After desperately clearing up the girls’ misunderstandings, Kaname-kaasan informs us that dinner is ready. Why did they latch onto that so much… I don’t get it.
I thought the preparation was unusually quick, but it seems that since there were many people, she decided on yakiniku, so the preparation only involved cutting vegetables.
I take out a large hot plate that hadn’t been used in a while from the storage and set it up on the table. I remember how we used to often gather around the table with the Nanami family and my Chihara family… and I felt a bit of loneliness thinking about my parents. At the same time, I thought it was a happy thing that we could use it again.
Meanwhile, the girls and Daiki were having lively conversations about the academy.
Come to think of it, I was curious, by the time school ended today, Natsu was calling Hikari and Asaki “Hikari-chan” and “Asaki-chan”, when did they become so close?
Now that I think about it, I feel like Hikari was also calling her “Natsuki-oneechan”, but that didn’t feel as strange because of Hina. There’s no doubt she’s Hina’s older sister, after all.
「But today was amazing. Natsu-nee is so popular─」
…Oi!! The way you call her suddenly changed.
No, considering how we call each other, it’s not unnatural. She calls us Shou-nii and Dai-nii, after all.
「Yeah. We often get approached by boys in our class too, but not as much as Natsu-neesama.」
Asaki, you too. Did both of you want siblings that much…?
「Ahaha… It wasn’t that much for me at the beginning of my first year either… You two are so cute, so I think you’re going to have a hard time from now on.」
「I’m not interested in any man other than Shou-nii─」
「That’s right. Unless there’s someone who seems promising for the future, Shou-niisama is enough as the opposite sex.」
It’s scary how Asaki is subtly making a black-hearted comment. Or rather, what’s with those statements from both of you?
Look, Natsu is staring at me intently. It’s a bit scary, so could you stop?
「Um, by the way, what kind of relationship do you two have with Shou-chan──」
「Yes, yes, save that talk for later. Dinner is ready.」
「Oh─!! Yakiniku─!!」
The conversation is temporarily interrupted by Kaname-kaasan’s arrival. It’ll probably come up again later anyway.
Well, I was thinking of properly talking about our relationship today, so let’s eat first.
Hikari, who was caught eating only meat and forced to eat vegetables by Hina, and Asaki, who ate only vegetables like a small animal.
I thought Daiki would go for the meat more aggressively, but surprisingly, he was eating meat and vegetables in a balanced way. Even in this, he’s a handsome guy.
As for me, it’s meat and rice, rice and meat and rice. Rice is good, rice is.
And since I’ve been eating mostly stir-fried vegetables lately, I took this opportunity to keep eating rice with meat as a side dish.
Natsu couldn’t stand watching and firmly made me eat vegetables too. It was just like Hina and Hikari earlier.
In other words, I was at the same level as Hikari, and it’s a secret that I was inwardly shocked by this fact. I’d get scolded if I said it.
Even so, Kaname-kaasan must have splurged, the meat is delicious. Just putting meat with sauce on rice and eating the part soaked in sauce and meat juice is delicious enough. I think the person who invented yakiniku sauce is truly a genius.
After everyone enjoyed their meal and the pleasant dinner time passed, Kaname-kaasan made coffee for everyone. Of course, I had café au lait.
「Well then, it’s late, but thank you all for yesterday. Did you like my way of thanking you?」
「It was super delicious!!」
「I thoroughly enjoyed it. Besides, it’s mutual when in trouble. Please don’t worry about it.」
「Thank you for the meal. It was very delicious.」
The expressions varied, but it seemed all three were satisfied.
「I’m glad. Please continue to take care of my children from now on.」
Probably, that includes me too. I somehow felt that way.
「Well then, I’m sure you all have a lot to talk about… Shougo, make sure you talk. Everything, without hiding anything, okay?」
Kaname-kaasan directs the conversation towards me. Saying “everything without hiding” probably means including what I haven’t told Hina and Natsu.
「Got it. Natsu, what I’m about to say might be hard to believe, but I want you to listen. And Hina.」
「Eh? Me?」
「There were things I didn’t tell you last time, so I want you to listen again. About what I’ve, what we’ve been through.」
「Okay…」
Hina nods anxiously at my formal way of speaking.
Now, Kaname-kaasan accepted it with some doubt, but I wonder how these two will react──
With a slight sense of anxiety in my heart, I steeled myself and opened my mouth.
「It’s going to be an outlandish story right from the start, but a year and a half ago, on that day──the day we four disappeared from the same hospital room.」
「Yeah… It became a big fuss because you suddenly disappeared, it even made the news.」
「I heard that from Kaname-kaasan too. It might be hard to believe, but that day we were summoned to another world.」
「…Shou-chan?」
「I know it’s hard to grasp right away. Could you listen to the whole story first?」
Although I prefaced it, I understand that mentioning another world out of the blue in a serious tone would lead to a reaction like Natsu’s. But since it’s the truth, whether they believe it or not, I want them to let me tell the whole story.
「When I say another world, you can probably imagine, it was a world of swords and magic. We four were summoned there together. But I couldn’t even move my legs, and even though it was a world of magic, I was the only one without magical power, so I was really useless──」
Even though Hikari was a hero, Asaki became a saint, and Daiki was a holy knight, all with important roles.
「But thanks to Daiki and the others, I was kept alive. Well, in a way, I was like a hostage, at first I was even put in a cell.」
「No way!!」
「But well, if I think that my legs were healed because of that, maybe it wasn’t so bad.」
「So, your legs were healed by magic?」
「Yeah, thanks to Asaki.」
「I see… Asaki-chan did…」
Natsu looks down with an expression that seems to mix joy at my legs being healed and sadness at not being there. I know from Hina that Natsu studied hard to become a doctor to heal my legs.
So I felt sorry for her, but I decided to tell the facts as they were.
「Natsu-neesama, although Shou-niisama says it like that, it’s actually a bit different.」
「Asaki?」
Asaki corrects me after I only mentioned the fact that my legs were healed.
「It’s true that I healed him, there’s no mistake in that fact itself, but the method was the problem.」
「Asaki? You don’t have to say that──」
「Method? If there’s magic, then wouldn’t that have healed it…?」
「He was healed, but to say he was healed by repeatedly crushing and then healing his legs is a bit…」
「Shou-chan, what does she mean by crushing?」
「Well, you see…」
It’s easy to put into words, but the reality was that we literally crushed my legs with a prisoner’s iron ball. Cutting off my legs with a knight’s sword, repeating it over and over because it could be healed and I had no sensation.
When Asaki revealed this, Natsu and Hina turned pale, and after a while, their faces turned bright red. They’re angry… right?
「Shou-chan, what were you thinking!?」
「That’s right!! Onii-chan, that’s absolutely crazy!!」
「No, it’s not like I wanted to…」
「Even so, in the end, it was Shou-niisama who decided to do it, right? I don’t know about back then, but if you said you’d do the same thing now, I’d absolutely refuse, okay?」
──Light Novels──
──Read Here──
There’s no room for negotiation.
「W-Well, look, in the end, my legs were healed, so all’s well that ends well…」
「It’s not all’s well that ends well… Sure, I’m happy that your legs that were said to be paralyzed are healed… but please don’t ever do something like this again, okay?」
「Don’t worry, I won’t even if I’m asked.」
“I-It’s not like I wanted to do it!!” I muttered an excuse that benefits no one in my heart.
「So, even though my legs were healed, it didn’t change the fact that I was useless in battle, so I tried to do what I could…」
I remember trying my hand at cooking, albeit clumsily, to recreate even a little of the food from this world, and asking that damn female knight to train me to at least gain some means of self-defense.
「That’s right, I was happy that Shou-nii listened to us. Dai-nii and I are a bit special after all.」
「Well, it was the first time in my life I was called an idiot to my face so many times.」
Hikari and Daiki make such comments. Or rather, Daiki, are you okay with that?
「And Shou-niisama was always, um… protecting us from the shadows.」
「Eh?」
I’m puzzled by Asaki’s words. Could it be that Asaki knows about what I was doing behind the scenes?
Did you think you hadn’t been found out?」
Even Daiki…? Could it be…
「Eh? Don’t tell me Shou-nii was trying to keep it a secret?」
「What do you mean? Shou-chan, what did you do?」
「Ah─ well. um…」
What should I do, I definitely have to say this, right? Well, I said I’d tell everything without hiding, so I guess I have to say it.
「Shou-niisama, instead of defeating monsters, eliminated people who would harm us.」
「Eliminated… you mean…」
「Probably, just as you imagine.」
I can feel the atmosphere getting heavier. That’s why I didn’t want to talk about this. Well, not saying it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
「──I killed people several times. With these hands, gripping a sword.」
When I say it, the sensation returns to my hands. I don’t regret those actions now. But how would they feel knowing their brother, their childhood friend, is a killer?
Would they despise me, fear me? Might they distance themselves from me?
──Ahh, I see. That’s why I was scared to meet and talk to these two.
My childhood friend (Natsu) and little sister (Hina) whom I had wished to reunite with so much.
But if we met again, I knew I’d have to talk about this someday, even if it was at the back of my mind. That’s why even after returning to this world, I might have been avoiding them, finding some excuse.
「So… even then──」
I remember the emotion when I tried to snap Amano’s neck. I felt a slight throb in my left eye.
「Onii-chan…」
My body, still retaining some childishness, envelops me as I look down, unable to face them.
「It must have been hard. But, you had no choice, right…」
Hina says in a tearful voice. And then──
「Shou-chan.」
Natsu pulls my head into her chest. I could tell her voice was wet with tears.
「I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t be by your side…」
Why is she apologizing? Even if it was an unreasonable event beyond anyone’s control, I’m the one who distanced myself, and I’m sure it was my own will that committed those mistakes. No matter what the reason or background might have been.
But feeling the warmth of the two, I felt ashamed that I had acted in a way that pushed them away, even if it was unconsciously.
It’s simple. In the end, I realized that I hadn’t fully trusted them.
Before I knew it, the throbbing in my left eye had disappeared.
「Thank you. Natsu, Hina.」
I thank them and gently separate myself from them.
「I’m so jealous of you two.」
A voice that can’t read the mood mixes in, but I decide to ignore it for now.
「Nnn, to get back to the story, there’s only the part about our return left.」
The atmosphere was a bit awkward, so I clear my throat and straighten my posture.
「The four of us… though I really couldn’t do anything, when Hikari and the others defeated the demon god, a dimensional hole, if you can call it that, opened, and we were able to return to this world. But──」
I gently placed my hand on my left eye.
「At the very end, they ran out of magical power and couldn’t pass through the hole. We tried to find a way to widen the hole, and the price of using that demon god’s eye is this eye.」
「But then why did it become Shou-chan’s eye?」
「That’s…」
A very reasonable question. At first, I thought that just holding this magic eye up to the hole would widen it…
「Just holding the eye up to the hole didn’t work. Although there was no guarantee that swapping it with my own eye would work…」
「Swapping, so…」
「It’s probably just as you imagine. I gouged out my own eye and implanted the demon god’s eye.」
Now I understand. This was probably my role. Perhaps it had to be me who implanted this eye.
After the second time, following the story about my legs, I could see a slight mix of disbelief in their gaze. I understand how they feel, but I didn’t want to do it either, so I hope they can consider that.
「Then, was your eye turning red that time because of that?」
「That’s right. Well, I don’t really understand why it happens…」
But after what happened the other day, I think I have a rough idea of what triggers it.
Actually, by now, the pain would usually have started, but there’s no sign of it at this point. If so, my guess might not be entirely wrong.
「Well, there’s nothing special about this. It doesn’t seem like there’s any magical power left, just a bit of pain sometimes. ──And that’s how we finally managed to return.」
「So that’s what happened… Yeah, I’m a bit confused, but I believe in Shou-chan.」
「Me too, I was a bit sad that you didn’t tell me everything last time, but I understand the circumstances now, so I forgive you.」
「Thanks, both of you.」
Even if it’s just words, it’s fine. If they say they believe me now, that’s enough.
I finish my completely cold café au lait and change the subject.
「So, that’s the end of our story, but what about you two?」
「Me? I don’t have anything special…」
「Natsuki-oneechan, after Onii-chan disappeared, she was confessed to by someone every day, you know?」
「H-Hina-chan!?」
「Tell me more.」
Seeing Natsu flustered by my sister’s sudden betrayal, ahh, I’ve finally come back. That’s the feeling that comes to me.
And at the same time, I think. I hope we can continue to live unchanged days like this.
As expected, that day, the pain in my eye did not attack me.