My Sister Came to Visit From Back Home and I Might Be at My Limit

"Onii-chan…"

Straight black hair falling almost to her waist, and a great big ribbon bobbing on top of her head. Bashful black eyes looking up at him as if overcome, a lingering childishness still in her features.

What had been waiting for Raul when he casually opened the front door was the figure of his little sister, who was supposed to be back in his distant rural home village…

… wait?! Why is Myuli…?!

"M-Myuli…"

An utterly unforeseen visitor, arriving with no warning whatsoever.

Frozen with the look of a man who'd just jammed a slime down his own throat, Raul could only watch as the girl, who had been staring fixedly at him, at last opened her mouth, hesitantly.

"It's been… three years… hasn't it…"

The instant she murmured the words, as if driven by the surge of emotion welling up inside her, she stepped unsteadily forward, eyes brimming, and buried her face softly into Raul's chest.

"Onii-chan… I missed you so much…"

"M-Myuli…"

In a voice that sounded ready to burst into tears any second, Myuli clung to Raul.

Thoroughly thrown by the sudden turn of events, stroking her trembling back as if to soothe her, Raul asked in an unsteady voice,

"You came all by yourself? What about Mom and Dad?"

"I came on my own…"

Myuli gave a small nod to Raul's question.

"I'm thirteen now, so… it's summer break, and I thought I'd come see you, Onii-chan…"

"B-but, getting here from Rexa Village must have been rough, right? You'd have had to cross the Klein River and the Bretza Mountains on the way, and the travel costs alone…"

"Mm… I walked a full day to the next town, then transferred between a bunch of different dragoncarts for about a week, I think… ever since you went off to the royal capital, Onii-chan, I've been helping Mom and Dad, and I've been holding off on my favorite honeypot candies and saving up my allowance…"

She broke off there, suddenly.

Lifting her face from inside Raul's arms, she looked straight into his eyes and, as if uncertain, moved her lips.

"… Hey, Onii-chan. Why did you stop writing me letters…?"

In that instant.

Raul's heart gave a heavy thump.

The moment that had to come has finally come, Raul muttered to himself inwardly.

… Though, from the instant he'd recognized Myuli's figure on the other side of the door, he'd already been bracing himself for this.

'Report to the people back in my home village waiting for me that I never became a hero.'

It was an outstanding task Raul had been putting off, day after day, ever since the [Hero System] had been abolished.

Raul's home village of Rexa, far removed from the royal capital, was a settlement like a landlocked island, more than forty kilometers from the nearest town. That whole region had been left behind by the magic-item revolution, and between the poor transportation and the area's economic circumstances, news from the outside world arrived almost exclusively as hearsay, save for the bundle of mail that came around once a month.

… Which meant Raul had had to write up the whole sequence of events in a letter himself and break the news on his own.

But even after he'd managed to crawl out of his shut-in slump and landed his job as a full-time employee at Magic Shop Leon, the guilt of keeping a secret from his hometown had followed him around, casting a sharp, prickling shadow over his heart. And yet Raul kept piling up excuses about being busy and not finding the right timing and so on to keep looking away, and as time dragged on, coming clean only got harder and harder…

That was how he'd run from it, on and on, all this time.

And the moment when he'd have to face the wall he was always going to have to face had, at last, arrived.

Steeling himself, he swallowed once.

Meeting Myuli's gravely earnest gaze head-on, Raul slowly opened his mouth.

"W-well, that, um… y-you must be tired, right? Come on inside for now…"

 

*

 

… I-it's not like I'm running away or anything!

Sitting primly in front of the low table, Myuli looked around the room with restrained curiosity.

Feeling his sister's presence at his back as he changed clothes in a hurry, Raul prepared a cup of cocoa for her in the kitchenette while muttering excuses to himself in his head.

A-ah, that's right! There's no way you can blurt out something that important right at the front door. Besides, Myuli's got to be exhausted from the long trip, and as her big brother, the natural thing to do is to bring her into the room, give her some tea, and let her catch her breath. The matter in question can wait until Myuli's relaxed, and then I'll bring it up when the moment is right. So, this isn't, you know, me shamelessly putting the problem off again…

Nodding to himself, he reached for the door of the MagicRange… and there, Raul stopped dead.

In the glass of the door, a reflection of Myuli sitting in the living room, a strangely unsettled look on her profile.

The eyes she had lowered as though wanting to say something seemed to be patiently waiting for an answer to the question she had just asked him…

… I have to tell her the truth.

At the sudden weight in his heart, Raul let out a long, heavy sigh.

In the gloom of his chest, an irrepressible regret churned round and round.

… Damn it. Why didn't I say something sooner?

Tipping the cocoa powder into the mug he'd sluggishly pulled out of the MagicRange, Raul bit down on the bitterness slowly spreading through his chest.

The abolition of the [Hero System] itself wasn't my fault. So I should've just written the letter and sent word back home the moment I realized I wasn't going to be a hero.

But me, in all that shock, I couldn't even think of it; I was completely wrapped up in my own problems, and by the time I'd finally gotten my head on straight, too much time had already passed and I just couldn't bring myself to say it…

… I'll tell her first after all.

Stirring his spoon through the chocolate-colored milk in slow circles, Raul steeled himself.

I can't keep putting this off any longer. I'm just going to come out and say it… Maybe she'll hate me for it. Maybe she'll be disgusted. But either way, if it's unavoidable, then better to get it over with sooner rather than later.

Right. The moment I turn around with this cocoa in hand—

Mug in hand, taking a small breath to steady his nerves.

Raul turned, and opened his mouth, resolved.

"Hey, Myuli. The truth is, I…?!"

But.

"… wait, hey?! Myuli! Why are you crying?!"

In that instant, Raul reflexively set the cocoa down and rushed over to Myuli at the low table, gripping the small shoulders of the girl as tears spilled down her face.

"What's wrong?! Myuli…"

"…"

Completely thrown by his sister's sudden tears, Raul could only watch as Myuli, trembling with her head bowed, gently lifted one slender arm…

"… That, up there… that's the trophy from Onii-chan's last letter, isn't it…?"

"Eh…?"

At her words, Raul's eyes were drawn in the direction she was pointing.

Atop the bookshelf, the large gilt trophy with its finely-detailed craftsmanship.

Gazing reverently at the impressive trophy with Raul's name engraved on it, Myuli murmured, as if deeply moved,

"So it was true, what you wrote in your letters…"

Narrowing her teary eyes, Myuli gave a small shake of her head.

"… You know… I wrote about it in my last letter, but there are people who say Onii-chan's a liar… that no matter how brilliant you were, someone like Onii-chan, born in a backwater village like ours, couldn't possibly have made top of the class at a school in the royal capital where students from all over the country gather. That you were just spinning convenient lies to fool us. And that in the end, you flunked the exam, couldn't keep up the cover anymore, and so you stopped sending letters home…"

"…"

"… But Myuli was right after all. Onii-chan, you were top of the hero school, more amazing than anyone in the whole country; of course you passed the [Hero Exam]. It's just that with your hero work, you were too busy to write letters… Onii-chan, you'd never tell a lie…"

His heart squeezed tight.

In front of Raul, who'd completely lost his words, Myuli wiped at the tears welling in the corners of her eyes with her slender little fingertips, then gently lifted the corners of her lips.

"… Myuli always believed Onii-chan really had become a hero, you know? Because believing and waiting… that was my promise to you, wasn't it…"

The smile Myuli turned on Raul brimmed with sincere happiness, straight from the bottom of her heart.

At the trust and adoration that filled that expression, Raul was nearly overcome by the urge to slam his head into the table in front of him as hard as he possibly could.

… H-how the hell am I supposed to say it in a situation like this?! It's true I graduated top of the hero-prep academy, but in the end I didn't become a hero, and I'm working at a small magic shop that has nothing to do with being a hero…

Unable to bear his sister's unclouded gaze, Raul reflexively looked away… and the instant his eyes caught the clock at the edge of his vision, he let out a yelp and snapped upright as if shocked.

"Wait, crap! Look at the time!!"

He'd been so flustered by Myuli's visit that, even though he should have gotten up plenty early, the clock's hands were already pointing to his clock-in time…

Reaching out in a panic, Raul threw on the jacket hanging from the headboard of his bed.

"S-sorry! I have to get to work…"

"Eh… by any chance, is it… your hero work?"

"…"

The instant Myuli's face lit up, Raul, grabbing his commuter sports bag, stalled for a second over his words.

"U-uh, well, that… s-sorry! I'll tell you everything when I get back, okay?! Ah, the cocoa, I made some, so drink it… and I might be back a little late, but you stay quietly here, all right?!?!"

With that, before he could say another word, Raul, the backs of his shoes squashed flat under his heels, shot out the front door.

 

*

 

So… that's the situation I'm in…

Aaagh, I'm such an idiot…!

The back area of Magic Shop Leon, Royal Capital Store.

Changed into his uniform in the second-floor break room, Raul let out yet another deep sigh as he descended the narrow stairs.

'Onii-chan, you'd never tell a lie…'

'Because believing and waiting… that was my promise to you, wasn't it…'

What am I supposed to do here…?

His chest stung with guilt.

Recalling his too-trusting sister's earnest gaze, one hundred percent convinced of him, Raul shook his head furiously, like a kubifuri-grass in early spring.

I have to tell her the truth… but to a sister who believes in me that much, how on earth am I supposed to…

No matter how he turned it over, no answer came.

His head packed with gloomy thoughts, Raul pushed open the door leading to the sales floor.

And then…

"Raul!! Don't come in!!"

"Eh…?!"

A flustered voice flew into his ears.

Raul reflexively looked up, and almost simultaneously, the tip of his foot, already mid-step, touched down on the sales floor.

In that instant.

The moment his foot set down on the floor, his body abruptly accelerated forward.

"Wha— what the heck is this?!"

His body slid along smoothly in exactly the same posture he'd stepped forward in, as if he'd been loaded onto some invisible vehicle.

Caught completely unprepared by the inexplicable situation that had hit him out of nowhere, Raul let out a yelp.

Wait, what?!

The instant he turned his face in the direction of travel, a familiar uniformed figure leapt into his vision.

Silver hair tied with a red ribbon, big, sparkling deep-blue eyes. Two distractingly enchanting curves swelling beneath the chest of an apron, a contrast to the girl's still-childish face.

In Raul's field of view, the figure of the girl looking at him in a clear panic was growing larger and larger… no wait, this isn't the time?!

"H-hey, wait, Fino?!"

At this rate, I'm definitely going to crash into her!

He tried desperately to dodge, but for some reason his feet, sliding along the floor, refused to budge as though glued in place.

Frantic, Raul flailed his arms, trying somehow to change course, but in the meantime, the girl's figure had drawn right up in front of him…

"—?!"

The girl's small body collided with Raul, impact and all.

A warm, soft sensation settled into the arms that had been clawing the air in panic an instant before, and the sweet, milky scent drifting up from the girl's neck tickled Raul's nostrils…

"F-Fino…"

Raul, having no idea what was going on, was thoroughly thrown into confusion.

Inside Raul's arms, the silver-haired girl… his junior part-timer Fino, who carried the blood of the [Demon King], looked up at him with an awkward expression and opened her mouth.

"Raul… g-good morning…"

"Eh, ah, morning… like hell that's the issue! What the heck is all this?!"

And then.

"Aaah… so Raul-kun got caught in it too, huh…"

A thoroughly weary voice drifted in from somewhere.

Hurriedly putting some distance between himself and Fino, Raul looked up to see the apron-clad man standing in front of the MagicDuster section ahead of them… Assistant Manager Visor, raking a hand through his red hair and sighing tiredly.

"Step on it, and you get force-moved in the direction of the arrow on the tile?!"

Beside the parroting Raul, Fino, eyes lowered awkwardly, mumbled an explanation.

"L-last night, I happened to find these in the warehouse… and I thought, if I stuck them down on the store floor, customers wouldn't have to walk anywhere, they could get to whichever section they wanted right away, and shopping would be so convenient. Once that thought hit me I just couldn't sit still, and… so I pulled an all-nighter sticking them down all over the store floor, but I, um, I lost track of which tile goes where…"

"… You should've at least marked them, you idiot…!"

Her stance of always thinking of customers' convenience and sparing no effort to achieve it was worth a certain amount of credit. But once again the girl raised in the Demon Realm, and somewhat lacking in common sense, had kicked off the trouble-of-the-week.

Raul, in his capacity as her trainer, found himself slumping in defeat…

And then, a little ways off from the boy, on the floor in front of the MagicRange section, stood his other junior part-timer, the lovely girl who had been Raul's rival back at the hero-prep academy, the so-called "All-A" Airi. Sweeping back her honey-colored hair, she narrowed her eyes in exasperation.

"And it seems this child went and used the strongest adhesive in the store, too…"

"I bought it with my own money, but the packaging looked so cool…"

"… Oh dear, that one's selling point is that once you stick something down with it, even a Great Dragon couldn't pull it off…"

In response to Airi's words, Fino sheepishly fished the adhesive out of her apron pocket… and the moment she saw it, the lovely chestnut-haired girl who, no matter how you looked at her, couldn't be older than her teens… Manager Seara, standing in front of the household goods corner shelves, tilted her head and murmured, looking slightly troubled.

The sales floor of Magic Shop Leon, Royal Capital Store, before opening.

Each of them standing transfixed in front of whichever shelf the first arrow tile they'd stepped on out of the back area had carried them to, the staff looked around the surroundings, at a complete loss.

Thick black arrows drawn boldly on yellow-bordered tiles.

The arrow tiles Fino had stayed up all night sticking down pointed every which way and covered every inch of the sales floor as far as the eye could see. The only patches that had escaped the invasion were small strips of floor right in front of each section's shelving, very narrow ones at that.

Faced with the dizzying whirlpool of tiles, Raul couldn't help heaving a deep sigh. … Honestly. How did she manage to pull off this much damage all by herself…

And then.

On the strip of tile-free floor so narrow he could barely turn around, Fino shifted, shoulder to shoulder with him, close enough that the edges of their clothes brushed, and Raul's heart skipped.

Wait, isn't this kind of, you know, close…?

The glossy silver hair just at the edge of his vision.

The girl's body heat right beside him, and somehow his skin prickling…

'No!!'

Suddenly, an incident from just a few days earlier flashed across Raul's mind.

Fino, who had stopped a girl Raul knew from leaning in to kiss him, then clung to his arm hard, as if to claim him for herself.

Wait, that's right, she… about me…

The instant he became conscious of it, his cheeks flushed faintly warm.

Thoroughly flustered, Raul stole a sidelong glance at the girl beside him…

"… Raul, what's wrong?"

"Ah, n-no, nothing…"

The moment their eyes met, Fino blinked back at him with a perfectly blank expression.

Raul, jolting, hurriedly looked away and muttered in his head.

Wait, what, she's exactly the same as always, isn't she… Somehow let down, Raul couldn't help sighing. … Honestly. The idea that she might actually like me, that has to be reading too much into it after all.

"… Still, Fino-kun, well done finding something like this…"

Oblivious to Raul's vague disappointment, Visor scratched his head and muttered to himself,

"This arrow tile, it's a pretty old item, you know…? If I remember right, it was developed based on a trap in some ancient ruin dungeon, but because of all the malicious pranks where people were using them to drop people down manholes and the like, it got recalled in a hurry…"

"Depending on how it's used, I think it could be a really convenient item, you know… at the moment, the speed setting's at maximum and the safety lock keeping objects fixed to the tile while they're moving has kicked in, which is a bit of a problem, but if you set it properly, like Fino-chan said, customers wouldn't have to do the walking, and at the lowest speed setting the dust on the floor would be carried along in the direction of the arrows, which would cut down on mop runs…"

"… So, what do we do about this?"

In response to Airi's thoroughly drained question, Manager Seara murmured, "Well, you see…" and adorably raised a finger.

"There are two ways. The first is to find the control panel that lets you change the overall tile speed and safety-lock settings. There should be exactly one mixed in among all these arrow tiles, somewhere…"

"… yeah, that's an unwinnable game…"

The Assistant Manager surveyed the countless tiles strewn around the store and grumbled, looking ready to give up.

Manager Seara nodded as if in agreement and continued.

"The second is to cut off the magic powering the arrow tiles. Their power, just like the store's interior lighting, should be supplied via 'Mana Plants', so if we flip the switch on the mana control board in the back area, they should all lose their effect at once."

"B-but, in this state, how are we supposed to get to the back area…?"

In front of Raul, who'd blurted that out, Visor narrowed his eyes wearily and jerked his chin toward the countless routes traced by the arrows on the tiles.

"With the safety lock on, you can't move except along an arrow, so the only option is to try them one by one and see…"

"M-mm… I don't remember where exactly, but I should have made a route that goes back to the back area… I think…"

In response to Visor's words, Fino nodded, looking less than confident.

Looking down at the girl, Raul couldn't help heaving a sigh.

"… Well, we don't have much time, so I guess that's all we can do."

As he spoke, Raul glanced around and absently stepped onto an arbitrary tile in front of him…

The next instant, Airi, standing in front of a shelf some distance away, widened her eyes.

"Ah, Raul Chaser! That tile, that's the one I was just on before…!"

"Eh—?!"

But by the time Airi's voice rose, Raul's body was already sliding off vigorously in the direction of the arrow…

"Whoaaa!!"

"Kyaaaa!!"

An instant later, the two of them tangled together from the force of the impact and tumbled onto the floor.

Airi, pinned beneath Raul, raised a voice tinged with resentment.

"Honestly! I did try to stop you…!"

"S-sorry, 'All-A'…"

He hurriedly tried to push himself up, but in that instant, he froze.

Between his hands planted on the floor, glaring up at him, were the girl's features, so finely-cut as to make him stare.

Her cherry-pink lips were pursed tight, her honey-colored hair was tousled and spread across the floor, and from the upturned hem of her uniform skirt, her shapely thighs peeked out…

Wait, this position, this kind of looks like I just shoved her down, doesn't it?!

"—?!!!!!"

The moment their eyes met, she seemed to arrive at the exact same thought as Raul. Looking up at him from inches away, her cheeks rapidly turning crimson, Airi yelped in a panic.

"H-hey, j-just, g-g-g-g-g-get off!!"

"Eh… a-ah, sorr— wait?!"

Pushed by the intensity of her tone, Raul shot to his feet… only to inadvertently step on yet another arrow tile, which once again yanked his body off in some entirely unintended direction.

His balance shot, Raul, helpless to do anything, was carried along by the arrow…

"—?!"

In the next instant, his field of view was filled with off-white fabric. The tip of Raul's nose was buried in the middle of something warm and smelling sweet, something exceptionally soft.

"My, my."

A voice like an angel's drifting down from above.

When Raul snapped to his senses and jerked his head up, Manager Seara, who had caught him in her arms, narrowed her amber eyes and gave him a gentle little smile.

"Raul-kun, are you all right? You're not hurt?"

"Eh… y-yes, yes ma'am!"

W-w-w-w-was that just now, the Ma… the Manager's…!

In response to the Manager's calm question, Raul's voice came out cracked beyond all hope of recovery…

And then, from behind him, Fino's flustered voice suddenly piped up.

"R-Raul! Dodge!!"

"Eh… wha?!"

"—!!!!!"

An instant later, an exceptionally soft mass collided with Raul's back.

By coincidence, it seemed Fino had stepped onto the same route Raul had, the one leading to the household goods shelf where the Manager stood…

Shoved by Fino as she came flying in, Raul once again took a vigorous nosedive into Manager Seara's chest, this time sandwiched between the exceptionally soft bodies of the two girls. His eyes rolled back in his head.

O-O God… t-thank you for this wonderful gift…!

And then.

"… 'try them one by one and see' doesn't mean that, you dumbasses…!"

A voice like a curse from nowhere.

When Raul came back to himself and looked up, Visor, who had apparently watched the entire sequence from his spot in front of the MagicDuster section, was staring at him with eyes full of grudge…

Eventually, the Assistant Manager swept his eyes over the surrounding arrows and gave a series of small nods.

"All right… I've got absolutely no basis for this, but acting on my instincts as Assistant Manager, I'll be picking this tile…"

Saying it out loud on purpose, he stepped onto the arrow tile in front of him. The moment his body began moving along the arrow, the Assistant Manager gave an exaggerated shrug.

"Oop, ah, what a coincidence. At this rate, even I'm going to crash into the Manager."

"My, my."

Manager Seara's eyes went wide at the obviously deliberate approach of the Assistant Manager.

But Visor's body, gliding along the arrow tiles, brushed right past where the Manager and Raul's group were standing in front of the household goods corner, and slipped right by…

"Huh?"

The next instant, for some reason, he tripped right over a magical pickling stone that had been left at the arrow's endpoint and went face-first into the display shelf right in front of him.

Sliding to the floor in a heap, the Assistant Manager muttered in a gasping voice,

"Damn… misread it by one square…"

"Wait, hey, Fino! Why are there traps embedded at the end of the arrows?!"

When Raul couldn't help raising his voice, Fino put on an awkward expression and said,

"W-well, um… I dunno, late at night I got carried away, my blood was up, I guess, and I thought, since we're at it, let's throw in a thrilling element or two… and besides that, there's a zigzag route I built specifically to wreck the equilibrium of anyone who steps on it, and a terrifying 'Never-Ending Tile' that, once you step on it, you'll keep walking the same loop forever, and other traps lurking around…"

"Don't set traps in the workplace just because you got hyped up at midnight!!"

"B-but, I also put in routes that lead to treasure chests, you know?!"

"That doesn't solve anything! If we get sued we are guaranteed to lose!!!"

"A-and, just in case anything goes wrong, I prepared save points too!!"

"You can't reset real life!!!!!"

"Gh… t-this time, for sure…"

As Raul raised his voice in spite of himself, at the edge of his vision, the Assistant Manager, who seemed to have finally recovered from the damage, swayed unsteadily to his feet and once again brought a wobbling foot down onto the arrow tile in front of him.

The moment he set foot on the tile, the Assistant Manager's body began to move forward, slicing through the air.

This time, the body carried along by the arrow was heading directly toward the floor where Manager Seara stood…

"—?!"

The moment he reached his longed-for Manager, a sharp pop rang out across the not-so-large interior of the store.

At the same time, with white smoke hissing out of him, the Assistant Manager's body fell to the floor…

"My, oh my."

Manager Seara murmured in a leisurely tone.

"He came barreling in out of my blind spot, so my 'Mercilessly Punish the Despicable Sex Offender and Inscribe Trauma That Will Never Fade for the Rest of His Life-kun', which I always keep on me for fending off molesters, just activated all on its own… Visor-kun, are you alive?"

"… His pupils are blown."

"My, my."

In response to Raul's report, Manager Seara blinked her large eyes a few times.

"But thanks to Visor-kun, we got a concrete idea of the actual stopping power, so now I can make a new sales POP for 'Inscribe-kun'. While we're at it, maybe I'll put in a slightly larger reorder…"

Heedless of Visor twitching on the floor at her feet, she muttered to herself with a perfectly straight face…

Eventually, her gaze fell on the arrow tiles. The Manager murmured, looking troubled,

"But with traps in the mix, we can't just go around trying them recklessly… what should we do?"

"Hey, Manager!"

Tugging on the Manager's clothes from beside her, Fino spoke up.

"I was thinking, can't we rewrite the tiles' 'Magic Syntax' to disable them?"

"That would be nice, but… an item that's actively running with mana flowing through it, you can't rewrite its syntax. The syntax has a magical-logic protect on it…"

"… It seems we really do have to get to the back area after all."

In response to the Manager's words, Airi pressed a hand to her forehead and let out a sigh.

"But while I can trace the arrows I can see, there's no way to tell what the sections hidden by shelves and pillars look like, so I can't judge which route is the right one…"

"The shelves are pretty far apart, so they're hard to crawl across, and if I jumped, I'd hit my head on the ceiling…"

"My magic desktop calculator could physically destroy the arrow tiles, but it'd take out the floor along with them, so afterwards we'd get scolded by corporate…"

The staff looked at one another, thoroughly out of options. And then…

"What about this, could we use this?!"

His gaze happening to fall on the shelf beside him, Raul suddenly raised his voice.

"R-Raul, are you really going to do it…?"

"… Well, we don't have a choice, do we?"

Fino, beside him, pressed the question, sounding worried.

Reeling in a length of rope, Raul glanced at her and gave a small nod.

A light, sturdy rope of magnica-fiber from the household goods shelf right next to them, and a metal magic stake of the sort used for tent anchoring. And the extra-strong adhesive from Fino's pocket, the one advertised as being impossible for even a Great Dragon to peel off once it had been applied.

After tying the rope to the magic stake and slathering its tip thoroughly with adhesive, they reinforced it with Airi's "Time Circuit" and hurled it at the wall right above the door leading to the back area… on the third try, the magic stake at last stuck into the wall, leaving roughly twenty meters of rope stretched from where they stood to the back area.

Pulling on the taut rope with all his weight to test it, Raul glanced back at the girls standing on the floor behind him.

"… I'm sorry, but there's nothing on this side I can tie the rope to, so everyone, please keep a firm grip on the other end."

"Yes, understood."

"… Got it."

"Leave it to me, Raul!!"

Firmly gripping the rope tossed to them in both hands, the girls answered him with solemn expressions.

Manager Seara opened her mouth as if to caution him.

"Raul-kun, please be careful, all right?"

"Yes, ma'am…"

He gave a slight nod in response.

Taking a small breath, as if making up his mind, Raul dangled himself from the rope in front of him.

In that instant, the weight bearing down on both his arms, the deep sag of the rope.

A shiver ran down his back as Raul began to slowly make his way along the rope.

His palms were sticky with lukewarm sweat from sheer tension.

The moment his grip slipped on the rope and threw his balance off, Fino's panicked voice rang out from behind him.

"Raul!!"

"… gh, I'm okay!"

Raul shouted back in spite of himself.

"I'm okay, just take care of the rope, please!!"

"Mm… —?!"

And then.

Fino, who'd nodded at Raul's words, let out a soundless scream…

At the same instant, Raul's body, clinging to the rope, dropped abruptly. Wait, what?!

"H-hey, what's going on?! Fino?!"

"R-Raul! A c-cock-roacharia! A cock-roacharia came out!!"

"H-hey, Fino-san! Don't let go of the rope!!"

"My, oh my, that one's quite big, isn't it…"

"H-hey, c'mon, Fino! Hold on!!"

The rope, with Raul dangling from it, sank steadily lower.

The arrow tiles bore down right under his nose, and Raul couldn't help yelping… and just then, the rope's descent halted.

"M-mm, I-I'll hold on…"

From behind him, came Fino's voice, somehow managing to recover.

Too tense to even spare a moment to look back, Raul let out a small breath of relief…

And the next instant.

"AAH, R-Raul!! I-it's coming this way!! It's getting closer!!"

"H-hey, read the freaking room, cock-roacharia!!!!!"

At Fino's scream echoing through the store, Raul ended up shouting as well.

"H-hold it together, Fino!! Please, just hold on!!"

"Ngh, ah, aah…"

But.

"Ngh, ah, on my foot… I, I can't take it any more…"

In spite of Raul's desperate prayer, with a pained-sounding mumble, the rope slipped right out of Fino's hands.

The instant Raul, on the verge of falling, instinctively planted his foot on an arrow tile, his body shot off in the direction of the arrow drawn there.

D-damn it… As he was carried helplessly along the arrow tile, recognizing the store pillar bearing rapidly down on him, Raul crossed himself with the sign of the Valdia Cross inside his chest.

Ah, of all things, to land on a trap route that smashes me straight into a pillar… Assistant Manager, who fell before me, I'm coming to that world too, right now…!

Fully resigning himself, Raul squeezed his eyes shut and braced for the impact that would slam into him just an instant later…

… wait, huh?

Just before the pillar, the arrow tile route suddenly bent at a perfect right angle.

Raul's body, without crashing into the pillar, just kept being carried along the tile… wait…!

"… t-this route, don't tell me, the 'Never-Ending Tile'?!?!"

Guided in a closed loop by the arrows, whisked around the perimeter of the MagicLaundry section at frantic speed, Raul couldn't help screaming.

H-hey, this is seriously making me dizzy!!

Endless spinning that scrambled the inner ear.

In response to a torture that just kept going, Raul's brain blared an emergency alert like it had snapped.

I-I'm dying! … This is going to seriously kill me!!

And then.

In the trailing blur of Raul's field of view, the entrance to the back area he was aiming for.

There, suddenly, he thought he saw a small figure.

Raul couldn't help looking up.

"Onii… chan…?"

Long black hair falling all the way down her back, and bewildered black eyes.

Half-hiding behind the door of the back area, peering hesitantly out at him, was the little sister he'd left back at his apartment…

Wait, why is she… why is Myuli… here, at our store?!

For an instant the question crossed his mind. But before he knew it, Raul was shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Myuli!! Please!! The switch on the control board on the wall in that room, flip it right now!!"

 

*

 

""""Raul's little sister?!""""

"… N-nice to meet you… I'm Myuli Chaser…"

Gripping Raul's uniform sleeve tightly, hesitantly introducing herself, the black-haired girl was just a touch shorter than Fino.

The Manager bent down at the waist to meet Myuli's eyes and smiled warmly.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Seara, the one in charge here."

"I'm Airi… Huh, for Raul Chaser's little sister, you're pretty cute."

"And I'm Visor Crossroad. The Assistant Mana… gh…"

"I'm Fino! Whoa, you've got the same hair and eye color as Raul!"

"—?!"

Manager Seara, Fino, Airi, and the Assistant Manager, who had somehow recovered consciousness. The staff, finally freed from the maze of arrow tiles, gathered in a circle around Myuli in front of the back area's door.

Myuli, who had been quaking under the gazes of the unfamiliar adults, ducked behind Raul the instant Fino, exclaiming happily, tried to touch her hair… honestly, she's as painfully shy as ever, huh.

Looking down at Myuli, stiff with nerves, Raul opened his mouth.

"By the way, why are you here?"

"… I'm sorry… I followed after you, Onii-chan… it's just, I really, really wanted to see Onii-chan's work…"

She trailed off, lowering her eyes uneasily… eventually, Myuli murmured,

"… But, I never imagined Onii-chan was doing work like this."

A note of disappointment in Myuli's voice.

In that instant, Raul's heart shrank coldly inward.

Ah, so she finally figured it out… that I'm not a hero.

To be honest, I'd wanted to take the time and explain it properly, in my own words…

Guilt welled up in Raul's chest, and at the same time, a sense of relief, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

I don't know if she'll be able to forgive me, but… Watching his downcast sister's profile, Raul muttered inside his chest. I have to make up for the hurt I've caused her…

"Still, without the lighting, the store interior is kind of dark, isn't it…"

"… Yeah, with the arrow tiles still active, we have to leave the control board switch flipped like this…"

In response to Airi's musing as she looked around, the Assistant Manager scratched his head, looking troubled.

"Well, whether we look for the control panel, mess with each tile's syntax to disable it one by one, or somehow rip them up, none of it's gonna make it in time for opening anyway… only option is to operate with the control board kept off, so the tiles don't activate…"

"… I-I'm sorry… it's because of me…"

"N-no, no, no one's blaming you specifically, Fino-kun, you know? I mean, Fino-kun, in your own way, you were thinking about a lot of things when you did this…"

The Assistant Manager hurriedly followed up on Fino, whose face had clouded over and who was apologizing dejectedly.

Beside him, as if some idea had just struck her, Manager Seara raised her voice.

"Ah, that's it… wait just a moment, please."

With that, the Manager turned on her heel, chestnut hair swishing, and headed toward the special summer-vacation research-project section set up near the store entrance… and after a little while, she returned with a green paper box about the size of a bento box.

"… What is that?"

"Fufu, just watch…"

Smiling mischievously back at Raul's question, Manager Seara began laying out the box's contents on the table at the consultation corner right next to them.

"Let's see, mix 'Magic Powder A' and 'Magic Powder B' together well, then add 'Water of Life A' to that…"

Reading the instructions on the back of the box, the Manager broke the seal on plastic packets labeled 'Magic Powder' and 'Water of Life' in big letters and tipped them into the included plastic tray… and eventually.

Right in front of Raul and the others' eyes.

The contents of the plastic tray suddenly began to glow brightly.

"Whoaaa!"

"—!"

Fino raised her voice in surprise, and Myuli, eyes wide in astonishment, gripped the hem of Raul's clothes.

The orange lights that floated up one after another from the tray on the table swelled into round shapes the size of balloons and drifted toward the ceiling.

In no time at all, the dim interior of the store was filled with warm light… Looking up overhead, the Assistant Manager put a finger to his chin and murmured, impressed,

"I see, there was this trick… as expected of the Manager…"

"Hey, what are these?!"

"Fufu, these are little creatures called 'Hitodama'."

To Fino, asking excitedly, Manager Seara winked one eye.

"'Hitodama'… they're a close relative of the floating colonial algae, Air Volvox, we saw outside the family restaurant the other day. To protect themselves from natural enemies, they give off a strong, flame-colored light. Wild animals tend to be scared of fire, you see… and supposedly, because they love phosphorus and would gather around graveyards, people in the old days mistook them for human souls, which is how they got their name."

Tapping the green packaging that read 'Hitodama Observation Kit (recommended for ages 10 and up)' with her fingertip, the Manager narrowed her eyes.

"These little ones grow really quickly, so they're often used for summer-vacation research projects, emergency lighting, event lighting and so on. And along with the light, they put out plenty of healing Argo rays, which help relieve fatigue and make your skin nice and pretty…"

"Argo rays, like in those magic stone-bath spas everyone's been talking about lately…"

Airi reacted instinctively to a familiar word. And then, noticing that Fino was visibly itching to do something, Manager Seara gave her a warm smile.

"Fino-chan, you can try touching one if you'd like, you know?"

"—! Whoa, really, it's not hot…!"

She must have been wanting to touch the glowing creature in front of her. The moment she heard the Manager's words, Fino, who'd been fidgeting the whole time, stretched out a finger toward the Hitodama… and the instant she gingerly poked it, raised a startled voice.

Watching the demonkin girl fondly, Manager Seara gave a small clap.

"That takes care of the lighting, then. Let's see, what's next…"

"H-hey, Manager…"

Fino, who'd been playing with the Hitodama, drew her hand back and hesitantly opened her mouth.

"Um… w-what about the AC…?"

"Ah, right, you're bad with heat, aren't you."

In response to Fino's reserved question, Raul couldn't help muttering.

Fino, demonkin born in the cold north, was particularly weak to heat. The other day, when the store's AC broke down, her autonomic nervous system had gone haywire and her mana leaked everywhere, weakening her to that extent…

"Don't worry, Fino-chan."

To put the anxious Fino at ease, the Manager smiled gently.

"MagicACs use vastly different amounts of magic power depending on the season, so the 'Mana Plants' alone can't keep up; they're on a separate system."

"S-separate system?"

"… It supplies mana through the 'Magic Syntax' in the floor of the register counter, drawing from the staff wearing 'Magic Shoes'. Look, my shoe soles have studs in them to conduct mana, see?"

"Ah, you're right…!"

Fino nodded at Raul's explanation as if she'd understood… but then she immediately tilted her head.

"But, why only the floor of the register counter?"

"… Because if we spread it across the sales floor, it would draw on the customers' mana, right?"

In response to Fino's musing, Airi answered with an exasperated face.

"Using other people's mana without permission, outside of public facilities or amusement venues, is forbidden. Mana isn't infinite, after all, so you'd be in trouble if it got used up by someone without your knowing, right? At our store, there are quite a few people who wear Magic Shoes for work reasons…"

"Well, inside the register counter, basically only the staff goes in, so it's fine."

"That's how it is, Fino-chan. So the AC is also no problem, and then…"

As she spoke, the Manager's gaze drifted over to the MagiVi corner's display stand, and she frowned, looking troubled.

"What's left are the display MagiVis… If we leave the switches off, the sales floor will feel desolate, and it'll affect our sales too, so we'll have to use the emergency manual mana supply system."

"Manual mana supply system?"

In response to Raul, parroting her in spite of himself, the Manager nodded with a "Yes."

"We extend a mana supply cable from the MagiVi corner and connect it to my body. Since the cable will get tangled, I won't really be able to move around freely, though…"

"Manager!!"

The moment she heard those words, Fino's head shot up and she spoke.

"I'll do it! It's because of me that all this happened, and if you can't move freely, Manager, that'd be a problem if something came up, right?!"

Fino's expression was earnest, as if she'd made up her mind.

"Fino-chan…"

Gently touching Fino's shoulder, the Manager, after a moment, slowly shook her head.

"Thank you, Fino-chan… But, Fino-chan, your mana is just too far outside the norm, so the lines inside the cable might end up burning through. Excluding Fino-chan, I'm the one with the most mana here, as a 'Holder'…"

"… U-um…"

A thin, small voice suddenly drifted in.

When the staff turned to look, the owner of the voice, who had been observing the proceedings from behind Raul… Myuli, drew in on herself like a small animal.

Then, the girl, who had been hesitating with embarrassment, finally, as if making up her mind, opened her mouth.

"… I-if it's all right with you, Myuli could… Myuli is a 'Holder' too…"

""""—?!""""

The instant she spoke, all the staff except Raul went wide-eyed.

Startled by their reactions, Myuli flinched and gripped the edge of Raul's apron tightly.

Wait, what's she up to?

Bewildered by the sudden statement, and looking helplessly down at Myuli, who had fallen silent with a near-tearful expression, Raul reluctantly spoke up on her behalf.

"Ah, yes… during a school physical exam a while back, they told her she's got a fair amount of mana. The maternal side of our family seems to have a relatively high number of 'Magicondria' going back generations… that said, she's from a backwater village where magic items aren't really widespread, so it's kind of a wasted treasure. Having mana doesn't really mean much there."

A "Holder". A term for someone with at least ten times the average mana capacity, fifty kilobyle or more; a rare existence found in only about one in ten thousand people.

Incidentally, Raul's mother was also a "Holder" boasting close to 100 kilobyle of mana, but she was just an utterly ordinary stay-at-home mom with no involvement in magic or magic items whatsoever, and Raul, the would-be hero with a mere 15 kilobyle of mana capacity, had always carried around a vaguely frustrated feeling about it. Though to be fair, Raul's mana capacity, three times the average, wasn't really all that bad either.

"But, I feel bad…"

In response to Myuli's offer, Manager Seara blinked her eyes in surprise.

"Even for a 'Holder', the display MagiVis together come to about 10 kilowart, and during business hours you'd have to keep outputting mana the entire time, so if you're not used to it, you'd be quite drained, you know?"

"… I-I'm fine…"

But still half-hidden behind Raul, Myuli shook her head furiously.

"Myuli wants to see Onii-chan's work up close, and I want to help, and so…"

Gripping Raul's apron tightly, Myuli mumbled in halting bursts.

At the desperate look on the girl, Manager Seara's expression softened into a small smile.

"… Well then, shall I take you up on your kind offer?"

"M-Manager?!"

"She's come all this way from somewhere far away just to visit Raul-kun, and she wants to help with her big brother's work; she's such a thoughtful child, don't you think? And besides…"

In front of the flustered Raul, the Manager narrowed her eyes tenderly and murmured,

"… besides, we can't very well leave a 'Holder' child all by herself, either…"

"Eh… i-is something going on?"

"… What's this, Raul-kun, you haven't been watching the news?"

At Raul's reflexive return question, the Assistant Manager shrugged in an exasperated way.

"Lately, 'Holders', and even kids with less than that but still with a fair amount of mana, have been going missing one after another. And according to rumor, the culprit is…"

"… Visor-kun."

Cutting his words off, Manager Seara turned a protesting gaze on the Assistant Manager.

Glared at by the usually gentle Manager, the Assistant Manager pulled an awkward face and fell silent… wait.

"H-hey, what's going on?!"

"… N-no, no, it's nothing, nothing!"

The Assistant Manager shook his head vigorously in response to Raul's question…

Beside him, the Manager furrowed her brow and let out a small sigh.

"Well, setting incidents like that aside, the royal capital isn't exactly the safest of places… Myuli-chan is so very cute, so I really do think it's best to keep her where you can see her, Raul-kun."

"… Well, security-wise, keeping her here is definitely the safest option."

Airi nodded in agreement with the Manager's words.

With Manager Seara, the magic-desktop-calculator wielder who slew the previous [Demon King], at the top, plus me and Airi who used to be number one and number two at the hero-prep academy with prospects ahead of us, plus Fino, heir to the previous [Demon King] with gigavile-class mana… well, plus the Assistant Manager, a former ME, our store's staff lineup is pretty much a top-tier party… Raul muttered inwardly, but he was flustered nonetheless.

Myuli, who until today believed I was a hero, I have to suddenly show her me doing work that's a complete world away from being a hero…

"B-but…!"

I don't want to hurt Myuli any more… And, I don't want her to see me failing to become a hero. Driven by those feelings, Raul raised an unsteady voice.

"If we put her out on the sales floor, she might get mistaken for staff and get called over by customers, right?! She's still a kid, super shy, terrible with strangers; that'd be impossible for her… a-and besides, I've got a backlog of shelf maintenance and paperwork and all sorts of things to do, so I don't really have the bandwidth to look after her… ah, that's right, Myuli!"

Nodding as if he'd just hit on a brilliant idea, Raul familiarly patted Myuli's shoulder beside him and continued.

"You just take the cable and stay quietly in the back area or the second-floor break room and read a book, okay? That way, you won't get worn out by all this, and if you just keep the display MagiVis running, that's already a huge help to your big brother… right, Myuli, why don't we do that?!"

"—!"

But, in response to Raul's proposal, Myuli, as if protesting, tugged on Raul's apron and shook her head, side to side.

"… Myuli… wants to be with Onii-chan… wants to work alongside Onii-chan…"

In a voice that sounded ready to vanish, Myuli insisted desperately.

And then, Manager Seara, who had been tilting her head as if pondering something, spoke up.

"That's true… if you're busy, Raul-kun, then instead, how about we have Fino-chan look after Myuli-chan?"

"Eh…"

"You mean I get to be Myuli's senior?!"

The instant the Manager spoke, Fino, leaning forward with all her might in front of the small, flustered voice Myuli let out, shouted excitedly,

"Whoa! Airi joined after me, but she already knew so many things, she didn't feel like a junior at all; if anything, she taught me lots of stuff… heh, even for me, at last, the day to stand above someone else as a senior has come…!"

"Well, just for today, though."

"Fuhahaha, leave it to me!!"

Smoothly ignoring the Manager's casual addendum, Fino nodded with full confidence, spun toward Myuli, and thrust out a hand.

"Pleased to be working with you, Myuli!"

"—!"

But…

As if frightened by Fino's intensity.

The girl with the same black hair and black eyes as Raul made a face like she was about to burst into tears and quickly ducked behind Raul.

 

*

 

Wait, why is it ending up like this…

"Here, Myuli, this…"

"… Thank you, Onii-chan…"

Hesitantly murmuring her thanks, Myuli accepted the apron Raul held out to her.

At the sight of his sister bravely trying to act as she always did, Raul's stomach twisted painfully.

'Raul-kun, would you bring Myuli-chan one of the store's aprons?'

On the Manager's instruction, he'd brought Myuli up to the second-floor break room… and the moment they were alone, Raul was flooded with a helpless, uncomfortable feeling.

What does she think about me hiding the fact that I never became a hero…?

The instant he thought it, his heart squeezed almost too tight to breathe.

He knew he had to say something, but no words came at all.

An awkward silence settled over them…

And then, Myuli, who had been tying the apron's ribbon behind her back, suddenly opened her mouth.

"… You know, Myuli thought a hero's work would be a lot flashier."

"Huh?"

The words his sister had suddenly murmured.

In that instant, Raul let out an absurd noise in spite of himself, and after a beat, hurriedly raised his voice.

"W-wait, a hero's work, what do you mean…"

"Eh?"

But in response to Raul's question, Myuli put on a baffled face.

"Because, Onii-chan, you're a hero, so this is hero work, right?"

Myuli said it casually, without a hint of doubt or hesitation.

In front of Raul, who'd lost his words completely, Myuli looked down bashfully.

"It's a little different from what I imagined, but I guess heroes don't just fight, huh… It's a shame Onii-chan can't look after me himself, but I get to help, and I get to see Onii-chan at work; I'm so happy…"

Wait, she… she hasn't realized yet, or… could it be, even at this point, she still believes I'm a hero?!

In shock, Raul narrowed his eyes.

I mean, this girl, just how innocently does she believe in me…?!

'Onii-chan, you'd never tell a lie…'

'Because believing and waiting… that was my promise to you, wasn't it…'

As his sister's words echoed in his mind, guilt twisted tight in his chest.

Unable to bear her unconditional trust in him, Raul couldn't help raising his voice.

"M-Myuli! Th-that's not it! That…"

This time for sure… this time, I'm telling her for real…!

His throat caught under the pressure.

Meeting Myuli's puzzled gaze as she looked up at him, Raul, as if resolved, opened his mouth.

"I-I'm actually…"

And then.

"Raul, Myuli, it's almost opening time, you know?"

The door of the break room suddenly burst open.

At nearly the same moment, the silver-haired girl peering into the room called out, her hair swaying, and Raul ended up swallowing the words he had been about to say.

"A-ah, Fino, I'm coming! And… Myuli, you ready?"

"M-mm…"

Myuli nodded hesitantly at Raul's words.

… Damn it all, I'm such an idiot!

In the end, with Fino, who had come to fetch them, hurrying them along, hand in hand with Myuli, Raul bustled down to the floor below.