Vol 4. Chapter 67: Master of Taking the Blame

“Brother Piere, huh......”

When Karina mentioned her dear older brother, an almost imperceptible change appeared in her tone.

That tiny instinctive oddity did not escape Lady Yumo’s eyes, causing the black-haired girl to reveal a puzzled expression as well.

“That brat Piere, did something happen to him?”

“N-No! Nothing...... nothing happened. It’s just that Mother suddenly mentioned Brother, so it felt a little unexpected......”

Karina hurriedly shook her head, using a gentle smile to conceal the trace of awkwardness in her expression.

“There’s nothing unexpected about that, is there? I’m planning to make clothes for all of you. That brat might be a little infuriating, but he’s still my son in the end. I can’t exactly leave him out when I’m making clothes, right? So I wanted to ask you where he ran off to. Xiao Na, didn’t you contact that guy before and tell him to come back and take a look at the new house? Have you heard anything from him yet?”

Yumo asked curiously.

Faced with her mother’s question, Karina lowered her head somewhat guiltily.

“Sorry, Mother. I still haven’t managed to contact Brother Piere......”

Besides,

Even if I did get in touch with him,

I doubt Second Brother would dare come back......

Karina couldn’t help muttering inwardly.

At the same time,

when it came to her approachable, patient, and friendly Brother Piere, Karina’s mind involuntarily recalled everything that had happened recently.

There was no doubt that Piere had not appeared beside Mother for several years now. Even so, throughout those years, he had frequently remained active in the conversations between them and Mother. As for what those conversations were about, one part naturally consisted of missing him and worrying about him.

As for the other part......

Enmmm,

Well,

Uh, it was about......

taking the blame......

That’s right, taking the blame......

At that thought, Karina helplessly raised a hand to her forehead.

For them, the thing that worried these Abyss Demons and the members of the Black Rose Family most was undoubtedly Mother leaving this world.

And aside from that, the second thing they feared most was that legendary weapon capable of smacking gods if gods stood in its way and Buddhas if Buddhas stood in its way—

the feather duster, which possessed terrifying titles such as ‘Abyss Demon Nemesis,’ ‘Root of Nightmares,’ and ‘Butt Exploder’......

In order to avoid being educated by Mother with the feather duster, all of the children, Karina included, did everything they could not to make Mother angry, and also tried not to let Mother discover the things they had secretly done, such as persecuting the Child of Destiny and weakening the powers of the continent.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard they tried, there were still times when they made mistakes or when one of their plans was accidentally exposed.

At moments like that, figuring out how to escape the judgment of the feather duster became the top priority.

Whenever the oppressive might of the feather duster descended upon them, the first thought to appear in their minds was to shift the blame.

And who should they shift it onto?

Naturally, whoever wasn’t there.

Thus, Brother Piere, who had always loved to ‘take a knife in both ribs’ for his younger sisters, naturally became the one and only ideal choice.

(Piere: ??)

Anyway,

as the older brother, wasn’t it only natural for Piere to help his younger sisters and juniors share a little of Mother’s anger?

Besides, Brother Piere’s impression in Mother’s mind had never been particularly good to begin with.

He was practically the number-one Abyss Demon in the entire world most suited for taking the blame!

And so, whether it was Limo’s habit of eating things she shouldn’t, Shuoyue inciting riots, or even Karina’s own plan to secretly have Abyss Demons sabotage the Crimson Leaf Empire’s military factories, everything was blamed on Brother Piere.

And whenever it became necessary to divert Mother’s attention, bringing up one or two of Brother Piere’s glorious deeds was also an excellent strategy.

For example, wasn’t that exactly what Xiao had done earlier when Mother started paying attention to the matter involving the Holy Sword?

The first time they shifted the blame onto him, everyone had felt a little guilty.

However,

after doing it for long enough, it seemed that no one felt any psychological burden anymore.

As time passed, the number of pots piled onto Brother Piere’s back seemed to become just a ‘tiny’ bit excessive......

Karina roughly estimated the total number of those blame pots.

If all of them were added together,

enmmm......

Conservatively speaking,

he would probably have to take more than a hundred hits from the feather duster, right?

Still, as his younger sister, Karina had great faith in her brother’s strength.

After all, the Sword Demon possessed the strongest physical constitution among all Demon King-class beings.

On top of that, he had already been beaten with the feather duster plenty of times in the past, so Brother Piere must have developed an extremely powerful resistance to the feather duster!

He would definitely survive more than a hundred hits!

Brother, I believe in you!

......

Of course,

as a considerate younger sister, Karina had still informed her brother by letter that he might end up getting his butt beaten after returning.

As for why she used a letter?

Wasn’t that because Brother Piere said he was carrying out a secret mission and told her not to disturb him, lest she ruin his ‘grand plan’......

Although Karina had no idea what her brother was actually doing,

no matter how one looked at it, she had already fulfilled her responsibility as a younger sister and informed her older brother of the situation.

As for what happened afterward, that was no longer her problem......

This time,

as a good daughter, Karina had naturally also informed Piere about the new house through a letter, hoping that her older brother would finally return to the Great Winter Forest after such a long absence.

Yet seeing that Piere still had not appeared even now, Karina couldn’t help wondering whether he was simply too afraid of the feather duster to dare return home.

In order to help preserve what little dignity her older brother still had, Karina deliberately put on a thoughtful expression.

After remaining silent for a moment and deciding that the timing was right, Karina slowly spoke.

“Mother, you don’t need to worry about Brother either. Brother Piere is very strong, so he won’t run into any danger. Besides, Brother Piere said before that he was dealing with some ‘major matter’! It won’t be resolved anytime soon. I think Brother Piere probably hasn’t returned to the forest because he’s busy taking care of those matters.”

“A...... major matter?”

Yumo murmured softly.

Karina was deeply trusted by Lady Yumo, so Lady Yumo did not doubt her daughter’s words.

She could only nod helplessly before slowly speaking in a slightly disappointed tone.

“If that’s the case, then there’s nothing we can do. I’ll put away the Memory Fiber for now. Next time, when that brat comes back, I’ll make his clothes then.”

Lady Yumo still cared quite a lot about her only son.

But considering that he was apparently out there struggling for the sake of his career, Yumo, as his mother, could hardly say much.

She could only choose to silently support her child’s endeavors.

As for making him special clothes, there was no rush. She could always do that the next time that brat came back......

As for the accounts that still needed to be settled......

That brat wouldn’t be able to escape anyway.

She might as well let that little bastard’s butt enjoy peace for a while longer......

However,

speaking of his career?

Once she thought about that issue, Lady Yumo couldn’t help slightly raising her brows, her expression filled with confusion.

After all, her son had already been away from the Great Winter Forest for several decades and had not once returned home to visit her during that entire time.

That inevitably caused Yumo to start wondering about one particular question.

Just what exactly had that brat Piere been so busy doing?

Puzzled, Yumo decisively turned her gaze for help toward Karina, who had an excellent relationship with Piere.

“Xiao Na, now that I think about it, do you know what exactly your second brother does all day while staying in the human world?”

“Hm? Th-That......”

For a moment, faced with her beloved mother’s question, Karina found herself at a loss for words.

“Sorry, Mother. I don’t really know about that either.”

After hesitating for a little while, Karina waved her hands and honestly answered Lady Yumo.

To tell the truth,

what exactly had Brother Piere been busy doing?

Karina genuinely had no idea.

“That damn brother, acting all mysterious from morning till night. Usually I can’t even contact him, and when I finally do, he never tells me anything......”

Karina couldn’t help complaining inwardly.

At the same time, curiosity and doubt gradually seeped into the Flame Demon King’s thoughts.

Actually, now that she carefully thought about it, the fact that Brother Piere had not returned to the Great Winter Forest this time was truly beyond Karina’s expectations.

Although there was a ‘certain’ risk that her brother’s butt would end up blooming like a flower, given his recklessly straightforward personality, there was still a nine-out-of-ten chance that he would have come back anyway.

More importantly,

in her most recent letters, she had even used coded language to inform him about a whole series of major events: Mother taking human form, the Child of Destiny kicking the bucket, a new younger sister, and so on.

Logically speaking, even if he had to risk his butt blooming like a flower, Brother Piere should still have returned to the Great Winter Forest.

So why......

“Could it be? Did something really happen to Second Brother?”

Such a thought suddenly appeared in Karina’s mind.

However, Karina immediately shook her head wildly and rejected that unrealistic possibility.

With her brother’s strength, there should be no one on the continent capable of defeating him.

Even if there were, an incident as major as defeating the Sword Demon could never happen without causing the slightest disturbance.

Then,

if nothing had happened to him, why wasn’t Second Brother coming back?

Just what in the world was that hooligan of an older brother doing right now?

Karina tilted her head and sank into deep thought.

......

......

Enmmm,

Her brother......

couldn’t have been fooled by some bad woman, could he?