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Today was a pretty good day. Even though he'd run into a bratty girl, he had taught her a lesson personally, so it didn't affect his mood.
Returning home, a misty drizzle pitter-pattered against the window. Elysia sat with her rounded legs tucked together, her pale cheek resting gently against the cool glass as she quietly watched the sky behind the hazy curtain of rain.
It should have been a very tranquil and beautiful scene, but Kaito's gaze only lingered on the untouched breakfast still sitting on the table.
"I wasn't very hungry today."
Elysia snapped out of her daze, only then noticing that the sky had darkened—no longer the gloom of storm clouds, but the onset of night.
"It's fine."
Kaito shrugged, his tone light as he casually tossed the breakfast into the trash can. He walked over to his sister and leaned against the windowsill next to her, though he didn't sit up on it.
"I'm sorry..."
Elysia apologized proactively. Kaito tilted his head in confusion.
"What's there to apologize for? If you don't have an appetite, you don't eat." He let out a breath and laughed, sounding relaxed. "Isn't the point of making money so we can afford to be a little willful in life?"
"If you're hungry later, we'll order a midnight snack. It's not like the old days when we were struggling."
Elysia turned her gaze back to the window. The heavy sky was no longer clear, but the night breeze from the window blew away some of her stifling frustration.
Kaito is just so well-behaved. Aside from being a bit of a chuunibyou as a kid and occasionally holding a grudge, there's no way he could be a bad person.
Maybe her brain really was broken. It was just a dream, yet it felt like a lifetime had passed—long and heavy—while the waking hours of the day seemed to reach nighttime in the blink of an eye. Perhaps her recent real-life experiences were just a bit too "light" compared to the weight of the dreams.
"Kaito, did anything interesting happen today?" she asked softly, her voice tender. "Even small things are fine. I have plenty of time," she added quickly, as if afraid of being rejected.
You definitely have time! Kaito muttered internally.
However, his patience for friends and family was always excellent. But looking back at the day, aside from the drama with Rin and Sirin, there wasn't much worth chatting about. Fortunately, Kaito was good at rambling; normally, he could talk until dawn, babbling until everyone else was dizzy.
Rin... Speaking of Rin, Elysia couldn't help but think of the girl in her dream, sobbing over her sister's corpse. As for Sirin... she actually started to miss the dream-Sirin; at least if the Herrscher of the Void was Sirin, the nightmares wouldn't be quite so agonizing.
"Before I knew it, it's almost 10:00 PM. Anything you want to eat, Sis?" Kaito looked at the sky, now completely submerged in darkness. Perhaps because it had just rained, the stars looked even brighter.
"Just anything. For some reason, I just want to sit here and space out for a while." Elysia leaned gently against his shoulder. Listening to Kaito ramble for so long had helped her find her anchor back in reality.
Before Kaito could order the food, he paused. He hesitated before asking, "Sis... are you even going to sleep tonight?"
Elysia's expression turned conflicted. "I don't really want to sleep right now."
Partly because she wasn't very tired, and partly because she was simply afraid of the dream world. Sitting here, staring at the stars, made her feel much better.
Kaito was stunned. "Sis, you aren't still having nightmares, are you? Like, all night long?"
It can't be that bad. You didn't get cursed, did you? No nightmare lasts this long, and nothing major has happened lately.
Elysia didn't reply. There weren't even faint dark circles under her beautiful eyes.
Yes, she was having nightmares. All night, every night, and she couldn't wake up—the kind of excuse no one would ever believe. The villain in them looked exactly like her brother, and her friends in the dream were dismissed as "bad influences" by her brother in real life. Meanwhile, she had to save the world and change the minds of those powerful figures.
It was exhausting. Sometimes she really wanted to just kill everyone else, but the Professor was still working hard in the dream, Kevin was full of hope, and MEI seemed to be making progress...
She didn't want to sleep. Escapism is shameful, but it really works!
Suddenly, she was pulled into a warm embrace. Elysia lowered her head, not struggling, letting her brother hold her tight.
"Alright, alright, I'm fine," she whispered. Elysia couldn't quite accept the reality of being a burden. But her mental state truly seemed to be failing; at least her perception of time was a mess. In this state of displacement, every night's dream felt exceptionally long.
Kaito instinctively glanced at the window. "Sis, I'm a light sleeper. If you have another nightmare, I'll definitely wake up." He reached out to comfort her, his smile gentle.
Elysia froze, not quite processing it. But a moment later, she understood what he was implying.
"We're both adults..." she murmured softly. Sleeping together—isn't that a bit too weird?
Kaito didn't care at all. "So what? The first loss I took after turning eighteen was that Marriage Registration form." He smirked. "That was the first lesson you ever taught me."
Though the return on investment was good—his sister's part-time job as a streamer had flourished—it had truly traumatized Kaito's worldview.
Elysia's face flushed red. "I was young and dumb back then! I just wanted to make money for our university tuition quickly..."
"Besides, so what if a brother and sister 'get married' once? We didn't go to the Civil Affairs Bureau, and we divorced the same day..." Her voice got lower and lower until her head was almost buried in her chest.
What she did back then was indeed absurd. If she'd known, she would have just stayed "married"—that way she could have taken half of Kaito's "future wife fund"... wait, if you're married, don't you get to take the whole fund?
"Fine, just think of it as doing a favor for your light-sleeper brother."
They ordered takeout for dinner. Since it was so late, the time passed quickly as they huddled together and whispered. At least they weren't too hungry by the time the food arrived.
Unfortunately, Elysia's dream still picked up where it left off that night, but tonight, Kaito's "role" was deleted.
Why? Could it be that her nightmares were just a subconscious manifestation of her dissatisfaction with Kaito having his own room now that they had money? Was that why she kept making him the bad guy?
Elysia instinctively reached out to the side. The sheets were cold; no one was there.
"Breakfast is ready, Sis! I'm the chef this morning."
But then the door was pulled open, and a familiar voice carrying the scent of sunshine drifted in. Everything seemed to be getting better. Elysia rubbed her eyes, looking at the figure in the doorway, and suddenly broke into a radiant smile, her clear eyes shimmering.
She hoped... that everything following this... would be just as beautiful! She prayed devoutly with a heart full of goodwill.
As for Kaito... although he didn't get to have a satisfying hack-and-slash session last night, and he'd had to wake up thirty minutes early to avoid the awkwardness of certain "physical reactions," things were actually going okay.
"Sis?"
"Coming, coming~! Have a little more patience for a girl, Kaito!"
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