"Sil—vi—o-kun! Let's— play—!"
I pounded Silvio-niisan's room door with great vigour.
"..."
However, there was no reply from Silvio-niisan. However, it's not that he's not in the room. Because I saw him going into the room with snacks and books.
Elegant. He's like a noble.
...flip...
When I listened carefully, I heard the sound of book pages flipping. It's evidence that Silvio-niisan's inside.
Silvio-niisan's kind. So when his lovely little brother is asking to play with him, there's no way he won't respond. Even if he's focusing on something. Even when he's at an interesting part of a story, he doesn't show displeasure and answers kindly.
He's a great older brother. Of course, that might be a good way get past Eleanora-neesan. Maybe I'll try it next time.
.
"Sil—vi—o—kun—? Are— you— there—?"
Still, that Silvio-niisan's not coming out.
As expected, could be upset from yesterday?
.
I recalled what happened yesterday.
.
Yesterday, we played shogi because Silvio-niisan asked me to.
Of course, I'm not that good at shogi so my skills got caught up to Silvio-niisan who was working hard every day.
Now, the win-lose rate is half-half.
It won't be long before I won't be able to win at all.
On that board, I minimised the protection of the king while I poured my attacks towards Silvio-niisan's king's side.
"Silvio-niisan, you're good at defending."
"..."
Then, Silvio-niisan made a bitter expression for something.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"...Nothing. Come on, it's Al's turn now."
"Y-Yeah."
I placed the bishop at the centre to pressure him and daring pushed into the enemy formation with rook, the knight and the gold general.
Silvio-niisan carefully used his silver and gold to protect the king while placing them outside my range. Even when I placed traps, they didn't get caught. Are they bodyguards or something?
By the way, the job of bodyguards is to protect their target.
In movies, there are a lot of cool scenes where bodyguards shoot handguns or beat down dangerous people, but originally that would be a failure as a bodyguard.
For bodyguards, protecting the target and letting them get away safely is the first priority, so it's no good from the point there's battle. They have to always watch their surroundings and predict the next movements to safely protect their target.
Rather than good fighters, craven people are better suited for the job.
The topic got off track, but anyhow Silvio-niisan's silver and gold generals are annoying.
The king too was running away like flowing water.
Also, to that, the silver and gold around it stuck closely.
"Ah—! Silvio-niisan, you made a barrier of silver and gold again—!"
"...Barrier...Silvio...Barrier."
"Hm? What's wrong?"
He hung his head and dropped his shoulders. Silvio-niisan.
Eh? What? What's wrong?
...Ah, did he react to 'barrier'?
Afterwards, as if to follow after Silvio-niisan, the king followed. The formation broke down too.
The king was defeated by my bishop.
Once the king is defeated, there's no more meaning to the fighting.
The pieces that lost their reason for fighting, the broken pieces quietly returned to the wooden box.
"Al, I'm going to sleep now."
"Yeah, I'll clean this up. Good night—"
Silvio-niisan wobbled the way to his room from the study.
.
That was what happened last night.
.
In retrospect, I might have broken Silvio-niisan's will with words back then.
Well—, it can't be helped. If it's Silvio-niisan, he'll feel better by tomorrow.
Even though I crafted this handmade baseball.
Well, it's just adequate cloth rolled round and tied with a string.
Since Silvio-niisan didn't play with me, I headed to the restaurant to have some snacks.
On the way there, I bounced the ball against the wall. Then, I was warned by Mel, a maid.
Behind her, Mina was fidgeting a bit. She was glancing at the ball in my hand, her gaze fluttering and not settling down.
I know? Mina, you want to play with the ball, right? It can't be helped. I'll put a ball in the resting room later.
.
Leaving behind Mina who looked disappointed as I passed, I headed to the dining room.
Recently, thanks to the number of snack kinds increasing because of Bartholo and me, there's a lot of people gathering too. The biggest reason being Bartholo was hiding more sugar than expected or something.
Thanks to that, there are now a few shelves to quickly bring out tableware.
On a chair, there was Eleanora-neesan with a plate of cookies.
"Geh!"
"What do you mean, 'Geh'!"
Oops, that was reflexive.
Indeed, saying 'Geh!' to someone's face is rude. Alfried reflects.
"Sorry. But, why are you here? Didn't you say that you're going to a neighbouring village today?"
"Well, it's alright... no it's not alright. 'Geh!' is not good."
"I'm sorry. Eleanora-neesama. I won't do it again."
My whole-hearted apology seems to have worked, as Eleanora-neesama crossed her arms and made exaggerated nods.
That's a relief. Looks like she forgave me.
It's a huge relief... I'm still alive.
"It felt like there'll be something fun happening in the house today, so I decided to go tomorrow."
Eleanora-neesan explained while biting off a piece off one of the cookies Bartholo made.
Wow, what an annoying reason.
"Got a problem with that?"
"Nothing at all. Alfried is very happy."
Eleanora-neesan narrowed her eyes and glared at me but she maintained her composure and good mood.
"That's a strange tone. Alright then, then let's play?"
"Why?"
To Eleanora-neesan's sudden proposal, I made a dumb sound.
But, usually we'd be training.
Seeing my dumb expression, Eleanora-neesan pointed towards my hand.
"That's a ball, right?"
"It's a ball."
"Then, let's play with a ball today."
"Eh—? There are tableware here, isn't it dangerous?"
"Do you prefer the sword?"
"Come one——! It's catch-ball! The pitcher is me! The catcher is Eleanora-neesan!"
I shouted loud and threw the ball at Eleanora-neesan. The game of catch already began!
The pitcher and catcher thing is just for my mood.
"What's catch-ball?"
While catching the ball I threw, Eleanora-neesan asked.
"Hey! Throw the ball back at me!"
"What, it's just throwing the ball at each other."
Said she and threw the ball back at me. Good. It's not a fastball pitch.
There's enough room for the whole family to dine and for the maids to move around in the dining room. So it's plenty spacious for children to play catch.
In an amicable mood, we gently threw the ball at each other.
"Al, can't you pitch it faster?"
As if to provoke me, Eleanora-neesan threw a ball with faster speed.
I caught it in panic, but it's quite fast.
"My shoulder just got ready."
Even if I say that, it's just a six-year-old's shoulder, There's no way I can throw faster than now.
Why don't I throw one while strengthening myself with magic.
[Die! Eleanora-neesan!]
The ball holding my magic and my feelings flew straight towards Eleanora-neesan's chest.
Now this is word catch-ball! Though it's just words from the heart. I can't say it out loud.
It should be about the speed of the ball Eleanora-neesan flung at me just before.
However, Eleanora-neesan nonchalantly caught my speed-upped ball with one hand.
"What! How!"
"It got a bit quicker."
"Because there are feelings in it! There are words from the heart in a ball!"
"Heh—, words from the heart is it—"
Eleanora-neesan looked at the ball she caught with a suspicious gleam in her eyes.
"Then, I'll also put my feelings into it."
With a cute "Ei!" from Eleanora-neesan, the ball was launched.
Hm? Is something there?
[Can I tease you?]
No! There's an evil curse on it! These are evil feelings!
"Dangerous!"
Maybe because there were too evil feelings, I reflexively avoided it.
"Wait, why are you avoiding it!"
"Eh? Because it's too fast?"
"You were able to catch it just a while ago."
"I can miss sometimes."
"Well, true."
I somehow made her understand and picked up the rolling ball.
"Once again, here I go—!"
"Al's ball, I can catch it anytime."
Oh—? Really? Then, be sure to catch it, okay?
"Here!"
[Please don't tease me!]
With a sincere plea, I threw the ball towards Eleanora-neesan's face.
Please receive it!
"Ah, a bug."
Saying that, Eleanora-neesan batted my ball away with one hand.
"Th'hell?"
"Sorry, sorry. There was a bug on my face."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Then that's alright."
Right, right. Such coincidences can happen. I don't want to think that it's not my request was not received.
Again, Eleanora-neesan threw the ball at me.
Hm? There should be no problem this time, right?
Thinking that, I thought to catch the ball that flew right at me with both hand. But then, right before I caught it,
[Get me libra.]
"Ah! I ended up catching it!"
I stared absentmindedly at the ball inside my hand. As if it's suddenly pushing things on me, the ball whispered. Like an older sister bossing around a younger brother.
I got myself done in.
When I lifted my head, Eleanora-neesan was making a face that was saying that she got a blow in.
She'll definitely tell me to go pick some libra fruits later.
For a pretty face, the things she does are sly.
Yes yes, everyone in the family except for me is pretty. Yes yes, Eleanora-neesan is cute.
I tossed the ball while spewing curses. Because I threw it wildly, it went towards a direction far away from Eleanora-neesan.
[Eleanora-neesan's cute.]
"Ah—, sorry."
Mn? There's something weird? Doesn't matter.
This one can't be caught. That was what I thought, but Eleanora-neesan immediately dashed towards to landing point of the ball.
Then she leapt towards to the falling ball and held it by her belly as if to not let it go.
Finally, she used all her reflexes and her whole body to reduce the impact on landing.
It was a very nice forward roll.
.
"You didn't have to go that far."
"It felt like I had to catch this one."
"What's up with that."
When I smiled as if to ridicule her, Eleanora-neesan made a dissatisfied expression.
"Then, I'll throw you a ball you'll want to catch."
"Doesn't exist. I'm not a dog."
"Oh really. Here!"
The ball flew gently from Eleanora-neesan's hand.
Even if the ball flies slowly, doesn't mean I want to catch it. Don't underestimate me.
[I won't meddle with Al anymore.]
Crikey! I need to catch that!
"Woof!"
I let instinct take over me and ran without looking at the surroundings.
Then, I leapt towards the ball that was slowly falling to the table.
And there was the cup Elna-kaasan liked.
Because it received force from the front, the cup fell down to the floor from the table.
Then...
Crash! Crack!
The cup Elna-kaasan likes shattered.
"A—ah—, that's the cup Elna-kaasan likes you know? She said to be careful because it cracks easily."
Indeed, as something that Nord-tousan bought from the capital, she was using it preciously. She must have liked it quite a lot. But I destroyed such a cup.
"I just heard a loud noise, what happened?"
"Ah, no, erm— er."
"Al broke the cup you like."
Hearing that, Elna-kaasan froze up.
Haa?! Eleanora-neesan, unbelievable! You're not covering for your brother? She sold her little brother right away.
"Really? Alfried?"
Scary. Please call me Al.
"No, this is, Eleanora-neesan asked me to play here."
"I said that we shouldn't though….."
"That's not true! It's the other way! Even though it was me who broke it."
"...So it was Alfried who broke it?"
Looks like the problem of who broke it is more important to Elna-kaasan.
"...Yes, I'm sorry."
"Go outside for a while and reflect. You can't come in until I tell you that you can."
"Yes."
No objections allowed. With such an atmosphere, Elna-kaasan let out her rage silently.
Like so, I was forced outside the mansion.
I recall my mischievous middle school days.
Because it was embarrassing to stand outside, I pretended to look at my watch as if I was waiting for someone. I miss that.
When the sun set, Elna-kaasan opened the door.
"Don't you have something to say?"
Hm, so she's letting me in.
"Thank you for letting me in!"
"Wrong answer!"
The door closed again.
Eh? Why?
No one answered my question.
From the second floor, Silvio-niisan looked at me pitifully.