Confusion, surprise, shock, fear, it was a hard thing to describe, that’s for sure.

Rob subconsciously stopped breathing as he reread the floating magical text in the air, glowing brightly with a faint blue light as if it were mocking him. A step-sister, a family member not related by blood. In all of his numerous lives in numerous realities, living different lives with different stories, he had his fair share of step-siblings and families.

Some resulted in bullying, some resulted in normal families, others were kind of weird in the eyes of some societies and species, and others were just straight-up incest. Of course, most of those explicit relationships belonged to non-human species, like when he was a frost wyvern and was forced to copulate with all of his family members since everyone else in the family was female, while his father died, leaving him as the only male to spread the baby batter.

It wasn’t that strange, really. Many advanced civilizations didn’t even think of incest as a problem, both morally and biologically, since deformed babies are easy to solve with science or magic if the species had enough progress in the field of biology.

Rob didn’t mind incest at all, whether he was a human or a monster. The only reason he didn’t like the idea of incest right now was because it would be way too troublesome and annoying to deal with. If he was a king of some sort, then sure, he’ll enjoy a life of debauchery and sin, but if not, then he’d just live a quiet life and move on normally - he was here to have fun, not be a degenerate that will have to fight against the law.

So, inwardly, Rob hoped that nothing weird would happen. He really didn’t want to hide some secrets from his parents and commit a literal crime.

Well, the only way to move forward is to move forward. Rob deactivated the magic circle placed on the house’s entrance, causing the floating magical text to disappear into wispy blue flames.

The commotion seemed to have finally caught his step-sister’s attention as she turned to look towards the entrance, towards him, and her eyes widened with visible fear and surprise. She opened her mouth, closing it at times, before finally speaking.

“A-Are you…,” the girl mumbled as she remembered the name given by the kind people who took her in. “Are you R-Rob?”

“That’s me,” Rob said with a chuckle and walked in with an eccentric smile. “So, you’re name’s Elaine?”

“Uh, yeah.” Elaine subconsciously shifted in her seat and moved to the corner of the couch. It was subtle, but with Rob’s understanding of psychology and body language, he could tell just how deep the trauma had embedded into her mind - domestic abuse isn’t a thing to scoff at, after all, he had faced domestic abuse a couple of times too and boy was it annoying as hell to deal with.

“You don’t have to be scared. As ugly as I may be, I’m a pretty decent person, you know?” Rob said with a bemused laugh. He dropped his bag right beside the couch and walked into the kitchen, shouting from quite a distance that his voice was a bit distorted, “You want some water, or do you wanna drink some lemon tea!”

“Uh… I’ll get… uh, water!” Elaine stammered as she responded. She actually wanted lemon tea, but she felt that she was being too greedy if she did so. She was already given new clothes, a bowl of grapes, and access to Magi-TV. It weighed on her conscience by quite a bit to ask for something more.

“Are you sure? Are you really, really sure?” Rob walked out of the kitchen holding two glasses of cold lemon tea. Even though he called it lemon tea, it was basically lemonade, but less sweet and had a more mellow taste.

“Here.” Rob passed her the glass cup as the ice cubes inside clanked audibly.

She stared at it in a daze, looked up at Rob with dazed eyes, and softly said, “Thanks…”

“Hahaha, you don’t have to be so shy.” Rob ruffled his messy black hair and sat on the couch beside the girl. He sipped on his drink, gazed at the show playing on their magical television, and said with a deep shine in his dark brown eyes, “I heard a lot about you, you know? The fire… I was actually there when it happened.”

The girl visibly trembled when she heard what Rob said and looked back at him with wide eyes. “You were there?”

“Yep, I was,” said Rob. “You were smiling when it happened. That big wide grin on your face, the tears that flowed out of your eyes as if your joy had turned into liquid, it was kind of a beautiful sight.”

As he said so, Rob squinted his eyes a bit as his thoughts churned. Do I reveal that I was that mysterious guy in the shadows back then? I can probably pose as some god if I did that and indoctrinate her into a one-man cult, but that’s way too much of a hassle. I can still reveal it later if I want to, so let’s just leave it as me being a witness so that option remains open.

“Uh…” Elaine didn’t know how she can explain herself for acting that way in front of the fire. She already expected that someone else would have seen her crazed smile, but what she didn’t expect was that her new step-brother was the one to have seen it.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Don’t worry, even though the news didn’t reveal it since the Royal Capital is a clean and pristine place without evil, I’m not dumb enough to believe that as the truth.” Rob shifted his gaze to Elaine. “You’ve been abused, haven’t you?”

“W-Well… Uhm…” Elaine averted her eyes away from Rob as her heart began to race.

“There’s no need to hide it.” Rob laughed and looked back at the magical television. “We’re family now anyways.”

Elaine took quick glances at Rob as she stayed silent. Inside her mind, she wondered with slight confusion and curiosity. I thought he was going to be asocial. They said that he didn’t like to talk to others and holed up inside his room, and they even expected him to only give a quick introduction before leaving me all alone.

Ugh, I don’t know what to do. Does he think I’m a weirdo already? But… But talking to him just makes me so nervous! He had even seen me when the fire happened. Uwah… She felt her breathing turn rough and her heart beat faster.

“Hey, I told you that you shouldn’t be nervous, right?” Rob sighed. “I know, trauma must’ve messed up your mental health, and that’s fine. I’m your brother now, alright?”

Elaine kept silent for a short while before she finally gathered the courage to continue speaking. “… Really?”

“Of course, of course,” Rob said and took another sip. “You must have heard from Mama that I’m an introverted and lazy pig, right? Well, you better doubt her by a bit because she likes to drag my name down to the dirt when speaking with other people.”

“Oh yeah, how did you even meet Mama and Papa in the first place?” Rob asked with an intrigued grin.

“Uhm…” Elaine took a deep breath and calmed down. He’s not an enemy, he’s not going to randomly hit you.

“Well, it first started when Mister Dolton began to hand out notices regarding what happened to me, and that I didn’t have any other relatives to take custody of me. That happened when I was still inside the hospital, recovering from…” Elaine paused as her arms and legs trembled by a bit, but she knew that she was fine now. They can’t hurt her anymore. “When I was still recovering from the bruises I had on my body.”

“On the same day I was about to leave the hospital, it seemed that two people decided to give me help, and that’s when I met Miss Vivia and Mister Herve this morning. After that, they helped me bring my belongings here, cooked me lunch… and now I live in the bedroom beside yours.”

“Oh, that empty room? Fufufu, so it was the Doltons. Well, the deed’s already done, so might as well make the most out of it, right? Also, you should call them Mama or Papa, or Mom and Dad, whichever you prefer. I told you, we’re family already.” Rob gulped the rest of his drink and placed his glass on the table in front. “I’m no psychologist or anything, but I know a thing or two about trauma and mental health.”

“Although there is one thing that I’m curious about regarding the whole situation.” Rob wore a mischievous grin as he turned down the audio of the magical television.

Elaine stared at him, confused and slightly fearful of what he may do. Other than the muffled audio of the television, the only thing she could hear was her rough breaths and the sound of her heartbeat.

“You know, trauma is a really bad thing, but…” Rob rubbed his chin to find an appropriate word, humming out his last word - “but” - for a short while before finally continuing with shining eyes, “But why didn’t you just… kill ‘em?”

“… What?” Elaine asked, wondering if she had heard correctly.

“I know I ain’t no professional when it comes to abuse and trauma, but if I was you, I would have just taken the risk that reincarnation was real and stabbed those two bastards in the heart while they were asleep. I did my research, you know, and they were just normal humans without any training, so even you could easily kill them.” Rob displayed a strangely serious smile as their topic shifted from familial love to familial killing. It was a sudden turn for sure, a turn that she wouldn’t have been able to expect.

“What are you talking about right now?…”

“I mean, come on, is it really that hard to overcome fear? They were two alcoholics, so let them get drunk, and wabam!” Rob punched his hand out for demonstration. “You stab them in the heart.”

“A-Are you even hearing yourself right now?” Elaine was beginning to feel dumbfounded that she can’t help but rebuke because of how stupid Rob sounded. “If I did that, then what would happen next? They’d charge me of murder!”

“Self-defense is a thing you know. And also, you could have reported their abuse to the government. You had plenty of proof, like your bruises!” Rob retorted back as he pointed at another solution to her previous problem. “You just tell them, Help officer, I’m being abused by my parents! Then, you stay at the station or something far away from your parents, wait for them to get arrested, and then move on to an orphanage or, if you’re lucky, have a kind soul adopt you!”

“W-Well… Well!” Elaine stuttered as her mind churned to find an answer. “Well, well you’re stupid! You don’t know what it’s like to be abused since you were five years old!”

I don’t know what it’s like to get abused?! Excuse me you little bitch with no valid argument, I know what it’s like to get abused! Rob almost spoke his thoughts out loud, but held it in since only he knows of his past and it was stupid to blurt out something so suspicious.

So, he instead did the same as Elaine. If logic won’t work, then just devolve into the screeches of mindless beasts!

The two continued to argue regarding the stupid yet murderous topic Rob had brought up as the sky turned dark. They argued and argued, creating their own thesis statements and supporting arguments, while countering the arguments of the opposing party.

And, before Elaine knew it, Rob was inside the kitchen, cooking dinner, while she lay down at the couch like a lazy slug. She looked up from the television to the ceiling, her eyes dazed and cloudy. What had led to this moment? What just happened? Why is it so fun arguing about this stupid topic of murdering her original parents? Why is she so exhausted even though she only spoke? How was she even able to act so freely without having any fear of being slapped with a belt or anything even though she was practically blurting out curses one after the other with an unknown man?

Her dazed eyes slowly turned red and wet, while a strange sensation bloomed within her heart. It was a strange, weird, confusing warm feeling that hugged her light, enveloping her in a dizzying level of comfort and mellowness. It was if the various wounds in her heart began to heal away, and while it was still far away from completely disappearing, there was a sort of belief inside her, a belief that made her believe that in due time, all would be well.

“Is this what it’s like to have a…,” she said with an amused grin. “To have a brother? To have a… family?”

“If so…,” she chuckled and looked back at the flashing screen with a tear dripping down her face. “If so, then it’s really stupid.”