How to Live as the Terminally Ill Younger Sister of the Villain - Chapter 36 - 6. Adding a Spoon to the Original
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- How to Live as the Terminally Ill Younger Sister of the Villain
- Chapter 36 - 6. Adding a Spoon to the Original
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(Lurelia’s Christmas Bonus – Update 4/4 🎉)
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“Did you need a friend?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why, you ask. Because I want to have a friend?”
“……Was the Marquis not enough?”
“Brother is brother, not a friend, right?”
Angelina answered casually, but she noticed the Archmage’s jawline turning red.
It was the only visible part of his face, so it was hard to miss, and it seemed like he was clenching his teeth.
“Were you… lonely?”
“Not really.”
“……Really?”
“How could I be lonely when I have my brother?”
“Then why do you want a friend?”
“Just because. I want one.”
Their conversation seemed to be going in circles.
“Then, to commemorate becoming friends, can I ask one more thing?”
“Wasn’t the Q&A over?”
“Those earlier were for trade. This is just out of interest as a friend.”
“Go ahead.”
His tone suggested he was willing to hear her out once more.
“I picked this up on my way here.”
Angelina said, stroking the fox familiar that was dozing off in her arms.
“Can I take it home?”
“Do you know what that is?”
“I don’t. Do you?”
“……It’s our first meeting.”
At his words, the fox familiar opened its eyes and raised its head to look at the Archmage.
They stared at each other as if having a staring contest.
And then an eternity of silence passed.
“Ha.”
The Archmage was the first to make a sound.
“What a troublesome one.”
“Why?”
“No, nothing.”
The Archmage let out a dry laugh but didn’t explain why.
“So. You want to take it home?”
“Yes. Is that not okay?”
“……If you want it.”
“According to Haley, it’s a familiar not found in any guidebook, so it needs to go through some verification process with the magicians.”
“I’ve seen it. That’s enough.”
There was no magician bold enough to insist on procedures when the Archmage said it was fine.
“Seems like it likes you too.”
The Archmage snorted as he watched the fox familiar, which had already given up on the staring contest with him, now snuggling into Angelina’s arms. Its affectionate behavior was exactly like a fox.
“I like it too. So, about that.”
Angelina lifted the familiar again. This time, she turned it to face the Archmage as she spoke.
“Give it a name.”
“Me?”
“Yes. To commemorate becoming friends.”
“……Friends.”
The Archmage muttered in a meaningful voice, and the familiar squirmed as if it didn’t want to look at someone like the Archmage.
But Angelina ignored the familiar’s struggles and waited only for the Archmage’s answer.
Originally, she had planned to ask her brother to name it. After all, she had taken it in for her brother’s sake.
But perhaps because of the Archmage’s habit of fidgeting with his hands, Angelina passed that right to him.
There was also something she wanted to test.
“Since it looks like I could eat it in one bite, ‘Pudding’.”
“Pudding?”
When she called the familiar by the name he came up with, it struggled even more. As if it disliked it.
But…
“That’s not bad.”
When Angelina showed a reaction as if she liked it, the struggle suddenly stopped.
Angelina hugged the familiar to her chest again. As she stroked it and looked down, the familiar also stared up at her.
“Yes, Pudding. Let’s go with Pudding.”
“……Kyuu?”
Its expression seemed to say, ‘Does it really have to be that?’
“It’s cute.”
She vaguely remembered hearing a superstition somewhere that naming pets after food makes them live longer.
“Kyuu?”
To its face that seemed to ask ‘Really?’, Angelina smiled brightly.
“It suits you well. Pudding.”
“Kyuuhu……”
It went limp as if to say ‘If you like it, I guess I have no choice.’
“Thank you for the cute name.”
“I didn’t think you’d actually accept it.”
As Angelina liked the name, the Archmage muttered in a slightly surprised voice.
“Well, I’ve accomplished my purpose for today’s visit. Aesi, is there anything else you want from me?”
“If not, are you planning to leave?”
“Yes.”
“Already?”
“If I don’t go, will you have tea with me?”
“……”
“Why are you holding me back if not? You’re making me expect something.”
“Did you expect something?”
“I’ve never had tea time with a friend before, so I was curious.”
“……”
This time, Angelina didn’t notice and asked as she moved her feet.
“Can I write to you often?”
“Why letters?”
“Isn’t that what friends do? Exchange letters, meet up occasionally, and chat?”
“……You’d come all that way again?”
“Do you dislike me coming?”
“It’s troublesome for you to come all the way here.”
“Then will you come instead?”
“……”
“I’d like that, of course.”
Angelina, who had stepped onto the teleportation circle again, smiled brightly.
“I’m looking forward to our friendship, Aesi.”
Sensing her presence, Sobre infused magic on the opposite side, and the bright light quickly engulfed her.
As Angelina left, the beautiful space instantly distorted.
The ‘universe’ that had been mysterious with its blue glow turned into a dark, smoky swamp.
The ground was sinking, making it difficult to move, with blackened, rotten trees fallen here and there, and a musty smell of mold permeated the air.
And the Archmage alone was emitting a soft light, incongruous with this unpleasant space.
His sky-blue hair had turned silver but hung limply, and as he removed his mask, a face with deep shadows was revealed.
It was a face beautiful to an unrealistic degree, but the gloomy atmosphere seemed to weigh down even the surrounding air.
“……So this is the reality.”
Ante laughed self-deprecatingly as he looked at the changed environment.
Looking down, his hands were soaked in red and purple blood. His whole body was like that, even though he hadn’t done anything.
That was the reality of himself as he saw it. A madman, as dirty and rotten as could be.
Unlike the clear and mysterious being his sister had imagined.
The heart deep in his chest that reflected the ‘Archmage’s office’ couldn’t even be avoided by the Archmage himself.
“Since when did the Sun God’s Order……”
Ante felt as if his chest was being crushed by a rock.
He hadn’t noticed at all until now that his sister had such thoughts.
Does she realize how dangerous it is to have them as enemies?
Since when? Why didn’t I know? Does she know the truth about the Order? How did she find out?
Could it be that her memories have returned?
“No.”
Ante covered his distorted face with his hands.
That must never happen. She should never recall those terrible memories for the rest of her life.
But then… why the Order?
“Lina……”
Ante lowered his hands that had been covering his face. Before his eyes, scenes from the distant past he wanted to hide were playing out.
As if telling him not to forget.
“Where’s Lina?”
“This is all for the sake of treatment……”
“I said, where is she!”
His own naivety for foolishly trusting them.
“Please….. Please just be alive, Lina.”
His powerlessness in not being able to protect her properly.
A past he wanted to forget but couldn’t was attacking him. Yet this time, it didn’t hurt anymore.
All he felt was disgust for his foolish past self.
He had lost his parents in a single mistake, leaving only his younger sibling.
Or was it? Was it just one sister from the start? Was it really a mistake…
She was the sister he could never give up on, even if he gave up everything else.
He could never forget the image of her smiling and reaching out both hands, calling him ‘big brother’ even though he was such a monster.
The moment he almost pathetically lost that sister.
The hell he went through then was indescribably vast. It was enough to change everything in his life completely.
Ethics, character, goals.
Everything became twisted.
But one thing remained unchanged.
The hope of his life. His lifeline and heart.
His beloved sister.
The reason he lives.
His Lina.
“Brother will avenge you.”
He muttered with eyes so lifeless it was hard to call him sane.
“My Lina doesn’t have to do anything……”
You don’t have to know anything.
“Brother will do everything……”
His repetitive muttering voice created a dissonance with the recurring nightmares of the past.
Only killing intent tied everything together.
Chapter 6. Adding a Spoon to the Original
As the light faded, Haley scurried towards Angelina.
“Did the meeting go well?”
“Yes.”
“Did you get everything you wanted?”
“Hmm….. About 80%.”
“Did the Archmage refuse something?”
“No. It wasn’t a refusal.”
Angelina lifted Pudding, who was rolling around in her arms. As she raised it high, Pudding looked down at her with its body limp.
“It’s more like something that needs time?”
That goes for this little one too.
After solidifying her relationship with the Archmage, she couldn’t say she had achieved everything since she still needed to build that relationship to connect him with her brother.
‘And if the former is resolved, the latter will essentially……’