Ch.107Deviation (2)
by fnovelpia
Suddenly, I recalled the past.
Perhaps because I had gone on something like dates with my sister before, the current scene felt incredibly familiar to me.
Of course, with our financial situation, there weren’t many places we could go. Even common travel destinations were a burden for us, and our dates changed accordingly.
It felt like that now too.
Since reconnaissance was our main purpose, we couldn’t exactly go sightseeing, but we were quite happy just walking together.
Seeing something I’d seen before as if it were new, viewing something familiar together.
If a date means meeting and spending time alone together, I had already been on several dates with my sister.
It was the same now. I walked with my sister, imprinting in my eyes things I had already seen and heard.
Many things in the port city of Marsi seemed hardly different from before we left.
People who found my face unfamiliar didn’t just see my sister and me as close siblings. Naturally, I was aware of this too.
“Sister, over there.”
“Call me ‘noona.'”
“Noona, how about we go over to that shopping district—”
“Don’t be so formal.”
“…Okay.”
Meanwhile, my sister wanted me to “act like before.”
Actions that remind us that we know each other, and that we know we know each other.
But it was like putting a trigger, a knife handle, in my hand. For the first time, I thought my sister was being a bit cruel.
I couldn’t help it. Since I had no way to resist, I had to at least bark loudly, right?
Even if calling this my form of resistance sounds ridiculous.
I was desperate to maintain my rationality. My sister’s touch, her scent, her soft voice lingered just within reach.
“I’ll feed you.”
“Thanks, noona.”
The taste of dried fruit with melted sugar was good in my mouth. I’ve always liked sweet things, and I hadn’t been able to eat many sweet things since falling into this world.
The stimulating foods of the modern world—salty, spicy, sweet, sour, and umami—don’t exist in this world of Grim Darker, Netel.
These kinds of snacks were the closest thing.
Of course, medieval gastronomy wasn’t at a low level. But that was something you could only taste in noble lands like the imperial palace.
In a port city of the new continent, which was no different from a place of exile, such snacks couldn’t be found. I chewed on a snack while walking with my sister through an alley I had once passed through wearing armor.
It tasted like an apple coated with sugar water and dried. It was similar to tanghulu, I think, though I’ve never actually had tanghulu before.
Since our financial situation wasn’t very good, we didn’t have much money, and my sister and I usually ate homemade lunch boxes rather than snacks.
The intervals between such dates were usually long. My sister was busy, and her days off inevitably affected our financial situation.
These outings were usually initiated by my insistence and my sister’s fatigue, and as I realize now, my sister’s personal desires.
It was essentially the same now. The differences were our eye level, the color of our eyes, my face, and the invisible last line being pressed between us.
There would be no deviation beyond this. At least not right now.
I kept thinking as I continued walking. We took in many sights, heating up both our work and our date.
“What do you think? Ah, you have to speak casually. Or you’ll get scolded?”
“…It’s not much different from before. They don’t recognize my face, but the people we saw then are still here. It would probably be troublesome if we were discovered.”
“Do you sense anything?”
“No. Not right now.”
Because we were arm in arm, my arm was pressed against my sister’s chest.
I wanted to ignore that sensation as much as possible, but whenever I tried to pull my arm away, my sister would pull it back with mysterious skill, making us look less like close siblings and more like something slightly suspicious.
That made me recall the not-so-distant past.
‘Are you siblings?’
The kind landlady who looked at us.
At that time, there was no suspicion in the landlady’s eyes. She probably just saw us as close siblings.
But now it’s different. The gazes directed at us now aren’t so kind.
It’s not unkindness born of hostility. Rather, it’s the kind that seems to be imagining something.
Siblings, nobles who journeyed to the new continent, a place of exile, siblings who are unusually close.
They’re probably thinking of a forbidden relationship, and that’s why we came here.
It stung that they weren’t entirely wrong. I hardened my expression as I felt my sister’s emotions.
I.
I was very grateful to my sister.
I loved her. In my own way, I loved her as family.
Perhaps that’s why I always thought I was lucky. Maybe because I had been exposed to a lot of media, I had seen the “processes” that protagonists or characters in similar situations to mine went through.
Bullying, beatings, hunger, cold, all kinds of pain that arise from not having.
Things like that.
Typical and common tragedies that don’t need to be counted or examined.
But scars that can’t be lumped together as common for each individual.
I had almost none of that.
I had many friends. It might be due to my good personality and excellent character, but I was also lucky.
My friends were as good as me, perhaps even better in character.
There were kind ones, playful ones, slightly wicked but loyal ones.
I had many friends regardless of gender, and there was no one who tried to ostracize me.
I was the same. I even disliked fighting and hierarchy battles.
Of course, it was because I knew I would get thrashed if I fought, having never learned anything while my friends were attending taekwondo or kendo classes.
Looking back now, it seems it wasn’t my nature to dislike fighting.
Despite my nature, the fact that I could grow up without a single fight was probably due to my sister-like height and thin frame, and because I lived knowing kindness by building a bond with my kind, angel-like sister every day.
I was fortunate.
No orphan I’ve ever seen was as lucky as me.
I am probably the luckiest orphan in the world.
I had a sister who willingly devoted herself to me and burned her life for me, and a strange landlady who was kind-hearted but showed just the right amount of concern, so I didn’t have to wander.
Even when my sister disappeared and I couldn’t pay the rent, she let me stay if I paid just a quarter of the original rent by doing part-time jobs. She was truly a good person.
My friends were good too. They taught me what it means to get along with people and were enough to help me overcome the void left by my sister.
As a result, I found it difficult to deal with the affection shown to me by this grateful person beside me.
Being affection-deprived, constantly craving more affection even after consuming it, I found it hard to push away someone who showed me affection.
And also because I thought that what I had felt and mistaken for familial love might actually be the occasional sense of discomfort I felt.
And because I wondered if the anguish that filled me in middle school wasn’t just anguish but something intentional.
That’s why my sister’s affection was difficult for me.
I wanted to ask. Did you really devote yourself to me thinking of me as that kind of existence?
A wicked question—was it just for that?—welled up in my throat, but I managed to suppress it.
Still, as an orphan, I was used to enduring and giving up.
My throat felt rough. Only after the question I had forcibly swallowed dissolved inside me could I finally turn my head.
There was my sister. My sister looking up at me silently.
My sister expecting something else from me. Perhaps my sister who had no intention of returning to Earth.
I thought that we siblings really were a good match.
After all, there was nothing good about going back.
My sister would again be trapped in the shackles of labor to feed a brother who demanded her devotion all his life and for emotions that could never be fulfilled.
And I would have to agonize over how to live from now on, feeling sorry for such a sister.
Unlike this world, which is more intuitive and clearer to live in.
So I suddenly thought, wouldn’t it be better to just live here like this?
I had found the sister I was looking for, and my sister knew I was here.
Just like that, couldn’t we just live like that from now on?
Then there was only one problem left.
What kind of relationship should I have with my sister from now on?
My sister was still a kind and thoughtful person. She probably handed me the knife handle now so that I could think and choose.
Perhaps she even considers it a kind of reward if I agonize and accept her.
Actually, I don’t know.
I didn’t want to think about it anymore.
After much deliberation, I decided to just enjoy the present. I savored our sibling date after a long time.
Deliberately ignoring the heavy, soft sensation pressing against my forearm, I interlocked my fingers with the hand below our linked arms.
My sister flinched and then smiled. Maybe because it’s something I never did in the past. She seemed surprised, but it didn’t last long.
My sister and I walked through Marsi, balancing work and our date.
“What should I call you?”
“Llewellyn is fine.”
“Then I’ll be Lucilla.”
I thought it was like a farce to do this when we already knew each other, but if I thought of it as a kind of role-play, it wasn’t so bad.
My sister enjoyed immersing herself in playing her character, so it would be familiar to her.
It wasn’t familiar to me, but there was no reason not to go along with my sister. By the time we reached the dock while walking, it was already evening.
“Do you like the sea?”
“Not particularly. I haven’t seen it much.”
“Really? Shall we go see it?”
In the past, we used to talk about the future while walking like this.
I remembered saying that someday when I graduated and earned decent money, how about saving it and going to the sea together during vacation. That came to mind.
Yes, it was definitely a few months before my sister disappeared.
I never thought we would fulfill it like this. I nodded, and my sister and I walked toward the sandy beach.
My sister wore a cloak that fluttered slightly in the sea breeze, while I wore ordinary winter clothes that didn’t move at all.
At night, the sea had a quiet but pleasant breeze blowing. The wind from behind made my sister’s hair flutter.
My sister stood by the shore with her hand on the side of her hair, facing the incoming wind. Her eyes were filled with all kinds of emotions.
What could my sister be thinking?
Does she think she shouldn’t have given me the knife handle, that she should have revealed herself as my sister first?
Or is she thinking that it’s fortunate we could meet again, even like this?
After a while of trying to guess my sister’s thoughts, I turned my head to look at the night sea.
They say the sea at night is warm.
I remembered learning that in middle school. Of course, the coast of the new continent is very cold, but since both my sister and I are homunculi, we’re sturdy.
We could probably go in up to our ankles, right? It was when I was thinking this and looking at my sister.
I froze, startled at the sight of someone approaching behind my sister.
“Llewellyn? What’s wrong? Who…”
My sister turns her head following my gaze. Her gray eyes waver as she sees someone behind her.
“My lady, you seem to be enjoying yourself?”
A woman with a gentle smile.
Her flowing golden hair sparkles in the moonlight even under the night sky, but strangely, she has no presence and doesn’t stand out.
Her form-fitting clothes have a coexistence of looseness and secrecy that makes them seem like martial arts attire. The sleeves cling tightly to her arms and legs, making them good for quick movement.
And pointed ears sticking up on both sides of her head.
An elf.
A dagger and its sheath hanging over her shoulder, pointed like those ears.
An assassin.
An unorthodox appearance and combination. But I know.
She’s not someone to be taken lightly.
My sister knew this fact too. My sister’s body spins around, and simultaneously, the assassin moves.
My sister’s leg, twisted from the waist, and the elf’s kick, delivered with a twist of her body, match precisely.
With a ringing sound, a circular shock wave bursts in the air. A combination of superhuman strength and skill that has reached beyond mastery to perfection.
Crimson eyes flash between golden hair.
“Ahah.”
With a slight sound, my sister’s and the elf assassin’s legs rotate simultaneously. The whites of my sister’s eyes begin to turn black as she stands firmly in place.
In contrast, the elf’s two hands draw her daggers.
And simultaneously, voices filled with magical power resound.
“Anomalous Transformation.”
“Imaginary Manifestation.”
Space trembles. The world submits to immense magical power. What occurs is transformation and manifestation.
Beyond the first stage of unique skills, manifestation, to transformation that twists the manifestation of unique skills, and manifestation, the final stage of unique skills that subjugates the world.
My sister didn’t use manifestation. She twisted it into transformation, worried about me getting involved.
So she’s at a disadvantage. I’m the one who needs to move.
[Mourning]
[Time Remaining: 60 seconds]
[Explosive Leap]
The moment I murmured, I was already springing forward.
KWAAAANG!
The moment my extended leg kicks the elf assassin’s face.
The entire night around us froze.
My leg was already blocked by her hand. The elf’s eyes, containing sunset and flame, move to scan me stickily.
Eyes full of hostility and killing intent. Feeling a chill run down my spine, I recalled information about the woman.
“Whoo might yoou be?”
The monumental first work of Grim Darker and the first companion in the journey that opens the series’ grand curtain.
And simultaneously, an evil-aligned companion who doesn’t appear after the first installment.
The only companion with whom same-sex romance is possible.
The executioner of the Southern Elves who was exiled for enjoying killing.
The strongest assassin, Eshatherna.
I instinctively realized. That she was the mother’s agent in Marsi.
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