Chapter 15: Gift of the Red Star

“The Gift of the Red Star.”

According to my brother, he was able see a [red star] in my eyes. This star had apparently been with me since I was born.

I don’t remember ever seeing such a color mixed into the amethyst eyes I had inherited from my mother, but my brother said that only some people who had special magical eyes called ‘appraisal’ eyes could see the [red star].

In other words, if Brother can see those stars, that means he also has the ‘appraisal’ eyes.

According to him, the edges of the red stars in my eyes glowed golden after I had collapsed yesterday.

I didn’t understand this at all, though.

What is a [red star]?

Apparently, the [Red Star] was something that resided only in the eyes of the [Gift of the Red Star] who possessed memories of other worlds while living in this world. They were a rare existence who had a profound influence on this world—on par with a saint.

This was apparently different from a [Summon].

A [Summon] was a magician who summoned a person from another world into their own body, and had to be a living human being. Only women could be summoned. In exchange for not being able to return to the original world, the summoner received enormous power from God.

On the other hand, only the soul or spirit of the [Gift of the Red Star] was summoned from another world and was mixed in with the inhabitants of this world (only the dead). It was also said that it was the goddess who called them over. They are known as the Goddess’ beloved child.

When I heard this explanation, I felt like I was some extraordinary person even though I really wasn’t all that special.

“So, I’ve known for a long time that you were special. Although, I’d forgotten about it because you hadn’t show any signs of it until yesterday.”

My older brother smiled wryly.

‘A special existence.’

These words pierced my heart, and at the same time, I felt my emotions sweep over me.

“It would’ve been fine even if there was nothing.”

“Th-Then…right now…!?”

I interrupted his words mid-sentence, and with a gasp, I grabbed the front of my brother’s shirt with both hands. They were trembling in full and small increments.

My eyes which looked up at my brother began to tear up.

“Before I collapsed, Charlotte had lived a normal life here for 13 years! But…after I woke up…I remembered…! Now I—”

“…Charlotte?”

Like a fish washed up on land, unable to breathe and gasping for air…I didn’t care about the tears falling down my cheeks and the sobs coming from my mouth. After I had passed out from a mouthful of ale, my memory as Amou Izumi came back—about how Izumi lived and why she had died.

This world was very similar to the world of Izumi’s favorite game.

According to the game, one year from now, a stampede would occur in in unexcavated dungeon in the mountains behind the mansion, and a large number of demon beasts would come pouring out. Everyone in the mansion would die, except for Charlotte, her butler Michael, and Lucas who was at the academy.

The subsequent deaths of Charlotte and Lucas followed at the end of the game.

***

I spat out everything that I could remember.

By the time I finished telling my brother everything, I was sobbing in my his arms.

“Charlotte…I’m sorry for making you feel anxious.”

The hand on my back was stroking me in a steady rhythm as if to soothe me.

“I see. You were scared for a long time, weren’t you? Charlotte suddenly received all of these new memories, and you were confused.”

I continued to cry as big brother Lucas, who was more than half his age from Izumi’s game memories, comforted me.

Charlotte existed in a world that was an otome game, and Izumi was a player of that game. But this world was not a game, it was now reality… I, as Charlotte, could not easily accept Izumi, who had only been with me for a day…and neither could I, as Izumi, easily accept Charlotte.

The reason I kept on repeating ‘stay positive’ was to encourage myself. I didn’t want my heart to break from the anxiety. I was afraid that if I cried, I wouldn’t be able to stop. And as for what was said earlier, I thought I had been abandoned…

“You’re probably mistaken about something, although that’s probably my fault too…”

Brother began to speak in a calm voice.

“You are important to me and to my family. I hope you can trust me on that.”

I buried my face in my brother’s shoulder and nodded my head in silence.

“Perhaps Charlotte thinks that because Izumi-san’s memories came back, she has become a different person who is neither Charlotte nor Izumi-san.”

—Badump— (***heart thumping)

“And perhaps you thinks that you need to combine those two personalities into one. But that’s not true. The two of you were originally one person. From the time Charlotte was born, Izumi-san grew up with her. But now you’re here, and you are my precious little sister, you know? Charlotte. I’m begging you, don’t deny it…”

—Badump Badump—

I rubbed my face against his shoulder and cried even more.

He didn’t deny who I was, rather he affirmed me…I didn’t have to abandon Izumi to live Charlotte….He told me that I was his sister now.

“And the Stampede…”

And he even took into the future into consideration, which may or may not be true.

“So that’s why Charl suddenly started talking about taking walks in the backwoods.”

My brother’s eyes looked down at those words.

“Yeah. I thought I could do something about it now…”

“That’s a good idea. I talked with Father about it, and we’re actually going to check that place out soon because there was a demon beast in a place where it shouldn’t be. Even without the Stampede, I’d be worried to just leave things as they were.”

“Are you asking the guild?”

“Yes. I’m going to ask the guild to help me and Father investigate. We have to conquer the dungeon and find out what’s going on, right?”

“…Are you sure it won’t be too dangerous?”

“I’m used to it, so don’t worry about it Charl. I’m still strong, you know?” My brother tried to make me feel at ease.

“I want to participate as well!” I looked up from where I had been facing down.

I definitely wanted to help too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

T/N: New ally acquired!

Also, in the manga, the [Gift of the Red Star] is called the [Messenger of the Red Star]. However, the Japanese word used is closer to ‘gift’ rather than ‘messenger’ which is why I just stuck with [Gift of the Red Star].

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