PMZ 069 – Probably doesn’t count.

The Duke gave me many books and told me to start studying on my own before I come here later.

Later, after greeting his wife, who was having an elegant tea time in the salon and asking me a lot of questions, I went to my room to see Aklys and Lav.

By the way, my little brother-in-law is currently away at the academy right now. I want to say hello to him soon.

“Alisha-sama! It’s been a long time! I’ve missed for you! It’s nice to see you!”

“It’s been a long time, Lav. I should have called you big sister from now on.”

“I’m so glad to see you! Wait from my point I also need to call you big sister too, isn’t it strange that we call each other big sister?” {TL note, one of the thing cannot directly translated}

“… It’s true. What should we do then?”

“Let’s just call each other as same as before!”

I watch my sister and Alice holding hands and giggling, side by side, with Aklys following from behind, It should be a cheerful scene, but their smile is a little awkward.

Aklys and I exchanged sisters this almost like… No, let’s not do that. It’s a good idea not to think about it too much.

I emptied my head and turned my face to Aklys. Then he jumped and startled me.

… I haven’t said anything yet.

“Aklys, thank you for my sister’s arm…. It’s looks very natural, and it moves so well you wouldn’t think it was an artificial hand.”

“Oh, yes, currently it’s decent, But I still have some improvements to make!”

“What kind of improvements?”

“I’d like to add skin sensation. That hand didn’t have that function right now. I think her life would be better if she could feel the texture and temperature of things.

I really wanted to put a blade inside, but my father said I couldn’t do that, so I guess I’ll have to give up. There’s not much you can do if you’re not allowed to, and I rather proud about that particular function.

Unfortunately, the idea of adding different magic attributes to each finger so that I can easily use magic that mixes two or more attributes was also rejected.

The alternatives I can think of is to make the nails interchangeable like accessories. You know, women like to color their nails, draw pictures on them, and put stones on them. But that’s a little out of my area of expertise, but I think there will be some craftsmen that can do it for me…—”

I listened to him, overwhelmed by Aklys, who suddenly began to speak very smoothly and rapidly.

But in the end, I could tell that my sister is still being cherished. It’s enough for me.

“That’s right, Aklys. I’ve just been asked by the Duke to teach you some magic.”

When I cut off the conversation and interrupted him, Aklys stopped talking. Was this future Duke be alright like this? I put my hand on the wall to create a shadow.

“It’s a magic like this.”

Aklys stares at the shadows with his eyes open wide.

“This is …… what does it do?”

“Well, there’s a space in here. You can move things in and out.”

I told him the simplified version, and I stuck my hand in and took out a few gold coins at random. Aklys was surprised while keeping his cool, just like his father.

“…may I?”

“Oh? You want to try to put something in? Please do. You can throw it in if you want.”

I handed him the gold coin and watched as he tossed it fearfully.

The moment the gold coin disappeared into the wall, I felt a switch turned on inside him.

“OOOOoooOOHHHhh! Interesting! What is this? What’s going on inside? Can I come in for a minute?”

“No, you can’t, only sometimes I could.”

“So, sometimes you can? Then what the difference between when you can and you can’t? any idea?”

“It’s when my body got dyed in dark attribute, it could happen, but rarely.”

“Your body dyed in dark attribute? How is that possible? Isn’t it usually the case that the attribute you’re good at is something you’re born with?”

Then Lav entered the conversation.

“Chris. My brother is a little strange. He’s affected by the magic around him, and sometimes his strongest attribute changes.”

“Really? There are always exceptions to everything, aren’t there? Lav is good at fire, right? it’s attribute that just like your passionate and wonderful self.”

“(shy sfx) Chris is good at ice, isn’t he? Just like you cool self.” {TN note 2}

“My brother is born with ‘cool side’?”

Alice muttered to herself and looked at me.

Don’t ask me to agree with you. I have no idea how to respond to that.

“Well, ……. I think we should leave now. We’ll be back soon anyway, and it looks like we’re in their way.”

“What? We just met a few minutes ago! And you’re not disturbing us at all.”

“Yes, I’d like to hear more about your body condition, so sit down, sit down!”

My sister and her husband (to be) pushed me to sit on the sofa with Alice.

For a while after that, Alice and I tasted the hell of being shown the flirting of my sister and her husband in between the Q&A sessions. {tln3}

By the time we were finally able to leave the Duke’s house, it was almost evening, and I felt strangely tired.

We bought baguette sandwiches for dinner on our way home and made a quick detour before heading home.

Neither Alice nor me particularly picky about food, so at times like this, anything goes, and it’s convenient for us.

We finally arrived home just as the sky was turning into the color of night, and the moment we closed the door, we looked at each other unconsciously without turning on any lights and hugged without exchanging a word.

We hugged without saying a word. It seemed we were both looking for comfort. That’s how tired I was because of my sister and her husband.

Anyway, I was relieved and stayed there for a while before turning on the light.

We had a quick dinner, consisting of baguette sandwiches and sweet café au lait, and after cleaning up, Alice went to take a bath.

In the meantime, I spread out the materials I borrowed from the Duke on the table and decided to start studying right away. I started with the info about Ridill since I already know it to some extent, but it’s still quite a lot, covering ten years. I skimmed through the oldest one first.

The average age of residents, the number of births and deaths, and the amount of taxes paid. On the other hand, the average age of the population had risen slightly, and at this rate, the trend of depopulation was obvious.

It started two years ago, that was the year of the Antaeus attack.

At that time, people of relatively young age seemed to be very interested in the adventuring business. I was bombarded with questions about registering and how much money I could make until just before I left.

I was answering them as normal as possible, but maybe it was my fault that they lost their younger workforce.

Wow. I never thought it would come to bite me. What should I do about this village?

I flipped through the documents and looked at the industry page.

Agriculture, sericulture, forestry…

The same industries that have been running for ten years. All of them are necessary, but we can’t maintain and develop the area if the number of people decreases.

I wonder if I can talk to Pete about this and make a guild branch here. Since the land is covered with forest, it should be easier to find monsters than in Capital city’s outskirts.

I’m sure we can have the necessary funds, so first, we need to get someone who knows how to run the guild. Suppose there are any adventurers from Ridill who are struggling in the capital city. Will they go back to their hometown and work in the family business while occasionally do an adventurer job?

If the number of people increases, there will be other jobs open, and I’m hoping that some will become permanent residents.

“… it’s become a big deal, right?”

I heard Alice’s voice, and she placed hot tea on the table.

Alice then sits next to me. She smells so good after taking a bath.

“Oh, thanks. Yeah, this is tough.”

But I’ll do my best. No matter how cute Alice is, I’ll maintain a clean relationship with her.

I’m sure Alice would be the one who bears the shame if we had a baby before we married.

All the things I had been thinking about Ridill dissipated at once. I still tried to follow the text, but I could only memorize it. I couldn’t use my brain to connect the information.

The next thing I knew, I was hugging Alice’s shoulder and snuggling up to her.

Giving up, I put Ridill’s reports to the side and went into memorization mode. It was a book about bookkeeping. I’ve never touched a book before, so it’s going to be hard to digest it in this short time, but I think I can at least manage to memorize it.

I’ve always been good at memorization.

Anyway, I concentrated on burning the words into my mind and finished reading the book until the last page.

“I’ve read it. I’m tired.”

I closed the book, stretched, and turned my head.

I think I’ll take a bath. I’m exhausted today.

“Even Hayato can get tired.”

“Of course. What do you think I am?”

“Hmmm …… super darling?”

She started using some weird words.

I guess this is something that peculiar only to girls.

“I mean a great boyfriend.”

Turns out it just a literal word? I thought it meant something more like slang, but it didn’t seem to have that kind of meaning.

“I’m not that great…I think Alice is much more awesome than me.”

She’s cute, she’s fun, and she smells good.

And, perhaps, Alice has put in a lot of effort so far. She always says that it comes from her queen-to-be education, but from what I know so far, she can do everything.

She’s not a master of one thing, but she a jack of all trades. I think that’s a great thing.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to think so.

“Where did that thought come from?

I’m a half-hearted person in everything. I don’t have any special skills … I’m just an ordinary person who happens to be born into a noble family.”

“No, you’re not.”

What can I do to make you understand?

I stroked her cheek and brought her face close to mine.

Everything about her is just so lovely.

It was probably my instinct to kiss her (in her mouth) at this moment. It was some spur of the moment.

By the time I realized, “Oh no,” I had already done it.

I let go of her immediately, but I was overwhelmed by the pressure of her stare, which she aims at me with a serious face as she demands an explanation. So I apologized honestly.

“Sorry, …… I made a mistake.”

It was just yesterday that I said I wouldn’t do this. It’s disgusting how quickly you can turn something you said around.

But I honestly didn’t do it on purpose.

“I was trying to kiss your cheek, and I accidentally…”

I thought to myself, what a stupid excuse, even though it was genuine.

Alice’s expression quickly turned into one of anger.

“……unbelievable……”

I know, right! That would make her angry!

“I demand a redo!”

What? she angry about that!?

Alice’s hand reached for my neck, and I jumped back reflexively.

I feel like I’m in deep trouble if she managed to catch me. Anyway, I should keep apologizing.

“I’m sorry! It was an accident!”

“That’s mean! I won’t forgive you until you do it right!”

What do you mean, “do it right”?

If I do that to you now, I’ll be doing it on a regular basis. Then there will definitely come a time when I won’t be able to hold myself back.

“Why are you running away?”

“Because Alice is cute.”

“That’s not a reason!”

What should I do? She won’t forgive me.

Maybe I should tell her why I can’t redo this.

So I ran away and hugged her from behind as I dodged her.

“I’m sorry, I even surprised myself. Can you forgive me?”

My voice was unusually sweet. I’m surprised myself.

I slid my hand around Alice’s neck and stroked her collarbone.

I hope she understands now.

“If you’re going to kiss me, I can’t hold myself back, you know?

Turn around if you still want to.”

If you do turn around, then I will abide by your will. But I’ll take responsibility for making Alice do it.

As a result, Alice slumped down on the floor, covered her face with her hands, and did not move for a while.

With mixed feelings of relief and disappointment, I sat next to Alice and waited for her to calm down.

After that, I just kept apologizing to her.

TL note:

1. You know the difference between onee and imouto? Well, that what happens in the raw. I could not do anything but to add “big” in front of my sister. Hence “big sister” I could opt for.  “older sister” but that sounds so wordy.

Onee = older sister ; imouto =  little sister. They are both big sisters from japan (or Asia in that regard) standpoint since they married the older brother.

It’s a customary thing. No matter how young you were when you married my brother, you instantly become my older sister. I had several btw (lol).

2. Like you did not do that in front of your friends!!!