"Brother, I missed you so, so much."
“...”
Richard hugged Vania with trembling arms.
It felt like going back to the past.
Back to his childhood, when he was simply happy with his beloved siblings.
Nanny Emma, butler Ralph, Christa, Vania, and Alex. The younger siblings' birthdays that used to come whenever it snowed. Beautiful Windsor Castle...
He once again pulled Vania away from his embrace and took in her face.
Fortunately, his younger sister, who grew up beautifully, seemed to have grown up completely innocent without experiencing much hardship.
Richard wiped the corners of Vania's eyes, which had become covered in tears, and stroked her cheek with a trembling hand.
"Have you... been doing well?"
“Yeah. As for my brother...”
Vania stopped speaking and closed her eyes. Like a child who couldn't hold back their tears, tears flowed down like a waterfall once again.
“...I, I don’t think you’ve been doing well.”
"No."
Richard was crying as he said that. Even at the trivial remark that he didn't feel like he had been doing well, the time he had spent until now felt like nothing.
Because of the fact that his past self, which he can no longer clearly remember, still remains with Vania.
"Vania."
Richard took Vania's hand as she wiped away his tears and spoke with strength in his voice.
He had to put off the feelings of the reunion for a moment.
Because he is an older brother.
Having to protect younger siblings who know nothing, and being prepared to make sacrifices if necessary.
That kind of older brother.
"I have something to tell you. I don't have time, so I can't repeat it many times. You have to listen carefully."
"Brother."
Vania shook her head.
"I know what you're trying to say."
"What?"
“I already know everything. You don’t need to worry about Alex and me. We have no intention of returning to the family, and there are ways to avoid doing so. We’ll take care of that, so don’t worry.”
Richard was surprised by Vania, who spoke as if she had been waiting for this moment.
She said the opposite to the surprised Richard.
"And, you don't have much time, do you? Then I'll be the only one to speak. Please listen carefully to what I'm about to say."
***
With trembling hands, Christa pried open the stiff beak of the bird with its wings spread. She folded a palm-sized note and stuffed it inside.
A bird that hasn't died. It was just anesthetized.
This is the method she always uses when secretly sending news to her brother Richard in Bunsen.
Even while performing an action that she had become all too accustomed to, she continued to tremble.
'Alex... No, please...'
Because at this very moment, she has never been this terrified in her life.
***
Nike got up.
Quite some time has already passed since Vania and Richard got into the carriage.
He had endured until now, feeling as if his nerves were being gnawed away at him moment by moment.
Nike, who neither knew nor had ever met Richard, could not absolutely trust him.
Keeping the two people out of his sight for such a long time is also a way of handling things that the original Nike Valencier would never have imagined.
He just gave in to Vania's stubbornness.
Anyway, the time came when he had assured Vania beforehand that he could not wait any longer, and Nike walked toward the carriage carrying the two of them.
Assuming the worst-case scenario.
'The supernatural ability of bondage.'
To be honest, Richard was a much tougher opponent for Nike than the renowned offensive ability users in Wassenberg.
The moment you are bound, there is nothing you can do but rewind time.
Even if he tries again after the regression, unless Richard has gone blind, he’ll end up getting stuck before he can even get close.
'I must be crazy.'
As he got closer to the carriage, Nike regretted her judgment in leaving the two together, trusting only Vania's words.
Just in case, by any chance, when the door of that carriage is opened.
He felt like he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if even one of the hundreds of imaginable worst-case scenarios had already happened.
Nike reached the carriage and was about to enter.
“...”
“...”
The door opened first from the inside.
The moment he made eye contact with Richard.
The Shackles of Bondage
Nike was bound.
A state where the whole body stiffens, and one cannot even open the mouth.
'...As expected, you’re ridiculously picky.'
I'm thinking...
Richard spoke to Vania behind him and jumped out of the carriage.
At the same time, a swift movement to draw a jackknife from the back of the waist.
Nike was aware of all of Richard's actions attempting to attack him, but.
“Brother!”
He did not respond.
Richard's knife barely stopped at a precarious distance, 3cm before it touched Nike's neck.
This is because Vania, who had rushed over in a panic, hugged Richard from behind and clung to him.
“W-what are you doing? You aren't trying to kill someone, are you?”
“He’s skilled. I didn’t sense his presence at all.”
“How do you even feel something like that!”
Nike thought that with this, he would be able to sense the presence of sloppy guys.
A judgment that wastes no time in a split second. A swift movement targeting the vital point, the carotid artery, precisely.
Richard has likely had the experience of taking someone's life.
Vania said that her brother, who had claimed he couldn't even catch a single bug, certainly seemed to have undergone a change of heart.
"Do you know him?"
"Yes."
Richard nodded, flicked the knife in his hand, and tucked it back into his waistband.
Vania was shocked again upon seeing the familiar series of actions.
“Where on earth did you learn something like this...”
“Just one escort?”
“Escort? Ah.”
Vania glanced at Nike.
She seemed to hesitate for a moment, then nodded.
“Yeah. Then shall we come hanging all over the place, spreading the word all over the neighborhood?”
"You have to do that."
Richard let out a deep sigh and gently covered Vania with his robe.
Soon, the brother and sister chatter away while looking at each other with affectionate expressions.
At that sight, Nike let go of some of his tension.
And then he thought.
'Bondage.'
It seemed like Richard had forgotten.
'Let me go...'
***
Wassenberg territory.
It was the Wassenberg estate, located right next to the capital, and the place where the main castle and the supernatural ability research institute were located.
Christa arrived at the training ground.
Training her supernatural abilities. This was her daily routine, which she hadn't missed a single day for the past few years.
Always the same schedule.
Always the same number of people.
Accompanied by guards acting like watchers and maids, Christa gazed at the scenery of the training grounds as always.
The True Storm
Wheeoooo-
A biting wind swept through the vast training ground, consisting of low mountains, forests, and open spaces.
Birds flying through the air, small insects breathing in the mountains and forests, and all kinds of organisms rose into the void. Stones and pieces of wood, green plants helplessly uprooted, and the entire landscape that made up the terrain were distorted at once before the wind.
In this unremarkable landscape.
One of Christa's messenger birds is mixed in, unnoticed by anyone.
The bird, hardened in the form of outstretched wings, holds a secret in its mouth, and even though it cannot fly, it will head toward its destination under the control of Christa's power.
The True Storm
- The power to control the wind at will
Grade: Top Grade
...
- Growth Stage 2: Moves the target along the desired flow, limited to destinations (wind paths) perceived by the holder.
This, too, was the way Christa had communicated with her older brother Richard, just as always.
She, who may never be able to escape the shackles of her family, sought out and has been doing so until now to evade dozens of eyes and ears...
The True Storm
Suddenly, the wind stopped.
Everything that had been swirling in the storm plummeted to the ground.
Christa's messenger bird, unable to flap its wings on its own, also fell nearby.
Christa held her breath.
The supernatural power that had filled her entire body vanished without a trace in a single moment.
In an instant.
She became an extremely helpless, ordinary, and average human being.
She knows why things turned out this way.
Neutralization.
It is her father's special ability.
"Daughter."
A familiar voice came from behind her, piercing the silence filled with suffocating tension.
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