At the dining table filled with various kinds of dishes, Lily looked at the food with disappointment.
Look to the right then say.
"Older brother. "
"What's wrong Lily? "
Lily seemed unsure of what she wanted to say. Lily looked left and right causing the corners around her eyes to be seen very clearly, but the taste of the food still lingering on her tongue made the little girl even more doubtful.
The brother, Kyle Burnet, was completely unreliable even for small things like this, so how could Lily leave the bigger business to her brother? Of course, that is highly doubtful.
"Brother, Hmm— No, forget it. "
With growing doubts every time. Lily felt that she didn't have to say it, after all, her older brother was stupid enough to bear the burden Lily already had.
The Burnet family business wasn't as simple as the usual business in the Republic, it took a lot of rigor to keep it this far. Even though the profits are huge on paper, there are a lot of dangerous risks attached to the business.
Murder, appropriation or expropriation, sometimes they become perpetrators or victims, everything must be accounted for properly so that it can be stable. Profits and losses, difficult decisions, so far everything has been resolved.
However, what happened in the dungeon changed Lily's outlook forever.
Lily then saw the maids of the Burnet family behind Kyle, wearing neat uniforms and some of them were very beautiful maids. The maids had been chosen very well by Lily's mother, quality over quantity, they were indeed very reliable when it came to work, but even so there was one thing that was sacrificed.
The maids looked like humans with no expressions, only fakeness on their faces. Sometimes Lily thought, would when she wasn't looking, the maids would start gossiping? If that was true, then that would be perfectly normal, but their fake expressions showed that it was very unlikely to happen.
Dark businesses sometimes are always filled with people with gloomy faces. Lily couldn't be sure what her parents ordered them to do, or were they forced to do this job? It seemed that was impossible, the payment for the Burnet family maid was more promising than other jobs.
Ah— it doesn't matter because The only thing of value in this house is Kyle. He is the only family Lily has.
"Mother," Lily muttered.
With a slightly downturned face and an expression that was starting to look lazy, Lily put the spoon down on the table, her mouth felt too bad to chew the food on the table.
Lily had practically lost her appetite.
"Lily, do you miss mom? Why don't you write to mom?"
"No, mother must be busy at the moment, I don't want to disturb her while working abroad."
Lily averted her eyes, she tried to hide her expression as best she could. There's one little secret that Kyle doesn't know about, and Lily wants to keep it a secret for a long time.
If only Lily hadn't encountered dangerous monsters in the dungeon, she probably would never have thought of this. The mother of Lily and Kyle is actually gone for good.
It was just a small lie when saying their mother went abroad, after Lily remembered what happened to Kyle as a child when she heard the news of her father's death, if Kyle found out that his mother had died, Lily couldn't imagine what would happen.
This is the reality of the dangerous Burnet family business.
"Older brother. My magic skills haven't been growing lately, do you think I'm weak enough? Considering what happened back in the dungeon, there wasn't much I could do. I think I should-"
"Yes, like I said before. In the Republic, practicing Dark magic is very difficult to do, there is a clear limit to self-study."
"I know that, but if I do, it will mean I will be away from the republic for some time."
Lily thought about it a while ago, Her elder brother could be in danger at any moment, the dungeon monsters were an obvious example.
Although it was true, if Kyle tried to escape and stay away from similar dangers, he would get a greater chance of survival. But what if danger actually approached him? That would make perfect sense considering their family business. monsters or humans all have the opportunity to become the same danger.
That's where Lily started to think, should she build strength? Whether it was using the services of a mercenary or his own strength, hiring mercenaries might not be a bad idea but it would be a matter of trust that might befall them any other time.
Nothing can be trusted more than Lily's strength, that's why Lily tries to learn Dark magic, of course to protect the only family member she has now.
Kyle was very innocent, with a stupid face that didn't know anything, Lily felt that her brother was not aware of the potential danger that could befall him. No, Kyle didn't need to know, Lily just had to try harder to ensure her brother's safety.
Worried, Lily then told Kyle how she should act.
"Brother, I've asked madam Lisa to take me to the Theocracy so I can study Dark magic there, but I'm still worried whether it's a worth decision to leave you here? I know, miss Irina will always help you, but it's still within a limit that I haven't thought of yet. For example, if Miss Irina is busy enough with her own business that she might not be able to help in some way. "
"Irina, her? You think Irina won't help? "
Ah— this is terrible, quite terrifying to see a man who instead relies on his fiancé to take care of most of the problems, shouldn't a man in that position, where is his pride as a man? Lily could barely hide her disappointed expression when she heard what Kyle said, even so Kyle was like that.
After a while the food on the plates ran out, the waiter behind Kyle then approached and grabbed the empty plates and cleaned the glass table which had looked clean from the start.
A waiter then shifted the drink and Kyle immediately grabbed it and then he drank it all up.
That casual attitude, made Lily's eyes narrow slightly. There were so many things that had been on Lily's mind lately but her brother was acting like the president of the republic, As if he had no thoughts at all, so charming yet annoying.
"For this matter, it would be better if we calm our minds first for a better decision. By the way, where exactly are you going to learn Dark magic?" Kyle said that with his usual relaxed expression, As if he had been expecting this to happen.
Lily gave up on what she heard, she then continued.
"Academy House of Shadow, from what I heard, there is a gathering center for the greatest Dark wizards from all over the world, Elves, humans, demons or other species of demi-humans, all of them will be accepted as long as they have talent to learn Dark magic. Some rumors say, around a few years ago the mysterious tomes of the legendary labyrinth were transferred there, it really intrigued me when I asked madam Lisa about those rumours. "
"And madam Lisa confirmed that was the truth, didn't she? "
"How do you know?" Lily said that with an expression of slight disbelief at what she was hearing.
"I'm just guessing, I honestly feel like it's very easy to guess."
Yes, it did seem easy to guess, even for the stupid Kyle, understanding stuff like this and then guessing the other person's response wasn't something that was hard to do.
But even so, Lily had no idea how far her brother had progressed. If he got smarter over time that would be even better, it's just that the academic records are very hard to argue with that, a brother would probably graduate with slightly better school grades than the previous year.
If this situation went on as usual, Lily had started imagining that her older brother might marry Irina while she was at the academy. Moments like that might just pass by.
Right after the waiter behind Lily reached for the plate with the food still intact, Lily then got up from the chair and then approached Kyle's side and sat on the chair next to him, she looked right at Kyle.
Lily had seen a lot of people in life, there were bad average men and better average men, but no one was better than her brother when it came to appearances.
Strong eyes, smooth face and expressions that sometimes look very sweet. Forgetting the fact that Kyle was actually just a brainless guy, most girls if they looked closely at Kyle, they would probably love him at first sight.
However, as far as Lily was aware so far, her brother didn't have many friends except for those who tried to take refuge under the Burnet family's protection.
While Lily was thinking that as her face slightly reddened, She then took a chance by leaning her head on Kyle's shoulder, took Kyle's hand then placed it on top of Lily's head.
"Older brother. Managing a family business is not easy. I will ask madam Lisa to return to the Republic when she is finished with her business in the Kingdom, Madam will definitely help you to take care of some troublesome business coming from abroad Especially the West region. As long as brother waits, you can go to the shipping office in Central port to just understand the business our family has. "
"You don't have to send madam Lisa back here, I think her business in the Kingdom will definitely take a while. And as for the office in the port, is that the head office? "
"Big Brother can put it like that, there also only contain documents and written reports, I haven't been going there recently, so I don't really know what the Burnet family employees are doing for sure."
As someone who ran the family business, that would probably sound really bad to the employees who worked for the Burnet family. There were a number of things that Lily didn't really understand about business, but the income reports she always received proved that everything was going very well.
Lily would never compare herself to someone like Irina, but she could at least understand a bit about business, Then in that way, Lily could forget the worries she had.
If Lily not doing enough alone didn't turn the family business around, her older brother probably would too.
This was proof of how good business management both Lily's parents had made, should she conclude something like that?