CFC 08

Chapter 08

“There’s so much dust up there! Get down here right now! What are you, a cat? How did you even climb up there?”

At that, Sis shook her head with a resolute face.

“Hmm, I’m not coming down. This is my secret hideout. I can’t leave my spot because I have to protect my hideout.”

“I can see you clearly from down here—what’s secret about it and what hideout?”

“Hmph, I’m going to sleep here from now on!”

“Stop talking nonsense and get down from there!”

However, Sis didn’t budge an inch, like a cat that had found the perfect box. If I hadn’t used levitation magic to pull her down, she might have stayed up there for a long time.

From early morning, I scrubbed Sis clean and gave her a stern warning.

“Don’t ever make the top of the wardrobe your hideout again.”

“Tch.”

“Answer me.”

“…Okay.”

Thankfully, Sis kept her promise. Meaning she didn’t climb on top of the wardrobe.

Correction. To be precise, she caused other accidents besides climbing on top of the wardrobe.

The next day, Sis was caught by me rolling cherries and grapes down the stair railing like a slide.

“What in the world are you doing…?”

“Slide play! Do you want to try too, big sister?”

“Of course not!”

While cleaning up the sticky fruit juice on the railing and the scattered fruit debris on the first floor, I pleaded with Sis again.

“Please, can’t you just behave?”

“But staying still is so boring. And I can’t even go outside.”

I really don’t want to believe this little disaster is me.

Did something happen to her head while crossing through time? Where did the magical prodigy, brilliant enough to earn sponsorship from the ducal family, go?

‘Hah, right. She’s only ever lived in the orphanage, so everything must be new to her. I can be understanding to this extent. I’m an adult, after all.’

I bought Sis drawing paper, paints, and books. I thought if she sat quietly and drew pictures, she’d calm down a bit.

And Sis promptly betrayed my expectations by doodling all over the mansion’s walls.

“You have drawing paper, so why are you painting on the walls! Why!”

“But the drawing paper is too small to draw an elephant. Ah, big sister, have you ever seen an elephant? I saw it in a picture book, and it’s huge. It might be bigger than this house! Elephants use their trunks like hands, so if you give them food, they take it with their trunks and eat it…”

Chatter chatter chatter chatter. Sis’s mouth wouldn’t stop.

“…Anyway, so what I’m saying is, can I keep an elephant in this house?”

“Of course not!”

“Hmph, you got angry…”

That day, for the first time, I felt afraid while looking at a sniffling six-year-old child.

Little Sis was like an untamed foal.

The whole world was so fun that my warnings didn’t seem to enter her ears at all. Thanks to that, I was so anxious I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

“I’m, I’m going to die…”

I was already overwhelmed with preparing for the upcoming performance review meeting at the royal palace and researching ways to send Sis back, and on top of that, I had to deal with raising this unexpected little disaster. My body couldn’t keep up.

So one afternoon, I came up with a clever idea.

“Should we play a game of ‘who falls asleep first’?”

“What’s that?”

“We lie on the bed right now and bet on who falls asleep faster. If you fall asleep before me, Sis, I’ll give you a prize.”

Her eyes sparkled with interest. Without a second thought, the child nodded.

“Okay!”

Thankfully, Sis agreed to this flimsy game. I took Sis to my room and collapsed onto the bed.

“Starting the game now…”

“Okay!”

Sis squeezed her eyes shut and began mumbling, counting sheep.

‘Good. It worked.’

My exhausted body from the past few days, combined with the comfortable bed, created the perfect synergy.

Without even resisting, I fell asleep.

Beyond my fading consciousness, I vaguely thought I heard the doorbell ring…

—

That day, the child stood alone in the orphanage’s backyard, looking up at the sky.

Observing the sky was the child’s long-standing hobby.

Having never been outside since arriving at the orphanage, the child would fill the world with imagination.

If she looked closely at the shapes of the drifting clouds, they resembled something.

‘That one’s a butterfly shape. That one’s a flower. And that one’s a mushroom. Ugh, I don’t like mushrooms.’

The child was quite a picky eater. Like most children her age, she avoided various vegetables.

Especially mushrooms—she hated them so much she couldn’t even stand to look at them. She didn’t understand what was good about them, and the slimy texture was also unappealing.

‘Hmph, I wish all the weeds in the world would just run away.’

The child, who had been making a sulky face, suddenly imagined mushrooms running frantically out of the kitchen to escape the chef’s hands, and regained her smile.

The outside world was vast, so somewhere out there, there might even be walking mushrooms.

‘Glowing butterflies, talking fish, moving paintings…’

Somewhat unrealistic, but the blossoming imagination and sense of adventure always made the child’s heart flutter.

‘I want to grow up soon. If I’m an adult, I’ll be able to go outside freely, right?’

Perhaps because she wished for it so earnestly?

A flash of light. A dizzying swirl. A thud.

The child was suddenly dropped into a strange place.

“Wow.”

There, she met her grown-up self.

Future Lelsis was very pretty and wore nice clothes. On top of that, she had a big house and a fluffy bed!

‘Even though she was a terrible cook…’

What was so shocking that it made that fact seem unimportant was her occupation.

Future Lelsis was, of all things, a mage. And not just any mage—she had become a royal mage.

‘I see. So I do become a mage.’

Little Sis liked that future above all else. It made her feel like she had become someone special and amazing. Even though her future self didn’t seem to like her own occupation for some reason.

The future she had stumbled upon was endlessly sweet and exciting, and little Sis felt like she was walking on clouds the whole time.

‘I can’t wait to grow up.’

Then it seemed she wouldn’t be lonely anymore and could be happy…

Sis, who had been smiling calmly, slightly opened her eyes. The eyelids of Lelsis, who had proposed the nap game, were firmly shut.

‘Gasp, big sister already fell asleep?’

It was a bet where the one who fell asleep first won. Sis hurriedly squeezed her eyes shut.

‘I have to fall asleep faster!’

Just then, the doorbell rang clearly through the mansion’s lobby.

Little Sis, who was just about to count sheep to fall asleep quickly, snapped her eyes open at the sound.

“Future Lelsis big sister, someone went *ding-dong* at the door.”

It seemed someone was outside, but Lelsis was completely dead to the world and didn’t even twitch.

“Hmph, I lost.”

Who knew future Lelsis would be so talented at napping.

‘I used to run away all the time during naptime at the orphanage.’

Little Sis, appeasing her disappointment, wriggled out from under the blanket. Then she headed toward the entrance where the guest was waiting.

Arriving at the door in no time, Sis looked at the doorknob and hesitated for a moment.

—

‘If anyone comes looking for me, don’t open the door. Got it?’

—

Adult Lelsis had told her not to open the door. But she had never said not to answer.

Hmm, so would it be okay to ask who it is?

Should I ask, or not? Should I ask, or not?

“…A daughter?”

Just as she was pondering, a voice that wasn’t unfamiliar came from outside.

‘I think I’ve heard this voice before.’

Her hesitation didn’t last long. Since coming to this future, apart from Lelsis, she had only met one other person.

Realizing the visitor’s identity, Sis’s eyes widened like a rabbit’s.

“Ash?”

“You remembered.”

The owner of the relaxed voice was Asuka.

Sis stared at the door with her guard fully up.

Full name: Asuka Willovice. She had received a sufficient explanation about him from Lelsis.

—

‘That bastard is my long-time rival. The worst of the worst. So you must never let him discover your identity! Keep the secret no matter what!’

—

In other words, Ash was someone who would become her enemy in the future!

Sis’s eyes sharpened like needles.

“Hmph, why are you here?”

She should tell him to go back unless it was something important. Just as Sis resolved to do so, Asuka suddenly asked.

“Where’s Rel? Is she not home?”

“No, she’s here, but she passed out a little while ago.”

“…Passed out?”

Immediately after, Sis witnessed an astonishing sight.

Without her even touching it, the lock turned on its own, and then the door swung open.

Before she could do anything, Asuka stepped inside. His face was so cold that even the brave Sis shrank back slightly.