Chapter 73 – Come to Think of It, Ever Since I Arrived in This World, Haven’t I Always Been Toyed With at Everyone’s Convenience…?

A hospital room flooded with the soft light of post-rain sky.

Grain -- the vigilante corps' captain, still recovering from the grievous injuries he had taken in the recent battle -- was sitting up in his bed. Letaria, who had come to visit him, was not in her pilot suit but in her usual loose room clothes, settled in the chair beside him, studying his face with frank attention.

"I have come to pay my respects, Grain. Your color doesn't look bad -- are you truly all right? You suffered such dreadful injuries, and yet you look quite well, I must say."

She was smiling, but the concern in her eyes was genuine. Grain gave her a wry shrug.

"Yeah. I don't fully understand it myself, but the doctor has already given me clearance to walk around the room. ...That said, piloting a Makina or any serious physical training is still off the table for now."

"My, what a remarkable rate of recovery. Even in my original world, recovering from injuries like that in such a short time would be enormously difficult. You would need to summon a high-ranking healing mage to make it possible at all."

The word "magic" -- mentioned by Letaria as naturally as breathing.

That she was a person from another world, carrying a power called "magic" that operated on principles entirely different from this world's science -- this had already been shared with those in Grain's position within the Bureau, and with those close to Milea at Syn-Fibra.

"Is that so? From where I stand, the idea of sealing a wound with a single word, no science involved at all -- 'magic,' you called it -- strikes me as considerably more astonishing..."

Grain murmured it with the air of someone genuinely bewildered, though there was a thread of amusement in it. Letaria puffed up slightly: "It is quite a demanding thing in its own right, I assure you!"

In the past, when her feelings about her own magic had been complicated and raw, a remark like that might have clouded her expression. Now it only earned him a mild pout.

"-- By the way, Grain. I came here today because I have some wonderful news to report."

Letaria sat up straighter all at once, and arranged her face into the most self-satisfied, triumphant expression it had ever worn.

"Today, in the simulator at the training facility -- I defeated Ethan-sama! I am, in name and in fact, the strongest in Seldia!"

"...What did you just say?"

A slight twitch crossed Grain's face.

Grain had an extremely poor record against Ethan. Letaria, who knew this very well, found his reaction impossible not to enjoy.

"Sure, he's strong, but it's not as if I've never beaten him -- I haven't lost every single time, so it's not as though something like this would--"

"Oho ho ho! How unbecoming, Grain! Such transparent sour grapes will only undermine the dignity of a captain!"

She swept his hasty attempt at damage control aside with a delighted, ringing laugh. They could banter like this now, trading jabs and laughing -- that was how deep the bond between them had grown.

After they had laughed themselves out, a warm, easy quiet settled over the hospital room. Letaria let her smile fade to something softer, paused a moment, and with just a hint of self-consciousness, offered her next piece of news.

"And... there is one more thing to report. I have become Milea's little sister."

"..........Pardon?"

This time, Grain's eyes went wide in a direction entirely unrelated to sulking -- as wide as they could physically go.

"L-Little sister...? Milea's...? Wh-What do you mean...?"

That composed, methodical doctor -- the one who moved through everything with cool, unhurried precision -- had made Letaria her little sister. Grain's face was the picture of pure bewilderment, and Letaria found it irresistible.

"Kukuku -- there is no need to be so flustered. Apparently she is going to register me in something called a 'family registry.' A necessary part of how this world's systems work, so I'm told."

With that explanation, Grain let out a long, finally unblocked breath. "I see..." The clouds on his face resolved into understanding.

"A family registry registration. ...That is exactly like her. As the official family of Syn-Fibra's head researcher, even the upper levels of management couldn't push Letaria around however they liked."

He settled back against his headboard, turned his gaze to the sky through the window, and let his eyes narrow in something like quiet contemplation.

"Still... Milea has changed. The Milea I knew before -- I couldn't have imagined her letting anyone that close. It speaks to how much you've moved her, I think."

"Naturally! My sister has been utterly captivated by the charms of this magnificent person before you!"

"Haha -- 'Sister,' is it. I imagine if you called her that to her face, she'd make a rather interesting expression."

"I did call her that. And she was rather... flat about it, wouldn't you say? Is that not what they call giving someone the cold shoulder?"

"Ah -- no, that's almost certainly her being embarrassed. It's a shame I wasn't there to see it..."

It was, beyond any doubt, the most genuinely regretful thing Grain said in the entire conversation.

◆◆◆

"Um... Sora-sama..."

Sora's private lab, all clean white surfaces and humming equipment. Letaria was lying on the examination table in one corner of it, staring up at the ceiling, squeezing out a voice that could only be described as deeply ambiguous.

"Yes, just a little longer. Please don't move."

Responding in a tone that was soft yet somehow entirely non-negotiable, Sora was kneading Letaria's arm with absorbed, dedicated thoroughness.

It had been going on for approximately twenty minutes by now. Starting from the arms, proceeding to the legs, the shoulders, then the back and neck -- every corner of her entire body had been methodically, comprehensively, and relentlessly rubbed, pressed, and worked over.

"I was subjected to a thorough 'ordeal' at your and Milea's hands just the other day..."

That time, under the pretext of scientifically analyzing the 'magic' and physical functions of someone from another world, she had been covered head to toe in peculiar sensors and poked and prodded every which way. It was faintly alarming how accustomed to that treatment she was gradually becoming -- but Letaria had her limits, and she turned a flat, reproachful look on Sora's diligently kneading hands.

"Heehee, I'm sorry. But you see -- once I knew that your body was so resilient because you're from another world, I simply couldn't help being even more curious, both as a doctor and as a researcher...! Even after combat as intense as that, fighting at full Trace Mode to the point of serious injury, your muscle fibers are preserved this beautifully -- it's truly remarkable...!"

Sora wore the expression of a chef who had just been handed the finest possible ingredient, smiling from the bottom of her heart as she continued her devoted kneading of Letaria's slender arm. The pure, unguarded radiance of her intellectual curiosity was, to Letaria, faintly terrifying.

"And you know, Letaria-san -- the fact that you've become Milea-chan's little sister means that, in a sense, you've become my little sister too, doesn't it...?"

Sora's smile deepened, and she leaned in closer. Letaria immediately went flat-faced and delivered her verdict without ceremony.

"That is not how it works."

She ignored the resulting "Awww~" of protest entirely.

In the end, Letaria was not released from those thoroughly solicitous, methodical hands for another fifteen minutes after that.

Sora -- having kneaded Letaria to her complete satisfaction and acquired an enormous quantity of biometric data -- was beaming with a face so fresh and energetic it almost glowed. "This gives me so much to work with for the new suit adjustments!"

Having survived the storm of an examination and escaped Sora's lab in a state that could only be described as narrowly, Letaria made her way back.

"...Come to think of it, ever since I arrived in this world, haven't I always been toyed with at everyone's convenience...?"

She let herself collapse onto her bed and murmured the complaint into the air.

In her original world, she had been treated as something fragile and untouchable, like an object that might shatter. Here, every last person around her was close, familiar, and not even slightly restrained about it.

She had completely gotten used to that, too.