Had My Brother Been Kept by Someone?

"What is this...?"

Vera stared in surprise at the check on the table. She quickly picked it up and examined it by the lamplight.

"100,000 pounds! 100,000 Imperial Livres??"

Vera's blue eyes went round, and her little mouth opened into an "O." Her shocked expression was downright adorable.

"Bro? Did you rob a bank?"

"Or steal money from the school??"

The more Vera thought about it, the more frightened she became. How could her penniless brother suddenly have so much money? Her imagination ran wild... Benalu Royal Academy was full of rich, powerful heirs. Had Ansu done something terrible at school?

Ansu gave her a helpless look.

It was no wonder Vera was so shocked. Thanks to the Empire's "financial hegemony," the Imperial Livre was pegged to gold and was worth a great deal.

His tuition at the Royal Academy was only 30,000 pounds a year. He'd been able to afford it only after selling their old house, and this check could pay for almost three more years, right up until graduation...

"What are you imagining?" Ansu poked Vera's little head. "I didn't get this money by robbing anyone. Your big brother earned it."

He'd earned it with his life...

After all, the slightest misstep could anger Cecilia and get him remade into her "new toy"...

"Earned it?" Vera still looked doubtful. She moved closer to Ansu and whispered nervously, "What kind of job pays this much? Couldn't you introduce me to it, too?"

"Better not..." Ansu didn't want them to become a pair of toy siblings. He could only offer a vague explanation:

"This job is a little unusual, and it can be dangerous. But don't worry, it's definitely not dangerous enough to put my life at risk. Anyway... my new employer is very generous. You won't have to worry about the family finances for a while."

"Your employer..." Vera furrowed her brow, then suddenly asked, sharp-eyed, "Is it a man or a woman?"

"A woman," Ansu replied.

Vera gave Ansu a suspicious look. The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed...

Ansu had been coming home late these past two days, his employer was a woman, and this female employer had even given him a generous 100,000 pounds all at once...

"Bro!" Vera blurted out in disbelief. "You haven't actually been kept by someone, have you??"

Ansu had just finished eating and was drinking water. He immediately spat it out.

"Of course not!" he hurriedly protested. "What are you thinking? This is honest work, and my boss is an honest person. The organization behind her is huge..."

Huge enough to be called the continent's foremost heretical cult, and one of the two future "world-ending factions" alongside the returning Demon Army...

"But I'm still a little worried..."

Vera sighed softly. She knew she couldn't easily change Ansu's mind, so in the end she made a tactful suggestion: "Bro, I'd like to meet your female employer. Would that be okay?"

"Of course not!" Ansu tensed up. Let his sister meet Cecilia? He'd have to be crazy to do that.

"Oh..." Vera's little face drooped, but in the end she nodded.

"All right..."

Nothing happened over the next three days. Ansu went to school during the day and studied magic at home in the evenings.

[ Meditation Technique ], [ Mage Hand ], and [ Illumination Spell ]—all three basic spells—had been unlocked. Besides that, he'd discovered that the latter two could be upgraded further.

[Mage Hand Lv1 (Lv2:15/100)]

Though it was only a basic 0th-circle spell, Ansu's gaming experience told him that even basic magic could be incredibly powerful if mastered.

He couldn't help thinking of the world of Eternal Night Sword. In this age of declining magic, humans capable of learning it were exceedingly rare. Even with only these few spells under his belt, he could already be considered a genuine "extraordinary."

The Church's suppression of magic was certainly a factor, but at its root, the problem was the world-shattering Demon Calamity War a thousand years ago. Most types of magic had been corrupted... dealing a devastating blow to the entire magical system and bringing it to the brink of extinction.

If he wanted to learn more powerful magic, the Echo of Truth Cult, which claimed to inherit its teachings from the "Ancient Magic Empire," would be a convenient shortcut. Ansu planned to wait until he saw Cecilia again and try to mooch another magic tome from her.

"Bro... are you studying that heretical book about whatever-it's-called general knowledge again?"

Vera placed a cup of freshly brewed black tea on Ansu's desk, then sat beside him, propped her chin on her hand, and watched him with a puzzled look. He was so absorbed in his studies that he seemed possessed.

Her brother had been getting stranger and stranger lately...

These past few days, he'd barely eaten or slept. He just sat there staring at some beat-up old book.

And its contents were cause for concern, too. It was full of the "heretical doctrines" banned by the Church. If word got out, the Church's Inquisition might come arrest her brother...

"It's not a heretical book. It's just an occult work by an ancient Scholar."

Ansu closed the book. Studying magic took a lot out of him, so he decided to take a break before continuing.

He looked up at his sister, who had been sitting around doing nothing and keeping him company.

It was the weekend. Vera would normally have gone to work at the newspaper, but he'd taken her with him to quit yesterday, so she finally had some free time, too.

"Bro, why don't you come shopping with me today?"

Vera remembered that they hadn't gone shopping together in quite a while.

"Sure." Ansu glanced at Vera's plain little dress and thought it was about time he bought her some pretty clothes. Girls her age cared a lot about their appearance.

"Great!" Vera smiled happily, her eyes turning into lovely crescents.

But just as the siblings were about to leave, a soft knock sounded at the door.

Vera furrowed her brow. "Who would come knocking at this hour? It's not that person next door again, is it..."

She got up to answer the door.

When she opened it, a tall, elegant young woman stood before her.

Midday sunlight streamed inside. Vera blinked in surprise at the unfamiliar young woman.

What a beautiful person!

Ansu, however, stood up nervously. "M-Ma... I mean, Miss Cecilia? What are you doing here?"

Cecilia wore a ladylike outfit and a sunhat. She glanced at Ansu in the living room. "What? Can't I come see you unless there's a reason?"

"Of course you can, of course..." Ansu hurriedly invited her in, then asked his sister to brew another pot of tea.

"It's just that this was so sudden." Ansu studied Cecilia, who had unexpectedly come to visit his home. He had no idea what she was here for. Was it related to the mission to find the Chosen One?

"Hmm? Sudden?"

Cecilia sat down on the sofa in Ansu's home and casually looked around. "Didn't you ask me to knock? That's better than suddenly appearing in your room..."

Ansu quickly coughed twice, cutting her off.

"Bro?" Vera looked back and forth between the two of them. They seemed to know each other quite well.

At last, she fixed Ansu with a suspicious look, her voice turning sullen.

"Young lady, aren't you going to introduce yourself to me?"