I Became the Villainess's Younger Brother (3)
I returned to the bedroom and decided to finish organizing my thoughts.
The character I had possessed, Scarlet Tepes, hadn't appeared all that prominently in the original work. In fact, he didn't even show up in the main story at all.
In the setting book, he was mentioned only as Leticia's younger brother—a minor character who didn't even qualify as a side character.
It was a shame to have such a well-crafted character and such a handsome appearance go to waste.
Yet for some reason, despite the limited role and complete absence in the main plot, there were quite a few fans. They had even gone so far as to demand that the game developer produce exclusive goods featuring Scarlet Tepes as the main character.
In contrast, his older sister Leticia Tepes, who showed nothing but viciousness throughout the story, had almost no fans—except for a tiny group of masochistic ones.
Anyway.
A question naturally arose: why had he never appeared?
Scarlet wasn't the kind of person who would struggle to find an entry point in the academy. If anything, his influence and speaking power were even stronger than Leticia's. The head of the Tepes family wasn't her—it was him. His authority and reach were formidable.
Of course, there might have been some adult-related reason. The story simply didn't give Scarlet enough screen time, so it wasn't a problem. I wasn't a game user myself, and I was just the one drawing for the creator, my own sister in the past life. I had nothing to worry about on that front.
But the moment I possessed the original owner of that character, I could no longer brush it off as the game's developers' internal drama.
Um.
That said, I didn't need to keep racking my brain here. I didn't know a single thing, and it wouldn't do me any good to torment myself over it. Still, I should note down what I might be overlooking so it didn't bite me later.
I pulled a notebook and pen from the drawer beside the bed and started jotting down the thoughts that had surfaced today.
In Korean, so no one could read it.
The first line read: "Find out why Scarlet had little screen time in the original work."
Above that, on the same page, were all the world-building details, character settings, and things to watch out for that I had noted over the past month.
The very top priority was, of course, the heroine: Luna Taylor.
At the moment, she ranked quite low on my list.
She wasn't exactly unimportant. In the game's depiction, she was described as rather silent, with a pure face and an equally innocent personality. And despite being from a backwoods baronet family, she wasn't exactly easy to deal with...
But the people surrounding her were the real issue. As the story progressed, a host of male characters would inevitably cause complications—nothing unusual in itself. And thanks to her talent as a top-tier spiritist, she summoned high-level spirits as if it were nothing.
The problem was that she wouldn't enter the academy for another year—right around the time I became a second-year student. Plenty of time to handle it.
Since I already knew her background, I could simply go find her if I wanted to.
Instead, the character I needed to be most cautious about was Crown Prince Luke Arcadia.
He was the first named character in any route that my sister would fall for.
Thinking about how my sister would become a complete villainess the moment she fell for this man, the prince felt like an enemy to me—someone I had only ever seen through drawings or screens, not in real life.
Actually, wasn't this NTR? I had already decided to seduce my sister. If a prince she had never even properly met stole her heart, how was that different from NTR?
In other words, the prince had to die. He deserved it.
Anyway.
Setting aside my personal grudge for now, to reach the ending I would have to keep the prince alive. Surviving the Demon King invasion required the survival of all named characters and the heroine Luna.
I couldn't assassinate him, either, because of that very reason.
So the only way was to seduce my sister first, just as I had promised.
I picked up the pen and pressed it hard against the prince's name, letting the ink smear across the page.
I closed the notebook. There was nothing more worth writing anyway.
I tucked the notebook back into the drawer, then muttered the status window to myself again.
Stats had risen to almost triple what they had been.
Average academy freshmen scored between 30 and 40. Top students usually sat at 50 to 60, and those in the top tier—who even got named treatment—hovered around 70. This was more than enough.
I dropped the dead stats, and the characteristic section appeared.
+++++
Scarlet Tepes
…
Characteristics: 「Blood Ancestor」 「Void」
Innate Traits: 「Grant」 「Connect」 「Tune」
+++++
Starting with the 「Blood Ancestor」 characteristic—something every vampire possessed, but its rank varied by level.
The higher the rank, the greater the difference in output and versatility. For example, an F-rank vampire could only make blood flow faster when drinking or make shadows flutter slightly. In short, that made him a defective vampire.
An S-rank vampire, on the other hand, could slaughter an entire city in a few hours with nothing but blood, slip into shadows to move his body, or materialize them for attacks.
The status window didn't display ranks, but according to the setting book, a vampire who had barely crossed the line into undeath possessed an F-rank Blood Ancestor. Leticia, the most noble Tepes bloodline, sat at S-rank.
So I, too, was at least S-rank.
Among them, the one that caught my eye was this:
+++++
「Blood Ancestor」
▶ Rules blood and shadows. Can attract the opposite sex.
+++++
The ability to attract the opposite sex.
Even though my sister shared the same 「Blood Ancestor」 trait, I might be able to use it on her. My mana was overwhelmingly superior, after all. There was no guarantee of failure.
Moreover, attraction had both active and passive effects. The higher the Blood Ancestor rank, the more pleasant the pheromone-like scent.
For now, I'd save the active use for a decisive moment and activate the passive to strengthen it. Thanks to consistent practice over the past month, I felt a pleasant warmth flowing through my entire body.
Tap, tap.
Just then, a knock came from beyond the door.
“Scarlet. Are you asleep?”
She had left the dining hall earlier saying she was going to bed. Since she was the one who wouldn't enter unless I was actually asleep—she had once waited by my side until I woke up—I could have pretended to sleep. But thanks to the mana activation, energy surged through my body, and I felt oddly cheerful.
“Not sleeping. You can come in.”
The moment my answer left my lips, the door opened softly. As usual, instead of the expressionless zombie maid, she carried a tea set in her hands and approached the bed carefully.
Every time my sister visited my room over the past month, this space had felt like it was just the two of us. At least during these hours, no one else was permitted to enter. Even though the only person who lived here was the mindless zombie maid.
Even though I knew that was nothing more than an affectionate clinginess toward her younger brother, I accepted it. After all, I liked her too. From her perspective, it had probably just been concern for her weakened brother—a sign of deep sibling affection. For me, though, it had been the very thing that made me see her as a woman.
That made sense. For a full month, every evening for several hours, the two of us had stayed in this bedroom wearing nothing but thin clothes, sitting close and talking. No man could have remained unmoved.
From her point of view, she was simply dressed casually in front of her brother.
“What are you staring at?”
Plop.
My sister placed the tea set on the soft bed and asked.
I couldn't admit that my eyes had been silently tracing the valley of her breasts and the smooth lines of her thighs and waist, so I shook my head and said nothing.
It was useless, really. She smiled softly and skillfully poured the tea and sweets.
Just a month ago, I had been completely clumsy at this—nothing like the natural grace she showed now. The effort of those weeks had clearly paid off.
“How is it? Do you like my tea, sister?”
She had started proudly shrugging her shoulders lately. Noble daughters who were skilled at making tea or serving it were secretly envied among human nobles. Of course, one could hire servants for that, but there was a girl's desire to try her hand at creating something delicious for the young ones.
If a vampire, who only tasted food as a luxury, could master the art of tea ceremonies, wouldn't that draw attention in society?
“Yeah. You must get a lot of popularity. Lucky you.”
I bit into the cookie I had been handed, savored the sweet aftertaste, and spoke.
With this level of skill, I might even stand out among the cheeky kids who had only learned how to cook once.
It was said with good intentions, but strangely, the way my sister looked at me grew a little colder. With her pale skin and red eyes, a cold glare from her face really was quite intimidating. Her face carried an aura of chill, one might say.
What's the problem?
“...You don't like people having popularity?”
Since I couldn't find the right answer, I asked cautiously.
“You really don't know?”
“I don't.”
I answered honestly.
My sister let out a small sigh and reached for my hand. She sat on the edge of the bed, leaned slightly toward me, and pinched my cheek tightly.
“I didn't get good at it just because I wanted popularity from other people. Now you get it?”
Ah.
Um.
“You practiced for me, but then told me you were going to make it for someone else too? That was the problem?”
That's what she meant, right?
I had thought that couldn't possibly be the answer, but she nodded playfully, a mischievous smile on her lips.
“I don't even have time to make something for you. When am I going to make it for someone else?”
Now, why was my sister so beautiful and kind?
Honestly, I felt a little embarrassed. Knowing she was this pretty and kind, and then she was being kind to me. Aah, I wanted to say, I want to be my baby vampire brother... Even though she had leaned in to pinch my cheek, the sight of her breasts wrapped in underwear slipped into my view through the gap in her loose shirt.
I wanted to touch them. Besides, there was an almost imperceptible scent, and my body was reacting. I had lightly altered the blood flowing through me to stay calm.
“Why aren't you saying anything? Are you really listening to what I'm saying?”
“I'm listening.”
I wasn't. It felt like I was saying something, but I couldn't hear it properly because of the confusion.
I wasn't in my right mind. Maybe it was the feeling of drinking and having a buzz? My sister was saying something, but instead of listening, I kept spilling out random words. When I asked if we could hire a human maid, her expression had grown colder for a moment, and I had come to my senses briefly.
But then I had slipped back into that dreamy state again.
Thinking about it now, wasn't I being charmed?
She smelled faintly sweet, desire surged suddenly, my hands itched to grope the breasts right in front of me. What kind of charm was this?
I snapped back to reality and released the faint charm mana that had been lingering in my body.
Only then did my mind clear, and my vision returned fully.
My cheeks were flushed bright red, my breathing labored though slow. Sweat made my forehead damp, and my neck and collarbones were glistening wet. My sister stood before me looking utterly aroused.
“Ugh… ah… You… listen… well… to me…?”
Earlier, she had complained that I wasn't listening to her words at all. Now she was just making soft, groaning sounds instead of speaking. It seemed that while I had been charmed by her, she had been charmed by me too. Because neither of us had any resistance against the other's charm, the one with higher mana simply overpowered the other. It wasn't one-sided suppression—it was a mutual surrender to charm.
Her flushed face and the way she trembled was extremely erotic. I had released the charm, yet I still felt aroused. I couldn't hold back anymore. Since my sister didn't seem to be in her right mind either, this level of restraint was fine.
Still, it was too early to do anything here, so I lifted the struggling girl into my arms.
“Eek… wh-what… are you… doing…!”
She kicked and flailed, but I didn't mind the smooth thighs that were now fully exposed as I squeezed them. A high-pitched scream escaped her, but I ignored it lightly and carried her to the zombie maid waiting outside the door.
Hah.
I had almost gotten caught.
Still, my favorability had surely gone up a bit, right?
+++++
Leticia Tepes
Favorability: 58
+++++
Why did it drop?
*
Why wasn't she pouncing on me?
I had used charm pretty strongly, after all.