Reincarnated as the Heroine’s Big Sister, but My Little Sister Fell for Me Instead - Chapter 13

Practical exercises were held twice a week in the academy’s central square.

That day, the wind was strong.

The upperclassmen’s session was in the afternoon slot. I was working on a task measuring the precision of magic circle deployment. It was a tedious job—maintaining an interference field in a specific shape while moving it. It wasn’t flashy, but it was well-suited for gauging control over dark attribute magic.

The first-year practice area was at the edge of my vision.

I wasn’t consciously looking. I just always knew Lian was there. Knowing had become a habit.

As I worked, I recalled yesterday’s experiment. The sensation of light and dark mingling. The hot breath, the feel of Lian’s lips, the pounding in my chest—

I gently touched my own lips. Even if it was an experiment, it was my first kiss. I wondered how it was for Lian. Had she done it with someone else before? I didn’t like that thought. Like a low-grade fever, unnecessary thoughts clung to my mind and wouldn’t leave.

I was thinking about that when it happened.

Suddenly, the wind changed.

The change wasn’t meteorological.

I knew immediately—it was the presence of magic. The dark attribute is sensitive to such presences. The foreign quality of magic mixed into the air—it wasn’t from an academy student. It was coming from outside.

I looked up.

Something was coming from the direction of the academy’s outer wall.

“—!”

A voice cried out. From the first-year area.

I saw it.

A mass of light fell—no, was launched—into the center of the first-year practice area and exploded. More accurately, it wasn’t that it fell; it was fired. High-density magic power, released from outside the outer wall, slipped through the barrier and impacted.

The first-years scattered.

Lian was at the center.

I was moving. By the time I realized it, my body was already running on its own. From the third-year area to the first-year area, I deployed an interference field as I ran. The magic circle assignment had vanished from my mind.

The second shot came.

This time, I could read its trajectory. It was headed for Lian.

I raised my right hand.

I expanded the interference field to its maximum. The mass of light struck my wall of dark magic. The moment the light touched the darkness, it was absorbed. It vanished. Almost no shock, no rebound—it disappeared like mist.

It was soundless. Quiet.

Lian was looking at me.

“Big Sister.”

“Stay back.”

I said it without turning around. I didn’t take my eyes off the direction of the outer wall. The presence was still there. The caster might not have been alone.

The third shot didn’t come.

Instead, multiple presences moved beyond the outer wall. The academy’s guards must have mobilized. I could tell from the footsteps that teachers were heading outside.

The presences faded.

Grew distant. Vanished.

I let out a relieved breath. I retracted the interference field.

“Are you hurt?”

I asked Lian.

“No.” Lian’s voice was calm. Too calm, as if nothing had happened. “And you?”

“No.”

I turned around.

Lian was standing there. There was dust on the shoulder of her practice uniform. Probably from the aftermath of the first impact. Otherwise, she was unharmed.

The surrounding first-years were looking at us.

Not from a distance, exactly. Their eyes were wide with shock. Eyes trying to comprehend what had just happened.

“She blocked it with dark magic,” someone said. “Light magic power, with dark magic.”

“Did she absorb it?”

“A light attack spell hit dark magic and disappeared.”

Several voices overlapped.

I said nothing. I felt no need to explain.

Edvard came running over. He must have run from the second-year area; he was out of breath. “Is everyone alright?”

“Everyone,” I said. “The first one impacted, but I don’t think there are any injuries.”

Edvard scanned the square. Then he looked at me. “You saw it? From the beginning?”

“I sensed the presence.”

“Being able to react at that speed… it’s because of the dark attribute’s perception ability,” Edvard said. “Light attribute perception is slower. I wouldn’t have made it in time either.”

I started to say something, then stopped.

Lian came over.

Perhaps she was conscious of the people around. She walked over with measured steps and stood beside me.

“Big Sister.”

“What is it?”

“About earlier… can I ask you about it later?”

Later. In the library, she meant.

“Of course.”

Lian nodded.

That was all. Just that, but the fact that Lian had come and stood beside me hadn’t escaped the notice of those around us. To those who didn’t know the rumored dark attribute user and the first-year saint candidate were sisters, it must have seemed an odd pairing.

I didn’t care.

Teachers returned to the square, and a situation assessment began. The exercises were suspended.

As the students dispersed, I overheard voices.

“I’ve never seen dark magic block a light attribute attack spell before.”

“It’s theoretically possible, but with that precision—”

“The deployment speed of her interference field was incredible. That upperclassman is amazing!”

I heard them.

But while listening, I was thinking of something else.

When the second shot came, its trajectory was aimed at Lian. The moment I realized that, I didn’t calculate. I didn’t think about how to block it. My hand was just already raised.

Since when had I had this reflex?

I remembered the night I first practiced dark magic in the garden. Lian wasn’t beside me then. But now, I always knew which direction Lian was in.

When had that become a habit? I didn’t know precisely if that was the reason.

In the evening, I went down to the library.

Lian was already there. She was early today.

As I sat across from her, Lian spoke immediately.

“I wasn’t scared.”

“Of what?”

“Your magic earlier, Big Sister. The way you enveloped the light attack with dark magic and made it disappear.”

“You saw it from a distance?”

“I saw it right there.” Lian looked straight at me. “I thought it was beautiful.”

Beautiful.

It was a word I’d heard that night. The night in the garden when I let dark mist seep from my fingertips, and Lian spoke from the shadow of a pillar.

Today, I was told the same words as that night.

“…I see.”

“Some people might find it scary. But I…” Lian paused slightly. “…was never scared. Not from the beginning. Never.”

It was a repetition of what she’d said before. But today, the meaning felt slightly different. Being protected, and it being beautiful—those things were connected inside Lian.

“Big Sister’s magic,” Lian continued. “When it caught the light attack, it didn’t look like it erased it. It looked like it enveloped it.”

“Since it wasn’t erased, that’s more accurate, yes.”

“It was like… it enveloped the light and calmed it.”

Calmed. I repeated the word in my head.

“…That might be the sensation I was using it with.”

It was something I hadn’t realized myself. I wasn’t trying to negate the light. I just wanted to stop what was heading toward Lian.

Lian smiled slightly.

“Thank you.”

“I only did what was natural.”

“Natural?”

“Because you were there.”

After saying it, I thought I might have said too much. But I didn’t correct myself.

Lian was looking at me.

Her eyes were slightly different than before. Not so much eyes confirming something, but eyes that had received something.

“I’ll remember it.”

“What?”

“That you protected me, Big Sister. That you said, ‘Because you were there.'”

I fell silent.

Lian opened her book.

I opened my reference materials too.

I should have recorded today’s events. The case of absorbing a light attribute attack spell with an interference field would be valuable research data. Edvard was probably thinking the same.

But I couldn’t write it tonight.

I had said, “Because you were there.”

I’d said it as if it were natural. And it was natural. Protecting my little sister Lian was my duty as her big sister.

In the margin of the reference text, I scribbled a rough magic formula.

Ink bled into the paper. I could hear the soft rustle of pages turning.

Outside, the sky had deepened completely into lapis lazuli.