Chapter 12

Chapter 12

I rested my hands on my knees, watching her tears fall with genuine focus.

Embarrassed by my scrutiny, her face flushed with a hint of indignation.

I reached out and wiped her tears away.

“What are you crying for? Of course I’m on your side.”

“Really?”

“Really. And I’m on Eldest Senior Sister’s side, too.”

Little Junior Sister froze, her expression one of conflicted hesitation.

Perhaps, in her subconscious, she and Eldest Senior Sister were on opposite sides-bitter rivals. To her, being on Eldest Senior Sister’s side meant I couldn’t be on hers.

But I have lived for a very long time.

I no longer like to distinguish things by black and white, or right and wrong.

In my eyes, everything is gray, everything is stagnant, and yet everything is in a state of flux.

Furthermore, I no longer allow myself to be a player on the board; I prefer to stay outside the game. Whenever someone wants me to believe something is a certain way, I always stop to consider why they want me to think that. Once I understand the motive, the mystery vanishes.

I smiled and pinched her cheek.

“Just who made you think that you and Eldest Senior Sister are enemies…”

Her face turned bright red. She didn’t dare deny it, yet she didn’t dare confirm it either. She looked utterly bewildered, finally managing only to say, “Senior Sister, don’t pinch my face. I’m an adult now.”

Oh, really?

An adult, are you? An adult who cries like a baby.

“Stay here for a few days and help me with something.”

I gave her two chickens to feed separately.

One chicken was to be fed only half a chicken’s worth of feed every day.

The other chicken was to be fed a portion and a half every day.

In just three days, the first chicken was squawking in desperate hunger, while the other was so stuffed it couldn’t eat another bite. Even so, I told her to pry the chicken’s beak open and force-feed it.

Little Junior Sister managed to steel her heart and feed them on the first day.

By the second day, her hands were shaking as she pried open the overfed chicken’s beak.

On the third day, her lips trembled.

“Senior Sister, let’s stop feeding it. It’s going to burst.”

“You aren’t a chicken. How do you know it’s about to burst?”

“But it’s suffering.”

“Did it tell you that?”

Little Junior Sister’s eyes were red. “I… I can feel it. This is cruelty. You’re raising these chickens to eat them; they’re going to die sooner or later anyway, so why must you mistreat them?”

I nodded. “Well said. Anything else?”

Little Junior Sister summoned her courage. “I don’t know why you’re doing this. One chicken is starving to death while the other is being stuffed to death. Why can’t you just give them the same amount? You aren’t short on feed, and their lives are short enough as it is. Can’t you let them be happy while they’re alive? Why create this artificial divide?”

I broke into applause.

“Little Junior Sister, that was very well said. So you do have a temper after all. I thought you didn’t know how to get angry.”

Little Junior Sister dazed for a moment.

I continued, “Do you see these two chickens as enemies?”

“Of course not.”

“Then are you and Eldest Senior Sister enemies?”

“Of course not…”

“Exactly. You and Eldest Senior Sister aren’t enemies, yet things aren’t harmonious between you either. Something has clearly gone wrong, hasn’t it?”