The biting, razor-sharp gale of the northern peaks finally began to soften. As my powerful wings beat a steady downward rhythm, we drifted out of the heavy, snow-laden cloud barrier, entering the milder, crisp night air of the lower territories. The suffocating blizzard receded into the distance behind us, leaving only the calm, starlit sky stretching over the approaching borders of Caria.
But on my back, the silence was deafening.
As the mechanical details of my six-day nightmare fully settled into Elicia's mind, the prestigious, unbreakable facade of the Academy Principal completely shattered. The horrific imagery of the rusty shears, the sledgehammer, the salt poured into flayed flesh, and the absolute psychological isolation of a girl forced to watch her own hometown mourn an empty grave… it was a level of suffering that no sister should ever have to hear.
A heavy, ragged sob tore from her throat, her entire 5'8" frame trembling violently against me. She buried her face deeply into the crook of my neck, her tears flowing freely, hot and wet against my bare skin.
"Eirene... oh gods, Eirene... I'm sorry... I am so, so sorry, little Ren... I wasn't there. While you were rotting in that pitch-black cellar, crying out for help with no tongue to scream... I was sitting comfortably in my office in the higher districts. I was managing ledgers and playing politics while my precious little sister was being torn apart by monsters." Elicia wept openly, her leather-gloved hands gripping my shoulders with a desperate, suffocating tightness as if she were trying to physically pull me away from the ghosts of my past.
Her voice cracked, thick with an agonizing, unbearable wave of maternal guilt and grief.
"I failed you as an older sister, I promised our parents, I promised myself that I would protect you because you were born weak. But you had to become a monster just to survive the rot of this world. If I had just looked closer, if I hadn't left Town Allure... you wouldn't have had to bleed out in the dark alone. Forgive me, Ren... please, forgive your useless big sister…"
"Stop, big sister, It's not your fault. You didn't flay my shins, did you? You've done more than enough, Elicia. Look at me."
I turned my head slightly, letting her see the clean, unblemished profile of my face in the moonlight.
"You healed my entire body. You brought back my right eye, my left arm, my right ear... you erased the horrific Glasgow smile they carved into my cheeks, grew back my severed toes, and especially... you gave me back my tongue. If I had never crossed paths with you tonight, I would still be a mutilated shadow. My lifesteal ability is useless for that… it can only close active wounds and patch up tissue, unlike your absolute Divine Regeneration. So please... stop apologizing."
I shushed her gently, the steady, rhythmic beat of my wings acting like a protective barrier around us. Elicia took a shaky, ragged breath, her fingers loosening their frantic grip on my shoulders just a fraction as she finally allowed herself to absorb my words.
"I understand, little Ren, Tell me... what did you do once you arrived in Caria?"
A dark, amused chuckle escaped my lips as the distant, amber grid of Caria's sprawling nightscape expanded beneath us.
"Well, I officially became an independent bounty hunter, my very first target was an elite B-rank, but with my post-evolution parameters, I executed them easily. But the true catalyst for my operation in Caria was an S-rank bounty named Oksana. I discovered she was running a massive, highly illegal drug cartel… the Lotus Dust empire… and its roots crawled directly into your territory."
Elicia's body went completely rigid against mine, her breath hitching.
"I visited the Sisiphon Magic Academy specifically to dismantle her drug empire from the inside out, To do it without alerting the Bureau or Oksana's spies, I harvested the biological DNA of one of your precious, slum-born first-year students and used my shapeshifting to disguise myself. I attended your classes, disrupted your halls, and completely destroyed the cartel from the shadows."
I slowed our descent, tilting my wings as we glided smoothly toward the hidden lower districts of Caria.
"I visited your academy multiple times right under your nose, big sister, the lazy, carefree, short-haired prodigy with the 'Blood Manipulation' skill who kept skipping your lectures and getting scolded in your office? I'm Zenni."
Elicia gasped so sharply her entire body lurched, nearly causing her to slip right off my 5'5 frame. I instinctively snapped my left arm back, catching her thigh in a iron grip to stabilize her as my massive wings gave a violent, correcting beat in the night air.
"Zenni?! You're that kid?! The lazy, troublesome brat who skipped my advanced mana theory class four times in a row?! Why on earth didn't you tell me?!" she shrieked, her prestigious principal persona completely shattering into raw, unadulterated shock. Her hands clutched my shoulders so hard her nails dug through the stolen cloaks.
"A bounty hunter keeps her secrets, big sister, I would have completely blown my cover if I told the truth. Honestly, even wearing that boy's skin, I was completely shocked to see my own big sister running the Sisiphon Magic Academy. But let's be real… if I had approached you back then and told you the truth, you wouldn't have believed a single word. Even if I had shed his skin right in front of you, you wouldn't have seen your sister. You would have mistaken me for a mutated, horrific monster... exactly like you did tonight when we first clashed." I chuckled darkly, tilting my wings to glide through a cool, low-altitude mist.
Elicia went dead silent for a second, the logic cutting through her shock. But then, her academic panic flared right back up.
"Oh, by the gods, Ren... where is the real Zenni, then? Did you... did you kill him to take his place?!"
I burst out laughing, the sheer absurdity of it making my dark, leathery wings twitch and flutter mid-air.
"No, big sister! I didn't kill him. He is perfectly safe. He actually transferred out of Sisiphon and enrolled into the Caria Mastery Academy. Instead of living the boring, restricted life of a mage, he desperately wanted to become a close-combat fighter. I just helped him pave the way. H-hey… stop! Don't touch that!"
I flinched as Elicia's leather-gloved hands suddenly slid down my back, her fingers gently tracing the sensitive, pulsing base where my demonic wings met my spine. Even while I was actively flapping them to keep us airborne, her touch sent a strange, electric jolt through my nervous system, causing my left wing to fold inward awkwardly for a split second.
"So this is where the musculature binds..."
Elicia murmured, completely ignoring my protest as her analytical, academic mind took over. She kept a firm, stabilizing grip on the wing joints, feeling the immense kinetic energy humming underneath.
"Incredible... Well, I already knew you were a top-tier bounty hunter, Ren. The Bureau's highest networks have been buzzing about a faceless phantom for months."
She leaned her head closer to my ear, her voice dropping into a tone of profound, quiet respect.
"I heard the official briefings. I knew this mysterious hunter single-handedly dismantled four catastrophic S-rank bounties. You broke Oksana's drug empire. You completely annihilated Don Anthony's underground arms trafficking guild. You hunted down and executed the legendary, immortal rogue knights commander. And just yesterday morning, the reports came in that you successfully beheaded the supreme leader of the cross-border slave trafficking ring."
She tightened her arms around my neck, her breath warm against my skin as the grand, illuminated spires of Caria finally rose up to meet us through the midnight fog.
"Better yet, the economic reports show that by seizing and liquidating those four massive cartel vaults, you successfully injected enough gold back into the central reserves to completely halt and fix the deflation crisis of our entire country. The High Council has been searching for this 'phantom asset' to award them the highest medal of honor... I just didn't know that the legendary hero saving Andromeda from the shadows was my own little sister."
"I'm no hero, Elicia, The country's economy was just a byproduct of me hunting down the people who make this world rot. But speaking of the Bureau's reports... I actually have some massive news for you. Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" I murmured, a soft, bitter laugh escaping my fangs as I tilted my wings, guiding us downward into a slow, spiraling descent toward the dark, cloaked canopy of Caria's lower boundary forests.
On my back, wrapped securely in the three stolen paladin cloaks, Elicia shifted her weight, a rare, genuinely cheerful and joyous note returning to her voice for the first time tonight.
"Why, little Ren, look at how grown up you've become, bargaining with your older sister. I'm definitely picking the good news first. Give me something bright after all this blood."
I took a deep, steadying breath, my powerful wings catching the lower, warmer air currents as the illuminated spires of Sisiphon Magic Academy loomed like silent giants in the distance.
"Well... remember Evelyn? Our supposed baby sister who we thought died six years ago?" I asked softly, my voice dropping into a serious, guarded register.
Elicia went completely rigid against my spine, the playful warmth instantly draining from her posture.
"Evelyn...? Ren, why are you bringing her up now? You know she passed away with our mother during the catastrophic mining breach. The high-tier magic signature collapse left absolutely zero survivors. What does she have to do with anything?" she whispered, her voice laced with sudden, piercing confusion.
"That's just it, big sister, You mentioned how I fixed the country's deflation crisis. I did that by completely purging the uncontrolled anomaly waves inside the deepest levels of the Caria Mines. And while I was down there in the dark... miraculously, I found our long-lost sister. Evelyn is alive." I replied, my jade-green and crimson eyes staring forward into the dark forest clearing where I intended to land us.
Elicia let out a sharp, choked gasp, her fingers locking into the tattered fabric of my coat with structural force.
"She's... alive?! That's impossible, the Bureau's specialized registry confirmed… "
"The Bureau lied, or they simply didn't understand what happened to her, But she isn't exactly the same human little girl we lost, Elicia. Her soul survived the collapse by binding with the anomaly core. She is currently a half-human, half-slime hybrid." I interrupted gently, my boots finally clipping the topmost branches of the pine trees as I slowed our velocity.
Elicia stammered, her brilliant, academic mind completely short-circuiting at the biological and magical impossibility of my words. Her voice shook with an overwhelming mixture of wild, desperate shock, rising academic disbelief, and a sudden, raw flood of protective older-sister instinct.
"A... a slime hybrid...? Our tiny, fragile Evelyn is a Luminous-tier hybrid anomaly? Ren, tell me you aren't playing a cruel joke on me right now! How is she holding together? Is she stable?! Where is she?!"