After Keya left, Keti wanted to say something to Alice, but…
Her childhood friend, or rather, her sister—who she had just learned about—kept crying.
Keti couldn’t find a chance to speak at all. She could only silently hold her for a while, letting her cry until her emotions finally stabilized a bit…
Probably stabilized… right?
Keti saw a sudden, resolute gloominess flash in Alice’s eyes, as if she had figured something out.
Sigh…
Keti hesitated for a moment, then asked weakly:
“So, Alice, you’re not going to say that siblings aren’t allowed either, are you?”
“Mhm! Mhm!”
The golden-haired twin-tailed little loli decisively nodded twice, then declared loudly:
“I don’t care, I don’t believe it! So what if it’s true? I’ve never seen you as a brother anyway! I… Ahhh!”
“Auntie and Uncle—a demon princess and a Warrior Administrator—could be together, so why can’t we? We’ll just elope! If we have that, then it’ll be fine! Let the whole world witness our sibling love!”
Speechless…
Keti’s mouth corner twitched. She felt her little sister was being a bit too abstract, but…
Alright, actually, what Alice said wasn’t wrong. Even if Mom hadn’t been lying to them—and of course, Keti now understood the chance of that was almost zero—she had indeed always treated Alice as her own little sister.
A normal sibling relationship was probably something they could never achieve. But that didn’t mean Keti would agree to Alice’s elopement demand. In the end…
“Alice, I…”
The silver-haired beauty hesitated, feeling it wasn’t good to be too direct. So, she decided to take a roundabout approach.
Wasn’t it still the same? After all, she had rejected Alice before. But now, if she just rejected her again without saying anything, Alice might just stuff her into a sack and run away on the spot.
How did her little sister have such strong hands?
Keti sighed a bit gloomily. Truly, the descendant of a Hero.
“Let’s go look at the moon on the roof. Didn’t we used to do that often when we were kids? It’s so hot today, I want some fresh air.”
Keti blinked as she said this. Hearing it, Alice seemed to remember something and silently followed.
The two quickly climbed onto the roof from the window, then sat close together, looking up at the brilliant sky.
“Tonight… there are so many stars.”
Alice blinked, her emotions seeming to finally calm down. Keti nodded. Another period of silence fell between them. After a long while, it was the golden-haired twin-tailed little loli who spoke first.
“So… Keti, you still want to reject me, right? You… haven’t you always liked me?”
The silver-haired beauty fell silent, mainly because she hadn’t expected Alice to take the initiative and pierce that thin layer of paper first.
“I don’t understand, I can’t understand… I… If it was out of unwillingness, thinking they don’t deserve to compare to me, your childhood friend who’s been with you day and night…”
“But… I also think they are very charming women. If Keti you chose them, I’d think you were just momentarily seduced by them. Your heart would definitely return to me in the end. I don’t know why, but I… I just have that confidence.”
The golden-haired twin-tailed little loli lowered her head and said this, then shook her head painfully.
“But why? Why did I lose to a man? I…”
“Alice…”
Keti blinked. Mentioning Lynn seemed to give her a bit more courage. A moment later, she smiled helplessly at her sister beside her and spoke:
“So you like me that much, huh? Mmm… But, you know, actually, for a very long time, I thought you hated me…”
“I… how could I hate you…”
A look of stunned disbelief appeared on the tear-streaked face of the golden-haired twin-tailed little loli, as if she hadn’t expected Keti to say such a thing.
“Really? But… you probably don’t remember. When we were very little, we were indeed inseparable. But ever since your Hero’s bloodline was discovered and you went to the Magic Academy, everything changed.”
“I went from being the person you relied on most to just the little follower of the great Hero’s young lady. You started distancing yourself from me, looking down on me, barely talking to me.”
“Your personality became even more spoiled and willful than when you were little. And because of you, I was ostracized and warned by those at school who liked you, your pursuers. They told me to stay away from you, to stop holding you back.”
“Back then, I was really scared too. Scared of being abandoned by you, scared of being separated from you… Later, when you suddenly left the Magic Academy and started adventuring, things got a little better. But I was already living in self-doubt and fear of being left behind. I…”
“Actually, Lynn isn’t anything special either. It’s just that when I’m with him… these past days back at the Magic Academy have been the happiest time I’ve had since leaving home. We’ve been through a lot of things together.”
As she spoke, the silver-haired beauty quietly raised her head, a genuine smile on her face.
“Ah… I… I…”
The golden-haired twin-tailed little loli seemed utterly defeated by that genuine smile. She stood there stunned. A moment later, her whole body began to tremble again.
These were probably words she was hearing from Keti for the first time. She never imagined that what she thought was normal was, for Keti, so similar to how she herself felt now…
“I’m sorry, really, really… sob… I’m sorry… Don’t hate me, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t hate Alice. Because… I promised to protect you. It’s just… from now on, besides you, there’s someone else I have to prioritize.”
After a while, Keti gently patted Alice’s shoulder, then went back downstairs, leaving only the golden-haired twin-tailed girl alone on the roof, in an eerily quiet stillness.
A bitter smile curled at the corner of her mouth. Had she given up?
Yeah… Of course she didn’t want to give up. But she finally understood why Keti chose that man.
And she also understood that she had been lying…
Did she like Keti?
It was true… Ever since she was little, Alice had only ever thought that her future partner would be Keti. She had never considered a second person.
But…
In comparison, the one she liked more… was definitely herself, right?
Or rather, the reason she liked Keti so much… when they were kids, it was because he was the big brother she relied on most.
And later, it was because he was her brother with a Magic Talent of D, who would never surpass her, who would always let her find an outlet for her anxiety, a source of superiority.
Some words were destined to never be spoken aloud…
Alice gazed at the sky, then slowly let out a sigh.
“I… hate myself for having only an A-rank Magic Talent… and I hate myself for always caring about that.”