ALL NOVEL Chapter 59
59th Chapter: The Dreamlike Family
There were many moments when I found it hard to tell if I was dreaming or awake. Just like now, being possessed inside the Devil Academy.
I had never particularly scolded the delinquent students who beat me up or threatened me with Jenny and Luska.
Why? Because there was enough context.
Most of the misfortunes that came my way had a reasonable backstory. This situation might not be happy, but it certainly offered tremendous shock.
“Radon oppa! It’s me, it’s me! Amy!”
“….”
Amy Crawler.
I found out through the pile of letters in the room that she was the sister of Radon Crawler.
Father – Rotas Crawler
Mother – Skilla Crawler
Eldest Son – Radon Crawler
Second Daughter – Amy Crawler
This is the current family tree of the Crawler family. Once a noble lineage, now fallen, much of the information has been lost.
Given their downfall, it’s natural they’ve likely been reduced to kicking cans on the streets. Therefore, it’s highly likely the children didn’t grow up in a good environment.
There was probably at least one dark aspect to discover. And right now… I could already see such a part.
“It’s been a while! Did you already have your vacation? Time flies!”
“….”
“How do I look? I’ve been showing off my skills with this new body. I won quite a bit, too.”
I was walking down the street with Amy.
Seeing her smile that reminded me of Mary, it didn’t seem like she was acting delinquently. If judged solely by her face, one could even say she was cute.
Yeah… just her face.
“Why aren’t you answering, oppa?”
“Uh, um?”
“Are you surprised by my body?”
Wouldn’t you be surprised if you were in my shoes?
“Do you not like it?”
“No, it’s not that. Haha… it’s been a while.”
[Decrease in erosion rate: -1%]
[+100 Credits]
In that moment, I felt a chill as my sister’s expression turned ashen. Then I could remember why I was walking along with her willingly.
Because I didn’t want to get beaten up.
A boy like me, just a light tap could turn me into bone and flesh confetti.
Facing someone equipped with such physical prowess, I couldn’t help but feel a chill down my spine.
If I misspoke, I’d likely be dragged into the truth room and beaten senseless, and I’d nod in agreement.
“You’ve really grown a lot. When did you get so big?”
I had to pretend to know.
“About a month ago. I worked really hard to get here, and I finally succeeded!”
Wait, so… she made that physique in just one month of training? And as a girl?
Even a grown man hitting the gym three times a day wouldn’t build that kind of body so easily, right?
What a terrifying hybrid.
And my sister…? Sister??
… It’s honestly left me speechless. I’d even prefer a younger sister from a light novel saying, “Oppa, hurry up or you’ll be late!”
“We moved, so I’ve been searching for you quite a bit. Even if it’s not as safe as our old house, it should be okay.”
“Is that so?”
With a sister like a big brother, we entered the forest. We passed through trees acting as fences and crossed a waterfall creating a small rainbow, finally arriving at a sizeable cabin.
That wooden building connected to a massive tree looked pretty huge for a mere secluded dwelling.
Even with dozens of workers, it seemed barely feasible to construct, and I doubted my impoverished parents had the budget to hire them.
“Be careful of the barrier when entering.”
“What?”
Not understanding what was being said, I stepped toward the cabin. Suddenly, I felt resistance, as if something invisible was pushing me out.
It felt like I was breaking through a wall made of plastic. It resembled the barrier surrounding the Academy. I had anticipated it, but it seemed my parents were no pushovers either.
Well, if the youngest has such physical strength, it made sense they hadn’t fallen due to military weakness.
When the cabin door creaked open, a woman with hair similar to my sister’s emerged. I didn’t need to think long to recognize who she was.
“Welcome! Radon! I’ve been waiting for you.”
A woman who looked quite youthful for a married woman with children. She greeted me while flowing her gauzy clothes.
Skilla Crawler. She was my biological mother.
“Mom! I’m back~”
“Amy, you went out again in that body, didn’t you? I told you to hold back since you can’t control it yet.”
“C’mon, thanks to this, I managed to win a prize!”
“Oh, dear! You can’t just go showing your face everywhere. You know our family’s situation well.”
“Hmph….”
My muscular sister sulked. Then with a puff! her body shrank.
“But what am I supposed to do about it? My body doesn’t listen.”
I blinked in disbelief.
The figure of my sister, which resembled a bodybuilder… transformed into the pure form of a little girl!
She was as short as Mary and had delicate features that looked like she couldn’t swat a fly. She was so cute it felt like everything I’d just seen was a hallucination.
This was her true form, and that physique I had seen was just a trick.
“You must have been surprised by Amy’s sudden transformation, right? It’s actually magic, so don’t worry.”
“Magic?”
“I’ll explain in detail once we go inside. You must be really hungry from the trek back, right?”
“Yes….”
I followed my mother’s guidance with a puzzled expression. Even considering the bizarre things I had just witnessed, the family seemed rather intact.
“What do you think, my son? This fortress is made of steel.”
Huh??
“Right! With a fortress like this, it could easily withstand thousands of cannonballs without a scratch. Indeed, my dad’s magic is awesome!”
“Our daughter looked so cute in her previous form. She really shrank down to a tiny size.”
“Should I make it even smaller?”
“No way. Then she’d shrink and we’d never find her again.”
Hmm… Just listening to their conversation made me think the whole family needed psychiatric counseling.
But one fact couldn’t be overlooked.
<'Liars’ Curse' erosion rate - 45/100>
What kind of turmoil this family was experiencing.
*
Contrary to the dazzling exterior of the wooden building, the interior was utterly shabby.
It creaked with each step. The sloppily hung light fixture above flickered like a haunted house.
“Isn’t it just a paradise vibe? Right?”
“Yes… it’s heaven, truly.”
[Decrease in erosion rate: -2%]
[+200 Credits]
I had to make excuses and lie through my teeth. I expected that all the family members would be experiencing similar prompts.
‘But don’t they not have a system window?’
Thinking about it, this family likely had no idea what their erosion rate was. That meant… they had no choice but to lie recklessly.
“This way.”
My mother guided me to a room.
Since it was a newly moved-in place, it must be very unfamiliar even to Radon before the possession. That’s probably why my inability to compose myself didn’t seem to bother her or my sister.
What a fitting time.
Inside the room were all the essentials for living, like a mattress and desk. But that was about it.
The creaky floorboards looked weak enough to fall apart at any given moment.
The arrangement of the beams forming the ceiling was a mess, and the supporting beams looked rotted to the point of breaking without notice.
Having seen it on the way, my room was not the only one in such a state. Maybe with a heavy rain, but if a typhoon hit, the building itself might collapse like a house of cards.
There are two possible reasons for this.
Firstly, Dad built it without construction knowledge, just randomly.
Secondly, it could be defects from being instantaneously formed through magic.
‘Looking at the magic flowing in the building, the latter seems the most plausible…’
Could it be that the building is maintained with magic 24/7?
I didn’t know how they ended up in this state, but my father was once a count. It wouldn’t be unusual for him to possess advanced magical skills.
The barrier I saw earlier was also not shabby. I didn’t know where he obtained the wood, but it seemed like what he picked up from somewhere discarded.
Pitiful, really.
『The curse… I can sense it.』
At that moment, a black snake lunged out from the shadows. Muto, being a high-level spirit, immediately detected the curse.
I wondered if someone would dare call him the shadow of gluttony.
『Four of the same curse are gathered together. But I can’t consume them.』
“What’s that about?”
『Have you ever considered why I don’t resist after being absorbed by you?』
What the heck is this guy talking about?
『As you know, the curse placed on you is no ordinary curse. It’s one imposed by a towering higher-dimensional being, able to pull in entities like me. You cleverly utilized that to manipulate your spirit powers.』
I merely absorbed it while sealed; still, he’s a high-level spirit. If anyone knows about these curses, it would be him.
“Why bring that up now?”
『Why should I lend a hand to someone like you, a mere puppy? There’s nothing to gain from a novice like you. Hahaha!』
“This is really getting old!”
As I tried to hit him, Muto vanished without a trace. His antics of provoking then hiding were quite infuriating.
Who would even think he wasn’t a spirit?
[Spirit ‘Muto’ is mocking you.]
[Insufficient intimacy for a contract.]
According to the system notification, I hadn’t contracted with him yet. What I did was just seize the opportunity and suppress him with my power.
Completing the contract would pose another challenge. A necessity if I wanted to survive against the bosses approaching in the next chapters.
“Did you wait long? Since it’s been a while since Radon came home, I made sure to prepare something special.”
At my mother’s call, I descended to the kitchen on the first floor.
On the table was corn soup, roast duck, fish cutlets with cheese, salad, and an unidentifiable steak that didn’t look like it came from any animal.
It was clear that this food hadn’t been bought from the market but rather hunted and prepared in the wild.
The food looked appetizing, but the atmosphere seemed dark. With a single candle lit on the table, it felt more like a dark magic banquet than a family dinner.
Still, since it was a bounty prepared to the best of their ability, I had to eat it. I said a polite “I will eat well” and speared the steak with my fork.
“Radon! You were already here!”
Just as I was about to take a bite, a man entered through the back kitchen door. Dressed in the fur of a wild boar, that was my father, Rotas Crawler.
“You must’ve been really hungry. Don’t mind me, just eat. Our finances are rather poor, so it’s our fault for not being able to provide enough food.”
My father, apologizing yet happy that his son had returned, sat down at the table. It was a gathering of family after a long time, so he surely didn’t want to ruin it with gloomy talk.
“Have you been well? How was the Academy?”
“It’s been pretty fun. I made a lot of friends too.”
“I see… Indeed, a worthy descendant of the Sword Saint!”
“Huh…?”
In that moment, I recalled why I had first fought with Jenny.
And looking back at the family letters stacked in the dorm, I realized this man was the one who infused Radon before possession with a delusion of grandeur.
“With just being a sword saint, you say? Our Radon is the strongest not just in the world, but in the universe! Who could possibly contend with him?”
“Then you must’ve charmed all the girls in your class, right? Totally awesome!”
I’m going nuts, I really am. There’s no need to explain why these people were caught up in such delusions.
With that curse hanging over us, you never know when you might die, so they keep lying just to extend their lives.
This isn’t something to joke about. Yet these individuals seem to enjoy their fibs. Could it be that they’re addicted to it? Or is this all part of the curse’s effects?
“By the way, Amy. You went to the village again, correct?”
“Yep! I won the prize money at the strength competition. Aren’t I awesome?”
Even though they had fallen, the casualness of our conversation felt as if we were still nobility. After all, why should etiquette matter? We’re just scraping by.
“What do you mean awesome? I told you to refrain from going out as much as possible. You know how many people are targeting us.”
“Still, thanks to the transformation magic you taught me, I wasn’t discovered.”
“Don’t boast if you can’t control it properly yet. If you can’t do it, then you can’t.”
Amy pouted her lips, looking sullen.
Listening closely to their conversation, I asked my father:
“Did something happen?”
“….”
It was essentially a probing question. The fact that there were people targeting us implied my father had been caught.
“Hahaha!”
“….”
“You’re right.”
Oh no…!
“There was a time I sold a sleeping medication I made from hunting as a potion. Unfortunately, a lady from the duke’s family was the customer, and she called the army to hunt me down.”
“Hahaha! Your dad sure did something big.”
“Right, if our family combines forces, we can even fool the Emperor.”
Was that really someone who was once a count?
Even if it were not for that curse, I couldn’t help but think this family never should have fallen from grace in the first place.
Or perhaps after a long life of retirement, his sharpness had dulled?
“My father is just incredible. My thumb is already reaching the mountaintops, climbing all the way to space.”
[Decrease in erosion rate: -6%]
[+600 Credits]
With a strained face, I raised my thumb. As the erosion rate decreased, my family burst into laughter together.
“Hahaha-” Their laughter echoed around the dining table. The sight of a family dinner seemed so natural yet incredibly foreign to me.
“Haha… hahaha.”
Now I’m starting to go mad as well. Even laughter escaped my lips involuntarily.
Just as I was wondering whether this was genuine joy or just being swept along by the atmosphere,
“By the way, our Radon is really amazing too. It seems like you’ve become so strong from what you learned at the Academy.”
“Haha… thanks for the compliment.”
“But tell me, how did you learn to manipulate your spirit powers at such a young age?”
“Uh?”
The laughter stopped.
I hadn’t even told them yet.
“And when did you absorb that snake spirit behind you?”
I could see my father’s gaze. It fell on Muto, who was sneakily stealing bites of steak.
A chill ran down my spine.
“Should I show you how to make a contract with that guy?”
He was not simply the head of a family for nothing.
Surviving as the Academy Scammer