The Short-Tempered Older Sister

Three weeks later...

“Hey, what’s the plan?” Roman asked.

“We’re leaving tonight. The Baramus’ place is about one week away,” Shinra answered.

“Shall we enter through the front door? Or the broken wall back then?” Roman asked.

“Obviously through the front door, right?” Darma said.

“Right, we came because of an invitation from the Baramus. The guards must have been notified,” Shinra said.

“But didn’t Baramus invite Roman alone?” Terry said.

“Of course, I know. We’ll use Roman to divert attention, after that we all follow him from behind,” Shinra said.

“All right, prepare whatever you need. We’re leaving tonight,” Roman said.

They were ready for all possible consequences.

“I’m not very good at making parting words,” Kong said, walking over to them.

“Who said we were going to separate? We’ll all come back again and hang out together,” Roman said, holding out his fists.

“Okay, Roman, you promised. Men can’t break their promises,” Kong said, bumping their fists together.

Terry, Kenue, and Darma hugged Kong.

“Kong, please take care of this kingdom. I entrust everything to you and the Torto,” Shinra said.

“All right, by the way where’s the Torto?” Kong said.

“He fell asleep. Let him be. I don’t want to wake him up,” Shinra said.

“All right, let’s go!” Darma said.

The five of them headed for the border barrier. Before that, they stopped by the cave behind the waterfall.

In the cave behind the waterfall...

“Father!!” Terry shouted, hugging Gregori.

“Thank goodness you are okay. Thank you Shinra, for saving my daughter. I cannot thank you enough,” Gregori said.

“No problem. We’re all very close like family.”

Gregori hugged Shinra tightly, shedding a few tears.

“I could never repay your kindness.”

“Wait for us here, don’t go anywhere. That’s my request,” Shinra said.

“Very well, I will wait for all of you to return.”

“Hey, Shinra, this is where I lived before I came to Terry’s village. What a coincidence, huh. This cave is indeed very safe. I’ve lived here for many years,” Roman explained.

“Really? Why did you live here? Where were your parents?” Shinra asked.

“I don’t know either. I can’t remember anything but my name.”

After they had rested in the cave for a while, they resumed their journey to the Baramus’ place.

Three days later...

In the morning, they arrived at the border barrier.

“Look! There are two Crocos on the wall. Shall we just beat them?” Roman said.

“Don’t! Croco is a stupid monster. I know how to trick them,” Shinra said.

While Kenue, Darma, and Terry were hiding, Shinra and Roman walked over to the border barrier.

“Hey, Croco. I brought someone that the Baramus asked for,” Shinra said, looking up at the guards.

“Okay, but why did you two come? The Baramus said he only wanted one person,” one of the Crocos said, looking down at Roman and Shinra.

“Whoa. Don’t you know who I am? I’m the king of the Sacred Hawk Kingdom. Come here and see the emblem on my shirt,” Shinra said.

The two Crocos whispered to each other. They had no idea what to do.

“You guys will definitely be rewarded for bringing the person Baramus asked for and a king,” Shinra said.

“Will it work, Shinra?” Roman whispered.

“Don’t worry, it’ll work.”

“Okay, we’re going down. Don’t put up a fight. Drop your two swords.”

The Crocos went down and opened the gate, then they brought Shinra and Roman in. One of them escorted Shinra and Roman to the Baramus’ place.

Before the gate was closed, Kenue, Terry, and Darma entered and followed Roman and Shinra. They managed to distract the remaining Croco.

“Hey, Croco. Do you know how strong the Baramus is?” Shinra asked.

“That Baramus is very strong. I’ve never seen him fight myself. I guess his strength is probably equivalent to five to eight Rhinos,” the Croco replied.

“Then, do you know how strong Satyr is?” Roman asked.

“Satyr? He never showed his abilities at all. I don’t know how strong he is.”

Not long after, they arrived at the Great Monster Kingdom. There were two Sharkins and four Wolfies.

“Wait a minute here, I’ll check whether the Baramus has returned from the Central Monster Kingdom or not.”

“Wasn’t he the one who asked us to come? Why did he even leave?” Roman asked.

“I don’t know.”

Roman and the others arrived a few days late from the day Baramus had set, because they had stopped by the cave behind the waterfall.

The Baramus intended to take Roman and the mysterious woman to the Central Monster Kingdom as a present for Satyr. Since every month he had to come to report directly to Satyr’s place, he wanted to bring a present for him as well. But because Roman had not yet arrived, he had to come to the Central Kingdom empty-handed.

“You guys better wait inside the kingdom. Come on, follow me,” the Croco said.

“They went inside. What do we do?” Terry asked.

“Don’t worry, we’ll wait until nightfall, then we can move,” Darma answered.

Darma, Kenue, and Terry continued to hide. They kept their distance from the Wolfies.

Inside the Central Monster Kingdom...

“You two wait in this room first. Don’t do anything suspicious!” the Croco warned.

“All right,” Roman and Shinra said.

Creak... Click!

The door was locked. The room was like a giant safe, with thick concrete walls and steel doors. Roman and Shinra were not the only ones in the room, there was also one more person.

“Hey, Shinra. Look, there’s someone there,” Roman said.

“Yeah, is he okay?”

“Excuse me, um, how long have you been here?” Roman asked.

“Looks like he fell asleep. Hey, look, it’s a girl.”

The mysterious woman wore a hood, sitting in silence.

“Is she dead?” Roman asked.

“Hey, you!! Can you just be quiet for a moment?” the woman said, pushing her hood back a little.

“Ah, sorry for bothering you, Miss,” Roman said, lowering his head.

She closed her hood again.

“You’re so loud. It’s almost night time. It’s time for bed,” Shinra scolded.

“You two are just like girls, huh!!” she yelled, taking off her hood. She then stood and glared at Shinra and Roman.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Roman.

“Roman?”

Surprised, Roman said, “Huh? You know me? Then who are you?”

“Bastard!! Damn you, how could you not remember me??” she growled.

“Do you know her, Roman?”

“Ah, sorry, I don’t remember you. Are you my wife?” Roman asked.

Furious, she punched Roman hard in the face. “I’ve been looking for you for years and you don’t even remember me?! I’m your older sister!!”

Bam… Thump… Thud…

She bombarded him with a series of punches, throwing him around.

“Huh?? Roman’s older sister? Is that true?” Shinra asked, astonished.

“Who are you? You want me to beat you, too? You think I’m not fit to be his older sister, huh?!” she shouted, clenching her fists.

“No, I mean, Roman never told me about his sister. He doesn’t even remember who his parents were and where he lived before,” Shinra explained.

“My name’s Julia. Just call me that.”

“Hey, what’s this? You just hit me? Wait a minute, I think I remember that name.”

“Take off your headband,” Julia urged, untying her hair.

It turned out that if Roman and Julia’s headbands were put together, they would form a name.

“That’s our family name,” Julia said.

Roman and Julia’s surname was Distomp. Satria Distomp was their father. Lyra Derose was their mother. Their full names were Julia Distomp and Roman Distomp.

“Distomp? Are you the children of Satria Distomp? Is that true?” Shinra asked, stunned.

“Beats me,” Roman said.

“That’s right, he’s our dad. Why do you seem surprised like that? You have a problem with our dad? Let’s settle it right now!” Julia said.

“No, it’s not like that. I was your father’s student. My name is Shinra. Ten years ago, I learned self-defense from him. However, your father’s friend said that Satria Distomp had been killed by a Baramus. Since then, I was trained by him.”

“My father’s friend? Who is it?” Julia asked.

“His name is Torou, a rat monster.”

Oh. So it was him. “Oh. I see.” Julia nodded.

“Hey, you two are just talking among yourselves!!” Roman said in annoyance.

“Shut up, idiot. You always trouble me,” Julia said.

“I’m strong. How could I trouble you?” Roman replied.

“Why you’re here, Julia?” Shinra asked.

“My village was threatened by the Baramus. I was forced to go to the Central Monster Kingdom.”

“Huh? Why was your village being threatened? Why don’t you just tell your villagers to move?” Roman said.

“Never. It was the home of my dad and mom. There are graves for both of them. I’ll never let those monsters destroy their village,” Julia answered.

One of the Crocos showed up and asked, “What are you doing? Why so noisy? You want to run away? I’ll report you guys to the Rhino if you do anything funny!!” the Croco warned.

“No, we were just chatting,” Shinra said.

“All right, the Baramus will arrive tomorrow morning. Wait here and don’t do anything funny!” the Croco warned, leaving the room.

“Hey, Big Sis? Ah. Damn. I feel weird calling you Big Sis. Are you really my older sister? Or maybe you’re actually my younger sister instead?”

“Damn. Say that again and I’ll teach your head how to fly, got it?! Just try it!!”

“Stop it, Roman. She’s definitely your real older sister, because I think she’s stronger than you.”

“Huh. How come?!” Roman said, his nose still bleeding from Julia’s blows.

“By the way, there are three of my friends outside. We plan to kill the Baramus. Do you want to help us?” Shinra asked.

“Turns out you’re as stupid as my brother. Just how strong are you, huh? You look like a pampered prince who likes to laze around!!”

“I believe she’s my older sister,” Roman said.

The three of them were surprised by Kenue’s arrival behind the door.

“Roman, Shinra, are you guys inside? Answer me. This is Kenue.”

“Huh?! Are you stupid? Why did you go inside?” Roman said.

“We’ve already killed two Sharkins and four Wolfies who were guarding the front. We were worried because you didn’t give us a sign,” Kenue said.

“Seriously. You guys even chatted in there,” Darma said.

“Wait a minute, I’m looking for the right key to open this door,” Terry said, picking out the keys hanging next to the door.

“Get out of the way!! Get away from the door,” Julia said.

“What?? You want to break this steel door? You must be crazy!!” Roman said.

“Shut up and watch!!” Julia said, clenching her fists and getting ready to hit the door.

“You guys step aside. Get away from the door,” Roman said.

Boom… Crash…

The door was shattered and flung far, bent out of all recognition.

Shinra stared in mute amazement. What an incredible power!!

“What’s that? It was easy to open the door. Hey, I can do that too,” Roman said.

“Did you destroy this door?” Darma asked, baffled.

“That’s right, I did it. Are you surprised? Of course, because you look so weak,” Julia said, walking out of the room.

“Hey, who is she?” Darma asked.

“That’s Roman’s older sister,” Shinra said.

“Wow. She looks so beautiful and so strong,” Terry said.

“Hey, come here. Now I give you the task of going to a village to the east of this place. You guys take care of the village and wait until I come back! Got it?” Julia said.

“What the hell? It’s better to move the villagers to the cave behind the waterfall outside this border barrier instead,” Roman said.

“Exactly, we have a very good place there. Your villagers can take refuge there. That place is safe from monsters,” Shinra said.

“Yeah, but you have to come along to convince them. If you didn’t come, it’d be difficult,” Darma said.

“I told you, don’t make me repeat it again. That’s where my mom and dad used to live.”

“Hey, stupid Big Sis, you know? Dad and Mom no longer live there. They live in our hearts instead. You know that?! If you don’t want to ask your villagers to move, it’s tantamount to repeating our father’s mistake. We have to hide them first before fighting, so we’ll be free to fight. You understand?!”

“You don’t know anything!! You’ve been only a few minutes being my younger brother again and part of my family. Don’t pretend to know anything about Mom and Dad!!”

“You really are stupid. The Baramus himself told me. A great man was killed because the monsters had captured his two children. Now I understand. So the man in question was Dad. You want to know what I said to him? I said ‘That guy is so stupid, he can’t be a great man if he can’t protect what’s precious to him!!”

Enraged, Julia was getting ready to hit Roman. She had already clenched her fists. However, Shinra stopped her.

“If you want to hit Roman, just hit me. I agree with what he said. He’s right, we can’t fight while protecting people. You must know very well about that since you’re a true fighter,” Shinra said.

“That’s right, first we go back to your village and then ask all the villagers to go to the cave behind the waterfall,” Terry said.

Julia sighed and said, “All right. Let’s go.”

The six of them left the Central Monster Kingdom, heading east to fetch the inhabitants of Julia’s village.