“By the way, Miss Yuika, what are you going to do now that you have a powerful rival?”
Nanami’s nonsensical comment earned a dubious look from Yuika.
“What is ‘powerful rival’ even supposed to mean here? What are you talking about?”
Nanami glanced at Lilou.
“I am referring to your rival for securing the little sister position, of course. The LSP. A true little sister has entered the ring.”
“The what? What the hell is a ‘true’ little sister, anyway? There’s nothing ‘true’ or ‘false’ about being a younger sister, okay? I mean, I’m not even Takioto’s little sister in the first place.”
At this reply, Nanami cocked her head.
“Hm? But, Miss Yuika, you are Master Iori’s stepsister, yes?”
“…Well, yes, he is my big brother.”
Nanami nodded in the affirmative.
“Then would it not be perfectly reasonable to call Master ‘brother dear ’?”
“Not at all, actually! Don’t frame it like it’s the most natural thing in the world. What, is Big Bro supposed to be married to Takioto or something?! This makes absolutely no sense at all! Someone, anyone, translate this for me!”
“Fret not, Miss Yuika. You are a natural little sister, the little sister of destiny, and above all, your existence in and of itself is very little sister.”
“Can you explain what ‘my existence is little sister’ means? Don’t think I’ve ever heard that before.”
Don’t ask me, Yuika. The natural little sister and little sister of destiny stuff was just as baffling.
“While you’ve been hemming and hawing, Miss Lilou could rack up even more Little Sister Points than she has already, so get moving, Miss Yuika. You need to strip and fast.”
“What the hell are little sister points?!”
And what was up with the suggestion to strip?
“Little Sister Points are gained whenever you eat Master’s ice cream without permission, whenever you wake him up while he’s sleeping, whenever you play video games with him, or whenever you clear dungeons I hesitate to describe right now with him. You should know all about them.”
“I’ve done all of that before, sure, but I’ve definitely never heard anything about little sister points!”
“Oh, sounds like you’ve already saved up a buncha points by now.”
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem stripping would be at all necessary. And hey, wasn’t Yuika the one who ate my ice cream?
“Oh! I knew it, Miss Yuika’s secretly a devious little sister…!”
“Ugh, I don’t get any of this anymore, so just little sister is good enough, thanks!”
Uh, Yuika, I don’t think that’s actually… Wait… So, does that make me your “big bro”?! B-big brother?! Me?! Big bro?
Perhaps Yuika really was a devious little sister.
“Phew, I’m beat.”
I couldn’t help but say this. After getting out of the shower, my fatigue hit me all at once.
Talking with Lilou and Sophia had been fun, but I’d felt like there was this strange pressure being put on me.
I sat down in a chair and heaved a sigh.
What am I going to do from here? Before my shower, I had gotten in some light exercise with Yukine and Yuika, so I’d be fine to just fall asleep on the spot. That said, something was telling me I wouldn’t be able to nod off right away, since I usually stayed up a bit later than this. With some time to kill on my hands, I decided to get some reading done and took my book out from my luggage.
Just then, there was a knock at the door. It brought back some very specific memories, and I jumped.
I braced myself after the night prior, but fortunately, it was Ludie who came into my room.
“Is now a good time?”
“Sure.”
She was in her nightgown.
When she sat down next to my bed, she smiled with a tinge of exhaustion.
“Sorry about today. On top of Father and Mother, you had to deal with Lilou, too… It must have been tough.”
I shook my head, telling it her it was nothing of the sort.
“I had a ton of fun. Sure, some of it was rough going, but I’d say seventy-five percent of my issues came from Nanami’s quips.”
In the end, we had all wound up playing a game together for some reason.
If I had to guess, Nanami had been throwing out all those gags in an attempt to help Lilou get along with everyone. There was, of course, the explanation that she simply sowed chaos because it was fun for her, though.
“With everything that’s happened with me lately, I think poor Lilou’s been really constrained and uncomfortable.”
“…You mean with the Church stuff?”
“Right. Actually, Mother came to me for advice. She told me Lilou’s been smiling less and less.”
The Church of the Malevolent Lord, for various reasons, had the Tréfle family in their crosshairs. Since Ludie had been attacked recently, the family had tightened their security, and they had been avoiding going out unless absolutely necessary.
“She really had a lot of fun today.”
Ludie giggled, as if she was calling something to mind.
“Glad to hear it. I had fun, too.”
When I gazed at Ludie, something abruptly jumped out at me. I could see it on her face more than usual…
“Ludie, you’re really tired, aren’t you?”
Ludie’s ears twitched when she heard this. Then she gave me a weak smile.
“…You can tell?”
“Of course. I mean, how much time do you think we’ve spent together at this point…? Though, guess it hasn’t even been six months.”
It felt a bit like we had always been together, but really, it hadn’t been a significantly long stretch of time in the slightest.
“Hee-hee, fair enough. Though I feel like you’ve seen everything about me at this point, Kousuke. We’ve gotten caught up in several lifetimes’ worth of big events. Why, we went through quite a bit just today.”
She had a point. While our lives may not have compared to those of the protagonists in a mystery novel or manga, a lot of stuff had happened up to this point. Heck, we had experienced things that a normal person would never even see in their lifetime, between the Church of the Malevolent Lord’s meddling and the incident with Ms. Sakura.
As I thought back over all the major events we had experienced, I suddenly noticed Ludie staring hard into my eyes.
“…Hey, Kousuke? Thanks again.”
“I told you I don’t mind playing with Lilou; it’s fine.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“?”
“What I meant is, thank you for everything until now.”
“…I feel like I should be thanking you, if anything.”
Ludie laughed when she heard this.
“Being in the imperial family comes with a lot of difficulties—constraints, rules, and threats on your life. But if given the choice, this would still be the life I’d choose.”
“That right?”
“Of course! My position is what allowed me to meet you,” she said, smiling. “Obviously, I’m also glad I got to meet Yukine, Marino, Hatsumi, Yuika, and Nanami, plus Rina, Iori and the others, and all our teachers, too. Even with my obligations as a princess and the incidents with the Church, I’d still want to live the same life over again.”
“Wow, you wouldn’t change anything?”
That was saying something; the stuff with the Church had been pretty serious.
“That’s right. Because no matter what happens, you’ll be there to protect me, won’t you?”
…Well, that went without saying.
“Of course I will.”
“Hee-hee.”
Ludie slowly lay down on the bed and stretched both arms up high. “I guess I am worn-out. I’m really sleepy all of sudden.”
“You sure it’s a good idea to sleep here?”
For a variety of reasons.
“It’s okay, as long as you’re here… I wouldn’t mind anyway.”
Ludie totally had her guard down. I assumed being back home had something to do with it. There weren’t any enemies around, either.
After a short while, her breathing took on a calm, steady rhythm.
“Nothing about this is fine with me, though.”
I moved her into the middle of the bed and covered her with the blanket. I watched Ludie’s sleeping face all while imagining what would happen if her father or mother caught us like this.
She really was beautiful. I could hear the sounds of breathing escape from her pretty, dainty lips, surrounded by porcelain smooth skin. Oh yeah, she was out. Totally conked. I probably could have teased her a bit, and she’d never know.
“…Oh well.”
I didn’t really get it myself, but when I saw her sleeping face, I felt like I’d be able to do absolutely anything, and that it would all work out somehow.
It also seemed far too uncouth to wake her up and bring her back to her room.
So what was I going to do here? I rummaged through my luggage to find something to kill the time. Then, when my hands landed on a book, I turned back to Ludie.
I stared at her sleeping figure, and the quilt rhythmically rising and falling, before I finally tore my eyes from her and slipped into the world of my book.
She continued sleeping like that until Claris eventually came for her.