Olivia’s eyes from blank to dangerous.
“Hold on. I didn’t dodge because I was unaware. A Knight who investigates tends to benefit if they sustain an injury—it helps the case later.”
“You don’t think I failed to understand that, do you?”
“I see… you did know.”
His calm demeanor while interrogating the mercenary was fine, the cruelty in his hands was fine.
But one thing was decidedly not fine: the way he had stood motionless before that falling blade, as though willingly offering up his body without hesitation.
The casual way he accepted injury if it served his purpose. That attitude made Olivia furious beyond reason.
And that fury was already turning toward the criminal who had created this situation.
“…How dare you brandish a weapon so carelessly?”
“Olive? Olive, wait a moment, calm down.”
“I’m sufficiently calm.”
“You’re mistaken. No, look at this first. I really wasn’t hurt. I’m serious, I tell you.”
Aiden thrust his face forward as if to prove it, but it had the opposite effect. The image of him standing still before the falling blade leaped into her mind, and her anger blazed far larger than before.
The mercenary, who had been staring dumbly at the pair of them, cowered under the weight of Olivia’s dangerous presence and began backing away on his haunches.
“I won’t let this go.”
“Wait. Olivia, there’s a good one, yes? Could you lower that first and let’s talk again?”
“These things aren’t even human. Living creatures that obey commands—claiming they were shocked into overstepping that line? That excuse makes them deserve death.”
“That’s true, but… just bear with me a moment. How about we start with a deep breath?”
The Aiden who, moments before, had interrogated the mercenary with that icy expression suddenly began to flounder, while Olivia, who had been watching him with stunned eyes, whirled around in the opposite direction.
Kunta, who had descended and entered the chamber to assist with the cleanup, stared at the two of them with trembling eyes.
“That thing wounded your face!”
“I’m fine, I keep telling you. You shouldn’t call people ‘that,’ Olivia.”
“I’m not fine. And it’s not a person, so it’s fine. I won’t let this go.”
“Olivia, Olive! Just once—hear me out, would you? Let’s just hear them out. Just a bit more composure, and let’s think, yes?”
I’m already sufficiently rational, Olivia thought, raising the Defensor once more.
Even if they hadn’t attacked Aiden, they’d already crossed the line. One need only look at the animals dying over there.
They had used the Power of Dominion to deceive and manipulate people, dragging those creatures into such brutality—could they have truly stopped there?
“That’s what these types do. They always cross the line.”
Evil swells quickly. It takes little time for petty malice to transform into terrible atrocity. The mercenaries proved it.
They had wrought catastrophe. And stimulus, when repeated, breeds familiarity.
Then wasn’t there a chance they would attempt something far worse to satisfy that growing appetite? Kidnapping. Murder.
Now that she thought of it, there had been reports of missing persons. Olivia’s green eyes turned to ice. That was when it happened.
“Wait. Aiden! There’s another device here!”
Just then, a loud shout came from soldiers searching the back. And another cry immediately followed.
“There’s a person! A person!”
I told you. These humans always cross the line.
Olivia ground her teeth and glared at the mercenary. The ashen-faced mercenary hiccupped and shook his head frantically.
The soldiers could be seen dragging out the person they’d discovered and hauling them toward the exit.
“Silvery hair and a white dog…”
“It matches the witness testimony. That lends credibility to his statement.”
Aiden seized the moment when Olivia’s attention had shifted, rendering the mercenary unconscious and securing him. His expression seemed somehow relieved.
Scrape.
-Olivia? Is something wrong?
“Commander. We found a person below. A man with silvery hair and one white dog.”
And…
“Someone presumed to be Leon’s brother.”
The scales of truth tipped to one side.

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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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