Chapter 440: The Sisters’ Promise
"I’m fine. Don’t worry, I just cried a little."
"Y-you...! What did you do to this child!?"
Having somehow entered the room without her noticing, the man sitting nearby let out a bitter smile.
She shouted at him, asking what he had done to her sister, and reached out as if to grab his collar.
"You’re going to do something weird to her, aren’t you!"
"A-ahh!"
A sudden baby’s cry echoed through the room, stopping her hand mid-air.
"W-what!? Huh!? Why is there a baby here!?"
"Aaaaah!"
The baby continued crying in the man’s arms, and she panicked, wondering if this was somehow her fault.
"Qiong Xing! Hui!"
While she was still confused, another unfamiliar man rushed into the room as if he were about to break the door down.
He also had beastman ears and for a moment she wondered if he was another slave.
"You bastard, what did you do to Hui!"
"Eh? Ah, um..."
Tasha had done nothing to the baby.
But her mind was too confused to explain and the sharp gaze that looked like it might attack at any moment stole her voice.
"Leander, it’s fine, calm down."
"Like hell it is! She’s crying!"
"Babies cry. That’s their job. Besides, your voice is making her cry more. Do you want her to dislike you?"
"Tch."
Looking frustrated, the man twisted his face in annoyance, then shot her one last glare before leaving the room with the baby in his arms.
"I’m sorry for surprising you. As I said earlier, that man is my partner. ...You two are probably still confused, so I’ll go back to my room for now. Kira, when you feel calmer, please tell Tasha what I explained earlier. After that, let’s have breakfast together."
With those words, Qiong Xing then left.
Tasha lost all strength and sat down on the bed.
Her sister also sat down beside her and she quickly checked again that there were no injuries.
After she reassured, she shook her head.
"...That was scary."
"Y-yeah—"
"Ah! And also—"
"!"
Startled by Qiong Xing who is suddenly coming back again, both of them felt their hearts nearly leap out of their chests.
"I scared you again, sorry. I forgot to give you this."
He handed them a small bottle.
"...What am I supposed to do with this?"
"It’s a healing ointment. It won’t fix your leg, Kira, but it helps with small cuts and scrapes. Please try using it."
"...Can we really use something like this?"
She felt grateful, but as slaves, she could not help but feel uneasy about being allowed to use something like that.
"Of course. That’s exactly why I gave it to you. Well then, see you later."
It seemed he had truly returned to his room this time, as the sound of a door closing echoed from the next room.
In the quiet room, when Tasha looked to the side, she saw her sister smiling happily.
"He’s a nice person, right?"
"...Maybe."
She still could not fully trust it, but she could at least allow herself to think that perhaps he was.
After that, Kira told her everything they had talked about earlier, and...
"...Is that guy really human?"
"Y-yeah."
Qiong Xing’s words were so far removed from the humans they had known until now that she could not understand him at all.
However, knowing that her sister had not been hurt by him made her realize something, and only then did her hands begin to tremble.
"W-what if... he’s angry..."
Tasha had tried to grab him by the collar even though he had done nothing wrong.
It was far too horrible an action.
He had been nothing but kind to them until now, and yet she had done something like that.
If anything happened, she did not care what became of her.
But at the very least, she wanted her sister to be spared.
"I-it’s okay! H-he wasn’t angry! H-he gave us medicine earlier too! H-he said we could eat breakfast together too! S-so... so it’s okay!"
Qiong Xing had not looked angry, but he was still a human.
There was no telling when he might suddenly become angry, or whether he might kick or beat them if they disobeyed.
"I’m sorry, Kira. I’m such a terrible older sister."
If only she had handled things better...
"N-no!"
Tasha was startled by her sister’s unusually strong voice.
"It’s because of you, sis, that I’m alive! I’m alive because you were there for me! I’m always getting you into trouble and making you get scolded... I-I’m sorry... I’m sorry, sis!"
She had been hit many times before.
Kicked so hard she had vomited more than once.
She had been told countless times to leave her and save herself.
But she never did.
She could not.
Because her sister had been the meaning of her life.
"...No, that’s not it. I... I’ve been relying on you all this time. I was scared of being alone. I didn’t want to be alone. But I thought that as long as it was you, Kira... only you would stay by my side—"
In the end, she had been protecting herself by pretending to protect her sister.
Her heart.
Herself.
"I’m here! I’ll always be here! We’ll always be together! So... so let’s do our best, okay? I’ll do my best too. I’ll do my best together with you!"
With those words, her sister smiled through tears.
Tasha wondered when her little sister had grown so much.
She herself had not grown at all.
It was pathetic, but she decided she would try harder from now on.
"Yes. Let’s do our best. Let’s move forward together."
"Yeah. Together."
And so, for the first time in a long while, the sisters smiled at each other.
...
Qiong Xing reached out to take his daughter, who was still crying, but Leander frowned in dissatisfaction and blocked him.
Even so, after a few more minutes passed and their beloved daughter still refused to stop crying, Leander reluctantly handed her over.
"I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Hui. I startled you, didn’t I? It’s alright now."
Qiong Xing gently rocked her tiny body as she cried with her face bright red and softly patting her back to reassure her.
"I’m sorry. Everything’s alright now. That big sister had only just woken up too. She was simply surprised because I was there."