I Will Protect My Brother - Chapter 55

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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 55
【…Well, if that is what my incarnation wishes, so be it.】
The shadow, muttering with reluctance, vanished from sight. It would likely reveal itself again in about three years.
Kalian quickened his pace with a lightened heart. As he caught up to the Young Girl ahead, she turned to him with a gentle smile.
“By the way, Kalian. There was something I wanted to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“Your nineteenth birthday is coming up soon, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
In this body, at least. Kalian swallowed the rest of his thought.
“My goodness. Time really does fly.”
As the Young Girl laughed, Kalian’s face broke into a radiant smile as well.
“It feels strange that you’re becoming an adult. Is there anything you’d like as a birthday gift?”
You.
He nearly blurted it out without thinking.
Ever since learning the truth about Rozentia’s past, this girl had felt increasingly precious to him.
His body tingled and his mind felt light, as though he were walking lightly across clouds. He seemed to have grown a bit foolish, yet even that felt special.
‘The only thing I want is you. Will you give yourself to me?’
Kalian barely held back those words that had reached the tip of his tongue and seriously considered what birthday gift to ask for. Nothing particularly grand came to mind.
In truth, he was confident he would treasure even a single ugly stone she picked up along the way.
So Kalian smiled foolishly and, three seconds later, uttered words he would surely regret and curse himself for.
“I haven’t really thought about it. Give me whatever you want to give me, Rosy. Anything from you would be wonderful.”
“Really? You’ll accept anything? You won’t refuse?”
“Of course not.”
“Then I’ll give you an Elixir as a gift.”
“Sure, I’d like that. …Wait?”
“Seongyeol typically begins to manifest properly after you turn nineteen. So I’ll find one and give it to you as a birthday gift.”
Only then did Kalian realize he had just squandered an important opportunity.
“Actually, Rosy’s lullaby alone would be enough for me. For my birthday gift, couldn’t you just sing me a lullaby every single day?”
“About that. I won’t be doing it anymore from now on.”
“Why…?”
“You’ll be an adult next month. I can’t keep singing you lullabies forever. People would think it strange. And besides….”
“…Besides?”
“I’ll be sixteen this summer. No matter that you’re my older brother, it wouldn’t look right for a grown girl to spend the night in an adult man’s bedroom.”
Kalian’s smile froze on his face. Thinking she couldn’t possibly mean it, he reached for Rosien’s hand, but she smoothly tucked her hand into her pocket instead.
She wouldn’t even hold his hand.
She said she wouldn’t put him to sleep anymore either.
Kalian asked in disbelief.
“My princess, were you always this conservative?”
“Ugh, don’t call me princess anymore. It feels weird!”
Rosien bounced and shook her head vigorously.
“Anyway. So this year’s birthday gift will be that? You’re saying you’ll unconditionally accept whatever I give you?”
“Well, that’s….”
“No takesies backsies. You wouldn’t dare reject my gift, would you, big brother?”
I couldn’t refuse. I really couldn’t….
That familiar ill premonition—the one that visited me at every critical moment—crept over me once again.
‘…This isn’t what I expected.’
* * *
“What is this, Rosien?”
Kalian sat across from Rosien with a desk between them, staring blankly.
Before him lay a thick stack of papers piled high.
Rosien explained solemnly.
“It’s part of the preliminary investigation to find the Elixir.”
“What exactly?”
“Personality assessment, preference and inclination survey, psychological test, one hundred questions and answers for every situation.”
“…”
As Kalian swallowed his bewilderment, Rosien dragged out a small chalkboard from somewhere.
Then she produced a pointer from nowhere and began indicating each item written there one by one.
“To find the Elixir, you need to know what the Elixir is—starting from the dictionary definition, then the basic principles, types, side effects by type, and crisis management methods accordingly, right?”
“I suppose that would be necessary…?”
“But that’s not all. To find the Elixir!”
Rosien pointed the pointer directly at Kalian.
“You must know yourself!”
Cold sweat broke out on my skin.
“Who are you? What kind of person are you? Do you know your own true nature? What hidden desires lie dormant in your unconscious?”
“….”
Every word from Rosien’s mouth was absolutely brilliant.
How could she strike so precisely at the heart of things?
Kalian, pushed by her relentless pressure, completed a stack of documents thicker than a span of his hand.
The assessment sheet, filled with peculiar questions, was quite substantial.
[7. I can quickly blend in with new people.]
‘…I’m not sure.’
[13. I tend to be ruled by emotions rather than control them.]
‘Very much so….’
[29. I prefer being close to the walls rather than in the center of a room.]
‘Somewhat…. Being in the center is fine too, but staying at the edges makes it easier to observe my prey.’
Shortly after, Rosien received the results and her eyes widened like a rabbit’s.
“Huh? The results came out completely opposite to my expectations?”
“….”
“Everything from one to ten is the opposite? Oh stars, I didn’t know you at all, big brother. No wonder everything up until now has been useless!”
Kalian fell into melancholy.
‘No, I think it’s fine not knowing.’
Belated regret washed over me—had I been too honest in my answers?
“Do you enjoy thrills, Kalien?”
“…Not anymore.”
“‘Born troublemaker, but possesses exceptional problem-solving abilities.'”
“Troublemaker—what an endearing way to put it….”
I should have answered in a way that made me appear virtuous, shy, and altruistic—like a fair mediator. That would have aligned better with how Rosien saw Kalian Wynack.
“Should we do it again, Rosien?”
“No, thinking about it more, I think that’s all part of you too.”
A pang of guilt struck me.
“People naturally have many sides to them. The you I see and the you that you think you are can be different. It’s fine—this was a meaningful result.”
“Yeah, don’t trust these things too much. It’s all nonsense….”
“Then shall we move on to the next one?”
Rosien seemed determined this time. Next was a preference analysis questionnaire.
Kalien lingered on one question for a long while before moving forward.
[Five favorite foods.]
‘I can’t write “people.”‘
Strictly speaking, I didn’t consume people either. My sustenance held a vastly different meaning than human meals.
After much deliberation, Kalien managed to write just a single word.
[Tea.]
Tea with a very rich aroma. As for the rest, I had no idea.
Kalien set that question aside for now and moved to the next.
[Five foods you dislike.]
“….”
The era when I had preferences about food had passed far too long ago.
‘I don’t remember….’
What I ate during my human years, whether I even had preferences then.
What taste even was. How I distinguished between sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, and such things.
I remembered almost none of it.
In the end, Kalien filled that section with Rosien’s preferences instead.
[Favorites: Strawberry Cake, chocolate chunk cookies, whole roasted duck glazed with mustard sauce and seasoned with herb salt, medium-rare T-bone steak with mashed potatoes.]
[Dislikes: Everything slimy.]
After painstakingly completing every question, yet another questionnaire was thrust before me.
“Fill it out sincerely! It’s all for you.”
“Y-yes. I understand.”
Only when Kalien’s eyes were on the verge of rolling back did Rosien finally take the questionnaire away.
“Hmm, brother. Your Seongyeol manifestation took the form of sleep disorders and sleepwalking, right?”
“Mm-hmm.”
A Transcendent’s runaway symptoms divided into two categories.
Explosive and implosive—the difference between bursting outward or detonating inward.
Accordingly, elixirs were divided into two categories as well.
The absorption type, which directly drew the surging power from a Transcendent’s body, and the induction type, which provided psychological stability so that Transcendents could manage their own runaway symptoms.
Rosien pushed up the glasses she’d brought from somewhere and was wearing.
“Kalian has strong dependency on those he recognizes as his own, so the induction type elixir should work fine too. Hmm, then shall we start by trying things that might help with sleep disorders?”
The very next day after that declaration, Rosien appeared carrying stuffed animals larger than her own body.
“…You want me to sleep while holding this?”
“Not a fan? Then how about this?”
Kalian held a large pink plush rabbit with exceptionally long, oversized ears in silence. It was shaped like a rabbit.
‘Should I throw it?’
Had he been anyone else, he would have thrown it without hesitation.
However, the rabbit’s eyes happened to be made of green buttons. He’d listed green—his favorite color and the color of Rosien’s eyes—as his preference, and it was unmistakably a meticulous reflection of that detail.
In the end, the rabbit plush found itself sitting quietly in one corner of Kalian’s bed.
The next day, Rosien arrived carrying an armful of sleep-inducing scented candles. Kalian spent the night wide awake in his bedroom, which was hazy with candle smoke.
On yet another day, Rosien brought an enormous conch shell so large he couldn’t grip it with both hands.
“Hold this to your ear, Kalian. Can you hear the sounds of nature?”
“….”
“The sound of the sea, I mean. The splashing of waves. Doesn’t it calm your mind?”
“Your voice works far better.”
“Tsk.”
Rosien clicked her tongue. Kalian felt somewhat hurt.
‘Why would she click her tongue when I’m saying she’s better than all these things?’
In the end, the conch shell was also hurled into the storage room where elixir candidates were piling up like mountains.
Only then did Kalian become anxious.
It seemed Rosien had absolutely no intention whatsoever—not even a shred—of becoming his elixir.
When taking a living being as an elixir, mutual resonance with the other party was essential, as was their consent. Only then could psychological stability be drawn to its maximum.
Unrequited affection alone could not constitute an elixir. They say unreturned love brings misery, and he was precisely in that predicament.

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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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