Vol 1 Chapter 21 – The Story of Not Being Mocked by the Bratty Kids【Vol 1 — A Happy Childhood】

I was drifting aimlessly through the village.
No particular destination in mind — just taking it easy.

Villages come in all kinds, even if they all share the same name.
Some are small enough that every resident knows each other — barely more than a hamlet — while others have proper shopping streets and no shortage of unfamiliar faces.

Our village fell into the latter category.

After more than a decade of living here, plenty of the faces passing by were familiar — but just as many I had never spoken a word to.
That kind of in-between world.

The reason I was wandering through the village was simple: I wanted to be alone. To think.

I’ll have that talk with Elena soon.
That had been the plan, but now that the moment was getting closer, I kept finding reasons to put it off.
I couldn’t picture what kind of face she’d make — and that uncertainty made it all the more terrifying.

So… how exactly was I supposed to bring it up…?

I was walking with one hand on my chin, muttering to myself, when I almost walked straight into someone.

“Oh, sorry…”

I apologized, and somehow someone wrapped their arms around my waist.

What the… who is that?

“Onii-chan! I finally found you~!”

“Elena…?”

Of all people — it was my little sister.

“I wanted to play with Onii-chan, but you weren’t in your room.”

Elena puffed her cheeks out in exaggerated displeasure.
Somehow the whole atmosphere made it feel like I was the one who’d done something wrong.

“You actually went out searching for me?”

“Of course I did.”

Elena tilted her head.

Even when I was trying to be alone, a girl was out looking for me — my little sister or not.

I let out a wry smile, feelings mixed.

◯

Elena and I walked along the riverbed at the edge of the village.

Elena shot a glance my way.

“Hey, Onii-chan. Elena’s chest has been getting bigger lately.”

“…What is the correct response to that?”

Elena looked down at her own chest and pressed both hands to it, giving it an exploratory squeeze.

I had no idea what to do with information like that.

“What? But Onii-chan likes boobs, right?”

“…Do you mind if I ask how you arrived at that conclusion?”

Not that she’s wrong…
But if she’s asking whether I get excited about my little sister’s barely-developing chest — the answer is categorically no.

“You’re always staring at Sophia-onee-chan’s and Aria-onee-chan’s.”

She hit me with that deadpan stare. I looked away.

“And whenever they hug you and press them against you, you look so happy. You’ve got that stupid grin on your face the whole time.”

Stab. Stab.

Two knives, straight into the heart.
The damage of having your little sister say something like that is immeasurable.
The fact that I couldn’t argue back made it even worse.

In times like these, I tell myself — can’t help it, I’m a guy. Not enjoying it would be rude to them. Rude to the boobs.

Just try to own it, I decided.

“You can touch Elena’s too, you know?”

Elena looked up at me from below. A little shy, but maintaining her composure.

What is this girl suddenly saying?

“Are you stupid?”

Flick.

“Oww!”

Elena clutched her forehead with both hands and glared at me resentfully.

“Do you really prefer them bigger, like the onee-chans’?”

“That’s not it. It’s not about that — we’re…”

Siblings.

I was about to say it, but stopped myself.

In this country, marriage between blood relations was legally without issue.
But the fact remained that it tended to draw strange looks from society.
In other words, a marriage between siblings was still considered unusual.

But using that as a reason to push Elena away from me — that was something I couldn’t do.
I didn’t quite understand why I felt that way myself, but it was just wrong.

“So then, what kind of problem is it?”

The angle of the sunlight made it hard to read Elena’s expression in that moment.
But her tone of voice was the same as always.

“Well, that’s… you see…”

Right then.

“Oh!”

The kind of surprised voice that just slips out on its own.

Looking ahead, I spotted the trio of punk kids I hadn’t seen much of lately.
They seemed to have been playing by the riverbed.

A chance run-in, after quite some time.

Back in the day, they used to give me an earful on the regular.
But if I recalled correctly — it was around the time of the whole Sophia engagement commotion.
Sometime around then, they’d stopped mocking me as a ladies’ man.
I figured it had something to do with the unnerving aura Sophia had given off back then.

How old were they now… two or three years older than Elena, right?
I honestly couldn’t remember well. Sorry about that.

When I turned my gaze toward them, all three jolted like they’d been shocked.

Am I some kind of monster…?

A vague sense of loneliness was washing over me when the kids started whispering to each other.

After a moment, they looked back at me with complicated expressions. Their eyes held something that looked like contempt. There was genuine disgust in them.

Wait — do they actually hate me?
I don’t remember doing anything to them… That’s kind of a shock, honestly.

And then they turned and left, disappearing from in front of us.

Hmm…
What was that all about?

I was still mulling over the punk trio’s intentions when someone tugged at my sleeve.

“Elena…?”

Elena was trembling faintly, pressing close against me.
A cold gust swept in off the river.

Getting a bit chilly…

“Should we head back?”

“…Yeah.”

Elena gave a small nod, then took my hand.

We walked home hand in hand.

On the way back, Elena seemed the same as always — but somehow, she was quieter than usual.

In the end, I still hadn’t figured out how to approach the marriage topic with Elena.
Not a single idea had come to me.

I’d told myself I’d think it through on my own — but maybe I was finally reaching my limit…