The Strongest Family Has Arrived!

Chapter 10

—–CROW—– 

“The third one’s dead, right?”

“Huh?”

Suddenly?

“My oldest sister. The third one, Diana. Even if you don’t know her face, you must’ve heard of her, right?  You don’t know Diana?”

“…I know *of* her. Why?”

“I’m asking if she’s dead.”

“No?”

“Really?”

Ryan’s expression turned strange.

“The Bless you just used, it’s Diana’s.”

“So?”

“You’re saying you possess the same Bless?”

“Yes.”

I’d expected Ryan to be overjoyed, but his suspiciously strange reaction made me tense.

“Hey.”

Ryan let out a short laugh, bent down, and placed his lips near my ear.

Then he whispered.

“Blesses don’t overlap.”

In that instant, I was so surprised that I gasped.

Chills ran down my spine at the clarity of Ryan’s voice.

“If Diana were alive, no one but her could use this Bless. What are you?”

“…….”

[It seems that the same Bless cannot manifest in more than one esper.]

This is one of the that even the family administrators are still unsure about and are continuously researching.

It’s not information that Ryan, who was imprisoned and cut off from the world at the age of twelve, would have access to.

‘Besides… why is he so certain?’

I’m just as uncertain about that law.

Why? Because our family’s history itself isn’t very long.

It hasn’t been long since espers appeared, and there haven’t been many examples of esper abilities so far.

Why did espers suddenly appear? And why is that power only inherited through the Vasenberk bloodline…?

Everything was an unknown territory, even to the espers themselves.

Yet, there was something strange about Ryan.

As if he was certain of some principle of esper abilities that no one else knew….

“Are you a mutant? Or…”

Ryan smiled menacingly, looked deeply into my eyes, and asked.

“Are you hiding something else?”

My heart pounded.

Just then.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

Rapid footsteps approached from outside, and the door burst open.

“Brother!!!”

Startled, I turned to look at the man who had suddenly barged in.

Neat bangs. White hair cut like a knife with not a single strand out of place around his chin.

With his bobbed hair and extremely thin frame, it was hard to distinguish his gender at first glance.  This man was definitely…

‘White hair! That’s Livan!’

Ryan’s prison mate.

And probably, as I suspected, his closest confidant who would continuously help him with his revenge from now on.

Thankfully, his timing wasn’t bad….

“Well, hello there?”

Livan tilted his head and looked at me.

“Who’s this cute little lady?”

At his question, Ryan straightened up from his bent position and looked at me silently.

“…….”

“…….”

Tension hung in the air between our locked gazes.

“For now, she’s my daughter.”

“Whaaat?!!!”

“Huh, to go way back…”

Ryan sighed and walked towards Livan.

“It was before I went to prison.”

Ryan placed his hand on Livan’s shoulder and spoke playfully, as if acting.

“Back then, I fell in love with an unknown woman for one night.”

“One night? What are you talking about? Before you went to prison, weren’t you still babbling?”

“Let me introduce you.”

Ryan extended his hand towards me.

“This is my daughter, made without my knowledge that day.”

A brief silence followed….

Livan grinned.

“That’s a load of bull!”

“Hahahaha!”

“Hahahaha!”

I gulped, watching the two men laugh uproariously.

It seemed best to play along for now.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Daddy’s daughter, Vania!”

“Cute, just like me, right?”

“Oh, come on!”

Livan yelled at the bluffing Ryan.

“Who are you trying to fool!  You expect me to believe this?”

“What are you going to do if you don’t believe it?”

Despite their reunion after a year, the two seemed as close as if they had met just yesterday.

It was inevitable.  Both were imprisoned at a young age and grew up more like brothers than actual blood brothers.

‘But that person’s way of speaking is peculiar. Is he from the southern region…?’

I carefully observed Livan in the meantime.

“Anyway, you’re getting a beating.”

“Eek! Why, why! What for?!”

Ryan grabbed the back of Livan’s neck and smiled brightly.

“What, yalli yalli yalla sheng? Do you really want to die? Do you know how embarrassing it was for me to recite that ridiculous code?”

“Huh? You read it out loud? Why would you do that…? You could’ve just shown the owner the note. I wrote them in pairs, you know?”

“……!”

Idiot. Did he just realize it now? Ryan’s expression momentarily went blank.

“Wow. Are you an idiot or something?”

“Shut up!”

“Oof!”

Embarrassed, Ryan needlessly poked Livan in the stomach and turned around, then stopped when he saw me.

“…….”

Don’t… Don’t look at my face.

I was biting my lip hard to suppress the laughter that was about to burst out.

“Is it funny?”

“No….”

Ryan started packing his belongings with a thump.

He slung the bulging bag over his shoulder, securely fastened the sword he had confiscated from the soldier upon his release to his waist, and said,

“Now, let’s go to the ship. We’re going straight to the continent.”

“Yay!”

Livan excitedly went ahead, and Ryan followed. I hesitated, unsure of what to do.

“What are you doing?”

Ryan, who had stopped walking, looked back at me.

“Hurry up and follow.”

“Ah!”

* * *

The cool sea breeze.

A flock of white seagulls squawking above the dazzling sea.

The ship heading for the continent, , was smoothly sailing.

And here.

On the deck in the middle of the day, where the sound of lapping waves tickled the ears, there were three suspicious passengers.

Ryan (24 years old, characteristic: A special-class criminal released from prison today, crimes: Mass murder and arson)

Livan (23 years old, characteristic: A special-class criminal released from prison a year ago, crime: Illegal experimentation)

Vania (12 years old, characteristic: Pretending to be the criminal’s daughter – actually his half-sister -)

‘Wow. What a combination.’

I felt suffocated.

From a well-off family’s princess to a member of a former criminals’ den! My status had plummeted vertically!

“Aha, so you were kicked out of the family. For being powerless.”

Livan, who had only just heard my story after boarding the ship, sympathized.

He was incredibly sociable.

In less than an hour after meeting him, I learned that Livan was from Rothschild in the southern part of the continent, that his unusual hairstyle was a trend in his hometown, and that he had a younger sibling he was separated from when he was young.

“All done. Cute….”

“Th, thank you.”

Livan, who had personally tied my hair into two cute pigtails, smiled.

“Hahaha!”

“Haha, hmm.”

…Ah. I’m breaking out in a cold sweat.

Skin as white as if he’d never seen sunlight. A thin body and a pretty face.  With his bobbed hair, he could pass for a girl.

This harmless-looking man, Livan, who seemed to have zero combat ability, I knew very well how terrifying he was.

‘He was famous in my previous life.’

Known more by his nickname, ‘The White Magic Engineer,’ derived from his unique white hair, than his actual name.

A former youngest professor at the Imperial Academy’s Department of Magic Engineering.

A tremendously gifted inventor.

He had created dozens of anti-personnel weapons.

In my previous life, the Vasenberk private army crumbled helplessly before those new weapons they had never seen or heard of before.

‘I wondered why the White Magic Engineer suddenly attacked our family…’

Curious, I investigated Livan as soon as I returned.

While investigating, I learned that he was from Abyss Prison like Ryan.

And after meeting him like this, my doubts were completely cleared.

‘As expected.’

He was in cahoots with Ryan from the beginning….

Furthermore, Livan.

“Phew, it’s hot. Shall we go to our cabin?”

Livan grinned at me and moved first. Ryan followed him, and I took a moment to catch my breath nervously.

Livan, unlike Ryan, who was falsely accused,

‘Is a real.’

A real criminal.

—–CROW—–