"Then, there are also people who have far more strength than normal, doing things you would never think possible."
Christian, arriving at this point, paused for a moment and looked at his sister, as even though he hadn't said much yet, he expected at least some hint of surprise. In the end, he was disappointed, as her expression didn't change at all. She remained unperturbed, giving him all her attention just the same.
He felt a little let down that he didn't see any expression of surprise or exclamation from her, but he still continued, trying to explain everything in more detail.
Christian didn't know, nor had he considered his own case, but Annabelle had long since noticed all these changes in him, so she was not surprised.
If her brother could be like this, then why couldn't there be others just the same?
She had reached this conclusion long before.
Most importantly, that there was a side of society that was hidden, and she hadn't known about it, she had long accepted this. Even before the changes in her brother started, now that she had received the confirmation, she just thought the hidden side was a little more than she had imagined, nothing more than that.
So, she just listened attentively as Christian talked about the ancient families, the mysterious department, and the special abilities that sometimes appeared in people, and things he had discovered along the way.
"Then, how did you find out about all these things?"
Annabelle, noticing that her brother hadn't said anything about himself yet, finally interrupted and asked. Her interest was more in him than in the damned world, after all.
"Actually, I was just going to talk about that."
"So, like I said, there are people with special abilities out there, and I'm also one of them."
"Or, well, I became one recently."
"My special ability lets me speed up my learning process, making it easier and faster to study things."
"So, I've been able to learn a lot more quickly."
Hearing his explanation, Annabelle felt like it could make sense at first, especially considering what he had done at school, with trading and now with AI. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
She first wondered why he hadn't told her about this until now, as she didn't see the subject itself as something that needed to be kept so secretive. She also didn't believe it was an issue of trust or anything like that. Then, why?
Annabelle felt a little hurt being kept in the dark like this, but in the end, she had already done enough by urging him to talk. She couldn't afford to be even pettier now, sulking or pointing things out. So, after pondering for a moment, she decided not to dwell on the issue anymore. What mattered was that he was finally opening up about everything, or at least, almost everything.
Anyway, going through what he had just said in her mind once more, Annabelle focused on the part about speeding things up. She began to ponder its exact mechanism. If it truly sped things up, wouldn't he still need to study at least a little? Yet, he hadn't shown any sign of doing that. Curious and hoping he would elaborate further, she decided to ask.
"Well, after gaining this special ability, I started learning many things, beginning with..."
Christian continued his story, first mentioning trading, which he no longer actively did since Iris took over the work, with him only supervising occasionally to make sure she didn't earn too much by accident.
He then spoke a little about school and the AI, before finally bringing up the topic of program hacking, which upon hearing, Annabelle finally interrupted, seemingly to confirm something.
"Hacking?"
And Christian seeing her expression finally change, surprise- no, even bewilderment, taking over. He felt a slight panic rise within him, worried about how she would perceive these actions. So, wanting to avoid ruining his image or giving her the wrong impression, he quickly explained his reasons.
"Yes, but you see, like I mentioned earlier, the world still has many hidden things. So, after I got my special ability, I realized that one should consider everything around him, especially for safety, and thinking carefully about it for a while, I decided that hacking would be the best method. It could also come in handy in many situations."
"So, with it, I..."
Annabelle, finally seeing that her brother had at least finished the first part of his explanation, couldn't help but interrupt before he moved on to something else. She leaned forward from her sitting place, fixing her gaze on him, and with a mixture of curiosity and concern etched across her features, she asked.
"Chris, why are you being this flustered?"
After her question, the room fell silent for a moment, before Christian finally seemed to gather his thoughts, or courage and said:
"Because it's illegal? Could be considered unethical?"
He gave his answer in a questioning tone, seemingly even unsure of the exact reason himself, so, Annabelle couldn't help but comment.
"What kind of ridiculous reason is this?"
"As long as you're not caught, I, of course, wouldn't mind or care."
"Most importantly, you didn't hurt any innocent person with what you did using hacking, right?"
Hearing what she said at first, Christian felt relieved, but then, upon hearing her question, he hurriedly replied.
"Of course not!"
And Annabelle, hearing his answer, followed just as quickly.
"Then, there would be no problem at all."