Helping the little sister

"I don't understand."

Christa, face pressed against her desk and surrounded by papers, grumbled under her breath.

She had been trying all night to figure out what the reason her attempt a few days ago had been different from the previous ones.

She had done several tests, such as leaving the crystals longer in the oven and leaving them less time.

The crystals left longer turned out to have 3 times the potency of those left less time. But back to square one, Christa had no idea why this was happening.

"I even bought this gemology book, but it didn't tell me any more than I already knew; the worst part is that it cost me an arm and a leg, and that's saying a lot for me."

Completely exhausted from spending all night testing, Christa was about to go to bed, but then she heard someone knocking on her door. 

Knock- knock-

"Hmm? Could it be those two? But today is not our meeting day."

The only ones who usually came to her room were Mari and Johan; Christa had already absolutely dismissed the idea that some servant had come to serve her breakfast or something.

"Then there's only..."

Reluctantly getting up, she made her way to the door and opened it.

And sure enough, what stood behind the door was a striking pink head—I mean, Charlotte, her little sister.

"Wow, you look terrible, I mean, more than usual."

"What do you want, pink drill?"

"I'm not a—! ja~! Forget it."

Charlotte looked like she was about to have one of her outbursts but surprisingly didn't and took a deep breath to calm herself down.

This surprised Christa a bit, who looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't look at me like that! Anyway, I wanted to ask you something."

"What?"

"Um... well."

Charlotte shifted nervously in place, and a slight blush appeared on her face.

This only weirded out Christa even more, who had no idea what was happening to her sister.

"Miss Mari... Is she here?"

"Mari? Why are you looking for her?"

"Is she here, or isn't she!?"

Charlotte finally seemed to lose her temper and asked with a completely red face.

"No, she's not here today."

"Then I'm leaving!"

Charlotte quickly turned to leave, but before she could walk away, Christa grabbed her shoulder.

"Wait, she's not here right now, but she might be here in a little while. Why don't you go inside and wait for her?"

"That..."

Christa lied; neither Johan nor Mari would come here today. But she still said this to Charlotte, noticing her strange behavior; she wanted to know what was wrong with her silly little sister.

Was it because of an older sister's concern for her younger sister?

Maybe, but the real reason was something else entirely.

Christa felt this would be fun. 

She didn't know what was wrong with Charlotte, but her instincts told her it wouldn't be something boring or too important, and having been researching elemental crystals for several days, she needed something to relax with, and fortunately for her, her silly little sister came knocking directly on her door.

Charlotte knew nothing of this, but still felt a cold shiver and didn't want to go into her sister's room.

"Th-that, I have something to do, so..."

"Come on, they could be here any minute; it'll only be a while. Besides, when she gets here, we might concentrate on our research until late and not open the door for you."

"..."

Charlotte tried to escape, but it was useless.

The naive and foolish Charlotte was no match for the cunning Christa.

"Okay, but I'll just wait a while."

Charlotte finally gave in, but she couldn't help but think that she had walked right into the lion's den.

"Yes, don't worry; they should be here shortly."

Lying as naturally as breathing, Christa directed the naïve Charlotte to her room.

Once inside, Charlotte could see the deplorable state of the room, with hundreds of papers strewn across the floor. 

"Sorry about the mess; I was working on something."

Christa said without much interest and, removing some books that were on top of the bed, made a space for Charlotte to sit down.

She hesitantly walked over and sat down in the space Christa had made for her.

"Your bed is too hard."

"Too soft a bed is bad for your back."

Christa casually ignored her comment and sat back in her desk chair looking at Charlotte.

"So, why are you looking for Mari?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Do you like her? I don't care, but just know that she's already married."

"O-of course not! , I'm not that kind of girl!"

"Then?"

"That..."

Charlotte lowered her head and fiddled nervously with her fingers; finally she spoke, but in a voice not unlike a whisper.

"I wanted to... ask her for advice..."

"What?"

Christa made an exaggerated gesture with her ear and moved closer to Charlotte.

She's unable to stand her sister's nonsense; she finally ended up shouting.

"I wanted to ask her advice about boys!"

But realizing what she had done, she quickly covered her mouth, looking extremely nervous and embarrassed.

"Eh~?"

Christa, for her part, had a big grin on her face.

"Does it have to do with that shady guy who came to the mansion a few months ago?"

"H-how did you? Wait! Akiyama isn't shady!."

"So his name is Akiyama, huh? He must be oriental."

"Gah!"

Charlotte, with tears in her eyes and looking extremely embarrassed, abruptly got up from the bed.

"Whatever, I'm out of here!"

"Wait, wait, I'm sorry."

Charlotte paused holding the doorknob and turned to look at Christa.

"Really?"

"Yes, I was out of line; I apologize."

"... Fine."

Charlotte may not have gotten along very well with her sister, but she knew her sister always meant what she said when she apologized; it was one of the few good points she had.

With a cooler head, she sat back down on the bed but still pouted and refused to look at Christa.

She, instead of worrying, found the situation amusing; her little sister was too easy to bully.

"If you want, I can give you some advice."

"You?"

Charlotte answered her looking very skeptical.

"Yes, believe it or not, I know a thing or two about boys."

"No, that's not possible."

Charlotte firmly denied, as if stating a fact.

Did her sister, who spent every day locked in her workshop or insulting the sons of nobles, know about boys? It almost sounded funny.

"Hmp, you underestimate your big sister, brat."

"No matter how you say it, it's impossible for someone like you to know even a little about boys!"

"Well, even though it's not right to say this, I've technically been talking to an extremely handsome boy for several months now, so I know more about boys than you do."

"That..."

Charlotte couldn't refute her sister's logic, but her pride wouldn't allow her to accept that someone like Christa knew more about boys than she did either.

"That doesn't count!"

"Why, Johan is a boy, isn't he? And even if he's not my preference, I have to say he's a pretty good one besides."

Christa was thankful that Mari wasn't here to hear her say all this; she'd seen how she looked at the women who flirted with Johan when they went out from time to time, and even thinking about it gave her the creeps.

'Sorry, Mari, I'll buy you a drink later.'

While Christa was thinking about how to apologize to Mari, Charlotte was still fighting with the idea that her sister knew more about boys than she did.

She abruptly got up from the bed and pointed at Christa.

"Then prove it!"

"Sure, what do you want to know?

"W-well, how can I approach a boy!?"

"Depends on what kind of boy we're talking about."

Charlotte's momentum vanished in an instant, and she went back to acting shy and reserved, plopping down on the bed.

"He's nice and... he likes flowers."

"Any other details? I can't tell you anything with just that information."

Charlotte hesitated but finally continued speaking.

"Well, although he may seem a bit shady, he's actually very handsome, and although he's clearly not good at talking to people, he always tries to follow conversations...that's cute."

"Mmm, what else?"

"He's very good with kids, although they always scare the first time they see him; he's very kind and tries to help everyone he can, and also..."

This time Christa didn't even have to prod her to speak; Charlotte began to talk about him as animatedly as when the noblewomen of Rosenheim were discovering a new quality tailor's shop.

The twinkle in her eyes as she described him could only be described as the eyes of a maiden in love.

A few minutes passed in which Charlotte went on and on about Akiyama and had long since stopped talking about his features and began to talk animatedly about the days she had spent with him. Christa was sure that if they had been accompanied with some tea and cookies, Charlotte would continue until midnight.

"That time I had tried to make some cookies I had seen in one of the books of the chefs at the mansion."

"Mm~? Why, what did you want to bake them yourself?"

Christa asked in a clearly mocking tone.

"B-because of nothing special! I just got the urge to cook for myself that day!"

Christa didn't point out her sister's poor attempt to try to hide the fact that she wanted to cook for her beloved herself and let her continue with her story.

"So I followed the instructions in the book to the letter, but... for some strange reason the cookies turned out salty."

"Hahahahahaha! Did you mistake sugar for salt?"

Christa started laughing as she sucked in her stomach.

"Sh-shut up! It's not my fault they're so similar!" 

Using all her strength to calm down, Christa stopped laughing and let Charlotte continue with her story.

"W-whatever! Because of certain circumstances that were clearly not my fault, the cookies didn't turn out as expected, but at that moment Akiyama came into the kitchen."

***

"This is a disaster..."

Charlotte looked at the cookies that were on the tray; despite looking good, their taste was not tasty at all.

"Okay, let's try again."

Charlotte wasn't going to give up so easily; she was going to bake some delicious cookies and give them to Akiyama.

"N-not for anything special! I just need someone to taste my food to know if it turned out really good or not!"

She said, trying to fool herself.

"Although it could also serve as a little help, he's been training too much these days since he came back all messed up that night. Geez, that idiot, he didn't even wait for his wounds to heal properly before he started training..."

"What are you mumbling about?"

"Kyaaaaaaa!"

Charlotte jumped in fright when she heard a sudden voice beside her.

"You—you! I told you to stop doing that!"

The person who had suddenly spoken to her was Akiyama, who was standing with an apologetic expression on his face.

"I'm sorry, I tried to call you, but you didn't answer."

"Eh? How long have you been here?"

She asked something, worried that he might have overheard what she had said. But the answer he gave her was enough to calm her down.

"Not more than a minute ago. Well, putting that aside, you made these cookies? They look good."

He said as he took one from the tray.

"N-no, wait!"

Charlotte tried to stop him, but it was too late; Akiyama bit into the cookie and chewed it carefully before swallowing it.

Charlotte watched all this nervously, being especially attentive to his expression.

Finally, after a moment of silence, Akiyama gave his opinion while averting his gaze.

"It's a taste... unique."

"Just say it tastes bad!"

Charlotte knew the cookies tasted horrible; she had tasted them herself and couldn't even hold them in her mouth for 2 seconds before spitting them out.

"Whatever, I don't care! It was just something I did out of boredom."

"I can help you if you want."

Charlotte tried to drop the subject, leaving it simply as something she had done out of boredom, but Akiyama's answer surprised her.

"I know a little bit about baking since I used to help my mom when she made cookies and the like.".

"I—I already told you, it's just something I did out of boredom. 

"But isn't it better when what we do comes out well?"

"So you admit the cookies are bad?"

"W-well... yes."

Akiyama stated sheepishly, but strangely Charlotte didn't feel angry.

"...Fine."

Finally she agreed, and they both baked the cookies together.

They were the sweetest cookies she had ever tasted.

***

"He was so kind; he guided me through the whole process even though I made several mistakes."

Charlotte said in a dreamy tone, but when she finished her story, she realized something.

She had been talking for who knows how long about Akiyama and had long since stopped mentioning only his characteristics.

Her face exploded with an intense blush, and she shouted at Christa to try to hide her embarrassment.

"H-hey, I told you enough already, didn't I?! Or that stuff about you knowing about boys turned out to be just a sham!"

"Hahahahahaha, it's not my fault you got so self-absorbed talking about your beloved; you really like him, right~?"

"Sh-shut up!"

Christa teased Charlotte a bit but finally calmed down and gave her advice.

"Well, I don't think you have to do anything special."

"What?"

Charlotte was confused.

She didn't have to do anything?

Did that whole "I know about boys" thing turn out to be a scam?

Charlotte started to get angry, but Christa's next words puzzled her.

"According to what you've told me, that Akiyama guy likes you too."

"Eh?"

"You said he's very kind and always tries to help others, but isn't he especially dedicated when it comes to you? Would he take the time to teach a person step by step how to bake some cookies for a whole afternoon?"

"E-eh, well."

"And didn't you say he wasn't good at talking to people? But from what you've told me, he talks to you smoothly and without apparent effort."

"E-eh? Wait, huh?"

"Ha! My cute and silly sister, you really don't know anything about boys, do you? That Akiyama clearly likes you as much as you do."

"Eeeeeeeeeehhhhh?!"

Charlotte's brain had given a short circuit. 

"He... he likes me?"

Charlotte had her hands clenching her cheeks in an attempt to control her blushing; her mind was in chaos, and she couldn't think straight.

But all her thoughts were dispelled when she felt a hand resting on her head.

"Just take it easy; you're cute. Just try to be a little more honest with your feelings, and you'll be fine."

Charlotte looked at Christa, who had her hand resting on her head with a big smile. But strangely she didn't feel annoyed or feel the need to quickly pull her hand away. In fact.

For a few moments she saw her as a real big sister.

But she was never going to say it.

"Thank you..."

"Eh~? Did you say something?"

But that feeling was short-lived when Christa started teasing her again while tousling her hair.

Charlotte slapped her hand away and stood up abruptly from the bed.

"What are you annoying!"

She ran to the door and slammed it shut.

But Christa didn't move; she just stood there staring at the door with a smile as if waiting for something.

And sure enough, it wasn't a minute before the door swung open and Charlotte peeked out timidly.

"Thank you."

After saying that, she closed the door again tightly, and the sound of her feet moving quickly echoed through the room before disappearing.

"Silly."

Strangely, she felt energized to investigate a little.

Strangely, she felt energized to investigate a little more.