Chapter 2.3

By the time I knew it, I was already at the tree, standing— with my mind blank like a white sheet of paper.

No matter how beautiful the scene is— I can't feel a single thing.

It seems… I forgot.

I forgot what it feels like to be alone.

I forgot how scary being alone could be.

Though I want Kuroyuki to help me— I know I said that. But now I don't have anyone to depend on. There's no one I could rely on.

Ha.

Haha.

Hahahaha…

—brother. —master.

Gasp!

Shit. Why did I forget… How could I forget my family…?

Stupid seal…! Stop messing with me!!! You took away my knowledge, my skills, and nearly took away my life! And now you are even taking away my memories about Restia and Ruby!!?

Hold it. I need to stay calm.

Anger would`ve made the seal to work faster—

[Di Di]

This sound… It's coming from my old-model phone…! This means— Restia and Ruby…!

I quickly took the phone from my pocket and accepted the call.

“Res—”

“I'M GOING TO KILL YOU.”

“………………………”

…It`s Restia.

Shit. I just remembered why I am able to come here.

It's another headache after another. Let's find a comfortable spot to sit first...

“Hurry up and say something! Anything!”

“I`m sorry for leaving, Restia. I love you.”

“You…! …you are forgiven.”

… I thought she was going to yell at me.

“BUT THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. I CAN`T BELIEVE YOU FORGOT TO CALL ME.”

…Ah.

“N-No! I was just going to call—”

“DON`T LIE ON ME.”

“I`m sorry Restia please forgive me once more.”

There`s no choice but to apologize to her.

“…under one condition.” She said.

“Okay, and that is?”

“You need to make up our lost time together and obey my commands, twice.”

“Fine. But no bathing together.”

“I said obey my commands, didn't I? I will kill you if you don`t.”

“…Fine. But don't make me touch you in weird places nor you touch me in weird places.”

“LIKE, I, SAID… OBEY MY COMMANDS, OKAY~?”

It seems I have no choice.

“Alright! Fine! I'll do it!”

“…That's my big brother.”

“Have your anger cooled down now?”

“…Hic. Uwaah……”

She's crying now.

“Why did you leave Restia…? You promised not to leave Restia alone…!!! You promise-breaker! Cheater! Pervert!”

“You think I want to leave? I had no choice! You have no idea how much I missed you! I`m feeling so uncomfortable without you and Ruby!!!”

“Restia… Restia will come to big brother now…!”

“Don`t do it…! We need to endure this… It's just like what ‘I’ said… We need to grow up once in a while…!”

“But— but it's painful without big brother around…”

“Six months. We need to endure for just six months.”

“Mnn… Res… Restia will endure…”

“…That's my little sis.”

“…Big brother… how was school…?”

“I... I really want to go home…”

“Res… Restia will come to big brother now…!”

“No…! Endure it, Restia! We need to endure it! It`s for both of our sakes!”

“Restia… will try…”

I need to distract her.

“…Restia. Do you think I should do what ‘I’ told me…?”

“If it's 'big brother’ who told you to, then you should. Restia will be here to update your progress…”

“Okay then… This academy is really big. The other me got lost inside a forest.”

“Eh…? How did big brother even find a forest and got lost inside?”

“Central Imperial Island is quite friendly with nature. And, ngh… it seems he was just trying to kill time.”

I can't really remember well because of the memory fragments.

“…as expected from big brother.”

“I don't really want to say this but… Erm… The Student Council President is really pretty—”

“I SEE. SO THIS IS WHY MY HEAD IS HURTING TODAY.”

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!! SHE'S JUST AS PERVERTED AND CUNNING LIKE YOU!!!”

“HOW FAR DID SHE GO?”

“Well… her oral is the dirty one. But most importantly, she still had her clothes on her.”

“This means… YOU TOUCHED HER.”

“It's the other way around!!!”

“…No love?”

“Yup. No love— Hey! Why will there even be love happening between us!?”

“But why does Restia`s head hurt so badly? Restia is quite sure it's something close to love at first sight… Then, IT MUST BE THE OTHER ONE.”

Urk…!

“I… It`s Kuroyuki Shiroha…”

“NOOOOO!!! BIG BROTHER`S HEART HAVE BEEN STOLEN BY ANOTHER GIRL!!! WHAT'S MORE, IT'S HER!!!”

“D-Don't worry! She's far too scary for the other me to approach her…!”

“…What about you?”

Oh no. It's no use even if I try to lie.

“Err…… Hahaha?”

“I'M GOING TO KILL HER.”

“I don't know what happened to her, but she had been through an even harsher life than us.”

“……………are you sure…?”

“Her eyes and personality told me.”

“………it can't be helped, then. But still, dating is not allowed! Your only choice is big sis!”

“Her again? I'm pretty sure that was just your own fictional character.”

“…Don`t make me strip you and devour every inch of your body.”

“I'm extremely sorry Restia please spare me.”

“Enough of them! Restia wants something worth listening to!”

Restia seems to feel much better now.

“With my special student ID, I can access almost anywhere in this school.”

“Then where have you explored?”

“G-Grk…! S-Student Council President`s Building, Underground Training Room, and W-White Mansion…”

“Only three blocks!? Is big brother even exploring properly!?”

“H-Huh? Why do you seem to know about the White Mansion…? Did you hack my student ID…!?”

Let me remind you. My little sis is a genius.

“’Big brother’ told Restia to do so. Restia agrees, it's really way better than normal student ID. There`s more administrative systems in this one.”

“Don`t mess with the White Mansion`s administrative systems, okay? She might notice.”

“Okay~ What about the students…? Who have you met?”

“The… The First Year Student Council President, Persia Silverlight and S… Special Student Number One, Kuroyuki Shiroha…”

“Big brother, are you messing with Restia? You only met two students so far and THEY ARE GIRLS?”

“B-But… The other me is doing it…”

“TELL, ME, WHAT, HE, DID, THANK YOU VERY MUCH?”

“Ugh…”

…………………………

“Please forgive Restia, big brother!”

“No, wait. Tell me why are you apologizing…?”

“Restia is too careless. Restia didn't expect those two to be such a big threat to Restia.”

“…Isn't it more like the other me was being swept up by the flow…?”

“Ngh… if only ‘big brother’ is here.”

“Well, you still have 15 days to go.”

“……What about your part? What happened to the duel?”

“Just like what I predicted— she let me win and took her title, regardless of who I am.”

“She knew about you and accepted it just like that…!? How scary…”

“She accepted me as her equal now and— I sort of talk with her and…”

“…and?”

“…I told her to save me.”

Restia seems to have frozen up. But it was only for a while.

“I see… so Restia is still not worthy enough to save ‘big brother’…”

“That's not it, Restia. You and Ruby have done your part well enough. There's a limit on how much you can do as family. If it's her, then she might be able to save ‘me’ as a friend.”

“…If big brother says so…”

“…also, I found the ‘key’ to my seal. It`s her ring. My seal reacted to it when I touched it.”

“F-Finally…! This way big brother can finally— Why didn't you unseal it? What is lacking?”

As expected from my little sis. She's quick to catch on.

“…Both of us don't have mana. We can`t chant magic to activate the key.”

“Res… Restia will come over right now…!”

“Didn`t I tell you many times already? Your mana won`t work. My seal requires the specific mana with the same wavelength to the magic circle of the seal to unseal it, and I still have no idea who it is.”

“…Then… if the key is Kuroyuki Shiroha`s ring, then the person with the same mana wavelength to the magic circle might be in big brother`s school, too.”

“Why do you assume that…? To begin with, why does she have the key to my seal in the first place? Do I have some sort of connection with her…?”

“…Impossible.”

“Ah… You are right. I forgot I didn't leave the island up until now— Ah… I see why you assumed that.”

“…N. Because big brother doesn`t have a single connection with Kuroyuki Shiroha but yet she has the key. So Restia assumed the possibility of such a case might happen too.”

“Okay, if that's the case— I will try searching for the person with the matching mana wavelength.”

“…What if the person does not know how to activate it…?”

“No. That person will surely know. I will teach him how to do it.”

“But… where will big brother start to look first…?”

“Since I can't really tell the difference in mana wavelength, I need someone who is good at magic first. That's why… I will be counting on you, Restia.”

“…are you trying to hide it from Kuroyuki Shiroha…?”

“It's more like I can't add another hard task to her. If possible, I will try to open my heart with her… Please don't be mad.”

“Restia understands… Big brother is free to do so. Restia will do her best here…!”

Restia would know what to do. She could use my Student ID administration account to look at the student`s profiles.

“Thank you… Restia. Anyways, what are you doing now?”

“N? Talking to big brother naked?”

Why are you mentioning the ‘naked’ part?

“No, not that. What I mean is— where`s Ruby?”

“…Oh. Restia tied her up naked and sealed her mouth.”

Why are the both of you naked?

“I see— Huh? Hold on. It's not her mating season nor ‘that’ day so why did you tie her up for?”

“Because she wants to talk to big brother.”

You are tying her up because she wants to talk to me?

“RESTIA…?” I uttered.

“Before you get mad, big brother— do you know why Restia and Ruby are naked?”

“Hmm? Because you just came out from the bath?”

“Then why are we bathing?”

“Huh? I see, it's not time for bed yet. Okay, speak up.”

There's a two-hour difference. That means it`s roughly half past six at my home island. The reason why it took me 5 hours to reach here it's because of the horrible weather at my home island.

“Perhaps it would be better for Ruby to explain.”

From the sound I heard, Resita seems to be removing her magic spell on Ruby.

“Mmph— Pwuahh…! M-Master…! Restia is being a meanie…!”

Ruby`s framing Restia right from the start.

“Hahahaha. YOU ONLY HAVE ONE CHANCE TO EXPLAIN YOURSELF.”

“N-Nyaa!!? I… I… I`m sorry…?”

“…Restia.” I said.

“Ruby went nuts.”

Shit. Ruby used the house as a punching bag to relieve stress again.

“NYAA…!!!? RES-RESTIA…!”

“Status report.”

“8 cracks on the floor, 3 holes on the walls and six holes on the ceiling from the ground floor to the third floor through the roof. We spent the whole day fixing, cleaning and tidying the house.”

…Another new record.

“Hmph. Since you helped with the cleaning and tidying, I will lessen your punishment.”

“Ru… Ruby didn`t do it on purrpose…! I-It's just thyat, when Ruby cyan`t find myaster…! (Sniff)…!”

...Ugh. Ruby`s crying.

“Ngh… Deduct one week of grooming from me.”

“Th— Thyank you myaster…!”

“It's just six months, so be patient, okay?”

“Nnya… Ruby understands… myaster. Be sure myaster will stroke Ruby in her head, wash, clean, groom, play, bath—”

“Now this is getting overboard. No bathing.”

“Don`t worry Ruby, your master will obey my every command.”

“Why you little…”

“Yay~!” Ruby yells excitedly.

“Hurry up and wear your clothes already you two perverted freaks!” I shouted.

“Hehe~” “Nya nya~”

“…Geez. Take good care of yourselves, alright? Don't make me worry.”

“…N.” “N.”

“Goodbye… I love you two.” I said.

“Bye bye big brother... I love you.”

“Ruby too.”

[Beep]

Call ended.

“…………” I deliberately sighed.

[Ding!]

A message…? How on earth did she type so fast?

[Message from: Restia]

‘Goodnight big brother. Sleep well. Restia will always love you.’

Heh. My little sis really is cute—

‘P.S. Does big brother want a photo of Ruby naked?’

…or not. Just how much of a pervert you are and you think I am?!

[Ding!]

Huh? Another message?

[Message from: Ruby]

‘Ruby will take care of Restia. Goodnight and love you, master.’

Isn't it more like the other way around…?

‘P.S. Does master want a photo of Restia naked?’

“………………Geez.”

I WILL PUNISH BOTH OF THEM SOMEDAY.

[Ding!]

Again!?

[Message from: Restia]

Huh? A photo from Restia?

Don`t tell me… Oh, their lingerie selfie. Better than having them naked.

…Seems like they will be fine.

Thank you, Restia, Ruby. It's because of you two, I was able to live on.

“Yaahh……!” I yawned.

All of the sudden, tiredness and fatigue came over me. Seems like I can`t awake any longer.

…15 days.

I was told just to look around and follow Restia`s instruction by myself— the ‘real’ me. I have no idea what he did behind my back. Even for myself, I think he's too mysterious but… as long as he knows what he was doing.

I sincerely hope you know what you were doing, me.

If I don't remove the seal by the 3rd week— I might not get the chance to see my family ever again.