小嫂子的味道

It was a peaceful evening, I sat in the backyard—or you can also say a garden—of my house while I enjoyed the cream milk tea.

A gust of wind passed by, fluttering my hair and messing up my hairstyle. "Finally I got some alone time," I muttered as I took a sip of tea.

The whole thing about Anya's marriage was over, or successfully over to be precise.

Walric's family was to say "completely destroyed". They lost their nobility as well as most of their money. Hmm, come to think of it, his father must've received the letter I sent to him by now, right?

He-he, I wonder how he'll react or rather, how Walric's will react after that. I'm not quite sure if he will be kicked out of his family for this but…it won't be something as silly as "no pocket money this month" either.

Meanwhile, Anya got admission to the magic academy, all thanks to the princess. I didn't know this before but apparently, she won't have to pay the enrolment fee because this admission was a gift from the princess.

Ainge and Ron, who were the most confused among all, calmed down after I and Anya explained things to them. Of course, we didn't tell them what we really did; instead, it was a fabricated story from my side.

I won't call it a lie because what I did was just took the main parts of my plan, edited them, removed some parts that were not for them to know, and then presented it in a wholesome way.

It went on something like this; Anya cast away her chance of winning the battle tournament for saving the princess and thus, the princess rewarded her with a seat in the magic academy. And since she will be living inside the academy campus from now on, her marriage with Walric was suspended.

Though they were still asking about things like how Walric's family went bankrupt and the sudden increase of money in our bank account but…let's just pretend I didn't hear all that.

Also, I was planning on going to the academy myself along with Anya. Actually, wasn't this my goal from the start? If I just wanted to save Anya then I could have done it in a much simpler way.

The only reason I transferred this money was so that I can afford my own enrolment fee, bringing Walric's family on their knees was also a reason but for the most part, this was it.

I was not offered a gift or anything sort of from the princess so if I am going to join the academy then I must do it the straight way, yes, can't take any shortcuts for that.

I was going to such lengths because I wanted to learn more about magic. Until now I was learning it alone, figuring things out by trial-and-error but there's a limit on how much I can do by myself.

My rank has not also gone up since the last time so it must be that I hit some kind of barrier, and to break through that, I must hone my magic skills even more.

This was more than enough of a reason for me to join the Zaforths magic academy. And won't I get heavily bored if I don't have some kind of goal setting in mind? Increasing my rank seems good to take on that role.

Hence, it was decided. For the moment only Anya knows about this and my parents have no clue, but I'll talk things out later.

'As for now, I just want to enjoy my tea and relax,' I said to myself, inwardly, and took another sip of tea.

But I don't think I will be allowed to do that, soon I sensed someone's presence lurking behind me.

Unfortunately, I know who that demon is because the fragrance of their perfume is familiar.

"Hey Zero, can I have a bit of your time?" the demon asked, apparently it was Anya, my older sister.

'How kind of you to ask, like you will go away even if I denied,' hence not left with any option, I looked in her direction and kindly replied with a nod.

She seems satisfied with it I guess…Or not, because she had this gloomy expression all over her face?

Come one man, we just got over this hurdle and you can't stay happy for a day! I know she is the serious type but her reacting this way even made my mood sour.

,m Then, she came and sat beside me. I was sitting on a wooden log because 'Who will go through the trouble of bringing a chair here?' but Anya also sat on it, not worrying about how it can ruin her clothes or anything.

'Well, girls in this world have an elegant behavior pattern mixed in their personalities so I just thought…ah whatever, fuck it! She must have something important to talk about that made her forget about those things.'

Thinking about all that, I turned my gaze at Anya.

"You see...there's something I wanted to ask you for a while now."

It looked like she was having trouble conveying her thoughts in words; as a result, there was this feeling of uneasiness in her voice.

"If it's something I can answer then feel free to ask," I said, pretty much the usual thing I say in these types of situations.

She stopped for a second then cleared her throat, and then with a deep breath, she gathered up all the courage to say whatever she wanted to say.

"Ummm, this thing's been on my mind lately you see…actually, I started noticing it after that incident happened with you but, I was not…well, I mean there's no way! It sounded impossible and complete nonsense, that's what I thought at first but....after all the things you did in these few days…I-I, was sure of it that…"

Then she took a pause, sweat appearing on her forehead. After a moment she continued, and what she said next made me temporarily lose my senses.

"Zero…..you are not Zero, right?"

I considered the possibility that it might be something serious but never in my lifetime had I thought that I would hit the nail right on the mark.