System Down (4)

The meal finished with Nine and I responsible for cleaning up the plates.

"Noel onii-chan."

"Stop calling me that-- what?" still bubbling the plates.

"Do I not look cute?"

"I wouldn't want to be gay, sorry. But yes, you are disgustingly cute."

"The LGBT group would be so disappointed if they heard that."

"Yeah. Right."

Nine brushed her hair against my arm.

"Are you trying something on me?" I glared at her, an eyebrow raised.

"It's revenge," Nine grinned.

"What kind of revenge is this?!"

I don't think I would be swayed by Nine. If it was Prune then yes but Nine? This perverted bitch? Nay way.

"Feeling touchy touchy?" Nine giggled.

"Not in the slightest you pervert."

True.. why is it that there's at least one pervert in my vicinity? Back at home, it's obvious every other family member is a pervert one way or another. I'm not a magnet for these kinds of people am I now? Oh, I think I got it, it runs in the family, that's why

"Got-chya'," saying that Nine continued washing the dishes as if nothing had happened.

"Hey Nine… just curious, what do you do holling up in your room so often?"

Since the day Nine arrived, she's most often found behind the door to her own room, coming out during the rare few occasions to scavenge meals-- to put it bluntly.

"Streaming."

"Huh? Come again?"

"I'm a gamer," Nine paused her hands and looked me right in the eye.

"Seriously?" I said after a blink.

"Wanna smash?"

"What the f-- Pervert. Ludicrous pervert-- I shouldn't have asked.."

"Hahahahaha."

Streaming huh? I wonder how far she's gone with her own fan base..

"Noel, do you play games? The wifi is amazingly good here."

"No, I do art instead."

"Owh, so you're that kind huh? Surprising. We should do a collab sometime," NIne grinned, putting the last plate onto the rack.

"Nine, does your stomach still hurt? Prune said she has some medicine," Liliath appeared from the corner and.. "Did I miss something?"

"How about Liliath? Is she good with games?"

"Last time she managed to reach a record of more than 500 pipes in the flappy pig game."

"Oh, how about the three of us have a bout in my room."

"Noel?"Liliath tilted her head.

"Liliath, do you want to try playing games? Nine here is a professional."

"You aren't joining Noel?" Nine asked in exaggeration.

"You make it sound as if I'm going to do 'that'."

"Yeah, 'that'. Ah thanks Liliath, you want to try your hands on games right? Gimme a sec," Nine promptly ate the medicine presented by Liliath and went to her room to prepare.

"Noel, what do you mean by playing games?"

"Do you not want to? Well.. it's hard to explain, but basically, it's like the time you saw my sister and father running around and screaming their heads off."

There was this time in the past where Liliath was confused over why Novelle and my father were yelling coordinates at each other when playing an open world FPS game, thus she asked me about it.

She couldn't understand why such a 'thing'-- the game-- was created in the first place.

"I see…"

"Liliath, everything is ready to go, you coming or what!" Nine who returned, tugged at Liliath's hand.

"I heard you get to kill people-- is that correct?" Liliath stared at me with her beautiful crimson eyes.

Wow. Damn. What a way to put it-- she isn't wrong, though..

To her sadistic manner of phrasing it, I replied.

"Yes, but don't do it in real life."

"I see.. I suppose I should try such a convenient thing.."

"FPS was it? No problem!"

Nine successfully dragged Liliath into her room. Honestly, it sounds pretty odd considering the fact that Nine is a half-male. Well… if Nine wanted to try anything against Liliath, he could-- I would even allow it since-- I'm sure he'll regret it for life.

Well, with this extra time in hand, finishing up the cleaning, I picked up the light novel I was still reading and headed to the living room.

The sun was setting, the light pouring into the room, colouring Prune's silver hair in orange. She was scrolling through social media, as usual.

I made myself comfortable by playing some orchestral music on the speaker.

"Is this music alright?"

"It's alright," Prune replied with a nod.

I read, and read.

The sun slowly sinking into the horizon.

I then realized that Prune had shifted her attention to the city view.

Snap.

She took a picture, and probably posted it.

"The view here is amazing."

"Sure is.."

If anything, with the sun at this opposition, the city streets were as if liquid gold had been poured atop it, skyscrapers that reflected the sky that had gradient into beautiful shades of pink, purple, red and blue.

"You sure do read a lot," Prune pointed at the pile of books on the table.

"Hm? I suppose, they're mostly the ones Liliath brought over from my home."

"A lot of them are philosophical.. I don't think I could survive if I was forced to finish these books," Prune said with a slack voice.

"But it's jam packed with good information though?"

"I suppose it's not my thing," Prune went back to scrolling her social media, "Look at this!"

Bringing the phone to my face, it was a video of a bird pecking on wood. Sorry, not 'bird', it's 'birds'. Bird harassing tree.

"Heh.. Interesting.."

"But you don't really use social media do you?"

"I prefer reading novels and manga."

"Everyone has a difference in tastes," Prune nodded to herself.

"I guess.."

Looking down at the many self-help books stacked upon each other, though I have my own opinion about why one 'should' and 'must' read these, I tried to convince myself that everyone's life path is different.

"Status window open… huh?"

"Noel?"

"Finally.."

An update bar-- or gauge, whatever you call it. 7 days left.

The Liliath running on top of a cog has changed to Liliath waving an entire PC at me. But she was just standing there.. the bar wasn't moving.

You could just walk over to the finish line can't you? It's like less than 2 dozen steps away, why 7 days?

To that thought of mine, it seemed chibi Liliath reacted by pointing at the upper right corner with an angry look. There was a mail icon there with a red dot.

Okay.. got it, got it..

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Dear Noel,

The system is going through some dramatic changes thus this is a big update, the team would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused, corresponding compensation will be paid out as a bonus during the completion of the update.

During this period of a week, I hope you will continue to support Liliath with utmost care in the absence of the system aid.

Regards,

UNKNOWN.

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What in the..

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"Take care, you two," my mom said.

"I miss you big brother! Big sister Liliath! Good night! Take care!"Novelle, who was squeezed in between mom and father said.

"Good night, take care," was my father's words instead.

"Will do."

"Have a pleasant evening yourselves, see you," Liliath waved at the camera awkwardly.

The voice call was cut off and I slumped down my chair, the call was over, I felt rather homesick. Liliath on the other hand got up and just walked out of my room without saying a thing.

Hm?

What's going on?

I walked towards the door, planning to follow her to find out where she was going, but it was unnecessary as she called out behind me.

Teleportation magic again..

Standing at the door, I turned around to see Liliath hugging a bulky biology reference book. Which reminds me..

"Sorry.. I almost forgot. You wanted me to teach you about cells right?"

"Please do, I'm sorry for the trouble.."

"Nah. It's alright."

Liliath and I got down to business-- my room somehow became the make-shift teacher quarter. Liliath earnestly listened to my answers to the questions she had, and she would make some new ones to clarify her understanding.

The questions and answers came and went for the next dozen or so minutes.

"To sum it up, cells consist of atoms, while us humans consist of cells?" was the conclusion Liliath came to.

"Yes, something like that."

"How peculiar.."

"Anything else you want to ask? I haven't explained about single celled organisms yet."

"Pause a moment Noel," Lilith scanned through the text with a serious expression, then, "These cells are also the cause of various diseases?"

"These cells, microorganisms, yup. Our body is like a kingdom, having many moving parts to sustain it as a whole while these microorganisms are like the monsters that have to be exterminated. Every now and then they would infiltrate into the kingdom and turn the people into monsters and this is how it spread.. metaphorically."

Hahaha. Yup. I literally had to come up with these analogues to explain to Liliath.

"I nearly died to creatures that aren't even the size of a pinky?" Liliath was shaking in fear, " I-I'm not going to die again am I now.. Noel?"

I ruffled her hair to calm her down.

"You're safe. Think of it in this way, your body, the entire kingdom was suddenly transported to a world with entirely different monster types. If you lack the necessary info, then it's inevitable that the defences would be breached as the defences didn't know how to handle the new monster species, however, since you've gotten the immunity serum-- metaphorically, it's like a catalog of monster weaknesses and the way to fight each monster knowing their weak points, your body would know how to best defend against them."

"I didn't think our bodies were that smart," Liliath down at herself-- more accurately, she was fondling her own breasts. Um..

"It's weird how it works but yeah, the human body is weird."

"Though nothing here explains how the body is a catalyst for magic, is there?"

"There's no explanation for TALENTS either."

"Thank you Noel-- i have one more topic i would like to ask about," Liliath opened up a book marked page--

The anatomy of the heart?

"Could you explain the heart?"

"Heart? In what sense, it's a broad topic."

"Just.. explain it?"

"It's a pump, you know blood? It's the organ responsible for moving it around the body."

"T-that I know, anything else?" Liliath stuttered.

Hm? Why is she so flustered.. wait, she can't possibly be thinking that the heart is an organ of love can she now? The heart is just an expression, the real organ itself isn't really related to love, it's related to life and death.

"What is it Liliath? Why the heart all of a sudden?" something smells fishy.

"N-nevermind.." Liliath shut the book and stood up. "Thank you for today Noel, I learnt a lot. Good night."

"Are you okay Liliath? You don't look too good.."

She looked afraid for some reason. Afraid of me?

"I-I'm alright Noel, believe me."

Nay way, you're stuttering.

"O-okay.. tell me if there's anything troubling you alright Liliath?"

Liliath nodded, quickly hugging me.

"Please wait for me," she whispered.. again.

"Liliat… good night."

But before I could call out to her, she had disappeared-- teleported away.

Haah.. not this again.

Seriously, what in the world is Liliath planning?