Sekai Ichi no Imouto-sama

Chapter 20

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I was dreaming.

In this garden I was in, a blizzard of white prunus petals whipped around me and my two little sisters, the two I was always together with.

“…so, Onii-sama?”

An air of innocence befitting a five-year-old. But even so, I could sense an unnerving energy from those twin heterochromatic eyes that was fastened onto this honey-blond-haired girl sitting in front of me, glaring up at my face.

“Uuu! That’s cheating, Mari-onee-channn!”

So it’s Mari-onee-san?

Judging by that familiar nickname I hear, this girl here must be Maria herself.

But then, who’s the other girl I hear?

Covered in a silhouette, I can’t tell who she is at all.

“I’m going to be the one that’s gonna marry Onii-chan later when I grow up!”

“Please answer swiftly, Onii-sama.”

The girls before me were demanding an answer over something in my direction.

It seemed like they were having a sisterly quarrel of sort over me.

A quarrel, huh?
“About which of us…”

“You’ll take as your one and only bride!”

Bride.

It’s a word that comes in commonly when you play house, something everyone’s experienced playing once when they were still young.

“I, I’ll…”

Before I could discern the true significance of that word, my sight flickers with a blink and fade away.
◇ ◆ ◇
“Just until when are you going to decide to laze around in your bed, you lazy hibernating bear!”

With a rhythmical violence starting the day, morning at the Blackhazel Manor was uplifting as always. Because of Maria’s somewhat odd policy of not hiring any maids or butlers to take care of things in the manor, most of the petty errands were relegated to Dorothy.

If there was one problem with that, it was that the term ‘subservient’ that’s usually present to an errand-runner’s mindset seemed to be non-existent to Dorothy here.

“Wait, wait! I’m getting up! I’m getting up then!”

Panicking under indiscriminate violence erupting, the second trouble yet to arrive suddenly warped upon me.

Ah, geez.

To clarify, this wasn’t one of those so called cliché situation men experience below their belt when they get up in the morning.

Rather than that, it was a bit more creative trouble than what usually happens.

It’s more like…

Around my waist was a mysterious sleeping figure gripped tight around my body, hugging my waist like it was some colossal teddy bear.

That figure belonged to none other than Lily the midget, currently acting as my executive bodyguard.

“How tragic my life is.”

“…”

“…”

“Whoo. Hey, Dorothy.”

“Hmm.”

“I know the situation here looks like I should be arrested for being a s.e.xual child predator no doubt, but I don’t suppose I can get at least a chance to explain myself out of this?”

“Umm, maybe you could get to that after you die?”

Even if I’m ruled not guilty afterward, it’s not like it’ll mean anything, if I’m already half-buried inside a coffin. Who do you think you are, a necromancer?

Stop with your jokes.

“Alright, you start working on an explanation then. Meanwhile, I’ll go ahead and to separate your flesh from bone.”

“What are you even on about?! It’s honestly spine-chilling, so stop talking about something scary like that like it’s nothing!”

“For first, let’s turn off the light and…”

“Wait! Stop! Don’t! I-I mean please don’t!”

Just when I was about to start a petty argument in the hopes of delaying the violence about to be unleashed from Dorothy...

“Hummmmmm….”

Rubbing her still-sleepy eyes with her hands, Lily finally got up lazily from her sleep.

“R-Right! Lily!”

At this point, Lily’s entrance was nothing less miraculous than staring up into a sunbeam while being trapped in a cave.

Or it would be comparable to watching a ma.s.sive reinforcement come to your aid when you’re trapped in a losing battle.

“Won’t you please say a word to help me out of this ridiculous and absurd situation I’m in right now?”

“…?”

Lily was still half-asleep, drooling in her mouth. Lily momentarily glanced back and forth me and Dorothy, and suddenly blushed after understanding the situation unfolding before her.

Er.

Wait.

Blushing? What are you blushing for!?

“Lily, can’t… get married now ♪”

This was driving me insane.

“Yeah, okay. I knew this would never work out my way anyway.”

It’s not like I was surprised by anything in particular.

“If you can just show even a sliver of mercy, I would be grateful. I heard even shooting someone with a gun doesn’t hurt as much if you don’t put too much pressure on the trigger.

“…Er, right.”

In the end, talking my way out of situation like this had its limits.

Around this point, with all this years of family experience welled up inside me, there was nothing for me to do than accept the reality as coolly as possible from my perspective.

Ahahaha.

With a scream wailing throughout the manor, morning at the Blackhazel Manor was uplifting as any other day.
◇ ◆ ◇ “Oww, I don’t understand how a girl like her can even manage to be that violent…”

And so, inside the Blackhazel Manor living room, I managed to voice my complaint while rubbing by still-swollen cheeks.

“O-Onii-sama?! What is with that wound upon your cheek?!”

As expected, Maria Lunalady Blackhazel went positively berserk at just a sight of me looking beat-up.

“Er, well, some things happened and…”

I had no intention to run off to Maria like a tattletale and tell her about what Dorothy’s been doing, and I had nothing else better to say to her. I pretended like it was nothing and brush her off.

“Come here, Onii-sama! I shall blow on your cheek!”

“Huh, what?! No, I’m fine! I’m good!”

I knew Maria would overreact about me like this even if this injury I had was as trivial as possible. Looking at her reminded me of an overzealous mother trying to coax her seven-year-old to stop crying.

“Here! Please rest your head upon this girl’s skirt!”

In other words, she wanted me to lie down using Maria’s lap as a pillow.

As I was lying there, I could feel Maria’s gentle caressing hands through my hairs. My once-stiffen body suddenly started disappearing, just like salt dissolving in water.

“A good child, Onii-sama is.”

Maria chuckled to herself and gazed my way with her evangelical smile.

“A… good boy?”

“All you have to do is stay cradled within this girl’s arms, and keep on acting spoiled and kept, Onii-sama♡”

Finding the position I was in entertaining, Maria could not stop laughing, unable to hold the laughter inside her.

So this was basically the peaceful every day of Blackhazel Manor like any other day, like it has been as always.

Haha.

You have a knack for just pasting things on like that.

In the end, I couldn’t even come up with a reason to resist against Maria’s chaotic pacing, and resigned to smiling bitterly, trapped in her embrace.

And at that moment.

In a flash, an intangible, mysterious feeling of déjà vu a.s.saulted my body from top to bottom.

An enigmatic twin gazes of heterochromatic eyes. Politely sitting on her legs, supporting my head, a girl of honey-blond hair.

“Hey, Maria.”

“Is something the matter, Onii-sama?”

“…That reminds me, I had a weird dream.”

“Weird dream, you say.”

Maria still did nothing but look my way gently and caress my cheeks. Looking into her serene smile, I felt like I was under the illusion of talking to a priest inside a confession booth.

“I think I dreamed about little sisters or something?”

“Little sisters…?”

In an instant, I thought I saw Maria’s face dyed in a color of panic. Perhaps it was only trick of the light.

Definitely a trick of the light.

“Well, who knows. Come to think of it now, I feel like it was just Dorothy in my dream.”

It was Dorothy now?

The ident.i.ty of the girl that fought over me to become my ‘bride’ was?

Somehow I really don’t think the gap here will ever be filled.

“There is no need to worry, Onii-sama. It’s merely a dream, after all.”

Maria smiled affectionately and patted me, as if to urge me to forget about what happened.

Yes.

It’s merely a dream, after all.

Well, in the end it wouldn’t be anything important.

It’s a dream I should really pay no attention to, something that would mean nothing at the end.

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