Chapter 139: Family
Rei and Hubert’s emotional reunion had left the forest in shambles, despite Hubert’s decision.
Hubert pulled out a leather cask and took a drink, using his other hand to repair the forest.
Rei, who was drinking a glass of fresh milk that Itea had hastily purchased, glanced over and spoke up.
“You say you’re weak, but your other magic is good?”
“I can’t do any destructive or even slightly aggressive magic. I’m a sage by birth, but I’ve been reduced to a half-wit who can only do simple defense and other useless things.”
“Restrictions… and you’re still alive?”
“That’s right. I’ve lived long enough to meet a colleague who’s turned into such a cute little girl, hahahaha!”
Hubert giggles after taking a drink.
Rei raises her hand, and Hubert’s body instinctively shrinks away.
Just a moment ago, he had been beaten to a pulp by the little girl’s tiny fist.
Rei smirks.
I guess I should be glad he hasn’t changed.
That’s what she was thinking.
But Hubert, out of consideration for her, was talking to her, trying to recall his younger self as much as possible.
In front of them, the holy sword Durandal lay on the ground.
Rei spoke first.
“When will I be able to use the holy sword?”
This time, the holy sword was in her hand, but she couldn’t use it.
“Hmm, not from lack of strength… It certainly feels like some unidentified force is holding you back right now.”
Hubert added, feeling the bitter pain in his ribs where he had been struck.
Hubert was a “sage” now and he could see Rei’s condition more closely and objectively.
“My guess is that it has something to do with your growth and the rebirth of the Demon King.”
“I can understand the growth part, but the Demon King?”
“It’s said that the closer we get to the Demon King’s resurrection, the stronger you become as a Hero…”
“If that’s true, it sounds a bit annoying.”
Rei frowned.
“That’s what bridles are for.”
“A bridle…”
“Anyway, after you died like that, I did some digging about bridles, do you want to hear about it?”
Rei nods weakly at Hubert’s question.
“It may come as a bit of a shock to you, but it turns out that not a single Hero has ever survived a battle with the Demon King.”
“…You mean death is inevitable?”
“The good news is that the Demon King is the same.”
“And does that mean that all the heroes who died were ‘me’…”
“Probably, although this time, for some reason, you had memories of your previous life right after your reincarnation…”
“Do you have any idea?”
Rei, who was squatting against a tree, asked Hubert, who was gulping down his drink.
He wiped the alcohol from his mouth with his arm and stammered out the words.
“Ludwig.”
Rei recognized them.
“…Surely the Ludwig clan…”
“There’s no clan. There’s only one left, I believe.”
“What?”
“You know there was a war about ten years ago, and just before it happened… the Ludwig clan was wiped out by demons. There’s one survivor with that name, but I don’t know if she’s actually a Ludwig. However the way you look now, it seems likely.”
The clan was wiped out by the demons.
Rei’s eyes grow serious at the sight of the Ludwig’s tragic end.
Speechless, Rei thinks over Hubert’s explanation and comes to a conclusion.
“It can’t be…”
“…She could be under the ‘curse’ known as the clan’s vision. We know they’re not capable of such things, do we?”
“Yeah, so the flow of time is warped.”
“We don’t know when the curse was first cast, but it could be what caused you to be reincarnated with your memories.”
“The last survivor of the Ludwig clan. Where is it now?”
“Right here, at the Innocence Academy.”
“Um…?”
“She seems to be friendly with Zetto, who brought you here.”
“Oh…?”
Rei looks dumbfounded at the conversation, which is quickly becoming difficult to follow.
“Wait… then why didn’t you do anything with all this information?”
“Well, constraints. The Lord won’t take my life, but I’m not allowed to affect the world too much.”
“You don’t sound like yourself. You’ve changed.”
“Try being hundreds of years older. I’ve never been in a relationship, because everyone will die before me.”
“Are you sure you’re still a virgin at that age?”
“…”
At Rei’s question, Hubert strokes his long beard without speaking.
Judging by his expression, it seems to be true.
“…I don’t know if I should give you the title of ‘Archmage’.”
Rei scoffs and sips her milk.
“Still, I suppose it’s better than you, who looks like a virgin.”
Hubert’s next sharp comment makes Rei spit out her milk.
POOF!!!
The milk from Rei’s mouth spewed directly into Hubert’s face and his long beard drips with pure white milk.
“”……””
Their gazes meet in the silence and Rei is the first to speak.
“…You know, I’m not sorry.”
“I agree.”
Hubert wipes the milk off his face.
A cool breeze from the forest washes away the uncomfortable undercurrents of air that had been flowing between them, even as a muddy fight almost started that neither of them would benefit from.
“More than that, what happened with Zetto?”
“Hmm…”
Rei gulps down her milk at Hubert’s question.
Zetto, the mysterious man who announced himself as a prophet.
“…He’s a peculiar guy.”
“I was paying attention to him anyway, but I didn’t expect him to bring you along…”
“Fuhaha, surely Zetto is unusual enough to interest you, a sage.”
“There’s something I want to ask you about that Zetto.”
“I don’t know much about him yet, but… I’ll answer as best I can.”
“Did the Zetto seem to have no qualms about killing, or was he cruel…”
“Hmm…”
Having finally drained her glass, Rei rolls her eyes upward, recalling Zetto’s behavior as she watched.
“At least against demons, though I doubt any human would mind killing one… He seemed very familiar with it, too calm and cool. Not something a twenty-year-old brat could do.”
“Huh…”
“Why, is something wrong?”
“Uh, no. Just a personal question.”
“You’re asking all the wrong questions,” Rei grumbles, flopping down on the grass.
“…So how do you think you’re going to like living with them? I guess you’ll be living with them whether you like it or not, but if you don’t, we can figure out a way to live separately.”
At any rate, now that he knew she was a fake sister, she could stop playing that role.
With Mr. Hubert Graham’s authority, there was nothing she couldn’t do.
“Umm… I don’t think that’s necessary.”
The words that came out of Rei’s mouth, however, were surprising, considering her reaction so far.
“Why?”
“Well…”
A sense of relaxation came over Rei that she hadn’t felt since her reincarnation.
Now that she had been told that she had some time before the Demon King’s resurrection, she could focus on growing slowly. This has helped her lose some of the impatience she had at the orphanage.
Years of problems that had been bothering her head were neatly resolved after meeting a man named Zetto.
Rei has come to recognize and accept it.
She realized that she was now Rei, Zetto’s sister.
It wasn’t a big decision.
It’s still a bit of a burden to have to play the younger sister, but it’s not like she can switch genders.
Most of all, it was the first ‘family’ she’d ever had, even if it wasn’t connected by blood.
It’s only been a few days, and Rei has already grown attached to Zetto and Geppeti.
Even if it was an act.
Even if it was a lie.
It was definitely a family and it was a sense of security she’d never felt before.
Not like Leon, the hero, but like Zetto sister, Rei.
Besides…
‘…being the youngest is a pretty comfortable position.’
Rei, who had been thinking about that, nodded.
Hubert, on the other hand, whose thoughts hadn’t gotten that far, had a somewhat different idea.
It seemed a little odd to him that his colleague was okay with that infantile behavior.
‘Is it just a matter of taste or something…?’
He held back the words that were about to spill out of his mouth.
This time, he was afraid she might actually crack his ribs.
Rei pushes herself to her feet and glances at Hubert, whose eyes are wide.
There was one story he hadn’t told her yet, one that the reincarnated Rei wanted to hear.
It was also the most curious of all the things that happened after death.
“Hubert.”
“Hmm?”
“How was my funeral?”
***
It was impossible to hear the story of Leon the Hero funeral without tears.
I didn’t cry, though.
I couldn’t cry because I felt an unspeakable guilt that I was still here, alive.
No, I was dead, after all.
But I had been “resurrected,” which is a known no-no at a funeral.
There’s nothing to feel guilty about, that’s what I decided to think.
They were honoring me, each in their own way. It was a strange feeling.
The saint cried a lot.
She cried for days and nights, and when I told her that she had always been a tearful woman, she looked at me as if I were a bug.
She scolded me, saying, ‘How come you don’t change after death?’
‘What the hell are you talking about…’
That was the end of my long talk with Hubert, and I was on my way back to my dorm.
It was here, at the Innocence Academy, that Hubert chose to honor me.
By now, the sun was setting, casting a bright red glow over the city.
The streets were littered with cadets and I wondered if class would be over by then.
As I walked down the street, my legs came to a stop and I stared at the beautiful view of the city at sunset.
My destination: the dormitory.
However, my feet stopped for a reason.
‘…I don’t know the way.’
The academy, or rather the city, was quite large. At least it seemed that way to my petite frame and narrow stride.
Moreover, I had used up a lot of energy beating Hubert and I was completely exhausted from his futile resistance.
‘I should ask around for directions…’
…It was a bother so I squatted down on the sidewalk and watched the people passing by nonchalantly.
Suddenly, I make eye contact with a woman with red hair in a tight braid.
As I stare, she tilts her head and approaches me.
“Are you lost?”
She asks, bending down to be eye level with me. Judging by her uniform, she’s a cadet at the Academy.
“…”
I hastily swallowed my half-sentence and lost the time to respond.
From now on, I’ll have to pretend to be Zetto’s sister when talking to other people.
It would be easier to pretend if I had Geppeti or Zetto next to me, because it would be more realistic, but to pretend to be his sister by myself… It was still a challenge.
Geppeti had gone back to her dorm early to arrange and organize the furniture.
I wonder if I’ll run into Zetto.
With that thought in mind, I stared at the redheaded woman impassively.
“Hmm…”
The woman ponders something, then turns her head and looks off into the distance.
“Zetto, Aizel, we have a little girl here.”
“Zetto?”
As soon as the name came out of her mouth, I turned to look.
With an unusually striking appearance, Zetto was walking here with a nameless platinum-haired girl.
“Oh?”
My reaction startled the redhead but I lightly ignored her reaction and ran over to Zetto.
“Brother Zetto…!”
“Brother?”
Immediately, the red-haired woman’s questioning voice comes from behind me.
She calls out for Zetto, and as she approaches him, he shakes his head.
“Rei, why are you here…?”
“Oh… I was talking to a ‘friend’ of mine…”
“You already have a friend?”
“Uh… Uhhh…”
As Zetto and I were having such a conversation, the red-haired woman ran up from behind and joined us.
The platinum-haired woman and the red-haired woman glanced at Zetto at the same time and asked.
“”Your sister…?””
“Yes, this is my sister, Rei.”
Suddenly, they introduced themselves.
The platinum-haired woman’s name was Aizel Ludwig and she was the only survivor of the Ludwig clan that Hubert told me about.
I was a little surprised, but I’d heard they were close.
The red-haired woman is called Yuri Clementine. For some reason, her hair and eyes were unusually red, and I recognized her as the Clementine of the Continent Four Elemental Families.
Then the Clementine I had met before was this child’s ancestor and a thought flashed through my mind.
“…That’s why we’ll be living together from now on.”
Zetto, who was summarizing the situation, finished his explanation and a bewildered Yuri then asks him a question.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had sisters before?”
It was a difficult question since me and Geppeti are fake sisters who came along unexpectedly.
I wondered if Zetto would make an excuse because but then Zetto’s nonchalant voice took over.
“Because you didn’t ask?”
“Don’t get me wrong, but…”
Yuri’s eyebrows rise.
Yeah, she’s not wrong, but it’s weird and it seemed that way to me, too.
Her eyes, which I can’t tell if they’re suspicious or puzzled, then turn to Zetto.
“…”
Aizel, in particular, was looking back and forth between me and Zetto without saying a word, and her pupils were visibly twitching.
Why?
Isn’t Zetto supposed to have a sister?
‘If that’s not it…’
…I can’t help it but it seemed like a good idea for me to step in.
I needed to act as a little sister to make this situation feel natural.
“Brother Zetto…”
“What’s wrong?”
“My leg hurts… I want to go home…”
“…”
Scratching his cheek, Zetto turns his back to me and bends his knees.
I cautiously climb onto his back, wrap my arms around his neck and he grabs my leg.
I had to act like a ‘little sister’ to avoid their suspicions.
I immediately buried my face in Zetto’s back since I didn’t want to see what their reaction would be.
The road to being a little sister was a rocky one.
***
I didn’t know when to introduce Rei and Geppeti, and before I knew it, class was over.
But then…
‘…I never thought I’d run into Rei.’
Despite the explanation, Yuri and Aizel had a hard time accepting it because it was so sudden.
It was then that Rei understood my confusion but the Hero is the Hero so she was good at handling crises.
With her help, I was able to dispel Aizel and Yuri’s suspicions.
‘I don’t know how they’ll take it, but…’
It was all about the aftermath.
For now, it was just a matter of saying it was done and moving on.
“Thanks, Rei.”
I thanked Rei, who was on my back on a deserted road.
“…”
I think she was embarrassed, as she had always resisted being carried on my back.
Sierra’s voice rang out as she checked Rei’s condition.
[She’s already asleep, so she must have been tired.]
I thought I could hear her heartbeat.
It’s been an eventful day and Geppeti is almost gushing with praise when she sees Rei on my back.
She said she looked like a little sister and the thought of it makes me smile.
“It’s like I have a real family. I’m the eldest son and the head of the family, so I guess I’m like the father, haha.”
[Even if you are, where’s the mother? Is she Geppeti?]
“I don’t know about Geppeti… Mother would be teacher, right?”
I didn’t want to leave Sierra out of the family picture.
[No, that’s too much of a joke… a pupil would take his master as his wife…]
Her words stopped him in his tracks.
I looked at Sierra, who was covering her blushing face with her cuffs, and asked her in a low voice.
“…You don’t want to be my wife, even if it’s a fake marriage?”
[Umm…]
Sierra flinched but she continued as if she can’t help it.
[I accept it because it’s fake. It’s only fake…]
With that, Sierra stammers and quickly looks away from me.