Chapter 31, Aniki, You Traitor! (Epilogue)

Translator: Lizz

 

“Hey, aren’t you playing on your phone too much?”

 

Rekka listlessly spoke to Masato.

 

He seemed to have stayed up late last night; he was resting his head on the living room sofa and staring up at the ceiling. With his eyes half-closed, he looked extremely sleepy.

 

“Am I?”

 

Masato, sitting next to him, took his eyes off the phone and looked at Rekka.

 

Masato wasn’t good with machines and rarely used the internet, so he hardly touched his phone. Sometimes he used it for only five minutes a day, so this, from his family’s perspective, was an extraordinary change that could be called abnormal.

 

“You were grinning and playing with it for an hour. What were you doing?”

 

Rekka asked lightly, thinking maybe Masato was watching funny videos or playing games, but the answer was unexpected.

 

“Hm? Chatting.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Masato, who would have lived a lonely life without his brothers, was using a chat app. Rekka couldn’t hide his surprise.

 

And the fact that Masato had someone to talk with for a whole hour shocked him beyond surprise—it shook him.

 

His mouth hung open, his thoughts froze, and no words came out.

 

After taking plenty of time, he finally spoke.

 

“…For an hour? With who?”

 

“Rika-san.”

 

“With her!?”

 

The mention of his acquaintance’s name finally pushed him past his limit. Rekka sprang up from the sofa with force.

 

Since she was a work colleague, he could understand Masato contacting her through chat. He could understand it, but accepting it was another matter. The idea of Masato being able to have private conversations with a girl was something he just couldn’t accept.

 

Rekka had assumed he and Masato were part of an unspoken alliance of the unpopular, so he felt betrayed.

 

“You just work together, so isn’t that too long? She has her own things too.”

 

He spoke with a critical look.

 

“We were talking about the recent incident and chatting casually. But yeah, maybe an hour was too long.”

 

Masato, however, didn’t seem much bothered.

 

He accepted the complaint earnestly and even spoke words of reflection. That calm attitude only made Rekka dislike it more. His tension kept rising.

 

“A-aniki… could it be…”

 

His whole body trembled violently.

 

Masato finally noticed Rekka’s strange behavior. He placed his phone on the table and looked up at him.

 

“Rekka, what’s wrong? Are you feeling sick?”

 

He asked with a worried expression, but there was no reply.

 

Rekka kept trembling.

 

“————Are you two dating…?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I’m asking if you were dating Rika!”

 

“What!?”

 

Masato let out a stupid sound, stood up, and grabbed Rekka’s shoulders.

 

Rekka’s face was flushed red with anger, his eyebrows raised. His expression looked fiercer than usual—so much so that if someone met him on the street, they would probably turn their face away and step aside.

 

“You went behind my back and got a girlfriend!? That’s super important! Just answer me!!!!”

 

“H-How come it turned into that?”

 

Masato had only been contacting a work colleague, yet his younger brother suddenly blew up.

 

He couldn’t understand it at all and was completely bewildered.

 

For the time being, he forcibly pulled away from the angry Rekka, then sighed lightly in resignation and showed him the phone screen.

 

“Does this look like a conversation with a girlfriend to you?”

 

Rekka snatched the phone and scrolled through the chat history. His eyes were desperate, and even Masato, who was used to his rough face, had to draw back.

 

After a few minutes, Rekka gradually calmed down.

 

That was only natural. The messages were just post-battle talks after the ogre fight and discussions about paperwork. Of course, there were bits of small talk, but they were light enough that Rekka didn’t mind.

 

On the contrary, the contents were noteworthy: ‘As an apology for hurting Rika, he handed over the Self-Recovery skill card for free’, ‘The sale of magic stones brought 30,000 per person’, ‘Report on the special individual’, ‘Exploration temporarily suspended for investigation’, and so on.

 

“Hey… what did it mean by hurting Rika?”

 

Masato carefully chose his words so as not to anger the short-tempered Rekka.

 

“Seiji-kun was careless, and Rika got hurt. As an apology, he gave us the card.”

 

“Is she okay?”

 

“Yeah. Not a single scar. Well, some parts of it just couldn’t be helped, so don’t blame him too much.”

 

“If you say so, Masato-aniki… fine, I’ll let it go.”

 

Rekka reluctantly accepted it.

 

“So, what will you do from here?”

 

“They said an investigation will be conducted, so we’ll take a break for a while, but we’ll definitely resume. The real thing starts from the 6th floor.”

 

“Just you and Rika?”

 

“We’re at the same level now, and it’s easier to coordinate. For now, we don’t plan to add anyone else.”

 

“Hm. Someday, take me along too.”

 

“When you’re grown up.”

 

Just when Rekka placed the phone on Masato’s hand to return it, a new message appeared.

 

It was from Rika. [Please take care of me ♡], with a cute emoji at the end.

 

Crack. A strange sound came from Rekka’s hand, which was gripping the phone. Looking closely, a faint crack could be seen on the display.

 

“H-hey!”

 

Even though Masato didn’t use his phone often, there was no way he wouldn’t care if it got broken. Panicking, he tried to take it back, but Rekka gripped it with all his strength, making it impossible to do so.

 

Of course, if Masato unleashed the full power of his Level 2 strength, he could easily snatch it away, but the phone wouldn’t survive intact.

 

As they tugged back and forth, another message arrived.

 

[Also, are you free tomorrow…? I’d be happy if you could come shopping with me.]

 

“”…””

 

Both of them fell silent.

 

Rekka, usually expressive, now showed nothing. His face was blank, utterly unreadable. He froze after seeing the message. After a long pause, he slowly raised his head.

 

Masato let go of the phone and stepped back. A chill ran down his spine.

 

“Hey, Masato-aniki.”

 

“W-what is it?”

 

“You really… aren’t dating her, right?”

 

“Y-yeah. Certainly. She’s just a work colleague.”

 

Small trembles shook Rekka’s frame as he tried to endure, but finally he reached his breaking point. He slammed the phone down and grabbed Masato by the collar.

 

“Then why did she invite you to go shopping!!!! Only Masato-aniki!!! Whyyyyyy!!!”

 

After shouting, he suddenly let go of Masato’s clothes, stepped back a few paces, spun around, and half-crying, flung the door open and rushed outside barefoot.

 

“Rekka…”

 

Masato couldn’t keep up with the rapidly changing situation.

 

If only Rekka changed his rough attitude, he could probably get along with girls. That thought was all Masato could manage as he watched him leave.

 

As Masato stood frozen, a room’s door opened.

 

“Nii-san, did something happen with Rekka?”

 

It was Haru, poking his head out after hearing the commotion.

 

“I’m not sure?”

 

“He’s still weird as always.”

 

Haru quickly lost interest, pulled his head back, and returned to his room.

 

The sound of the door closing echoed in the apartment.

 

“That guy thinks too much.”

 

Left alone, Masato muttered with a sigh.

 

He understood the desire for friends or a girlfriend, but taken that far, even Masato was put off. Worried about his younger brother’s future, he still used the cracked phone to send a reply to Rika.