Chapter 163

Jan 30, 2024

Jeremy’s sharp blue eyes were full of curiosity.

“Well,” I said, “in the beginning, I just happened to find some clues about it while keeping tabs on Fontaine’s activities last winter.”

“Fontaine? Oh, you mean during one of the jobs that bastard took on?” Hearing our older brother’s name so unexpectedly seemed to catch him off guard, but he was quick to nod along in understanding.

“Anyway, I just think this whole thing is f*cking hilarious. I mean, they always act so pure and noble in front of everyone.”

He had a point. Other clans seemed to bear some sort of connection to ours however big or small. The only ones who could swear on heaven and hell that they had never made a deal with Lante Agrece were the Pedelians since their leader had been his sworn enemy since anyone could remember.

For example, the Gold clan... Well, I’m sure that one goes without saying. And we also shipped certain questionable items to the White clan now and then for them to deal with their demon monster issues. Even the Red clan, who had until that day pretended not to have any ties to us like the Blue clan, had been dealing with us in secret.

That was one reason the Black clan had managed to remain intact despite our many shady deeds and dealings. The Red Master was known for her cautious nature, but she likely wasn’t all that relaxed in person despite her attempts to be.

It wasn’t difficult to pick up on since she had been eyeing both me and my siblings since the moment we arrived at the castle. Of course, I suppose she and her people were probably just desperate to get what they were after from us. Although my original plan had been to completely wipe out the Agrece clan last winter, our family managed to survive after my father’s death even to this day. Of course, all the messes he had made throughout his life were left behind for us to clean up as well.

So since Agrece continued to exist in spite of my initial wishes for it to be wiped from the face of this fictional world completely, I determined that we needed to strike a new balance with our neighbors.

“Jeremy, I’m going to explain everything I know to you now.” At first, I had thought it best to confront Badrisha directly, but my plan changed once I arrived in Yggdrasil. “Then I’d like us to decide on how to resolve the current issue at hand.”

He hesitated as if what I had just said came as a shock to him. “‘Decide’? With... with me?”

“Yes, I want to hear your opinion.”

Up until that day, our dynamic had always been one in which I would give my brother an order and he would follow it. We had grown quite accustomed to it, and Jeremy also never once questioned our roles. Thus, I could understand his surprise to some degree. The fact remained that he had taken care of our territory and clan in my absence, so it was my duty as his older half-sister to encourage him even more. I also felt a twinge of pride at seeing how much he had grown.

“I’ll share my thoughts and opinions with you as well.”

It goes without saying that he would always be my little brother, but at that moment I understood that it was time for me to acknowledge that he had grown far too much to seek shelter under my shadow.

“So let’s decide on what steps to take together.”

After seeing how resolute I was about treating him like an equal partner, all traces of confused panic disappeared from his face. I’ll admit that I couldn’t help giggling a bit at seeing his expression light up as it had 10 years ago, but then we set to business.

* * *

Later that night our half-siblings came to my room.

“Oh! Sorry, we heard Jeremy was here, so...”

“Not at all. Come on in.”

I was busy placing the flowers Jeremy had brought me into a vase when they knocked on my door. Despite my direct order for him not to pick me any of the greenhouse flowers, he still took it upon himself to bring me an entire bouquet of the yellow bloom Cassis had plucked for me earlier that day.

I won’t lie, the look of triumph on his face was rather priceless. I accepted them while shaking my head at his beaming expression, then saw to placing them in a vase myself.

“What do you all want? What could you possibly need to tell me that can’t wait until tomorrow morning?” His expression had instantly soured upon seeing our other siblings’ enter my room.

“Jeremy, as our clan’s master, you really must treat guests more warmly.”

I spoke as I approached him and gently brushed my hand against his cheek in hopes of melting some of his cold disposition away. His posture loosened almost as soon as we made contact.

“Yeah, you’re right. Well, what do you all want?” His tone still lacked a great deal of warmth, but it was at least noticeably lighter than his usual timbre. Even so, Jeremy’s sudden change in temperament caused visible unease in the others.

“We just thought you should know about what happened with some Fipellions in one of the lounges the other night...”

I retrieved one of the flowers from the vase on the table while listening in on their conversation.

“You all what?!” After hearing their story, Jeremy made no effort to contain his disbelief. They had come to inform him of the gambling incident with three of the White clan members, which I had already seen through my poison butterfly. After their brief encounter with Cassis, they had huddled their heads together for quite some time, so I assumed they must have agreed to tell Jeremy the truth. He, however, was in no way thrilled to hear about the mess our half-siblings had caused.

“You rotten pieces of sh—!”

“It seems to me that you all managed to befriend a few Fipellions.” I had thought it best to cut our brother off before he could have a proper chance to go off on all of them. In doing so, they all turned their gazes on me. I supposed I had done a convincing job of appearing uninterested in their report since just moments prior I had been merely tending to my flowers in silence. I lifted my head and smiled at them. “The gist of what you all are saying is that you and some White clan members simply played a friendly game of cards, correct? I commend you all for at least attempting to make amends with them despite the incident that occurred on your way to the castle.”

I of course knew the truth was quite different. And although fear tactics often proved most effective with Agreces, there were still times when carrots were more effective than whips. As they had chosen to come straight to our clan leader rather than hide the incident from him,

I felt they deserved a bit of praise.

“Actually, Jeremy had just finished singing your praises.”

He almost immediately furrowed his brow and tried to refute my words. “Uh... Sis, when did I—?”

“Oh, come now... Are you seriously going to play dumb even now? We’re all family, Jeremy. No need to be so shy about your true feelings.”

“Me? Shy?!”

I smiled as I spoke, which left him at a loss for words momentarily. The others appeared to be questioning their hearing as well.

“He praised... us? For what?”

The shock was still fresh on their faces.

“Well, he was telling me how astoundingly well you all have behaved, and how each and everyone one of you has performed far beyond his expectations.”

Apart from me, the entire room had gone still. Our siblings, who had just moments before been still scheming to harass the Fipellions further, now stood awkwardly in silence with their lips pressed tightly shut.

“And as you just told him, you all displayed such maturity during that small misunderstanding with them in the lounge.” While speaking, I had taken a pair of shears to snip a few of the leaves dangling over the side of the vase. “I mean, let’s be honest here, the only reason our clan’s in this state of ambiguity in the first place is due to Father.”

Some of them began to watch as a few of the leaves slowly fluttered down to the tabletop.

“It’s no secret that the man didn’t treat us any better than his personal poker chips and even like expendable pawns.” The continued sound of my shears snipping away mixed with my voice to create an odd harmony that echoed around the otherwise silent room. “Haa... To think that even after his death, we are still subject to being treated like nothing but mere shameful relics of his past.” I stopped my pruning before muttering a few more words. “Even in death... he’s still a pain in the ass.”

“Damn right. Why are we stuck suffering because of his screw-ups?” Jeremy was quick to chime in as if he had read my mind. “I have no problem saying that I never liked that sh*tty geezer. His only hobbies were locking people up in the judgment room or threatening to dispose of us. He put us all through hellfire for the sake of the clan, but never did a damn thing for us in return!”

Just about everything he said had been loaded with a number of our clan’s unspoken truths. There wasn’t a single member of our overpopulated family who hadn’t harbored contempt toward Lante at least once due to one or both of the reasons our brother had mentioned.

“I honestly lost count of the number of times I wanted to shout no right in his smug face, but I knew he’d just blow up and start hollering about insolence or some other bullsh*t. Not a single one of us ever had a choice in anything we ever did from the start!”

“You’re... You’re right! We’ve all felt the same way!”

The others began to crowd together to vent their pent-up contempt and hatred about our father as the treatment they had endured caused their collective resentment to finally boil over.

“That bastard treated us like we were his personal slaves.”

“He was a coward who deserved to undergo even more torture before he died.”

“That sadist sent me to the northern forest for 15 days just because I made a tiny mistake during a mission last fall. I still have nightmares about it.”

After listening to their rants in silence, I stopped caressing the flower petals to offer them my sympathy.

“The only thing we have him to thank for is dragging the Agrece name down into this less than favorable, bottom-tier standing with the other clans. They all think we’re just like him when nothing could be further from the truth!”

It should go without saying that the easiest way to solidify a group is to present them with a common enemy.

“None of the deeds any of us have ever committed, nor any that we may commit going forward, will come anywhere close to the sort of atrocities he did. Thus, we don’t deserve this sort of condemnation!”

“Exactly! Why should we have to suffer the consequences of his actions?!”

By that point, our half-siblings were shouting over one another eager to take a bite at the bait I had thrown their way. Painting our late father as the target of their ire had been far too easy. Especially since he had never fostered any sense of filial bonds in a single one of his children. I blamed every single one of our misfortunes on him as if I wasn’t the very person responsible for throwing the Black clan into chaos that previous winter.

“Without ever having Lante or even our own mothers to turn to, we have no one else to rely on but each other.” There was still a need to make sure that those starving wolves remained chained up, and someone had to show them a better path. But it also wouldn’t hurt to give them the slightest bit of slack to burn off some steam. “And since the Fipellions took it upon themselves to start things, we will most definitely be the ones to finish them.”