- Sincerity -

After yesterday where her brothers spent their dates with their own girlfriends, each of them had their own reactions.

Bam behaved like nothing happened, Endorsi was embarrassed to see Bam, Altaira and Celeste became even closer with each other romantically that Estelle, Estrella and Raisin went to look for Charlotte to ask advise how to run away from her brother. After all, the younger sister knew her older brother the best right?

Unfortunately, Charlotte didn't know about that either since she had never experienced the feeling of being the third wheel and because she wasn't taught by anyone on how to escape from the life of being the third wheel. She was unable to give them answer and she could only pat their backs, wishing for their luck when her luck wasn't good.

Thanks to yesterday, Charlotte felt that her friendship with Khun has gotten closer as friends. It was a nice thing. But she still can't forgive her brother for doing that kind of deed without her agreement. The first time when she heard Khun told her about it, she felt that she was being sold to Khun by her brother.

So this morning, when Charlotte found Altaira, she chased him. Altaira was surprised and ran to his room. At his own bed, Charlotte was on the top of him trying to strangle him while Celeste was trying to separate them both.

"Do you know that your actions yesterday hurt my little delicate heart?" Charlotte asked with a dark smile. "Where is your heart, brother?"

Altaira who was being strangled didn't hesitate to ask, "You actually have a heart? How surprising!"

"Altaira!"

This irritated her even more. While Celeste looked like she was going to cry already in frustration, Charlotte looked happier in strangling her brother.

Noah wholeheartedly supported her, so as Bam and Rak. Perhaps Rak hasn't forgotten the times where he was being laughed and tricked by Altaira and since he hadn't get his revenge yet, he still had some grudges with him. Khun, being the decent one at the scene tried to separate them and fortunately it worked.

Actually, Khun helped him not because that he was afraid that his brother would die. He won't mind if he dies, he said. But the problem was that if he dies, then they won't be able to get answers for their questions.

This morning the trio protagonists went to look for him was because they had something to ask to him and he was the only one who they believed to be able to give them the answers that they wanted to hear. They looked for him just to find Charlotte trying to strangle him alive. After they separated them, they told both Charlotte and Celeste to get out.

"What? Why do you have to kick me out brother?" Charlotte asked Bam with the sad expression. "What do you guys want to talk about? Can't I be here to listen?"

Altaira snorted, "What a way to change your attitude, sister."

Towards him, she wanted to strangle him alive. But when it comes towards Bam, she behaved like a childish and adorable little girl.

"I haven't finished dealing with you yet" she said with hostility and glared at him. Altaira just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Bam patted her head, "Unfortunately, you really can't be here, Charlotte. Why don't you leave first with Ms. Celeste? I will look for you later."

"Ah.....alright....."

As Charlotte left with Celeste, she had an ominous feeling inside her. For some reasons, she felt uneasy leaving the four of them alone. But it wasn't like there will be some enemies coming in all sudden right?

With an ominous and uneasy feeling, she left together with Celeste and Celeste closed the door.

"Are you alright?" Celeste asked to Charlotte who nodded her head. But her gesture didn't seem to convince Celeste that she was alright.

"What about we go and look for Raisin and the others?" Celeste asked. "I think they have bought themselves some new games."

The last time Charlotte played games was with both Prince and Miseng where she defeated the two of them until Prince was frustrated and took Miseng away whenever she wanted to play with them. Now that she found someone else to play games with, of course she would go.

Inside the room, Altaira sat down on the bed and then looked at the trio protagonists, "Say it, why are you here for?"

"To make you repay the favor yesterday" Khun answered and showed the paper that he still kept as the evidence.

"Of course I know about that" Altaira responded. "What I meant is that what do you want from me? Certainly the three of you won't be here if you don't have anything to ask from me right?"

Bam took a deep breath. He has been wanting to ask this question for years. With a solemn expression, he asked Altaira, "Mr. Altaira......who is Charlotte actually?"

"Charlotte?" Altaira asked and snorted. "Isn't she your sister?"

Bam was the one who grew with his sister. Whether his sister was someone else or not, he was able to tell it and he knew that the one who has been calling him with the word 'brother' wasn't his sister.

Ever since he entered the tower, when he met with Charlotte again, he felt that there was something different from her. The way she spoke, gestures and everything, she was completely different. He felt that the Charlotte was actually a different person but from her appearance, she was the same and greatly similar with the one who lived together with him in the dark place.

In the Test Floor, after they be friend with both Hatz and Shibisu, Charlotte thought that all of them had fallen asleep. But unfortunately for her, there were two people who were still awake and heard her conversation with Noah. After listening to her talk, Bam was even sure that the one who has been helping him all these time wasn't his real sister, but someone else.

When Bam knew that his sister wasn't actually his real sister, of course the first thing he would ask was that who on earth was the girl actually? Why did she help him? If she wasn't his real sister, then where was his real sister? Questions were spinning around his head yet he had no one to ask or to get the answers he needed. From one question and one thought, he had found himself confused with numerous of questions.

After discussing it with Khun, they decided to look for Altaira as they believed that he must have some answers.

Why they looked for Altaira, you ask? When Khun learnt that Altaira had took interest on Charlotte who was his teammate's sister, he found it strange and suspicious. From their words, they met each other in the Test Floor and then be friended with each other. But the way they treated each other made them as if they had recognized each other long ago which was strange as they had recently met. But to say that they had met for a long time, it was a strange thing to say as well. The day where Bam entered the tower was the day where Charlotte entered the tower while people inside the tower can't get out the tower freely.

But after her conversation with someone called 'Noah', they were sure that Altaira must have known something.

Khun knew that yesterday when Altaira asked him to take Charlotte out, Altaira had assumed that they would come here to ask him these questions. He was also curious. Since she wasn't his real sister, why would she suffer this far for a stranger?

"You are here to question your own sister....hm....." Altaira began to wonder from where he should start. "Well, you aren't wrong. The body of hers belongs to your sister, but her soul is my sister."

"What?" The three of them were completely confused.

"What I meant is that she is just a soul from the outside of the tower who borrows your sister's body to stay alive" Altaira explained. "Does this answer your question?"

"Outside of the tower?" Bam was surprised. "Then does that mean you are also-"

"Yes, I'm also from the outside of the tower" Altaira said. "But unlike her, this body and soul belong to me and not anyone else."

"So what you meant is that the one who is pretending as Bam's younger sister is a soul from outside of the tower?" Khun asked. Like what Altaira expected from him, he grasped things quickly.

"Pretending?" Altaira shook his head after he repeated his word. "If she is just pretending, then she won't have to go as far as suffering all these things because of the three of you. She treats you sincerely and earnestly yet you said that she is pretending. If she hears about this, then how sad would she be?"

"She is a soul who borrows Bam's sister's body" Khun said. "What is her motive in doing all of these?"

Altaira sighed and shook his head again. He knew that Khun wasn't someone who will easily believes on someone, but Altaira was completely sure that Charlotte wasn't a schemer like him. She can't even solve riddles due to her laziness to face complicated stuffs, how could she possibly come up with a good scheme?

But they didn't know Charlotte Everest, not even the slightest while Charlotte Everest recognized them and genuinely wanted to be their friends.

"Her motive? Aside from wanting to help you, for what reason she suffer all these years?" Altaira asked. "Do you know that if she didn't come to this tower, then her life would be very peaceful and secured?"

"What do you mean by that?" Bam asked with a frown.

"The outside world, unlike this tower, the world we came from is very ordinary" Altaira said. "Most of the people in our world, they don't have to learn about how to wield weapons or to defend themselves, do you know why? Because they don't have any reason to fight and to kill each other. Their lives are ordinary and they are all fragile and delicate."

"How delicate?" Khun asked out of curiosity.

"You just need to stab them once and they would die" he lightly answered. "And their lifespans are quite short. Most of people died before they reached a hundred years old."

"That short?"

"Hey, don't look down at those people" Altaira said. "Even though their lifespans are short, their lives are easier and smoother than yours. And it's precisely because they have short lifespans that they adapt on their environments and situations quickly."

The trio found it hard to believe.

"But Female Black Turtle isn't that fragile!" Rak said to Altaira, completely disagreed with him for this one.

Rak might not understand what they meant by souls and bodies, what they meant by the outside world, but he was sure that the Female Black Turtle, although she isn't Black Turtle's younger sister, she was the one who helped them this far. She wasn't that fragile. Calling her fragile was just the same with looking down on her and it was unacceptable.

"She is that fragile" Altaira insisted. For some reasons, his expression suddenly changed into a solemn and serious expression. "When she is young, she is afraid the pain the most. Just the thought of getting hurt scared her."

"She is afraid of pain?" Bam looked surprised.

Altaira remembered it clearly that when Charlotte was small, she was afraid of get hurt. She once tripped down and hurt her knees and she cried quite loud. Sadly, at the time, their parents weren't home so he had to carry her back and then had her knees treated. After that, she was careful with every single step that she took. She didn't mind walking slowly as long as she won't get hurt anymore.

But her luck was always rotten that she ended up getting hurt again and again and she cried again and again. Since she always cried, her friends would always tease her about it without knowing that their words hurt her feelings. As the result, whenever she grew up, Altaira knew that she hated to cry in front of someone else. She would swallow all the pain and then bear all of them. When she can't bear it anymore, she would look for a quiet and empty place to cry. And when she cried, she tried to not make sound.

Altaira knew that well because he had experienced it again and again. Thus, whenever his sister was sad and ran away, he was always the first to found her. This also happened in hide and seek. Since Altaira had always found her, Charlotte sometimes wondered whether her brother had put a tracking device on her or not.

"She has this kind of habit?"

"Of course you aren't aware of it. You aren't the one who grow up together with her" Altaira said.

If there was something that made Altaira felt irritated, then the thought of him dying first because of the damned car incident irritated him the most. Several years hadn't meet, when he had seen his sister again, she had gotten smarter and learnt on how to keep secrets from him. Until now, he wasn't sure what caused his sister's death and what she had been through after the car incident.

The trio seriously didn't expect that in order for them to enter this tower, they had to die first. No, they had heard about it from her talk with Noah and now that Altaira mentioned it, Bam was also curious. What killed Charlotte? What she had endured?

Altaira wasn't going to hide it from them that he didn't like them at all. For the three of them, especially Bam, how much has she gotten herself in danger? How much she had herself wounded and hurt for them? He began to recall it one by one.

In the first floor, when she was still weak and helpless, she challenged herself to fight with the eel and ascended to the second floor so that she could meet them. If it wasn't for Noah's help which Altaira didn't know yet, Charlotte would be feed to the eel without anyone able to save her.

On the second floor, she survived from the fight between the regulars who were trying to kill each other before meeting with him and Celeste who saved her from a regular who was trying to take her life. In the crown game, she also tried to survive from the regulars who aimed for her lives and she won the Black March for them. In the Hide and Seek Test, she killed a regular to protect Bam and she was scared to the point that she can't sleep alone. And in the final test, she jumped from the shinsu bubble in order to follow him and nearly drowned herself.

She spent seven years in FUG to be their slayer candidate with the hope that Bam wouldn't be alone. She joined this Workshop Battle and was so that all of them could get their reunion. If this was what they call by insincerity, then Altaira didn't know what sincerity meant.

Altaira knew that the trio protagonists wanted to know about Charlotte's identity. He also wanted to use this chance to tell them that his only and precious younger sister had went this far for them. He wanted them to know that she had endured everything for them. If it wasn't for everything she had endured, her tolerance towards pain won't increase this significantly. When Altaira witnessed how Charlotte was able to hop around with the wounds given by Reflejo and Beta, he knew that she had been through a lot.

"There are some things or people in this world....even though they aren't as bright like the others... but once you lost them, you would never found them again" Altaira said. "You won't cherish them when they are close to you, but after they disappear, you will realize their importance."

"So you are here to tell us about this" Khun guessed it right. "It's because we are the reason why your beloved sister endured lots of misfortunes right?"

"Her luck is already bad enough in her former life" Altaira said. "But ever since she entered the tower, her luck is getting worse." He looked at the trio who didn't look like they were able to say a word after hearing all his words and asked at Bam, "So, what are you planning to do now?"

"Huh?"

"I have told you a little about her" Altaira said. "What are you going to do next? Don't tell me that you are going to find a reason to get her away from your side for her safety?"

When Bam lowered his head and unable to speak, Altaira was sure that he had guessed it right. Seeing how Bam was planning to get rid of his sister made him immediately rolled up his sleeves and almost stood up in anger.

"Hey, you are serious with it?! I was just joking! My sister has been through lots of things just to be with you and you want to get rid of her?! What do you mean by that?!"

"But you said that we should figured out a way so that she won't get hurt" Bam said. He was genuinely worried about Charlotte.

Charlotte, although she was childish and reckless, she was loyal. She wasn't someone who will give up easily. And it was because of this that Altaira was sure that even if he kidnapped her thousand of times, Charlotte would find a million ways just to return at these protagonists' sides.

If Bam really decided to get rid of Charlotte with the reason that it was for her own good, Altaira was sure that not only it will break their relationships that Charlotte wanted to preserve, but will also hurt her pride and made her felt even unworthy.

"If you truly want to protect her, then be stronger. If you truly feel bad for making her suffer all these years, then trust her more. After all, friendships are build with trusts and faith right?"

•••

Before Charlotte transmigrated to this manhwa, her daily life was just simple. She woke up, went to school, returned, gaming and reading manhwa or novels before falling asleep. If she didn't have any school, then she would jump happily on her bed just to be scolded by the elders as she had more time to play games and reading manhwa or novels.

Ah, now that she thought about it, how much time and how many hours she spent for either reading novels or manhwas and gaming?

Since she had spent lots of times for it, then she was sure that she was a skilled gamer. A game with the members of White Chocolate except for their leader was supposed to be easy and a child play for her.

So why did she lost to them again and again and ended up being laughed by Estrella?

Charlotte wasn't sure who was talking about her behind her back as she kept sneezing at the crucial moments or this was just the way on how luck didn't want her to win the games. She was sure that she didn't get any fever or cold. She was fine.....right?

The more she thought about it, the lesser she was sure of it.

In anger, she left the room and decided to stop playing. Looking for her brother would be better, she thought. After she wondered around, she found her brother was with his two trusted friends. She smiled and called her name before running towards him.

When they heard Bam's name being called, Khun and Rak who were arguing stopped arguing and they looked at Charlotte who was running towards them.

But on the middle of her run, she suddenly tripped on her own and fell while hitting her forehead on the floor.

"Charlotte" Bam worriedly called her sister's name while Charlotte was rather speechless.

Luck. Now that she tripped and fell down when there was nothing that could make her trip, she was sure that it was the reason why she lost on the games for more than ten times. Not only that she lost on the games, she felt that she had lost her dignity and pride as well.

"Are you alright?" Bam asked and tried to help her to stand.

"I'm fine" she answered and sat down while holding her forehead. She mumbled, "At least this time, there is no stone to hit my head."

"What?"

"Nothing" Charlotte answered and then stood up.

"Is it hurt? Are you alright?" Bam worriedly asked. "You should have been more careful."