An annoying voice.
The more he paid attention to it, the more distinct it became.
Kitahara Minakaze suppressed the irritation in his heart, took a deep breath, and tried to shift his focus.
The results were decent, but only just decent.
It merely downgraded from the whispers of an evil god to the murmurs of an evil god.
Minakaze had no other options.
He looked around, walked to the side of the living room, and slid open the door.
Stepping from the living room into the room connecting to the yard, he made his way to the veranda—the wooden porch separating the interior from the garden—and sat down cross-legged.
The cool evening breeze gently ruffled his hair, and the chirping of insects perfectly drowned out the lingering voice in his ears.
Minakaze finally felt the downward trend of his Sanity points come to a halt.
“Not bad at all.”
Minakaze relaxed, leaning back on his hands against the wooden floorboards.
He gazed at the faintly visible garden scenery under the moonlight and let out a sigh of admiration.
Truth be told, he still hadn’t fully grasped the situation.
Transmigration and all that really wasn’t so easy to accept.
Following Natsume Mio back here, including everything he had done upon meeting her, was simply driven by his human instinct to seek advantages and avoid harm, pursuing a relatively comfortable situation.
After all, if he hadn’t followed Mio back, he would be sleeping on the streets without even a terrible dinner to eat.
Thinking about it that way, of course he followed her back.
But following her back was one thing; to say he had any actual emotional attachment to Mio, her Grandpa, or this house would be pure nonsense.
However, just a moment ago.
He realized he actually quite liked this home—or more accurately, this house and its traditional Japanese design.
After all, it had a yard where he could listen to the chirping of insects.
In his past life, he hadn’t experienced this very often.
In his past life, he was a corporate slave.
Never mind the grueling 997 work schedule, when he went home he could only hole up in…
hole up in…
Where did I hole up again?
Minakaze furrowed his brows.
For the life of him, he couldn’t remember what his job was before he transmigrated.
He couldn’t recall his colleagues or close friends, either.
His memories from before he started working were perfectly intact, though.
It was as if someone had played a cruel prank, deliberately erasing a massive chunk of his memories and leaving behind only a few scraps, just enough for him to vaguely know he had been a corporate slave.
“Strange.”
Minakaze searched through his memories, trying to recall the missing pieces, and became somewhat lost in thought.
The insects continued to chirp all around him.
Time slowly slipped away.
“Brother…?”
“Brother!?”
“Brother!”
Until.
The increasingly loud shouts snapped him back to reality.
He turned around.
Just in time to see a frantic Natsume Mio rushing from the living room into the adjoining room.
Their eyes met.
Mio let out a massive sigh of relief.
Resting her hands on her knees, she panted slightly. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“Jeez, I thought you ran away again.”
“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m still freeloading here.” Minakaze shrugged.
“Then please freeload a little longer, preferably for a lifetime or something. And next time I call you, please answer me! I just finished my bath, but I thought you ran away from home again, so I ran all over the place and got sweaty again. Dammit!”
Mio leaned on her knees until she caught her breath, then walked over to Minakaze and sat down beside him.
Because she had just bathed, she was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of ultra-short hot pants.
Her fair, shapely thighs gave off a captivating sheen in the moonlight…
Speaking of which, her guard is seriously low.
Minakaze stared at her thighs and silently criticized her.
No matter how you looked at it, there was a guy sitting right next to her.
Even if this guy was nominally her stepbrother, they hadn’t seen each other in half a year, had no blood relation, and most importantly, he had a reputation as a delinquent.
To be this relaxed around him—just how careless could she be?
“What’s with that stare! Gross!”
Noticing his gaze, Mio pulled her legs in, hugged her thighs, and scooted to the side.
Minakaze replied calmly,
“It’s perfectly normal for me to look. I’m a normal guy, after all. Instead of calling me gross, you should reflect on yourself. I’m essentially a strange man you haven’t seen in half a year. Even if I’m your stepbrother in name, who knows what could happen? Honestly, bringing a guy you barely know, have no blood ties with, and haven’t seen in six months back to your house without an ounce of caution shows a complete lack of safety awareness. How about you try being a little more guarded around others?”
“That’s true…”
Mio hugged her thighs and pondered for a moment.
Then, looking at Minakaze, she asked earnestly, “So, are you going to do anything bad to me?”
“No. I’m quite adept at risk management. I maintain a strict ‘thanks but no thanks’ attitude toward anything with too high a risk.”
“I don’t get it.”
Minakaze said deadpan, “Simply put, I don’t want to go to jail.”
“…”
Hearing this, Mio stared blankly for a second.
The next second, she abruptly whipped her head away and stared off to the side, her shoulders trembling slightly.
The evening breeze lifted the long hair by her ear, revealing her beautiful, slightly flushed side profile, and carrying over the sound of her desperately suppressed laughter.
“What the heck? Answering so seriously that you don’t want to go to jail… You’re never going to get a girlfriend like that.”
After a good while, Mio finally managed to stop laughing.
Wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, she turned back to him and teased.
“Do you want me to punch you?” Minakaze’s expression instantly contorted.
That struck a nerve.
“I’m just telling the truth.”
Mio didn’t pay much mind to his threat.
Gazing out at the faintly visible garden, she hugged her thighs and rested her chin on her knees.
“Well, honestly, even if you did do something to me, I probably wouldn’t call the police. Even if we got caught, I’d say it was consensual. After all, Grandpa is going to need you to take care of him later… Wait, no!”
Halfway through her sentence, Mio suddenly realized how incredibly wrong her words sounded.
Especially in the context of their previous conversation.
Her face burning bright red, she looked at Minakaze.
Only to find Minakaze looking at her with an expression reserved for absolute trash.
“What’s with that look!?” Mio shouted loudly to cover up her embarrassment.
“Exactly what it looks like. If someone… if someone outside heard you say that, your life would be over. Have you ever heard of cancel culture?”
“I know I was wrong! Please stop staring at me like that! I’m begging you! My main point was the last sentence! Please just assume my brain short-circuited for the first part! Please, I insist!”
Mio shifted to face Minakaze, sat in a formal kneeling position, and bowed earnestly.
Minakaze looked out at the yard, ignoring her.
Mio breathed a sigh of relief.
Pursing her lips in slight embarrassment, she returned to hugging her thighs and joined him in looking out at the garden.
“Brother, most of what you said earlier was true, but you were wrong about one thing.”
After a moment of silence. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Mio, whose face still bore a lingering blush, suddenly spoke up.
“What?”
“When you said I don’t know you. That’s actually not true. Auntie told me a lot about you, so I’d like to think I know you fairly well. As for your character, someone who would do me harm wouldn’t have run to my classroom on the second day after Auntie married into the family, acting like a delinquent to threaten everyone into taking care of me. Even though doing that brought nothing but trouble, your intentions definitely came through.”
Mio suddenly scooted closer to Minakaze, pressing against him and resting her head on his shoulder.
“Besides, even though you never talked to me at home, you never did anything out of line. At the very least, none of my underwear has ever gone missing, nor have there been any suspicious stains on them or anything…”
Minakaze clicked his tongue.
“Tch, are all high school girls this bold nowadays? Just casually bringing up topics like this.”
“Well, it’s my stepbrother beside me, after all. You just said you didn’t want to go to jail, and you look at me like I’m trash. I just feel super safe, like I could talk about even more private topics…”
“Like I said, if you’re going to blush, how about you don’t force yourself to say such embarrassing things?”
Minakaze looked at her beet-red face, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Mio immediately shut her mouth.
However, she didn’t sit up.
She remained leaning against Minakaze, resting her head on his shoulder.
Minakaze didn’t say anything else, either.
She smelled quite nice, a scent that brought a sense of tranquility.
Even though he didn’t have much emotional attachment to her, the human instinct to pursue beautiful things remained unchanged.
A high school girl, a young maiden in her prime.
If that didn’t count as a beautiful thing, then there was probably nothing left in this world worth pursuing.
The evening breeze blew past.
Gently ruffling their hair.
“Thank you, Brother.”
Mio spoke up again, her voice very soft.
“This evening, I really thought I was going to die. Getting beaten to a pulp right after acting all cool in front of you… it was so humiliating. Hiding away like that… it was so humiliating. And being so terrified of dying… it was so humiliating. But in the end, I’m so glad I was saved.”
Her voice was truly faint, as if a slightly stronger gust of wind would scatter it away completely.
“I did it for myself, so there’s no need to thank me. I wasn’t being selfless. For my exact thought process, refer to what I told you on the way home—I was planning to play dead… But, if you absolutely insist on thanking me, how about explaining what exactly is going on?”
“What’s going on, huh…”
Mio muttered to herself.
Suddenly, she pulled away from Minakaze and stood up.
“It’s actually quite simple, Brother. What is our family home?”
“…A shrine?”
“Yep. So I’m a shrine maiden, an existence akin to a ‘clerk at the gods’ little shop.'”
Clasping her hands behind her back, Mio strolled to the edge of the veranda.
Carefully maintaining her balance, she tilted her head up to gaze at the sky.
The moonlight spilling onto the veranda draped her in a hazy, ethereal veil.
“Therefore, it’s perfectly normal for us to represent the gods, put our lives on the line in fights, and worry every day about when we might die. Right? Brother.”
She slowly turned around to face Minakaze.
With her back to the moonlight, her expression was unreadable.
“Uh…”
Minakaze was just about to respond when an extremely abrupt ‘Guidance Quest Completed’ interrupted him.
And by the time he registered it.
“Ah, so cold!”
Mio stamped her fair, shapely legs and stepped out of the moonlight, back into the range of the indoor lighting.
She grabbed him and pulled him to his feet.
“Don’t you feel cold, Brother? Hurry up and take a bath! I’ll go make your bed.”
As she spoke, she forcefully shoved Minakaze toward the bathroom.