"Damn~ you really have grown balls of steel since I last saw you."
As usual, my sister Vanessa was as vulgar as ever.
She stood at the exit of the recovery room, clad in obsidian armor with a crimson cape swaying alongside her platinum hair.
With her elven-shaped ears and glowing blue eyes, she gave off the presence of a Valkyrie.
One who had seen countless battles — and she was almost one.
Like my father had once told me, each of us siblings had a role.
Abel was to lead the family and keep our title as Duke stable.
I was to protect Alice with my life.
I didn't know what role Father had left for Alice but for Vanessa I knew.
She was to serve at the Frontline in the northern region and face the demons that threatened to trespass onto our continent.
She was delegated that role at age 15, it's been two years since then.
Of the twelve months of the calendar she was only allowed a few days each year.
Eitherway her arrival from there was supposed to be somewhere this week, but it seemed news of my injury had reached her, and in just three days she had crossed cities just to see me.
"How you doing, little bro?"
Loosening her armor and letting it fall off her body, she remained in a light tunic while the maids rushed in to clean after her.
Shocked but still finding her presence welcoming, I smiled slightly and responded.
"I'm better, sis."
My voice was energetic yet strained as I tried imitating how the usual ten-year-old spoke.
She held her chest in relief after my confession before stepping into the room.
Rita bowed and offered to leave. Vanessa didn't stop her and made her way to the side of my bed.
Once Rita left, she grabbed me by the hair and gave me a swift and painful knock.
"Ouch!" I screamed in pain, grabbing my throbbing skull.
She smiled wildly and followed with an embrace.
"Don't ever make me this worried ever again."
Her words were a warning but her tone was full of worry.
While Alice and I were an expressive bunch, my older siblings weren't so much.
They were born and molded from high expectations, meaning from a young age, they had to strip away a few of the things that made them human.
Such was the burden of being an early child.
Maybe if I had been graded with a mid potential, I might have been groomed to become like them, but luckily I escaped that fate — but for how long?
"I won't," I muttered.
She pulled away after that, before narrowing her blue eyes at me.
The way her eyes traced over my body was like a mechanic searching through a vehicle for broken parts, but she wasn't done as she traced her finger across my bandaged limbs.
I flinched in pain under her touch but offered no resistance.
"Open your mouth!"
As she instructed, I covered my mouth and followed in a murmur, "Haven't brushed yet..."
"I said open up."
She offered no room for denial and I could only slouch my shoulders and do as she said.
She then grabbed my jaw and began peeking through my teeth.
"You've lost a tooth," she remarked, and I couldn't help but remember what devious antics I had used that tooth for.
"It was punched out by the assassins," I tried spinning a story but...
"It was indeed knocked out, but judging by the level of fractures that remain at the position of said tooth, I can conclude it wasn't by the assassin but by you, after exerting enough force to do so."
"...."
"I went after the bodies while you were asleep, and from the shape of the gum and cross-referencing it with one of the holes at the back of the assassin's head, I knew you used it as a projectile. Perhaps you were caught underneath him, weapons raised, and just as he was about to end your life, you caught him off guard with that."
I couldn't deny her claim because that was exactly what had happened. I had to commend my sister's insight — she would make a good detective if she wanted.
Vanessa tilted her head at my silence, strands of her platinum hair falling across her cheeks.
"Both Rita and Alice told me you committed that slaughter and yet I didn't believe them. Now I'm sure. That look in your eyes... You're clearly trying to hide it, but I know a killer when I see one."
Being called a killer definitely hurt more than it had any right to, but there was no use denying it. I did just as she said.
I slaughtered, butchered, and killed so I could protect my sister.
I was proud of it and would do so without regret if faced with that situation again.
"Good!" She grinned viciously, seeing the resolve I was trying to convey.
"Don't justify it, embrace it — but also don't be controlled by it."
As she proclaimed, she leaned closer, so close I could smell the steel that once lingered across her skin.
She then lowered her voice and nudged at my heart.
"You did good," she said, smiling.
I turned my face away, burning with embarrassment at her sudden shift in behavior.
"I could have done better, sis. If I wasn't so fragile, I wouldn't be laying in bed by now."
Right now, strengthening my base was the starting point to attain more power, and yet I could only do that via cultivation.
But good luck cultivating when your whole body, inside and out, felt like it was being pricked by needles nonstop.
Seeing me sulk, Vanessa burst into laughter, that echoed against the wall.
"Yes, you are indeed fragile."
She didn't try to sugarcoat it.
That wasn't what a proper sibling should do now of all times.
"So what?"
I blinked, only for her to continue.
"My little brother is a weak little brat. Yeah, so what?"
"Weren't you the same one that singlehandedly wiped out a whole room of trained assassins?"
"I did?" I responded proudly.
"Then whatever strength you had used back then, use again, and again, and again, till you no longer feel fragile."
After saying all of that, she turned to the fluttering curtains and flashed a wicked grin.
"Then maybe finally you would graduate from being my punching bag."
"I never was... arghhhh."
My words were sealed as I was drowned in a crushing embrace.