Chapter 5: Younger Sister

I should have stopped it.

-The plan will be fine ,right?

-Of course! I prepared so much for this day.

-Okay…,let’s go with the plan.

The moment I heard that suspicious conversation, I should have figured out what it meant instead of just glossing over it

-Lian, please. can you keep your promise.

-I’ll only trust Lian.

Please.

If I had figured it out, I wouldn’t have had to hear those words.

If I had figured it out, I wouldn’t have had to keep my last promise.

I wouldn’t have had to keep…

***

“…”.

I had a nightmare.

It was a nightmare I’d had several times before.

Having a nightmare itself wasn’t unusual.

When I had just been possessed, I’d have nightmares whenever I slept.

In fact, I thought it was better now, because at the time, I was really forcing myself to sleep.

However, what I was curious about was this.

“…..What do you mean I have to protect?”

What on earth was I being asked to do in this nightmare?

What kind of request did he receive that he was having such a hard time regretting his past actions?

“No matter how much I listen to it, it’s my voice.”

The voice that muttered self-deprecatingly was clearly Lian Trice’s voice.

A voice regretting not being able to stop something.

A voice regretting himself for not thinking much of something despite hearing someone’s conversation.

“…..Lian Trice regrets it.”

From my perspective as someone who knew the original, it was very strange.

Even if it was just a dream, the original rascal regretting his actions felt out of place.

If it hadn’t been my own dream, it would have been so ridiculous that I would have dismissed it as nonsense.

Because Lian Trice wouldn’t regret it.

The original Lian Trice that I knew would never regret his actions.

To be exact, he wouldn’t.

It was an undeniable fact.

No one could deny it.

No, it was a fact that no one even thought of denying.

This was a fact that I had felt painfully while living as Lian Trice.

Today, the wound on my right wrist felt even more painful.

I left the dorm.

The current time on my watch is 7:30.

Considering that the regular start time of the academy is 8:30, it was a time when I felt like I had come out unnecessarily early.

“… How refreshing.”

However, this was the most convenient time for me to come out.

I wouldn’t have to run into anyone.

It was a time when I could take the last seat in the classroom.

The early bird catches the worm.

I feel this every time I write, but it really seemed like there was not a single saying among the old sayings that was wrong.

Well, if it was wrong, it would have disappeared a long time ago.

Words that weren’t even close wouldn’t continue to be passed down.

It was such a meaningless thought.

***

Wherein—

I arrived at the classroom at 7:40.

It had only been 10 minutes since I left the dorm.

It was so nice to be close.

As expected of an academy designed by professional engineers.

Even though I am a very slow walker, I was able to walk this fast.

It was a moment when I realized once again how well-designed Sacred Academy was.

“You came early.”

“…”

“Elena was right.”

At the same time, it was also the moment when I realized that someone with straight hair dyed black and red eyes that would catch anyone’s attention was already sitting in my usual seat.

“Aria.”

“I told you not to call my name, didn’t I?”

Her tone was sharp, and the irritation in her voice was unmistakable.

From the mouth of someone like you?

The younger sister of Lian Trice in the original work.

In other words, it was Aria Trice, my younger sister at the moment.

***

Honestly, I was amazed.

It was also amazed that someone who hated having my name called so terribly came to see me in the morning.

“……This is a second-year classroom.”

In the first place, this was a second-year classroom where Aria, a first-year student, was not supposed to be.

Since when did discipline at the academy become so lax?

How lax must it have been for a first-year student to enter a second-year classroom without fear?

I felt like my inner old-timer inside me was coming to life.

Aria, however, seemed to think that such a fact was not important.

“What does it matter? There’s no one here right now anyway.”

“Can’t you see me?”

“That’s right. There’s no one here besides you, who I came to find. What does it matter?”

“…”

She was too confident to say anything.

I wasn’t the one who did the wrong thing, so why did I feel like cringing?

I sighed at this shitty situation and asked Aria, thinking that I should just send her back quickly.

“Ha, so why did you come to me?”

“What’s going on?”

“Uh. There must be a reason why you, who hates me so much, suppressed your disgust and came to see me.”

“……Oh, right. I forgot for a moment.”

I was really frustrated and going crazy.

I’m the one who feels uncomfortable in front of her, but I’m the one who said it myself.

Ah. My head hurts.

I held my head for a moment because of the headache I felt, and then Aria finally started telling me why she came to see me.

“Fine. I don’t want to talk to you for too long either. I’ll just tell you why I came to see you.”

“Okay.”

“Did you go to the hospital yesterday?”

Aria, who said she came to see me, suddenly asked about the fact that I went to the hospital yesterday.

Hmm. Why on earth have so many people been curious about my private life since yesterday?

I had no idea why Aria was curious about my visit to the hospital, but I didn’t really have any reason to hide the fact that I had been there.

“Uh, I went,” I answered without thinking.

Aria frowned upon hearing my answer.

“Why did you go? Where did you hurt?”

“It’s true that you went because you were sick. If you weren’t sick, you wouldn’t have gone to the hospital.”

“So. What hurt that made you go to the hospital?”

Aria continued her barrage of questions as if she had absolutely no intention of ending it easily.

As I watched her quietly, a question gradually began to arise in my mind.

“……Why are you curious about that?”

Why was she curious about this?

Why was the woman in front of me, who looked exactly like me to the point of making me feel bad, curious about this?

“…..Huh?”

Aria looked visibly flustered, as if she hadn’t expected that she would be questioned in return.

“No, I’m just curious. Why are you asking me this?”

“I just thought Elena was…….”

“I know that too. Elena told you that I went to the hospital.”

It was a given.

No matter how popular Aria was among the first-years, she couldn’t be the first to know about the second-years.

Hearing from someone who had been like a sister to me since childhood was something that would still be a pain to deal with, even if I told him about it.

I told her earlier that I usually come to class early.

If she knew this fact but didn’t notice it, I could only see it as the problem of the person who didn’t notice it.

“That’s what I’m curious about. What is your intention in asking me this?”

“…”

“You’re asking because you have some intention. To be honest, our relationship is worse than that of a complete stranger.”

Honestly, I had a hard time understanding this situation.

The other person was Aria from the beginning.

She hated hearing her own name come out of my mouth, and she called me “you” instead of “brother”.

The person who hated Sacred’s scoundrel more than anyone else was Aria.

The person who hated me so much.

The person who would really scare me if I even touched her—why was she making such a fuss in the morning?

“I, I………”

Aria couldn’t answer.

Her voice trembled slightly, as if she was about to burst into tears at any moment.

“……Okay, I went to the hospital because of my wrist. They diagnosed that there wasn’t anything wrong and that I’ll be fine if I rest.”

“….”

“……Is it okay now? Then go.”

Was it because she was told to go?

Or was it because I told her why I went to the hospital?

Aria immediately got up from her seat and walked past me out of the classroom.

“….”

I felt like a really bad person.

Like a bad older brother who made his little sister cry with terrible words.

In fact, I knew that to some extent.

Aria just came to see me because she was worried after hearing from Elena that I skipped class and went to the hospital.

That’s the kind of person Aria Tris is.

A kind person who worries about even people she doesn’t like because she’s so kind-hearted.

Yes, that’s the kind of person she was.

If Lian Trice was a loser who would never change, then what did that make me?

Even though I knew this, I ended up feeling trapped in a cycle I couldn’t escape.

It was hard to figure out why I acted the way I did, especially when it came to Aria.

She was a kind and gentle angel to everyone, and yet I had managed to make her cry and send her away.

“……Haa.”

I sighed, frustration bubbling up inside me.

I couldn’t even understand my own actions, and that realization ate away at me.

It just felt like it had to be that way.

It seemed like Lian Trice and Aria Trice would continue to be at odds, no matter how much I wanted to bridge that gap.

I didn’t know why.

In fact, I wasn’t really curious.

“……Nothing will change.”

Even if my relationship with Aria improved now, nothing would change.

That was the only thought that paused in my head.