197 - Side Story: Leonardo's Perspective - My Little Sister 15
When Tina said she had something to talk about, I suggested we change locations. When I tried to hear her out in the carriage, she was even concerned about Salisa being nearby, so it would be better if there were no other eyes around. Thinking that, I moved to my private room, but Tina did not sit in the prepared chair. Instead, she had me sit first, then lay her stomach across my lap. Startled and wondering what she was up to, Tina cheerfully declared, "I am fully prepared to be scolded!" Tina being defiant like that was cute, but I was curious about a story she already knew would earn her punishment from the start. And what Tina told me was absolutely not the kind of thing that could be settled with a spanking on a child's bottom.
— Information leak.
— National treasure-class research materials.
— A ten-year-old little sister.
— Information transmission route.
— The Silver-White Knight who was supposed to be guarding her.
— The one who showed the research materials.
It was too much to grasp the situation immediately, and as I blinked, various words floated through my mind and faded. Even without thinking, I could tell the ripples caused by the information Tina brought would be terrifyingly far-reaching.
The first thing I judged I had to do was, in any case, put her in a cell. That was the treatment for my little sister (Tina) who had committed the crime of information leakage. Even if it was something a child did, even if she was my own little sister, the crime of leaking information that must not be disclosed was heavy. When I entered the cell along with her because it was what my sister had done, Tina was surprised. She said I did not need to go into the cell with her because she was the one who had been bad.
...Tina is not a bad kid.
She just picked a poor method, that is all. What she did was not praiseworthy conduct, but I could not say I did not understand her motives. If the content was not an issue, I thought it was only natural for her to want to deliver a medical prescription to Aurelia, who was a pharmacist.
Whether Tina wanted to punish herself, she refused to go near the stove Jean-Jacques had brought. It was inappropriate, but Tina edging along the wall to keep distance from the stove was so childlike and cute. But I knew if I laughed she would pout, so I tightened my stomach and held back my laughter. At first Tina kept fleeing to keep away from the stove, but eventually she either gave up or resigned herself, and quietly sat down next to me.
...I was able to stay upright as a knight because I was alone, huh.
While waiting for Alf, whom Jean-Jacques had been ordered to fetch, I exchanged bits of conversation with Tina. Listening to Tina's words, which were occasionally mixed with apologies, I thought about this. The reason I had been able to stay upright until now was because I was alone. It was because I did not have family that I could be fair.
...You cannot help but want to protect your family's crimes.
I had seen all kinds of people before. Mothers trying to hide their son's crimes, younger brothers protecting their older brother's crimes. And every time I wondered. Why would they protect and hide someone who had clearly committed a crime? Even knowing they themselves could be charged for it. Crimes should be exposed to the light of day and judged fairly. That is what prevents the next crime and reduces the number of victims. Protecting a criminal just because they are family. That should not be allowed, I thought.
...I never thought having a little sister would let me understand the feelings of a criminal's family.
I am aware it is an unforgivable act, but somewhere in the back of my mind I am thinking about whether there is some way to shield Tina from her crime. And then I put a lid on the ideas that come to mind.
...I cannot hide the crime my little sister committed just because I am her brother.
I had done the same for other families before, so I cannot make a special exception just because it is my own sister. A crime is a crime, and it must be judged.
...That is what I thought, but.
Alf, whom Jean-Jacques had called for, seemed like he could see right through my inner thoughts, and he started saying Tina's crime could be easily swept under the rug. To be precise, not swept under the rug, but offset by the merit of having convinced Aurelia to move to the city. No matter how much merit she had, what Tina did was a crime. I argued that I could not accept either sweeping it away or offsetting it, but Alf acknowledged that Tina's actions were a crime, then pointed out that the information she was supposed to have leaked had not actually reached Aurelia herself, and judged that a crime that had not been completed was no different from nothing having happened at all. On top of that, he told me to consider the impact on those around us.
...I understood Alf's proposal was the best option. Both as the master of the fortress and as Tina's brother.
But that does not mean covering up a crime is something that should be done. While thinking about how to reconcile this, I asked Tina why she had thought to leak the contents of Saint Yuuta Hiraga's research materials. Even if she copied the research materials written in Japanese verbatim, there was no way Aurelia, who could only read English, could make use of them. Tina should not be so unwise as to not understand that.
"...Because I could read them," she said.
After a brief pause, Tina looked me straight in the eyes and answered. Because she could read the contents of the research materials written in Japanese, she understood they were a prescription. She realized it was a cure for Wards Disease and tried to tell Aurelia.
When Tina said she could read Japanese, my mind went blank for a moment. All that agonizing just moments ago about not being able to hide a crime just because she was my little sister seemed utterly foolish. If it was true that she could read Japanese, then far from leaking information, Tina could kill anyone, any number of people, and never be charged. Even if Tina herself were to kill someone in her future life, the number would be limited. Conversely, the medicine that would be revived from Saint Yuuta Hiraga's research materials through Tina's deciphering would save lives for decades, centuries after Tina's death. Human lives are not something to be weighed against each other, but the lives saved by Tina's ability to read Japanese would be overwhelmingly greater.
I asked Tina to confirm whether she was a Japanese reincarnator. Tina had told me before that "I seem to be a reincarnator," but at that time she had answered, "I do not have any memories of a past life." When I confirmed this as well, she answered that she apparently had been Japanese in a life several cycles ago.
...Even young, a woman is a woman, huh.
It never even occurred to me that I might have been deceived by Tina. She even started making sophistry arguments like, "It is not a lie, it was several lives ago so it is not my past life but my life before that."
...It hurts more than being deceived by some incomprehensible adult woman.
I am an unreliable older brother who neglects her and cannot take her side first when it matters, but still, I have treasured and cherished her in my own way. I never thought I had been deceived by that little sister. Even though a Japanese reincarnator, who I thought had died along with the destruction of Mey Village, was right in front of me, I felt nothing like happiness.
...Well, at least this means Tina's crime never happened.
Regardless of her merit in having dragged Aurelia to the city, Tina's own value as a "reincarnator who can read Japanese" would not allow her to be judged as a criminal. It was an extreme way of putting it, but Tina could now do anything and be forgiven.
She is not under my jurisdiction. That thought crossed my mind for just a moment, but feeling Tina's small hands wrapped around my waist, I thought again that these were not the hands of a "Japanese reincarnator" but of "my little sister." She was still ten years old, my little sister entrusted to me by my name-giver.
I placed my hand on Tina's head as she pressed close against me. Tina flinched once in surprise, but immediately pressed her cheek against my waist.
"Leonyaldo-san, would you sell me, a Japanese reincarnator?"
Asked that by Tina in a trembling voice, I finally realized. Now was not the time to be idly dejected over having been deceived by my little sister. Tina had told me what she had been keeping hidden inside all this time. As her brother, I should accept it and embrace it.
"There is no way I would sell you. You are my little sister."
There is no way I, who was sold by my parents, would sell my little sister. Even I know what it feels like to be a child who gets sold. I grabbed Tina's small head and ruffled it a bit roughly. I could not exactly knock it into her, but I felt sad wondering how many times I would have to say it before she would understand and accept that I was her brother.
When I lifted her up, I could see a few tears welling at the corners of Tina's eyes. I think she was scared. That after telling me she was a Japanese reincarnator, she might be sold off somewhere. I think she was frightened too. Hearing that Tina was a reincarnator, her wariness made sense. In Mey Village, there had been a case where a child reincarnator was sold. I had heard that not only was Tina close with that reincarnator's parents, but they were like grandparents and grandchild. She would naturally be sensitive about human trafficking. Japanese reincarnators were valued in this country. I had said before that she probably would not face anything too harsh, but it had taken over a year for Tina to confess to me that she was one. In between, I had done things that lost her trust multiple times, so if not for that, she might have told me much sooner.
I reintroduced myself to Tina, saying let us start over from the beginning. That I was an unreliable older brother, but I wanted to be her family. Tina accepted me. She said she was a strange little sister, but she would be in my care.
"An older brother as careless as me is probably a good match for a mature, reliable little sister with memories of a past life."
As I said this and pressed my forehead against hers, Tina smiled shyly. Her happy smile was cute, but then I happened to realize something I should not have.
...If she has memories of a past life, how old is Tina mentally?
There was a possibility she was a woman older than me. Once I realized that, various things came to mind. That perhaps I had been touching a woman of a certain age with the same casualness as one would a toddler.
...No, wait. In the summer, she saw me sleeping naked.
At that time, I was even holding Tina while wearing only a single sheet wrapped around me.
...Come to think of it, in Waiyakku Valley, did I not try to teach Tina how to bathe and take off her clothes?
Tina had refused at the time, calling me a "rapist." If I thought of it as taking care of an eight-year-old toddler, undressing her might be within bounds, but if she was actually a woman of a certain age, then I might indeed have done something that deserved to be called a "rapist." And for that matter, not much time had passed since we had first met. I already thought of Tina as my little sister, but it was only natural that the clever Tina would not see a newly-acquired brother as anything more than a strange man. Having her clothes taken off by a big-bodied man she barely knew must have been nothing short of a terrifying experience.
...And when I picked her up coming back from the brothel, she pinched her nose saying I smelled like perfume.
If her inner self was a woman of a certain age, she might have been able to guess why I was carrying the scent of women's perfume. What her older brother had been doing, and where.
"...!"
The countless memories with Tina that came to mind. When I tried converting Tina into a woman of a certain age, there were way too many problems. Actions that were fine with a toddler little sister were full of issues when it came to a woman of a certain age.
With everything that came to mind, my lower back itched with embarrassment. I felt like screaming and rolling around on the floor, but I held my pride as a brother with a little sister and weathered the storm raging inside me.
...It does not change that Tina is my little sister, but maybe I should stop treating her like a child.
Mostly in my own conscious sense of things. Maybe I should not treat Tina like a child the way I had been. If Tina says she is a child, I could keep treating her like a child, but I should always keep in mind the possibility that her inner self might be a woman.
Typos and omissions again another day. Fixed any typos and omissions I found.