Alina sighed softly as she finally dropped her pen, her fingers slightly aching after sketching nonstop for the past half hour.

She had finished her newest drawing and now all she needed was for her big brother to come back and see it.

The thought alone made her cheeks warm as she imagined him patting her head gently the way he had done yesterday like it was the most natural thing in the world... almost like he had always done it.

’Will he praise me this time...?’ she wondered, her blush deepening as she looked down at the sketchbook in her lap.

She wasn’t used to being praised by Ren. For years his opinion of her drawings had ranged from dismissive to outright mocking, and she had learned to keep them close to her chest but yesterday had been different.

Yesterday he had looked at her work like it meant something and now she dared to hope a little, which was terrifying in its own right.

Even just imagining it made her toes curl inside her shoes.

"What are you doing?" Esmeralda asked, dropping down beside her and immediately craning her neck over Alina’s shoulder without asking.

Her eyes went wide the moment they found the sketchbook. "Wait... you drew all of this? Just now?"

"Yes." Alina replied with a small nod, proud but shy about it. The sketch was a complete panoramic view of the Pagoda Waterfalls with the noble men floating in the steaming springs with their drinks held aloft, the rock formations and hanging mist rendered with careful shading and even small incidental details tucked into the background with the kind of art that took genuine patience to achieve.

"This looks beautiful." Esmeralda announced, puffing her chest with the confidence of someone who was about to say something very stupid. "But I can do better."

"Hm?" Alina raised an eyebrow... not out of offense, but out of genuine curiosity.

She rarely encountered anyone who could match her on the page, let alone someone claiming to exceed her within thirty seconds of seeing her work.

She pushed the drawing book aside to make room. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah, you’re basically a noob compared to me." Esmeralda jabbed a playful finger at Alina’s shoulder, radiating a confidence that made Alina a bit excited. "Just sit back and witness greatness in action."

Alina tore a fresh sheet of paper from her drawing book, set it flat on the rock between them along with the pen and looked at Esmeralda with calm bright eyes. "Here then. Draw better than me."

"Bet." Esmeralda snatched the pen and removed the cap with her teeth like she was preparing to perform emergency surgery. "First... an artist must be in the correct position."

She then stretched herself dramatically across the dirt beside the rock, nearly putting her foot directly into her griffin’s face in the process.

The beast recoiled with a loud, offended squawk and shuffled sideways as Esmeralda arranged herself into a pose that showed she had given this far more thought than it deserved then she began drawing.

The result was catastrophic in a way that was almost artistic in itself.

The lines had no structure... there was no intention and no relationship to each other or to anything in the observable world.

She started with the Evermere clan head and rendered him as a stickman with two enormous lopsided circles attached to his torso like he was smuggling balloons under his robe.

Alina pressed both hands over her mouth.

Her shoulders were shaking. The drawing looked less like the Evermere clan head and more like a diagram someone might use to explain a very simple concept to a very confused child. Two circles, some lines, and what might have been a hat.

"You see, top-level artis—"

Her bragging cut short when the sharp grating sound of steel dragging across stone rolled down from the waterfall path above like distant thunder even the grown men soaking in the springs paused mid-drink, heads turning in unison toward the rocky path.

Ren dropped down first from the upper path, landing cleanly and dragging three tied-up nobles behind him by the rope.

They flopped onto the ground in a heap. Reina descended after him, supervising the remaining nobles with a look in her eyes.

The Evermere head scrambled out of the water, robes clinging to his round belly and raised his beer bottle toward Ren with a glare.

"Ah..." Ren said, dropping the rope so the groaning chain of noble sons collapsed onto the warm stone. "They attacked me first so this was self-defense."

He reached into his pouch. "We also found the Unique Item."

That single sentence cut through everything else in the vicinity.

Every clan head forgot about their sons’ dignity simultaneously and turned toward the small box in Ren’s hand.

Unique items were not found often and they were also not found by eighteen-year-olds dragging prisoners behind them.

Reina quietly tucked the whip back into her storage ring while the tied nobles fumbled with their ropes behind her.

The Evermere head waddled toward his son, clocked the large clean slash across the heir’s chest, and exhaled through his nose.

"Tsk tsk tsk... to think you LIED about learning Iron Strengthening." He tilted his bottle and splashed beer directly over the wound calmly onto his son.

"I DID learn Iron Strengthening!" the heir screamed lurching upright and immediately rolling back into the spring water with a splash, apparently deciding that was the better option. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"A simple sword cut through it..." the Evermere head muttered.

"He is not normal, Father! You know that!"

"Not my problem." He walked back into the water without further comment.

The Whitelocke head stepped forward with his silver hair immaculate despite the morning and extended one hand with authority. "I have an Analyze skill. Let me see the item."

Ren paused for a half second.

’Does that mean he has something similar to the System—’

『There is nothing in this world equal to the System. That skill is extremely inferior, you peasant-using peasant.』

’...Right. Sure.’ Ren handed the box over without argument.

The Whitelocke head opened it slowly.

The pulse of mana that rolled outward was noticeable even at a distance as several of the clan heads straightened slightly without meaning to. His right eye glowed a steady blue as Analyze ran its course.

"It’s genuine..." he confirmed, and the collective exhale from the clan heads was audible. Rowan grinned beside them brightly, so he had been right!

"What does it do?" the Ravenire head asked with his arms folded.

"It maximizes the beauty stat of whoever wears it. The wearer becomes, in effect, the most beautiful person in the world."

A ripple of impressed murmuring moved through the group.

The Whitelocke head turned back to Ren with the natural assumption already forming on his face. "Since you found it the item is rightfully yours. I imagine you’ll be offering it to the Saint—"

Ren had already taken the necklace back and turned away from him.

He walked toward the rock where Alina sat beside Esmeralda, the necklace hanging from his fingers, catching the light off the waterfall in thin silver flickers.

Alina spotted him coming and her eyes went wide and bright in the way they did when she was trying very hard not to look too hopeful.

’Saintess?’ Ren thought. ’Why would I give this to her when I have a perfectly giftable little sister sitting right there?’

He stopped in front of her, smiled genuinely and held the necklace out toward her.

"I promised I’d bring you something when I found it. So here. Now you can officially become the most beautiful little sister in the world."

The smile landed on Alina like a direct hit.

Her nose began dripping blood immediately as she swayed on the rock with one hand gripping the edge to stay upright.

Ren blinked and tilted his head at her. "...Uh, are you okay?"