Is Brother Being Kept?

"This is..."

Vera stared at the check on the table in surprise, quickly picking it up and examining it under the warm glow of the kerosene lamp.

"One hundred thousand pounds! One hundred thousand Empire Livres!?"

Vera's deep blue eyes widened, and her mouth formed a perfect little circle. Her shocked expression was incredibly adorable.

"Big brother? Did you rob a bank?"

"Or did you steal money from the school??"

The more Vera thought about it, the more frightened she became. How could her broke older brother suddenly have so much money? Her imagination began to run wild. There were so many wealthy nobles and elite children at the Benalu Royal Academy... Ansu hadn't done something bad at school, had he?

Ansu gave her a helpless look.

It was no wonder Vera was so shocked. Due to the financial hegemony of the Empire, the Empire Livres were anchored to gold, making the currency's value very high.

His annual tuition at the Royal Academy was only thirty thousand pounds, and they could only afford it after selling their original house. This check was almost enough to pay for another three years of schooling, right up until graduation...

"What are you thinking?" Ansu poked Vera's forehead. "This money wasn't stolen. It was earned by your big brother."

Earned with my life...

After all, if Ansu made even a slight mistake and angered Celia, he would be transformed into a new toy.

"Earned?" Vera's face was still full of suspicion. She leaned in close to Ansu and whispered nervously, "What kind of job earns this much money? Why don't you introduce me to it too?"

"I'd rather not..." Ansu certainly didn't want them to become a pair of toy siblings. He could only explain vaguely, "This job is a bit special and carries some risk, but don't worry, it's not life-threatening. Anyway... my new employer is very generous. You won't have to worry about the family's financial situation for a while."

"This employer of yours..." Vera frowned, suddenly asking sharply, "Is it a man or a woman?"

"A woman," Ansu replied.

Vera gave Ansu a suspicious look, and the more she thought about it, the more something felt off.

Ansu had been coming home late these past two days, his employer was a woman, and this female employer had even been generous enough to give him one hundred thousand pounds all at once...

"Big brother!" Vera said in disbelief. "You haven't really... been taken in as a kept man, have you??"

Ansu, who had just finished eating and was drinking water, suddenly spat it all out.

"Of course not!" He immediately explained with an air of righteous indignation. "Where is your head? This is a respectable job, and my boss is a respectable person. The organization behind her is massive..."

Massive enough to be called the number one cult on the continent, a future world-ending group alongside the returning demon army...

"I'm still a little uneasy..."

Vera sighed softly. She knew she couldn't easily change Ansu's mind, so she finally made a tactful suggestion. "Big brother, I want to meet your female employer. Is that okay?"

"Absolutely not!" Ansu felt a surge of panic. Letting his sister meet Celia? He would have to be insane to do that.

"Oh..." Vera's face fell, but she eventually nodded.

"Fine then..."

...

The next three days passed without incident. Ansu went to school during the day and returned home at night to study magic.

【Meditation】, 【Mage's Hand】, and 【Illumination】—these three basic spells were all unlocked. Furthermore, he discovered that the latter two could be leveled up.

【Mage's Hand Lv1 (Lv2: 15/100)】

Although it was only a basic 0-circle spell, based on Ansu's gaming experience, basic magic could be quite powerful if mastered to the limit.

Ansu couldn't help but think about the world of 《Sword of Evernight》. In this era of magical decline, humans capable of learning magic were quite rare. Even if he only knew a few tricks, he could be considered a legitimate transcendent.

Of course, the Church's suppression of magic played a part, but the root cause was the cataclysmic demon disaster a thousand years ago. Most types of magic had been contaminated, leading to a devastating blow to the entire magical system, to the point where it was gradually dying out.

If he wanted to learn more powerful magic, the Echoes of Truth cult, which claimed to inherit knowledge from the Ancient Magic Empire, was a shortcut. Ansu planned to wait until he saw Celia again to see if he could snag another magic book.

"Big brother... are you studying that heretical tome on general knowledge again?"

Vera placed a cup of brewed black tea on Ansu's desk and sat beside him, resting her chin on her hand as she watched her brother, who seemed possessed by his studies.

Her brother had really been acting strange lately.

For the past few days, he had been so focused he forgot to eat or drink, just staring at that old book in a daze.

Moreover, the content of that book worried her. It was full of heretical fallacies forbidden by the Church. If word got out, the Inquisition of Heresy might come to arrest him...

"It's not a heretical tome. It's just a work on mysticism by an ancient scholar."

Ansu closed the book. Studying magic was truly exhausting, so he decided to take a break.

He looked up at his sister, who was staring blankly along with him.

It was the weekend, and Vera was supposed to be working at the newspaper office. However, he had taken her there yesterday to resign, so she finally had some rare free time.

"Big brother, why don't you come shopping with me today?"

Vera remembered they hadn't gone out together in quite a while.

"Sure." Ansu glanced at Vera's simple little dress and thought it was time to buy her some beautiful clothes. Girls her age usually loved to look pretty.

"Great!" Vera gave a happy smile, her eyes curving into beautiful crescent moons.

However, just as the siblings were about to head out, a gentle knock sounded at the door.

Vera frowned. "Who would be knocking at this hour? It better not be that neighbor again..."

She got up to open the door.

Standing before her was a tall, elegantly dressed young woman.

The midday sunlight spilled in. Vera blinked in surprise as she looked at this stranger.

She's so beautiful!

Ansu, however, stood up nervously. "Wi—er... Ms. Celia? What are you doing here?"

Dressed like a refined lady and wearing a sun hat, Celia glanced at Ansu in the living room. "What? Am I not allowed to come find you?"

"Of course not, of course not..." Ansu hurriedly invited her in and asked his sister to brew another pot of tea.

"It's just so sudden." Ansu looked at Celia, who had unexpectedly come to visit, wondering what she was here for. Did it have something to do with the mission to find the Chosen One?

"Hmm? Sudden?"

Celia sat on the sofa chair in Ansu's home, her gaze casually sweeping over the surroundings. "Didn't you tell me to knock? It's better than me suddenly appearing in your room..."

Ansu coughed twice, quickly interrupting her.

"Big brother?" Vera looked back and forth between the two, who seemed quite familiar with each other.

Finally, she fixed a suspicious gaze on Ansu, her tone becoming somewhat sullen.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to this young lady?"