by Yuu Kamiya
With a ruthless composure. Wiping his silly grin off his face. Calmly, Sora adjusted his position on the bed and spoke for Stephanie’s inner thoughts.
“You were being baited, about to throw rock, the only way you could lose.”
“……—”
“—But then my expression made you calm down and realize that I had no way to win except by throwing paper.”
“—Wha—…”
He’d seen through her—wait, so his expression…was all just acting?!
“So, that much is fine…but, if you wanted to beat me, you should have thrown paper… Then you would have destroyed my one chance to win, and had twice as much chance of beating me.”
—He’d seen through everything—no, led everything.
“Ngh—!”
Stephanie bit her lip, folded her knees, and put her hands on the floor. He’d known how she’d calm down—on top of that, that then she’d go for the win.
—So this was it. The reason Stephanie had lost in the daytime. That seemed to be what he was saying. But he went on.
“Plus, this whole game is stacked for me to win in the first place.”
“I know. You wanted to draw. Fine, I’ll give you a place—”
Downcast, Stephanie threw this answer back at him—but.
“Yeah, that. That’s the thing.—That’s not it, you know?”
“Excuse me?”
“Think back good and carefully. This is what I said, yeah?”
—Perhaps you can grant me just one little favor. We should be able to get by for a few days with what we’ve got—but, to tell you the truth, after our four nights here, we won’t have any food or place to say. We were already worrying about what to do next…
“Okay, here’s the question! Did I—say what the little favor was?”
“……………What?!”
Stephanie got up in a panic and argued fiercely.
“But—but I asked you, you want a place, right?!”
“Yeah, that’s the thing…I never said yes.”
Stephanie revved her brain full throttle to play back what had happened just moments before. No place to stay, food, what to do next…these words were just decoration. Sora—this guy—had just. Smiled.
—The one who had assumed it meant he wanted to freeload was none other than—
“Aaaghh.”
“Now you see! So listen to my little favor request good and carefully!”
With the broadest grin, he pointed at Stephanie with a bang.
“Fall in love with me!”
………
……A long silence. The one who broke it was the one who had been watching the scene with her mouth closed: Shiro.
“Uhh, Brother?”
“Heh-heh-heh, what is it, my sister? Are you speechless in awe of your brother’s perfect plan?”
His sister didn’t seem to get it, but Sora went on, drunk on the brilliance of his request. The Sixth of the Ten Covenants—‘Wagers sworn by the Covenants are absolutely binding.’ And, according to the Ninth—they were enforced by the power of the God so as to be impossible to break. Which would mean, of course, that this was regardless of the individual’s will! But—.
“…Um… What do you mean…?
Said the sister, still confused. Next it was Sora who looked at her incredulously.
“Oh, my, how unlike you, my little imouto.”
(He liked to throw in foreign words for effect.)
“It’s about the bonds of love? If she’s bound by the natural laws of this world to uphold the Covenants, we can expect her to fall at my feet, right? Which means we’ve got our place, we’ve got money, and even personnel. Three birds with one stone!”
Sora seemed to be asking: You’re so smart, why can’t you understand that? But Shiro mumbled:
“…Why not…‘Be my possession’?”
“Hm?”
“…Could’ve got everything.”
“—Uh, um, let’s see?”
Sora experienced a moment of disorder. And then he sent his thoughts moving at high speed. If, as his sister suggested, he had commanded ‘Be my possession,’ then his possession’s possessions would all be his automatically—
“Uh, that’s funny? It does sound like that would be…uh?”
Why hadn’t he thought of it—? She was right. Why, when Sora was the one who specialized in this kind of thing, who had the performance and track record to prove it, did he—?
“………Brother, your personal feelings?”
“Oh…”
Looking at his sister’s cold, half-shut eyes—probably not just so from sleepiness.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Sora grabbed his head and shrieked.
“It—it couldn’t be…could it be?! Could it be that my lowly fear that if I miss this chance I’ll never have a girlfriend for the rest of my life clouded my judgment at the moment when it mattered most?! N-no…It can’t—H-how could I make such a—”
Inconceivable. That he himself, the key strategist of “ ,” could make make such a blunder—it made Sora dizzy. With a sulk in her voice, Shiro continued, even colder.
“…Brother, you said you didn’t need a girlfriend… You said…I…was enough.”
“I was being a poser! I’m sooorrrrrryyyyyyyyy!”
Sora got down on his hands and knees and bowed his head before his sister, who was pouting on the bed.
“Be-because, you know, I can’t mess with my sister! And, anyway, you’re eleven years old! The police would come take me away! Your brother’s in that time of his life, you know; I’m a young man and I’ve got…”
The brother filled the air with a barrage of excuses. The sister looked at him unmoved. And…
“”
Stephanie herself, the one of whom the demand was made, now ignored, looked down and trembled.
Indeed, just as Sora had foreseen, the Covenants could not be refused. They were the absolute law of the world. However—her face became hot and her heartbeat wouldn’t stop. Her chest was constricted by Sora as he now ignored her and bantered with his sister.
—Even if it was the law of this world. It couldn’t be. Not for this guy. Not for this asshole.
—She couldn’t be—“jealous”!
“You really think I’m going along with this?”
“Whoa! Holy shit!”
From her enraged trembling, Stephanie finally burst out and stood up. Glaring keenly at Sora from the stance of resolutely rejecting the feeling that had been planted in her against her will—yet.
“—Ng, nghh!”
As soon as they made eye contact, her heart skipped a beat, and her face got even hotter.
“Wh-wh-whawhawhat part of that is a ‘little favor’? Wh-what do you think it means to play with a young girl’s heart?!”
While shouting with her eyes averted in a desperate attempt to cover it up. As energetically as she had gotten up, her momentum was a bit lacking.
“Oh, uh… You see, it’s…like…”
Sora scratched his cheek, floating his gaze around awkwardly. Though this was just what he was originally planning, his tremendous oversight had spoiled the mood, and so he contemplated.
“Uh, hey, Shiro, what should we do?”
“…Don’t ask me…”
“Ngg, ghh…”
Coldly dismissed as he piteously begged his sister for help—
“Ahh!—Ahem!”
Well then—Sora resigned himself to the situation and cleared his throat.
He’d decided to pretend he hadn’t made a mistake.
The defiance made Sora feel more comfortable. He smiled frivolously.
“Everyone has their own standards for what’s little. You have a snack and someone says, can I have a bite of that? and then they eat the whole thing and say it was one bite.”
Falling back into his groove, Sora returned to spewing such lines.
“That’s…
that’s fraud!”
However, it was of little interest to Stephanie as she argued back.
—Just hearing Sora’s voice tickled her. A struggle: she’d really have liked him to stop talking, yet she couldn’t get enough of hearing his voice. She held it down with the excuse of getting an explanation and continued arguing. Oblivious to Stephanie’s girlish dilemma, Sora (eighteen years old, virgin) was calm. He pointed as if to show a student her error.
“Yes, that’s just it. You got distracted by the rules of the game and forgot about the premises. That’s no good, you know, overlooking overly vague statements like that… Even considering that I intentionally made them hard to see by intimidatingly emphasizing the conditions of victory and defeat, still, you know?”
—In short, what he was aiming for in this game was a draw. That much Stephanie was right about all along. But that wouldn’t get her there. The thing was that, whether it was a draw or a victory—the risk to Stephanie was the same. That was the true essence of this game—in other words—
“You, you—swindler!”
That’s right; it was a swindle. It was quite reasonable that Stephanie should want to yell this at him—but.
“Whaat, how could you say such a thing? It’s your fault for falling for it.”
“Th-that’s exactly what a swindler would say!”
Hearing Stephanie’s argument as it dragged on, Shiro came out from her sulking to finally butt in.
“…Third of the…Ten Covenants… Games…are played for wagers…that each agrees are of equal…value.”
Glad to find Shiro finally back on his side, Sora continued.
“That’s right! The key word is ‘agrees.’ Likewise, look at the Fourth: ‘Insofar as it does not conflict with Three, any game or wager is permitted.’ Which means?”
Squirming and lifting a finger, Shiro answered.
“…Life, rights—these, too, can be bet…”
“Hai, sou desu! So, by the time you’re making the wagers, the game’s already started.”
They made it out to be an explanation to Stephanie, but really it was just more sibling banter. But then, Shiro:
“…But, you didn’t have to bet…feelings.”
“As a matter of fact! This was unavoidable as a way of testing that personal volition does not play a part—”
“………Brother.”
“I’m sorry.”
It seemed that pretending he hadn’t made a mistake didn’t work on his sister.
“B-but! How dare you—”
How dare he become her first love by such fraud? It’s probably cruel to blame Stephanie, who was still trying to argue, with tears in her eyes. But.
“…The Sixth of the Ten Covenants… ‘Wagers sworn by the Covenants are absolutely binding’…”
The eleven-year-old girl—with pity in her eyes, quietly but accurately hit the mark.
“…Forgetting…the meaning, and weight of that, and taking his bait…was your mistake.”
—That’s right: to begin with, according to the Ten Covenants…Five. “The party challenged shall have the right to determine the game.” Stephanie had the right to reject the game or change the rules. Those rights were disregarded to start the game by one person and one person alone—
“Ngghh…”
—Stephanie herself.
As if she had run out of things to say, Stephanie dropped down and sat on the floor. In fact, the covenant had been made—Stephanie was feeling its effects already. This was proof that the world recognized the validity of the contest. No matter what Stephanie said, she had lost, and the wager was upheld.
“So, uh, I’ll take it that you’ve understood, Stephanie?”
“—Rgh… You—!”
You bastard! was what she wanted to scream.
—Her feelings wouldn’t let her. What was more, hearing her name called sent a rush of sweet emotion—
“…Nnnmggh, what iiiiiis this?”
—bubbling into anger, which caused her to proceed down to her knees and elbows and pound her head against the floor.
“Whoa—are—are you okay?!”
“Do I look okay?!”
As Stephanie swung a glare at Sora with her red and swollen forehead, he faltered, but regardless.
“No, not really. B-but it was me who won the wager, so—I’ll proceed to what I want, okay?”
What he wanted. Right, in the first place, his goal wasn’t to have her fall in love with him per se. Now she remembered: It was to have her fall at his feet.
But—wait, thought Stephanie. His request was for her to fall in love with him. Not to follow his orders. That meant Stephanie had no obligation to accept any further demands from him.
“Heh…heh-heh-heh, and you thought you’d trapped me…”
That made things simpler. No matter what he asked, all she had to do was shoot back, No. That took care of everything!
“Okay, first of all, ‘Stephanie’ is too long, so can I call you ‘Steph’ for short?”
“Huh? Uh, sure, I don’t mind!Hh!”
—“Steph” nodded happily at having her name shortened. The reason she had decided two seconds ago that she wouldn’t accept any more demands was nowhere to be found. Only a maiden flushing her cheeks in joy at being given a nickname by her beloved—
“No, it’s not—I-I don’t care what you c-call me! Yes, that’s right, certainly! I still don’t have to accept any requests you make after that.”
Choosing to force an explanation to herself, Steph still didn’t realize that all she had to do was run out of this room immediately. Which meant—unconsciously, she’d decided she wanted to be here by Sora’s side…
“Right, then you can call me Sora. So, Steph. You’re part of the royal family, right?”
—There it was. Indeed, if his goal was for her to fall at his feet: money, housing, food. He’d ask for things like this. However, there was nothing forcing Steph to answer these demands. Steph snickered inside. Sora would come asking, and she’d just say straight out, “I refuse!” That swindler would realize his blunder—what a sight his face would be. Holding that line ready, Steph waited for Sora’s demand.
“Then you must have a big house. Can we live there together for a while?
“Oh, yes, of course. ♥”
…
What?
“Uh, what? I, what?”
Steph entered a state of confusion at her own remarks. But she considered her face, which was heating up enough to give her a nosebleed. Sora’s words:
“Can we live there together?”—
In short, he meant, well, living together. He meant sharing a roof…cohabitating. Which meant always being together. Which meant…sharing a bed, a bath—
“Ah, ah, aaaaaaaaah, no, no, it’s not like that!”
As Steph bashed her head against the wooden wall, Sora inquired sheepishly, his face pale.
“Uh, um, you’re, like, wow, I don’t… It’s not okay?”
“Of course it’s okay!—Aahhh… It’s no use anymore…”
Steph looked at the ceiling with a humorless laugh.
—Indeed, Sora had made a spectacular mistake. A request with no contractual force. But Sora, who had never had a girlfriend in his life, and Steph, who had just been forced to experience her first love…
…had treated the fact that history had seen nations fall over a single love—too lightly.
“Heh, heh-heh… I…don’t care anymore; you can do whatever you want with me…”
Steph groveled, weeping, on the floor. It may not have had any contractual force, but it was too late for her to do anything about it. Finally realizing this, Steph could only say this with empty eyes, with half a smile.
“—Do you have any other requests? Heh-heh, just tell me your damned wish.”
But—. Having come this far, it must be said that Steph’s consideration was insufficient. She had not contemplated the most logical request to follow “Fall in love with me.”
Sora glanced at Shiro. Steph had no way of knowing what that glance meant. But Shiro nodded.
“…It’s okay… I would feel sorry for you…if you had to wait, until I was…eighteen.”
“Can you not talk about feeling sorry for me? Also, you know your brother’s not going to mess with his sister?”
“…That’s why.”
Shiro stuck her thumb between her index and middle fingers without expression.
“…Brother, grats on losing your virginity.”
“Wha—”
—Yes. Whether she’d been raised too well or her imagination just wasn’t powerful enough. The obvious idea that he would seek her body lit once more the eyes of Steph, who had given up on everything.
“Wha-whawha-what? Y-y-you never said anything about…! Y-y-you’ve got to set up the mood for these things, do it in the right place at—uh? Huh?”
But where the light returned was not the fear of her chastity being threatened—but the anticipation of it, and, as soon as Steph realized that, she went back to trying to dig a hole in the wall with her head. Sora, showing no signs of recognizing the subtleties of Steph’s heart in these distressing matters, spoke plainly.
“No. We can’t have any R-18 scenes until you’re eighteen, Shiro.”
“—Eh?”
Steph mumbled. But, of course, no one paid attention to her.
“…I don’t mind.”
“Well, your brother does! Pornography is bad for kids, absolutely unacceptable!”
“…I thought you just told her to fall in love…because you don’t like the sick and twisted genre…”
“Um, pardon, why is it you know all about your brother’s sexual proclivities?”
“…You’ve got…all your game boxes in the room…everything, everywhere…”
Steph had no idea what they were talking about. But she could recognize that she herself was being ignored.
—And that, for some reason, they were assuming that the sister would have to be there.
“—Um, couldn’t you just have your sister leave the room?”
“Hm? I’m glad to hear you’re looking forward to it, but there are certain reasons that’s not going to work.”
“—That’s not—! That’s not what I meant; don’t be stupid; don’t be crazy!”