小嫂子的味道

"Hello, sis. Been a while since we talked, hasn\'t it?" I said as I put my plate on the table and sat before the girl.

The girl had long blonde hair and leaf-like green eyes. She was none other than my older sister, Anya.

"Huh? Ah, Zero…it\'s you," she broke the silence and said as if surprised by my sudden appearance.

"Well, should I not be here?" I asked though I know this question had a fixed answer.

"No, it isn\'t like that. I was just…not expecting you this time," she clarified.

That exchange was it, silence prevailed between us after that; I started munching on my sandwiches while she sipped her drink—what looked like green tea by the way.

As Anya drank her tea, she kept looking outside through the glass panes, she was not much aware of her surroundings and was acting different from her usual behavior; it was as if she was lost in her own world.

I kinda knew what could be the reason behind this state of hers; it was the letter sent by X.

Until now everything that happened with her went just as X described in their letter, and since to her it seems like they must\'ve been controlling everything and keeping an eye on her; Anya would have been forced to follow X\'s orders also.

And that order was to get in a relationship with the person who saves her from Winston and those boys, to her surprise that boy was not anyone but Leon; the protagonist of loli_pop\'s novel.

Anya already knew that she can\'t befriend Leon, to her, he was out of reach; like a star shining in the faraway sky, you can admire its beauty from here down on the earth but no matter how hard you try, you can\'t reach the star.

Just like that, there was this feeling inside her mind that no matter how she tries she can\'t get into a relationship with Leon, and the task given to her by X seemed impossible.

But she didn\'t have much of a choice anyway; X had threatened her that they will kill me if she doesn\'t follow their orders. This was a very, very bad move but she believed that X was saying the truth and they really can kill me.

Well, I can\'t really blame her for that. Knowing her personality, the incident with Winston was enough proof, to make her fully believe in X. Thus, from then I started noticing that she was desperately trying to get close to Leon and was not missing any opportunity.

And to say, she was slowly but surely succeeding in this. She now walked and stayed with Leon at times—not as much as Ellyn but she was with him for sure; I had seen this myself. Plus, both of them had started talking too, a thing that seemed impossible to Anya before.

X\'s plan was working. The outcome they wanted, they were getting it.

But, in the middle of all this, she was getting tired from the inside, probably because she didn\'t want to do this from her heart and was just following X\'s orders unwillingly.

After a certain time, it started bugging me too since she was not the Anya I knew anymore; the pressure was changing her slowly. I didn\'t want something bad to happen that\'s why I have decided to step-in in on this matter.

Logically X was helping me in a way but their methods are causing Anya pain, a thing I can\'t bear with. Even if our goal was the same—getting Anya and Leon in a relationship, how we achieved that goal was different and that matters.

\'Let\'s get this done with,\' I gave myself the final push.

The silence was getting awkward and I was not planning on staying for too long anyway, hence I decided to start the conversation.

"Come to think of it, our class our paired up against each other in the upcoming interclass training session, isn\'t that right?" I appealed, showing genuine interest and asking for her opinion.

This question snapped her back to reality, "Yeah, that\'s what the teachers told us," she contributed.

"Well, I just hope that I don\'t have to fight against you. Hehe, otherwise it won\'t be good for me," I commented. In between, I tried to insert a little chuckle but later I realized how unnatural and fake it was.

But either she was so lost in thought that she missed it or just decided to ignore it, whatever it was she didn\'t voice on that creepy fake chuckle of mine and kept staring at her cup of tea—which was half empty.

"How is your magiken training coming along, by the way?" I asked, trying to shift the subject.

"Well, it\'s okay I guess? I already knew the basics of sword arts so the movements are not much of a trouble. I struggle a bit in the mana transferring thing since it\'s new to me but, I am managing somehow."

This was the longest reply I got in this whole conversation; can\'t say I wasn\'t happy, though happy would be the wrong word to describe it. And on a side note, I wasn\'t expecting Anya to struggle in magiken even a bit.

This came as a surprise, to be honest. I thought she is good at everything related to the sword but I guess even she has her weak points. This was reasonable also since she never practiced magic or even tried to learn about it before coming to the academy.

Anyway, wasting any more time will be pointless. I don\'t want to drag this conversation too much as I have other things to do also.

"Sis, are you friends with Leon…by any chance? I know that I have asked this before and you denied it that time but I\'m seeing you hanging out with him pretty often. I don\'t want you to hide it from me, you see?" I inquired.

Maybe this caught her by surprise because quickly looked up at me and seemed nervous—this was clear since her breathing speed has increased.