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Chapter 69
Chapter 2 — Expand, my world! • Episode 2-Leisure • Selfish
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
「Onii-chan! Let’s go on a trip!」
The young man, who was reading a novel in a plain room without much decoration, turned toward the girl who opened the door without knocking and abruptly said so, his expression distorted in a troublesome manner.
The young man is a Japanese with an ordinary face with no distinctive features, and although he bears no resemblance to the girl with white hair and red eyes, they are truly blood-related.
It’s not the first time a girl has suddenly become selfish, and while he’s not angry at her for that now, he doesn’t want her to get herself into trouble. He told her that if she wanted to be selfish, she should tell their parents.
「I’m on a short notice again. When, where, how many nights?」
「A week later, 4 days and 3 nights in Chiba. We’ll go to the Land of the Rats on the first day, and the rest of the time I’ll be sightseeing near Sakira town. I’ve already booked a hotel there.」
She took a hotel there, too. Past tense. In other words, this was not an invitation to go on a trip, but an order to go on a trip and follow her.
The girl is very smart, even without the favoritism of an older brother, and is so clever that it is hard to believe that she is a fifth grader. As might be expected, she don’t outperform college-age youth academically, but she was terribly superior in areas that are not the intellectual skills required in such schools. Of course, she was excellent academically.
However, no matter how smart she is, she is still a child, and there are many restrictions on her behavior. Staying out overnight alone is a no-brainer. The young man, who isn’t a very good student, was not expected to do much by his parents, but the talented girl is doted on as much as possible. The girl’s trip wouldn’t be approved by her parents unless the young man accompanied her as a guide.
Despite this situation, the fact that her attitude toward the young man wasn’t a request but a command was a strong indication of the girl’s nature. The girl is not flirtatious. She believe that doing so and being done so is natural.
「No, it’s too sudden. I also had my part-time job.」
「Why don’t you just take the day off?」
「This ain’t elementary school, you…」
The young man, grumbling that he can’t take a day off so casually, contacts his part-time friends to see if they can take over his day off for him.
It is obvious that the girl’s mood will suddenly worsen if he refuses to do anything here, and as a result, this will lead to a reprimand from their parents. He wondered if he could at least take a part-time job, or if he had any friends who could take his place. If things get heated up, there is a possibility that they will give him a sermon that has nothing to do with the part-time job at all.
Although he has a part-time job, it is a side job to his schoolwork, and he does not bring home any living expenses. His family is wealthy to the extent that it does not hurt or itch to pay the young man’s tuition fees, and the young man is very grateful for their help. However, there is no way he can defy his parents as they are responsible for his living expenses, tuition fees, and various other expenses. It is, in other words, synonymous with the inability to defy this little tyrant.
But it doesn’t mean that the young man doesn’t want to give the girl what she wants. His sibling cute, and it satisfies his tiny self-esteem as an older brother to think that even this talented younger sister needs his help.
「So, this Sakira Town, was it? Is it a tourist town?」
As evidenced by the fact that he was reading alone on his days off, the young man is more of an indoor person and doesn’t know much about sightseeing and activities. I knew that the Country Of Rats is located in Chiba, so he knew that Sakira Town was in that area, but he didn’t know anything specific about it.
「I don’t know. But there’s at least some sightseeing to be done.」
「No, if you didn’t know it yourself, are you…」
If so, what is the purpose of the trip? If she says that she’s going to visit the Country of Rats on the first day and the rest of the trip is for sightseeing in the surrounding area, then she will spend more than half of her itinerary for sightseeing. It didn’t make sense to the young man that she didn’t even know if the place was a tourist attraction in the first place.
For the past two years, the girl has been haunted by this kind of strange feeling. He never thought deeply about it because it always became unimportant while hs was thinking about it, but he felt like she was operating on a different set of rules than the common sense of a young man.
「Speaking of which, you…」
When he started to be aware of the strange feeling, it was immediately noticeable, and even the appearance of a girl who should be familiar to him seems somehow strange.
It was said that they were originally an ordinary brother and a pretty sister who didn’t look much alike, but there was something strange about her, something that wasn’t her facial features or her atmosphere.
（Her hair and eye color are like this…）
「What is it?」
「… No, maybe I’m imagining things.」
The girl looking at the young man quizzically is something he had seen many times before, and eventually, as usual, the discomfort fades away, as if it were just his imagination.
「Geez, how long you’re going to laze off? Get the stuff already!」
「Ahh, my bad, my bad.」
「That’s what it’s about anyway. I’ll leave the planning to you.」
「Haah!? Am I not even supposed to decide that!?」
Without turning around to hear the young man’s voice, which was turned inside out in surprise, the girl fluttered her hand and left the room as if to say, “I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can.”
「Gee, what a little tyrant.」
The young man was trying to give the impression that he was in trouble, but the one word he muttered was somewhat amusing as he looked at the response of approval from his part-timers.