***
After their parents passed away, only she and her younger sister remained in the house.
To maintain their livelihood and to better protect her sister, Sakura joined an organization called Cocoon, becoming an assassin with the codename — 【Forget-Me-Not】.
The inevitable long journeys and bloody smell made her physically and mentally exhausted, but whenever she thought of her sister’s smile, she felt that all of this was something she could endure.
The wounds and marks on her body had been treated beforehand. Not wanting her sister to know she was doing such dangerous work, Sakura would deliberately conceal those traces belonging to 【Forget-Me-Not】 every time, only accompanying Rin as an older sister.
However, when she arrived at the park where she had promised to meet Rin, full of anticipation, she immediately spotted the pink-haired girl accompanying her sister.
— So cute!
When she saw the girl’s appearance, Sakura subconsciously had this thought.
But then she turned her attention to more important matters, this extremely cute-looking girl seemed to be chatting and laughing with her sister, appearing quite intimate.
Inevitably, Sakura felt a bit jealous. She had originally thought Rin would be waiting for her alone, and she had wanted to give her sister some sudden surprises, but instead Rin was chatting and laughing with another girl, one with pink hair no less… sob sob sob.
Of course, besides jealousy, she also felt somewhat wary.
After all, being from an assassin background, Sakura maintained full vigilance toward strangers who approached her sister.
Even though 【Elysia】 didn’t look like a bad person, having been active in the world’s dark side, she had seen too many examples of people who seemed good on the surface but were rotten inside.
“Rin.”
“Ah, it’s big sister! Big sister’s here! Big Sister Elysia, look at my sister, isn’t she very beautiful?”
Seeing her approaching sister, Rin happily tugged at the pink girl’s sleeve beside her, proudly showing off.
The latter approached Sakura, smiling as she said: “Oh my~ Rin’s sister is indeed a very cute and beautiful girl, hehe, that cherry blossom fragrance, it smells really nice, I’m getting a bit excited~”
The extremely close distance allowed the pink girl to lean near Sakura’s side, making sniffing motions with her delicate nose as she praised, her bright blue eyes filled with laughter clearly able to see the latter’s body tremble and the taut muscles hidden beneath her clothes.
For Sakura, being an assassin, having someone other than Rin get so close naturally made her nerves tense up severely, but at the same time, being able to smell that gentle and sweet mixed floral fragrance from Jiang Qiao’s body, Sakura felt unexpectedly peaceful while also blushing slightly at the nearby warmth she could faintly sense from the other person.
…Even though she’s just a girl.
Imperceptibly creating some distance, Sakura maintained a smiling expression as she looked at her sister, asking in a curious tone:
“Rin, who is this?”
“Ah, Big Sister Elysia is someone I just met. Because our hair colors were so similar, I mistook her for big sister.”
Rin naturally wouldn’t hide anything from her sister, explaining cheerfully while remembering the magic trick Jiang Qiao had performed earlier, saying excitedly:
“Big sister, Big Sister Elysia can do amazing magic tricks~ She just needs to take out a blade and wave it, and she can make a little guy that looks just like me appear!”
However, when she heard about the blade, Sakura’s expression clearly changed somewhat.
She smiled at her sister and said:
“Rin, big sister has something she wants to talk about privately with this pretty sister. Could you please go buy us some drinks?”
“Eh? Okay…”
Though Rin found it a bit strange, she didn’t refuse her sister’s request.
After she left, watching the girl’s retreating figure, Jiang Qiao sighed:
“What a very obedient and understanding little sister~ I wish I had a sister like that too~”
“…What’s your purpose in approaching my sister?”
But Sakura didn’t agree, instead questioning in a cold tone completely opposite to the gentleness she showed when Rin was present.
The pink girl wasn’t surprised by this change at all, or rather, this was entirely within Jiang Qiao’s expectations. He showed a somewhat helpless and dissatisfied expression:
“Really~ Don’t make me sound like some ill-intentioned bad person. Could such a cute girl like me be a bad person?”
“I really, really like that child~”
“So—”
His tone suddenly shifted, and the girl’s beautiful face showed some sorrow:
“I don’t want to see that cute child end up with such a fate~”
“Swish—!”
An extremely sharp small knife was pressed against her throat at lightning speed, accompanied by an expression that was extremely terrifying, like a demon.
“No matter what your purpose is, come at me instead! Don’t you dare lay a hand on my sister!”
To prevent her sister from discovering her identity, Sakura wouldn’t carry her weapons from her time as 【Forget-Me-Not】, but to protect her sister’s safety and deal with emergencies, she would always keep an extremely small knife on her person, and at this moment, it undoubtedly came in handy.
In the hands of this top-tier assassin, even such a knife that seemed too small for peeling fruit could become a tool for taking someone’s life.
But—
From this girl’s eyes, Sakura couldn’t see even a trace of fear for her threatened life.
“Hey, don’t just pull out knives at the drop of a hat. If you cut me and leave a scar, 【I】 would cry, you know?”
The fearless girl complained somewhat helplessly, while raising her fingertip to lightly flick away the sharp blade. She gently touched the shallow cut on her neck:
“Look, it already left a mark. If she comes back and sees this, she’ll be unhappy, right?”
“But it’s okay, look~ Just like this, if I gently wipe it away~ snap, all the injury marks disappear completely~”
“How’s that? Isn’t the fairy’s magic interesting?”
The smiling girl waved her clean palm in front of Sakura’s eyes, then somewhat helplessly advised the latter, whose expression remained very cold:
“Mm… don’t keep such a cold face. Just like Rin said, her sister is very beautiful, but if a pretty girl shows this kind of expression, points will be deducted… oh, or are you actually the aloof type? Sorry, sorry, 【I】 don’t play on that field, so I don’t really understand~”
Remarkable expressions flickered across the girl’s face in succession, finally settling back into her initial smile. Perfectly controlling this body, Jiang Qiao brought out 【Elysia】 character to the fullest.
“Alright~ If this continues, when Rin comes back and sees us like this, she’ll be very troubled, right~ So, back to the main topic—”
A mysterious color flowed through the girl’s deep eyes, and as her fingertips parted through that cherry-colored hair, that unwavering purple color created ripples as he asked with a light laugh:
“—Sakura, do you want to save your sister?”