Village (5)
Why was my sister here? She was supposed to be back in the village as the next chief, protecting everyone.
Was I seeing things? I couldn't believe it. Worse still, I was a woman now — not a man, not the little brother she knew. And I had no desire whatsoever to tell her I'd become a woman. I couldn't let her know I'd recognized her!
I clamped my mouth shut and tried to slip away, but she strode right up to me.
Caught off guard, I couldn't even step back. I just froze, stuck between one impulse and the next. As if I could ever have outrun her in the first place.
She looked at my face, tilting her head again and again with a puzzled expression.
"Juli?"
The moment she called my name I nearly reacted, but somehow I held it in. She tilted her head once more and started poking and prodding at my face.
"…Juli?"
She must have found something familiar, because she kept saying the name. I sat there torn — pretend I didn't know her, or shove her hands away?
But she was my sister. If I slapped her hands off, wouldn't that hurt her feelings?
Stuck between options, I just stood there until I finally steeled myself and took a single step back.
"W-w-w-what are you talking about?"
"You're not?"
Facing her head-on, I couldn't shake her off. This wasn't going to work.
My identity would be exposed. I could not let her find out I'd become a woman.
Run. First, just get out of here!
I spun around and bolted. She stood there blankly, watching me scurry off in little hurried steps.
My pace kept climbing until I was outright running. Even then I kept glancing back — and she was still standing right where I'd left her.
This was my chance.
My sister had always been a little dense. While she was still trying to process the situation, I had an opening.
I absolutely did not want her finding out who I was. Not her, of all people!
If I just ducked into an alley and got out of sight, she wouldn't be able to follow.
"Okay… I think I'm safe…"
My lungs were starting to burn, but I pushed through. I'd put enough distance between us, I thought, and was about to slip into an alley when I looked back — and the blankly standing figure of my sister was gone.
Then a chilling presence prickled at the back of my neck. Don't look that way. Whatever you do, don't look. The thought hit me hard, but I turned my head anyway, searching for where she'd gone.
Right beside me was her face — expressionless, yet somehow ice-cold.
"Hyaaaaaaah!!"
I screamed, drowning in a terror I couldn't even put into words.
Fear dulled my limbs and tangled my feet. I'd been running at a decent clip, and now my legs crossed and I pitched straight toward the ground.
This is bad! I squeezed my eyes shut and threw my arms up toward my face. Even if my arms broke, protecting my neck and head came first.
I should have felt the impact — the pain of hitting the ground — but nothing came. Instead, something clamped hard around my collar, and my body floated up into the air.
I cracked my eyes open to check. The ground was right there in front of me. I was just… hanging a little ways above it.
"W-wha…?"
"Dummy?"
Ah. Now I understood. I turned my head slightly and saw her holding me up by the scruff of my clothes.
"Th-that…"
I had no idea what to say. She was still looking at me with that curious gaze.
"My brother's family?"
I was cornered, wasn't I? She must have seen my hair and eye color and decided I was somehow related to Julian. The color was so distinctive it would be hard to talk my way out of it. And once she'd already decided we were connected, even denying any relation wouldn't convince her easily.
I hated the idea, but I found myself wondering whether I should just come clean.
"Put me down."
I thrashed roughly, trying to free myself.
"Okay."
She let go without a fuss, and I dropped straight to the ground.
"Ugh."
A small jolt rattled through me as I hit.
"S-so what do you want?"
"My brother?"
She still looked uncertain, tilting her head at me. I was an idiot too — I'd spoken to her the way I always used to, which only deepened her suspicion.
And how long could I keep lying to her, anyway? Forever? Until I turned back into a man?
I didn't even know when — or if — I'd ever become a man again.
On top of that, my living expenses were running low. I'd have to go back to the village eventually. What was I going to say then?
Thought after thought piled up until my head was a mess of confusion.
Wouldn't it be better to just come clean and ask for help? Especially since she could use mana — that alone was huge. With her, I could more or less have someone else handle the alchemy for me.
I provide the knowledge, she handles the compounding. If we mass-produced just the ointments whose recipes I already knew and sold them, the money problem would disappear.
The stuff worked that well.
Finding people willing to buy it would be the hard part… but anyone who'd tried it once would want more.
Looked at that way, revealing myself didn't seem so bad.
The real question was whether she'd believe me…
"Just come with me for now."
I got up off the ground, brushed the dust from my knees and hands, then took her hand and headed for the inn.
She followed with a dazed look in her eyes. Good thing she came along quietly.
If she'd refused and it turned into a fight? Ugh. Just thinking about it was terrifying.
We walked for quite a while, and she still didn't say a word.
"Why aren't you asking anything?"
"Dunno."
Well, how was I supposed to know what was going on in her head?
She was a bit dense, but her instincts were ridiculously sharp. She must have sensed something about me on pure gut feeling. A normal person wouldn't have been able to awaken mana in the first place.
The moment we reached the inn, I went straight into the room I'd rented. The innkeeper scowled when he saw I'd brought someone along. He clearly didn't like two people sharing a single, but one look at the sword at her hip and he gave up on complaining.
The second I stepped into the room, the tension drained out of me and my legs went wobbly.
"Hah… sit down over there for now."
I pointed at the chair in the room. She sat without a shred of suspicion, then started looking around.
"That."
I'd figured she'd notice right away. The sacred icon my foster father had given me — it used to sit in the house we grew up in.
And she'd always watched from the side whenever I prayed. Of course she'd recognize it.
"That's…"
Before I could open my mouth to explain, she moved first.
A sharp, bone-chilling killing intent… the overwhelming pressure of a Knight Class warrior made my whole body flinch and shrink in on itself.
"That's my brother's…"
Her hand was quietly reaching for her sword.
The moment that blade came free, I couldn't guarantee my own life. I tried to speak fast.
The problem was that the killing intent and sheer terror had locked my body up. It wouldn't move the way I wanted.
Her hand closed on the hilt.
Trembling, I forced the words out. I couldn't wait any longer.
"I-I-I'm! I'm Julian!"
The half-drawn blade stopped dead the instant the words left my mouth.
"Juli?"
She slid the sword back into its sheath.
"Weird. Juli isn't this small."
She started poking and prodding at me all over with a puzzled look. It was embarrassing, but she'd always been like that, so I let it go.
"I'll explain, so sit down."
"Okay."
Did she actually believe I was Julian? I wasn't sure. Either way, she was being cooperative now, so I started telling her what had happened to me.
That I'd been living in the city as an adventurer. That I'd heard rumors of ruins and snuck in alone. That I'd been hit by some strange magic there — would she believe any of that?
I decided to keep it short.
"I was working as an adventurer and got hit by some weird magic. That's why I shrank."
"Magic?"
"I don't know either. I just blacked out, and when I woke up I was like this."
I really didn't know. If I'd at least memorized the magic circle it might have helped, but my memory was terrible so I couldn't even do that — and then I'd lost my temper and smashed the core that powered the whole thing… Looking back on it now, it was an incredibly stupid move.
"You're really my brother?"
She still didn't look convinced.
"Remember when you got lost in the forest when we were kids?"
She flinched at that.
"And how you tripped over a tree root like an idiot, then walked deeper into the woods crying?"
A scraped-up knee, and instead of heading out she went further in — the classic dummy move. It was back when she was eight, before she'd started proper training.
"I wasn't being dumb."
"You ended up lost, bawling your eyes out, hiding in a hollow tree."
I was the one who'd found her that day. Our foster parents had told me to wait in the village because it was too dangerous, but I'd snuck out and gone looking for her anyway.
Thinking about it now, it really was a reckless thing to do. I knew the forest got dangerous once you went any real distance, and I still did it… Finding her without anything going wrong was a miracle.
Her eyes went wide.
"How do you…?"
"I told you. I'm Julian. Want something else? How about the time you awakened your mana, mouthed off to the Instructor, and ended up with three lumps on your head?"
Her expression went ice-cold.
"Stop…"
A little scary… The first time she awakened her mana, she'd gotten uncharacteristically worked up, charged at the Instructor standing next to her, and gotten put down hard.
According to him, the sudden opening of her mana channels had thrown her into confusion. He said it didn't usually happen — only with certain prodigies who awakened young.
"You really just got smaller? You shrank."
Her face had already softened. She looked at me with real worry now.
"Is your body okay?"
"It's been three months like this. I'm used to it by now."
More importantly — why was she even here?
"What are you doing in the city?"
Her eyes went sharp all of a sudden, boring into me.
"The letters…"
Come to think of it, it had been a long time since I'd sent one… At first I was too lazy. Then I didn't want to spend the money. After my body changed, it didn't even cross my mind.
"Why didn't you write?"
That blunt question was somehow terrifying.
"I-I-I was busy?"
She glared even harder at my excuse.
"You were busy?"
"Y-yeah. Looking for a way to undo the magic…"
That part was true. A little embellished, maybe, but I really had been busy.
"Okay. Got it."
She answered calmly, as if that settled it.
"So why did you come to the city? What about the village?"
Why had one of the village's most important fighters left? Our foster father would never have allowed it.
"Looking for my brother…"
"Don't lie."
Her face went cold again.
"It's true."
She'd really come all this way just to find me? Father would never have sent her out for that alone. I stared at her with open suspicion, and she looked away.
"Actually… an errand."
"Figures."
According to her, she'd come to buy magical tools the village needed.
"And you figured you'd look for me while you were at it?"
She nodded vigorously.
"Well… it's still good to see you."
After more than a year apart, there were times I'd missed the feeling of family. I stood up from my seat, and she spread both arms wide — clearly expecting a hug.
I'd only gotten up to clear some things off the table. What was she hoping for?
She suddenly puffed out her cheeks and made for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"My room."
Ah. So she was staying at the inn too.
"Yeah? All right. See you later, then."
I'd be here either way. If she needed me, she could just come by.
She shot me one last look, walked out, and slammed the door hard behind her.
Bang!
The sound of it closing made my ears ring.