Maybe on ordinary days, his sister would be a little more lenient and let him sleep for another half hour. But when they were going out to have fun together, his sister's greatly boosted drive absolutely would not allow him to waste any time.
Kaino personally felt that the kind of situation where someone refused to get out of bed until their sister urged them, and even enjoyed it, existed only in Houm comics.
Maybe it existed in reality too, but at least he was not like that.
After all, those people's sisters had to be gentle and adorable, not heartless sisters who would run to the bedside and pound their older brothers for dragging their feet too much.
Especially when that sister was strong enough to pin her brother to the ground and beat him up—though his sister had never done that.
So even though they were twins, why was he the older brother when neither his physical abilities nor his Honkai energy resistance had been inherited from the family?
Was it not too careless to decide he was the older brother just because Schicksal's medical staff had carried him out first? Though that seemed to be how the ages of twins were determined.
Kaino got dressed while letting his thoughts run wild, then headed out to wash up.
However, when he passed a brown wooden door, Kaino suddenly stopped. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly as he forcefully slapped the door.
"Hey, Kiana? Stop sleeping, time to get up!" Kaino shouted at the wooden door. "The sun's already shining on your butt!"
After shouting that, Kaino did not linger by the door for even a moment before quickly leaving.
Just before heading downstairs, Kaino vaguely heard what sounded like a cry coming from inside the room.
The corners of Kaino's mouth rose involuntarily before slowly settling back down.
He, Kaino Kaslana, was the good older brother who cared most about his little sister's health. As long as he got up before Kiana, he would definitely make her understand the benefits of sleeping early and rising early—thus repaying her for always helping him sleep early and rise early.
Though there were not many times when he got up earlier than Kiana.
When Kaino came out of the washroom, the first thing he saw was Kiana walking toward it.
The white-haired girl wore two small braids behind her head and a cute dress printed with Houm designs. She froze when she saw Kaino, then immediately widened her eyes and glared at him.
"Ugh, Kaino, why did you get up so early today?" Kiana looked at him indignantly. "And even if you got up early, why did you have to wake me up so early too?"
"My dear little Kiana, it's all because of your brother's deep love for you." Kaino blinked and smiled as he used the excuse he had prepared long ago to fool his sister. "You said you hated alarm clocks going off while you were sleeping, right? If I wake you up early, then you won't have to be woken up by the alarm."
The girl froze again, then began considering whether that made sense.
"No matter how I think about it, it doesn't make sense!" Kiana suddenly raised her head midway through her thoughts. "Even if I wasn't woken up by an alarm, being woken up by you isn't any different! And I can't even get mad at the alarm..."
"How doesn't it make sense? Come on, Kiana, let me straighten it out for you."
Seeing that the girl had not immediately attacked him, Kaino realized her attention had shifted from losing sleep to whether being woken by an alarm or by her brother was worse. He continued fooling her.
"Look, you really don't have to hear that awful alarm sound anymore, right? Second, if I wake you up early, you can get up early. If you get up early, you can eat early. If you eat early, you can go out and have fun early... Looking at it that way, don't lots of things get done earlier?"
Kiana lowered her head again, frowning as she thought for a while. At last, she slowly nodded. "It still feels like something's wrong... but that does seem to be true?"
"See? Trust your brother." Kaino blinked again with a mischievous grin. "Then I'll go wake Dad first. You go wash up."
"No need, I already woke Dad up." Kiana's attention had been completely diverted. "Dad said he wanted to play games in his bedroom a little longer... Seriously, Dad is always so irresponsible."
"Wait, shouldn't you be charging in there and dragging Dad out right now? He said yesterday that he'd make breakfast today."
"He said he'd leave breakfast to me today... Ah! No, he said he'd leave it to you!" Kiana violently shook her head and rushed into the washroom. "I'm going to wash up, Kaino! Breakfast is up to you!"
With a bang, the door shut, and Kiana's voice vanished completely.
"Me again... I thought I could take a day off." Kaino pulled a long face, then stiffly walked toward the kitchen.
The reason Kiana always urged Kaino to get up in the morning was right here—perhaps because he had inherited almost none of the Kaslana physique? In any case, Kaino displayed considerable talent in cooking, and the food he made was tastier than what Kiana and Ziegfried made.
...It was only food that normal people would consider reasonably normal, but considering he was a Kaslana, reaching that level was already not easy.
Most Kaslanas, when cooking, had to consider whether the food was edible rather than agonize over how it tasted. Among them, Ziegfried and Kiana could be considered relatively talented cooks. Their food would not kill anyone, but it was definitely not delicious.
Unless the two of them spent a great deal of effort learning how to cook in the future, there was little chance of changing that situation.
"Let's see, eggs, apples, bananas, milk, and... bitter melon? Forget that. Huh, there are still a few cups of instant noodles left?"
Halfway through gathering ingredients, Kaino suddenly noticed several cups of Hou Master Instant Noodles inside the refrigerator and could not help but pause.
"When did we buy these? They've been sitting here without anyone eating them... Fine, let's just have these. Our whole family likes them anyway."
He shoved all the ingredients he had taken out back into the refrigerator. After hesitating, he took out three cartons of milk, filled a pot with water, and set it on the stove to boil, decisively settling on breakfast for the day.
Yep, ordinary Hou Master instant noodles with milk, with nothing extra added. A breakfast like that was enough to surpass most Kaslana creations.
...In both healthiness and taste.
Ziegfried's Distracted Heart
Kaino held a fork as he and Kiana blankly watched Ziegfried slurp noodles across from them.
He could not understand what had happened at all.
Just moments ago, after washing up, Kiana had called their father out from his room to eat breakfast and skipped over to the dining table with Ziegfried.
During that time, Kiana had even asked Ziegfried how breakfast tasted, and Ziegfried had replied, "Delicious."
Then, after sitting down, Ziegfried picked up his milk... and poured it into the instant noodles.
Even a Kaslana with disastrously bad cooking skills should not do something like this as long as he had basic knowledge of food, right?
"So... instant noodles can be eaten like this too?" Kiana muttered softly beside him, her eyes lighting up. "That's right! The noodles will become more nutritious this way, and we won't have to drink milk separately either. What a great idea!"
After saying that, Kiana reached for the milk on the table, intending to pour it into her instant noodles.
Fine, Kaino took back what he had said.
"Don't joke around!" Kaino snatched Kiana's noodles away. "Leaving aside that the milk was just taken out of the fridge, how could instant noodles mixed with milk possibly taste good?!"
"But Dad looks like he's enjoying it?" Kiana kept staring at the bowl Kaino had taken away, while her free hand twitched restlessly.
"...How exactly did you see the words 'enjoying it' on Dad's face? His expression hasn't changed once since he sat down, okay?"
As Kaino spoke, he looked toward Ziegfried and shifted Kiana's noodles farther away to ensure she would not suddenly snatch them back.
Even as the two of them noisily argued and fought over instant noodles, Ziegfried, sitting across from them, remained expressionless and unmoving as he ate his cold milk instant noodles.
"But if it tasted bad, Dad definitely wouldn't look like this!" Kiana thought for a moment before asking Ziegfried, "Dad, how do today's noodles... taste?"
"Hm? They taste the same as usual." Ziegfried looked up at Kiana, his face calm.
Upon hearing that, Kiana immediately lunged at Kaino and snatched her noodles back.
"Hmph, you tried to trick me. See? I knew as soon as I asked Dad."
Ignoring Kaino's increasingly lifeless eyes, Kiana raised her chin and showed off.
The next instant, Kiana poured all the milk in her hand into the noodles.
"Mmm, milk instant noodles. Let me try them!"
Kiana excitedly took a bite of the noodles. Her smile immediately froze, and her face gradually fell.
After a while, Kiana turned to Kaino, who had already started eating, and quietly asked, "Dad... is something wrong with him?"
"Shouldn't a normal person have realized it the moment he poured the milk in?"
Kaino swallowed the noodles in his mouth and glanced at Kiana.
"Also, I've already eaten these noodles. You can't have any."
"Hmph."
After breakfast, a terrible day began for both Kiana and Kaino.
According to the trio's usual weekend routine, Kaino should have first watched Ziegfried and Kiana play soccer and race boats. Then the three of them would have a big meal outside. In the afternoon, they would first go to the shooting range for a shooting contest, then watch a movie Kaino liked.
The reason Kaino did not join them in soccer or boat racing was naturally because he had not inherited the Kaslana family's monstrous strength. While he was still fairly healthy, he was at most as strong as a particularly sturdy nine-year-old. Joining their competitions would only make all three of them terribly bored.
That was also why they chose movies Kaino liked. To that end, Ziegfried often recommended Arahato to Kaino, trying to lure him into becoming a fan.
Though Kaino was not actually interested in Arahato—or movies in general.
Yet today...
His soccer shots were delayed by three seconds, his boat racing controls were reversed, and even while watching his favorite Arahato, he was completely distracted.
And as a Kaslana who had used Judgement of Shamash for years, he even managed to shoot other people's targets at the range.
"So Dad really is acting strange today."
Kiana, wearing braids identical to Aunt Theresa's, walked down the street and frowned tightly at Ziegfried, who looked like a walking corpse ahead of them.
"It only started this morning, so could it have something to do with Dad playing games in his room this morning?"
Kaino guessed from beside her.
"Kaino, you mean... Dad is like this because he lost a game?"
"Kiana, promise me you won't wear braids like Aunt Theresa's ever again, okay?"
"What do braids have to do with this... But Kaino, I don't think Dad looks like he lost at a game. He looks more like he has something on his mind."
As Kiana spoke, she looked ahead to the side and suddenly stopped. "I've got an idea, Kaino. Keep Dad here and wait for me!"
Watching Kiana run into the flower shop ahead, Kaino scratched his head and stepped forward to grab Ziegfried's pant leg.
"Dad."
"Hm? What is it, Kaino?" Ziegfried turned around. When he noticed one of the children was missing, he hurriedly looked around for Kiana. "Where's Kiana? Did she get lost?"
Kaino pointed at the flower shop nearby. "Kiana thinks you have something on your mind. She went to buy you a gift."
"A gift?" Ziegfried paused and looked toward the flower shop Kaino indicated, just in time to see Kiana come out holding a bouquet of lilies.
"These are... lilies?"
Ziegfried crouched down and accepted the flowers Kiana handed him.
"Yeah, I bought them for you, Dad." Kiana looked at Ziegfried, and her tone gradually softened. "You've been distracted all day... You must have something on your mind, right?"
"Don't deny it! Kaino and I have both been watching!" Seeing Ziegfried open his mouth to speak, Kiana hurriedly interrupted him. "Anyway, take these flowers and go talk to Mom, okay?"
"No matter what's troubling you, you'll definitely feel better after talking to Mom!" At that, Kiana put her hands on her hips and raised her head. "Don't worry about Kaino and me eavesdropping. We'll go home first and give you and Mom enough time alone."
Ziegfried froze, then let out a sigh of relief as if a burden had been lifted. He raised a hand and rubbed Kiana's head.
"Kiana, you've really grown up."
"Of course. Who do you think your daughter is?" Kiana narrowed her eyes under Ziegfried's touch and smiled even more happily.
"What about me?" Kaino inappropriately cut into the conversation and poked Ziegfried in the waist. "Your son is standing right here too."
"Okay, okay. Kiana and Kaino have both grown up."
Ziegfried smiled gently.
The Sirin Project
"Kaino, do you think..." The moment they entered the house, Kiana grabbed Kaino's clothes and anxiously asked, "Dad wants to find us a new mom?"
"Huh?" Kaino widened his eyes and looked at Kiana in disbelief. "Don't tell me you've been walking around with your head down and that miserable face because you were thinking about that?"
After they had seen Ziegfried off, Kiana had not relaxed at all. Instead, she had kept her head lowered in silence as if she were holding in a breath. He had thought she remembered one of the times he had tricked her and was planning revenge, and he had even worried about it for a while.
But come to think of it, if she really had remembered, she would have started punching and kicking him on the spot. How could she possibly endure until they got home?
"Yeah." Kiana nodded, but her face remained troubled. "Mom has been gone for so many years. It wouldn't be strange for Dad to want another mom, and Big Auntie recently..."
"Stop, right there!" Kaino pressed the fingers of his left hand against his right palm and stared directly at Kiana. "I have a feeling that if you keep talking, you'll say something that violates the law and will make the Overseer hold a grudge. Stop right there!"
"And if you want to know that badly, why not just go into Dad's room?" Kaino pointed at Ziegfried's door and raised an eyebrow. "Dad stayed in his room for so long this morning. There might be some clues left in there, right?"
"Mm, that does make sense, but..." At that point, Kiana suddenly looked at Kaino with a serious expression. "Kaino, Dad's room might contain his private things. Going in like this would invade his privacy. It's wrong!"
"But!" Kiana abruptly changed her tone. "Dad's room must be a mess, so I should help him fold his clothes while I have the chance. That means it's fine if I'm the only one doing it!"
After saying that, Kiana ran into Ziegfried's room with a rapid clatter of footsteps.
Rolling his eyes helplessly, Kaino followed Kiana into the bedroom.
Kaino felt things were not that simple. He had seen every bit of Ziegfried acting strange all day.
That definitely was not how someone looked when he wanted to find a stepmother... probably.
Kaino suspected that his father might owe some enormous debt, or that he had done something bad behind their backs that he could not let them know about and was now being blackmailed.
After all, there had always been a rumor in Schicksal—Sir Ziegfried, the Kaslana knight, had touched the butts of every Valkyrie in Schicksal~
If that was really the case, then as Ziegfried's children, Kaino believed that he and Kiana had the right and duty to know... and to beat Ziegfried up together.
After entering the bedroom, Kaino looked at Kiana, who was seriously making the bed, and could not help sighing.
Are you really here to clean the room? At least search through those clothes!
Before you continue