Starting with the Herrschers, I Cut Down All

As for a people-pleasing personality, An Yu didn't understand it. But after thinking about those twelve family members, he felt it was somewhat possible. It was all those good-for-nothing friends' fault!

Elysia widened her eyes. "What do you mean, just these?"

"Can't you hope for something better for me?"

ADHD, anxiety, and depression—those already sounded serious enough, okay? And a people-pleasing personality? That just sounded embarrassing.

I'd even deliberately wiped away a few tears before coming out, and just as our sibling relationship was starting to improve, you hit me with "just these"?

"...That's really all?"

An Yu, whose life had gone smoothly ever since childhood, still chose to trust his own judgment. He held out his hand.

"Let me see the assessment form."

"No!"

Elysia hurriedly hugged the thin sheet of paper to her chest.

There really was something wrong. An Yu looked around. There weren't many people, but there were still people around at this hour. He couldn't use force.

"That's really all," Elysia emphasized.

An Yu spoke in a quiet, eerie tone. "Then let's buy the medicine and go home. Did the doctor mention anything about follow-up treatment?"

Did this silly sister not know that psychological issues could be asked directly to the counselor? Though the counselor would probably keep it confidential, if potential safety concerns were involved, the doctor couldn't possibly shoulder that responsibility.

"No. The doctor told me to go out more, relax more, and the symptoms would ease a lot."

"Let's go home."

Mm, though she didn't know what was going on, An Yu didn't seem that stubborn after all. He'd still panicked when he saw her crying.

They took a taxi home. An Yu sat in the front, while Elysia puffed out her cheeks. But she hadn't managed to stop him. Separated by the taxi's partition, she could only vaguely see that An Yu seemed to be chatting with someone.

"Hmm, your sister may have mild dependent romantic tendencies within the family."

"...The kind I'm thinking of?"

"In terms our generation would use, she's a little brother-con. Though I don't know whether young people like you still watch anime."

"..."

"Thank you, Doctor."

Quack. An Yu silently slapped that label onto Doctor Faer. Even Su's standing in his mind plummeted along with it.

If the doctor had said that a few days ago, he would have panicked. He would have been scared. After all, he was still young and didn't want his future direction decided so easily.

But after Elysia had gone crazy and strangled him, and after the matter of her little thirteen-person family had been exposed, how was An Yu supposed to believe it?

Quack!

Looks like technological progress wasn't entirely a good thing. Had doctors like this somehow become experts?

"Will you come out and relax with me, Xiao Yu?"

Elysia leaned against the window. Through the gap between the front seats, she could tell that An Yu's mood seemed rather unstable.

She decided to add fuel to the fire, then generously tell her little brother it was fine, that his sister could endure it, that he should handle his own business first—then give him a good scolding.

"..."

What a damn world. Why was it that trouble either never came, or all came flooding in at once? And none of it was the kind of trouble that required him to drop everything and make an unavoidable choice.

An Yu leaned back in his seat, his expression still free of any exhaustion. He turned his head.

"Where do you want to go?"

Work? He'd quit.

An Yu wasn't afraid, because he was still young. He had too many possibilities to climb back up again.

But if his own sister became mentally ill, then she probably really couldn't be saved.

Yet Elysia was a little afraid.

"Didn't your studio just start a new project?"

"Whatever. I've been fed up with that useless duck for a long time. I'll quit and go traveling."

An Yu had wanted to contact Bronya directly and explain the situation, but Elysia struggled to reach out and press down on his screen. Her smile was forced.

"Handle your work first. In a while, I'll introduce some friends to you, and we can all go out together then."

"And there's no way I have ADHD!"

She raised her voice again, brimming with inexplicable confidence.

An Yu tilted his head and looked at the pale hand beside him, struggling to move as it tried to snatch his phone. He hesitated for a moment.

Are you sure you don't have ADHD?

Though his sister really didn't have an attention deficit.

"Mm. For the next few days, don't let anything bother you too much. Stay home or go have fun. Don't make yourself unhappy."

He handed the phone to Elysia, then leaned against the window, wondering which friend might help him find a more reliable doctor.

As for the next few days? He would stabilize Elysia first.

"Did you delete the chat history? I clearly saw you chatting with someone just now."

"I asked Doctor Faer about your assessment form."

Elysia's little face stiffened. Wow, what an annoying counselor. He'd exposed a beautiful girl's privacy so easily.

She fell silent and didn't say another word. Even searching through An Yu's phone like she was hunting for treasure failed to bring a smile back to her face.

"Quack."

Elysia suddenly spoke.

"Rare for us to think alike."

An Yu was suddenly a little relieved. It seemed his sister's intellectual impairment wasn't quite that serious.

"Shouldn't you be upset when I say that?"

Elysia puffed up her cheeks. She could call the doctor a quack, because beautiful girls had privileges. But An Yu, the person the quack had declared fortunate, couldn't say it too, because that made her seem completely unimportant.

"Why would I be upset?"

With the driver wearing an expression like he was watching a show, An Yu tapped the rearview mirror and angled it toward the fuming Elysia. He gave her a sunny yet teasing smile.

"Big Sis, I'm twenty-five this year. I'm young. The last thing I should suffer through is heartbreak."

Just as An Yu absolutely didn't believe Elysia would ever get dumped, these young people in the prime of their lives should have been at the age to experience adult romance, if not for responsibilities holding them back.

Elysia stared blankly, seemingly not understanding.

"If my career hadn't been on the rise lately, your little brother would've already had a spectacular love life."

But his career luck really had been good. He'd met Bronya while street racing, and after getting to know her, plus everything his boss had taught him, he'd been busy ever since graduating.

Elysia opened her mouth. She'd never imagined her little brother thought this way. He even wanted to be a playboy, a veteran in love, a little prince of nightclubs.

They remained silent the whole way. The driver tried several times to start a conversation, but An Yu only gave perfunctory responses. He clearly had no intention of saying so much in front of a stranger.

When they arrived home, Elysia pushed open the door but never stepped inside.

"What is it? Upset again?"

"I'm thinking about whether I should enforce the family rules."

Elysia held lofty goodwill toward the world, but she'd never expected An Yu, whom she'd raised with bowl after bowl of rice and handful after handful of flour, to go along with worldly corruption. He wanted to be a scumbag!

"Since when did our family have rules?"

An Yu easily grabbed Elysia by her slender waist, lifted her, and set her down by the kitchen door. After closing the door, he slowly spoke.

"And if our family really had rules, I'd have hung you up and whipped you this morning."

Elysia gritted her teeth. She suddenly felt there was at least one good thing about the world in her dreams: she had power there.

The power to stop evil from spreading, save the world, and create paradise.

An Yu ignored his sister. Seeing her face shifting through different emotions, gritting her teeth as if she wanted to restore the sisterly order, yet only able to stew in frustrated anger because of the difference in strength, he laughed.

"Big Sis, if you want to do something, then do it. Even if you can't take it, don't keep bottling up your anger. It'd be bad if you got menstrual irregularities from being so mad."

"An Yu!" Elysia rolled up sleeves that didn't exist. "Today, I'm going to show you why I'm the older sister!"

Though the dream had been absurd and strange, and though Elysia's head always felt foggy after waking, she was Elysia! A superhuman among mankind!

"Heh... It's hard to say which of us is actually older."

An Yu swiftly subdued Elysia and pinned her beneath him. No matter how she struggled, she couldn't change the situation.

A few minutes later, Elysia curled up alone on the sofa, shamefully asking the group for help.

She couldn't beat him. She really couldn't. Without the stats and mechanics from her dreams, she was like a raw recruit in front of An Yu.

Unfortunately, faced with the terrible ideas suggested by her "family," Elysia was ultimately forced to admit defeat and swallow her frustration.

"An Yu." Her voice softened as her pale, tender foot lightly kicked him. "I don't want takeout tonight..."

An Yu ignored her. Elysia lightly kicked him twice more with her toes.

An Yu sighed and reached out to hold down her restless ankle.

"What do you want to eat?"

The two of them usually didn't cook at home. Instant noodles, takeout, or eating out—there was always some way to settle dinner.

So whenever they suddenly felt like cooking, they even had to go grocery shopping in advance.

Dinner was garlic crayfish with noodles and chili sauce. Elysia cooked the noodles. She could cook... most of the time.

"Xiao Yu, I can't keep slacking off like this."

Elysia was somewhat indignant. She felt her status at home was getting lower and lower. Even when eating garlic crayfish, An Yu wouldn't shell them for her!

"Good luck. You've had nearly two years of unemployment. HR will definitely ask what you've been doing."

An Yu wasn't surprised. He merely offered a small prayer for the next three companies that hired Elysia. After all, Elysia had mental illness.

"It's fine. If HR asks, I'll say I was pregnant and now I'm coming out to earn formula money."

Elysia sounded unconcerned. Plenty of people in their loving family group had complained about this little issue before, and there had even been a whole pile of terrible suggestions.

An Yu slightly raised his eyes, lowered them a moment later, then raised them again as if refusing to believe what he'd heard.

Big Sis, do you know what you're saying?

"If they ask what happened to the child, I'll say my little brother helps look after them at home. Besides, I don't plan to go out and find a job. I have my own way of making money."

She'd only stopped streaming recently. The Miss Pink Elf account hadn't been deleted, and she still posted videos from time to time.

If this were a close older colleague, An Yu would definitely ask sincerely: "Are you trying to hook a rich guy?"

But if he mocked a pure-hearted leftover woman like Elysia that way, she'd dare flip the table and then secretly wipe away tears. She always cared deeply about her image.

"So what are you going to do to better yourself?"

"Train, then restore the family rules!"

Strength. She needed strength!

Though she might not reach the level she had in her dreams, those bizarre dreams were like another world. Perhaps the training methods inside would still work?

She didn't need to reach even half that level. One-tenth would be enough, and then she could restore her authority as the older sister.

An Yu: ...

"As long as you're happy."

He had wanted to say something discouraging, but for now, he needed to soothe Elysia. Otherwise, once she learned her little brother was still desperately searching for a famous doctor, she would definitely explode again.

After dinner, Elysia washed the dishes... Perhaps that was why she'd previously agreed to eat out or order takeout?

The not-too-busy yet utterly troublesome day finally came to an end.

Before sleeping, An Yu cautiously pushed open Elysia's bedroom door. Once he confirmed she wasn't staying up in the middle of the night doing anything besides working out and trying to go bald and get stronger, he nodded with satisfaction.