“I used to wipe your ass—why are you embarrassed about a kiss?” Lyra asked, frustrated as her brother kept dodging every attempt she made to get close and share what she believed were his “super microbes.” Since they were siblings, she figured they were practically the same person. If those miracle microbes could turn her husky little brother into a hunk, then surely they could help her transform from a curvy nerd girl into a sexy diva.

“Shit, don’t put it that way. You changed my diapers once when our parents were out for an emergency. You didn’t even do it properly. Mom told me I had diaper rashes for a week,” Ace said, correcting his sister’s gross misinterpretation of what had actually happened.

The Lander siblings were nearly a decade apart in age. Once, when Ace was just two years old, their parents had to rush out due to a medical emergency and couldn’t find a babysitter on short notice. So, preteen Lyra was left in charge of the house—and her toddler brother.

For a pampered preteen princess of the Lander family, Lyra had exceeded their parents’ expectations and done an admirable job, though not without a few mishaps. One of those included forgetting to wipe baby Ace’s behind properly and powder it before putting on a fresh diaper. As a result, he developed a nasty rash. Regardless, Lyra had always been one of the most thoughtful and caring older sisters one could hope for.

“Whatever. Stop dodging before I get mad and start throwing stuff at you,” Lyra warned, reaching into the pocket of her hoodie and pulling out a handful of coins—ready to chuck them at her brother and tackle him down.

“This is getting out of hand. Let’s stop for now and talk it over calmly on our way home,” Ace proposed, lifting his hands in surrender. He knew she wouldn’t stop until she got what she wanted—she was stubborn like that.

“Alright,” Lyra agreed, though a mischievous glint flashed in her eyes.

Ace caught it but chose to overlook it. His priority was getting her safely back to the family estate as soon as possible.

“I’m driving,” Lyra said as both siblings stood by the driver’s door of the SUV.

“No. This airfield is on the outskirts of the county. Even satellite maps don’t show a proper route out of here. You can take over once we hit the highway,” Ace replied. Not that he planned to let her drive once they got to the highway—he was counting on her losing interest by then.

“Fine,” Lyra nodded in agreement. As she circled around to the passenger seat, she muttered, “I can’t believe they bought you a car. I don’t even have one yet.”

“They didn’t buy me a car—I borrowed it to pick you up. They have no idea I’m here, so when we get home, just tell them you took an airport taxi,” Ace explained, hoping to put an end to her envy.

When it came to cars, the siblings shared the same cursed fate. Their mother didn’t allow them anywhere near one, let alone buy them one. When Lyra moved out, she stayed mostly on campus or in the city, so she didn’t really need a car. In the end, their mom got exactly what she wanted.

“Not only do you walk like a jock, but now you talk like one,” Lyra commented, eyeing her little brother and wondering what could have caused him to change so drastically in just a few weeks. Still, she nodded, agreeing to keep his secret.

“Okay. But what car is this? How come I’ve never seen or even heard of it before?” she asked, still baffled by the SUV. It wasn’t just luxurious, comfy, and smooth—it looked downright futuristic, like something straight out of a sci-fi anime.

“And you never will. It’s specifically designed and made for our country’s secret agencies. I—my friend managed to get his hands on one and upgraded the exterior with a custom body kit. It’s flashier than your average government vehicle,” Ace replied. He hadn’t lied, but he hadn’t told the full truth, either. This was his elder sister—he had no intention of lying to her unless it was absolutely necessary.

The Lander siblings had their ups and downs, like any other siblings, but they were incredibly close. Especially Lyra. While most older siblings distanced themselves from their younger ones, claiming they were annoying or embarrassing, Lyra always made time for Ace. She had introduced him to so many cool things—his first comic book, his first superhero cartoon, his first video game, his first noir movie, and so much more.

Sure, Ace sometimes wished she’d introduced him to her sultry girlfriends too, but all things considered, he was grateful. Lyra had made his childhood colorful, imaginative, and a lot more fun than it could have been.

In short, with a geek for an elder sister, Ace never stood a chance—he was doomed from birth.

“Now, who’s living in a comic book?” Lyra quipped. She didn’t believe Ace’s explanation, though she conceded that the car might have been customized with a body kit. The interior, too. It had been altered so thoroughly she couldn’t recognize it at all.

Ignoring her eccentric little brother, Lyra pulled out her phone and began searching for ways to effectively transfer microbes from one person to another. Since her brother was being grossed out by the idea of a simple kiss, she decided to consult the internet for a method he might actually agree to.

“Alright, Ace, you have two options—either kiss me or give me your feces for a Fecal Microbiota Transplant,” Lyra proposed. Her tone made it crystal clear: there was no third option.

Ace turned to look at his sister, expecting to find a smirk or some hint of a joke—but her face was dead serious.

“How can you even say something like that to your little brother with a straight face?” he asked, stunned. He couldn’t believe she not only thought of that but actually said it out loud.

“Bro, look at you. It’s only been a couple of weeks since I left, and my once-husky little brother is now a freaking supermodel. There are only two explanations: either I’m in a coma, or you’ve somehow developed super microbes that turned you into a hunk.

“If it’s the first one, then none of this matters. So I’m going to shamelessly make it clear—I need those super microbes in me. I want them, even if it means I have to kiss my little brother or ingest his feces through my ass. Do you hear me?” Lyra declared loudly, making sure her little brother knew she was dead serious.

“You’re crazy,” Ace replied in utter disgust. But then something struck him—the way his parents and sister reacted to the changes in his body was very different.

His parents had readily accepted the sudden transformation of his body, which had happened in just a matter of hours. On the way to the ranch, he was still chubby. By the time they arrived, he looked like a supermodel. Yet his parents accepted the change without much question.

On the other hand, it had been a couple of weeks since his sister had last seen him. Not only did she find the changes strange and borderline miraculous, but she also tried to rationalize them—pinning them on “super microbes”—yet still ultimately accepted them.

His mortal parents had accepted the oddity in him without resistance, but his sister, who possessed an affinity for curse energy, initially resisted the reality before settling on her own explanation.

This contrast forced Ace to ask a difficult question: Could this be related to why the mortal world remained oblivious to the ‘World of Curses’ despite the clear presence of curse users in society?

As he asked himself this question, Ace began to wonder if there was a higher power at play here—something beyond him, beyond the mortal world’s curse community, and even beyond those on the Curse Web. He had never come across any mention of a force that could actively distort or suppress mortal perception of events involving curse energy. Could such a power exist, one that muddled mortal awareness and selectively filtered their reality? Otherwise, how could one explain the varied reaction of his parents and sister to his body’s transformation?

“Come on, Ace. Don’t be a greedy jerk about this,” Lyra said with a deadpan expression. “Remember our pact? If one of us gets superpowers, we help the other get superpowers, too. Don’t tell me you’re going to break it.”

Ace let out a long sigh. “Ah, the pact…”

He remembered it clearly. When he was about Lilith’s age, Lyra used dollar-store magic tricks to convince him that she had real superpowers. When he got jealous and upset, she not only revealed the truth but made a solemn pact with him: if either of them ever got superpowers, they’d help the other get them too.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep