Reincarnated as the Heroine’s Big Sister, but My Little Sister Fell for Me Instead - Chapter 7

Two years had passed since my sister entered the Magic Academy.

On the morning of the entrance ceremony, the academy was shrouded in mist.

Today, I would be enrolling at this academy.

The stone towers visible from the carriage window were blurred, dissolving into the white mist. I pressed my forehead against the window, tracing their outlines with my eyes. They’re big, I thought. Bigger than the manor. Was I going to live here for three years?

“Miss Lian, we’ll be arriving soon.”

At the voice of my maid, Marie, I pulled away from the window.

The carriage stopped and the door opened. Stepping outside, I could see students in uniforms within the mist. It didn’t seem to be just new students. Several students who appeared to be upperclassmen were watching the new arrivals from a distance.

I felt slightly overwhelmed by the number of people, and then I remembered.

My sister is here.

Somewhere in this academy, my sister, who enrolled two years ago, was here.

We had continued exchanging letters. Once a month, a short letter would arrive from my sister. She hardly ever wrote about the academy. She only wrote things like new literature had arrived at the library, or that the moon-viewing stone in the courtyard had glowed on the night of the full moon. But I liked those short letters. They were so like her.

I wondered if I would finally get to see her. Even though we were in the same academy, if the dormitories were different, we might not be able to meet easily.

“Are you Lian de Croire?”

I was addressed. Turning around, I saw a female upperclassman student standing there with a red ribbon on her chest.

“Yes.”

“I’m a guide for new students. This way, please.”

We had only been walking for a short while when the surroundings grew restless.

They were looking at something. Everyone was looking in the same direction.

I followed their gaze.

On the covered walkway facing the courtyard, a single student stood. Wearing a black cape over her uniform, she leaned one hand on the railing, looking down at the misty courtyard. Her hair, a silver-tinged white, shone softly in the morning light.

I almost stopped in my tracks.

“That person is…”

The upperclassman guide lowered her voice. “That’s Miss Rune, a third-year. A dark attribute… she’s a bit odd. Even though she can use magic, she always carries a gun, which is suspicious. I think it’s best not to approach her.”

Lian didn’t answer.

It was Rene. I knew. Even without seeing her face, I knew from her back alone. But—

She looks like a stranger, I thought again.

That was the first time I had thought that. When I saw my sister suddenly become kinder, I thought she looked like a stranger. This time, it was the opposite. She was different from the sister I saw at home, and different from the sister practicing magic in the night garden.

My sister in this place was alone.

Even though there were other students in the corridor, the air around her was different. As she looked down at the misty courtyard, she seemed to be thinking about something. Her stance suggested she kept an equal distance from everything, belonging nowhere.

Is she lonely? I wondered.

No, I thought ‘aloof’ was more accurate. There was a quietness about her, the quietness of someone who chooses to be alone.

“Let’s go,” the guide said.

Lian started walking. As she passed beneath the covered walkway,

She looked up.

My sister was looking this way.

It was just for a moment. Our eyes met, and then my sister returned her gaze to the courtyard. Her expression didn’t change. I couldn’t tell if she had noticed or not.

But I definitely saw it.

I faced forward and kept walking. Inside my chest was an emotion I couldn’t quite name. I wanted to see her, I saw her, but what was that sense of distance?

Here too, my sister wears the face of a stranger.

And for some reason, I wanted to see that unfamiliar face even more.

The entrance ceremony ended, and it was time for lunch.

The dining hall was vast. Several long tables were lined up, with new and upper-class students sitting mixed together. Lian was spoken to by another new female student and sat down with her.

Someone who seemed to be a second-year, looking around the dining hall restlessly, said,

“Hey, I wonder if that dark attribute third-year isn’t coming today?”

“She’s always late, isn’t she?” another student said. “I heard she’s in the library more often than the dining hall.”

“It’s a little scary to think she’s in the same academy, isn’t it? Being a dark attribute and all.”

Lian remained silent.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” one of the students looked at Lian. “You’re from the Croire family, aren’t you? I believe your sister is—”

“Yes,” Lian said calmly. “She’s my sister.”

A silence fell.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to speak ill of her.”

“It’s alright,” Lian smiled. “She’s not scary, my sister.”

She didn’t say anything more.

Why can I say so definitively that she’s not scary? Lian wondered. When I first saw dark magic in the night garden, I wasn’t scared. Every time I heard people around me in the dining hall or corridors being afraid of Rene, something felt off.

Was I not scared of that magic because I was a child?

Or perhaps—

“Lian.”

Looking up, Rene was standing at the entrance to the dining hall. Her silver hair reflected the ceiling lights, shimmering, her pale skin, her slightly shadowed expression. The nostalgic atmosphere made emotions well up inside me almost uncontrollably.

The surrounding gazes gathered on her. Rene showed no sign of minding them, looking only at Lian.

“Got a moment?”

I stood up from my seat.

We left the dining hall and stood side by side at the edge of the corridor. My sister looked down at me and said briefly,

“If you have any trouble, come to the library. I’m usually there in the evenings.”

“…Yes.”

“That’s all.”

As my sister turned on her heel to leave, I grabbed her sleeve.

“You were watching from above today?”

Rene stopped.

“During the entrance ceremony, from the covered walkway. You were watching me, weren’t you?”

There was no reply.

“…You were watching, weren’t you?”

“It was misty,” my sister said slowly. “I wasn’t sure if I could see clearly.”

“I think you could see.”

Another silence fell. Voices from the dining hall could be heard from down the corridor.

“…I’m glad you came.”

Saying only that, my sister walked away.

I released her sleeve and watched her back as she left.

I’m glad you came.

I stood in the corridor for a while, pondering the weight of those words. The nameless emotion in my chest seemed to be beginning to take shape.