Chapter 05: Secret talk

A luxurious, magical airship was flying through the beautiful blue skies of the kingdom of Asvan, a beautiful woman who looked no more than 30 years old was sitting with a dignified expression in one of the rooms of the flying airship. Her voluptuous body was squeezed by her black dress that matched her black hair and red eyes. Although she had a calm expression on the outside, inside, she was worried. Her cause for concern was her children. She was Lilia Edevane; although she spent a lot of time outside due to her work, she was no stranger to her family's problems.

Her children, more precisely Nathaniel, had problematic behavior, and it was getting worse and worse. She knew it; however, she did nothing. She blamed herself for their behavior, thinking she was not a good mother. Since her husband died a few years ago, she had been busy and had not had as much time to spend with her children, which grieved her deeply.

She had thought of ways to fix his behavior but couldn't come up with anything non-violent, and she didn't want her children to hate her, so she dismissed her thoughts. One day, an idea came to her while she was in the kingdom's capital attending to some urgent business.

Being one of the three most powerful families in the kingdom of Asvan, the Edevane family had enough power even to turn minor nobles who were not in the line of succession into retainers, and that is exactly what occurred to her when a messenger handed her a letter from one coming from a semi-baron. She was going to dismiss the letter immediately; she had more important things to do than to see a letter from a person of such low status. However, the name written on the letter was of interest to her. It came from the wife of her husband's friend, who died along with him in combat.

The letter basically stated that she did not have that long to live due to illness, and her only daughter was not yet of marriageable age, so the house 'Galford' was going to cease to exist, but she feared for her daughter's welfare, so she called in a favor to house Edevane.

At first, Lilia felt sad; even though she had not known her very well, she still considered her a friend. So she answered in the affirmative so that she could rest in peace with the goddesses. And now, she was fulfilling her promise. In front of Lilia, a ten-year-old girl with blonde hair and perfect features looked at the ground sadly with her crystal blue eyes. She was Aria, former daughter of the now non-existent house of Galford.

Lilia was a kind woman, and her heart twisted at the thought of the poor girl's circumstances. She had seen her children's reaction when she informed them about the death of her husband. She could not imagine the impact that the death of both parents had on the girl's heart.

Since she could not adopt her in terms of dignity in noble society, she decided to make her son's personal maid. The first reason was that they were of similar ages, and the second was that she had a small hope that Nathaniel would improve his behavior by having a friend to play with or talk to.

With that in mind, she tries to talk to the girl.

"We are almost there, our house will give you a warm welcome."

The girl looked up, trying to recompose her expression and return the kindness.

"Thank you very much, Lady Lilia" She said with a practiced smile, however, deep down, she was nervous.

She was a noble just a few days ago, and she was no stranger to the rumors that circulated about 'the diabolical siblings' that was how they called the Edevane sibling duo, in secret obviously, after all, no one wants to suffer the wrath of a marquis. She was afraid, but she had no other choice. She just prayed that the rumors were only rumors and would not stick to reality.

(***)

Nathaniel POV:

Stretching out on the bed, I yawned noisily as my little sister continued to sleep with her back to me, mumbling in her dreams. Because I ordered no one to disturb us, no maid came to wake us, the sun in the window indicating that it was past noon. As I thought about how to face the day, I quickly realized something, I did not know how this boy acted before taking his place, and if my change of attitude were too abrupt, it would be seriously suspicious.

'System is there any way to recover the memories of these children?'

[Children's minds are at their maximum capacity with only their memories and the language of this world].

'So that's why I can speak fluently here despite the language barrier' I nodded to myself 'Couldn't we erase unnecessary memories and acquire those of the children?'

[Possible host 1]

I kept thinking for a few moments, but I shook my head. Memories make us who we are; without memories, we would be practically another person. I knew my sister wouldn't want to erase years of memories to acquire new ones. Even though there were events we both would like to erase from our past lives, it was better to keep them to avoid making silly mistakes, like trusting someone else besides us.

After coming out of my thoughts I shook my sister, there were some things to talk about.

"Five more minutes, big brother."

"Get up, there are important things to discuss" I said, shaking her harder and harder to the point where a creaking sound came from the bed.

"Uggh, what's wrong big brother?" she stammered confused when she saw my face, then nodded as if she understood. "It wasn't a dream" She finally said.

"No, it wasn't a dream" I shook my head giving her a smile.

"Well, what's the important thing you want to talk about." She said. Charlotte had already gone into discussion mode, and it was time to plan some things.

(Do you know how these kids acted in the game? Abruptly changing their personality will be strange. In the book, they just say their behavior was twisted as children, nothing more) I spoke through telepathy; I didn't know who might be listening after all.

"You're right" She put her finger to her chin and after a while nodded.

(It's not mentioned much in the game, but they were known to be troublemakers. So we can infer that acting childish is enough, I guess. We can stop with the pranks, that won't get us affection points, we have to take advantage of our tenderness to farming as much as possible) She replied by telepathy.

(As expected from a gamer, I agree) I said nodding my head. But I got lost in my thoughts again.

'How could I conquer the heroines? Should I make a book with the plot and ideas I could use? ' As I was thinking, my sister interrupted my thoughts with her voice.

(Big brother don't you remember what I said yesterday? We are in this together, you can't do everything by yourself) She said, but I just gave her a complicated look.

(If you are always protecting me, who will protect you?) Charlotte formulated, but I gave her a serious look.

(I can take care of myself)

(That was in our previous world where there were no beings capable of wiping out a city in one attack) My little sister insisted. For now, I'll play along.

(You win. Are there any heroines around? In the book, there is only one that I remember, but I'm not sure when she will come) Ask, this was important. It was our main source of income.

(There are... 3 heroines if nothing has changed with respect to the game) She affirmed, but her expression became strange.

(What's going on?) I asked, confused, although I was surprised that there were so many. This was an eroge game; if you see a pretty girl with an attractive figure is almost 100% sure to be a heroine.

(I'll tell you who they are, one is your shadow servant, Novem, another is your personal maid who will be arriving soon and lastly...it's our mother) She said, grimacing, and I was surprised. What about our father? But quickly connected the dots.

'Eroge game' I said to myself, determined not to be surprised by the lucky coincidences anymore.

(I think we should forget about our mother, for now, I am sure she will not be interested in children, even more if it is her son, we should concentrate on Novem and the main heroine who is Aria, your personal maid and someone with a cold personality, very difficult to conquer) My sister reported, but I could not help but find a gap in her information.

(However, that information is several years in the future, we can't jump to hasty conclusions until we see her with our own eyes) I said.

Aria was a cold heroine with the Sacred Knight lineage, which gives her a high level of proficiency in sword and holy magic. She was cold but very beautiful. However, the events that led that girl to close her heart completely are unknown to me.

(You're right, I think we're the reason she became a cold heroine in the first place) Charlotte mused, nodding her head.

That made sense, if she was the original Nathaniel's personal maid, she could have suffered bullying for quite some time until she awakened her lineage.

(Well, if she's not a cold heroine yet we could find a way to conquer her, your ability 'as an open book' will be very useful) I nodded, that was the only thing I could think of at the moment, the heroine Novem was still waiting for a plan of conquest, after all in the book she dies and I have no idea how she is in the game, as for our mother... well, to say that her difficulty was absurd would be an understatement, she was my mother for god's sake.

"Let's go have breakfast, I'm excited to try the delicacies a marquis family has to offer" Said my little sister cutting the telepathy connection. She let out a small childish giggle. It seemed like she was already getting into character.

I closed my eyes and then opened them, trying to erase my age-inappropriate look.

"Okay!" I shouted smiling as innocently as I could.