Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 97: Scrambled Memories

"When I grow up, I'm going to be a hero!" Cassian shouted, raising the stick he found during their escapade to the forest with the confidence only a child could have.

"Are you still on it?" Theo gave his little brother a side-eye, the look of unwillingness revealing just how little he wanted to deal with this topic again.

"Just let him play around a bit," Callane laughed, sitting down on the blanket that one of the family servants set for the kids before covering it with an array of snacks, drinks, and toys for them to play with.

Just a few steps away, the servants watched the kids frolicking with smiles on their faces, keeping them away from the table where their parents discussed actual business.

"I'm not playing around! I really am going to be a hero!" Cassian cried out, only to bring his sword-stick down and point it right at Callane's face. "I'm going to be the hero and marry the princess!"

'This little brat...' Callane forced a small smile on her lips.

"And you never thought about asking the princess if she wants to be taken away first?" she questioned while leaning her head over her shoulder, bit by bit understanding just why Theodore was so tired of his brother's antics.

"No! It's the princess's duty to marry the hero! That's what the book said!" Cassian continued with his delusions.

"Is that so?" Theo interjected. "If it's the princess's duty to marry the hero, what would be the hero's duty, then?" he asked, trying to slowly lead his brother to the very same solution that made him despise the very idea of a hero as represented in the bards' stories.

"To slay the evil monster! Ha!" Cassian exclaimed, only for a big smirk to then appear on his face as he took a stance and readied his sti...sword.

"A monster?" Theo asked, theatrically looking around as if to search for the monster his brother was talking about. "And where could that monster be? Or better yet," he smiled, "what makes one a monster to begin with?"

Faced with this question, Cassian froze.

For a moment, one could almost see the gears turning in his head as he pondered over his brother's question.

Then, the huge smile returned to his face, signifying he had finally come up with some sort of answer.

"A monster is anyone who stands in the way of a hero!" he exclaimed, only to lower his stick and then march forth, stepping with his muddy shoes on the blanket only to reach out and grab Callane by her arm.

"Hey!" Seeing how the kid's delusions were now evolving from just empty words of bragging to an actual action, Callane's face lost her polite smile, turning into one of unbridled anger.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?"

Contrary to Callane, who was simply stunned by Cassian's audacity, Theo stood up from the blanket without even a second of hesitation and grabbed the very arm Cassian reached out with to get a hold of Callane.

"Let go of her, you snotty little brat," Theo ordered, his face now deprived of even the most distant hint of warmth one would normally feel towards their blood kin.

"Are you trying to stop the hero?" Cassian's eyes turned wide in surprise, only for him to then squint as a flash of realization streaked across his face. "And that means you are the..."

Before even finishing his sentence, Cassian had already raised his stick and executed a near-perfect strike with it.

Despite all of his childish delusions... or maybe because of them, he was actually one of the better swordsmanship students back at the ducal castle.

Not only did he attend every last swordsmanship lesson scheduled, but he even went ahead and joined the daily training of the guards, quickly reaching a respectable level of swordsmanship, especially for someone his age.

That meant, even with a wooden stick for a sword, his swing wasn't a joke.

But while Cassian had an exceptional talent for swords, he was too busy living in his delusions to ever give a damn about the talents his brother, the actual heir to the ducal estate, showcased to secure his position in the family's hierarchy.

BOOM!

The stick in Cassian's hand exploded as if a fireball spell had gone off inside its core, splashing sharp splinters of wood all over the place...

Only for all of those potentially dangerous projectiles to end up stopped by a bubbly barrier Theo deployed before depriving his brother of his makeshift weapon.

"A hero isn't someone who does whatever he wants, but someone who shoulders the responsibility and injustice others bear," Theo said in a cold voice, letting go of his brother's arm... only to then swing his hand and slap him across the face.

"Trying to take the princess by force?" Theo asked as Cassian recoiled from the slap and then fell down on the muddy ground with his noble bottom. "That's exactly what monsters do. So let this be a lesson for you, my dear brother," Theodore stated, the usual carefree, bored look on his face replaced by a steel mask of ducal dignity and seriousness.

"If you try to lay your hand on Callane again, I will be there to stop you. But if it ever happens again..."

The array of splinters that Theo stopped earlier now swirled in the air, only to form a wall of sharp pieces of wood now floating a mere inch away from Cassian's face.

At this point, Cassian's bravado fully vanished, replaced with simple, primal fear.

From just a single look at his brother's face, it was clear Theo wasn't joking.

"So, once again," Theodore rolled his eyes before breathing out and allowing the splinters to fall down to the ground... before actually forcing them to sink a few inches into the ground, where they would no longer be a potential hazard to anyone stepping on them.

For a moment, silence filled the open field, with neither of the three speaking a word, the servants not even daring to speak up, and the noble adults... too busy with their business to care for their kids having fun.

A silence that broke when Cassian's eyes turned all watery, only for him to turn on his heel and run off in the direction where the adults were talking, in full-on crying meltdown mode before he ran even a few steps.

"MOM! DAD! THEO IS BULLYING ME AGAIN!" he screamed from the bottom of his lungs as he ran off... only for both Theo and Callane to breathe a sigh of relief at the same time, only to then look back at each other for a moment... before bursting out in laughter together.

"Thanks for saving me from that brat," Callane said while wiping the tears of joy from the corners of her eyes, the tension brought by Cassian's antics now dissolved when he finally left while showing his true, immature side. "Still, that slap, don't you think it was too much?"

Theodore squinted his eyes.

"Too much?" he asked, raising his eyebrow before turning his eyes and locking them on the reddish mark Cassian's grip left on Callane's wrist. "After he tried to pull you around, even after you told him not to?"

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"No," Callane shook her head. "Screw that brat. What I'm worried about is whether or not that slap of yours left a mark on him. Because if it did..." she turned her eyes over in the direction Cassian ran off to, a hint of worry flashing through her eyes.

Even to an outsider like her, it was common knowledge how the duke's family greatly favored their second son, holding his swordsmanship talent in much higher regard than Theo's magical genius.

"Honestly, I don't care," Theodore shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like they know how to punish me, so I'm actually looking forward to what sort of 'just deserts' they are going to come up with next," he laughed it off while shaking his head. "What I'm worried about is what Cassian will turn into if they keep refusing to discipline him."

"Yeah..." Callane muttered, her voice growing silent and weary. "I can already imagine him...."

The world around the girl suddenly changed, turning into the scorched remains of a recently burned-down town with bloodied corpses of the massacred townsfolk scattered all over the place.

"If only they'd listened..."

A voice filled Callane's head... only for the entire world around her to start pulsing in a perfect, steady rhythm.

A pulsing that then started to reverberate through her chest, soon reaching the levels of pressure that bordered on direct pain.

Then, as if the burning world around her could no longer handle the pulsing, it all shattered and then collapsed, revealing nothing but the clear, blue sky above her and...

And a slightly panicked Theo's face with extreme focus in his eyes as he moved up and down, his hands clasped together as he used them to press with the full weight of his body... against her chest?!

A wave of heat instantly struck Callane's cheeks, only to then grow even hotter when he suddenly left her poor chest alone, only to turn towards her face and grab it between his hands, prying her chin down to open her mouth and then leaning in...

Only to freeze in place when their eyes locked.

'Why is my mouth... feeling so weird...?'

Callane's thoughts scrambled, her mind left empty.

The memories of the happy past, the tragic past, and the recent events all mixed together, leaving her all lost and confused over what today even constituted.

And then, like a rushing wave, the sensations from a few moments ago all came back to her.

Sensations... that were unfunnily familiar to the one time when she snuck away with Theodore to get wasted in the town's inn, only to then end up making out with him and almost crossing the line... before their servants found them, cutting their moment of fun and freedom short.

And as the girl connected the dots, her cheeks now turned from red to furiously crimson as she couldn't even decide how she was supposed to feel about what happened...

"You really are stupid, aren't you?" Theo suddenly asked, throwing Callane off right as she was about to gather her thoughts. "If you can't swim, why would you try to throw us both into the water?!"