Carlotta, the Fiercely Protective Big Sister

In the hall of Porto-Vino Castle, the air seemed to have been filled with cement, solidifying until it was hard to breathe.

Kexi stood in the middle of the hall. An indescribable wet sensation still lingered on his lips.

Across from him, Cantarella had risen from her armchair.

Her hair was slightly disheveled, and her chest heaved. Her usually poised and elegant face now wore a complicated expression somewhere between fury and disbelief.

"You..."

Cantarella raised a hand and pointed a trembling finger at Kexi. Her red lips parted several times, but she couldn't manage a complete sentence.

It was the first time in her life this had happened.

"Matriarch, are you all right?" Butler Saibas hurried over, producing a very expensive-looking fan from somewhere and trying to fan Cantarella.

"Get out."

Two words, delivered with terrifying calm.

Saibas retreated more than ten meters away at the fastest speed of his life, pulling Zani, who was still frantically documenting everything with photos, along with him.

"Um..." Kexi tried to break the deadlock. He cleared his throat and straightened his back, doing his best to look less guilty. "Sister Cantarella, I can explain. It really isn't what you think. This is a... a special resonance ritual. Look, haven't I awakened now too? What does that show? It shows that heaven and earth can bear witness to my admiration for you. Even the resonance energy was moved."

The corner of Cantarella's eye twitched.

"Admiration?" she repeated, her voice as soft as a viper flicking its tongue. "You call what you just did admiration?"

"French-kiss-style admiration," the system added without warning in Kexi's head.

"Shut the fuck up!" Kexi roared in his mind.

"What did you say?" Cantarella's gaze sharpened. Clearly, she thought Kexi was speaking to her.

"No, no, no!" Kexi hurriedly waved his hands, cold sweat breaking out at once. "I was cursing myself, myself! That was outrageous! How could I, in front of so many people... um... right?"

Carlotta finally recovered from her petrified state. She took a deep breath and bent down to pick up the crystal cannon from the floor, her movements as mechanical as a marionette's.

"Kexi."

"Yes, Second Sister?"

"You just... licked Cantarella's tongue with yours, didn't you?"

"That wasn't licking! That was absorption! Absorbing a Tacet Mark! It's an extremely profound-"

"Just tell me whether you did or not."

"...I did."

"And you licked it for at least ten seconds."

"I absorbed it for ten seconds, not licked it for ten seconds. There's a fundamental difference between the two-"

"Zani." Carlotta cut off Kexi's attempt to argue his way out of it and turned to her deputy. "Set the gravity suppression cannon to maximum."

"Second Young Lady, that setting is for fighting Tacet Discord bosses," Zani reminded her quietly.

"I know."

"Someone could die."

"I know."

Kexi's face turned green.

"Second Sister! Calm down! I'm the only son our family has left! The old man is still counting on me to carry on the family line!"

"Carry on the family line?" Carlotta finally exploded. She jumped up and pointed at Kexi's nose. The difference in their heights made the scene look like an angry squirrel challenging a towering tree. "Do you know who Cantarella is? She's the head of the Fisalia! She's someone Grandfather treats as a peer! You... you did that to her in front of dozens of people, and you still want to carry on the family line? The Montelli will be the biggest laughingstock in Ragunna tomorrow!"

"Today," Zani said, raising her terminal. "News that the Young Master forcibly kissed the head of the Fisalia has already spread across Rinascita's information network. It's been reposted over a hundred thousand times, and the comments are all asking whether the Montelli are trying to form a marriage alliance with the Fisalia this way."

The hall fell deathly silent once more.

Kexi slowly turned to look at Zani. "You sent that out just now?"

Zani coughed awkwardly. "Professional habit."

"Good. Very good." Kexi nodded, his face ashen. Then he abruptly turned to the system interface and typed frantically in his head: "You damn system, did you do this on purpose? Did you plan all of this?"

[System response: Host, please face up to your own actions. You chose to absorb the Tacet Mark with your mouth. This system had nothing to do with it. Friendly reminder: Cantarella's anger has reached a critical point. Immediate evacuation is advised.]

"Evacuate my ass! Where am I supposed to go?"

Kexi felt that the biggest mistake of his life was not choosing a setup with a built-in cheat when he was reborn, but instead getting stuck with this lousy system that specialized in screwing over its host.

"Cantarella."

Just as Kexi was figuring out how to leave his last words, Carlotta's voice suddenly became unusually calm. She stepped forward, her small figure standing between Kexi and Cantarella, and looked straight up at the head of the Fisalia, who was much taller than her.

"The Montelli will give the Fisalia an explanation for what happened today."

Cantarella finally began to recover from her near-rampage. She sat back down in the armchair, crossed her long legs, and tapped the armrest lightly with her fingertips. Although an unusual flush still lingered on her face, she had regained her imposing presence.

"An explanation?" Cantarella's lips curved into a smile cold enough to freeze the waters of Rinascita. "Carlotta, what kind of explanation do you think could make up for what your brother did to me?"

"What do you want?" Carlotta asked expressionlessly.

"I want him-"

Cantarella's gaze passed over Carlotta and settled on Kexi. It made him feel as though he had already been chopped into eight pieces and marinated in eight different seasonings.

"-dead."

"No, that won't do." Carlotta rejected the demand without hesitation. "Pick something else."

"Carlotta, are you bargaining with me?"

"Yes." Carlotta refused to back down. The imposing presence radiating from her small body was enough to match Cantarella's. "When a member of the Montelli does wrong, the Montelli will punish them ourselves. But if you want to take his life, you'll have to step over my dead body."

Kexi froze.

He looked down at his second sister, who had to jump to reach his knees, who usually either hit or scolded him and wished she could stuff him into a cannon and fire him out. Now she stood in front of him, using her less-than-one-and-a-half-meter frame to shield him from Cantarella's killing intent.

"Second Sister..."

"Shut up!" Carlotta shouted without looking back. "I'll deal with you when we get home."

Kexi obediently shut his mouth, but something gently bumped against a place in his heart.

Cantarella was silent for a long time.

So long that the air in the hall began to turn sour, so long that the Montelli guards all felt an urge to resign.

At last, Cantarella spoke.

"He can live."

Carlotta's body relaxed slightly.

"But he must promise me one thing."