Chapter 14: Breakthrough (2) - 13
"You don't have to go if you don't want to."
Immediately after getting the notification of the incoming youth gathering, we had both sought each other out, with unique worries on both our minds that we needed to have assuaged.
"I'm going, it's just a matter of what you'll do there."
After all, I still wasn't sure what side she was on because we never talked about what had happened, as if it didn't happen in the first place.
We just treated each other like we had done before the whole incident whilst both knowing that the other was heavily plotting.
Now, the only uncertainty that the two of us had was exactly what the other was plotting, and against whom.
Keep in mind, this was all whilst we were acting like nothing had ever happened, so, by now, it had almost become somewhat of a silent information war.
It was just that, well, her side was currently losing.
Sure, I had fed her some information about certain things a few times, just to have her bite the bait, and she had, hard.
She had tried to pay someone to pay someone to pay someone to pay someone to pay someone to test out my information, and well, let's just say that when you have a dark magician that specializes in "cleaning up" unfortunate "accidents" in your hands, well, it just gets extremely easy to reverse engineer the whole process.
And, thus, I had figured out what route she had taken to grow her power outside of the ranch, in the actual depths of Lumi.
'The information guild.'
Arguably the strongest entity outside of the three big families and the magistrate of the city, it was a place designated as neutral ground for all those that asked for their services.
Being completely objective, it was an entity that would give you the best information possible, as long as you had the right price.
But now, it seemed like my sister had somehow infiltrated it, and had become one of the top ranking members in the guild.
Well, it wasn't really my concern, as she was moving her pieces around in Lumi without any real, raw power behind her, so, as of right now, she wasn't the foremost concern on my mind.
What I truly was worried about was this first meeting with the protagonist.
"Who's side will you take?"
During the entire time I had been thinking above, my sister had also been thinking, and so the long period of silence had been acceptable for the both of us.
"It depends on which one will benefit me more. Also, you're not going to do anything rash during the meeting, right?"
"It depends on what you mean by "rash"." I replied, using the exact same sentence starter she had used, trying to provoke her.
But, of course, this didn't work and so we just continued sitting on my bed in silence, as we both thought for a while.
"Whatever, I'll just go with the flow." I thought out loud, suddenly sprawling down onto the bed, having already finished my calculations of course, and just doing this to go after the slightest chance of tricking my sister.
"Yeah, like hell you would."
Welp, guess that didn't work.
But, she also stopped thinking in a position that was definitely hurting her back, and she laid down beside me, using my outstretched hand as a pillow whilst snuggling up to my side, like it was the most normal thing in the world to do.
Putting her forehead on my chest, we shared a moment together, as we cleared our mind of all frivolous thoughts.
"It'll soon be tomorrow right?"
Then, we just enjoyed each other's company as I played with her hair whilst she started falling asleep.
"Good night, Yuki."
Man, how quickly the atmosphere between us changed.
Ahh... this damned weird ass sibling relationship.
Why couldn't all of our moments together be just like this?
Pondering over this for a while, it wasn't long before I too, fell asleep.
(A/N: I manga page that I edited for reference will be in the paragraph comments.)
...
Two Weeks Later:
We were in a car, riding to the meeting point.
Because the meeting place was considered sacred ground, there weren't any teleportation gates nearby, and so we had to go with the old fashioned method, flying cars.
As for the current situation of us two siblings, we had been riding in the car for over an hour now, and Yuki had fallen asleep in my lap.
With only her head in my lap mind you.
If it had been any other person in this position right now, they would have been enamored, blinded by Yuki's beauty, making it so that they would just stare at her face, but I, on the other hand, just looked out the window, and the rolling countryside that we were passing on our way there.
Placing my hand on her neck like I had done so many times before, I stroked it to help calm down my mind before the meeting.
'If I squeezed hard enough right now...'
Looking down at her defenseless, pale, jade-white neck, I couldn't help but marvel at its pearly beauty for a second.
But then, I shook my head harshly, as once again, that was only a last resort that I would have to do if everything else failed.
'In the end, it's best to keep her dancing around in my palm.'
'Just please, please let this work. I don't know what I'd do if she died.'
As my hands started to shake a little bit, without even me noticing, I looked out and saw that we were approaching the venue.
Leaning my head down, I kissed Yuki on the forehead, and, like a jack in the box, she shot up and into her own seat almost immediately.
This was something that had happened many times before, and it was basically my signal for her to become a noble/top student/one of the most powerful people in the world again after falling asleep because she trained too hard.
"Are you ready?" I asked her, as she quickly fixed her hair, in under three seconds I might add.
"Yes, but are you?" She asked, a look of concern crossing her face.
"Don't worry. Remember? I said that I would go with the flow, so I'll be flowing along your conversation with "him"." I replied, with a smirk on my face.
"Like hell you are."
And that was the end of it, as we both smiled a little bit evily, in anticipation for the social fight we were about to dive into.
Of course, in the end, I would win, I was sure of that fact.
Looking at her visage, who was currently looking out the window profoundly, I couldn't help but do one thing.
"Hehehehe..."
My near non-existent laugh was never heard by her.
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