Aurora Hopes For Something To Happen

I left my room and headed straight for Onee-sama’s study.

My room and Onee-sama’s study were on the same corridor, so it was close by.

In the past, the head’s study had been a place I was too frightened even to approach.

Now it was scary in a different sense, but it was still far better than before.

Even so, the thought of meeting Onee-sama now still made me nervous.

If Nova-onii-sama were waiting inside, I wouldn’t have any reason to be this tense, but the waves of mana coming from the room were turbulent, so he probably wasn’t there.

I exhaled, steeled myself, and knocked on the door. Onee-sama’s voice immediately came from inside.

“Aura? It’s open.”

“Yes, Onee-sama.”

When I opened the door, there was a large desk at the far end of the room.

And seated behind it was Onee-sama, the absolute head of House Ark Gate.

As soon as she saw me, Onee-sama smiled gently.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Aura.”

“Did something happen, Onee-sama?”

It had only been a short while since Onee-sama had personally summoned me.

At first, I’d wondered if I’d done something wrong, but Onee-sama seemed to be in a slightly good mood right now.

As proof of that, the smile she usually wore like a mask looked natural.

There was only one reason Onee-sama would ever be in such a good mood.

“Yes. I was thinking of showing Nova-san around the research institute in the Royal Capital later. Of course, that depends on his schedule.”

Thank you, Nova-onii-sama. I silently thanked my brother-in-law.

Thanks to you, House Ark Gate is peaceful again today. Or rather, more precisely, my heart is.

“I think that’s a good idea. His morning training should already be over.”

Nova-onii-sama made a habit of training with the sword every morning.

I was occasionally allowed to watch him, and although his style was self-taught, the movements he had refined over many years were so polished that I never grew tired of seeing them.

It was already past noon.

His training would be over, so unless he was unusually busy, he should agree.

But why was Onee-sama telling me about it?

As I approached the desk, Onee-sama seemed to see straight through my thoughts and gave me a fearless smile.

“Would you like to come too, Aura?”

“Huh? May I!? I want to go, Onee-sama!”

I got a little carried away from happiness, but when it came to anything involving Nova-onii-sama, Onee-sama wouldn’t get angry over something like that.

Even now, she was smiling gently.

“Then, for a change, why don’t you send Nova-san a letter yourself? Ask whether he is free this afternoon. If he is, we can all travel to our manor together through the gate.”

“Yes!”

I answered enthusiastically and began thinking about what to write in my letter to Nova-onii-sama.

I hoped he wasn’t busy.

“Huh? Onee-sama, is your work all right—”

I was about to ask whether Onee-sama, who should have been extremely busy, could really spare the time, but before I could finish, my eyes fell on the documents spread across her desk.

They weren’t related to Norzampshon at all. They were all about people.

Following my gaze, Onee-sama murmured, “Ah.”

“I’ve already finished a certain amount of work concerning the territory, so there’s no problem. What I’m thinking about now is a separate matter.”

I understood what Onee-sama meant by “a separate matter,” and swallowed.

The documents on the desk.

The names written on them were all people bearing the name Fols, such as “Travis Fols,” “Zeroad Fols,” and “Kairas Fols.”

“…Is this about Nova-onii-sama’s family?”

“House Fols has always been a family with whom we have a history, so I already knew a fair amount about them… Aura, did you know? Publicly, everyone assumes Zeroad will become the next head of House Fols, but the current head, Travis, has never formally declared that.”

“…………”

I was a member of House Ark Gate too.

I knew plenty about House Fols, Nova-onii-sama’s family.

Onee-sama had also told me what they had done to Nova-onii-sama.

Once, during his morning training, I’d happened to see Nova-onii-sama’s bare upper body, and before embarrassment could even set in, I’d been left speechless.

Although his back was well trained, it was covered in scars.

And hearing Onee-sama bring up the next head of House Fols at this particular moment, I glared at the documents on the desk.

“…Nova-onii-sama as he is now should be able to become the head of House Fols himself.”

If one of those people was going to become head, then Nova-onii-sama would be many times better.

After everything he’d endured until now, he deserved to be given at least that much.

He had more than enough backing, and as far as strength was concerned, there was no way he could lose if he had Onee-sama’s power behind him.

Even if I removed my personal feelings as much as possible, Nova-onii-sama was currently the person in House Fols most suited to become its head.

Perhaps Onee-sama understood that too, because she nodded several times.

“Yes, Aura, you’re right. If they’re going to leave it to that rabble, they might as well give it to Nova-san.”

“If it’s you, Onee-sama, I don’t think there would be any problem.”

“…Well, I won’t deny that. It wouldn’t be particularly difficult.”

But despite her words, Onee-sama let out a sigh.

“However…”

“…? Onee-sama?”

Onee-sama looked troubled, which was extremely rare.

I might never have seen her like this before.

Could there perhaps be someone in House Fols capable of troubling Onee-sama, who could make practically anything go the way she wanted?

“The problem is that Nova-san himself isn’t interested. I’ve tried asking him indirectly a few times, but it’s less that he has no interest in becoming head and more that he seems to think the position has nothing to do with him in the first place.”

“Ahh, I see…”

Nova-onii-sama was wonderful, but if I had to name his one and only flaw—truly, just one tiny flaw—it was that his opinion of himself was a little too low.

Considering the environment he’d grown up in, I supposed that couldn’t be helped. And even after suddenly gaining the backing of a mons—an amazing person like Onee-sama, I could understand why it still hadn’t fully sunk in for him.

“So even you, Onee-sama, can’t do anything unless Nova-onii-sama himself becomes willing… Is that it?”

“I can give Nova-san the position of head, but that feels a little different… If Nova-san wanted it, of course I would devote everything I had to helping him achieve it, but…”

“…That’s the hardest problem of all.”

Especially now that Nova-onii-sama had ended up together with Onee-sama, he was at the height of happiness.

It wasn’t exactly a situation where he would suddenly develop the ambition to seek even more for himself.

From Onee-sama’s perspective, she probably still felt she hadn’t given him nearly enough, but there wasn’t much she could do about that.

“Hmm…”

I tilted my head and thought about it from all sorts of angles, but there was no way I could come up with a good idea.

Eventually, without finding an answer, Onee-sama gave a wry smile as well and began putting the documents away.

“Well, unless something happens to set things in motion, we probably won’t find an answer. For now, knowing more about House Fols is enough. There’s no harm in having information.”

“That’s true… Then I’ll go back to my room. As soon as Nova-onii-sama replies, I’ll let you know!”

“Yes. I’ll be waiting.”

Seeing Onee-sama smile, I turned on my heel and left the head’s study.

As I hurried down the corridor, I thought back to the “manufactured” smile I’d seen on Onee-sama’s face at the end.

If she was wearing that smile, then even though she’d said all that, I thought she was probably planning to do something.

Or perhaps she had already devised a plan that would allow her to make Nova-onii-sama the head of House Fols as long as even the slightest stone was cast into the water.

Either way, I found myself hoping that some tiny stone capable of creating great ripples would be thrown soon.