The World’s Strongest Are Obsessed With Me

Chapter 4

“Hikan! How was your day today? Was it good?” Dahlia had been annoying Hikan during every meal. Usually he didn’t bother to answer her, and even if he did, it was short.

“Be quiet.”

Hikan always left without a word once he finished his meal or left Dahlia to eat by herself because of how busy he was. Overall, he wasn’t a kind person. But Dahlia knew how evil he had been in the original story and thought he was acting uncharacteristically nice.

At least he didn’t seem like he was going to sell her off or kill her despite his annoyance with her. Dahlia thought her plan to lower Hikan’s wariness toward her was moving along successfully.

Hehe. I really am amazing. Dahlia silently praised herself for her awesomeness and finished the flower wreath she had been braiding.

Dahlia was in the back garden of the Pesteroz family mansion, which she loved because she could wander around it in a one-piece dress. The entire back garden was her domain because no one visited it. She could make flower wreaths on the grass while sitting anywhere she wanted.

I’ll gift this to Hikan! This was going to be a part of Dahlia’s plan to run away even though it was obvious he was going to shove it in a corner and forget about it. Dahlia trembled, remembering his cold expression. What if he doesn’t like it?

She decided to ask someone else to deliver the wreath to Hikan if she couldn’t work up the courage.

“Goodness, Miss Dahlia. Are you making one for the young master?” asked the family gardener, Bucky. He smiled as he crouched in front of Dahlia.

Dahlia grinned and nodded. “Mhm.”

Bucky was delighted. “I can tell you love your brother dearly, Miss Dahlia.”

“Of course I do! Do you think he’ll like this too?” Dahlia raised the wreath high in her hands and smiled. To fool an enemy, one must first fool one’s allies. Bucky nodded, blind to her scheming mind.

“Of course. You made it after all, Miss Dahlia.”

Dahlia was very popular among the mansion’s workers. Even though she was a lady of the Pesteroz family, considered to be the second most powerful family in the empire after the royal family, she never used her position to act selfishly or picked on the workers.

Ah! It’s skewed now. Distracted, Dahlia had accidentally braided two flowers into a single stalk. She stared at it and thought for a moment before handing it to Bucky with a generous gesture. “I’ll give one to you too, Bucky.”

“M-me too?”

“Mhm. You helped me gather the flowers. Come here, I’ll put it on you.”

Bucky lowered his head with a grateful expression. Dahlia fixed the flower wreath on Bucky’s head herself. His dirt-stained face, haphazard overalls, and the flower wreath made a strange harmony.

Dahlia commented without thinking. “You look nice, Bucky.” Bucky shifted on his feet and scratched his ears at her wide smile.

Now that she had already finished one, Dahlia started to make another flower wreath for Duchess Blueport to hang on her mansion door. After that, she made several more, mostly for fun, but also because she was getting better at making them.

Dahlia fixed one on the butler’s head as he walked by and put some on the heads of several maids. Then she wore one herself. Now all that was left was Hikan’s. Dahlia’s fingers nimbly made the wreath, but paused mid-way.

Wait, I think my brother… Dahlia remembered Hikan’s number one secret, which had been mentioned in Ouroboros’ Labyrinth.

Hikan was allergic to flower pollen.

I shouldn’t have made one at all. Dahlia stared at the half-made flower wreath, then laid it down on the grass.

Perhaps it was because she had worked so hard on making flower wreaths. She hadn’t noticed the short shadows growing long.

It’s fine, it’s fine. I can make something else for him next time. Dahlia stood, dusted her skirt, and went back to her room, not knowing that Hikan had been watching her from his room the whole time.

“You must be happy you have such a cute younger sister, young master," the butler said with a pleasant smile as he stood in front of Hikan. He was wearing the flower wreath Dahlia had made for him.

“It’s not even funny. Get that wreath away from me," Hikan replied coldly. He imagined a flower wreath on his own head. It was horrific.

Dahlia Pesteroz. His only younger sibling. The one "normal" child the former Duchess Pesteroz had wanted so desperately. He had planned on getting rid of her silently the moment he got back to the mansion if she irritated him the slightest bit.

Hikan would have made the decision immediately if he had sensed her acting smart or using her head to cook up a scheme, but from what he’d seen until now, Dahlia seemed to have her head in the clouds. All she did every day was chatter tirelessly through the entire meal she had with him or make flower wreaths in the garden like today.

He felt like she could be of some use in the future since she was so helpless. But the way she kept hovering around him wherever he went was starting to annoy him. Like when she acted like they were friendly by gifting him things.

Hikan looked down at the spot where Dahlia had been sitting. There was a half-made wreath on the grass. He caught himself staring at it without knowing why and quickly turned away.

* * *

From Dahlia’s perspective, her plan to look innocent in front of Hikan was going very well. Now all she had to do was to save up some money so she could be independent.

She had a plan. First, she had to sell her useless dresses and jewels. When her nanny came to her room to put her to sleep, she grabbed her hand. “Nanny, you’re really, absolutely on my side, right?”

Her nanny smiled without missing a beat. “Of course! Whose side could I possibly take but yours, Miss Dahlia?”

“I knew it. You’re the best nanny!” Dahlia jumped into her nanny’s arms and rubbed her cheek against her nanny’s. Her nanny hugged her back with a smile. Dahlia didn’t miss the opportunity and immediately continued. “Nanny, I need some emergency money.”

Her nanny’s smile froze. “Excuse me...?”

Dahlia laid down her plans. She didn’t tell her the whole truth because she felt like her nanny would react the same way Duchess Blueport had if she mentioned anything to do with running away. So she changed her excuse.

By the time she finished explaining why she had to save up money just in case Hikan threw her out of the family in the future, her nanny was nearly in tears. “Oh, poor Miss Dahlia, I would love to tell you that the young master would never do that, but I blame myself for being unable to. How can I help you?”

Dahlia was moved. She announced her plan. After a while, her nanny offered realistic advice. “It would be nice if we could sell everything you have, but the maids will notice things are missing since they keep a list of belongings.”

Her nanny took a little of what she could from Dahlia’s jewels and dresses to sell. However, as she'd anticipated, it didn’t last long. The maids began to check each of Dahlia’s personal belongings after noticing the fact that some seemed to have gone missing.

It can’t go on. If she did it again, the maids were likely going to go on a manhunt for the culprit, which would ruin the atmosphere of the house. She didn’t want to accuse an innocent person of being a thief either.

She couldn’t gather more money in the same way, but at least now she had some. Dahlia silently thanked her nanny for everything she did for her. Then she rolled the money into the lower compartment of the box where she kept all her diaries, and proudly looked into it from time to time.

Now, how should I gather more money?

She didn’t want to burden her nanny any longer, so she went to ask for advice from Duchess Blueport. The duchess fell into another coughing fit after she heard her ambitious plan. “Goodness. Emergency funds? Dahlia, how many more times are you going to surprise me?”

Dahlia gathered her hands and looked at the duchess desperately. “It’s really, really important to me, Duchess.”

The duchess spoke hesitantly. “I heard...there are a lot of rare and precious books in the former Duke Pesteroz’s library. You could take a look there.”

Dahlia accepted her advice and began to examine the books in the mansion’s library more closely. Dahlia’s father, who had passed away, was an avid reader. It was possible that there was a rare first-edition book sitting in his library. She could hide it and sell it later with additional premium fees!

Dahlia read the newspaper’s auction section carefully and made a secret list of books that sold at high prices. Then she snuck into the library while Hikan was gone at lunchtime.

The library was quite large. Sunlight poured in through the windows.

I should grab them quickly before he walks by. She looked around, but there weren’t a lot of expensive books at Dahlia’s eye level, and she couldn't reach any higher.

That was when she saw the folding ladder against the wall. She dragged it over and leaned it against the bookshelf. At second glance, she realized the bookshelf was taller than she'd thought. The highest shelf was several times taller than Dahlia herself.

She was a little scared, but she climbed up the steps bravely until she was at the second-highest shelf. She began to scan the book titles in the areas that weren’t visible before. Unfortunately, there weren’t any books of value.

Most of the books in the bookshelves were about the Transcendents. Strangely enough, most were about magic rampages or warning signs against the threat the Transcendents possessed.

Is it because of our grandfather?

She sighed, and found one book sticking out among the many: The Nature of the Transcendents: Where Are They From?

The title was interesting. Dahlia struggled at the top of the ladder but managed to get the book. She was in luck: the last page of the book indicated that it was a first edition. First editions could be sold at high prices.

This might be worth something. She tucked it under her arm and carefully went down the ladder, rung by rung. And when she had one last step to take—

“What are you doing here?”

“Ahh!” Dahlia missed the last rung in surprise, frightened by the voice that had come from nowhere. As she fell, she lost hold of the book and rolled onto the floor. Fortunately, she had been close to the ground. She got away with a slight bruise to her knee.

Dahlia looked up with tears in her eyes. Beautiful eye-catching silver hair filled her sight. The possessor of inhuman beauty and an even more inhuman personality, Hikan, was standing there looking down at Dahlia with an even colder expression than the one he usually wore.

He disregarded Dahlia’s injury and grabbed the book, flipping through the pages without much care, his face expressionless. “I didn’t know you had a hobby of sneaking around.”

“I... I was...”

He didn’t look like he was going to listen to her. Instead, his hand stopped at a page. “They cannot be called human. They are fundamentally different from us," he said, reading a line in a low and cold voice. He turned to Dahlia with a straight face.

“Or so it says. Do you think so too, Dahlia?”