The Villainous Noble Son Wants to Capture His Stepsister! - Chapter 33

“Aaaaaaaaah!!”

“!!”

A scream sharp enough to tear silk made both Heliotrope and me snap into alert mode in an instant.

I rushed to the window on the second floor of the orphanage and looked outside. There, a few men were forcing a girl into a carriage… Wait—

“Primelia!?”

I couldn’t see her face clearly, but I recognized the clothes. It was a dress I had given her as a gift, the very one she had been wearing today.

The men shoved Primelia into the carriage and, without hesitation, sped away at full gallop.

“Primelia!”

“Master, I shall go ahead!”

Heliotrope leaped from the second-floor window. She landed as if gravity had no hold on her, then took off in pursuit of the carriage at an inhuman speed.

Her magic affinity was ‘Wind.’ With her level of skill, such feats were effortless.

“Damn it!”

I wanted to jump down from the second floor myself, but that was out of the question.

I dashed down the stairs instead. At the entrance, a group of anxious children stood alongside a pale-faced Laps.

“M-Master Kraut… L-Lady Primelia, I… I’m so sorry—”

“Laps! We will save Primelia, no matter what! Take Kizalis and get all the children inside the orphanage! Lock the doors and let no one in!”

I couldn’t afford to waste time talking with Laps any longer. After issuing the necessary orders, I ran off after the carriage.

I knew full well that running after them wouldn’t allow me to catch up—not under normal circumstances.

“I don’t know who the hell you are… but if you think you can lay a hand on my little sister and get away with it, you’re sorely mistaken!!”

And then—my surroundings blurred into nothingness.

◇

“Heliotrope!”

“Master!?”

When I caught up to Heliotrope, she looked utterly shocked. Given the situation, it was a rare sight indeed.

“Since when could you run at that speed?”

“Ah… well, magic.”

“Magic?”

Her surprise was understandable. My magic affinity was ‘Water.’ None of the known spells could enhance speed.

Yet here I was, running as fast as a moving automobile. Unlike Heliotrope, who soared effortlessly on the wind, I sprinted with the long strides of a track athlete.

“Honestly, it’s still in the experimental stage. It has a lot of drawbacks.”

The human body is composed of approximately 60% water. For children, it’s closer to 70%.

Creating water from nothing requires an absurd amount of mana, but controlling the water already present? That takes surprisingly little.

That’s how I came up with the idea—what if I could artificially enhance my body’s abilities?

Muscles, in particular, have a high water content—about 80%. In other words, 80% of muscle tissue is composed of water.

With my current level of mana control, I couldn’t affect others, but I could manipulate my own muscles.

The downside? By forcibly overriding my physical limits, my muscle fibers were being torn to shreds.

Meaning… tonight, I was going to suffer the worst muscle pain of my life!

“This is my trump card, second only to Iaijutsu—‘Chikara Mizu’!”

“……”

…What? Heliotrope, if you have something to say, just say it.

Ah, never mind. I already know my naming sense is terrible.

Originally, I developed this technique to overcome my reliance on a sword. I never expected it to come in handy like this.

After running alongside Heliotrope for a while, the speeding carriage finally came into view.

“There it is!”

“Yes, that must be the one!”

Whether they planned to ransom her or sell her into slavery, I didn’t care.

They had kidnapped my dear little sister Primelia—and for that, they would be utterly annihilated.

“Heliotrope.”

“Yes?”

“Can you infiltrate that carriage and extract Primelia?”

“Easily.”

“Then I leave it to you.”

“Understood!”

Heliotrope responded sharply before accelerating even further, closing in on the back of the carriage.

With movements so light she seemed to defy gravity, she leaped onto it, slipping seamlessly under the tarp and disappearing inside.

Meanwhile, I pushed my speed even higher, aiming to overtake the carriage completely.

As I ran past its side, I vaguely heard the pathetic cries of men begging for their lives—but I ignored them.

I sprinted ahead, putting about 200 meters between myself and the carriage before coming to a sudden stop.

Then, I turned around—adopting an Iaijutsu stance.

The carriage hurtled toward me.

Heliotrope had already secured Primelia and escaped.

Meaning—I no longer needed to hold back.

“Be—

—cleaved!!”

I kicked off the ground with all the strength my enhanced legs could muster, slicing through the carriage and its occupants in a single, fluid motion as we passed each other.

The bottom half of their bodies remained where they stood, while the top halves tumbled forward, skidding across the ground.

But I didn’t even glance back. I ran in the opposite direction—because the ones I had just cut down didn’t matter in the slightest.

“Primelia!”

She was safe—I could see that.

But even so, I couldn’t stop myself from shouting her name.

“Primelia!!”

After Reincarnating into This World, I Nearly Lost Something Precious for the First Time

When I saw her being forced into that carriage, my bl00d ran cold.

What kind of “ideal brother” was I? When it really mattered, such a hollow title was utterly useless.

I ran desperately, but my legs refused to move the way I wanted. They were already at their limits from Chikara Mizu, and I could feel them about to give out.

Just hold on a little longer, my legs. I’ll endure all the pain later, as much as it takes.

As I thought that and looked ahead—

“Brother!!”

Primelia was running straight toward me. She wasn’t fast, but she was giving it everything she had.

“Primelia!”

“Brother!”

We called out to each other as we closed the distance between us. To an outsider, it might have looked like something out of a cheap melodrama.

But to us, none of that mattered.

The moment the gap between us became zero, I pulled her frail body into a tight embrace.

“Primelia, thank god… you’re safe…!”

Tears welled up in my eyes before I knew it.

Ah, so that’s it. It’s not because she was my favorite character in the game. It’s because my little sister, who exists here, in this world, is safe—that’s what truly matters to me.

“Brother… Brother!”

That aside, being called “Brother” by Primelia was, to put it mildly, absolute bliss.

She was holding onto me just as tightly, trembling with emotion. She smelled nice, her body was warm—

Wait, no. This is purely sibling affection, okay? There’s no need to call the guards.

Look, as a former otaku from Japan, I can’t stay serious for too long. My stomach and my sanity just won’t hold up.

◇

Once our tearful reunion was over, Primelia blushed furiously and hid behind Heliotrope.

I could relate. Looking back, we might as well have had a dramatic insert song playing in the background. The kind that signals a sudden shift into a romantic subplot.

It was embarrassing, sure. But I had no regrets. If anything, I felt like the wall between us had completely shattered.

I felt lighter, freer. From now on, maybe we could be more like real siblings.

That aside… it was time to face reality.

I really went and did it—cut them all clean in half, every last one of them.

Not just covering up the evidence—annihilating it.

Well, to be fair, my personal maid took care of about half of them, so I wasn’t solely responsible.

Even so, I had no intention of blaming her. Primelia’s safety had been at stake, and she had done what was necessary.

The real problem was me. I had completely lost it and cut down every last one of them.

“I hope there’s at least some clue left behind.”

“I doubt they would have carried anything of significance.”

“Yeah… figures.”

Were they after the orphanage’s children? Or was their target specifically Primelia?

Was this the work of a small group, or was there an organization behind it?

Without knowing their motive, I had no way of knowing how to proceed. In other words—

“Ah… I really screwed up.”

“No, Master. Lady Primelia was kidnapped. Your anger was only natural.”

Heliotrope’s words of comfort stung more than she realized. I appreciated it, but that wasn’t the issue.

I examined the wreckage—the remains of the carriage, the bodies.

Ugh… I did this, but it’s still gruesome. Damn it, that’s disgusting. Why are intestines always the worst part?

Inside the carriage, a few more bodies lay slumped over—

“…Huh?”

“Master, did you find something?”

I nearly clicked my tongue but held back. Even if I had come to terms with what I’d done, I had no intention of acting crass in front of Primelia.

“…No, it’s nothing. Let’s head back to the orphanage. Laps and the others must be worried.”

I turned back toward the road, guiding Primelia and Heliotrope as we retraced our steps.

But before we left, I stole one last glance at a particular corpse.

That man, was one of our knights.