Scumbag Fate System-Chapter 83: Secrets (3)

Reinhard felt chills at the regretful look on Sirin’s face. A person like her shouldn’t make such an expression... It felt wrong.

"Your sister?"

Sirin’s expression grew sadder. "She disappeared three years ago after walking into a Void Distortion during a research expedition and never came back out. They searched for weeks but found nothing."

Nothing? Wait... Would that have happened to us if we weren’t careful in the Void Distortions?

Her voice cracked slightly. "The Resonance Club is my way of trying to understand what took her from me. And maybe..."

She met Reinhard’s eyes directly, vulnerability laid bare. "Maybe finding a way to bring her back. If Void Distortions can swallow people completely, then maybe! They could also preserve them somewhere. I just need to figure out where and how."

That’s why she is so obsessed... She just wants to find her sister.

And she thought he might have the answers on how.

Reinhard gently rubbed her back. "Tell me about her," he said softly. "Your sister. What was she like?"

Sirin’s expression was a mixture of pain and fondness. "Sylvia was... relentless. When something caught her interest, she’d pursue it with single-minded determination that bordered on obsession." A small laugh escaped her. "She was three years older than me and attended the Virellion for three years."

"When did she become interested in Void Distortions?" Reinhard asked, filing away every detail. The timeline mattered since understanding Sylvia meant understanding Sirin’s motivations.

"About ten years ago, when the distortions first started appearing regularly," Sirin explained as she picked at her forgotten sandwich. "Before that, they were rare phenomena... it was one or two documented cases per decade. But ten years ago, something changed. The frequency increased dramatically."

Reinhard’s eyes widened before Yor’s image flashed in his mind. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Her eyes grew distant with memory. "Sylvia was one of the first to recognize the pattern."

"Wait... She did? But wouldn’t she have been-"

"Yeah, a teenager." Sirin giggles at the surprise look on his face. "You could say she had special eyes that allowed her to see more than others."

"Then what she saw..."

"Helped her theorize that something fundamental had shifted in how the Soulstream interacted with reality. That Void Distortions weren’t random occurrences but symptoms of a deeper problem."

Reinhard leaned forward slightly. "And she dragged you into her research?"

"Constantly," Sirin said with exasperation that was clearly affectionate despite the years. "Every visit home became a lecture about her latest findings. She’d show up with stacks of notes and diagrams, insisting I help organize her data or double-check her calculations."

Reinhard squeezed her shoulder, making her smile even more.

Sirin’s blue eyes brightened as she continued. "I complained endlessly. Told her I had my own studies to focus on, that I wasn’t interested in fiend theory or distortion. That she should hire a proper assistant instead of conscripting her little sister."

"But you helped anyway," Reinhard observed.

"Of course I did." Sirin’s voice softened. "Because those sessions were when we connected best. When she wasn’t being a brilliant scholar, and I wasn’t trying to prove myself... We were just sisters working together on something that mattered to her."

She turned one hand over to intertwine her fingers with his.

While her other hand traced patterns on the bench’s armrest. "Sylvia would get so excited explaining her theories. Her whole face would light up, and she’d talk faster and faster until I had to make her slow down so I could actually follow. Those moments were... precious."

The past tense landed heavily. "What happened when she disappeared?"

"I pushed myself into her research," Sirin said quietly. "Went through every single note she’d ever written, every diagram, every half-formed theory. It took months. Some of it I understood immediately since we thought similarly. But other parts..."

"Difficult?"

"More like they didn’t make sense. References to concepts that shouldn’t exist or a theory that breaks everything we know about the Astralisis continent. I think she was onto something significant right before she vanished."

"When I came to Virellion Academy, I learned the Resonance Club had been closed years earlier due to ’safety concerns.’ I petitioned the Headmaster to reopen it." Sirin said with hints of bitterness.

"He refused," Reinhard guessed.

"Repeatedly." Sirin’s eyes flashed with frustration and annoyance. "I spent my entire first year fighting him. Submitting proposals, gathering faculty support, and trying to propose compromises with him... But he rejected everything."

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed. "This was in your first year? When did he finally relent?"

"After winter break in my second year," Sirin confirmed. "Suddenly, he called me to his office and said he’d reconsidered. That he’d allow the club to reopen under specific conditions."

The pieces clicked together in Reinhard’s mind. "Do you think he allowed it after finding out about Yor and her ability?"

Sirin paused, her expression thoughtful. "I had that exact thought. The timing was too convenient, and when he approved the club, he immediately guided me to Yor. He introduced us before she even officially enrolled as a student."

"Wait." Reinhard sat up straighter. "Are you saying you met her when you were still a third year? Before she started attending?"

Sirin nodded slowly. "The Headmaster showed me she could absorb them completely without any apparent harm. He wanted me to understand the club’s ’true purpose’ as he called it."

"The closing of Void Distortions," Reinhard said, understanding dawning.

"Exactly." Sirin’s gaze grew distant again, clearly replaying that first meeting. "I watched Yor step into a distortion field in one of the academy’s sub-basements. It was a big one that no one noticed for months. It had gravity warping and time dilating."

She gestured as if describing the scene in the air between them. "Yor walked through it like she was strolling through a garden. Found the core of the distortion and just... absorbed it."

"And you immediately saw the potential," Reinhard observed.

Sirin met his eyes without flinching. "I know it’s manipulative. At the time... I saw Yor as a tool to understand distortions better, to potentially find my sister. I recruited her to the club specifically because of what she could do, not who she was as a person."

She looked down at their joined hands, her voice softer. "That sounds terrible when I say it out loud."

"But it’s honest and not that bad. It’s because of that you got Yor to stay." Reinhard said that making Sirin’s expressions soften.

She squeezed his hands.

"You’re right... I don’t regret it," Sirin continued firmly. "Because Yor was exactly what I needed. What the research needed. And now that she can control her power properly..."

"You’re thinking about tests," Reinhard finished for her. "Seeing if she can manipulate distortions instead of just absorbing them."

Sirin’s lips curved into a small, guilty smile. "I’ve thought about that possibility since I first met her. If Void Distortions can swallow people and preserve them somewhere, then someone who can control void energy might be able to access that somewhere."

The implications were staggering.

If Sirin was right, Yor might be the key to retrieving anything or anyone lost.

Including Sylvia.

Reinhard leaned back with a teasing smile playing at his lips. "How manipulative of you, club president. Viewing us all as pawns on your chessboard."

Sirin laughed lightly, the sound carrying genuine amusement mixed with embarrassment. "Sorry about that. I suppose I haven’t been the most forthcoming about my motivations."

"How you viewed someone initially doesn’t matter as much as how you view them now," Reinhard said, surprising himself with the sincerity in his voice. "People change, and relationships evolve. The fact that you recruited Yor for selfish reasons doesn’t erase the fact that you really care about her now."

Sirin’s expression softened into something warm and grateful. "That’s an interesting way to look at it. So you’re saying it’s how I view you all currently that matters most?"

"Exactly."

"That’s a new perspective," Sirin said with a chuckle. "It’s a nice way to look at life. A healthier way that allows for growth without being weighed down by the past."

Reinhard grinned. "You don’t like it?"

Sirin gave him an amused look. "I do. It’s just strange hearing it from someone I’ve been interrogating about their secrets."

"Fair point," Reinhard conceded with a laugh.

They fell into comfortable conversation after that, the heavy revelations giving way to lighter topics. Sirin told stories about Sylvia’s more ridiculous research mishaps.

Such as the time she accidentally turned her hair purple for a month. The explosion destroyed three months of notes. And the incident with the confused dimensional pocket that kept spitting out shoes.

Reinhard shared carefully curated memories of his childhood, mixing truth with fiction to create a believable narrative. The hours passed without either of them noticing, afternoon bleeding into evening as golden sunlight painted the garden in warm hues.

Eventually, the conversation naturally shifted to comfortable silence.

Reinhard glanced at the darkening sky, then back to Sirin. "Are you free tonight?" he asked casually. "Instead of spending it buried in research, I mean."

Sirin raised an eyebrow. "Are you asking me to spend more time with you, Reinhard? After we’ve already spent the entire night together?"

"I am," Reinhard confirmed with a smile.

"Then okay." She said warmly. "I’d much rather spend the evening with you than with dusty books."

"Good answer." Reinhard stood up with Yor taking his hand. "Then where should we continue this little talk of ours? Your room or mine?"

Sirin smiles faintly. "Mine."

"Lead the way then, club president." He said with a smile that promised interesting developments.

As they walked back toward the dormitories.

Reinhard found himself wondering when exactly his relationship with the club became more than a mission.