Vita stood up and turned around, intending to leave again to the Forbidden Area, but she was met with a hard wall.
As she was quite hurried, she slammed into the wall and whimpered, feeling her nose aching.
"Owww…why me so unlucky today…?"
"Blaming your clumsiness on luck now?"
The wall had spoken softly to her with mischief, making Vita blink before pouting while raising her head, finally recognizing who was in front of her.
"Brother Lu! Why you so bad with me?!"
She snapped at him, wanting to make him leave so she could go through with her plans.
This person was a bit taller than Vita, had long black hair and dark skin, his features clearly showing his orientation as a Dark Elf.
This boy was Vita's adopted brother who enjoyed teasing her mischievously whenever she made any mistakes.
Once, Vita slept in the living room, so he called his friends and played with her face, painting it with varying stupid shapes.
Vita woke up and started crying after seeing her face while throwing a big tantrum, making Lu laugh with amusement as she watched her reaction.
Everyone watched as Vita whined to the Chief while Rian tried to carefully wash the paint off her face. While they were guilty, they started to apologize, only Lu shrugging his shoulders uncaringly.
Since that day, everyone was used to the two siblings having silly fights and quarrels over the most idiotic reasons, but everyone knew they did not hate each other.
Now, Vita just did not want to face Lu, facing him made her agitated for an unknown reason, especially with his comment.
Lu frowned and was ready to retort, but he noticed Vita's reddened eyes, making him freeze.
'Huh? Why is this gal crying now? I'm sure she cried before I came here.'
He carefully pushed her brown hair away from her face and rubbed the corner of her eyes.
"Yeah you were definitely crying. What's wrong, Vii?"
Vita's pout deepened and she stubbornly turned her head to the other side, "None of your business!"
"Haaa… Don't act like a tsun tsun, that's disgusting even for you."
"You!"
Lu shrugged his shoulders after getting Vita to snap at him again before holding her by the hips and carrying her up.
"W-what?!"
"Come now, your brother will make sure you cannot cry today again."
He put her on top of his shoulder, ignoring how she was completely flustered, and walked away from the Tree of Life's location.
"W-Wait, but, brotherrr!"
Vita childishly pulled on Lu's hair while whining, irking him up to no end, but he decided to stay silent against this treatment this time.
Even he had the decency to not upset a crying girl anymore, and despite loving her reactions whenever he annoyed her, he would never let anyone else do it.
"Would you like some sweets?"
Vita eventually calmed down and held onto Lu while humming softly, "Gib me."
"Where is my please?" Lu mumbled with a soft smile while taking Vita through the village,
"No pwease for ya." Vita said with puffed cheeks while playing with Lu's hair, making him shiver as her soft fingers touched his head.
'Crazy girl…! That's so tickling, my head, stop. Don't touch my hair, I will never admit this though… my head being ticklish.'
Imagine him admitting that his head is ticklish? Lu did not want to even think about how much he was going to be bothered by it forever.
His sister was always acting so adorable and affectionate, but he knew she could surely be mischievous with how much he had been influencing her.
'She should be very popular in the future, I need to teach her how to act in these situations.'
However, that was not a matter he needed to pay attention to at this very moment. Vita was still a child, she should not attract others so early.
'And I will make sure to deal with them, so nothing to worry about.'
Eventually, they reached the village's market, and Lu looked around before finding a place that was selling some iced sweets.
"Hello Madam, could you please give us some Iced Fruits?"
He smiled politely, making Vita hold her laughter back before smiling broadly, "Extra berries please!"
"Of course, please wait a bit." The owner smiled and started preparing their order diligently.
"So?" Lu put Vita down and stared at her, waiting for her to answer him as they waited for their order.
Vita blinked innocently before repeating his words, "So…?"
"Why were you crying earlier?"
Vita flinched and tried to shift away from Lu's gaze after hearing the question, only for him to grab her shoulder and force her to stay in place.
"Tell me now, why were you crying?"
"...Why should me tell you?"
Vita hesitated for a while before answering like that, although she wanted to tell someone, that did not mean she could escape the punishment if someone found out.
"So you admit you cried. Just refusing to tell me why."
Lu caught the important facts from that response, making Vita sweat bullets as she cursed herself internally.
'Ahhhh! Stupid me! Me should've continued denying, not asking while admittinggg! Ahhh!'
Lu sighed and gently smacked her head before making her sit on his lap.
"Let me use your ways or phrases, maybe this will help you to understand?
Lookie here, this devil just wanna make sure no one bully lil Vii aside from him. Got it?"
Vita blinked and scrunched up her nose before huffing, "Why you wanna bully me so much but no one else?!"
"Because I always know my limits? And I'm your brother, we show love like that, duh."
Lu shamelessly announced as if what he said was something of common sense and completely logical and all, making Vita even more speechless.
'That… Shameless much?'
Vita sighed and silently hugged him. She felt Lu was crazy to even say that with such confidence, but she did not feel it was bad.
He was brave enough to admit, and she was so cowardly to even try to share.
She felt that Lu was like an idol to her, a person she felt she could never be like, for many reasons.
Before she knew it, her lips had betrayed her.
"Ne… Brother, will you punish me if me did something wrong?"