Chapter 131
Chapter 131
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 131
Chapter Title: The Graves Siblings
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At the summons of Lete, the head of the family, the blood relatives of the Graves family began to gather one by one at the grand mansion.
The first to arrive was the second daughter, Plenitas.
Perhaps due to her voluptuous figure and cheeks as plump as steamed buns, she had a warm and gentle appearance. She arrived riding a sleek, well-built wolf familiar.
The dark blue-furred wolf, marked with a crescent moon on its forehead, growled and snorted, irritated by the unfamiliar surroundings, but Plenitas soothed it.
“There, there, Fenrir. Just be patient for a little while. Mommy will be done with her business soon.”
Was it because he was a rare breed, born of royal blood even among purebred Fenrirs?
Though Fenrir possessed immense innate strength and a notoriously foul temper, he quickly calmed under Plenitas’s gentle touch, as if he had never bared his white fangs.
Whooosh!
A magnificent gust of wind was accompanied by a surge of scorching heat.
Breathing fire and scattering crimson feathers of flame, a phoenix landed in the mansion's garden.
Ignoring the green grass turning to ash around it, a handsome man with sharp features leaped from the phoenix’s back.
He was the third son of the Graves family, Acumen.
“You should lose some weight, Plenitas. It’s unsightly.”
“Why do you say that when everyone else says I look fine? At this point, I’m not fat, I’m curvy.”
“A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Stay away from gluttony. A lazy mind is what makes you fat.”
“That’s so harsh. Nagging me the moment you see me after so long.”
“I’m only saying it because you’re the one who has to marry for the sake of the family soon, and you look like that.”
“Like you, brother? I’m sorry, but I have no intention of marrying someone I don’t love, like you did.”
When Plenitas brought up love, Acumen simply offered a cold, dismissive smile and said nothing.
Plenitas shook her head at his attitude, which clearly conveyed he had no interest in continuing such a pointless conversation.
He really was a brother she could never warm up to, no matter when she saw him.
The next to arrive was the family’s eldest daughter, Venus.
As she dismounted from a skeletal horse wreathed in white smoke, the indiscreet gazes of the nearby servants fixed upon her.
Her eyebrows curved in an elegant arc, as if drawn with a brush.
Her eyes shone like white pearls, and her skin was like sculpted marble.
Even for a family member, her beauty was so captivating that Plenitas couldn’t help but gasp in admiration.
“Sister, how do you get more beautiful every time I see you? And your skin? Don’t tell me you actually take milk baths, like the rumors say?”
Stepping down from her skeletal horse, Venus looked directly at Plenitas with haughty eyes and said.
“And you, on the other hand, are getting more… robust? Excessively so. Nita, please, stop eating so much chocolate. And your chest… hoo, while there are men in this world who like your type, you’re a bit much.”
At Venus’s embarrassing remark, Plenitas’s face turned red as she covered her chest with both hands and grumbled.
“…Seriously, of all things, why point that out? Sister. People will say you’re being crude.”
“At my level, it doesn’t matter if my words are a little crude. This elegant face of mine will cover for it.”
As Venus swept her hair back and arrogantly lifted her chin, just as she said, there was not a hint of crudeness to be felt.
Her beauty was so overwhelming that it could overshadow any unrefined behavior.
Was it because he didn’t appreciate Venus’s boastfulness?
Acumen jeered, his hands shoved in his pockets.
“What good is being pretty? Especially when you’ve lost the title of the Demon Country’s greatest beauty to some riffraff from that lowly vampire family.”
Upon hearing Acumen’s words, Venus’s face turned ice-cold, and Plenitas nervously glanced between the two with a startled expression.
Venus glared at Acumen, her eyes as sharp and frosty as a winter morning.
“Acumen. I hear the mercenary company you’re running isn’t doing so well these days… How about you worry about yourself? Looks are something you’re born with, so losing to someone else just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. But failing in business is basically proving your incompetence, isn’t it? How embarrassing.”
Acumen gritted his teeth.
“…Venus. You’d better watch your mouth.”
“Call me ‘sister,’ you ill-mannered little brother. Before I slap you across the face.”
While Venus and Acumen were at odds, a piercing cry echoed as a massive dragon descended from the sky.
Thud!
The silver dragon, covered in blood, had a black bit in its mouth. The owner of that bit was a slender man seated on the dragon’s neck.
He had bulging eyes and a large nose.
The man, whose features seemed to betray an exceptional greed, looked down on his siblings with an arrogant expression.
Grrrr.
Acumen frowned at Pames’s audacity in forcibly using a Silver Dragon, one of the Four Great Dragon Kings, as a mount.
“Brother Pames. Treating a dragon so carelessly as a mount will cause big trouble. The other dragons won’t stand for it.”
Pames dismissed Acumen’s rebuke with a light snort and leaped majestically from the dragon’s neck.
Venus held the hem of her dress with both hands and gave an elegant curtsy.
“It’s been a while, brother.”
Pames leered, his eyes scanning his beautiful sister’s figure from top to bottom.
“Venus. You’re as beautiful as ever. Sometimes… I regret that you’re my sister.”
“…Is that so.”
Venus frowned at his rude and vulgar words.
She wanted to unleash a torrent of curses at him, but she held back.
She knew this was the kind of brother he was.
Watching from the side, Plenitas immediately grabbed her skirt and offered a somewhat clumsy greeting.
“I-It’s… it’s good to see you after so long, brother.”
Pames openly scowled upon seeing Plenitas’s plump figure.
“How much did you stuff your face like a pig to get that fat? Tsk, no self-control.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Try a little harder and contribute to my family. I have no intention of forgiving freeloaders who don’t even properly contribute to the family, just because we share the same blood.”
Acumen clicked his tongue and said.
“Anyone would think the family is already yours.”
“Well, since there is no eldest son, I, the second son, should inherit it. Do you think you, the third son, will?”
“…There’s no reason I can’t, if my older brother proves to be incompetent.”
Pames cackled and shot back.
“The guy who’s about to run the family’s only mercenary company into the ground is talking about incompetence? Even a stray dog would laugh. Little brother, you should take care of your own affairs. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“……”
While the Graves siblings were displaying such a fine example of brotherly love, a giant, chubby squirrel was crossing the family garden.
The siblings stared in bewilderment at the white squirrel that was approaching them with short, but surprisingly quick, steps.
Acumen muttered.
“What is this? Don’t tell me that’s a familiar?”
Venus crossed her arms and tilted her head coyly.
“A squirrel familiar? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Plenitas clapped her hands in delight.
“It’s so cute! Cute is the best!”
Pames spoke in a pathetic tone.
“What kind of moron would ride such a worthless familiar through the family garden…”
The white squirrel stopped before them with a loud—or rather, a cry pretending to be loud—squeak.
The white-haired man riding atop the squirrel dismounted.
He had a small frame and a timid appearance.
It was Alma Graves, the youngest of the family, who had proven his incompetence by causing trouble in everything he touched and, unable to bear the scorn of his siblings, had started wandering foreign lands.
“Brothers, sisters. It’s been a long time.”
At Alma’s appearance, Acumen spat on the ground as if his mood had soured, Venus frowned, and Pames did not hide the contempt in his eyes.
In contrast, Plenitas, who had looked after him in her own way before he left, gazed at him with pity.
Pames spoke with disgust, as if looking at a pile of dung.
“What gives you the right to crawl back here? Surely you don’t think that just because some time has passed, the past where you tarnished the family’s honor has faded away?”
Alma, or rather, Lee Si-woo, scratched the back of his head and said.
“You’re being too harsh on your brother after seeing him for the first time in ages. Sure, I caused a bit of trouble in the past… but that’s all in the past, isn’t it?”
“You fool. How can there be a present without a past? Stop showing your shameless face and get lost. No one will welcome the likes of you back now.”
Lee Si-woo smiled slyly and looked at Plenitas.
“I don’t know about that. I think sister Nita will welcome me, though.”
Plenitas glanced nervously at her siblings, unsure of what to do.
“Alma… I…”
Venus sighed as if she couldn’t bear to watch and spoke.
“Alma, do you know? I still hear complaints from the young ladies you harassed at the ball. They say your gloomy face as you tried to pounce on them still appears in their dreams.”
Lee Si-woo shrugged and said.
“I was a bit immature back then. But don’t worry. Now, you could bring me a truckload of such women, and I wouldn’t even spare them a glance.”
Unsettled by his response, Venus crossed her arms and looked Lee Si-woo up and down.
Whether by his face or his build, he was clearly Alma.
But something was strange.
His aura was completely different.
It was as if only the shell remained the same, while the core had been completely replaced.
‘Is it just because it’s been so long? Or… could his harsh experiences out in the world have changed him?’
Just then, the white squirrel Lee Si-woo had ridden in on nudged Fenrir with its rear.
Seeing this, Plenitas’s jaw dropped.
She thought the squirrel must have a death wish to be provoking the divine beast, Fenrir.
But Fenrir’s reaction was strange.
It bared its white fangs and growled, but it seemed as timid as a hyena before a lion.
And that wasn’t all.
When Fenrir growled, the white squirrel snorted in displeasure and stomped on Fenrir’s back with its foot.
Whimper-
Stomped on by the white squirrel, Fenrir whined like a puppy with its tail between its legs and scurried far away.
Only then did Acumen realize that the white squirrel was no ordinary familiar and muttered.
“What is that? I’ve never seen a familiar like it.”
Pames eyed the white squirrel with a greedy gaze.
“What type is it? A spirit? A monster? Or perhaps from the phantom realm?”
Was it puffed up with pride from the siblings’ attention?
The white squirrel spread its arms wide like a monster from a sci-fi movie and let out a shriek.
Squeee-eek!
As if trying to appear dignified, the squirrel, after letting out a loud shriek, stomped its way toward the skeletal horse and the phoenix.
Then, surprisingly, the skeletal horse fled into the distance, and the phoenix soared high into the sky.
The feeling was less of fear and more of avoiding something unpleasant, but it didn’t matter.
Whatever the reason, it was enough to make them covet the squirrel.
Pames asked Lee Si-woo.
“How much?”
“What do you mean?”
“You idiot, can’t you understand plain words? That familiar. I’m asking how much you’ll sell it for.”
“Ah, Bbi-bbi? Hmm, well… he’s not for sale.”
“Not for sale, my ass. How many seoks do you want? I’ll pay whatever price you name, so hand it over. It’s a familiar far too good for you.”
Lee Si-woo scratched his chin, pondering for a moment before speaking.
“I don’t need money. I have more than enough myself. Hmmm, but since you’re asking me to sell a creature I consider family, if I had to put a price on him…”
Lee Si-woo grinned.
It was a confident smile, hard to believe it came from the timid face of Alma.
“The heir. If you hand over the position of heir to the Graves family, I might consider it.”
At Lee Si-woo’s thunderous words, the siblings’ faces stiffened.
Lee Si-woo looked at their frozen faces, every single one of them, with his inscrutable white eyes.
***
After hearing the butler’s report, Lete spoke with interest.
“That Alma fellow mentioned the heir’s position?”
“Yes.”
“Strange. Wasn’t he the timid and gloomy type?”
“He was. He was the type who couldn’t even talk back properly when his other siblings hit him.”
Lete, who had been lost in thought with his chin resting on his hand, asked.
“What about the genetic test? Did you run one?”
“We conducted one publicly before allowing him into the mansion. The results confirm he is indeed Lord Alma.”
“He is himself…”
“Perhaps his experiences have changed young master Alma completely. Sometimes, people change 180 degrees after a near-death experience, don’t they?”
“Perhaps. Anything else? Was there anything strange?”
The butler glanced at the family head and said cautiously.
“Well… the young master’s attendants are a bit suspicious.”
“Suspicious?”
“Every one of them is unusual… They seem dangerous.”
When the butler went so far as to call them dangerous, Lete’s lips twitched with interest, but that was all.
“That’s fine. Butler. You’ve observed enough, so stop paying it any mind. It doesn’t look good for a family servant like you to be monitoring a blood relative so excessively.”
As Lete subtly hinted that he should not cross the line, the butler hurriedly bowed his head and apologized.
“My apologies, my lord. I believe my concern was excessive.”
Accepting the butler’s apology with a nod, Lete turned his attention back to the documents on his desk.
He soon became engrossed in his work, as if the family’s succession struggle was of no concern to him.
***
Plenitas, having come to Lee Si-woo’s quarters, swallowed nervously.
She was faced with a ruffian chewing gum insolently right in front of her brother’s room.
The man in the red mask was leaning back in his chair with his hands stuffed in his pockets, looking as if everything in the world was a bother.
Plenitas asked in a cautious tone.
“Um… I’m here to see Alma.”
The man in the red mask took it off.
Revealing a face so hideous it was hard to look at.
Seeing Plenitas show no particular reaction to his face—a face so grotesque it would make a woman with a weak stomach gag—the man spoke in a thuggish tone.
“Pass.”
“Huh?”
“I said pass. Go on in. Alma’s waiting for you.”
With a look that said, *Is that it?*, Plenitas tilted her head but cautiously walked past the man.
Hesitating for a moment, she lingered at the door before entering with a faint sigh.
Lee Si-woo, who was sitting with his legs crossed in a luxurious chair, spoke.
“Welcome, sister. I was just thinking I wanted to see you.”
As if he had prepared it in advance, Lee Si-woo slid a coffee cup across the table toward her and continued.
“We have a lot to talk about. Don’t we?”