Chapter 34 (1/2)

Translator: Jawbrie

Surfania was still playing and seemed to be having fun. She had won several games consecutively and didn’t look like she would lose any time soon. There was even a small crowd of spectators surrounding her table now. Mishuli looked like she had also successfully infiltrated the beginner’s area. Other children that were her own age were there, learning how to move the pieces.

As I was viewing all of this, I hear someone mumble next to me.

“You’re pretty close with Mishuli, eh?”

“We’re sisters.”

Leon would say the most obvious things, so I answered him in kind. It was the most normal thing in the world for sisters to get along well.

But, perhaps I and Mishuli had been too close. You could say that it was the result of living together in such a small world as the mansion.

A dependence. Or codependence.

We were so close that even such words that came from knowledge from my past life would come to mind.

“We came out here in disguise, so that Mishuli could make some friends.”

“Ahh.”

As I really had nothing to do, I decided to talk to Leon a little.

I wanted Mishuli to be able to talk to people other than me. I wanted her to have someone else that she could open her heart to.

It wasn’t possible with nobles. Aside from people that I was a bulwark for, we could not get too close to anyone who was in a position to go sniffing around, once we became well acquainted. It didn’t matter who they were, it was the house behind them that was dangerous. As far as Charles and Surfania, well, they only knew her through me.

And so for Mishuli to be able to talk with someone as herself, she would have to hide her status. But perhaps I was being too simplistic in thinking this.

“…Huh?”

I thought this much, but then suddenly a completely unrelated question entered my mind.

The setting of ‘Labyrinth Destiny’ was eight years from now, at the Royal Academy. The story would begin with Mishuli being enrolled.

But, why was Mishuli able to go to the Royal Academy?

It was not mandatory to enroll. Mishuli was supposed to be in hiding, so why would she be sent to a place where she would be forced to come in contact with so many people-

“You look like your thinking of all sorts of things. That’s unexpected. To be honest, I thought you were just really self-important.”

My mind was brought back to the present by his words.

But anyway, I didn’t have enough information to answer this new question that had entered my mind. I put it aside for now and answered Leon.

“I am quite important, so you aren’t wrong. I’ll forgive you for that one.”

“Haha. …But, I don’t think it’s possible for her to make friends in one day.”

“I know.”

“So you know…”

Leon sounded exasperated, but there was no way a genius such as me would not have predicted this.

But it was fine as a momentary pleasure. If she could mingle and laugh for even just a short while, in a single meeting, then Mishuli would know something more about others. She would understand that the whole world was more than just me.

This would become a memory and an experience for her.

“But, you… Uh, Christina, was it?”

“That’s right, commoner.”

“Right.”

I answered him with a deliberately sardonic tone to see his reaction, but he only laughed wryly.

The fact that he laughed like that, instead of firing back meant that he knew it was a joke, which was something I could appreciate in a person. It was the reaction I had expected, and so I nodded with satisfaction.

“So, Christina. You’re telling me you set up this whole troublesome incognito affair, just for your little sister?”

“Hm? Yes. That is exactly right.”

“Well then,”

Leon’s black eyes looked at me as he talked. His eyes contained nothing but genuine curiosity.

Ah, they were the same color as mine.

Nothing had led to this thought, it just popped into my head.

“Don’t you have anything that you want to do yourself today?”

“Eh?”

The words were so unexpected that I became confused.

What I wanted to do.

Leon saw that my mind had become blank as I was speechless. And so he continued.

“Yeah. Christina. Isn’t there anything you want to do for yourself, and not for Mishuli? I don’t have anything to do after this. I could be your guide, if you’d like?”