At the groaning of extreme harshness from muscle pain, I made my mother worried and was forcefully put into bed, taking another break from school. Having stacks of compresses stuck on me, I was told by the a.s.sistant “muscle pain requires stretching”. The desperate me endured the pain on my body, sobbingly stretched my body. Other than that, I was also forced to drink my most hated, black vinegar. My heart was chipped and smashed.Evening… getting the news of Aoi’s return, I went over to his side with these legs like a newborn lamb, clinging to him like I wanted some care.
“Nee-san, what are you doing?”
“Aoi… save me… I don’t want to drink black vinegar”
“Eh? Un”
“Stretching too, it hurts”
“? It that so”
Aoi gave me a mysterious look to my half weeping att.i.tude, but upon remembering the fact that I had muscle pain, he muttered out “It’s because you suddenly started to exercise full of vigour” with a troubled face.
Looking around his surroundings another time, Aoi placed his bag on the floor and stood in front of me once again. Standing here, not knowing what he was planning to do, Aoi reached his hand out to me, left hand on my back, right hand on the back side of my knees, raising me up in one go.
“Hyoooo!?”
“Nee-san, voice, too loud”
But I couldn’t not let my voice out. This situation… it’s that, an action you’d only see in production works; a princess carry (Ohime-sama Dakko). Furthermore, it’s my good-looking brother’s princess carry! What is this situation!?
“Be a bit more quiet, okay? I’ll carry you while avoiding the eyes of others so”
“Eh…?”
“Wouldn’t Nee-san be troubled if there were weird misunderstandings?”
Aah… He meant that. Aoi and Maria are not real siblings so it’s likely to create weird rumours if we’re closer to each other than necessary, and because of that, he’s worried that Maria may possibly have unpleasant memories… Even though he didn’t have to… because, even if we’re not real siblings, Aoi is still an important brother to Maria, that will not change.
A bit after he carried me all the way back to my room, Aoi poured some warm lemon tea for me.
“Drink this and calm down a bit”
“Thank you, Aoi”
“… un”
Drinking the tea with a nicely sliced lemon floating on it, I sighed in relief. The h.e.l.l of black vinegar was painful… I hate vinegar, if I could, I would never like to drink it again. Let’s be careful about muscle pain when exercising from now on.
I reached my hand for it, noticing something stuck on Aoi’s deep blue cardigan.
“Is something wrong?”
It’s light brown hair… a bit short for it to be a person’s, the nature of it looks different too. Is it off an animal’s fur I wonder? But there are no animals in this mansion… Ah, which reminds me… In the manga, the slightly cold Aoi loosened up to the heroine after coming into contact with kittens that were in the school. If I remembered correctly, there someone raised that kitten in secret, but the cat escaped and coincidentally met Aoi, happily getting petted from him… the heroine will witness such a scene. I think he said something about liking animals at that time.
In other words, Aoi was always quietly coming into contact with animals. He probably can’t say something like wanting to keep pets to father. Father and mother would probably gladly consent, but Aoi is always careful with not expressing any of his selfishness. He’s pulling a line between the fact that we’re not a real family… even though someone like mother is always so doting towards him.
“Aoi, did you stop by somewhere on the way back?”
“Eh? No?”
Un… then it was probably within school grounds. Ah, I remember. After the heroine knew about Aoi liking animals, she secretly told him about a golden retriever going on walks close to the school around the time when school ends. The two started getting along because of that, and making Maria feel even more unhappy than she already was.
Fufufu! With this, the truth is revealed!
“This hair, it’s from a dog, right? It feels different from a person’s”
“Eh—”
“It was stuck on Aoi’s cardigan. There’s no way it’d get stuck on in our house, so I thought it’d be from coming into contact with dogs”
“… you knew well”
Returning a smug face at Aoi’s quick confession, I smiled, saying “I see through it all”. I feel a bit like a detective. Nee-san’s reasoning skills, amazing right? You surprised?
“You’re not angry?”
“Eh, angry? Why?”
Why is there a need get angry if Aoi was coming into contact with dogs?
“Doesn’t Nee-san hate dogs? You hated them a lot when you were young”
Eh!? The reason behind him desperately hiding the fact was Maria!?
“No, I don’t feel that way now”
“Really?”
“Really! So you don’t have to take it to heart!”
Aoi was actually really sensitive towards Maria’s feelings… it’d be good if his troubles lowers bit by bit from now on. I tilted my head, wondering what’s wrong with the Aoi who kept staring at me.
“Somehow, Nee-san, you’ve changed recently… your form of speech crumbles from time to time, the way you laugh is different too”
“Eh? Is-is that so?”
This is bad… I need to practice on ojou-sama speech more, they usually end with the high cla.s.s feel like “—desuwa” or “—desuno”. The way I laugh needs to be polished too.
“But I like the way you are now better”
The innocent smile of this calm, grown-up younger brother of mine is cute enough to be foul play. Wh-what’s with this child! So cute it’s moe!
“B-But it’s probably better to act more like it at school”
“Maa… that may be right. But wouldn’t it be fine to talk normally in front of me?”
“Yes, I guess so…”
What a cute brother! To prevent troubling this child, I need to be able to protect my own self against dangers and crush the flags!