TVRP 07

Chapter 7

I hurried over to Rossi, who I had left on top of my desk.

“I’m sorry, Rossi.”

After observing a brief moment of silence, I picked up my tools and began dismantling my beautiful Rossi.

I carefully removed the circuitry, then smashed Rossi’s outer shell repeatedly with a hammer, breaking it apart.

I made it look as though an explosion had originated from inside.

Eden watched me silently the entire time.

A few dozen minutes later.

“Ugh…….”

With a groan, Olga finally opened her eyes.

I was lying on the floor, so I quickly signaled to Eden with my eyes.

After confirming that Eden had closed his eyes, I squeezed mine shut as well, making it look as though I had been unconscious the entire time.

“Ugh, my head…….”

Groaning in pain, Olga reached up and felt her head.

A moment later, her hand suddenly stopped.

“Huh? My ha-hair……?”

Olga frantically ran her hands through her hair.

She pulled a hand mirror from her clothes, looked at her reflection, and screamed.

“Eeeek! M-My hair!”

‘Pfft.’

Thinking about the unmistakable circular bald spot on Olga’s head, I almost burst out laughing.

“What…… What on earth happened?”

Olga muttered in confusion as she desperately looked around.

She probably saw me and Eden lying unconscious, along with the remains of Rossi scattered across the middle of the room.

“This…… vulgar toy.”

Anger seeped into Olga’s voice.

“You finally went too far!”

Crunch. Crunch.

I heard Olga’s furious foot stomping on Rossi’s remains.

“What am I supposed to do about my hair?! Aaaah!”

‘I’m sorry, Rossi…….’

With my eyes still closed, I apologized to Rossi in my heart.

‘You’ll be reborn as an even cooler version.’

I had kept the circuitry separate, after all, so in a sense, Rossi’s soul was still intact.

Fortunately, Olga seemed to believe that Rossi had caused the explosion, just as I had intended.

Listening to her stomp furiously on the innocent Rossi without even considering the possibility of magic, I secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

‘I’ll definitely avenge Rossi Prototype No. 007……!’

But was it really only No. 007?

Numbers 001 through 006 had all met their deaths at Olga’s hands, too.

With the vengeance of all my previous Rossis engraved in my heart, I continued pretending to be unconscious.

The next morning.

I was sitting in the dining hall, picking at my breakfast.

Today’s menu was a salad made with fragrant herbs. Although the leaves were being crushed inside my mouth, I couldn’t taste them at all.

My mind was completely occupied with thoughts of Eden.

‘How on earth am I supposed to get him out?’

I had to get Eden out of here as soon as possible.

As long as we continued living inside the same castle, there was a limit to how long I could prevent Eden from meeting my sister.

Yesterday alone had been dangerously close.

‘If I could just smuggle him outside the territory.’

There were hardly any monsters beyond the territory, so Eden should be able to survive on his own from there.

After all, he was the male protagonist. Surely he could handle that much.

Besides, there wasn’t much more I could do to help him.

‘But the problem is, how the heck am I supposed to get outside the territory?!’

The Hero of the Empire. The Sword of the Empire. The noble and prestigious House Sergegnev.

That was how the people of the Empire praised our family.

Yet I, a member of that very family, was trapped inside Sergegnev territory.

Not metaphorically, either.

I was literally trapped.

The members of House Sergegnev were bound by a restriction that prevented them from leaving the territory until they reached adulthood.

It was probably a measure intended to prevent anyone from fleeing the succession struggle.

‘Ugh……. What should I do?’

While I was clutching my head and thinking, an irritating sound reached me from far away.

“Hraaah! Hup!”

The shouts of exertion were so loud that I could hear them all the way from the training grounds.

The knights seemed to be training even harder than usual in preparation for the Hunting Festival.

‘Wait. The Hunting Festival?’

Suddenly, everything clicked.

The Hunting Festival was the largest event in the North, and not only northern knights but also people from all over the Empire who wanted to make a name for themselves attended.

A large number of spatial transfer gates were also opened to transport them.

Dozens of them would be opened at the very least, meaning that if I chose carefully, I could probably travel to almost anywhere on the continent.

‘Hmm……?’

If things went well, I might be able to use that opportunity to help Eden escape.

It was while I was absorbed in this promising idea that I heard a mocking voice.

“What’s this?”

Startled, I raised my head.

A familiar face came into view.

Brilliant silver hair and clear sky-blue eyes like glass. A handsome face so perfectly formed that he looked as though he had stepped straight out of a masterpiece.

This boy, who had inherited the distinctive features of House Sergegnev in their entirety, was my second older brother, Lawrence.

‘Damn it! My luck really is terrible.’

Of all times, I had to run into him now!

“Blockhead. Aren’t you going to answer?”

I didn’t even want to respond, so I turned my back on him.

An unmistakable mocking laugh came from behind me.

“You’re still as rude as ever. Are you turning your ugly face away out of consideration for me?”

“Just go away.”

“I was actually planning to come find you anyway, so this works out.”

I heard Lawrence sit down heavily across from me.

“I heard you tried to torment Sister again.”

“……No.”

“What do you mean, no? I heard you climbed a tree to pour cold water on Sister. Then you stupidly fell, and somehow got away without even being punished.”

There wasn’t even the slightest hint of concern for the fact that I had fallen from the tree and been bedridden for three days because I had “stupidly fallen.”

‘If this had happened before, I probably would have thrown the utensils by now and started yelling.’

I would have shouted that he only cared about Eloise, that nothing had happened to her, and that I was the one who had nearly died.

I would have asked why he couldn’t spare even a single word of concern for me.

And whether he had ever visited me when I was sick.

‘Sigh. Forget it.’

I was done with all of that now.

A hospital visit? As if.

Lawrence and I were already at a point where it was difficult to call ourselves siblings.

We treated each other like strangers, and whenever we happened to speak, it usually consisted of harsh words like this.

Besides, the incident where I had tried to pour cold water on Eloise had undeniably been my fault.

“Last time, I’m pretty sure I gave you a final warning.”

Lawrence spoke in an irritated voice, with a hint of contempt mixed in.

“I told you that if you kept tormenting Sister like that, I would no longer consider you family.”

I wanted to ask whether he had actually considered me family until now.

But I knew.

I knew that Lawrence had at least regarded me as family in the smallest possible sense until then.

To the Sergegnev siblings, anything that wasn’t family was no different from a bug or blade of grass by the roadside.

Something they could simply crush underfoot if it got in their way.

I sighed.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

“……What?”

Lawrence frowned.

I continued in a resigned voice.

“I did something I shouldn’t have done to Sister. She has weak lungs, so getting hit with cold water could have caused her lung disease to flare up.”

“…….”

“It was a horrible thing to do. I regret it. I apologized to Sister yesterday, too.”

Lawrence stared at me as though he were looking at something strange.

“What kind of new strategy is this?”

“It’s not a strategy. I genuinely regret what I did.”

“Hah. You? The blockhead actually regrets something? You expect me to believe that?”

He openly sneered.

It would probably take an incredibly long time to convince him that I was sincere.

And even then, there was a good chance he wouldn’t believe me.

I sighed again.

I was too exhausted to deal with Lawrence while my mind was already occupied with the problem of Eden.

I answered without much enthusiasm.

“Believe me or don’t. I don’t care.”

In the past, I probably would have thrown a fit because I was offended that he refused to believe I was sincere.

But now, I genuinely didn’t care whether anyone believed me or not.

The only thing that mattered was that Eloise understood that I was sincere.

Someone like Lawrence didn’t matter to me.

“I’m not going to torment Sister anymore. If anything, I’m going to protect her.”

My sister had cried for me despite everything I had done to her.

For all the times I had tormented her, I would repay her.

No.

I would repay her ten times over.

“…….”

Lawrence was speechless for a while.

After a moment, he narrowed his eyes, his expression a mixture of confusion and suspicion.

“Hey. You…….”

At that moment, the head butler entered the dining hall.

“Young Master Lawrence, Young Lady Lilyan. The head of the family has returned just now.”

“What?! Father?”

“He left only yesterday. He’s already back?”

I shot to my feet.

Lawrence looked equally startled.

Father spent far more time on the battlefield than in the castle.

It was extremely unusual for him to return immediately after leaving the castle.

“Yes. It is thanks to him exterminating the Dead Dragon that had been attacking the border region in less than a day.”

There was unmistakable awe in the head butler’s eyes as he spoke.

‘Speaking of which, a Dead Dragon?’

To hunt down a calamity classified as a Special S-rank among monsters in a single day…… As expected, Father was a monster beyond all common sense.

“A Dead Dragon? Is that really true?”

Lawrence asked with a hardened expression.

“He is currently returning with its corpse. Please see for yourself.”

When we went outside the main residence, I saw that many knights had already poured out to welcome Father’s return.

Father was riding a jet-black warhorse, his body covered in blue blood.

The unmistakable traces of slaughter were still visible on him, and the knights’ expressions were filled half with respect and half with fear.