My Little Sister, Eve
"Who... are you?"
A girl's voice drifted from behind me.
Under ordinary circumstances I would have simply dodged Pascal's charge—but if I did that, the girl standing at my back would somehow end up taking the hit instead.
"It's dangerous here! Get away, quickly!"
At this rate I would have to summon a clone and cancel the attack with a heavy blow...!
Then, accompanied by a playful little laugh, the voice came again.
"Looks like you're in a bit of trouble."
Something shot past my side so fast my eyes could barely track it.
— Crack!
It kicked the charging Pascal clean off his feet.
Pascal, unable to offer even a scrap of resistance, slammed into the wall under the force of the impact.
"There. That should clear up the sticky situation a little, right?"
The one who had driven Pascal into the wall turned around and beamed at me with a pure, sunny smile.
Hair of pure white. Porcelain skin. Eyes that gleamed like polished gold. And a petite frame that looked no taller than about a hundred and forty centimeters.
...Somehow, she felt familiar.
"Haha, thank you for the hel—"
"Big Brother~!"
Just as I was about to offer a polite word of thanks, the tiny girl came scampering over and threw her arms around me in a tight hug.
Wait. Hold on.
Big Brother?
"I missed you so much~!"
The children of House Prellia were Pascal, myself, and Chloe. That was the end of the list. No one else existed.
So who on earth was this girl calling me her big brother and looking so delighted about it?
Someone tied to the original Shion's past, maybe?
"I'm sorry, but I don't remember who you are. I developed amnesia over the summer break. My apologies."
If she really had been connected to the previous Shion, I felt genuinely sorry.
By taking over his body, I had essentially cut the bonds he once shared with people.
"No, no~ You don't need to apologize."
The white-haired girl shook her head with a bashful little smile.
"After all, Big Brother and I are meeting for the first time today."
"...What?"
So that meant she had no prior connection to the previous Shion at all.
Then who the hell was she?
My head filled with pure confusion.
"So... you're saying this is our first meeting—today?"
"That's right."
"And yet you're saying I'm your big brother?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Well, because Big Brother is my big brother?"
Okay, this conversation was going absolutely nowhere.
Stuck spinning our wheels in this exasperating stalemate.
"Grrk...! Some random pest butting in...!"
Pascal, half-crumpled against the wall, groaned and slowly forced himself upright.
"You think I'm a joke? You think... you think I can't even kill one person?"
"Haah..."
The white-haired girl watched Pascal stagger toward me.
"And here I was looking forward to reuniting with Big Brother..."
She let out a small sigh and took a single step forward.
Then—
— Rumble...
"If you get in the way... I just might, without meaning to, make you one with me."
The air nearby began to tremble.
When I peered into that strange phenomenon through Nature Realm, I saw an enormous volume of mana pouring out of the white-haired girl, setting the atmosphere shuddering.
She was at least a 6-Star combatant.
"Ugh... aughh...!"
Pascal took a step back.
The face that moments ago had looked ready to murder someone had, before he knew it, become that of prey being hunted.
"If you don't disappear right now, something unpleasant is going to happen, you know? Well—unpleasant for you. It would be rather nice for me~"
Pascal's eyes flicked back and forth between me and the white-haired girl.
Then, as pure terror overtook his face completely, he fled without so much as a glance behind him.
"Alright, now that the nuisance is gone... huh?"
The white-haired girl beamed at me again, then tilted her head.
"Big Brother? Why are you being so wary?"
Even with Pascal gone, I had not loosened my guard in the slightest.
After all, someone far more dangerous than Pascal was standing right in front of me—how could I possibly relax?
The one silver lining was that, for the moment, she was not showing me any hostility.
But without knowing what intentions had brought her to me, that goodwill could flip to enmity at any second.
"Haha, I was just a little startled. That man you casually drove off just now was actually considered one of the stronger students at Luin Academy, you know?"
"Oh my, is that so? He went down so easily I thought he was just an ordinary student..."
The white-haired girl parted her lips slightly and widened her eyes as if she genuinely hadn't known.
Whether that reaction was fake or genuine, I couldn't quite tell.
"Anyway—at last we get to meet, Big Brother!"
The white-haired girl sparkled her eyes at me, dipped her head gently, and offered a proper greeting.
"Allow me to introduce myself formally. I'm your adorable little sister, Eve. I transferred into Luin Academy two weeks ago. I'm so happy we finally get to meet!"
"Haha... are you perhaps a relative of mine?"
The girl who had named herself Eve shook her head firmly from side to side.
"Hmm? Of course not. Don't say such hurtful things. I'm your real little sister, you know?"
"You're... my real little sister?"
No. I—meaning Shion—did not have a real little sister.
In the first place, Shion's mother had given birth to him and fled immediately afterward, so there was no possible way a blood sister could exist.
My head was throbbing. I couldn't even begin to grasp how this situation was unfolding.
"Ah... I see! So you're my real little sister!"
I decided to just go along with it for now.
This was someone who had casually flattened Pascal in a head-on clash. If I went and said something like No? That's impossible? Why would you be my little sister? You're some kind of cultist?, I might get turned into paste on the spot.
"Well then, Miss Eve? I have a few questions I'd like to—"
"Aww, calling me Miss Eve is so distant~ Just call me Eve, casually."
"Understood. Then, Eve? I'm going to ask you a few questions now—would you be willing to answer them?"
"Hmm... that depends on what the questions are, doesn't it?"
Eve gave an ambiguous answer.
At least it wasn't an outright refusal, so I would take it.
"Very well. First question: is there no falsehood in the claim that you're my little sister?"
"Of course not~! I'm Big Brother's one and only little sister, you know?"
"I see."
Whether that answer was true or false, I roughly grasped that Eve was not completely unconnected to me.
"Second question: do you have any connection to House Prellia?"
"Hmm... I'm not sure, but I don't think so."
"Good. Third question: who exists among your blood relatives?"
"By blood relatives... do you mean family?"
"That's right."
"Well, first there's me, and Big Brother. Then Mother, and... um... hold on a second."
Eve started counting on her fingers, folding and unfolding them one by one.
But the number gradually passed ten, then twenty, then thirty, and before long broke past fifty.
"Ugh... I don't know the rest very well, but roughly speaking there should be about fifty big brothers, big sisters, and little siblings who never even received names."
"Eve? By blood relatives I don't mean cousins or distant relatives—I mean your parents, and the children they gave birth to."
"Yes. I know."
...So a single family had over fifty members?
That number made no sense by any normal standard. There was no way one human being could give birth to more than fifty children.
Moreover, Eve just now had not mentioned her father at all.
"Eve. This may be a rude question, but is your father still alive?"
"No? I never had a father to begin with."
"So... not that he passed away midway or that there was a divorce—he simply never existed in the first place?"
"Yes."
From that answer I could make a guess. Either Eve was suffering from some kind of mental illness, or—
...Eve might not be human.
That she might not be an ordinary being at all.
"Thank you for the good answers. Next question: what kind of work does your mother do?"
"Mother is a scientist, and she's also very skilled with magic. I'm not sure how to put it... she usually does a lot of experiments."
She does a lot of experiments, huh.
For some reason those words sounded extremely unsettling.
"I see. Then one last question."
I drew a deep breath and carefully asked her.
"Eve, for what reason did you transfer into Luin Academy?"
"Obviously to meet Big Brother, of course~!"
Eve answered brightly, without a single shadow of darkness.
But I could sense, instinctively, that that was not her only purpose.
That white hair, and those gleaming golden eyes.
For some reason she shared a great many similarities with "that one" who would appear in the future.
So I asked again.
For the first time in a long while, with both eyes open.
"Is that really all?"
As my pitch-black eyes fixed on Eve, she—who until now had been conversing with me in such an easygoing manner—instantly froze solid.
"...I guess even Big Brother can't be fooled after all."
Then, returning to her mischievous expression, she giggled and spoke.
"Just as Big Brother said, the reason I transferred into Luin Academy isn't only to meet you."
"........."
"The other reason I transferred into Luin Academy is... to grow stronger."
She transferred into Luin Academy out of a hunger for power. A thoroughly orthodox reason.
But if Eve truly was "that one," the method would not be entirely normal.
So answer me.
"How exactly do you intend to obtain that power?"
"Well..."
Eve smiled brightly as she answered my question.
"By making them one with me, one by one?"
And from the broadly smiling Eve, several tentacles burst forth.