For My Clingy Little Sister
For My Clingy Little Sister
Noa may seem like nothing more than a tomboy, but she's a deep child at heart.
She understands that her eonni is busy, and she knows there are many important guests in the house.
So she's been behaving herself, but dissatisfaction has been piling up inside Noa little by little.
Because others have been stealing away the attention of her eonni, which she used to have all to herself.
『Eonni is my eonni!』
The stack kept growing, and eventually, the day it all came bursting out arrived.
Noel was spending her time idly before the Academy entrance ceremony.
Sure, she was planning another event that would shake up the Empire's social landscape—the opening of an arcade—but that was now the staff's job to handle.
As much as Felix and Flora worked hard, Noel could enjoy her leisure.
Seeing Noel like that, Noa realized the timing was now and made her move.
"Eonni!"
"Hm? What is it?"
Noel was sipping tea and reviewing the artists' practice comics, whose quality had risen enough to potentially show to readers.
"Look at this~! A new dress~!"
Not wanting to jump straight into the 'main point', Noa started with something else instead.
"Pretty. As expected, our Noa looks good in anything."
Giving Noa a proper reaction, Noel continued enjoying her work-life integration.
Glancing at her eonni, Noa asked, "Is now a good time?"
"Ahem! So, eonni? You said you'd write me two stories before. When are you going to write them?"
The educational effect of 「Letter Expedition」 was truly remarkable.
At least for Noa, it was.
Thanks to that, Noa had mastered difficult letters and now read books well on her own.
Still, she preferred listening to reading aloud, but like most who've just learned to read, Noa had recently gotten into reading various storybooks.
Wanting to feel that her eonni was taking care of her while combining that practical benefit, Noa suddenly brought it up.
"What?"
A sudden topic change right after showing off her dress.
Noel blinked at that curveball, which made her wonder if even a BL drift wasn't this extreme.
For a moment, Noel didn't catch the context, but then she managed to recall memories that felt like ten years had passed, even though less than a year had gone by with so many things happening.
The memory surfaced of when Sophie said it was a bit inappropriate for children, so she stopped telling the story of 「Bridge of Imperium Town」.
She had promised her disappointed younger sister to write other stories instead.
But that was—
"I already wrote you 'multiple fairy tales', didn't I?"
Noel widened her eyes as if to say that was already settled.
Glancing around carefully at Noel, Noa spoke.
"That was... you wrote me 'one fairy tale book'."
At that audacious calculation, Noel let out a rueful laugh.
'Ah~ So that's how you're playing it.'
She had plenty to say if she wanted to argue.
Originally, that promise was to write stories as a substitute for not watching 「Bridge of Imperium Town」.
But then Noa secretly took the saved manuscript to the recital meeting, and that led to all this, huh?
So fundamentally, it could be considered void, but...
Having realized why her younger sister was suddenly acting like this, Noel decided not to press the issue.
'Thinking about it, Noa must have been a bit upset lately.'
Her parents and her eonni were all busy with other things, making her feel like no one was looking after her.
At her young age, it was understandable to feel that way.
Seeing her hold it in without showing it and finally express it this way today made Noel both proud and sorry.
After a brief thought, Noel put away the comic she was reading and tapped her lap toward Noa.
"Alright, I'll write them. Since our dongsaeng has been behaving so well lately."
"Wow! Eonni, really?"
Noa immediately understood the gesture and beamed with joy as she climbed onto Noel's lap to sit.
Noa was now 13 years old.
Yet she still seemed like a 10-year-old child.
That meant she was receiving plenty of family love, which was good, but it also made one wonder when she'd ever grow up.
'Well... they say growing up too fast isn't a good thing either.'
Children should remain childlike.
Recalling that saying, Noel stroked Noa's hair.
Noa looked pleased at the touch.
Like a lap cat.
"So? What kind of story does our dongsaeng want to read?"
Since she decided to indulge the pampering, she'd do it properly.
As if taking a commission, she asked what she wanted.
She planned to write exactly as requested.
Though if Noa asked for something like a grand historical drama epic now that the time was right, she'd give her a rap on the head.
"Hmm..."
Just having her eonni pay attention to her would have been enough, but to think she'd actually offer to write whatever she wanted.
Caught off guard, Noa sank into thought.
"You can tell me when you think of something. No rush."
When Noel said there was no hurry, Noa shook her head.
"No, I thought of something."
"Oh? What is it?"
"You know, Teacher Sophie said that books aren't just for reading and finishing—you have to think while reading."
"Hmm, well, that's true."
"But I don't really understand what that means. So I want eonni to write me a story that makes me think a lot while reading it. Ah! And it has to be fun, of course."
'This is a tricky request.'
A story that's both fun and makes you think.
Difficult, but—
'Still, it's not hard.'
The perfect thing came to mind immediately.
A mystery.
It's fun, naturally makes you think about tricks and how the crime was committed, and through relationships and backstories, gives you plenty to feel.
It perfectly matched Noa's request.
For a moment, she considered writing something else, but nothing better came to mind, so she decided on a mystery.
'Hmm, rather than something unfamiliar like a detective, a science investigation unit vibe would be better.'
Considering the times, a civilian wandering around a crime scene would be extremely strange.
Too lazy to set up and write so that her younger sister Noa could understand the profession of 'detective', Noel decided to set it as a knight order dedicated to criminal investigations.
Since there's no science here, a Magic Investigation Unit that uses magic to investigate crimes.
A knight who acts on-site for arrests and such, and a mage who performs various specialized knowledge and examinations.
If she paired those two as partners and approached it like Holmes and Watson—
'That'll work.'
In her past life, Noel loved thrillers and mysteries.
Whether manga or drama, once she started watching crime investigation shows, she'd stay up all night.
So perhaps that's why, the moment she decided on the genre for the work she'd write for Noa, the plot came bursting forth immediately.
Since the motivation for this writing was what it was, it'd be best to quickly write it before the Academy entrance ceremony and give it to Noa.
Having made her decision, Noel played with Noa for a while and then immediately started writing.
"As expected, a mystery can't miss a sealed room and a train."
A mountain lodge and a train.
She debated which to use as the setting, but decided a train—more familiar than a lodge—would be better.
After all, when the extraordinary happens within the ordinary, immersion increases and interest is piqued.
The beginning of her new work, simply and intuitively titled 「Magic Investigation Unit」, started with the knight Isaac boarding the Magic Train to Imperium after returning from vacation.
「Phew.」
Isaac was heading to the Imperial Capital after a pleasant vacation.
With the sweet time over and it being time to return to work, he felt like he was dying.
He even wished for an accident to delay the train and make his arrival in the Imperial Capital late—.
「Kyaaaaah!」
But this wasn't what he meant.
A woman's scream.
Reflexively, Isaac dashed out of his cabin and moved swiftly toward the sound.
The train was narrow, but as a knight, he moved through the crowd without hesitation, as if he were a boneless mollusk.
At the end, Isaac arrived in front of a cabin where passengers were gathered, buzzing with murmurs.
There was a woman in hysterics, men with troubled faces, and a train attendant sweating profusely.
Isaac's instincts told him something big had truly happened, and when he stepped forward, the attendant blocked him.
「Step back! You can't enter!」
Isaac pulled something from his pocket and showed it to the attendant.
「I'm an investigator.」
「Eh? Magic Investigation Unit...?」
Recognizing Isaac's identity, the attendant's expression relaxed with relief.
An expert in this kind of situation had arrived.
「What happened?」
「Well, you see...」
Given the situation, considering the other passengers, he couldn't speak loudly.
The attendant whispered.
「People are dead. Two of them.」
A changing era.
Highly advancing technology.
Accordingly, various criminal methods are evolving day by day.
In this battle of spear and shield, the spear is bound to have the advantage, but that doesn't mean one can just sit idly by.
The shield must also be upgraded.
To counter the increasingly severe crimes, the Imperial Government had formed a special crime team called the Magic Investigation Unit.
It was precisely to uncover the truth behind bizarre incidents like this that the specialist team Isaac belonged to existed.
「The crime scene must be preserved.」
Saying that, Isaac controlled the crowd, preserved the scene, and began the initial investigation.
To avoid leaving unnecessary traces, he put on gloves and examined every detail.
「A sealed room...」
Based on the testimony of the woman who discovered the two dead men in the cabin, the condition of the bodies, and the closed door, Isaac easily determined that this was an incident in a sealed room.
Whether it was a crime or an accident wasn't clear yet, but the sealed room environment alone made it certain this was no ordinary occurrence.
If only one person had died, one might think their health was poor.
But two healthy men sitting facing each other, dead in a cabin?
This couldn't be normal.
「Poison... no.」
Examining the complexion of the bodies and meticulously analyzing and recording the situation, Isaac noted that without precise magical examination upon arrival at Imperium, he couldn't know for sure, but outwardly there were no signs of foul play.
Still, unable to shake a nagging feeling, Isaac mobilized all his senses and instincts to see if he'd missed anything.
『You've got annoyingly sharp instincts. Trust them at the scene.』
Following his instincts as his prickly partner Winet had told him, Isaac acted.
He was a classic intuitive type, and this time his intuition hit the mark.
「This...」
Now that he thought about it, he felt strangely short of breath and stuffy.
At first, he thought it was because his long vacation had ended and he'd gotten caught up in an incident before even officially returning to work.
But no.
「The cabin is somehow...」
The problem was that Isaac couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong.
Times like this called for his partner Winet.
Suppressing his frustration, he recorded everything for now.
Some evidence fades over time.
Following his partner's nagging to record even trivial things just in case, he noted every little detail.
「This seems like a murder case.」
And that was correct.