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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: White Chick, Black Crow
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What the hell is she talking about all of a sudden?
"You just need to control your emotions. You don't have to rely on the curse."
"Bianca, aren't you misunderstanding something?"
Krash said as much, but Bianca just shook her head.
"I'll come visit often. If I talk to Father, I can settle nearby since we're engaged."
"You don't seem all that thrilled about being my fiancée."
"Even so, I can't just leave someone who's been cast out."
She wasn't denying that she didn't welcome the engagement.
Krash was dumbfounded for a moment before letting out a wry sigh.
The goddess of the north seemed to be thoroughly mistaken about something.
Bianca had always been the type to latch onto one idea and believe in it blindly.
Without emotions, the moment she made a rational judgment, she felt no doubt about it.
'No helping it, I guess.'
Krash activated Black Hood with the hand he'd dropped under the table.
A vault lock appeared above Bianca's chest.
That vault represented the difficulty of stealing with Black Hood.
Bianca's vault consisted of a double lock.
Most curses didn't even have a vault, let alone locks.
But Bianca had lived with her curse from birth until now.
So she didn't undervalue it like others did.
Just as no one undervalues their own limbs, Bianca didn't undervalue her curse.
'Value is always relative.'
The value of Bianca's curse ranked quite high for her.
That's why it manifested as a double lock.
'Generate condition.'
To unlock that lock, Krash created a condition.
A double lock meant two conditions, clearly.
The first condition popped up right in front of Krash's eyes.
[Become Bianca's 'friend'.]
A tsk escaped from Krash's mind.
This was why the stealing difficulty varied wildly based on value.
To steal what someone possessed, they had to let their guard down.
So you had to fulfill the condition that induced the greatest carelessness.
Bianca's first condition was friendship.
'Friends with a Thousand-Faced Ghost.'
Fiancée was easy, but friend was hard.
She lacked emotions, so she rarely felt interest.
'For now, I should at least keep her by my side.'
Sending her back to Hardenharts right away would just bring the Thousand-Faced Ghost transformation closer.
'I'll have to unlock the locks gradually.'
Not only to prevent her from becoming a Thousand-Faced Ghost.
He needed her curse to use Extreme Blood Poison Infusion, too.
"Alright, thanks. It's reassuring to have my fiancée visiting often."
So Krash permitted it.
He planned to spend time stealing her curse.
But then, a variable Krash hadn't anticipated at all occurred.
Adults liked to push things forward quickly, and the head of Hardenharts especially loved anything done fast.
And as a result, after talks between Hardenharts and Valheim.
Bianca was to stay in a room at Green Pine Pavilion.
"Hello."
Krash stared in bewilderment at Bianca, who arrived with maids carrying her luggage.
He'd heard the news already, but hadn't expected her to actually stay at Green Pine Pavilion.
"Bianca, is it okay for you to leave home?"
She was only twelve.
Shouldn't she be at the age where her parents' embrace felt best?
"It's fine."
Bianca answered without a hint of emotion.
Family affection was just a faint thing to her without emotions.
What could he do?
He couldn't defy a family decision.
In the end, Krash decided to think of it as gaining a little sister.
And so, a new family member joined Green Pine Pavilion.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Time flies like an arrow.
The sweltering summer had passed through autumn, and winter was approaching.
On top of that, rumors were buzzing about a new academy opening next year.
An academy jointly established by the four great kingdoms and the empire to train talents against World Erosion.
The opening of Raheln Academy.
'Soon, huh.'
Raheln Academy's minimum entry age was fifteen, maximum twenty.
So Krash, who would turn fourteen next year, still had some time.
'I need to get stronger, even if just a little, by then.'
Raheln Academy was full of members of the Generation of the Sky.
And what Krash was after were their skills.
The Generation of the Sky each possessed ridiculously overpowered skills.
Plus, having lived with them, Krash knew their weaknesses best.
So stealing their skills would be even easier.
No guilt.
The Generation of the Sky were the ones Krash hated most.
"Tch."
As Krash circulated aura through his body but got distracted and it stiffened, he opened his eyes.
A blue energy flowed from Krash's mouth.
In a short time, he'd gone from beginner expert to intermediate.
But even with the secret manual, he was starting to feel his talent limits.
He needed to learn Extreme Blood Poison Infusion quickly.
'That's enough for today.'
Krash walked out of the training grounds.
There, on a chair in front of the grounds, sat a girl reading a book.
She lifted her head from the book as if sensing his gaze.
Spotting Krash, she bowed her head.
Pure white hair cascaded down her head.
That hair color always reminded him of the Thousand-Faced Ghost she'd become in the future.
It was the symbol of the Thousand-Faced Ghost, after all.
"Are you done training?"
"Were you waiting?"
"Yes."
Krash rubbed the back of his head at her casual admission.
She said so herself, so he had nothing to say.
Since the day Bianca started staying at Green Pine Pavilion, she'd followed him around like a chick trailing its mother.
The reason stemmed from her worry that he might commit suicide due to depression.
But unlike her uncle, she didn't truly understand depression.
So she relied only on fragmentary info from her uncle.
Don't leave someone with depression alone.
That was all she knew.
True to her tendency to blindly believe once fixated, she stared blankly at Krash.
And Krash blankly stared back before snapping out of it late.
For some reason, being alone with Bianca made him feel dazed.
Was her blankness contagious?
"I'll go wash up."
"Okay."
Bianca closed her book and stood.
Her actions suggested she'd wait in front of the bathroom again.
So when would he qualify as her "friend"?
Krash was thinking he might need to take her out somewhere soon.
"Young Master Krash."
Aliod appeared before him.
He looked like he had business.
As Krash showed puzzlement, Aliod held out a letter.
"An invitation from the Star Sanctuary has arrived."
"Star Sanctuary?"
Krash frowned slightly at the grandiose name.
He couldn't recall what it was.
"I believe it's a gathering of the ten great houses of the Staron Kingdom. They hold a party every year."
Krash understood belatedly.
Come to think of it, there was such a thing.
He'd never participated, though.
'Memories from this time are so hazy.'
Back then, he never left Green Pine Pavilion, just lamenting his life.
So events from this period were fuzzy in his memory.
He'd plugged his ears to outside affairs, hating to deal with them.
'I'd remember every academy incident perfectly, though.'
Past regrets piled up in various ways.
"Decline. I don't have time for that sor—"
Something flashed in Krash's mind mid-sentence.
"Aliod, how many of Staron's ten great nobles usually attend the Star Sanctuary?"
"Unless there's something unusual, most attend. These parties pave the future, after all."
Hearing the honest answer, Krash crossed his arms and tapped his index finger thoughtfully.
Would that guy come too?
Krash glanced at Aliod and nodded.
He was the master here, after all; he had to play the part.
That way, Aliod wouldn't get any funny ideas.
"Then tell them I'm attending too."
"Understood."
Aliod answered without objection and glanced at Bianca.
"I'll go too."
And naturally, Bianca declared she'd come along.
She had no intention of letting Krash, who might suicide anywhere, go alone.
"Understood. I'll inform them both of you will attend."
"Yeah, let me know the date later."
Watching Aliod leave, Krash stretched.
Come to think of it, this would be his first outing since regressing.
'In a way, it's like maintaining the pre-regression timeline.'
Though the circumstances were worlds apart now.
Of course, he was still half-baked, needing alchemy to grow stronger.
'But I learned one more secret art recently.'
Krash decided not to get anxious.
"Krash."
Krash turned at Bianca's call.
Seeing her look blankly spaced out again, he eyed her curiously, and she spoke.
"At the Star Sanctuary, everyone will badmouth you behind your back."
Without emotions, Bianca voiced her thoughts straight.
Her words were surely true.
"Probably."
And Krash had expected as much.
'Not as bad as Raheln Academy, but similar.'
Back then, the empire's princess Sigrin was the enemy; this time, it'd be Staron Kingdom's noble heirs.
Everyone knew the rumor that Krash had been abandoned by Valheim.
No one would butter him up, and good words would be scarce.
"Bianca, maybe you shouldn't come."
As his fiancée, she'd hear nothing good at the party.
"No. I'll go."
But Bianca didn't budge.
"Fiancées protect their fiancés."
Bianca moved based on her education so far.
Without emotions, only rational judgment and teachings defined her.
Doll eyes— the curse suited the term perfectly.
'Her mature vocabulary and behavior, unthinkable for a twelve-year-old, must all stem from lacking emotions.'
Maybe seeing her stirred pity for his past cruel self toward her, making guilt surge.
Krash was especially soft with Bianca.
He reached out and stroked her head.
"I meant as Bianca, not as my fiancée—what do you think?"
Bianca quietly looked up at Krash stroking her hair.
He often sent these pitying glances while petting her head like this.
Over the past few months.
Unlike how he treated the butler and maids, he showed unusual softness toward her.
Thanks to that, his image had changed so much that their disastrous first meeting faded.
"Bianca, food."
"You've about finished that book. Let's go to the library."
"Sleep more. I'm not going anywhere. I'll train in front, so keep sleeping."
Reflecting on months of daily life with Krash, she no longer disliked him.
She hadn't received such kindness even at Hardenharts.
After all, she was sent off for a political marriage, just like an unwanted bastard child.
"I'll go."
So Bianca said.
Her desire to help Krash was the same, fiancée or not.
"Even as just Bianca, I'll follow you, Krash."
Krash blinked blankly at her words, then pulled his hand from her head.
Did that upset her?
As Bianca worried she'd crossed the fiancée line, Krash turned around.
"Alright, then let's do that."
And permission granted.
Looking at Krash, Bianca trailed after him again like a chick.
Following his back somehow lightened her steps.
Though she got scolded for absentmindedly trying to follow him into the bathroom too.