Siblings Reincarnate as Enemies

Chapter 103 — In which families are complicated (1)

Just before Vern’s coming-of-age ceremony started, the door to the surveillance room opened and two twin women entered.

They had somewhat awkward smiles at their lips and were avoiding each other gazes, but that was quickly replaced by cheesy smirks and sharp gazes the moment they spotted their younger brother.

That was because their little brother crossed his arms and was staring at the screens as if they severely insulted him.

“Hiii, Cups~!”

“We’re back! How are you? Did you miss us?”

“It hasn’t been even half an hour.”

“Oh dear fires, Ram, I think he missed us so much, he was counting seconds.”

In answer to Durio’s exclamation, Rambeta tried to pat Cuprit on the head, but he just turned his head away in annoyance.

He was still glaring on the screens though.

The two sisters exchanged looks and then sit down at both sides of Cuprit.

“Hey, did anything happen when we were gone? Anyone visited?”

“No-man visited.”

“No man visited? Then was it a woman?”

“I wish it was a woman.”

The two raised eyebrows, and then Rambeta helpfully suggested:

“A person neither male nor female?”

Cuprit was about to scorn, but he suddenly frowned and fell into thoughts for a moment.

“Do you have a gender if you don’t exist?”

“Well, according to one of those curious Purplus’ philosophy books older brother has, the gender is merely a performance put on to communicate with other people…”

Before Durio could finish, Cuprit cut her off by absent-mildly changing his question.

“Can you put on a performance if you don’t exist?”

“That seems a bit contradictory. The performance necessities the existence of spectator and spectator necessitates the existence of perceivable object… But what do I know. Duri, is there anything about it in those books you stole from big brother?”

“No, not among those I have.”

“Oh, so you do admit you stole his secret book collection.”

“Now, remind me, who robbed his laboratory last week?”

“He told me I can take whatever I want.”

“He was referring to his old laboratory equipment, which he no longer us-”

“Okay, stop arguing. The ceremony is starting.”

Cuprit raised both of his hands, so the two sisters couldn’t look at each other and then motioned with his chin towards the main screen, which reflected the main hall.

On the screen, Vern approached the tree with a torch handed to him by Scarlen.

“Whoa…!”

All three exclaimed in admiration when the fire rain poured down and consumed the tree.

Durio pretended to tear up and wipe her tears.

“Ah, so beautiful, so graceful. When our Cups had his coming-of-age ceremony, he incidentally put on fire another tree and started to ran around in panic. We had to call all neighbors to put it out.”

“We didn’t actually need to call them, there was so much smoke they rushed without even hearing our shouts… Still, it's good that we didn’t follow the rule of abandoning Cups on his big day.”

“Sometimes I don’t know if you’re my real sisters or demons sent down to torture me.”

“What stupid thoughts you have, our oh so dear brother.”

“You aren’t helping your case, you oh so dear sister.”

While Rambeta tried to ruff Cuprit’s hair, Durio asked a bit confused.

“But isn’t Young Master burning it down a bit too quickly? I thought usually the ceremony takes at least half an hour, and while the tree is burning, the guests supposed to give their blessing to newly fledged adult.”

“Perhaps Young Master hates to receive blessings from those wicked guilds? We all know all their honey words are rotten.”

“Does that matter to Young Master? Old Boss would be handling all of it on his behalf, after setting the tree on fire, he could just retreat.”

“Maybe he is showing off.”

“He is certainly showing off.”

Cuprit pointed at the dumbstruck faces of the mages on the screen.

Just as the last pieces of the tree fell into the boiling water at Vern’s feet, Cuprit, who was glancing at other screens, caught a glimpse of something.

“What the hell?”

“Huh? What is it, Cups?”

The two sisters followed his gaze.

They found someone in the outfit typical of Flavun fashion jumping out of the teleportation circle and rushing towards the main hall.

Their face was pale and beads of sweat ran down their face.

“I have a bad feeling about it.”

Durio looked at the sudden visitor with a dark expression.

*-*-*

‘Fire Rain, huh?’

Saffra smirked, as the grand applause, she started, was slowly subsiding.

‘That’s an excellent political move. There were rumors that Lesser Lord Mage is sickly and in-adept in magic, some even predicted that Lord Archmage may hold a closed coming-of-age ceremony for the sake of his weak little brother… But that supposed weak little brother is now easily pulling off a spell that even great masters struggle with? That must be a hoax, right? Or is it real? Was Lesser Lord Mage hiding his power all along? After the ‘Crow’ fraud, the gilds will be dealt another blow. Everyone will try to find out more about Lesser Lord Mage to judge his level of threat… Ah, but didn’t think of any of it, did you, Ver? You just really hate parties.’

Saffra’s smile grew even more wicked when she recalled Ver’s miserable expression every time she or Am dragged him to a party, and he had to listen everyone’s flatteries and compliments.

And how Ver’s cute little disciples came to rescue him, only to be caught in the storm of praises themselves.

… She enjoyed those times.

In the past.

As Saffra tried to shift her mindset and fully enjoy her older brother finally having his own coming-of-age ceremony, someone rushed past her row, to the very front where Mimosa and Orche were sited.

‘A messenger?’

Recognizing the characteristic hat of the messenger on their head, Saffra was filled with bad feeling.

She stood up and using the back aisle to not disturb anyone, who was still regaining their senses, and approached Mimosa and Orche.

She saw how messenger whispered something and how the faces of the two rulers’ candidates and the subordinates around turned pale.

She saw Orche jump up and grab the messenger by the collar, asking something quietly with wild look.

She saw Mimosa get up to stop him, but even her, usually perfectly calm face, seemed to be cracking somehow.

When Saffra approached, she noticed through Mimosa’s dark glasses, that her eyes were shaking.

“What’s going on?”

Mimosa came closer to Saffra and held her arm, it was hard to say if it was to support Saffra in case of the shock she was about to experience, or to support herself.

Mimosa hesitated for a moment, licked her lips and then leaned towards Saffra to whisper with a voice as calm as she could muster.

“Father is in critical condition… He may die at any moment… No. He might already be dead.”

*-*-*