Chapter 120 : Hey, Older Brother~ (2)
Hey, Older Brother~ (2)
Following after Louis, Kelian returned home and his jaw dropped in shock.
In the short time he'd been away, something astonishing had happened.
"Older Brother! Older Brother! Please don't go anywhere anymore. Let's live here together forever!"
Normally, Rio wore an expressionless face and was always on high alert, someone whose actions you could never predict.
But now, she was clinging to Louis and acting like a child who had regressed back to infancy.
And it wasn't just Rio.
"My little brother! I missed you! Don't be apart from me anymore—let's just live here happily together with elder sister. I'll always protect you."
The same went for Silia, who was usually bold yet kind; now, she also appeared to have regressed, behaving oddly.
"What on earth is going on here?"
Kelian asked Louis, to whom the girls were clinging, but Louis was just as at a loss.
"I want to ask the same thing. They just started acting like this when I got home."
No matter how you looked at it, this was a side of them he'd never seen before.
It was impossible for them to act like this for no reason at all.
"Older Brother~"
"My little brother~"
Most of all, Louis couldn't adjust to their sudden changes.
The dissonance in their voices made it impossible. Still, Louis did not push them away.
"Doesn't this bother you at all?"
Having two girls clinging to him like glue was more than a little embarrassing.
At Kelian's question, Louis let out a sigh.
"It's not like I can push them away."
"Why not?"
"Just watch."
To demonstrate, Louis forced Rio and Silia off his shoulder. In that instant—
"Uwaaaahhh!! Older Brother!! Don't abandon me!! I'll really be good!!"
"Little brother!! Are you leaving me again? I'm sorry, elder sister is so sorry!! This time I'll really protect you, so please don't go!!"
Though they were separated from Louis only briefly, both began to wail and throw a fit, pounding the floor in desperation. Louis stood there, helpless.
"As you can see, this is what happens."
"..."
Watching all this, Kelian clutched his head as if he'd entered a state of enlightenment.
"Do you have any idea what's causing this?"
"Hmm..."
Any idea, he said. Louis was deep in thought when—
"Oh? Fruit!"
"This is so tasty!"
The two, who had been making a scene on the floor, suddenly brightened as they spotted the fruit Louis had received from a village neighbor.
Delighted by how good it tasted, they took a bite and smiled with pure bliss.
"You should try some, little brother. Once you eat this, you'll forget everything else!"
"It's so good, you'll lose your mind for life. And leader, you should try some too."
When Rio offered Kelian the fruit, he frowned.
"Did you forget yesterday's rule?"
"Rule?"
"That you're supposed to call each other by family titles, not 'leader'."
"But leader, you're not really family."
What was this nonsense?
"Then what's Louis to you?"
She was calling Louis "older brother", yet she believed it made sense to use that for him?
"Unlike you, older brother is really my family!"
"Me too! Our little brother is my one and only family!"
Rio and Silia clung to Louis again. Their unbelievable response made Kelian's mind spin.
Calling Louis family was reasonable enough, as it wasn't breaking the rule.
But weren't they hiding here disguised as family?
That meant Kelian himself ought to be addressed with a family title, if they were in their right minds.
"Then you eat some fruit too, leader."
"If you do, we'll call you 'dad'."
"This thing?"
Kelian took the fruit they had been eating. It looked quite appetizing.
Though he hadn't taken a bite yet, it was tempting.
"It doesn't have to be 'dad' specifically."
"Don't you want to be called 'older brother'?"
"..."
At her words, Kelian's eyes went sharp. To be called 'older brother'.
Like falling for a devil's temptation, Kelian brought the fruit to his mouth.
[Stop!!]
It was then.
[Don't eat that!!]
Suddenly, a slime-like shape erupted from Silia's body and smacked the fruit from Kelian's hand.
[Get rid of those things right now!!]
It knocked away the basket of fruit Louis had brought, scattering it far off.
[And you, girl! Get a grip already!!]
When the slime reabsorbed into Silia, she abruptly snapped to her senses.
"Ugh!"
She'd been smiling next to Louis, but now she jerked and fell over as if struck.
"Uuuuugh..."
She pulled herself up, glancing around in confusion.
"Ah... what have I been doing?"
As memories flooded back, her expression grew grave.
"Wait..."
She was remembering the outrageous things she'd just done.
"Ahhh..."
The moment she looked at Louis, fear washed over her as if she'd seen a ghost.
Finally, a scream loud enough to fill the entire house burst from her lips.
...
...
"So, you're saying it's because of the fruit?"
Thanks to Frederick emerging from Silia, they learned what had caused this disaster.
The reason for Rio and Silia's behavior was the fruit.
"It tasted amazing at first, and I got hooked."
Crunch!-
Silia stomped on the fruit scattered on the floor.
Her expression was the harshest Louis had ever seen on her face.
"F***... f***f***f***f***f***f***f***f***f***f***f***f***f***!!!"
Having clearly shown herself like this, of course she was mortified.
If she didn't hide herself away immediately, she felt like she'd die from embarrassment.
"Why did it have to have such a stupid effect!!"
"Elder Sister..."
"Ahhh... I can't hear anything! I can't see anything! I can't feel anything!"
Louis called out to Silia, but she stubbornly covered her ears and turned away.
Honestly, it was understandable she wanted to avoid Louis, considering what had just happened.
"Elder Sister, you don't have to be embarrassed. It's not like you wanted to act that way."
Like Louis said, Silia turned weird because of the fruit. But that didn't change the fact that it was laughable.
"Hey, Louis."
Silia finally glanced at him.
"Forget everything you just saw, got it? And you too, leader... dad, you didn't see anything either, understand?"
"Okay."
"Got it."
The aura she gave off was no joke, so both nodded quickly. Even a slip could get them torn limb from limb.
"Wait, Louis—didn't you eat the fruit too?"
Now that she thought about it, Louis also ate some of the fruit the neighbor had given them yesterday evening.
"Hehehe... Older Brother~ Let's get married later~"
Having eaten the fruit as well, Rio was still not in her right mind.
While Silia snapped out of it thanks to Frederick, Louis had no such intervention.
[Did you forget? This boy isn't human at night, but a monster.]
Frederick popped out and explained.
[This fruit only works on human minds. For someone who's half Chaos Dragon, it's useless.]
"It messes with your head?"
[You could say it's almost like brainwashing. Once you take a command from a certain person, you can't resist. As a side effect, it even brings out your innermost feelings.]
Your innermost feelings? As soon as she heard that, Silia's face went pale.
"I'll nap next to older brother... snore..."
Rio, having used Louis's legs as a pillow, fell peacefully asleep. Silia bit her lip as she spoke.
"Just to be clear... you didn't see anything today. Got it?"
"I'll remember that."
This time too, Louis obediently agreed, sensing Silia's dangerous energy.
"And why did you only break the spell now, anyway?"
[Sorry. It took a while to analyze the fruit's ingredients. In any case, the conclusion is that there's something wrong with these elves who gave you the fruit.]
No decent neighbor would give such a weird fruit as a gift.
Louis explained what information he'd gathered while exploring the village.
"I noticed there were other humans who moved into this village. They were all smiling constantly."
He added that he got the fruit from them.
The fact that everyone had the same expression gave Louis a strong sense of unease.
"I noticed something suspicious too, looking around for work."
Now Kelian shared what he'd learned during his outing.
"All the easy jobs were done by elves, while all the hard labor—dangerous construction and mining—was forced on humans, but none of them looked distressed."
Here, no one could use magic power.
In areas like healing or magitech, they were far behind the outside world.
The poor working conditions must have made things miserable. Smiling through it seemed impossible.
[That's all because of the fruit, of course. There's nothing like brainwashing to force people to do things they hate.]
Additionally, expecting an immediate payment of 50 gold upon moving in made the purpose of the place clear.
"I understand now why grandfather told us not to come here."
At last, Kelian saw the sense in his grandparent's warning.
The elf village was not a sanctuary for refugees, but a place to exploit them as slaves.
[If I hadn't been here, you'd have spent the rest of your life as regressed children, working like slaves. And without magic power, at that.]
"I'd rather we didn't talk about that regression anymore."
[Just make sure none of you touch that fruit again. What you ate was a low-purity version.]
"There are different grades of fruit?"
[Of course.]
Frederick spoke as if he knew everything. Given who he was, it was hardly surprising.
[I analyzed the fruit just now... its ingredients resemble those of the World Tree.]
"Does that mean we ate fruit from the World Tree?"
[No, probably not. It's just similar, but it's definitely related. I touched the World Tree myself, many times.]
He was a Hero who was active centuries ago. Being legendary, there was probably little he didn't know.
[It's truly strange. Even now, the World Tree should be a source of sacred power. There's no way it should produce fruit like this.]
"Oh, now that I think about it, I heard something about the World Tree when I was out."
Among the info Louis brought back, there was something about the World Tree.
[A sacred stone made by the Saint? Preserving the life of the World Tree? What kind of nonsense is that!]
Frederick's reaction was fierce, as if deeply shocked.
[Charging people 50 gold to preserve the World Tree's life? That's impossible—completely absurd!]
Frederick sounded beyond incredulous. It wasn't just because the World Tree symbolized life.
[My old comrade Mirianne should be fused with the World Tree. Just like I remained as a thoughtform under the academy, her will should reside in the tree. So it can't be used for anything impure.]
With Mirianne's presence, the World Tree had truly become a living tree. The intention was to ensure it could never be exploited in the future.
[I'll have to check it out myself.]
It was a good thing. Louis also had his own reasons for wanting to visit the World Tree.