“As your maid, it is my duty to remember your likes and dislikes and apply them accordingly, Master.”
While her response sounded cold, her face looked lovely as she said it. She was beautiful like a doll, with hair that was an ethereal shade of silver atop her head. Even her beastly fangs peeking out of her mouth gave her bonus points for cuteness. And having a tail on top of all that was plain cruel. At one year younger than me, her overwhelming cuteness was enough to make me dizzy.
She’s seriously too adorable. There’s just that one thing…
Her expressionless eyes that bored into me.
Shiro was staring back at me stone-faced. She had told me before that she was taught “the more emotion, the weaker the maid.” But I still couldn’t get used to seeing it in action like this. I had to try to break up the awkwardness.
“Oh, right. Shiro, why don’t you tell me more about stuff you’re into? I’d like to get you something as a token of my gratitude.”
“While we did promise to ‘tell each other more about ourselves,’ Master, such considerations are unnecessary. I am simply doing my job as your maid.”
Shot down.
In that case, I’ll just change the subject.
“Oh, by the way,” I added. “That stuff you told me about goblins really came in handy today.”
“I am glad that my knowledge of this world was of use to you.” She moved her face closer to me and sniffed. “I sense that your interaction with a male goblin has left you exhausted.”
“You can tell, huh?”
I expected no less from the kingdom’s top maid—she could sense a lot from smell alone. When we first met, she had sensed that I was dangerous and pinned me to the ground. I seriously thought she was going to kill me.
“Yes. From the scent. Although I am unable to surmise the contents of the conversation.”
She kept staring blankly at me. She was holding back, but I could tell she was curious to know what kinds of communication a Japanese person from another world had been having with the people of this kingdom and what I thought about it.
“…It was about how he met his wife, the troubles they had since getting married, stuff like that. Tsukasa had me ask him about it in her place. But I can’t really tell you any more since it’s confidential.”
“I see. So judges even lend their ears to family matters.”
The head maid had gotten bits and pieces of information about our work and pieced it together to form a basic understanding.
This was the kind of thing that made her so reliable.
Pretty soon, she won’t need me anymore.
Deep down, I started to feel this uneasiness creeping over me.
I don’t think I was ever supposed to be on the judging side of things in the first place.
My sister is special. She dutifully studied for decades, undertook extensive training, and resolved thousands of actual court cases to become a pro among pros. Even though most of her abilities are based in book smarts, they’re still extraordinary.
But I was different. I was just your regular second-year high school student. If you could open my stats menu like in a game, all my stats would definitely be average. I didn’t have a single special ability or skill.
When I was summoned to this world, I got something called World Transfer Bonus: Acquisition that let me unlock magic and skills more easily than the average person. The thing is, all the abilities I unlocked still started at level one, so it was actually pretty weak.
And aren’t the people involved in legal trials supposed to be extraordinary?
These three weeks, I had handled the magical windows and supported my sister through telepathy.
But in the end, once my sister got used to this world and started learning to utilize brilliant resources like Shiro, she wouldn’t need my support anymore.
I’m a jack of all trades and a master of none, with nothing special about me. And coming to another world only made me realize how powerless I was all over again.
Not that I’d ever let on that I’m feeling down like this.
Having her as my older sister and learning from her for as long as I could remember, I couldn’t help but analyze myself objectively like this.
It was a dark feeling of introspection, like the antithesis of admiration—
“—kky! Akkyyy!”
I felt the dark skies of my mind clear at the sound of my sister’s voice.
She ran up to me, still damp from the bath and wearing her bathrobe.
“Gweat job again today! Kissy kiss!”
I stopped her shoulders with my outstretched arms as she dove to hug me, her lips pursed into a kiss.
“Aww, come on, I wanted to get in some cuddle time with my cute widdle brother after a hard day of work!”
This was her “off mode” that she used to de-stress after work. And it was childish to the extreme.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “Be careful, you’re still wet.”
Her large chest swayed before my eyes. I was close enough to see drops of water getting sucked into her cleavage and get a whiff of her flowery conditioner. This temptation would normally be enough to throw all reason to the wind.
She’s your sister, she’s your sister, she’s your sister…
I chanted the words to myself, just like I had always done for all these years in order to cope. But it was getting more difficult to bear these days.
In the courtroom, her brown eyes were like those of a bird of prey. But now, they seemed innocent and round as she looked in my direction. The disconnect between these two versions of her was intense. It was bad enough that a beautiful adult woman had transformed into a teenage girl but kept her huge boobs. And now, she looked young enough to be my love interest.
If Shiro’s cuteness wasn’t playing fair, then this should be illegal.
“Miss Judge, shall I bring you an ice-cold beer?”
“Thank you, Shiro! But I think I’ll have my first beer at the usual tavern tonight. ♡”
Tsukasa suddenly moved away from me and began changing into her casual clothes.
Lately, we had been going to the tavern in the Adventurers’ Guild after work almost every day.
“Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go! ♪”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Mhm.”
Shiro and I answered, and we were off.
The main gate of the courthouse faced the royal palace, which was in the center of Chiyodaku. It was quite the spectacle: a towering, medieval European-style castle plopped right where the Japanese Imperial Palace should be.