That large sack of adult doujinshi!
Seiji widened his eyes in surprise.
'Did I remember things wrong? Did I already put those books away?'
No… he hadn't.
Seiji carefully combed through his memory and confirmed that he had indeed casually put the sack of books on his computer desk without putting the books away.
It was a large sack of adult doujinshi and it had definitely been there. But now, it was missing.
Reo still wasn't home yet.
There was only one person that could have possibly taken this sack of books.
"Shikchan…"
Seiji's cheeks twitched.
'My adopted sister saw and took my entire sack of ero books! What should I do? I could really use some advice here!'
He even impulsively wanted to make a topic on an internet forum and ask for help regarding this.
No, no… he was making a mountain out of a molehill. Wasn't Shika just borrowing his stuff? All he had to do was ask.
Although the things in question were rather awkward, it didn't matter so much even if she saw them. All he had to do was go knock on his adopted younger sister's door and ask about where his books were. Simple as that.
But… for Shika to have taken those books, did she help put them away, or…
If she only put them away, that wasn't a big deal, but if she took them back to her own room to look at them…
No, no! How could Shika possibly do that? That didn't seem likely.
But… wasn't there such a possibility?
Seiji was internally conflicted.
Hypothetically speaking, if Shika took those ero books and was looking at them in her room, if he went over there just like that to ask about the whereabouts of his books, he would definitely be stepping on a landmine!
That would be quite an awkward situation.
Seiji didn't know what expression he would have if he found out that his adopted younger sister was secretly looking at the adult doujinshi that he had purchased.
The reverse was also true. He figured that Shika wouldn't know how to face him.
After thinking about it, Seiji decided to search around the apartment first. If he found his sack of books around anywhere, then there wouldn't be any problems at all.
And so, he began looking.
In the study… nothing.
In his own room… nothing either.
In the living room… still nothing.
The kitchen… again, nothing.
After he looked for his books everywhere they could be, he finally had to face reality.
Shika had definitely taken the books back to her room!
Looking towards his adopted sister's room, Seiji couldn't help but imagine the black-haired beauty holding on to an adult doujinshi with completely red face and a seductive look in her eyes.
…It seemed so ero to him.
Just imagining it with that image of Shika already seemed so ero!
Seiji even had the urge to go see if that was really the case, but soon restrained himself and did his best to consider things calmly.
The only thing he could do was to pretend not to know anything, right?
Knocking on her door and asking now was no good, and asking her later about it would be no good as well. The best choice was not to ask! He would have to pretend like he hadn't noticed her borrowing his books and wait for her to secretly return them after she was done with them.
Seiji felt like it was the only method by which he could avoid awkwardness.
No… he should rephrase that. It was a method to avoid as much awkwardness as possible. Awkwardness was impossible to avoid here as he was already feeling awkward.
'Alright, let's just go with this! I won't mention this at all, and I'll pretend that nothing happened!' Seiji made his decision.
Shika Kagura opened her eyes.
'Uh-oh, I fell asleep!'
She started panicking when she looked at the time after waking up.
By this time, it was likely that her Brother Seiji would have woken up already, but she hadn't put the ero books back where they were yet!
Originally, she had only intended to look at them for a while before putting them back, but… she was unable to stop herself.
She finished going through all of the ero books!
And then… she unknowingly fell asleep.
Her face flushed red as she recalled what she had done.
'Calm down, what's important now is… has brother woken up yet?'
Shika got out of her bed, put on her clothes, and quietly opened her door just a crack and investigated.
She didn't see anyone.
She cast an invisibility spell on herself and soundlessly walked out of her room, arriving in front of the study.
She saw her adopted brother concentrating on drawing on his computer.
As expected, he was already awake!
'Did he notice that his ero books are gone?' Shika felt quite nervous about this.
Judging by how he seemed to be quite focused on drawing, did he not notice yet?
Normally speaking, he would notice since he'd just purchased a large sack of ero books after all. But right now, if he was concentrating on drawing, it would also be normal for him not to notice for the time being.
At any rate, she had to get those ero books out of her room!
Shika soundlessly returned to her own room, put all the ero books back in the sack, and secretly brought them to her brother's room and put them in a rather inconspicuous location.
It should be fine if she told him later that he must have put them there while he was asleep.
She then soundlessly returned to her own room again, and then pretended that she had just woken up as she intentionally made some sounds and normally walked out of her room, arriving at the study.
Seiji heard her footsteps, and turned around to see his adopted sister.
"Shikchan…"
The moment he saw her, he couldn't help but reimagine the scene of her secretly looking at his ero books, so his expression was somewhat awkward.
He immediately suppressed those thoughts and changed his expression back to normal again.
However, Shika was paying close attention to his expression and noticed what happened.
'Brother… noticed!?'
She became nervous as her heartbeat quickened.
"What shall we eat for dinner tonight?" Seiji tried to be as natural as possible, asking about tonight's dinner.
"…I'm going to cook Mapo Tofu," Shika answered.
"A classical Huaxia cuisine that I like, nice. Don't make it too spicy though, otherwise Reo-chan will have a difficult time." Seiji smiled.
Then, he still tried to speak in as natural a tone as possible as he asked, "By the way, did you help me put away the doujinshi books I purchased today?"
Shika felt her heart tighten when she heard this question.
"Y… yes, I put them in your room while you were sleeping, Brother." She did her best to reply as calmly as possible.
"Ah, thank you."
The two of them continued chatting for a little while before ending the conversation.
Shika then returned to her own room, closed the door, and collapsed face-first on her bed.
'Did Brother Seiji discover what I did or not!?'
She buried her face in her blankets out of embarrassment and kept waving her legs in the air.
Judging by the awkward expression on his face for just a moment there, it seemed like he'd noticed… but afterwards, he acted so natural it seemed like he had only noticed that his books were missing and believed that she put them away for him, without considering that she looked at them.
Shika couldn't be sure.
Did her Brother Seiji really not notice what she did with his ero books, or did he notice and pretend not to know?
Shika wanted to believe that it was the former, but… her sense of logic and reason told her that it was the latter.
Otherwise, there was no reasonable explanation for that momentary strange expression he had on his face.
He actually noticed that she was looking at his ero books in her room, but in order to avoid awkwardness, he pretended not to know.
That was something that her Brother Seiji would do.
The more she thought about it, the likelier it seemed to Shika. She was embarrassed to the maximum even while she enjoyed her brother's warmness.
'I'm so embarrassed!
'Why did I secretly look at all those ero books, aaah!!!'
Right now, she really wanted to return to the past and give her own hand that reached out for those ero books a good chop!
'Wah… Sorry, Brother Seiji, I'm a bad, perverted girl.'
The completely red-faced girl inserted herself into her blankets, wrapping herself up tightly like a snail.