Aine's Break
Bang!
"I'm home, Sister!"
Aine threw the door open and called out.
From inside the shabby little house, however, no answer came.
"Sister? Sister?"
She scanned the interior slowly, calling again and again.
"Sister, I said I'm home!"
A sudden unease quickened her steps as she searched the place.
The house was so small she finished checking every corner in moments.
"Uh... Sister...?"
Just as Aine's face was about to crumple into tears—
"W-Who's there?!"
The door creaked open behind her.
And there stood another white-haired girl, a chicken still dripping blood clutched in one hand.
"Oh, so you just went outside."
Aine sagged with relief.
"Aine!"
"Sister!"
They threw their arms around each other.
"Sister, I missed you so much!"
"I missed you too, Ai— Cough!"
Splurt!
Ria, still locked in Aine's embrace, suddenly coughed up blood.
Bubble, bubble.
Water boiled inside an old pot.
"Hmm-hmm~"
Ria dropped the ingredients in one after another.
Carrots she had grown in the yard.
Rotten potatoes scavenged from the market trash heap—though of course she cut away the spoiled parts and used only what was still good.
Dandelion roots that grew near the house.
Radish leaves the neighbors had thrown out.
"Sister, when did you learn alchemy?"
"It'll taste great, right?"
Aine's eyebrow twitched slightly.
"And finally, this chicken I prepared just for you, Aine!"
"Woooow!"
Aine clapped her hands.
No matter what the other ingredients were like, meat made everything delicious.
At the academy she always ordered the cheapest cafeteria meal—or, when even that was too expensive, made do with store bread. For a girl like her, the long-missed sight of real meat was pure happiness.
"But where did you get the money for..."
"Don't worry! Since it's been so long since you came home, I stole it from Hans's place!"
For the record, Ria's profession was thief—though whether "thief" counted as a proper profession was debatable.
In any case, Hans's household was the one that had always called them beggar brats and beaten them when they were little.
Aine's face brightened, then clouded with worry again.
"Sister, should you really be wandering around like that? Your body..."
"Don't worry, Aine. These days I'm perfectly fi— Cough!"
Splurt!
A little while later—
"There... it's ready!"
Ria set the pot down on the battered wooden table.
Aine and Ria each took a drumstick and began chewing.
"I-It's delicious!"
Aine's eyes sparkled.
"But the color's a little red. Is that from the carrots?"
To be precise, a little of the blood Ria had coughed up earlier had probably mixed in. Ria simply nodded and said it was the carrots.
Even as the two of them happily ate their chicken soup, they were quietly worrying about each other after so long apart.
Ria fretted over whether something had happened to Aine at the academy. Living there had made Aine far more timid and melancholy than before. At home she tried to act like her old self so her sister wouldn't worry, but Ria—who knew her better than anyone—could see the difference.
Aine, for her part, worried about Ria's condition. The coughing of blood had grown more frequent since their last meeting. Ria pretended otherwise, but her complexion looked even paler, and when she had come back from outside she had staggered as if she might collapse at any moment. Anyone at all would have said she looked desperately ill.
They finished the soup in no time. When her sister reached for the pot, Aine spoke up.
"You sit, Sister! I'll take care of it!"
She snatched the pot away and went to wash it.
Once the table was roughly cleared, they sat down again and began talking properly.
"How's the academy, Aine?"
"Hehe. Everyone's realized how amazing I am and keeps begging to be friends with me?"
Ria laughed. Of course she guessed it was a lie, but she said nothing.
Aine's stories of academy life were full of exaggeration and embroidery, but eventually they came to an end. Then it was Ria's turn.
Aine asked the question straight out.
"Sister, you're really sick, aren't you?"
Before Ria could answer, Aine slammed a heavy pouch onto the table with a thud.
"What's this...?"
"Open it."
Looking puzzled, Ria carefully undid the pouch. The next moment she leapt to her feet.
"W-W-W-What is this?!"
"Money I put together for you, Sister. With this you can get treatment from a high-ranking priest, not just any ordinary one!"
Aine beamed, though a faint sadness mixed with the joy on her face. Ria, stunned by the sheer amount of gold, failed to notice.
"Where did you get money like this?!"
Aine recited the answer she had prepared.
"Hehehe... With my incredible skills, I won a tournament held at the academy. This is the prize money!"
"Is that true?!"
Ria's face lit up, then clouded again.
"But still... Aine, with money like this..."
"Sister, be quiet! If you refuse treatment, I'll drop out of the academy!"
"Hah! You can't!"
In the end Ria gave an expression that said she was defeated and pulled Aine into a tight hug.
"Aine, thank you so much..."
Aine, who had no immunity to such awkward situations, turned bright red.
Even as she accepted her sister's gratitude, however, something kept stabbing at a corner of her heart.
Because that money had been earned by selling out a friend.
The next day, at Aine's stubborn insistence, Ria set out for the temple in the Lucia Empire Capital to receive the best treatment possible. Her condition was still serious, but she herself claimed she could endure the journey.
On the road to the temple, Aine kept glancing sideways at her sister.
Ria and Aine were orphans—two little orphan girls. The empire was never an easy place for a pair of them to survive. By sheer luck they had been taken in by an orphanage.
Then, when Aine was about seven, the orphanage closed its doors and the two of them were cast back onto the streets.
Here fortune smiled on them again: Ria possessed a natural genius for thieving. She began by snatching small loaves of bread from the market, then moved on to pickpocketing and lifting cargo from carriages. At first she was often caught and beaten half to death. On those days Aine would cry without end, and Ria would always say the same thing.
"Hehe... Aine, don't worry. Sister's fine."
As time passed Ria's skill improved by leaps and bounds; she was never caught again. Eventually she even robbed wealthy houses and slipped her hand into nobles' purses.
Aine grew as well, and—true sisters that they were—showed the same talent. Ria, however, absolutely forbade her from ever stealing.
Years later the money Ria had accumulated was staggering. It would have been enough to buy a decent house and live quietly together. Instead she made Aine sit for the academy entrance exam.
Aine had a natural gift for the work of a thief or assassin, but it was nowhere near enough to win a scholarship. So Ria decided to pour every last coin she had saved into sending Aine to the academy. She simply could not stand the thought of her little sister living the rest of her life as a thief the way she herself had.
It was around then that Ria's body began to fail.
At first it was only a mild cough, nothing she paid much mind to. After Aine entered the academy, however, her condition never improved; it only grew worse. Herbs did nothing. Visiting a physician did nothing. Treatment from a cleric of the Church would have been best, but every coin had already gone toward Aine's tuition.
She tried to earn more by stealing again, yet her health had deteriorated so sharply that the work she once did with ease was now impossible. Ria did everything she could to hide it from Aine, but when she finally began coughing blood, the secret could not survive Aine's occasional visits home.
Aine understood perfectly why her sister had sent her to the academy. Even so, the most important person in the world to her was her sister—the only one she had.
She inquired about withdrawing from the academy, only to be told that tuition already paid could not be refunded. So she began working every free hour she had. She took every job she could find around the academy: washing dishes in restaurants, clerking in shops, cleaning inns. Students sometimes mocked her; she paid them no mind.
When the work kept her from focusing on party activities she was scolded for that as well. Louis stepped in and shielded her, but whenever Louis was absent Leo insulted her and even hit her.
Still she endured. She was always grateful to Louis. And the abuse from Leo she could bear if she told herself it was for her sister's sake.
No matter how hard she worked, however, the sum needed for a priest's treatment remained hopelessly out of reach. Meanwhile her sister's condition only continued to worsen.
Then one day, Leo Epsilt came looking for her.