Chapter 283: What I've Always Wanted
"Not to mention a kid like you, who says and does the most interesting of things and can effortlessly make me smile with just a few words or actions..." Nina glanced at me and grinned when she saw me trying to burrow out of her embrace, as if I was too embarrassed to be so close to her and wanted to distance myself as quickly as I could.
"...I would\'ve definitely kidnapped you from your family and adopted you into my own if I knew that there was someone like you out there who could\'ve kept me company when I was young."
"I don\'t know whether to laugh or be concerned when you say something like that..." I slipped out of Nina\'s arms and looked at her with an uneasy look on my face, to which she simply gave a mysterious smile, making me wonder if she was joking or not.
"Well, even if you were to actually kidnap me in the past out of desperation to have someone by your side, I know that you won\'t do such a thing anymore, so I can rest assured." I let out a sigh of relief, which made Nina look at me with intrigue.
"Why would you say that I won\'t kidnap you now?...Do you think that I don\'t have the guts to do so anymore?" Nina asked as she leaned forward to me, like she was asking if I were challenging her to do so.
She then threatened me while pinching my cheeks with a teasing glint in her eyes,
"Don\'t tempt me, kid, as I have a small storage room in the basement that\'s quite well hidden, and because this is a rather old building with thick walls, no one will hear your pleas of help if I were to throw you in."
"No, I\'m not saying that you won\'t do it..." I slowly backed away and started sweating, just in case she had some ideas. "...I\'m just trying to say that you won\'t need to do such a thing, since unlike when you were a lonely child in the past, you already have someone by your side right now who\'s there to keep you company every step of the way and have no need of some sibling."
"I do?" Nina asked with a puzzled look on her face, not knowing when such a person entered her life, like I said. "Just who exactly are you talking about, Kafka, since I really don\'t recall such a person existing in my life?"
"Come on, Nina...How could you forget your significant other, who promised to stay by your side in times of sickness or health when he took his wedding vows?...I\'m talking about your dear husband, of course." I said as if it were obvious, with a wide smile on my face, like I was talking about a joyous matter.
"...Why would you need anyone else, like a sibling, to keep you on your toes when you already have someone who\'s bound to you for the rest of his life?"
I didn\'t bring up her husband using any sarcastic tone and looked to be genuinely reminding her that she had a husband who cared for her.
But even though there was no mockery in my voice, Nina\'s face changed when I brought up her husband, and she looked down with a small frown on her face.
"Y-You\'re right...I do have a husband, right?" Nina seemed to be talking to me as well as asking herself that question, like she herself was unsure about the matter. "Haha...I almost forgot about him for a second...How silly of me."
Nina chuckled and seemed to want to brush off how weird she was acting at the mention of her husband, like it was a joke. But I didn\'t let her do so and asked in a concerned tone and acted as if I were panicking, like it was the first time I was comforting someone,
"W-What\'s wrong, Nina? Is everything all right at home?...I may not be able to do much, but if you are really troubled by something, feel free to talk to me about it since I\'m all ears."
"N-No, it\'s fine...It\'s just that I have a complicated relationship with my husband that\'s hard to explain." Nina weakly said while showing me a wry smile, like she herself was so lost in the issue that she didn\'t even know where to start.
And when she looked up and saw the worried look that had formed on my face, she realised that she was bringing down the mood by brooding on this topic, which she didn\'t like at all since she wasn\'t fond of negative atmospheres.
So to brighten the mood once again, she slapped me on the back to wake me up and exclaimed in a cheerful voice,
"Oh, look at you now, acting like a big boy!...Have you grown up so much that you dare to give me, your elder, some consolation?!"
"No, I just thought-" Experience amazing tales on m vl-em|p-yr
"There\'s nothing to think about, Kafka. I just slipped up for a second and said some unnecessary things...There\'s no need for a little boy like you to be worrying about such complicated matters." Nina patted my back like she was telling me to leave that insignificant matter aside and talk about something more fun.
"Rather than that, why don\'t you tell another one of your bizarre stories that always sound like they come out of a comedy sketch and entertain your older sister?"
"...No, actually, instead of doing that, why don\'t you ask me something about me?" Nina suddenly changed her mind about what to talk about. She then looked at me with a look of realisation on her face and continued saying, "I just realised that during our entire conversation it was only me who was insisting you keep on talking, and I really haven\'t spoken a word about myself."
"It wouldn\'t be right if it\'s only me that knows a lot about your life, Kafka, so ask me about anything that you\'re curious about, and this older sister here will definitely give you a satisfying answer." Nina patted her chest in a assertive manner, like she would answer anything I asked with confidence.
She even nudged me like she was egging me on and said while showing me a devious grin, "I know boys your age are going through the highs of puberty right now and have a lot of mischievous thoughts...So, you can even ask a naughty question that you\'re curious about, which you can\'t ask any other girl to this big sister."
"...I\'ll surely give you the answer you want to hear, no matter how shifty the question is, if it means I can clear my little brother\'s pervy little doubts." Nina sneered at me and treated me like a kid who had just entered his growth spurt and who had a bunch of doubts about the birds and bees and girls in general, which made me wonder if I looked like a child in her eyes that didn\'t even know such basic knowledge.
Hmm...So I can ask anything I want, is it?
I see...It seems like the time has come to stop acting all passive and innocent and step out of the cage I put myself in to hunt down this Tigress in front of me, who had absolutely no idea what was coming for her...