Bonus Short Stories

How to Interact with a Little Sister

A few days after Chelsea left the capital...

Tris was taking care of the field full of seeds Chelsea’d created, as he always did. He pulled out any weeds, watered the growing plants, and updated the growth logs. Once he finished everything, he used the Teleportation Circle to return to the Royal Research Institute, only to find Marx, Chelsea’s older brother, standing in front of his lab.

“Lord Tris... Would you happen to be free to have a little chat?” the knight asked, giving his division’s trademark smile.

He’s asked me something like this before, hasn’t he? Despite thinking it, Tris didn’t let the words come out of his mouth.

“What do you need?” he responded with a bright smile of his own, having already gotten all of his morning tasks done.

Marx’s smile disappeared when he heard the researcher’s response, morphing into a serious look. “Please, teach me how to interact with a younger sister.”

“...Why are you asking me?” Tris tilted his head, confused.

“Back at the send-off party the other day, you advised me that I would be disliked if I didn’t praise my little sister’s efforts.”

“Ah... When Miss Chelsea was trying to talk like a lady, right?”

At the party, Chelsea had been doing her best to talk as ladylike as possible, just like she’d only recently been taught. However, her brother Marx didn’t give her a single compliment—instead, he’d acted disappointed, trying to get her to stop. At the time, Tris had given him a warning regarding this.

“I don’t want Chelsea to hate me... That’s why I need you to teach me how to deal with a little sister!”

“That is something you should suffer through yourself, learning from Miss Chelsea’s responses...”

“But Chelsea is on the road now. I’d like to at least learn a bit before she returns,” Marx pleaded, still deadly serious.

Sighing, Tris answered, “I’ll do it if you think hearing about my sister’ll help.”

Marx’s eyes sparkled as he nodded, so Tris reluctantly told him his tales of suffering.

The truth was that the researcher’s younger sister was a very fastidious noble lady. If she wasn’t given an accessory that was the absolute cutting edge of fashion for her birthday, she’d get offended and outraged, and refuse to speak to him for a month. If he had even a single hair out of place, she’d tell him to stay away from her.

As Tris recounted his tribulations, he could see Marx’s soul leaving his body.

“...Little sisters are really hard to deal with, huh?”

“That’s just my little sister. Miss Chelsea is probably different.”

“Ah, you’re right...” Marx agreed. “Once she comes home, I’ll have a proper talk with her...” After that, he walked off with his head hung low.

“Do your best,” Tris replied, forcing a smile as he saw Marx off.

Is Chelsea Bad with Any Food?

At the home of Royz, former Emperor of the Radzuel Empire, Miss Micah, the foxwoman chef, had announced she’d make dinner, so I decided to help. Granted, the only parts I could really do were putting the vegetables she cut up into the pot, and stirring things...

“Oh, that’s right. What foods do you like, Chelsea~?” Miss Micah asked as she taste-tested the soup.

“What...foods?” The first thing to come to mind was the flan I’d eaten during our mana pool growing tea parties back at the Royal Research Institute. It was softer than jelly, and definitely a food I loved, so I answered, “I like flan.”

“Flan’s pretty full of possibilities, huh~”

I looked up at her, confused.

She gave me a smile back and said, “You can make it a bit harder, or suuuuper soft—or put bread, fruits, and even chocolate in it~ It’s also great with cream on top~!”

I didn’t know that... I want to try those, too!

“I’ll make them for you sometime, if we have the chance~”

“Thank you very much...!” The fact that I wanted to try them must have been written all over my face. When I thanked her, Miss Micah tapped her fist to her chest, grinning.

“Are there any foods you hate, then~?”

“There’s not really anything I hate,” I responded. After I’d come to the Institute, I’d eaten nothing but delicious food and sweets, so I couldn’t even imagine anything I hated.

“You’re such a good girl~! Lord Royz absolutely refuses to eat sweet carrots, the pineapples in sweet-and-sour pork, or oranges in anything pickled~!”

But the sweet carrots next to hamburg steak are so good... I thought. I’ve never eaten sweet-and-sour pork or pickled food, so I couldn’t judge those, but at least I’d learned a bit about foods Lord Royz hated.

“Last question... Is there anything you don’t like eating~?”

“As in...food I don’t like?”

“Something you can make yourself eat, but that you don’t enjoy~”

Back when I lived at the barony, I was rarely ever fed, so I snuck around eating scraps. A lot of it was stuff that had been dropped on the floor, like nearly rotten fruit... Anything I could eat was a treat. But there was something I could eat then, but didn’t like... It filled my belly, but it was so awful...

“...Burnt bread is really bitter, so I don’t really like it. I can eat it, though.”

Miss Micah’s eyes widened in shock at my answer. “Why would you be eating burnt bread when you’re a noble lady~!?”

“Um...”

I ended up having to give her a summary of my life so far—like how I used to be a baron’s daughter that wasn’t fed, hadn’t had any real ladylike upbringing, and how I’d been adopted by Margrave Sargent. I was worried she’d get mad or upset like my grandparents if I went into detail, so I really just brushed the surface, but...she was in tears.

“I... I hope you get to eat lots of yummy food to make up for how much you’ve suffered~!” she whimpered, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I wish I could cook it all for you~!”

“That makes me happy... Thank you.”

After that, Miss Micah became my personal chef, always making me delicious food and sweets, but that’s a different story. Now that I think of it, Lord Royz might have overheard our conversation.

Dances with Salves

Chelsea, her adoptive older brother Felix, and her adoptive mother Ariel, who was acting as the instructor, all stood within a room in the Sargent manor.

“Brother, I’m so terribly sorry,” Chelsea apologized, keeping up her ladylike stance.

“It’s fine... Let’s keep going.” Felix rushed to slap a smile on his face, but there were still tears in the corners of his eyes.

Ariel watched over them from a distance. “If Felix is alright to keep going, then let’s continue. Now, try dancing the seventh pattern one more time.”

Chelsea and Felix faced each other again. Felix put one arm around her waist and lifted the other, while Chelsea rested one of her hands on his arm, and placed the other on his lifted palm. They looked each other in the eyes and nodded, slowly beginning to dance.

At dance parties in the Kingdom of Chronowize where they lived, dancers would choose one of over ten dance patterns on the fly to match the song they were dancing to. Chelsea had learned six patterns so far. Today, she was learning the seventh, but...

Unlike the first six, the seventh pattern had some intense moves mixed in, so she ended up accidentally stomping on Felix’s feet.

“Oww!” Unable to take the pain, he crouched down to shield his foot with a cry. She’d done it more than ten times already, so his poor foot must have been quite swollen.

“B-Brother! Oh, I’m so sorry!”

Seeing as Felix was no longer able to stand, Ariel gave a forced smile. “Let’s leave it at that for today,” she said, calling a maid to take care of his foot.

Chelsea hadn’t known, since she’d always been with Glen who had his [Cure] Skill, but that Skill was rare. Smaller wounds like this one were usually treated with medicine and had to heal naturally.

Once his foot was treated, Felix plastered another smile on his face before leaving the room. Chelsea felt awful seeing him limp out.

“You can rest until lunch, Chelsea.”

“Yes, Mother,” she responded, returning to her room.

When she got there and sat on her sofa, a sigh slipped from her lips. Ele in his kitten form must have realized something had happened, and hopped up onto her lap.

«Is something amiss?»

“You see...” Chelsea told him all about stepping on Felix’s foot during dance practice, and how it would have to heal naturally with medication rather than being healed with [Cure].

«I see,» Ele replied, tilting his head slightly. «Why not create a seed with a salve that could heal his wounds?»

“That’s true... If I did that, Brother’s foot would heal instantly!” she nodded before casting her Skill. “I’ll make a seed containing salve that can heal all wounds — [Seed Creation]”

With a pop, a disk-shaped seed about the size of Chelsea’s fist, the same shape as the medicine the maid had applied to Felix’s foot appeared. Popping the lid off, she found it was full of healing salve.

Holding the seed, she hurried to find Felix.

“Brother, would I be able to talk to you for a moment?” she called after knocking on his door. The maid inside let her in immediately.

“Sorry you have to see me like this.” Seemingly unable to take the pain, he was laying on the sofa with bare feet.

“I have a request. Could I trouble you to test this healing salve?” Chelsea asked, looking at his swollen foot.

He agreed readily, and she handed the salve-filled seed to the maid to put on his wound. Moments later, the redness was all gone.

Felix looked on in shock, moving his ankle to check for any pain. “This is amazing... It doesn’t hurt at all anymore. Thank you.”

“Oh, no. It was my fault for stepping on your foot, after all,” she answered humbly, but her brother’s eyes were sparkling.

“You’re such a gentle, caring, and wonderful little sister, finding something this amazing for me!”

“Um...” Chelsea had no idea how to respond.

“I’m so thankful to have such an angelically adorable sister! ...But how did you get something like this?”

She had to think for a moment. Since he was family, it would have been fine to tell him it was a seed she’d created, but he would probably keep praising her if she told him. That would be a bit too embarrassing, so she held her pointer finger to her lips.

“It’s a secret,” she replied, giving him a ladylike smile, just as her adoptive mother had taught her.