A visit from the redhead sister(Edited)
[Emma's POV]
Emma walked through the hallway the next day, her destination being the room of a certain boy, her brother, Alex.
She glanced at the surroundings as she walked toward her brother's place. She hadn't visited this hallway much as it reminded her of unpleasant memories.
That's why her room was on the second floor rather than the first. She had moved out a while back. Well, that and because she wanted to live a bit away from others so they don't disturb her much when she trained in her room.
Finally reaching Alex's room, she knocked. She wanted to just barge in and would have done so in the past, but now she held some reservations.
"Yes. Come in."
A familiar voice, her brother's, answered the knock. And Emma has an eyebrow raised at the response.
Her brother hadn't come to open the door, nor did he stutter or fumble like before. The voice she heard was much calmer and had a decent bit of pitch. His tone was neutral; there was no timidness in it.
'He…'
She shook her head and then opened the door, seeing the same inside that she remembered her brother's room had.
She then looked at the boy in question who had a surprised, but otherwise neutral and even welcoming look.
'He's really acting different.'
Emma thought as she entered the room.
[End of Emma's POV]
***
I stared at the short-haired redhead future heroine and incidentally my older sister, Emma.
Seeing her at my doorstep today was certainly a surprise, seeing she doesn't normally like talking to me… or even being near me.
I used a quick <Observe> on her in hopes of finding a clue as to why she was here.
[Name: Emma K. Maximus
Age: 15
Gender: Female
Race: Human
---
Tier: 2(Foundation grade: Gold)
Talent: Swordsmanship, Piano
---
Affection/Obedience/Reputation: 0/0/10
Capture Difficulty: S
---
Remark: Is starting to see you in a new light, Is confused and curious about your sudden change, Feeling uncomfortable and guilty about what happened between you and Olivia.
---
Status: Calm, Curious, Slight nervousness, Determined]
First things first.
'This monster of a girl has already breached tier 2! Like, what?!'
I knew Emma Maximus was a very talented swordswoman who was already at Tier 4, almost reaching Tier 5, when she came to the Academy at the age of 19. But even so, she created her Foundation just a couple of months ago. And it normally takes one at least a full year or more to reach the second stage, even for Silver and Gold tier talents. I don't talk about Platinum grade ones since they're special. Their doing this feat would be an obvious result, even if it's surprising for humans of this world.
Getting stronger, that is, increasing your Tiers was a task that took many months to a few years for each Tier. But this monster had done so in a matter of a few months.
'This is cheating. She's using hacks! GM! God? Anyone would do! Someone nerf her. (Please don't.)'
[The only one using "hacks" here is you, Alex, with your memories and the System. She attained it with hard training and sheer will.]
'Don't mind me, Iris. I'm just messing around.'
The Emma in front of me had already started gaining the traits she showed at the start of the game. Slightly hardened facial expressions, determined eyes, a body that had no unnecessary fat and instead had started gaining muscles. Her hands were rough and with callouses, showing how much and how hard she trained.
The Emma in front of me was already on her path to becoming a monstrous woman whom the people showed respect for when she finally broke through to the Monarch Rank at the tender age of 24— around the second half game's story. She was supposed to rekindle the name of House Maximus by showing feats equal to the first Lord Maximus, Gerald K. Maximus a.k.a The Bloody Marquis.
She was titled the first heroine for a reason. She was among the strongest among the Capture Targets during and even towards the end of the main story and the follow-up DLC storyline where some really nonsensical characters with OP talents started to come to light.
And that Emma was now standing at me, with rather curious remarks and feelings.
Starting with, her Affection had increased to balance out at 0. Honestly, still a plus for me. And her Reputation of me was at 10. I finally had a non-zero positive point in one area!
Similarly, her Capture difficulty had decreased by a bit, from 'S+' to just 'S'. Yeah. 'Just' S.
'I mean, it's not like it's still the 3rd highest Capture Difficulty or anything… Haaa…'
As for her remarks, they were rather ambiguous. While she seemed to see me in a new light, she didn't have a friendly attitude toward me. She instead seemed quite inquisitive about my sudden change. I was indeed not that secretive about it. After getting my memories, I realized that it wasn't that problematic to show a sudden behavior change.
In contrast, this was actually quite beneficial for me to do so. I got a few reputation gains from everyone, my mother and Alice were happy, Laura was satisfied, and Emma had come to talk to me herself. See? Only positive things!
Anyway, judging by her current status and that last remark, I could cook up a guess. But I decided to keep it to the side and hear it from the person herself.
By now, a couple of minutes had passed but none of us had spoken. We both looked at each other's self and were both in some sort of contemplation, though I was mostly focusing on her <Observe> page.
Finally over her <Observe> page, I watched as Emma seemed to observe my body with a small thoughtful frown.
While I hadn't undergone a drastic change in my body, I had gained a better posture and lost a little bit of the baby fat around my body. Especially my arms and legs which were the main body parts that were strained during the week-long and last day's exercise.
The rest of the changes were mainly invisible to the naked eye. I had gotten stronger, faster, and more durable, but it didn't really show on the outside. One of the 'hacks' of the stat-based system. It strengthened the body but didn't turn the person into a muscular giant to reflect it if the said person gained a few hundred stats in STR, for instance. And the gains were, of course, much faster than usual. You don't exactly notice changes in your body with just a single week of exercising normally.
Deciding to break the strange silence, I decided to start the conversation myself.
"Big sis Emma. Is there something you need?"
I then waited for her to reply. But she stared at me incredulously, before frowning more.
"Who are you? What did you do to Alex?"
She spoke in a stern and inquisitive tone.
My reaction was a mixture of surprise and confusion. Surprised because I wasn't expecting such questions and confused because I knew she hadn't guessed the truth. So, then, what brought that question up exactly?
I glanced at her 'Status'.
There was no 'Suspicious' Status or any such Remark either.
I guessed this was just a façade. She was trying to see if there was anything suspicious but wasn't fully sure of why she was doing so herself.
'Heh. Cute.'
Her antics were amusing. She was still a 15-year-old teenager after all. Not quite like the distrustful 19-year-old Emma I knew from the early game.
"I'm Alex. I don't know how to answer the second question, given I AM Alex. I don't remember doing anything to myself."
I said in a 'thoughtful' manner.
Curiously, I hadn't lied to her one bit.
When I said I was Alex, I meant Alex Sanders, not the nickname of Alexander K. Maximus. Even if I now had his memories, I was still my old self. As for the second part, that was honest too. I mean, I really AM Alexander now, memories and body. And I didn't do anything to Alexander since he never existed and we had never met.
I observed her reaction and safe to say, she was definitely not quite like her 19-year-old self as she lashed out at me like a kid.
"Hah?! What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you suddenly change? Are you not wimpy anymore? Are you trying to act tough?"
I looked at her and simply smiled. That seemed to annoy her.
[-5 Affection with the user!]
'Oh. That's no good. Don't tease her… for now.'
"Nothing is wrong with me. I just decided to change myself for the better. I can't always stay a 'wimpy' kid, as you called it."
Her incredulous gaze continued and she tried to make sense of what I had just said.
But her usual scowl came back soon.
"Why?"
She asked, folding her hands on her still-developing breasts.
"Why what?"
I asked, acting completely ignorant.
She frowned but spoke again.
"Why change now? You could have done it before. Or later. What happened to you? I thought…"
She faltered for a second but then continued as if nothing happened. Though it was not hard to miss the change in her tone from inquisitive to gloomy.
"…I thought you were scared of everyone, except mother. Now you act like a completely different person."
'Right, the original Alex was pretty scared of everyone.'
"Because I have realized that it was useless. I can't remain like that forever… not in this world."
I muttered the last part to myself while imagining certain beings.
"It just happened. I don't know how to explain it to you. But if you must insist… Well, I had a dream about a week ago. About the future. And in it, mine didn't look so bright. I was weak and helpless in it.
After waking up, I realized I needed to change and I needed to do it now. So that what I saw doesn't happen in reality. I just want to survive and live happily in this (new) world… Does that answer your question?"
Emma now looked at me with a thoughtful expression. Her scowl had almost disappeared, instead, a flabbergasted look took its place.
After a moment of contemplating my answer, she spoke.
"… I see. What did you dream about?"
'Hmm? Why is she suddenly so pensive all of a sudden?'
[+10 Affection with the user!]
'Okay, that's suspicious. But I'll take it.'
"I… don't really want to remember it again. It was not good. I lost everything in it."
I muttered solemnly, remembering my lost family. It still felt like a dream. This world was real, but at the same time, I felt strange. The kind of feeling you get when you are in a foreign country. I was instead in a foreign world. God, my life had taken a very strange turn.
[Don't be sad, Alex. I'm here for you if you need to talk.]
'Thanks. But I'm fine. Just feeling a bit weirded out by my new reality.'
I replied, shaking off the weird feeling because it made things weird.
My action, however, got a strong reaction from Emma.
"I see…"
Emma was now silent, still seemed to be thinking of something.
[+10 Affection with the user!]
[+10 Affection with the user!]
[+10 Affection with the user!]
[+5 Affection with the user due to the addition of suppressed Affection by the target!]
[+15 Reputation with the user!]
[Affection/Obedience/Reputation: 40/0/25]
'Oh. I wasn't expecting that strong of a reaction. That's much better than what I started with.'
I saw a quest update message but ignored it for now, letting the message disappear from my vision and into the logs section.
I smiled internally as Emma spoke again.
"By the way, you're talking like an adult. Stop that. It's weird. Where did you even learn that? From the books, you are reading nowadays?"
She commented, trying to change the topic.
'Ah, did I talk a bit too seriously for a 13-year-old kid just now? Oh well, no biggie. It gave me good rewards at least.'
"Yes. Reading is very helpful. You should read too."
"Ugh, no thanks. I would rather train."
She immediately rejected my idea, making a troubled face.
It reminded me of Emma's other trait. She wasn't very studious. In terms of studies, her grades, from what I remembered from the game, were basic and average. Not bad, but definitely not good either. Alex's memories of childhood and studying with her suggested the same.
She was more of a musclehead. It worked well for her in the game. And it'll probably be the same in this world since education isn't the main focus of this world. It's power.
"You don't like studying after all."
I commented while chuckling as I remembered some scenes from the game.
"What? Are you calling me stupid?"
Emma enquired, her frown returning.
Seriously, this girl needed to not frown so much. She looked so much cuter in her normal face. But well, the frowning Emma had a charm too. I couldn't deny now that I was seeing her up close and personal.
"Ah, I meant you're really talented in the sword. You're not bad at studies either, but I can definitely see you becoming an amazing swordswoman in the future."
I spoke, trying to please the hot-headed girl. Not that I lied.
'I mean, just how many 15-year-old Tier-2 humans and demi-humans are in this world? I can barely count a dozen or two from my memory of the game.'
Maybe there were a couple dozen more new ones in this world due to that "reality patch" adding in "more content", so to speak.
Anyway, that number, out of 100s of millions of people that lived in this world, was my proof.
The fact was: Emma was a rare talent.
"Yeah, well, whatever. I know I'm good."
She humphed lightly as she turned her face to the side. I noticed a small blush creeping on her face and a proud smile threatening to leak out.
'Is she already turning into a Tsundere? A welcomed change I guess. I can't wait to see her embarrassed self now.'
I smiled briefly at the thought, hidden from the turned-away face of Emma.
Emma soon regained her wits and curiously decided to spend some time in my room.
We spend the next 15 or so minutes inside the room, both sitting on my bed, being awkward as she tried to converse. Me near the top and she near the bottom, her legs dangling down.
Emma wasn't exactly the talkative type. And as much as I had wished to speak to her, I realized that there wasn't a whole lot I could talk about with the 15-year-old girl right now.
Her <Observe> page had shown a couple of changes throughout our conversation. Emma's Remarks and Status changed a few times.
Currently, it was like this.
[Name: Emma K. Maximus
Age: 15
Gender: Female
Race: Human
---
Tier: 2(Foundation grade: Gold)
Talent: Swordsmanship, Piano
---
Affection/Obedience/Reputation: 10/0/30
Capture Difficulty: S-
---
Remark: Seeing you in a new light, Is happy about your new personality, Is uncomfortable and guilty about what happened between you and her elder sister, Feels the need to discuss what happened between you and her elder sister.
---
Status: Content, Nervous, Determined, Mild fear, Discomfort]
After a while, Emma spoke, her voice losing its usual confident tone.
"Hey… Alex."
She finally muttered. Her voice was much calmer than usual and she was looking at the bedsheet rather than at me. Her face was solemn, yet nervous.
"Yeah."
I cordially replied. Looking at her <Observe> had already given me an idea of where this was going. At least, I was prepared for this bit.
"I know."
She muttered, even more quietly than before.
"Know what?"
I feigned ignorance to let her say it.
She didn't speak for a little while and a strange silence took place between us. She gave me a couple of glances every now and then but wouldn't look at me for long. She couldn't. Her guilt was starting to engulf her.
She finally clenched her fist and took a deep breath, then turned her face to look directly into my 'ignorant' and 'curious' eyes.
"I know your secret. What Olivia did to you… I-I know."
She finally admitted. The time bomb had started ticking and it was up to me how to best handle this situation.
***