Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Krash's Older Sister
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Rattle-
With the creaking of the carriage, Krash opened his eyes.
He had decided to return to Valheim, and it had already been several days.
Krash's carriage life had continued nonstop.
But that wouldn't last much longer.
They were almost there.
In Krash's view appeared Bianca, who was clutching his arm tightly in her sleep.
Ever since he had regained his right arm recently, she had made a habit of wrapping herself around it while sleeping.
It seemed the memory of Krash losing his arm had become a trauma for Bianca.
Krash raised his hand and slowly stroked her white hair.
Her small head bobbed this way and that following his hand, and soon her tightly shut eyes furrowed slightly.
The expression carried a tone that begged him not to disturb her sleep.
"Mmngh."
Yet even as she grumbled, she pressed her head more firmly into his hand, making Krash chuckle despite himself.
Thud!
At that moment, the carriage came to a stop.
Worried Bianca might slip off the seat, Krash steadied her before lifting his head.
There, a familiar sight greeted him.
Green Pine Pavilion.
He had finally returned here.
"Bianca."
When Krash called her name, she belatedly cracked open her eyelids.
Still drowsy, she looked around with half-lidded eyes.
"We're here. Go sleep in your room."
"Yesss."
Bianca staggered to her feet.
As Krash watched her anxiously, sure enough, she nearly tripped at the carriage door, and he caught her.
With no other choice, he let out a sigh and scooped her up, supporting her legs and back.
Bianca, who hadn't yet hit her growth spurt, was incredibly light.
Trusting in Krash completely, she naturally leaned into his chest.
Thanks to that, he had to step down from the carriage while holding her like this.
"Young Master Krash, it's been a long time."
In that instant, Krash spotted Aliod, who had come to greet him.
It really had been a while.
He had only gone out to fetch a single Golden Dragon Herb, and yet what a ordeal it had turned into.
Winter had already ended, and spring was right around the corner.
'Raheln Academy's first enrollment will start soon, too.'
Krash was still only fourteen.
He didn't yet meet the academy's minimum age requirement.
He would have to train diligently without fail until next year.
"Aliod, I'm heading to Bianca's room, so follow me and report on everything that happened at Green Pine Pavilion while I was away."
"Yes. First, after receiving the report that you were at the Hardenharts' estate, someone sent from the main house came looking for you."
Normally, he could have brushed it off, but not this time.
"To cover it up, I prepared a report claiming there had been an oversight in the chain of command regarding the fact that you had gone with Lady Bianca, preventing the main house from raising any issues with Green Pine Pavilion. The man was someone who usually belittled you as a halfwit and handled his duties sloppily, so the main house investigated his past behavior and performance, then dismissed him."
No one knew exactly how it had gone down, but Aliod had handled it alone.
As expected of Aliod.
Truly capable.
"Next."
"Regarding the Butcher Hound you slew, the main house has opened further discussions."
As expected.
Krash had known it would come to this.
Recently, a series of incidents had planted seeds of doubt about Valheim in his mind.
And this latest event would have definitively put those doubts to rest.
Proving that Valheim's halfwit had made a comeback.
"The Chief Steward will likely visit Green Pine Pavilion soon."
The Chief Steward.
The highest-ranking butler in Valheim service, and the sole arbiter who scored the direct descendants.
He assigned scores to all the direct descendants, then personally forwarded them to the family head under his own authority.
And in that process, the future treatment of the direct descendants was decided.
Krash's score had been at the absolute bottom.
Which was why Green Pine Pavilion had ended up in such a state.
But now that Krash seemed to have changed, the Chief Steward was coming back to re-evaluate.
'What a hassle.'
Originally, he had wanted to plant only a subtle hint in Valheim if possible.
But this incident made it impossible to avoid their scrutiny.
'Whatever. It could be useful anyway.'
Above all, to meet the girl with the Moon Yin Physique, he would need Valheim's power.
"After that?"
"Lady Darling Danphelion sent a message. She said to bring the materials as soon as you return."
So her preparations were ready too.
This whole thing had started because he went out to gather ingredients for an elixir.
Krash nodded.
"You've worked hard."
"Not at all. And, Young Master Krash."
Wondering if there was more to report, Krash turned to Aliod.
Aliod looked slightly troubled, which was rare for him.
Krash raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Lady Charlotte is staying at Green Pine Pavilion."
But the moment he heard those words, Krash's body went rigid.
What had he just heard?
Who was staying at Green Pine Pavilion?
"...Aliod, say that again."
"Lady Charlotte is staying at Green Pine Pavilion. She's been staying in your room without permission."
Hearing the rest, Krash felt a dizzying sensation.
'Is the cooldown over already?'
Charlotte had often visited Green Pine Pavilion even before.
There wasn't any particular reason.
She would just show up out of nowhere, ramble on endlessly about herself, annoy him to no end, and leave.
Krash hated even thinking about how drained he felt every time.
And now Charlotte was here.
Which meant anything could happen.
"Did you tell her I'm back?"
"Not yet."
Krash was about to say not to tell her.
But in that instant, his Sixth Sense twitched instinctively.
"...Too late."
Footsteps echoed from around the corner of the hallway.
The moment Krash heard them, he clicked his tongue and looked that way.
Blue-tinted black hair fluttered into view.
She approached slowly, her height a bit taller than Krash's standing out prominently.
Sharp eyes like Krash's, paired with the radiant beauty befitting Aria's daughter.
Especially her pupils, which barely held any light, sent chills down the spine of anyone who met her gaze.
"Ah."
Sword Star
Charlotte Valheim
Krash's older sister had made her entrance.
She glanced at his right arm, then lifted only the corner of her mouth into a smile—her eyes remained cold.
That signature smile of Charlotte's always sent shivers down his spine for good reason.
Her eyes never laughed.
Only her mocking tone and the quirk of her lips passed for a smile.
"Hey, little brother. You kept your big sis waiting so long, I thought I'd die of boredom."
"...Sister."
Krash eyed her with clear discomfort.
She was supposed to be away on a World Erosion expedition—had she returned already?
'First time seeing Charlotte like this at this point.'
Krash let out a hollow laugh at the domineering aura emanating from her.
'She's crossed it.'
She had broken through the Master's wall.
And at just fifteen years old.
'What a monster.'
This was an extraordinarily rare event even in Valheim.
Entering the early stages of Master at fifteen? No other monster came close.
Some couldn't reach Master even after regression.
Yet she had done it at fifteen through pure talent, without any regression.
The real reason Krash saw her as a true monster lay elsewhere.
Charlotte had not contracted with a god.
And that wouldn't change later either.
Despite receiving the most contract offers from the gods of any person in the world, she rejected them all.
A human myth who ascended to the pinnacle of the sword's domain with nothing but her blade.
That was the monster known as Charlotte Valheim.
'Unbelievable.'
Krash swallowed another hollow laugh as he felt her talent anew.
While others struggled and devoured everything they could, she had reached the top on pure talent alone.
The gap between them was indescribably vast.
"Little brother, I've been hearing some interesting rumors lately."
In the meantime, Charlotte had approached him.
Still wearing that half-smile, she reached out and pinched Bianca's cheek, which Krash was holding.
"They say you've become a dashing knight throwing yourself into danger to save your fiancée."
Krash turned his body to keep Charlotte's hand away from Bianca.
Watching him, Charlotte stared for a moment before withdrawing her hand.
"Don't worry. I won't steal her. She's your precious fiancée, after all, little brother."
She was utterly unpredictable.
Krash tensed, unsure what she might do on a whim.
"Still, it rubs me the wrong way. Our little brother giving me that look."
"Hard to look kindly on someone barging into my home uninvited."
Charlotte tilted her head.
"Your home? Little brother, anywhere with Valheim in the name is our home."
With that, she tapped the wall beside her.
Arrogance was written all over her face, as if declaring Valheim would soon be hers.
"Any place bearing the Valheim name is our house. I'm just coming home to my own place, and this is the welcome I get?"
In that moment, Krash instinctively put some distance between them.
Her aura was forming an overwhelming pressure.
"Don't you think that's too much, little brother?"
Charlotte was capricious.
Unlike her cold eyes, inherited from her father Balok, her personality took after her mother Aria—marked by emotional volatility.
In truth, Krash was the same in that regard.
They were siblings, after all.
But with Charlotte, the disconnect between her appearance and personality was especially stark.
She was the prime example of someone who didn't match the saying "a face like that means a life like that."
And just now, Krash had felt that pressure from her.
Charlotte was angry, for some reason.
From the very moment she first laid eyes on him.
"...Sister, are you angry right now?"
So Krash asked directly.
With Charlotte, confronting head-on was better than dealing with her schemes from behind.
"What do you think?"
"You look angry."
"Right. I am angry. I thought I was the closest to our little brother. But you didn't tell me a thing."
Closest my foot.
Krash felt a surge of absurdity.
"Little brother, you contracted with a god."
But Charlotte had noticed it the instant she saw him.
"Expert mid-level, too. Our little brother has grown tremendously."
She rattled off Krash's level in succession.
Krash bit his lip.
He knew what she had awakened.
'Mind's Eye.'
An eye that pierced through all things.
An ability others might never reach in a lifetime, yet she had awakened it through talent alone.
Thus, she had seen right through Krash's level.
"And for some reason, there's this unpleasant aura clinging to you."
But at those next words, Krash froze.
It wasn't just the Mind's Eye she had awakened.
The next stage.
'Star Eye?'
Was Charlotte at this level already?
The Star Eye, which peered through the stars, could even pierce World Erosion.
But as Crimson Garden had said, even she might not identify it definitively as World Erosion's energy.
She had probably just sensed it as a curse.
'No wonder the Butcher Hound lost to her in the past.'
Once the Star Eye was awakened, the Butcher Hound's illusions became meaningless.
She would see through everything with it.
The problem was that Krash was now exposed to her as well.
Having World Erosion's power, he wouldn't be viewed favorably.
Even Charlotte might try to kill him.
So it was better to brazenly play it off as a curse.
"What's with all that junk hanging off you?"
"Gotta try everything."
Charlotte stared at Krash silently.
He half-expected her to comment on the curse clinging to him, but fortunately, she said nothing.
"Well, you're like me, after all."
She even seemed to accept it.
She knew someone with her kind of lone-wolf personality would swallow poison eventually, sooner or later.
'More like Mom than you.'
Krash didn't bother correcting her.
"Thanks to that, you took down the Butcher Hound, and our little brother got a lot stronger."
As Krash remained tense, Charlotte slowly lifted the corner of her mouth again.
"Put her in her room and come to the training grounds."
She turned away.
"Your big sis needs to check your skills, little brother."
A spar with Charlotte had been suddenly decided.