I was full of energy the morning after I met Nii-sama.
“We’re spending time with family this evening,” even if I was told this, an infant can’t speak fluently. Nii-sama sat next to me on the sofa, smiled when our eyes met, placed me on his lap, and told me about what had happened when I wasn’t in the royal capital. We went to bed early, talked a little and fell asleep before we knew it. When we came to, it was morning.
When I woke up, I saw a blonde head that was different from my own next to me. Alistair gets up before me, and Nii-sama sleeps in a separate room at the mansion, so it felt like it has been a long time since I’ve seen someone sleep.
His bright violet eyes were hidden under his eyelids, and Nii-sama, who is usually reliable, looked young and appropriate for his age. He was only 11, but he came to Frontier to pick me up. Troublesome things happened, but he always worried about me, who was living happily.
I gently brushed away the hair on Nii-sama’s forehead with my small hands. I must have woken him up because his eyes twitched and he silently opened his eyes. He looked at me, gently grasped my hands, pressed them against his forehead and closed his eyes again.
“Niini, gowd mornwing.”
“Good morning, Lei. What a wonderful morning it is to wake up by Lei’s hand.” I’m a little embarrassed when you say such a thing. I smiled, Nii-sama smiled, and we woke up to a warm morning.
“Oh yeah, I couldn’t ask you yesterday, but can you make barriers now, Lei?” Nii-sama went back to looking serious and asked seriously, so I answered honestly, “Ai.”
“After you were gone, I researched as much as I could on magic and barriers, but there’s nothing on anyone making their own barriers.”
“Reawwy?”
I’ve never heard about it before either, but I’m an infant, so there’s a lot of things I haven’t heard.
“If you’re fine with it, could you make a barrier here?”
“Ai. Oway.”
I haven’t used it for a while, but I have been training my magic so it should be okay. Both Nii-sama and I were misbehaving, but we sat face to face on the bed in our pyjamas.
“Mawe shmaww barrier.” (Make small barrier) I declared to Nii-sama and changed my magic. I put up a barrier that covered Nii-sama and I.
“Oh,” he raised a small voice, reached out for the barrier and tried to put his hand out of it. A barrier that isn’t that big doesn’t take much power to maintain. Nii-sama observed the barrier, and I observed him. Time passed.
To be honest, even Alistair can’t make a barrier yet. I think it’s because he can’t see magic like I can. I can’t see the barrier with my own eyes, but apparently, I can feel magic strongly, so I can understand how barriers are developed and how magic needs to be altered.
And, I could tell that Nii-sama could perceive the barrier as I watched him confirm the barrier with sparkling eyes like a child.
“You altered your magic, didn’t you Lei? I wonder if Nii-sama can do it too.”
Ah, just now. Nii-sama talked to me like how he did when we’d first met. Since when did he start speaking politely to everyone? He spoke like that to Otou-sama from the start. But was it after I was kidnapped? I feel like he does this normally.
“Keep pushhing magic outh.”
“I can do it, Lei. I went to Farland and trained.”
“Farwand.”
“Yes. I also attacked Hollows and was told that I would be an excellent Hunter.”
Nii-sama seems to think of Alistair as a rival. In that case, I feel a little relieved.
“Awishthair can’th mawe barriersh.” (Alistair can’t make barriers)
“Really? Then, Lei, can you keep it up a little longer?”
“Ai.”
After laughing happily, Nii-sama reached for the barrier with his eyes half closed.
“Let magic out. Alter the magic according to Lei’s barrier. Remember the barrier box. How does the magic in the magic stones change? Bend the magic quality. Get close to Lei,” he muttered as he altered the magic power within him. Even though it took me weeks to do this. Nii-sama’s magic gradually changed to match the barrier’s.
And his magic became the same as my barrier’s as if something had clicked together.
“I did it! Eh?” Nii-sama raised his voice in joy. He had certainly put up a barrier. However…
“Whath?”
His barrier resonated with mine and exploded.
“Niini, sthop.”
“Lei, I know! You too!”
“Ai!”
We looked at each other in surprise, talked and stopped our barriers. What? What was that just now?
“Lei, do you know how big the barrier is?”
“Yesh.”
“I also… roughly”
“Ai.”
Let’s be honest. It may cover the whole of Sebel. And perhaps because of the state of emergency, Nii-sama went back to speaking politely.
“This is bad. Someone with strong magic powers might have noticed that the barrier inflated.”
“Deceive.”
Nii-sama looked shocked at my words.
“Did you only learn strange words at Frontier?”
“Nope.”
“Jeez. But, yes. There’s no other way.”
Nii-sama shrugged as if he’d given up on something.
“Alright, let’s deceive them.”
“Ai.”
“So…”
“Ai?”
He rolled and crawled under the blankets.
“Pretend to sleep. Pretend to sleep. Let’s pretend we stayed up late and we’re still sleeping.”
“Lei two.”
I slipped under the blankets, and we whispered to each other while giggling until there was a knock on the door.
Because if we hadn’t done so, then both Nii-sama and I probably wouldn’t be able to stop trembling. Nii-sama seemed to have noticed it straight away, but I didn’t know that the number of magic stones increased as the range of the barrier box increases. However, this was a good trade off since two magic stones didn’t mean the range doubled, but instead, it amplified the range by many times.
And we unintentionally proved that it was the same with barriers made directly by people.
“Let’s pretend that we know nothing until we get back to Kingdom.”
“Ai.”
That’s how it was.
“We really are Otou-sama’s children, after all.”
“No doubth.”
“Yes. Let’s be stubborn.”
“Ai.”
It’s okay, Otou-sama. I’ll deceive them and properly come home.