Adopted Soldier

As the war continued to rage on, life in the capital of Berdonia remained never changing. The people of Berdonia knew that a large scale war was happening, but they weren't that bothered by it. In the history of the world, there was never a time when the war between countries has ended. There was always constant war, this predates the establishment of the Granado Empire, which was the oldest existing country in the current world.

Not only that Berdonia has always been fighting against the Granado Empire, but they have yet to fall. Even if they did fall, the pride they had as Berdonians would never falter. They truly believed that they would win the war. So they were thinking of what will happen next. Even if the war continues on, and many brave men and women have died, life in Berdonia would continue.

This was the reason, that even now the children needed to go to school.

...

Niki was absentmindedly walking to school as she couldn't stop thinking about her brother. Usually every week her brother would call her and keep her updated about his situation. Yet for the past few weeks, her brother hasn't called.

This made Niki extremely worried as she felt something bad had happened. She knew that her brother's line of work was dangerous, and it was entirely possible that he was in an area where he couldn't make calls. Her parents had explained that to her multiple times, but that didn't stop Niki from worrying. While she was absentmindedly walking she heard someone calling beside her.

"Niki! Niki! Niki!" The one shouting right at her ear was none other than her best friend Lilitth. Niki finally got out of her dazed state and looked at Lilitth.

"Sorry, did you say something Lilitth?"

"Niki, we already passed the school gate." Lilitth was holding Niki's hand and pointed at the school gate behind them.

"Oh," Niki finally regained her senses and walked towards the school gate.

...

All throughout the morning classes, Niki was in a dazed state and wasn't able to listen properly to anything that teachers said. So during lunchtime, Lilitth forcefully brought her best friend to the back of the school building to confront Niki about her situation.

"Niki, can you please tell me what's bothering you." Lilitth looked really distressed this time. The moment Niki started acting weird Lilitth asked her if there was something troubling her. At first, Niki answered by saying, it wasn't anything big. After a few more days Niki became even more absentminded, which made Lilitth worry even more, so she tried to ask again. Niki then responded by telling Lilitth to not ask her again, and she just needed time to think about things.

A little girl saying something like that was weird, but both Niki and Lilitth were more mature than other ten-year-old girls. So at first Lilitth decided to respect Niki's wishes and left her alone, helping her here and there. Yet now she couldn't help it anymore, Niki was getting worse every passing day. This made Lilitth extremely uncomfortable and worried.

Niki who saw her best friend in so much distress because of her, finally spoke about what happened to her brother. Lilitth listened to Niki without saying a word, once Niki was done talking Lilitth suddenly hugged her.

Feeling Lilitth's warmth made Niki who was suppressing herself suddenly cry.

"Nii-nii! Nii-nii! Nii-nii!" Niki kept on repeating this as she cried on Lilitth's shoulders. Lilitth who heard Niki cry for her brother remembered her own brother. She was in a similar situation as Niki, but she didn't feel as depressed like this.

'Is it because onii-sama isn't related to me by blood?... No that can't be it! I'm sure it's because I believe in Tou-chan and Nii-sama! I'm sure that two of them will come back and give me lots of hugs.'

When she thought of that, tears suddenly came falling down and she started crying too. Lilitth then noticed the tears falling from her cheeks, and got a bit confused.

'What's this, why am I crying? I don't understand?... I know I believe that onii-sama and tou-chan will return safely, I understand, I do. So why am I crying? Tou-chan told me to protect Yuuki and Mirai, how can a big sister protect his younger sibling while crying? This isn't right, onii-sama never cried and he protected me with that huge back of his.'

Lilitth then remembered the time her onii-sama saved her from her hell, and then protected her from thereon. It was the same with Carlo and Michel, even though they weren't related by blood, the still treated her as a daughter and sister.

When Lilitth suddenly imagined a world were Alex and Carlo wasn't there, tears started to flow down her cheeks harder than before.

'Why am I thinking of such things? That's impossible! Onii-sama and tou-chan will never lose! Tou-chan promised that they'll come back. I just need to believe in tou-chan. I'm sure onii-sama wouldn't abandon me as well. I'm sure he'll come back and pat my head telling me I'm a good girl.'

Lilitth who was spiraling down to depression could no longer hold it in, and started crying as hard as Niki.

The two little girls who were crying behind the school building, were noticed by a teacher who was passing by and heard them crying. The teacher that found the two girls, didn't know what to do at first, and tried to calm them down. It took him several minutes to be able to calm down the two little girls.

...

The school day passed rather quickly after Niki cried her heart out. As the two were heading home, Lilitth suddenly spoke to Niki.

"Hey Niki want to have a sleepover?"

"Huh?"

"Let's have a sleepover, I'm sure that's going to be fun." Without waiting for Niki to respond, Lilitth took out her phone and called her mom. After a short conversation with Michel, Lilitth looked at Niki with a wide smile on her face.

"Kaa-chan said you can come over and play, she also said that she would call your parents and tell them you're staying at our place tonight."