Yeah, That's Right, Oppa (2)
Yeah, that’s right, Oppa.
The door opened and two people stepped inside.
One of them was a mercenary clad in a glossy black combat uniform. A blue-glowing epaulet rested on her shoulder, marking her as an A-rank swordsman.
That A-rank swordsman was supporting a single yellow-haired girl. The girl’s hair was matted and tangled, and the corners of her eyes glistened with moisture.
Her complexion was poor as well. The blonde girl’s aquamarine eyes met Seti’s. In that instant, Seti’s mind—previously fixated on the shining stone—went completely blank.
“Un… ni?”
Her voice came out in broken fragments.
Right now, before Seti’s eyes, stood a disheveled Rustila.
“Seti….”
Her thoughts were bleached white. Seti forgot even her compulsion to pick up the stone and charged straight toward Rustila.
With a soft thud, her cheek met something gentle. Seti had thrown herself into Rustila’s arms.
Clinging to her like that, she began to sob like a wounded animal.
“You were alive…! Thank goodness, thank goodness…!”
She had nearly lost the one person she considered both her only friend and an older sister. The thought had nearly shattered her world.
Fortunately, her wait had been worth it.
Rustila slowly stroked Seti’s hair.
In truth, Rustila was exhausted in every way. Too many things had happened in a single day. She wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed.
But Seti must have been even more exhausted—waiting for her, waiting for her brother.
So she needed to comfort her a little longer. She needed to tell her everything that had happened.
Sleep crashed over her. Without realizing it, Rustila rubbed her eyes and then collapsed.
“Unni?”
Seti panicked for a moment, then let out a sigh of relief. Rustila was already fast asleep, using Seti’s shoulder as a pillow, breathing softly.
She must have been so tired.
Seti nodded to herself, then suddenly jolted upright.
A rolling sound echoed through the room.
She turned to see the ore spinning rapidly before shooting out the open window.
Seti’s expression went slack.
What on earth had that stone been?
“Ah….”
There was no time to wonder.
“Oppa.”
Rustila had returned. Where had Idel gone?
Step. Step. Footsteps echoed from beyond the door, and Seti’s gaze shifted.
The next person to enter after Rustila was a beautiful girl with porcelain skin, snow-white hair, and grape-like violet eyes.
Zernya von Adelbein.
She looked just as haggard as Rustila, as though she were begging to be allowed to lie down. Even so, Zernya walked in without anyone’s support, her steps proud and haughty, as if she needed no help from others.
“What are you staring at?”
Zernya glanced at Seti blankly, let out a short laugh, and walked past her.
Seti didn’t even feel annoyed.
Right now, she was overflowing with happiness. At the same time, a thread of anxiety gnawed at the back of her mind.
What mattered most was whether she would ever see her third brother’s face again.
The next moment, a sound came from outside the door.
It wasn’t footsteps.
It was voices.
Two men talking.
Drawn by the sound, Seti peeked out into the hallway. Two men stood in the middle of the corridor, clinging to each other and sniffling.
“Good heavens, student! I was worried sick about what would happen to my lab if you didn’t come back! We already had so few applicants, and now you’ve returned alive—thank you so much…!”
“I was terrified I wouldn’t get into grad school either. Man, when I was falling off that fifty-meter cliff, I really thought I was dead. Professor, your face flashed before my eyes like a revolving lantern, and the tears just….”
…Was “sniffling” really the right word for this?
Seti felt a chill run down her spine.
The two men, whose embrace was more intimate than most couples’, soon clasped hands and shook them up and down. Seti’s eyes narrowed.
She didn’t recognize one of them. The other had his back to her, so she couldn’t be sure, but he seemed familiar.
Seti walked forward slowly.
She had to confirm it.
Yes.
“Well then, I’ll see you next time.”
That voice.
She had heard that voice for years. There was no way she could forget that irritating tone.
Seti reached out toward the boy whose back was turned to her.
But before she could touch him, the boy who had finished speaking turned around.
Tall stature.
Black hair.
Golden eyes.
Those fierce yellow irises softened into a mischievous glint. The corners of his eyes lifted, and so did the corners of his mouth in a wry smile. Seti’s expression went blank.
Even at a glance, he was strikingly handsome. But Seti felt no fluttering in her chest.
What she felt was something far greater.
“……!”
Seti sprinted forward and slammed her head into the boy who had turned around, clinging to his clothes like a cicada.
She inhaled deeply. A familiar scent clung to him—the laundry detergent used by the Rheinland family.
Gradually, Seti lifted her gaze.
“Oppa….”
Seti spoke.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
The boy answered.
“Oppa.”
It was the voice she knew.
Tears began to spill down her cheeks. She couldn’t hold back the flood of emotion that burst forth.
“You jerk… *hic*, why, why did you make me worry like that….”
Not knowing what to say first, she spat out curses instead. This wasn’t what she meant to say—something else should have come out first. But the words simply wouldn’t come.
At that moment, Idel placed a hand on Seti’s head.
“Little sister.”
He looked down at her and said,
“I’m sorry.”
The moment those words left his mouth, Idel collapsed as if he had fainted.
***
Students who had undergone the re-examination were granted at least a week of emergency leave. The injured received treatment, and those suffering from mental distress began psychological counseling.
Before any of that, Seti needed time to recover from her exhaustion.
After sleeping through the night, Seti woke up and immediately recalled what she had done, her face flushing red.
“……Shit.”
What the hell was wrong with her?!
No matter how worried she had been, what kind of behavior was that in front of the third brother she had been at odds with for nearly ten years?
She realized that a single sleepless night could make a person lose all rational judgment.
At the same time, she realized something else.
I… don’t dislike Idel anymore.
Idel had started changing about six months ago. So many things had happened since then.
At first, Seti had hurled curses at him in retaliation. But at some point, they had begun to grow closer.
Especially during the practical evaluation. The way Idel had prioritized protecting her while fighting the monsters alongside Rustila… she had to admit, it had been a little cool.
That feeling had solidified completely this morning.
“Our daughter is withdrawing from school. Don’t interfere.”
Rustila’s parents had burst into the hospital room.
It was a four-person ward. Rustila, who had been leisurely reading a book, flinched the moment her parents stormed in.
“Mother, Father….”
“Rustila, after what happened last time, this school is clearly unacceptable. Let’s go somewhere else. You can study law just fine even if it’s not at Stellarium.”
After everything she had been through, Rustila was physically and mentally exhausted. She had no capacity to deal with her parents’ sudden visit.
“Pack your things and come out. This place might be dangerous too.”
Rustila’s father grabbed her wrist roughly. Meanwhile, her mother quickly gathered Rustila’s clothes and belongings and piled them onto the desk.
“Haa….”
Seti could only sigh helplessly.
Meddling in someone else’s family affairs was rude. She believed it was something one shouldn’t do.
But this… wasn’t this going too far?
Seti, you need to change a little more. Can’t you see your close friend and older sister is in trouble?
“Excuse me….”
Seti was about to speak when—
“Listen here.”
A cheeky voice came from the neighboring bed.
“Can’t you see this is an intensive care ward right now? There are three patients who need rest, and if you come in here making a scene like this, do you think I’ll be angry or not?”
“…Who are you?”
“We met at the entrance ceremony. It seems you don’t remember me.”
Seti couldn’t help but chuckle.
Of course.
This ward didn’t only contain Rustila.
[Rustila Kersil (Admitted)]
[Zernya von und zu Adelbein (Admitted)]
[Idel von Rheinland (Admitted)]
One unpleasant girl and one lunatic.
The unpleasant girl was currently in dreamland. She had delayed her admission while submitting reports, only for her fatigue to hit her all at once afterward.
In other words, only the lunatic remained.
An enemy-turned-lunatic was more annoying than anyone else in the world, but a lunatic who had become an ally was the most entertaining person alive.
“My mind and body are currently very frail and require rest. If the two of you enter and cause such a commotion, do you think I’ll be angry or not?”
“Why do you talk like that, student?”
“What do you mean?”
Idel happened to be reading a wuxia novel at the moment.
Thanks to his Thought Acceleration skill, his reading speed was roughly ten times faster than an average person’s.
Accordingly, the depth of his immersion while reading was also ten times greater.
In short, he was completely absorbed.
“Please leave.”
“Ah, right. Your name was Idel or something, wasn’t it? I remember now! The guy who’s been chasing after our Rustila. Perfect timing. Let’s have a little chat.”
“I asked you to leave.”
Idel flipped a page of the wuxia novel and issued another warning. In the scene he was reading, two demonic sect members were snickering as they approached the protagonist.
Even worse, the two had just spotted the young lady traveling with the protagonist and were whistling at her.
It was an obvious cliché, but for Idel, who had only recently started reading wuxia, it was a scene that made his palms sweat.
Flip. Idel turned another page, his eyes darting across the text.
At that nonchalant attitude, Rustila’s father’s eyebrows twitched.
“Student, are you ignoring me right now?”
“H-Hey? Don’t come any closer! Don’t cross that line in front of you. If you do, my beloved weapon won’t stay still.”
“Look at this brat. Does he think adults are pushovers? No manners, and spouting weird nonsense too!”
The Kersil couple weren’t completely unreasonable parents. Even if they were strict with their daughter, as members of the legal profession, they had no intention of doing anything illegal. They planned to give him a stern scolding as adults and ensure he never approached their daughter again. With that resolve, Rustila’s father took a step forward.
At that exact moment, Idel’s eyes took in a high-quality illustration of the novel’s protagonist drawing his beloved weapon—
Overcome with excitement, he unconsciously activated his inner energy drive and summoned his calipers.