Chapter 25: Volume I - 24: A Cold House

Chapter 25: Volume I - Chapter 24: A Cold House

I looked at the address written on the holographic screen, and then at the apartment building about four meters in front of me.

This was clearly the apartment building written in the address.

I hadn't expected her to be in Wiathen, but it's good. At least I won't have to change cities. n0veluSB.c0m

After closing my watch, I took a deep breath and went inside. I looked for an elevator since I was going to the third floor, but then my mouth dropped open.

There was no elevator in the building...

I headed for the stairs with a frown.

I was a little angry, furious that my sister was living in an apartment without an elevator in a world like this.

Nevertheless, with each step I took up the stairs, the thoughts I had just been thinking slowly faded from my mind and were replaced by excitement. As I got closer to my destination, I tensed and even trembled, but kept walking.

When I arrived in front of apartment number thirty-four, my hand reached for the door slowly, but I couldn't find the courage to knock. I was so excited that I was afraid I would do something wrong or stupid.

Calm down Aiden... Calm down...

I lowered my hands that were reaching for the door and relaxed my body. Then I waited briefly to release my tension and reached for the door again. This time I knocked without a second thought.

~knock ~knock ~knock

An instantaneous tension suddenly enveloped my body as I knock on the door. I felt as if there was a cliff in front of me and if I took one more step, I would fall off it.

Not even three seconds after I knocked, the door slowly opened. A girl appeared from behind it. She had a height that reached my shoulders, colorless gray eyes just like mine, long to short brown hair that looked like she had just taken a shower, a cute face, and a petite body, just like I thought.

All the excitement and nervousness I had felt up to now disappeared in an instant.

Was it because of disappointment? No... On the contrary, I felt so peaceful and happy that all my negative thoughts left me the moment I saw Clara. It was a strange, yet pleasant feeling.

How long have I known her? Five days?

Why am I so at peace when I know almost nothing about her? Was I really that hungry for a family?

It's... It doesn't make sense, but it kind of does. I suppose it does.

Clara smiled slightly when she saw me and stepped aside slightly to let me in.

As I took off my shoes and stepped inside, I tried to clear my mind of thoughts. I was thinking about unnecessary things.

I smelled a nice, pleasant fragrance, and the fresh air of the house hit me in the face as soon as I entered. When I looked around the house, I saw that it was literally spotless. She had probably cleaned the house for my arrival...

"Are you hungry?"

She asked timidly, and that's when I noticed another smell coming from another part of the house; the smell of food that was probably quite delicious...

To be honest, I wasn't hungry. I had already had a snack when I left the Riala Bar. Nevertheless, I put a slight smile on my face.

"Yes, what have you prepared?"

A smile appeared on Clara's face, and then she headed excitedly toward what I assumed was the kitchen.

"Go into the living room and wait."

So I was left alone in the small hallway of this small house.

When Clara left, I let out a deep sigh. It was certainly a fleeting moment, but I wasn't complaining. Because I wanted to look around the house and I could do that when Clara wasn't here.

Like that, I began to examine the small house where she lived and realized that it was not as bad as I had thought.

The house was small, but it looked ideal for one person to live in. The walls didn't look old either. On top of that, Clara had just cleaned almost the whole house, so the overall situation was good. But as I started to move forward, I realized the main issue.

The house was quite cold.

No... I didn't realize it quickly because I had just come from outside, but the house was really cold. As if that wasn't enough, if I focused properly, I could hear people whispering behind the walls.

There's a noticeable lack of insulation and although at first I didn't think the house was too bad, it made me frown.

It's only September, and it's not even evening but the house is this cold... What will it be like in winter then? Can Clara even stay in a place like this without getting sick?

So my idea of moving her to a more decent home increased exponentially and I finally entered the living room.

A simple corner sofa takes up most of the room, a small table right in front of the sofa, a laptop on the table, which is hard to find in this era of holographic technology, and a heater in the corner of the room were the first things that caught my eye in an instant. Besides, the room was quite small, as was the house itself.

I approached the heater, checked the model, and turned it on briefly to see how well it worked.

After a few seconds, my face went blank.

The heater was not of very good quality, it was a cheap one. Also, just as I had thought, it could only heat the area close to it, not the whole living room.

"I'm back! Uh, why are you up?"

Clara put the tray on the table in front of the sofa. Then, pulling her laptop away, she sat down on the sofa with a smile on her face.

Seeing her smile, I shifted my focus from the heater to the tray with the food on it and couldn't help but be surprised.

A very nice-looking salad, a steaming red soup, some stew-like meats and a plate lightly filled with rice were waiting for me on the tray.

Frankly, I didn't expect this.

Clara, still looking at me, must have realized that I was impressed and smiled happily. So I sat down on the sofa and took a small sip of the soup.

She can cook this well... As someone who has spent twenty-one years living on pasta and simple soups, I am absolutely mesmerized...

"How's the academy?"

As Clara asked this question, she started to eat her food as I did.

"It's quite nice, they provide everything we need. I caught the attention of a professor and started to receive special training from him."

Clara's eyes widened.

It's normal for her to be surprised that I didn't mention this when I was texting her, but didn't she overreact a bit?

You don't even trust your brother that much...

"Really? What is he teaching you?"

"Sword and basic mana techniques for now. Anyway, I'm not very important, how is your school? Is anyone giving you any trouble?"

Even if this place will turn into hell in the future, it wasn't exactly a paradise before.

High schools, universities, and academies are a place where the strong often bully the weak, especially in this world where power is at the forefront. The reason is simple; as people become more powerful, they become able to do more and more, and after a while the desires they have been holding inside start to overflow.

Then they realize that as long as they are strong enough, no matter what they do, no one can say anything to them. So they satisfy their desires by acting like a king in front of weaker people, and when no one stands up to them, they slowly go astray. And then comes the biggest problem that the youngsters of Lunerra face: bullying.

With this in mind, when I glance at Clara, I cannot help but worry about her. Given her age, she doesn't have access to the system yet, and we are a family struggling for money.

"No... I'm doing fine."

Her voice was a little hoarse with those words, trembling almost imperceptibly.

Damn... Who's giving my sister a hard time?

"Okay then!"

I suddenly shouted, startling Clara. The heavy atmosphere of earlier had dissipated in an instant thanks to me and I smiled. Now it was time to fix some things... First of all, money.

"Tell me your bank number. I can give you some financial relief."

Clara quickly straightened up against my words.

"I'm fine, I don't need money. You should think of yourself."

For the first time since I came into this world, she lashed out at me, but I'm not one to give up easily. Especially after what I saw.

"No objections, Clara. I don't want to be the big brother who ignores his sister, and even if you insist, at worst I'll go to one of the places where you work part-time and ask them to account for your salary, so you can't run away."

Clara opened her mouth and tried to say something, but then she was silent. She realized she couldn't stand up to me.

"Where did you make enough money to make me financially comfortable?"

"I recently presented a theory to the academy's research lab and it was accepted. As a result, I was awarded a good amount of money, so I wouldn't put myself in a bad situation if I gave you some money."

Clara looked at me with a frown, then sighed deeply. She logged into her account on her phone and handed it to me.

Instead of looking at her account number first, I looked at how much money she had in her account.

<<------------------------------

1,132 Wels

------------------------------>>

One thousand hundred and thirty-two wels...

According to the last movements of the account, she received her salary recently.

The rent for the house was four hundred and twenty wels, if I remember correctly. The sum of the money added to the account over and over again is about a thousand wels. If I subtract the rent from that, I'm left with five hundred and eighty wels. And if I add food, electricity, water, and so on, the amount of money she can spend freely per month is much, much less than I thought.

Her situation is not just bad, it's literally close to terrible.