Illusions, Lies, Truth-Volume 2, Prologue

Translator: Raylight (proofread by Trespasserby; C/E edited by lucathia)

“From now on, you will be known as Hold Keeper and will be House Keeper’s little brother. You got that?” 𝘧𝔯e𝗲𝙬ℯ𝙗𝓷o𝘷e𝗹.𝐜𝑜𝒎

Anyways, I was lying with my eyes open.

The golden-haired man standing in front of me obviously had blue eyes, while House Keeper was black-haired with green eyes. No matter how you looked at them, be it horizontally or vertically, these two looked like the least similar brothers in history! The only point they had in common was probably the fact that they both wore strangely formal clothing.

House Keeper was decked out in a dress shirt, bow tie, and vest.

As for the golden-haired fellow, he had fussed over his choices when selecting clothes to buy and had insisted on buying these gorgeous white, priest robes. Although the clothes were transformed from doll clothes, they were still so pricey that it made my heart hurt!

Nowadays, even dolls had it better than humans.

God knows! Even I myself am only wearing a singlet that’s a mere three hundred and ninety yuan!

Speaking of which, even leaving the “eye-catching” clothes aside, these two didn’t look like pure Asians at all. In House Keeper’s case, I could possibly barely pass him off as a mix-blood; however, the golden-haired one’s appearance was completely that of a foreigner’s.

The fortunate thing was that there were plenty of foreigners in Taiwan, so in the worst case, I could make up some nonsense about them being half-brothers with the same father but different mothers. There weren’t a lot of people I’d have to explain this to anyways. The people that I most likely would have to explain to, would at most be, the neighbors living opposite me. However, Jiang Yu is easily fooled, and her husband… He’s so elusive that I have only heard about him and have never seen him, so he’s not important!

As for Jiang Ziya… He doesn’t count.

With that “truth-seeing eye” of his, he would be able to tell that the golden-haired one is “Not Human!” in one look.

I took a sip from the coffee that House Keeper had served. My line of thinking had started going off the rails, due to the consecutive late nighters that I had pulled to rush my manuscripts.

When he heard his name, the golden-haired one directly flipped a table in rage.

“Hold Keeper?1 What kind of lousy name is that? I demand a change!”

“It’s much nicer than your brother’s name already. I originally wanted to call you ’Grounds Keeper.’ This way, the older brother is a housekeeper and the younger brother is a groundskeeper. How fitting is that! You want to change your name? Fine, take your pick between Hold Keeper and Grounds Keeper.”

After saying that, I was actually a little worried that this fellow would pick “Grounds Keeper.” He had recently taken to being contrary and specialized in doing the exact opposite of what I said. In the end, I had to resort to saying “Don’t go” to get him to leave, and shout “Hurry up and leave” so as to stop him from leaving. Really, what a contrary fellow!

“That guy is not my older brother.” The golden-haired man… Ah, I should call him Hold Keeper now. His mood seemed capricious as he looked at House Keeper standing at the side. Ever since he discovered that House Keeper had become a “lie,” his attitude toward him, which had never been good to begin with, became even worse.

“Why in the world do I have to be the younger brother?”

So he was actually complaining about the seniority?

I actually felt slightly relieved at that. I had thought that Hold Keeper refused to recognize House Keeper as his sibling. That would be much more troublesome…

Although, the two of them do not necessarily have to be brothers, either. After all, other people who raise two or more “illusions” don’t exactly have them live as siblings. It was only my selfish wish in the hopes that House Keeper and Hold Keeper could be siblings with a good relationship, and that it might more or less help Hold Keeper alleviate his feelings of wanting companions.

“It’s because House Keeper was born earlier, and he’s already a hundred and fifty something in the book. You’re just in your twenties and don’t even have a fraction of his age. How are you planning to compete?”

I was originally waiting for Hold Keeper to rebut me but instead, he sat on the sofa with a gloomy face. It was a long while later before he spoke. I had almost lost my patience and was planning to ignore him when he finally asked, “Why did you create him first?”

I boldly and rightfully pointed out, “That’s because he can help me clean, cook, and brew coffee! Are you going to take over for him?”

“… You incredibly lazy woman!” Hold Keeper cursed verbally, but his expression relaxed much more.

This fellow sure likes to be picky! I was a bit exasperated. How is his personality so skewed?

In the book, Hold Keeper was someone who really cherished and protected his brothers. Now, he seemed intent on competing with House Keeper on every little thing. Thankfully, regardless of how much Hold Keeper sneered and provoked him, House Keeper would only ignore him with a faint smile. It takes two hands to clap, so in the end, Hold Keeper could only rub his nose as he was given the cold shoulder.

Of course, there would always be exceptions to what was deemed usual.

“Mistress,” House Keeper said, “I have already become a lie and possess the ability to deal with the artifact demon across from us on my own. There is no need for Hold Keeper to step in, so you may take back the doll that he is residing in.”

“You!” Hold Keeper stood up abruptly.

I glanced at House Keeper. Is he deliberately provoking Hold Keeper? House Keeper is getting harder and harder to understand.

Do these two people really stand a chance of being good brothers? Perhaps it’s just a pipe dream on my end.

“All right, both of you, stop it. There’s still a ‘truth’ with unknown strength beside the artifact demon. You think she’s that easy to deal with?”

Needless to say, I would not take back the body that Hold Keeper was residing in. 𝘧𝓇𝗲𝑒we𝙗noѵ𝑒l.𝐜o𝘮

The situation at the neighbors’ was getting more and more complicated. To think that a “truth” would appear without causing a stir, and that it happened without my realizing. Even if both Jiang Yu and Jiang Ziya had the “calling ability,” would it be possible for them to create a “truth” within such a short period of time?

On top of that, compared to the artifact demon, there were other matters at hand that caused me more unease. It seemed like there were more troubles at the neighbors’ than I expected lurking under the waters.

I actually couldn’t remember when they had moved in.

“Hold Keeper, don’t go back to your own barrier dimension for the next few days. Try to get a better grasp on how to control the body you are residing in and see if you can wield some of your power.”

Even though I said that, I was actually not expecting much.

The powers of an illusionary familiar are very limited, especially when they are out in the real world and not in a barrier dimension. Even if they were to acquire a body to reside in, the most they could do is just brew some coffee.

Despite that, Hold Keeper’s abilities within the book were more unique, so perhaps they could possibly be of some use. Therefore, I still did have some expectations, though the one I would truly be relying on would be House Keeper, who was already a “lie.”

“House Keeper, was the pile of vampire movies that I showed you last time useful? Could you possibly use any of the abilities depicted in the movies?”

House Keeper gave a small smile, and I saw that his face was a little prideful, which was rare. He replied politely, “Without fail, I will leave you satisfied.”

I became even more worried.

The vampire race better not come true by my own hands!