Adopted Soldier

Not only that Berdonia has always been fighting against the Granado Empire, but they have yet to fall . Even if they did fall, the pride they had as Berdonians would never falter . They truly believed that they would win the war . So they were thinking of what will happen next . Even if the war continues on, and many brave men and women have died, life in Berdonia would continue .

This was the reason, that even now the children needed to go to school .

. . .

Niki was absentmindedly walking to school as she couldn’t stop thinking about her brother . Usually every week her brother would call her and keep her updated about his situation . Yet for the past few weeks, her brother hasn’t called .

This made Niki extremely worried as she felt something bad had happened . She knew that her brother’s line of work was dangerous, and it was entirely possible that he was in an area where he couldn’t make calls . Her parents had explained that to her multiple times, but that didn’t stop Niki from worrying . While she was absentmindedly walking she heard someone calling beside her .

"Niki! Niki! Niki!" The one shouting right at her ear was none other than her best friend Lilitth . Niki finally got out of her dazed state and looked at Lilitth .

"Sorry, did you say something Lilitth?"

"Niki, we already passed the school gate . " Lilitth was holding Niki’s hand and pointed at the school gate behind them .

"Oh," Niki finally regained her senses and walked towards the school gate .

. . .

All throughout the morning classes, Niki was in a dazed state and wasn’t able to listen properly to anything that teachers said . So during lunchtime, Lilitth forcefully brought her best friend to the back of the school building to confront Niki about her situation .

"Niki, can you please tell me what’s bothering you . " Lilitth looked really distressed this time . The moment Niki started acting weird Lilitth asked her if there was something troubling her . At first, Niki answered by saying, it wasn’t anything big . After a few more days Niki became even more absentminded, which made Lilitth worry even more, so she tried to ask again . Niki then responded by telling Lilitth to not ask her again, and she just needed time to think about things .

A little girl saying something like that was weird, but both Niki and Lilitth were more mature than other ten-year-old girls . So at first Lilitth decided to respect Niki’s wishes and left her alone, helping her here and there . Yet now she couldn’t help it anymore, Niki was getting worse every passing day . This made Lilitth extremely uncomfortable and worried .

Niki who saw her best friend in so much distress because of her, finally spoke about what happened to her brother . Lilitth listened to Niki without saying a word, once Niki was done talking Lilitth suddenly hugged her .

Feeling Lilitth’s warmth made Niki who was suppressing herself suddenly cry .

"Nii-nii! Nii-nii! Nii-nii!" Niki kept on repeating this as she cried on Lilitth’s shoulders . Lilitth who heard Niki cry for her brother remembered her own brother . She was in a similar situation as Niki, but she didn’t feel as depressed like this .

’Is it because onii-sama isn’t related to me by blood? . . . No that can’t be it! I’m sure it’s because I believe in Tou-chan and Nii-sama! I’m sure that two of them will come back and give me lots of hugs . ’

When she thought of that, tears suddenly came falling down and she started crying too . Lilitth then noticed the tears falling from her cheeks, and got a bit confused .

’What’s this, why am I crying? I don’t understand? . . . I know I believe that onii-sama and tou-chan will return safely, I understand, I do . So why am I crying? Tou-chan told me to protect Yuuki and Mirai, how can a big sister protect his younger sibling while crying? This isn’t right, onii-sama never cried and he protected me with that huge back of his . ’

Lilitth then remembered the time her onii-sama saved her from her hell, and then protected her from thereon . It was the same with Carlo and Michel, even though they weren’t related by blood, the still treated her as a daughter and sister .

When Lilitth suddenly imagined a world were Alex and Carlo wasn’t there, tears started to flow down her cheeks harder than before .

’Why am I thinking of such things? That’s impossible! Onii-sama and tou-chan will never lose! Tou-chan promised that they’ll come back . I just need to believe in tou-chan . I’m sure onii-sama wouldn’t abandon me as well . I’m sure he’ll come back and pat my head telling me I’m a good girl . ’

Lilitth who was spiraling down to depression could no longer hold it in, and started crying as hard as Niki .

The two little girls who were crying behind the school building, were noticed by a teacher who was passing by and heard them crying . The teacher that found the two girls, didn’t know what to do at first, and tried to calm them down . It took him several minutes to be able to calm down the two little girls .

. . .

The school day passed rather quickly after Niki cried her heart out . As the two were heading home, Lilitth suddenly spoke to Niki .

"Hey Niki want to have a sleepover?"

"Huh?"

"Let’s have a sleepover, I’m sure that’s going to be fun . " Without waiting for Niki to respond, Lilitth took out her phone and called her mom . After a short conversation with Michel, Lilitth looked at Niki with a wide smile on her face .

"Kaa-chan said you can come over and play, she also said that she would call your parents and tell them you’re staying at our place tonight . "