Chapter 76

“It seems to be frustration caused by pent-up stress...”

“Oh, frustration?”

At Commander Dezeb Avganis’s question, Lieutenant Erabelle Vermilion quickly buried her face against him. Dezeb chuckled, pressed a kiss to the crown of her head, then pulled her into a tight embrace that squeezed a faint grunt out of her.

“Come out when you’re ready. We should eat.”

He left the bedroom first.

Lately, he had been cooking for three.

...

She wanted to get up and follow him, but without her medicine, even that felt like too much.

“Sis!”

Damn it...

“Hey, get up! Do you even know what time it is?!”

I’d rather deal with the two-headed thing.

As the pounding on the door continued, Erabelle clapped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Get up already! Hey, Erabelle!!”

You little bastard...

Erabelle’s eyes snapped open, and she sprang to her feet.

“Sis!!”

“I’m up.”

So get lost.

It took nearly all the strength in the universe not to shout it aloud.

After drawing a long breath, she ducked into the bathroom, splashed water over her face, and stepped back out into cruel reality.

Sanche was in the kitchen.

With Dezeb.

“Come on, move faster. Faster.”

Standing beside the table, Sanche speared pieces of steak Dezeb had pan-seared and chattered away at his side.

That little brat...

“What do you even do all day that you sleep in this late?”

Ten days.

That was all it had taken for Sanche to fall completely under his spell.

Which also meant he had been hanging around this house for ten whole days.

Maybe I should just kill him now.

“Hyung, don’t feed her. Just let her starve.”

That little...

Erabelle closed her eyes again and breathed.

“Feeding your sister is one of the joys of my life, so I’m afraid I can’t do that. Erabelle, sit down.”

Dezeb turned the meat with a pair of kitchen tongs and smiled.

The smile was almost crystalline.

Erabelle awkwardly returned it.

“Okay...”

It was genuinely difficult to believe this was the same man who had spent the night in her bed.

“Ugh, you’re so lazy. Tsk, tsk. You’re getting spoiled. What are you going to do if this keeps up...”

“Did you sleep well?”

Erabelle looked up at her relentlessly irritating little brother with gentle eyes and smiled.

“What’s wrong with you? Are you crazy?”

“Were you uncomfortable sleeping here? If anything bothers you, tell me.”

“Knock it off.”

“I’m just worried about you.”

“I said knock {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} it off!”

Sanche’s expression turned faintly miserable.

That made Erabelle feel a little better.

Unfortunately, it did not last.

“Sit down and eat.”

Dezeb set the plates between them, then leaned down and brushed a light kiss over Erabelle’s lips.

Her face burned.

Then she met Sanche’s horrified stare and cooled off just as quickly.

“Ugh, I still can’t get used to that. With that face, you’re seriously okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? I think she’s adorable.”

“Eugh.”

While Sanche gagged theatrically, Erabelle smiled sweetly.

“Then why don’t you go home now?”

“Oh. Hyung, I found an amazing game today. You free tonight?”

“Sure.”

Erabelle buried her face in both hands.

Dezeb playfully ruffled her hair with his long fingers.

***

Seventy-nine points.

After training, Erabelle checked her phone instead of the broken scoreboard.

Lieutenant Camillia Ovia had called again.

When Erabelle did not answer, the messages came flooding in.

<Are you really not going to answer?>

<Is the article true?>

<Are you really getting married!!>

Erabelle blocked her superior’s number and headed home with a heavy heart.

Something about all of this felt deeply wrong.

“Boss stage?”

“Yeah, yeah. Go in from the left there. Wow, even with endgame gear and every buff stacked, I burned through all my revives. You haven’t used a single one?”

That would be why...

From the entryway, Erabelle stared blankly into the living room.

Empty beer cans were scattered across the coffee table, along with snack wrappers and exactly the sort of game Sanche loved.

Dezeb was happily playing with an innocent lamb who had no idea what kind of beast sat beside him.

Those long, elegant fingers that so often robbed people of breath moved deftly over the controller.

Then Dezeb turned, saw her, and smiled.

“You’re back?”

Sanche looked over too and immediately picked a fight.

“What’s with her? Why is she just standing there?”

I want to hit him. Seriously.

“Oh, Sis. Father said to answer your phone. Why do you never pick up?”

Because she had blocked Father too.

“He says winter would be good for the bonding ceremony. Call him.”

“Okay.”

In about five hundred years.

Drawing on the deepest reserves of patience she possessed, Erabelle asked,

“When are you going home?”

“Me? Can’t I just stay?”

“No.”

“Why not? I don’t want to go.”

“You don’t want to?”

“Yeah.”

“Then wait. I’ll send you somewhere nice.”

Somewhere with three meals of beans and rice a day, one walk a week, and decent facilities.

Since she had once yelled at him to shovel food into his own mouth, this was the perfect opportunity to shovel him somewhere else entirely.

What a generous sister I am, respecting my brother’s wishes.

“I’ll go tomorrow.”

“It’s fine. I’ll send you.”

“No, I want to go home. So put the controller down, will you? Why are you always clutching that thing... I really am going tomorrow. Seriously. I mean it, Sis. Just this once, okay? I’ll go tomorrow.”

“Good. Smart choice.”

Meanwhile, Dezeb soloed the boss’s second phase.

The boss had shed its humanoid first form and now lay motionless, its monstrous second-phase body sprawled across the floor.

Having effortlessly put the poor creature down, Dezeb held out the controller.

“Want to try?”

“She can’t play this. She can’t even clear the tutorial. She buys games she can’t beat, then gets mad because she paid money to torture herself. Seriously, her personality... Wow, how did you beat this? Phase two is brutal.”

Taking full advantage of the opportunity, Sanche insulted her and then immediately became excited again over the boss Dezeb had defeated single-handedly.

I really want to hit him hard...

“You two get along surprisingly well.”

“Do we...?”

They absolutely did not.

But Dezeb only laughed, clearly amused.

Making a face, Erabelle muttered something about getting changed and trudged toward the bedroom.

“Phase two’s tough, huh?”

“Yeah, seriously. The humanoid form isn’t that bad, but the beast form in phase two has insane attack patterns.”

It had absolutely nothing to do with the Dogs, and yet somehow...

It still felt similar.

Hearing Sanche’s delighted voice behind her, Erabelle sighed.

She had beaten him senseless and warned him on the very first day, yet he had apparently forgotten every word.

She really should not have hit him in the head.

She must have killed off the few brain cells he still had left.

Playing nice little games with Dezeb...

What a nightmare.

Still, after seeing this for days, she no longer had the energy to be shocked.

At least Dezeb kept the perception masking active.

If he showed the full effect of Level 13, Sanche would probably already be on his knees confessing his love.

Then, for no particular reason, Erabelle remembered Majia Oloror boasting about his surfing.

She covered her face with both hands.

Whew...

Sniffling and rubbing at the corners of her eyes, she started toward the bathroom to at least wash up.

Before she got there, Dezeb caught her face in his hands.

“Did you cry?”

While her sluggish body took a moment to register what was happening, he tugged lightly at her lips.

“Why were you crying? Were you worried I’d kill your brother?”

He asked it with genuine concern, the words brushing between their lips.

A clear strand of saliva stretched between them before clinging wetly.

“I...”

The unsettling question left her no chance to answer.

A shiver prickled up the back of her neck, and her thoughts began to blur again.

“Why cry?”

Still looking concerned, Dezeb swept the damp hair back from her temples.

“Don’t cry. I won’t kill him.”

He soothed her gently...

Then pressed his nose to the sweat-damp nape of her neck and whispered the same reassurance over and over.

“I won’t hurt anything precious to you. Okay? So try not to worry so much.”

“Dezeb...”

Erabelle looked at him with wet eyes.

Relief came.

But only for a moment.

His weight settled against her.

“I...”

“Hey. I told you not to worry.”

He laughed softly, whispering against her stiffened ear.

***

...This place really is well soundproofed.

Around then, Sanche sat alone in the living room, troubled.

It was the first time in his life he had felt this comfortable sharing the same space with his sister.

The fact that someone had managed to get Erabelle Vermilion to live in a reasonably normal home was already enough for a passing grade.

More than anything, after holding out in this house for over ten days and seeing everything he had seen, he could hardly complain about the cozy villa.

...

Sanche set down the controller and laced his fingers behind his head.

His thoughts were a mess in more ways than one.