The Incubus System

Chapter 47: You Are All I Ever Need

After showering, my feet stepped down the stairs to the dining room. My eyes were fixed on Celia who was already sitting at the room with two plates of cake on the table. I sat next to her.

“Did you make it yourself?”

“Yep! Now try it and tell me, is it good or not.” She gave me a small fork.

I took the fork from her hand while she looked at me with a tense face. Even though Celia is not that good at making cake, but she always makes it for me every year, of course except last year, because we just lost our father.

My hand moved to cut the cake and put it into my mouth. The light sweetness of the whip cream and the softness of the vanilla sponge cake mixed with the sour taste of the strawberry fruit in the middle of the cake filled my mouth. My eyes widened as my mouth was chewing the cake. This cake is really delicious! I could tell it tastes almost as good as the cake from the famous pastry shop.

“This is so good!” I said as my hand moved to take another piece of cake and put it in my mouth in happiness.

A sigh of relief escaped her mouth as a smile blossomed on her face.

“I’m glad if you like it.” Her hand also began to move to cut the cake and put it in her mouth.

“What do you want for your birthday?” I asked. Our birthdays are only two days apart, although I prefer to celebrate it together but Celia prefers to celebrate it separately.

Celia frowned in annoyance.

“You should have surprised me, if I could guess my present it wouldn’t be fun again,” she said in a huff.

“At least you can give me a hint.” The problem is I’ve been trying to guess what she wants every year and it’s always wrong. I could remember two years ago I bought her a nice dress because I overheard her conversation with her friend, but it turns out that what she wanted at that time was a book that had sold out on its first day. She said the dress was good because her friend looked very cute when wearing it, but that didn’t mean she wanted it.

She leaned her face toward me and looked at me in annoyance.

“You’re my brother, you should be able to guess what I want.”

I noticed a drop of whip cream near her lips.

“Stay still,” I said as I leaned my face toward her. My tongue licked her face, wiping the cream with it.

As I took my face away from her, I could see her face flushed in embarrassment.

“Wha-what are you doing?” she said in a stammering voice.

Seeing her reaction, a chuckle leaked out of my mouth.

“That’s my revenge for your kiss two days ago,” I teased. To be honest, I didn’t expect this reaction since when she kissed me, she did it like nothing.

She turned her face to cover her blushing cheeks.

Another chuckle came out of my mouth after seeing her face getting flushed. I’m really happy I can spend my birthday with happy laughter with Celia now, since we didn’t even speak a word at my last birthday. But a second later, my chuckle stopped as I remembered something important. Last year, I was also preparing for my final exams just like Celia, but at that time I had registered to the Diamond College, I even had already completed the payment.

“Celia, how about your registration at Alumore College?” I asked in a serious tone. Alumore College is the best culinary school at Aeros, Celia has dreamed of studying there. I know she’s already registered since I saw her fill out the forms last month.

Celia’s expression changed, the look in her eyes turned sad.

I held both sides of her face with my hands and turned her towards me.

“Tell me how much is the registration fees?” I said again. Alumore College does not have a scholarship system, therefore there is no deduction for the registration fees. I can guess she wanted to cancel her registration because she thought we didn’t have much money.

“Never mind. I’d just get to work.” Even though her face was facing me but her eyes were not looking at me.

“Tell me,” I insisted.

A swallow sound was heard from her.

“30,000 Creds,” she replied.

My brain quickly counted the money in Damian’s virtual account and mine. I remember that even though I just signed Pearl’s contract yesterday but she had transferred some money to Damian’s account, she said she didn’t want to see me selling myself to other women for money. Meanwhile, Diamond also just transferred some money to me this afternoon because she knew the reason why I took the scholarship and my family background.

‘It’s enough! I can even pay the registration fee without having to apply for installments! ‘

She took my hands off her.

“It’s okay, the registration fees are too expensive.” Her disappointment was clear in her voice.

I grabbed her hand, my eyes stared at her with seriousness.

“They accept online payment, right?”

“Yes. But the installments —“

“Come on, let’s pay it now,” I interrupted as I got up from my chair and pulled her toward my room.

“Brother! The registration fees is too expensive! Forget it!”

But I ignored her words and kept pulling her towards my room.

“I told you to let me take care of our finances,” I said irritably. She asked me to be honest to her yesterday but she doesn’t want to be honest with me, even for something as crucial as this.

We went to my desk and opened my laptop.

“Open the website.”

“But—“

“No buts.” I turned around and took my cellphones from my bag. Secretly, I transferred all the money in Damian’s account to my account and put it back. I approached Celia who was sitting in front of my desk with her head bent down. On my laptop screen, a website that displays the registration number in Celia’s name with the amount of money she has to pay and Celia’s college account number. Below it, a countdown when the money should be paid.

Time Remaining: 23:26:30

‘So today is the last day …’ I opened my virtual account and paid for it.

“Brother, I still can learn by working in a restaurant,” she said, raising her head, but her expression quickly turned shocked after seeing the payment status on the screen change from pending to fully paid.

She turned her gaze to me, her surprise and joy clearly visible on her face.

“Brother … This …” her words stopped, she shifted her gaze to my laptop screen, took the mouse beside it and scrolled the screen upwards, confirming that it was in her name. Her happy smile widened, she immediately got up and hugged me happily.

“Thank you.”

An announcement appeared before me.

[Congratulations! You have raised your partner’s Love meter.]

[Celia Strongheart – Human (17)]

[Love Meter 6/10 – You are all I ever need.]

I smiled at her happiness.

“I didn’t guess your birthday present wrong, right?” I teased again. My hands hugged her body tightly.

“It’s not my birthday yet,” said Celia. From her voice I could tell she was holding back her tears.

“Then— I don’t know what I should give you.”

“This is enough … Thank you.”

A sigh escaped my mouth as my eyes glanced at the clock near me.

“Go to sleep. It’s already 12:34 AM now.” I noticed Celia’s tired face earlier, I’m sure she must have worked hard to make my birthday cake today.

“Okay.” She released her hug from me, her eyes still glazed over and a happy smile still on her face.

“But, I need to clean up the dining table before it.” She turned and walked out of my room.

I tidied up my laptop, put away my cellphone and got ready for bed. Even though today is Saturday, I have a class I have to attend this morning.

Soon Celia returned to my room and gave me a glass of water.

“Thanks,” I said as my hand took the glass and drank it. I haven’t drank after eating the cake earlier.

“Now go to sleep. Your final exams will be next week, you have to take good care of your health.” I don’t want her to have the same fate as me, failing my registration test because of illness. She nodded her head and walked towards the exit.

While my hand put the glass on my desk, approached my bed and lay down on it, my hand pulled the blanket to cover my body.

My room lights went out, soon I could feel a movement beside me.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I turned to face Celia who had slipped into my blanket.

“I’ll sleep with you tonight,” she said sheepishly. “I promise I will not do anything. I will not disturb you,” she added.

I can guess, it is because her feelings are deepening, but her guilt is still in her heart, that’s why she’s being more cautious than yesterday.

“Okay. Nite, Celia,” I said.

“Nite, brother …” she whispered as she put her head against my chest and closed her eyes. It only took a few seconds before she fell asleep.

‘As I thought she was tired…’

My eyes stared at Celia’s tired face in front of me before I gave her a light kiss on her forehead, my hand hugging her.

“Thank you for your hard work,” I whispered. Then I also closed my eyes.