Chapter 45 : Chapter 45

Chapter 45 : The Brother Living in My Shadow

“I didn’t apply to Imp Academy. They’ve got the wrong person. Just tell them to leave,” I replied calmly, keeping my tone neutral.

After all, those were just my speculations.

I wanted to see if I could get him to slip up and reveal more.

But it was probably true that Imp Academy had come looking.

They moved fast, school hadn’t even started yet, and their speed was second only to Witch Academy.

Witch Academy didn’t force early arrivals, except for those “recruited” students.

Their urgency, could it be that my absence put some kind of pressure on them?

I couldn’t help but want to laugh.

“Dad already arranged everything with Imp Academy. It was all settled, and then you disappeared. You’re making Dad look bad!”

“Oh, sure, making your dad look bad. When was this ever discussed with me? You’re yelling at me over something that doesn’t even exist?”

I spoke with impatience, as if I might hang up any second.

I even said “your dad” instead of “our dad.”

He started it, probably without realizing it.

Maybe he’d already excluded me from the family, but now they wanted to squeeze the last bit of value out of me.

“You! You’re Dad’s son—you should listen to him. What kind of son are you?”

“You won’t even call me your brother. What kind of brother are you?”

I shot back.

So he knew I was Dad’s son?

From the way he talked, I thought he’d forgotten.

My brother grew up pampered by our parents, sheltered and protected.

But unfortunately, he had me as an older brother.

To our parents, I was probably just a mental case.

With their influence, my brother accepted that narrative too.

But I was a transmigrator.

I couldn’t claim intellectual superiority, but my broader perspective was enough to keep him in my shadow.

If he hadn’t called me a mental case with disdain when he was young, telling me to get treatment, I wouldn’t have bothered holding a grudge against a kid.

But once that line was crossed, I wasn’t going to show him more mercy.

Back then, I was still adjusting to Spirit Vision, a power beyond reason.

It made me hyper-aware of the emotions directed at me, especially his.

I didn’t have the energy to forgive a child’s brattiness.

So, while our parents thought he’d grow into their ideal son under their care, only Yang Yunhan knew he was always living in my shadow.

Because of that, he often ran to our parents to tattle, but he could never articulate why, just crying.

Crying was a powerful weapon, though, so I naturally got less and less attention.

Now my brother was older, realizing his old tricks didn’t work anymore.

Part of that was thanks to me unintentionally waking him up.

He learned that proving his worth was the only way to get more love in a family that valued benefits over affection.

So he started competing with me more like obsessing over it.

Our parents were thrilled with his change, even pushing him to skip grades.

Though he was younger, he was catching up to my academic progress.

Next year, he’d take the college entrance exams and apply to academies too.

He’d awakened Spirit Vision naturally, like many in this world, gradually easing into it.

That was completely different from me.

If others in this world stepped into the Inner World through Spirit Vision slowly, I was like someone standing on the cliff of the Outer World, thrown into the abyss of the Inner World by transmigration.

Spirit Vision’s effects hit me violently, showing its terrifying power.

It became a shadow over my second childhood.

I even thought it gave me depression, leading to selfish and cold thoughts unlike my old self.

That was the one thing I envied about my brother.

Our parents’ favoritism never made me jealous, but this did.

Maybe the simplest reason was that my soul didn’t belong to this world.

At that moment, I was lost in thought.

The voice on the phone became meaningless noise, not even worth processing.

His expression would probably be priceless if I hung up now, right?

I took the phone from my ear, holding it in front of me.

The noise grew faint.

The screen showed my brother’s contact name.

Then I hung up without hesitation.

With a busy tone, I closed the call app, opened my linked account, and transferred all my meager savings to my new phone.

As I did, I wondered when he’d call back.

But I was disappointed.

After finishing the transfer, no call came.

Was it not that serious?

Did he just call to yell at me?

If so, my brother’s brain was seriously lacking.

Honestly, I felt a bit sorry for him.

Our parents’ love wasn’t free.

His desperate need to surpass me wasn’t entirely his own drive; our parents’ strictness played a big part.

He had his own hobbies, like assembling things.

He was good with his hands until a classmate got him into computers, and he started building PCs.

Our parents didn’t approve, and the hobby was expensive, so they banned it.

With me gone, he probably got his hands on my computer.

Wonder if he dismantled it.

Our parents promised that if he got into a good supernatural academy, they’d buy him a computer custom-built, whatever he wanted.

I wasn’t that interested.

Our family’s finances weren’t so bad they couldn’t afford a computer.

Did they not want to spend the money and thought they could squeeze value out of me?

The 50,000 from Imp Academy, after buying a decent PC, would still leave a lot.

I just couldn’t believe I was that cheap.

I could earn more than that working a job, right?

If they were better at manipulation, they could’ve tricked me into working and sending money home.

Wouldn’t that be better than selling me to Imp Academy?

Maybe I should give them more credit.

They might’ve known I wasn’t easy to manipulate, so they chose this “one-and-done” approach.

Now, I was calmer than ever.

My good mood from earlier was completely shattered by this call.

But I needed more information to settle the cracks in my heart.

For example, I wanted to ask Bai Yu about Imp Academy’s specifics.

Though we’d both agreed it was a scam during our chats, I didn’t know the details.

I only had a vague stereotype from online info and Bai Yu’s comments.

I needed to confirm and solidify my disdain for Imp Academy, to lock in the nature of these events so no future twists could shake me.

Only then would this matter be truly settled for me.

But just as I sent the question to Bai Yu, my old phone rang again with another incoming call.