Chapter 5: Overprotective
“Are you sure it’s okay for you to keep fussing over me like this? Are you actually getting your work done?”
“It’s perfectly fine,” Shia replied without the slightest hint of concern. “Everything is progressing smoothly. Taking a single day away from my duties isn’t a problem at all.”
“Is that so?”
Noble duties were supposed to be quite heavy.
After all, in this world democracy was still a distant, almost unimaginable concept. The old aristocratic system remained firmly in place, even as the world rapidly changed under the pressure of the industrial revolution. Nobles were still responsible for managing territories, overseeing administration, and maintaining order in a society that was evolving faster than the old systems were designed to handle.
Which made it a little difficult for me to believe that she could so casually take a day off.
“Well, even if that’s the case… can we do something about our current situation?”
We were sitting inside a small room in the mansion.
Or rather, I was sitting.
Behind me—no, more accurately around me—was Shia.
She had taken a single chair and sat down while pulling me onto her lap, her arms wrapped around me in a protective embrace. The result was that both of us—an older sister of fifteen and a younger brother of twelve—were sharing one chair in a way that was absolutely not appropriate for siblings our age.
“What’s wrong with it?” she asked innocently.
“I’ve been thinking this for a while now, but… don’t you think you’re a little too overprotective, Onee-sama?”
“Hmph. I’m your Onee-san, you know? This much is perfectly natural.”
“Big sisters in general aren’t this overprotective. Only you are like this. You’re the strange one, Onee-sama.”
“What an outrageous thing to say!”
“Seriously though, why are you this overprotective? Are you even going to be able to get married like this? We’re not going to stay together forever. Maybe you should start separating yourself from your little brother already.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Eh? Well, I am.”
“…What?”
The temperature of her voice dropped instantly.
Then, without warning, Shia tightened her arms around my body like a giant iron clamp.
“Ow, ow, ow!?”
“There’s no way anyone would marry someone born with the earth attribute,” she said coldly.
“Th-th-that’s not necessarily—ow, that hurts!?”
Before I could even argue, the pressure became too painful to endure. Panicking, I quickly activated my magic and transformed the chair I was touching.
The wood stretched and flattened, sliding between Shia and me like a makeshift barrier wall.
“Too naive.”
“Gah!”
My magic suddenly vanished midway through the process.
“Huh?”
“Earth magic is usually persistent, you know!”
But it had worked halfway.
Using the partially formed wall as an opportunity, I slipped free from Shia’s grasp and quickly put some distance between us.
“Phew… anti-magic barrier, huh.”
Catching my breath, I examined the magic she had used to erase my spell.
“Yes, that’s right,” Shia replied proudly. “Convenient, isn’t it?”
“Non-attribute magic has really advanced a lot.”
I casually touched a nearby shelf and reshaped it into a chair, then placed it in front of the table and sat down by myself this time.
Looking at the reshaped furniture, Shia tilted her head slightly.
“When you look at it like that, earth magic seems pretty convenient too.”
“Right? And one of its advantages is that it’s strong against anti-magic barriers.”
“Even so,” she said, folding her arms, “instead of sitting there all elegantly by yourself, how about fixing my chair too?”
“Oh—right. Sorry.”
I stood up again, touched the distorted chair, and returned it to its original shape.
“The downside is that I have to physically touch something to activate it.”
“That’s just how earth magic works.”
“Someday I’d like to overcome that limitation.”
“Then do your best. If you ever need help, rely on your Onee-san, alright?”
“It’s not that urgent. I’ll work on it slowly. After all… it’s only earth magic.”
Even if I discovered some revolutionary new technique using earth magic, the impact on the world would probably be small.
Simply because there were so few earth mages in existence.
“Yes,” Shia said bluntly. “It’s only earth magic. Which means marriage is impossible for you.”
“Are we back to that again? Sure, from a noble perspective my value isn’t very high.”
A third son with earth magic.
Even considering that I was born into a marquis family, my value in noble society was extremely low.
“But I don’t really mind if the girl is a commoner,” I said lightly. “I’ll find someone nice eventually. You should hurry and find someone too, Onee-sama. More importantly, why are you so obsessed with me anyway? I’m the family’s failure, remember?”
“You may be a failure, but you’re still the cutest little brother in the world,” she replied without hesitation. “There’s no way I could dislike you. I’ll protect you properly until the day I die.”
“…That’s heavy. Don’t forget you’re my Onee-sama.”
“Mmm… well, I know that,” she muttered reluctantly. “If I ever meet someone I think I can truly entrust you to… then maybe I’ll allow it. Until then, you remain under your Onee-san’s protection. So make sure you find a good person.”
“Wow…”
That was definitely the type who would never approve anyone.
I already knew how this would go.
“…Especially from now on,” she added quietly.
“Hm? Is something happening?”
“I can hear the sound of marching boots.”
“…!”
The moment those words left her mouth, I involuntarily held my breath.
My mind immediately drifted to the person I was planning to meet later.
“For nearly a hundred years,” Shia continued slowly, “there have only been scattered skirmishes between small nations. But the tension between the great powers has been growing steadily. I can feel it. A full-scale conflict is drawing closer.”
“…And our country is right in the middle of it. That’s unpleasant.”
“That’s something we’re not supposed to say out loud.”
There had been no French Revolution in this world, and no Napoleon.
But there had been an industrial revolution. And there had been an Age of Exploration. Naturally, colonies had been established across the world.
Some countries succeeded in that race.
Others fell behind.
The Kingdom of Lunoa, the country where we were born, was one of those that had fallen behind. And now it was determined to challenge the nations that had already secured their colonial dominance.
Even during the century without large-scale wars, countless grudges and rivalries had been quietly building beneath the surface.
“…I hate this,” I murmured.
Even as someone deliberately trying to approach a merchant of death—a weapons dealer—I couldn’t help but feel disgust toward the war that was steadily creeping closer.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
And with that bitter awareness lingering in my chest, I silently resented the coming conflict all the same.