Chapter 478: Absorbing Diverse Strengths and Losing Control

No matter what happens, am I still your sister?

Watching Leon, who leaned comfortably against her shoulder, his breathing growing lighter as if already asleep, Anna, though granted her promise, did not feel relieved—instead, she unconsciously bit her lip until it turned pale.

What if… I'm not your sister at all, and the happiness I have now is all stolen? When you find out everything I've done to you, will you still think of me the way you do now?

…

Amid the frightened and anxious thoughts of the frail girl, the carriage carrying the family of four raced through the streets of the capital. Leon, who had only dozed for less than thirty minutes, was woken by the carriage's arrival whistle.

Is this carriage really that fast?

Rubbing his sleepy eyes and yawning again, Leon first smoothed out the wrinkles on Anna's shoulder, then gave each of his sleeping younger siblings a light smack on the buttocks.

"Wake up! We're here!"

"We're here?!"

Hearing Leon, William rubbed his eyes and sat up, carefully tidying his disheveled clothes as Leon had done, then mercilessly jabbed his sister in the ribs.

"Get up! We've arrived!"

"Don't wake me…"

Disrupted from her dream, Melanie groaned twice, kicking her little leather-shod feet uselessly in the air, then curled like a maggot, wriggling away from William along the seat, leaving behind a ten-centimeter-long trail of drool.

"Let me sleep a little longer…"

"Eww… so disgusting!"

Pinching Melanie's arm in disgust, William wiped the drool off the seat with her sleeve, then patted her face.

"Wake up right now! Our new home is on the sixth floor—how are you going to get up if you don't get up?"

"Mmm… don't tap…"

Grumbling, Melanie crawled off the seat, saw Leon's helpless expression across from her, and immediately brightened, extending her arms toward him.

"I'll sleep in big brother's arms—he can carry me up!"

"Nope, big brother really can't carry you up today."

"Huh? Why not…"

"Because big brother has to work to support the family, so he can buy you pretty little dresses~"

Smiling as he pinched her pouting cheek, Leon carried her and William off the carriage, then turned to glance toward Happy Apartments.

As expected, a certain "sickly" burly old man stood in the small garden out front, glaring at him with a pair of garden shears over a meter long, snipping away at shrubs as thick as a bowl—just like trimming green onions.

Stop cutting! I won't come over, okay?

Looking at the bulging black muscles of the burly old man beneath his thin vest, then at his own thigh, thinner than the man's forearm, Leon—fearing he might become "Big Brother" in the worst way—dared not linger a second longer. He struggled to haul the luggage to the apartment entrance, then fled without hesitation.

Seeing the "devil brat" wisely staying away, the burly old man grunted, shoved the garden shears straight into the ground, then limped over to the door, eyeing the new residents of Happy Apartments.

"Thank you, Mr. John."

Anna, who had visited Happy Apartments twice in recent days, was already familiar with this grim-faced manager. After politely greeting him, she picked up all the luggage she could carry and urged her siblings to take some too, then apologized sincerely:

"My brother is very busy with work, so he couldn't help us move. Could you please…" In Anna's shocked expression, the burly manager, who looked like a bear, grinned with a ferocious smile, then, like a circus performer, tossed six or seven large bags into the air and caught them all on his back with a series of thuds.

After adjusting his stance slightly to ensure the nearly three-hundred-pound load was secure, the burly old man snatched the remaining luggage from Anna's hands, slung it onto his back without a word, and turned to walk away.

"Mr. John?!"

Startled, Anna snapped back to her senses and rushed after him, pulling her siblings along, eager to help carry some of the load—but seeing the mountain of luggage piled on the man's back, she had no way to assist, so she simply followed behind, repeatedly thanking him.

Phew… looks like everything's settled.

Seeing that Anna and the others had truly been accepted by Happy Apartments, Leon, who had been hiding around the corner, finally relaxed. He frowned and hurried toward the Cleanup Bureau.

Just six hundred more live-fire shots, and the Shooter Badge would upgrade. But before that, he needed to visit the Director, borrow her connections to investigate Anna's situation—find out what was troubling her.

What? Didn't I just promise half an hour ago that if Anna didn't want to say something, I wouldn't ask?

I said I wouldn't ask—but I never said I wouldn't investigate. As the Director put it: not asking and investigating are two separate things.

Or, as Senior Emma said: never rely on luck. Only by gathering sufficient intelligence beforehand can you remain calm and in control at all times!

If Anna's secret is trivial, I can pretend not to know it for the rest of my life. But if it's a dangerous secret, and I don't uncover it now and deal with it early, am I supposed to wait until she does something foolish?

…

Armed with the caution he learned from Senior Emma and the thick skin he learned from the red-haired Director, Leon arrived early at the Cleanup Bureau and pounded on the Director's office door.

"Director, are you in?"

But perhaps he came too early—the sun hadn't fully risen—and the red-haired Director, either still asleep or not even at work, gave no response.

After waiting a moment without reply, Leon knocked again, raising his voice slightly.

"Director, it's Leon! Are you in?"

"I'm here."

Leon's raised voice had worked—the red-haired Director finally answered, but her voice didn't come from inside the office. It seemed to rise straight through the floor.

"Director? Are you upstairs?"

"Yes, I'm upstairs."

Answering in a calm, almost indifferent tone, the Director's voice grew slightly muffled.

"You're looking for me? If you are, come up."

Go upstairs…?

Hearing the Director's words, Leon froze slightly, instinctively sensing something was off.

Although… the Sixth Cleanup Bureau had no rule against going upstairs, from his observations, no one ever had. The staircase hadn't a single shoe print—it was covered in thick dust, likely untouched for over half a year. Why, today, would the Director suddenly ask me to come up?

And didn't the Director mention that the upstairs is filled with her anomalies?

Back then, her tone made it sound like she was joking—but when I first asked about the Bureau's duties, she'd also spoken in jest, describing their work.

Later, I confirmed with Senior Emma: those things she told me, though they might occur once every few years, were absolutely true. So…

Could this one be real too? Is the voice talking to me now… one of the Director's anomalies?

(End of Chapter)