Chapter 43 – In which adoption…um… nevermind

“... Sir, I had this thought before, but you have a few screws loose in your brain.”

“We can discuss this problem after we finish the adoption process.”

“Sir, you can’t adopt me. Why would you even do that?”

That was a good and sane question.

“Because this is the best solution. And I always wanted to do that.”

But it didn’t receive a good and sane answer.

Cuprit pinched the bridge of his nose and said:

“Sir, even if I were to agree, this is against the law.”

Just when Vern was to answer ‘I’m the law’, someone barged into the room.

Or more exactly, two ‘someones’.

“Cuprit! What’s taking you so long–!”

“Ah! A body!”

Two young women, bearing striking resemblance to Cuprit and being practically identical with each other, stared at Vern, who was still laying on the floor.

They jumped to Cuprit’s side and quickly reassured him:

“Ah, don’t worry, no one but us knows you were here.”

“There is a sewer channel a street away. We will dump the body there.”

“Right, and we can destroy the blood stains with my new acid concoction!”

“Excellent, Cuprit, don't worry and calm down. We will handle this.”

Vern decided to stop them, before they tried to dispose of his body.

“I’m alive.”

“Ah! The corpse is talking!”

“Wow! Cuprit, did you figure out necromancy?”

“No, I…”

Cuprit, who was a bit at a loss when he was suddenly grabbed from both sides and smacked by the ‘clean up murder scene plan’, finally opened his mouth.

“This is Sir Crow and he is just… resting like this.”

The gaze of the two women, who were looking at Vern with wonder, suddenly sharpened.

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“This is Crow…?”

“Right, he did have a snake mask today.”

Vern was seized by an abrupt feeling that the two may be having to put their clean up plan into practice.

There was a heavy murderous aura descending into the room.

Vern sent Cuprit a questioning glance and the kid– or a man, sighed.

“As I mentioned before, Sir. There are some people who swore to beat you up when they see you.”

The two women’s gazes indeed seemed very determined to beat him up. A bit too much.

“Do you have any idea how much you scared our Cuprit?”

“He was trembling and crying for a few nights, because he was worried that he would lose his job, thanks to you.”

“Hey, I didn’t–”

“And he didn’t calm down until Grandmaster Scarlen himself came to reassure him that he did exactly what he should!”

Vern opened his eyes wide at those words.

He caused greater damage to that kid than he expected!

“You’re right! You totally should beat me up for that!”

“Right!”

“Glad we agree.”

“But can we avoid killing me? I hate dying. Really.”

The two women made a bit of unwilling expressions.

“I don’t know. Didn’t you cause any trouble to our Cuprit?”

“Cuprit, did he make it hard for you? Did he do something?”

“What? No! Of course not!”

“Your denial is very intense.”

“Suspicious.”

“What are you imagining!?”

The twins’ expressions turned grave.

“Aren’t there only two things that two men can do on the roof in the middle of the night?”

Vern cut in, before Cuprit could answer.

“He is not my type. I like more sophisticated ones.”

“Then it leaves only one option!”

“Cuprit, did that man make you some suspicious offer?”

The three pairs of gazes suddenly turned towards Cuprit.

Two were dark, while one was brimming with expectations.

“He didn’t…no, I mean… he did make one, but it’s really not…”

“Right! We made a full circle! So about my deal.”

Vern finally stood up and then pointed at Cuprit.

“I’m adopting him!”

“Sir, I already told you that you can’t…”

“What?!”

“You can’t! We adopted him first!”

The twins grabbed Cuprit by the shoulders and got him behind themselves.

“Really? When did you adopt him?”

‘Is there some adoption expiration period…? No, in the first place, I thought the three of them were family…’

His thoughts were immediately confirmed.

“Since the moment he was born!”

“Right! We’re his older sisters!”

“Only a few months…”

Vern caught Cuprit mumbling, but he was quickly shushed by the twins, who shouted:

“We’re from the same womb, so it means that he got automatically adopted by us, when he was born!”

‘There is only a few months difference between you, but you’re from the same womb?’

Before Vern could figure it out, the twins brought out heavy ammunition.

“We were born from the same womb, so we have siblings’ rights!”

“You can’t separate us! Ancient law!”

‘That’s true, I can’t go against the siblings' rights…’

“How about I adopt all three of you?”

“And what power do you have to do that?”

“Do you have enough money to do that?”

“... Why are you asking about power and money?”

The twins didn’t pay attention to their younger brother’s quiet question.

They crossed their arms, or at least half-crossed, as they both lacked an arm below the elbow.

And their questions did have a point.

What power and money Vern, the young master of Archmage’s family, had?

All of the power and money belonged to Crimo.

In other words, he would have to use his newly-obtained older brother’s authority.

Just in time, a new message was sent through the communication stone.

[Good?]

Crimo was asking if Vern was okay.

It seemed that Vern was taking too much time and Crimo was getting anxious.

[Yes. You. Where.]

Vern quickly answered and asked where Crimo is.

After getting the location, he addressed the three siblings.

“Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“I’m going to introduce you to my money and power.”

The sisters agreed to follow him after hearing that and dragged their younger brother with them.

*-*-*

The moment they entered the private lounge pointed out by Crimo.

Vern was grabbed by thin hands and met with a face with deep dark circles under the eyes.

“Are you hurt anywhere?!”

“I’m fine.”

Crimo didn’t seem to believe him, because he looked Vern up and down and Vern even sensed an inspection spells’ probing.

He didn’t cast them right now, so it seemed that Crimo casted them beforehand and was just keeping them waiting for Vern's arrival.

Vern let the spells through his defenses and allowed Crimo to examine him.

Only after confirming that Vern was indeed unharmed, Crimo visibly relaxed and then glanced at the three siblings Vern brought and asked:

“Who are they? Do you need me to kill them?”

‘Why is everyone jumping to kill everyone…?’

“No. I need you to adopt them.”

Crimo quickly glanced at them and turned to look at Vern again.

“Okay. Done. Do you need anything else?”

It seemed that Vern was greatly overthinking an adoption process.

*~*~*