Roughly two months have passed since then. On this quiet night when the snow had stopped falling, the moonlight had started to peek through the corridor’s window. Just as usual, I headed to Sylt’s room.
I had been setting his meal on his room’s desk when he'd started talking to me in a tiny voice.
「…Rikka」
My eyes widened.
「Sylt?」
We did nothing but say each other’s names and then sank into silence.
Feeling as if my shut-in son had come out from his room, I smiled at him.
「Sylt, want to eat dinner in the saloon together?」
After a moment’s hesitation, he gave a small nod.
The sense of security that made him, the shut-in, take the first step forward into rehabilitating back into society, made me smile in spite of myself.
Taking the opportunity, I tried raising my index finger.
【Name】
Sylt Belmonte (male)
【Favourable Rating】
-26
【Age】
9 years old
【Height】
118cm
【Notes】
A young boy who was left in the care of the Akseli orphanage ever since he was little.
He was later taken into the custody of the Belmonte house and became their adopted son.
【Favourite Food】
Pumpkins, mushrooms, potato
【Detested Food】
Carrots
【Weakness】
Dogs
-26…
I feel that how it went up was a little too conservative, but for now, the favorability rating increased by 1. He was also growing taller, so that’s good.
Maybe thanks to the nutritionally packed diet, Sylt’s body structure was looking more like an ordinary boy’s recently. His cheeks were rounder than before, his skin had a healthy glow, and the arms, that had been way too thin, were now gradually gaining meat.
I casually stared at his face. He had cute features, but a little grouchy. I faintly recalled the man’s face in the game terminal I saw fleetingly in my previous life, but it was like the person’s aura was different from Sylt…. well, Sylt was a kid, so maybe it was that?
With my finger still raised, I continued to stare at his face causing Sylt to look at me with a dubious expression.
「 Aah, sorry. Shall we go, Sylt?」
I said that and held out my hand, but Sylt didn’t try to take out his. He just waited for me to move in silence.
I feel embarrassed having nothing to meet my offered hand. Downhearted, I pulled my hand back and opened the door out of Sylt’s room.
The barrier of a minus was pretty thick. Far from being「close」, the road until our relationship was at least 「normal」 was too long that I’m starting to cry. Looking at the moonlight shining through the corridor’s window with half-closed eyes like it dazzled him, Sylt exited the room.
After that, he began to talk often.
Not just to me, he started talking to our parents too, and, even though he didn’t go to school when he was in the orphanage, he was now scheduled to attend it next year.
When I lent him my notes and books to prepare him for the lessons, he absorbed the information like a sponge… and now the way he speaks has turned quite cheeky.
Whether it was his wariness or world-view that made him that way, he talks in a way that was both blunt and rude. In truth, having dreamt of getting a cute brother, it was a shock to me.
「 Rikka, you know the answers you’re writing… are mostly wrong, right?」
He cut in while sitting in the saloon’s sofa and staring at a textbook I’d used the previous year. How rude.
Depending on the time and place, I would’ve had half the mind to grab his collar and shake him childishly.
「Sylt, call me ‘Sister’ not ‘Rikka’」
“Hm”, he turned away ignoring me.
Ah, yeah, of course, even now, my favourable rating was a minus. I’m not sad or anything.
I had been 9 years old the year before. If it was Japan, I would’ve been a third year grade schooler. I hadn’t realized I was reincarnated into this world nor had I remembered my previous life. If I had, who knows, maybe I might not have made mistakes.
— But, now that I remembered my previous life, I was far from a bright student, let alone a genius. As for why, it was because the education I was learning was pretty different from Japan. Although I somehow managed to learn this world’s language, which was Cheval, even now I still had a hard time writing the words, I guess it’s probably like a Japanese grade schooler learning hiragana.
Incidentally, I was now starting quietly on the embroidery that had been set as my homework. Even in this world, there was a home economics subject.
Maybe because I was doing it while lamenting on how I wouldn’t die even if I couldn’t sew, I ended up carelessly pricking my finger on the needle. The white handkerchief was now stained red in several places. That’s okay, I still had a lot of spare handkerchiefs.
When I’d pricked my finger with the needle for the third time, Sylt spoke with a disgusted expression.
「 I don’t want to call someone that clumsy ‘sister’」
「 Oh, shuddup」
I bluntly retorted at Sylt’s comment.
I get the feeling that I was deviating from my mask of a 「kind older sister」 sometimes, but I hope it’s just my imagination. I’d like to think being able to bicker like this was proof that Sylt was getting used to our family. We probably look like siblings since we’re gradually growing less reserved with each other… I guess?
Licking the index finger on my left hand that had been pricked by the needle, I tossed the handkerchief away.
「I’m taking a short break」
「Go disinfect your hand properly. If it ends up filled with stab wounds or something, I ain't going to pity you」
「 Yeah, yeah」
I wonder if he was sort of worried about me? Curious, I lifted my index finger up.
【Name】
Sylt Belmonte (male)
【Favourable Rating】
-22
【Age】
9 years old
【Height】
120cm
【Notes】
A young boy who was left in the care of the Akseli orphanage ever since he was little.
He was later taken into the custody of the Belmonte house and became their adopted son.
He is set to attend a local school.
【Favourite Food】
Pumpkins, mushrooms, potato
【Detested Food】
Carrots
【Weakness】
Dogs
…It seems I wasn’t able to escape from the minus of a favorability rating. I wonder whether we were getting along even with this?
As I stared hard at Sylt, his face twisted into a frown.
「 What? Hurry up and go」
With that said, Sylt sent me away dismissively with a “shoo shoo”. I could only feel like I was hated.
I escaped reality for a while under the guise of a break while picking up a snack and disinfecting my hand.
When I came back to the saloon to resume my homework, ready to stitch with my left hand, the bloodstained handkerchief that I’d tossed on the table earlier was gone. In its place, was a pure white handkerchief that was half-embroidered with flowers. It had been embroidered up to the point where I’d stopped.
「Sylt, did something happen? 」
「Not really」
He was reading the textbook still turned away from me.
I stared hard at the handkerchief, but no matter how much I looked at it, it wasn’t something that I could’ve possibly made.
The flowers that I made had a lot of gaps and the stitches had also been all over the place. But the flowers in this one had seams that were sown uniformly at even intervals.
「 This embroidery… is pretty well-done, or rather, it’s like someone with some serious OCD made it」
「 …… 」
With an offended look, Sylt snatched the handkerchief I was holding and threw a handkerchief speckled with blood at my head. W-what, what? Was he challenging me to a showdown? No, that only happens when a white gauntlet was thrown.
「I’m going back to my room」
Sylt stomped out of the saloon while still clutching the textbook. Leaving me with a bloodstain covered handkerchief over my head, blinking in surprise behind him.