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Chapter 01
To Kairos, his older sister Nadiana was a calm and gentle person.
She was someone who made him feel at peace when he was with her—unlike him, she was stable and had a strong inner core.
When dealing with others, even family, she never lost her politeness, yet she kept the atmosphere from becoming too heavy, speaking in a quiet, steady voice. She was a warm person who didn’t hesitate to express gratitude to others and maintained harmonious relationships with everyone, regardless of who they were.
Though there was only a two-year age difference, Nadiana’s presence sometimes seemed far greater than that.
Both when he was young and now, it remained the same.
She was like a vast, silent forest, or an old tree with deep roots that wouldn’t waver even in a typhoon.
To Kairos, Nadiana was the family he could rely on more than anyone else in the world, and the only friend he could open his heart to.
“Sister, happy birthday.”
“Thank you, Kairos.”
Nadiana, celebrating her eighteenth birthday, stood there today as well with her usual gentle smile.
Kairos already felt a slight sense of regret that Nadiana was about to come of age. Once she became an adult, she would likely marry before long, and they wouldn’t be able to spend as much time together as they did now.
Still, he thought they could still meet often and spend time together, so he pushed the feeling down. Even if she married, even if she had children, Nadiana would always be his sister. Just as it had been before, he believed that would never change.
But then…..
“Kyaaaa!”
“Ru—run! It’s a monster!”
What on earth is this situation…?
“Sh—she wouldn’t answer when I called… I saw her sitting on the floor doing something, and she was dr—drawing a strange pattern with blood… And then suddenly, monsters appeared…!”
His sister, who he thought had just gone to rest—why, how?
“Sister…?”
“……”
When he first heard the maid’s words, Kairos didn’t believe it.
He thought the maid must have been seriously mistaken.
Even when Duke Kallion gave orders with a grave expression, Kairos stood there dazed, denying it in his head, thinking there was no way.
‘But why on earth….’
Why was his sister making that expression? What was that unknown pattern drawn in blood at her feet? And why was there a strange energy emanating from near her?
“……It looks like a dark magic circle.”
“You insane…!”
At Gwyneth’s words, Felix scowled fiercely.
Kairos was still in a daze.
*Kiiiiiiii!*
The spine-chilling cry of the monster tore through his ears. Kairos, who had been standing there blankly, hastily covered his ears.
But Nadiana remained motionless, as if she couldn’t hear anything at all.
Her face, which had never lost its smile, was now utterly cold.
“Hey, Nadiana!”
Felix called out to Nadiana in a loud voice.
Nadiana, who always responded with a smile whenever her family called her, gave no answer.
She just stood there silently, staring into the distance with hollow eyes.
“Can’t you hear me?! Hey!”
“…….”
“Nadiana!”
When he shouted until the veins in his neck stood out, Nadiana finally slowly turned her head to look at Felix.
“…….”
She slowly rolled her eyes and lightly scanned her surroundings.
Her eyes were just as empty and devoid of light as before.
Kairos caught his breath.
The sight of Nadiana, so unlike anything he’d ever seen, was utterly unfamiliar.
‘Is it really Sister…?’
His doubt grew and grew until it became certainty.
Kairos’s heart pounded loudly. His fingertips trembled.
Now he had to admit it.
It was truly his sister—his generous, selfless Nadiana—who had caused this commotion.
—
* * *
—
Meanwhile, Nadiana was thinking,
‘What the f*ck is this.’
She was extremely flustered by this situation.
—
* * *
—
“Young lady, are you looking for something?”
“No. I’m feeling a little dizzy, so I’m going somewhere quiet to rest for a bit.”
“Ah, shall I brew you some tea that helps with headaches?”
“It’s fine. I just need to sit for a moment.”
In the middle of the bustling birthday party, it must have seemed odd that the guest of honor had slipped away. A maid approached her with a question, but Nadiana smiled and brushed her off, making her way to the fourth floor of the annex.
Only after entering the room at the very end of the corridor could she finally drop the smile she’d been forcing to maintain.
“Hah…… I thought my face was going to get paralyzed.”
She sighed and rubbed her cheeks.
Having kept the corners of her mouth raised all day, her facial muscles felt like they were screaming.
She casually glanced out the window at the garden below, where her 18th birthday party was continuing without her.
Against a backdrop of fully bloomed flowers, nobles were gathered in small groups, chatting amiably in a warm atmosphere.
Of course, that’s how it looked from a distance.
In reality, most of them were probably too busy calculating the gains and losses of every word they spoke to actually enjoy themselves.
Calling it a birthday party was just a formality; it was practically a business networking event.
Of those people down there, the number who had come sincerely to celebrate her birthday would barely exceed ten fingers.
‘Ah, right. I don’t have friends.’
Maybe five fingers……?
It wasn’t that she had any particular complaints. It wasn’t just her birthday party—most banquets were like that.
‘Besides, my birthday doesn’t feel special to me anymore anyway.’
Soon, a few people began looking around, seemingly searching for someone. They were probably looking for her, the birthday girl.
Sorry to those folks who were diligently looking for her, but she had absolutely no intention of going back down and joining them.
There was no reason to anymore.
She pulled the curtains shut without a second thought, blocking out the faces she’d never need to see again, and stood with her back to the window.
“Quest window.”
—
**[Synchronization]**
3/100
Goal Success: Restoration of Time
Goal Failure: Return to the beginning
—
“No, you get out of the way.”
She flicked away the quest that appeared first on the translucent yellow system window that materialized in the air. Right now, restoring this world’s time to its original flow wasn’t important to her.
Behind the quest she’d resolutely swiped aside, another quest appeared.
—
**[Raise your family’s affection to 70]**
If affection drops to 40, it will be automatically considered a failure.
Kallion Barderia: 70/70
Gwyneth Barderia: 79/70
Felix Barderia: 73/70
Kairos Barderia: 83/70
Goal Success: Reward – ‘Embroidery Set Perfect for Confessing Your Feelings’ + First-time success bonus – ‘One Wish Ticket from the System for Your Hard Work! (1 use)’
Goal Failure: Death
—
**[Goal Success!]**
You have been awarded the items ‘Embroidery Set Perfect for Confessing Your Feelings’ and ‘One Wish Ticket from the System for Your Hard Work! (1 use)’.
—
**[Item: ‘Embroidery Set Perfect for Confessing Your Feelings’]**
: Since ancient times, handkerchiefs have been a gift that expresses care and affection!
A gift of a hand-embroidered handkerchief, regardless of the outcome, shows your feelings for the other person even better. Why not give it a try?
Permanently emits a calming fragrance.
Affection +3~5
—
**[Item: ‘One Wish Ticket from the System for Your Hard Work! (1 use)’]**
: A gift from the system just for you!
When you wish to use it, shout ‘Use Wish Ticket’ and state your wish!
—
“There it is…….”
Her heart began to pound fiercely with excitement.
About 20 minutes ago, while she was talking with the Duke, an alert had gone off, so she’d guessed she’d succeeded in the quest.
That’s why she’d been scheming to get away, and slipped out the moment an opportunity arose.
“Haha……!”
Seeing it with her own eyes, a surge of euphoria washed over her. Since no one was watching, she didn’t bother suppressing the weird, creeping smile that spread across her lips.
Soon after, another *ding!* sound announced a new quest, but she casually ignored it.
Her gaze was fixed solely on the wish ticket.
Just how many retries had it taken to obtain this wish ticket with such a childish name, like a filial piety coupon written by a little kid?
‘It was a rough ride.’
As the quest’s additional description implied, if her affection score dropped to the failure threshold displayed on the quest, she died.
Sometimes it wasn’t intentional—she’d die at their hands—but other times, it was due to absurd causes like a perfectly fine chandelier falling on her, or being struck by lightning on a rainy day. Anyway, she’d died in an astonishing variety of ways that had absolutely no logical coherence.
These people must have had some kind of bipolar disorder, because their affection scores fluctuated wildly like a stock market chart.
‘And it was a downward trend, not an upward one….’
There were many times when things were fine, and then their affection would suddenly plummet, and she’d only realize at the moment of death, ‘Ah, I just stepped on a landmine.’
It wasn’t just ‘not easy.’ It was incredibly harsh. These people were twisted, finicky, and extremely difficult to deal with, making the difficulty level quite high.
Especially the initial barrier—it was so high that she died an awful lot just trying to raise affection to 10.
There was even a time she died because her affection dropped just from suddenly speaking to them.
That, she understood. If someone you dislike talks to you, that’s understandable.
But dying because they saw her face when they were in a bad mood and their affection dropped? Did that make any sense? She was, technically, their blood relative, you know?
