"Knock, knock, knock."
"Knock, knock-knock-knock…"
"Who is it? Do you have to be this annoying first thing in the morning?"
Cid sat up from the bed, already drenched in sweat. Endless irritation burned in his eyes. A black Magic Bullet formed in the palm of his left hand, dark energy swirling around it. Anyone could tell at a glance that he was in an extremely bad mood.
Which was only natural. Anyone who had nearly been killed wouldn't be in a good mood. Several parts of Cid's body were still basically a lump of pulped flesh. Even though they would regenerate within seconds, it still hurt like hell.
Black liquid seeped out from his body. Most of it spread across his sweat-soaked pajamas, reshaping itself into a black T-shirt and pants. The remaining portion gathered in his hand, forming a pitch-black sword.
If it's a door-to-door salesman, I'll drag them inside, beat them up, wipe their memory, and dump them back on the street.
No need to thank me. As someone who nearly killed me while I was at full power, you deserve this treatment.
With that thought in mind, Cid opened the door slightly.
Through the narrow gap, he saw a girl standing outside. No—judging by the full, slime-like curves of her chest, her smooth thighs wrapped in black stockings, the jet-black hair cascading down her back, and those striking crimson eyes that completed the picture, she should be called a beautiful young woman.
Her expression, however, was less than pleasant at the moment. The impatience in those crimson eyes spoiled some of her beauty, but at the same time it stirred people's imaginations. She looked like someone who had just been stood up by her boyfriend. If this were out on the street, plenty of people would probably assume exactly that and approach her, hoping to take advantage of the situation.
The moment Cid recognized her, the anger in his eyes vanished as if doused with cold water.
Not because he shared the same thoughts as those hypothetical passersby. In fact, considering that some of those people were probably still lying in hospital beds after crossing her, such ideas were impossible.
There was only one reason his anger disappeared.
The person standing outside was his older sister, Claire Kagenou.
The Slime Sword in his hand instantly dissolved. At the same time, he pressed both hands against the door and poured magic into them, trying to shut it instead.
Cid swore this reaction was purely instinctive. His mind was still foggy, and he had no idea why his sister had suddenly appeared here.
Bang!
The door didn't close.
A hand was wedged firmly between the door and the frame.
"Cid. Is this how you treat the sister you haven't seen for nearly a year?"
A terrifying force pushed against the door. The gap slowly widened, completely overwhelming the strength of someone at B- rank.
Seeing this, Cid withdrew his magic, relaxed his grip, and obediently opened the door.
It wasn't that he hadn't considered forcing it shut anyway. With the advantage of the doorway, and with his opponent using only her left hand, a burst of effort might have let him close it using his B- level strength.
But the anger from earlier, caused by parts of his body being turned into mush and his failed magic calculations in his mental space, had already faded. His brain was functioning again.
And he knew his sister's personality very well.
Even if he did manage to shut the door, the next second she would pull out her sword and chop it into pieces.
And when that happened, she would absolutely make him pay for the repairs. His sister knew his financial situation perfectly well. She knew he liked saving money, not that he was poor.
"Tsk. Giving up already?"
That was the first thing Claire said after stepping inside.
Then she immediately pounced.
Cid was slammed to the ground, and a sword flashed into his field of vision, cutting straight toward his neck.
It turned out Cid still didn't understand his sister well enough.
She wasn't the type who would draw her sword after he shut the door and then destroy it.
No—she had already drawn her sword and was simply waiting for him to open it.
With only B- level strength and facing a surprise attack from Claire, there was no way he could dodge.
Which meant his first blood was about to be taken by Claire.
As the sword drew closer and closer to his neck, Cid simply closed his eyes and calmly accepted his fate.
Bang!
"Why didn't you dodge?"
Just kidding.
Cid hadn't sensed any killing intent from Claire's strike. He knew she would stop short.
Still lying on the floor, he glanced sideways at the spot where her sword had landed.
The blade had pierced straight into the floor—less than a fraction of a centimeter from his neck.
...He really had just brushed past death.
Since when did his sister have this level of control? She could even suppress her killing intent so completely that it didn't leak out at all.
"Answer me. Why didn't you dodge just now?"
When Cid didn't respond, Claire—still sitting on top of him—asked again.
"Because you're too strong, sis. There's no way I could react in time."
A classic excuse. He had been using that answer since childhood.
"You're lying. You could dodge it a year ago. So why can't you now?"
Because a year ago, if I hadn't dodged, I'd never have known how long you'd keep torturing me.
More than a year ago, in order to force him into his current school, Claire had put him through hellish training. If he slipped up even a little, the training would become downright infernal.
By a conservative estimate, during those months he had nearly sent Claire to Hell with a casual counterattack at least ten thousand times.
Even when he went out at night to hunt bandits, his first thought was always how to lose naturally without raising suspicion.
To end that torment as quickly as possible, he had been forced to raise his strength just a little and dodge the sword Claire swung at him.
After all, B- rank was only slightly better than C+, and it still hovered right on the edge of the school's admission cutoff.
He really didn't need to push himself that far.
The school's largest investor was Gamma.
Which meant his admission had been guaranteed from the start.
Of course, he couldn't actually say any of that. All he could do was look at his sister with an awkward smile.
"Nee-san, just look at how much stronger you've gotten compared to a year ago. You know my talent is pretty average. There's no way I could keep up with how fast you've been improving."
Hearing Cid's words, Claire bit down on her lip and stared at him intensely. Cid simply kept that awkward smile on his face and met her gaze.
After a long moment, Claire stood up from on top of him. Turning her back to him, she pulled the sword out of the floor beside them and slid it back into its sheath.
"Don't say things like that. You just haven't broken through because you've been slacking off and refusing to train. Cid, your talent is not ordinary at all.
Starting today, I'll personally train you. With me pushing you, as long as you stop slacking off, you'll definitely graduate with A-level strength."
"Even if you say that, sis, I've been training at the same intensity as before at school. My strength has improved a bit, but only a little.
And graduating with A-level strength is way too exaggerated for someone with my talent. I'll be satisfied if I can reach B-level by then."
Claire suddenly turned around and looked straight at him.
Cid could see many emotions in those eyes. Anger at his lack of ambition. Guilt for putting pressure on him and forcing him to train. And… a trace of pleading.
It looked like his sister had finally accepted his "ordinary" talent, instead of constantly trying to prove to others that he was amazing and not ordinary at all.
"Fine. I still have some time on weekends that I can use for training. I'll leave it to you then, sis."
Honestly, he should have kept arguing and shattered his sister's expectations of him completely. Not only was this wasting his time, it was also interfering with his role-playing as a background character.
But Claire belonged to the category of "someone I don't want to abandon, but could if necessary." Since that was the case, a little trouble was acceptable.
"Hey, good morning, Nagisa."
"Huh?!"
Following the direction of Cid's greeting, Claire turned her head and saw that the door to the neighboring apartment had opened at some point. A short-haired black-haired girl was peeking out, looking toward them.
"Hehe…"
Now that both of them had noticed her, Nagisa Akatsuki could only give an embarrassed smile and step out.
Her awkward smile looked far more natural than the one Cid had just forced earlier. As expected of someone naturally cheerful.
"Um, Cid-kun, I wasn't trying to spy on you. I just heard some noise from your side and thought something might have happened. I came to check on you, and if everything was fine, I was going to wake you up for breakfast. It really was just a coincidence, I wasn't doing it on purpose."
"Oh, that? It's fine, I'm not—"
"Wait a second, Cid."
Claire suddenly cut him off.
"What did she just say? She came to wake you up for breakfast?!"
Looking at the shock on Claire's face, Cid realized he had probably created another huge problem.