To be honest, based on his experience playing the original game, Greg didn't have much goodwill toward the character named Chloe Ivy.
Her mouth seemed natively equipped with a taunt-and-venom module. The first time meeting her, one was almost guaranteed a condescending "small fry" greeting, and in subsequent storylines, she was obsessively keen on picking fights for no reason. She could be considered one of the prime trouble-makers players had to deal with during their early academy days.
But now, this bratty girl character who in his memory had "small fry" constantly on her lips was actually using such an intimate tone to call out "Big Brother"—a form of address with immense lethality—while clinging to his arm like a koala...
Greg felt his brain's CPU instantly overheat. He froze in place as if struck by petrification magic, completely forgetting to push away Chloe, who was clinging to him.
"Hey! Greg—!"
A roar filled with fury snapped Greg out of his frozen state.
Victoria was currently standing right in front of him, the stray hair on her head standing straight up. She grabbed the collar of Greg's uniform and yanked him forcefully toward herself!
"This girl is totally an acquaintance of yours! If that's the case, why did you have me come in to buy stuff for you instead?! Or is this just another part of your play?!"
Greg was actually completely bewildered by the situation as well. He had no idea that besides Erin, who was back at the main house, he had another sisterly character in his life.
"Wait! Calm down, Little Gray! It's not what you think! Actually, I—"
Just as he was about to deny this weird relationship between him and Chloe, the moment the thought crossed his mind, it seemed to trigger a long-sealed memory switch. A surging wave of memory fragments flooded into his mind like water bursting through a dam!
Images flickered and voices blurred together, carrying a faded sense of age—
It had happened several years ago, near an inconspicuous small village on the border of Duke Sass's territory.
At that time, a still-young Greg Sass had been ordered by his father to accompany the family's knights on a routine patrol of the territory.
It hadn't been out of a sense of responsibility; he had simply found life boring and wanted to clear his head while showing off the presence of the future Duke.
During their patrol, they happened to pass through that village and stumbled right into an unpleasant scene.
A pot-bellied petty lord, flanked by several fierce-looking servants, was surrounding a dilapidated farmhouse, shouting foul demands for the people inside to hand over their daughter to pay off back taxes.
It was clearly a clumsy excuse for extortion.
Inside the farmhouse, a trembling peasant couple was pleading bitterly. Behind them, a brown-haired little girl who looked barely ten years old, dressed in patched old clothes, was tightly clutching her mother's skirt. Though she shook with fear, her pretty eyes sparkled with a stubbornness far beyond her age and... a near-numb desperation.
The petty lord muttered disgusting filth like, "She might be a peasant girl, but she's got a pretty face. I'll take her back and raise her for two years, and then..." Reaching out his hand, he went to grab the girl.
Right as this sickening scene was taking place, Greg Sass, riding a tall horse and surrounded by knights, happened to pass by and cast a glance over.
He saw the brown-haired little girl about to be seized, and he saw those eyes of hers that retained a striking beauty even in desperation.
"Tch, she actually looks pretty good—much easier on the eyes than those pretentious noble ladies in the city. What a waste for her to be taken by that fat pig."
At the time, Greg Sass had probably only been thinking such simple, arrogant thoughts.
Perhaps he had simply thought her face was pretty and that it would be a shame to lose her; perhaps he had been bored after patrolling all day and wanted some entertainment; or perhaps he had just found that petty lord eyesore.
So, he casually waved his hand and spoke to a sword-bearing maid beside him in the commanding tone of a prodigal son:
"Allie, I've taken a liking to that girl. Go bring her over."
Allie: "Tired of the old and enamored with the new already, Young Master Greg? In that case, I suppose I have no choice but to kill you first and then commit suicide."
Hearing the maid's mind-boggling statement, the surrounding knights didn't even dare to breathe heavily, merely pretending they hadn't heard a thing.
Greg: "Why does this have to escalate to the point where I have to die?! I just don't want to see that fat pig get what he wants!"
"Sigh, you really are greedy. I can't do anything with you." Allie sighed before stepping forward.
Watching Allie approach in her maid outfit, the lord was initially puzzled, but soon inadvertently let his greed and lust show due to her striking looks.
But with a flash of sword light too fast to see, the lord's pig-like body collapsed heavily into a pool of blood, bereft of all life.
Only then did Greg Sass ride over on his horse, casually tossing out a line: "Your daughter will be my maid from now on. As for this backwater place, you two will be in charge of managing it."
Having said that, he didn't give another glance to the couple, who were overflowing with gratitude, nor to the little girl staring blankly at him as if she had yet to process her escape from disaster.
To him, this was merely a trivial interlude during his patrol—like casually picking a wild flower by the roadside because it looked pretty enough, bringing it back to put in a vase. As for whether the flower would wither or bloom after that, he had likely never given it a single thought.
However, to the brown-haired little girl then named Chloe, that understated sentence was nothing short of snatching her back to the mortal realm right from the brink of the abyss.
She didn't have to be sold to that disgusting lord as a plaything, nor did she have to spend the rest of her life in terror and humiliation.
She was even brought back to the magnificent Duke Sass's manor, a completely different world she had never dared to imagine before.
Although she was only assigned to do trivial chores, she could at least eat her fill, stay warm, and have a safe place to live.
More importantly, in the manor, she was exposed for the first time to knowledge that she, as a mere peasant girl, could never have accessed... alchemy.
She found basic alchemy tools and tattered introductory books in the servants' library, absorbing every bit of knowledge she could reach like a long-parched sponge.
The intelligence and sharpness that had once been buried in barren land began to quietly ignite like a spark in the field of alchemy, a realm of infinite possibilities.
And that young master, as handsome as a god, who had dragged her out of the mire, was no longer just a savior or master in her eyes.
He was the light that had dredged her out of despair, the window through which she caught sight of the wide world, and the single miracle in her bleak childhood.
Big Brother—
This title, blending respect, attachment, admiration, and emotions even she herself didn't fully comprehend, had been silently repeated in the depths of her heart thousands of times.
Later, due to the talent she displayed, Greg Sass even funded her studies, bringing her along to Glory Cael Magic Academy for further education.
And she truly hadn't failed Greg Sass's trust. With her hard work and talent, she quickly rose to prominence in the Department of Alchemy, soon becoming the Representative of her year.
As the flood of memories slowly receded, Greg stood frozen on the spot, digesting this sudden influx of information.
"Holy shit... so I actually... did something human in the past?"
Greg felt his worldview take a slight beating.
But having cleared up the whole story, some of the doubts in his heart vanished instantly.
No wonder even current Chloe harbored that weird hostility toward Victoria and always picked trouble with her... So it was all because of me!
Greg felt a bit conflicted for a moment.
"Still... why was such an important character relationship never mentioned in the original game at all?!"
Greg complained inwardly, but on second thought, it seemed understandable after all.
After all, the original game unfolded from Victoria's perspective, centered around the Hero's growth and adventures. Greg Sass's position in the game was purely that of a villainous noble—causing trouble for the protagonist early on, providing conflict in the mid-game, and devolving into a clown in the late-game.
Every time he appeared, his role was basically to take losses and serve as flex material for the player, highlighting the protagonist's growth and giving players a satisfying payoff.
As for his relationships, past experiences, or inner world?
Who cared!
As long as he fed experience to the protagonist and made players feel that this idiot got what he deserved, that was enough.
Therefore, something like him accidentally saving a girl who later became an alchemy genius, and who viewed him as the light of her life—a plot point that might complicate a villain's image—really did need to be deliberately concealed in a game flow pursuing simple, straightforward satisfaction, just to maintain his pure role as a disposable villainous tool.
Having figured this out, Greg had no choice but to accept reality.
He had cleared up the relationship, but the current situation...
"Senior Greg..."
A soft voice carrying a hint of chill sounded, interrupting Greg's thoughts.
Silvia had walked in from outside at some point, standing just a few paces away from them.
Her pink hair draped softly over her shoulders, her hands folded gracefully in front of her. Her posture remained elegant, and her face wore her customary gentle smile.
Yet Greg somehow felt an inexplicable chill.
Rate on N.U.
