anwhile...
After all the sobbing and energy-draining crying, Penny and Slater idled in the area. Penny lay on the grass, staring up at the sky.
"That was wild..." she breathed out, breaking the silence that had befallen them. "I was hungry, and now I want more snacks."
"I bought you so snacks at the night market."
"How am I not reborn with superpowers?" she wondered aloud. "If I had superpowers, I’d want one that makes food co to without having to move an inch."
"..." Slater, his eyes still swollen, felt a little sleepy. "You should go inside."
"I should, but all that crying made really tired."
" too. The slaps didn’t help either."
"I punched you too, you know?"
"I think my tooth is loose because of it."
"Really?"
"Mhm. Jas is going to go hysterical if he finds out I might lose a tooth. He thinks my teeth are perfect."
"Is he gay?"
"I hope not."
"I hope he is."
"..." Slater glanced at his sister and then looked away. "He’s going to cry if you tell him that."
Penny blinked and reached out toward the sky. "Dinner... I want to stuff myself with lots and lots of food."
"I want so chocolate," Slater muttered. "But I’m too tired, and I don’t want to show myself to everyone."
" too." Penny nodded. "I’m sure my face and eyes are swollen. My husband would definitely ask about it. Not to ntion First Brother and Second Brother—I don’t want to deal with questions right now."
Slater nodded in agreent. If not for that, the two of them would have already locked themselves in their rooms. But they knew that going inside the castle ant facing everyone. Once that happened, people would surely notice their swollen eyes and faces.
The two of them were a ss. It would take a miracle—or sothing bigger—to keep anyone from noticing.
"Let’s just go inside," Slater proposed, getting up. He then approached her, offering his hand. "Let’s just eat. If they ask, we’ll say we fought over sothing stupid. I doubt they’ll press for details."
Penny shifted her gaze to Slater, noting how his cheek was slightly swollen. "Third Brother, your face..." Her lips quivered as tears welled up again. "Mom’s going to kill this ti."
"No." Slater shook his head, studying his sister’s face, which looked almost unrecognizable with how swollen her eyelids were. Even her nose was red, and her cheeks were puffy. "I think Dad will kill first."
"What are we going to do?" Penny asked, now fully considering the consequences of their dramatic mont.
Slater let out a deep sigh. "Don’t worry about that right now," he said, stretching his fingers. "Let’s eat first and think of an excuse later. I’m sure we’ll co up with sothing once we’re full."
Penny pressed her lips together before nodding. He had a point. Staying outside wouldn’t help. In a few minutes or an hour, Zoren or soone else would co looking for them. It wasn’t like they could hide this forever.
With that, Slater helped his sister up.
"You can walk?" he asked, and she nodded.
"But I’ll still hold on to you just in case," she said, gripping his arm as she limped with each step. "Goodness. This is wild."
She snuck a look at him and blurted out, "So, you... rember everything, huh?"
"Mhm." Slater nodded. "That’s why—don’t pull sothing like last night again. I don’t need help. Benjamin and I got out even before you."
"..." Penny pressed her lips together bitterly. "How was I supposed to know? You kept it to yourself."
She paused, brows furrowing as she stopped. "Wait a minute," she said, snapping her eyes at him. "What do you an, you got out before us?"
Now that she thought about it, Penny rembered seeing Slater that night. She hadn’t thought much of it because she was too busy crying. They had been sitting here for minutes, talking only about nonsense like food.
"I work for Holand Security," Slater revealed without hesitation. "Mint is actually my boss. I report to her. But that story is long and complicated. The point is, I’m trained for all sorts of situations. Although what Benjamin said was ridiculous, those guys were really bad at being villains. Or rather, they weren’t trained well since their hostages were usually weak."
Penny blinked before her face slowly twisted in shock. "Eh!?!" Her loud squeal made Slater flinch. "Third Brother, you work where?! But you are—Eh!?"
"Haha... surprise?" he laughed awkwardly while Penny’s jaw dropped. He had to physically lift her chin to close her mouth. "I work as a celebrity and a secret agent for a special division on the side. That’s enough revelations for tonight. We’ll talk more about it later."
"Third Brother, but you—holy shit!" she gasped, fluttering her eyelashes rapidly in disbelief. "How do you expect not to be shocked?!"
All this ti, Penny had seen Slater as a baby. In her eyes, he had never fully grown up. Sure, he was unnecessarily tall—probably the tallest among their brothers—but he was always that scrawny teen to her. After all, Slater had been a late bloor. When he was fourteen, he had the height of a ten-year-old! That was why Penny and Slater were known as the short ones in the family.
Then, out of nowhere, Slater had stretched like a rubber band over one sumr.
The point was, she never actually thought her joke about him being a spy would turn out to be true. Penny’s eyes widened as she looked away, counting sothing on her fingers.
"Penny, what are you counting now?" Slater asked.
"My wealth, my achievents, and my weight!" she yelled aggressively. "I can’t be at the bottom of this sibling ranking."
"Why are you always being so competitive? Also, are you saying I was at the bottom before?"
"Second Brother is last, but I don’t want to be second to last. Not to ntion, Renren is on that list—that filthy rich guy! He better not divorce because I’d get half of his everything. Ah, no, Grace will tear him apart for sure."
"..." Slater shook his head before a subtle smile ford on his lips. Watching his sister return to her usual self, he let out a sigh of relief. Things had ended better than he expected.
In the end, he only gave her bits and pieces of what he did, without going into too much detail. One confession was already a lot for one night. They both needed ti to digest everything. But in a way, their conversation had distracted them from their initial fear about their swollen faces.
Thankfully, when they reached the castle, sothing bigger was happening—sothing that distracted everyone from noticing their puffy eyes.
"Uh..." Penny furrowed her brows, seeing that the majority of their group in the living area had their hands raised. The entire group was already gathered. "What’s going on here?"
Lily, wearing sunglasses even at this hour of the night, happily filled them in from the couch. "Penny, Senior Atlas is asking Senior Hugo to punch him. But since Senior Hugo feels conflicted, so he’s asking for volunteers."
"Oh..." Penny and Slater rocked their heads back and forth, their mouths slightly open. After a second, both of them raised their hands as well.
Hugo laughed, flashing Atlas a wide grin. "See, First Brother? Now, just choose who you’d give the honor of punching you! You’ve got a wide selection."
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