Novel Bin Vol. 1 - Ch. 75 - BBQ (2)
"...He\'s strong, but it\'s a tall order to ask him to put up a fight when he has never fought you before, sister. Besides, everyone usually gives a signal like \'I\'m starting now\' or \'I\'m going to throw a punch\' nowadays in the Royal Capital. Also, we usually move into a spacious place first before starting."
"Oh my! So that was it?! Uh-huh, I\'m sorry. I didn\'t know."
Elder sister hurriedly apologized to Leo.
"No, it\'s not your fault. This is the Rovenne family\'s house, after all. New place, new rules. And I was the one who requested it, so—"
Leo stood up, and suddenly threw a right kick, aiming at elder sister\'s waist as he wiped off the nosebleed from his princely face.
"I will also play by the house\'s rules!"
Kukuku. I dare say no one knew how much Leo actually hated to lose, to a degree, better than me. He was the perfect bait to throw at my elder sister. He just needed to tire her out and I would achieve my goal.
Elder sister caught his shin between her knee and elbow. And—
Snap
"Haaarghh!"
"Ack, sorry. Your move was quite strong so I reflexively ended up using more strength Uh-huh, your leg bone is broken. Just take a rest for now. Allen-kun. It\'s playtime."
...Damn you, Leo. How dare you not even last for 10 seconds! He must have skimped on covering his leg with magic. You know, he definitely adopted a devil-may-care attitude following his expertise in explosive burst power. He sucked hard when it came to defending himself. He might be able to win against me, but he would be in deep water when facing a monster like my sister.
"Hey, Al… My sister is saying that she wants to play with us three."
"Hrgh!? Hey, hey, did you forget that I\'m a mage?! What do you think my meager self could do against your big sis when even Leo was one-shotted?"
"Shut yer trap! What a load of crap for someone who\'s the president of the Emission Magic Research Club! You think the enemy wouldn\'t try to get into close range of a mage!? Just come, that\'s an order from your supervisor!"
"Hey, You can\'t be serious about using magic inside your house?! Are you even sane!? You don\'t care if your house gets all busted!?"
"Dumbo, something like decorating a hole in the wall is the basic stuff when playing with her! Just leave it to me, it\'s not like your slowpoke magic could outpace my sister in this cramped house. I’ll target her when she takes you down and take revenge for you. It\'s do-or-die!"
"And I’m suddenly relegated to being a punching bag!? Ah, that must be the tank role you were talking about! Why do I have to be the shield when I’m a mage!?"
"Curse Leo to not even last for a second!"
In the meantime, while Al and I were squabbling, Jeu came back carrying a 1-meter or so staff with her. I was too flustered to notice when she actually left.
She approached Leo, murmured some mumbo jumbo ancient cryptic words— basically her prayer, and then held the staff in her hand up atop Leo\'s leg. In the next instant, a golden radiance enveloped Leo\'s leg, and soon he was standing on his feet once again as if he had never been injured.
"Oh, dear~ now that\'s a surprise. So, you can heal fractured bones with holy magic at your age, Jeu-chan. In an instant, too. Whew, we have a future bigshot among us~"
Furie-senpai didn\'t spare any effort in praising Jeu. In fact, even Leo himself was surprised, and my sister too muttered something along the line of \'Woah, that\'s wonderful, Jeu-chan\'.
Jeu put up a sheepish smile facing all the reactions.
"It\'s because I’m also a member of the Emission Magic Research Club that Allen-san has created!"
"Ahaha. I did some snooping around on the rumors about Lil\' Len since Rose had asked me to, and also heard about that club. So that club is actually more than just about skirt-flipping? It\'s quite rough to gather intel on what’s happening inside the walls of the Academy. I for sure had thought it was just some caper club created on impulse following the Hill Road Club."
...Ah, so that solved the riddle. I was wondering just how this impossible person who was my sister actually managed to gather rumors about me. So she had helpers running errands for her.
But oh damn, I couldn\'t believe the Emission Magic Research Club was called a ‘whimsical club.’
"Correction, it\'s the Hill Road Club that was created at the spur of the moment. It’s just there for basic training, which I can do on my own otherwise. If anything, the club I wanted to create is the magic research club that Al is currently handling as president ."
"Huh? Now that\'s surprising information. Wow, here I thought Al-kun was just one of your classmates. Truly a hidden tiger."
Furie-senpai muttered with amazement. I grinned and corrected her.
"No, Al is just as normal as one can be. But only someone like him can actually lead a group of knaves like the \'Demon Deputy Head Rudolf Austin\', Leo, Jeu, and me… He\'s that kind of person."
"Whistle. You sure are dropping some juicy details, Lil\' Len."
Senpai chuckled and took a good look at Al once again. Even my sister was now looking at him with curiosity, sensing the underlying meaning of my words.
Kukuku. Just as planned. Now Al couldn\'t escape even if he wanted to.
"Hrg?! Didn\'t I simply become the leader at your suggestion, Allen!?"
"Err, um… I’m going to hit now, alriiiiiight~?"
My sister gave her signal in an awkward tone and dashed toward Al. I, too, spin on my legs to deliver a kick at her, targeting the window beside her when she was just breath away from punching Al.
However, she stopped her fist that was about to strike Al and instead turned to counter my kick. I hurriedly dodged her, somehow escaping in the nick of time.
"Step up, \'tank\' Leo! The frontline wouldn\'t last for even a second if my sister took you down effortlessly! Focus on defense! Hold your ground as if millions of lives depend on it! Al, Fey. You\'re up to handle Furie-senpai. Kate, look after \'Healer’ Jeu and give commands to others! I’ll take the attacker role!"
"Hold on! Why\'re you including us as well in your fight—"
"It\'s not a fight! It\'s just a warm-up greeting!"
Kate was taken aback by all the kerfuffle. I ignored her and made my move against Furie-senpai.
I mean, since there was no escaping from it, I might as well implicate everyone in this chaos and let them share the burden. At least, I would still have a chance to survive and that would be better than explaining everything. I guess the influence of those rowdy explorers had rubbed off on me, but it was still the most effective option.
"That sounds nice! I was really envious, seeing all the ruckus you both were causing. A joint front with Rose, fufu, I’m pumped up!"
So said Furie-senpai, the top graduate of the Royal Academy, as she easily stopped my fist.
"Get reaaady~"
◆◆◆
It turned out that Furie-senpai was the textbook example of never judging a book by its cover.
She was strong for someone with an Artificer occupation. I would say she could easily rival Justin-san, who also graduated at the top among his peers from the Royal Academy but was one year younger than Furie-senpai if it was just about unarmed combat.
I wouldn\'t say my sister and Furie-senpai\'s coordination was anything notable, but they still managed to overwhelm us. Anyone who was too battered to stay on the frontline was healed thanks to Jeu\'s healing magic, so we somehow managed to escape a wipe-out. However, this practice had sapped Jeu\'s mana to the bottom.
"I\'m sorry, but that\'s my limit… Be careful since I won\'t be able to heal anyone anymore with my depleted mana."
Jeu crumpled on the spot, huff-huff, her breathing rapid. Seeing that, elder sister lowered her fist with a smiling face.
"You\'re great, Jeu-chan! It\'s been a while since I had a bout this intense with Allen-kun. And the magic at the end was totally fun!"
She said while wiping the blood from her forehead that my right hook — enhanced with Jeu\'s buff near the end — had caused. However, she also blew me away with her counterattack kick.
She looked completely happy, muttering \'Phew, I feel so light.\'
Honestly, it was just that kick in the end that got me down. So I managed to save my wool in exchange for that one attack. But, I at least managed to land an attack on her in this cramped room brawl. I would say everyone got plenty of points for avoiding any serious injury as well.
"Boy, that was fun. The title of the best among all generations truly isn\'t in vain. Your individual strengths are already at the level of a 3rd year from my era. And oh-ho, your stamina is truly exceptional. Your coordination was quite impeccable as well for kids who have yet to take any training about it I believe. Hmm, the rumored activities of the Hill Road Club and your lives in the general dormitory weren\'t just to experience the so-called \'commoner life\' it seems."
Furie-senpai looked just as delighted as she shared her evaluation.
"It was fun, but… It\'s going to be quite a pickle sorting out this mess."
Needless to say, the room was royally messed up. The first floor was flooded due to Al\'s magic. That wasn’t even mentioning the broken things here and there as well.
Leo, on the other hand, looked completely vexed as if he was forced to take some bitter pill as he said,
"I was completely powerless......
I’ll compensate for all the broken parts and bits. Let me take responsibility since I was the one who asked for the spar."
"Come now, that\'s hardly your fault. I know my sister well. We would have fought either way."
I mean, I had practically used him as a meat shield to deal with all of my sister\'s accumulated anger, which I would have borne otherwise. There was no way I could have him pay for all that after his great performance.
"Don\'t worry about it. I’m sorry you got caught up in the fight between us siblings. Also, I have too much money to spare either way."
Huh, was elder sister always so rich?
"Rose has been earning tens of thousands of rea from her patents every month after all. And I believe this amount is just going to snowball later as well."
What, tens of thousands without doing anything!? I didn\'t know Artificers were money-printing machines... It\'s nice to roll on money, no? I\'m so jealous.
"No, this is this and that is that. I hope you let me pay for it. Also, I have one more thing to ask."
Leo said, pausing on his words, and took a princely pose— kneeling on one knee with his right hand on his chest. He then extended his left hand toward my sister.
"Roselia Rovenne. I wish to become your acquaintance on the hopeful premise of marriage one day."
......
Ettu~?
◆
Leo\'s move was so unexpected it exceeded everyone\'s imagination, freezing us in place as if someone had pushed the pause on a video.
……
Umm, to whoever my voice reaches, please tell me in just in what world would you see an idiot actually proposing to his friend\'s sister on his first home visit, and that too after being her literal punchbag and even getting his bones broken.
Look, even our dear lover of raunchy stuff and dreamer, aka Kate, was taken aback.
“Jeu, it seems like Leo\'s head has been messed up in the earlier fight. Can you heal him?”
“...I\'m out of mana.”
No good, huh? Doctor it is, then.
“I\'m serious.”
Leo looked at my sister with all seriousness.
My sister, who had zero immunity to this sort of stuff, had her cheeks glowing red as she fidgetted around in a fluster and squeezed with her teensy voice.
“Umm, err… I\'m sorry. I don\'t have any interest in the weak, so it\'s impossible between us.”
Read the air, my dear sister!
“Hold on, elder sister. Did you forget who he is? He\'s the eldest son of the Zatsinger family, one of the only three ducal families in this Kingdom. It\'s not even a matter of strong or weak. There\'s usually no way for someone of that caliber to cross paths with someone like us from a countryside viscounty.”
My elder sister sighed. Though, Leo didn\'t show any sign of stopping at all.
“Something like who we are or our background is hardly an uncrossable gap in this time and age. Once more, I am serious. Is it alright to interpret your words as you will accept my proposal if I become stronger than you?”
“Err, um, Leo-kun doesn\'t have much talent so that might be a teensy bit impossible, I think…”
…And my elder sister just trashed the once-in-a-century talent this kingdom was proud of.
Leo, however, just grinned and stood up. A soft smile spread on his face.
“It\'s simply that I\'m even further behind the starting line, am I right? This isn’t much. I’ll definitely become stronger than you, and one day have you accept me.”
“......Hey, why is no one asking me how I would hate to call you brother-in-law…”
T/N - Good lord that I wasn\'t drinking anything. Now MC must have been regretting ever bringing them, lol. Oof, she sure did thrashed everyone so casually though.
E/N - What a twist! Also, who would have thought that Leo was an M?