My Sister Picked up the Male Lead

Oh my god!!!

I couldn’t even scream. As I turned around to find who called me, I saw my sister.

“What are you doing in front of the storage?”

My sister looked at me as if I was being strange.

I smiled awkwardly.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

My sister grabbed my shoulders and tilted my head to the right.

“S-so, I thought I’d go for a walk?”

“…A walk?”

I had nothing to say to my sister who, from her expression, seemed to be asking “Here?”. My sister squatted in front of me and flicked my forehead, wanting me to straighten my wrinkles.

“Ah, I know now. You came to see Knox right?”

“Huh?”

“That kid’s in deep sleep. I checked earlier since he started sleeping during the day but he didn’t move at all. He must have been very tired.

My sister then smiled.

“Wait, Diana? You checked? That Knox was really sleeping?  When?”

“Huh? Yea, I checked around dinner time. His blanket was bulging?  So I assumed he was sleeping and didn’t go inside the room.”

I thought back to Knox, who had changed his clothes and covered himself with the blanket my sister brought. I mean I was the one who brought Knox into the storage when he started dozing off.

“You-Did you come out because you were worried? Why? Worried since he was sleeping alone?”

My sister seemed to believe that I came out here because I was worried about Knox. It felt kind of suspicious that my sister conveniently misunderstood me.

‘So my sister didn’t manage to see Knox?’

Yeah, if my sister had actually seen it, she wouldn’t have been this calm.

I quickly glanced at the door. Because there were no windows in the storage, I always had to turn on a small light whenever I went inside.

Since it was dark, it was highly likely that she didn’t manage to see or notice Knox’s body grow in size.

“…Diana, you said you went to check on him around dinner right? Is he still sleeping?”

“Yes, so you should hurry and go to sleep too. You shouldn’t disturb a kid’s sleep. Have you ever heard of puberty? Pu-ber-ty. He must have been tired, so let’s not accidentally wake him up.

“Ah-Diana, wait! You didn’t see anything strange?”

“Strange? Why would there be something strange?”

After seeing my sister tilting her head, I was sure my sister didn’t notice anything strange. Judging from what she said, I didn’t think she had seen anything at all.

My sister looked at me as if I was acting strangely before clapping her hands as if she realised something.

“Were you worried because, since the storage was too dark, you thought the kid would be scared? Oh you, being so grown up. Fortunately, he sleeps well. You’re so pure. I’ll give him your room from tomorrow onwards, so you can stop worrying.”

“Uh, yea, what a relief.”

“Alright, alright. You should go to sleep already.”

My sister said as she took my hands in hers and rocked them gently. Even though she already treats me like a child every day, this reminded me of the time when I was younger and she would lead me to our bedroom.

“I know you care a lot about him, but you can’t wake him up.”

“Diana, I…”

I was cut off by my sister pushing me to her bedroom, telling me how much I slept when I was younger.

I was being pushed towards her bedroom like a seashell being swept away by the waves without a chance to speak.

“Aren’t you going to sleep, Diana?”

“Of course I am. I just need to see you sleep first.”

My sister continued staring at me. It looked like she really wouldn’t sleep until I fell asleep first. If I want to see Knox, I will first have to find a way to move past my sister… But it’s already too late.

Giving up, I laid down on the bed.

“Sweet dreams.”

That’s how the first night after my older sister picked up the male lead passed.

***

A few days had passed since then.

Days without being able to check on Knox.

In the meantime, I managed to gradually get used to seeing a little boy living with us in this space. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner together. When my sister goes out to gather food for us, we could spend time together just the two of us, so we were getting used to it to each other.

“The word ‘Estella’ means star.”

Currently, we were reading a book I read back when I was 10 years old. We had a lot of dirty books in our house, but this one was precious to us. Me and my sister would often take turns reading it so it became natural for us to revisit the book many times.

The book was a children’s book with a simple story. It was used to teach mainly basic words and had drawings for every word.

“…Estella.”

A clear voice mumbled, repeating what I just said.

Knox, who was looking at the picture with curious eyes, reached out with his hand. Surprised by the stiff material, the little fingers that touched the picture drew back. However, the violet eyes continued to stare at the drawing, blinking slowly, enchanted.

Knox then raised his head and pointed at me with his finger.

“…Amy.”

“Yes?”

“Estella.”

Well, yes, the first letters of the words are the same? I nodded my head at Knox who was now pointing at the word.

“…Ah, yes. The pronunciation of the words both starts with ‘Eh’. But the word itself has nothing to do with me. I don’t twinkle like a star so it should be easy to differentiate between the two.”

I’m not the word ‘Estella’, I mumbled to myself as I turned to the next page. The next page showed a drawing of a moon with the word ‘Luna’. Instead of trying to pronounce the word like he was supposed to, I noticed Knox staring at me.

This was the biggest change in him before he started living here and after. I mean the fact that he, a small animal like thing, was stuck to me like glue. Knox’s every day starts with him running towards me and clinging on to me as soon as he wakes up. Even while I was washing up, eating or just moving around the house doing housework like when I was picking up the laundry basket, he chased after me.

I once told him to stop following me and just sit down but he then said…

“…Don’t go.”4

With his teary eyes that looked like he was going to cry any second, he would hug the book I first read to him. 1

(She’s talking about the Estella book.)

Weren’t you supposed to be a cruel human who had no tears or blood running in him?

This was ridiculous. In the end, my sister scolded me for not taking care of the child that day and I had no choice but to let this creature just chase me around. This had been going on for days.

“Knox, Knox. Amy’s name means a beloved child. Isn’t the name so cute and lovely?”

“Cute?”

“Yup. It’s the name my parents gave her after thinking about it for 10 nights. She has always been a lovely child — back when she couldn’t go to the restroom herself till now.”

“Diana, stop talking about useless things during class time. It’s banned.”

“This child. So grumpy.”

My sister, who was trimming vegetables and herbs behind the two of us who were studying, smiled.

Originally, it was my job to trim the herbs. My sister was in charge of collecting and hunting food while I was in charge of the rest of the housework. However, since I was also teaching Knox now, some of my chores were handed over to my sister to do.

‘Since when you’re teaching someone, you yourself are learning, shouldn’t you be the one teaching him?’

My sister thought that since Knox was silent most of the time, he didn’t know how to speak properly, so thanks to my sister’s insistence, I became the male lead’s tutor.

In fact, the male lead was not unfamiliar with what I was currently teaching. He was a man who could speak eloquently and sophisticatedly in high society.

With just my sister and I, living by ourselves in this part of the forest, my sister was my teacher. But I couldn’t just neglect housework or stop collecting food, so I naturally didn’t have much time to study, so my sister seemed to be very happy that I was teaching Knox now. Actually, in the novel, my sister was supposed to teach Knox.

I took a glance at Knox.

 Knox, who used to yell at my sister for approaching him, has now become more well-behaved after a few days. He still puts his guard up around her, so it was only a slight improvement.

When she approaches him like what she was doing now, he would tense up. It was obvious from his nervous eyes, he was getting ready to run and hide immediately. 1

“Tada! Knox, what do you think this is?”

Surprised, Knox quickly hid behind my back.

“Diana, you scared the kid.”

“Scared me.”

“Knox, stop copying me.”

With his eyes peeking out from behind me, Knox scowled at my sister, scrunching up his forehead.

“I don’t want to eat it.”

“What? Knox, I wasn’t going to give it to you. I was going to give it to Amy. Amy, here!”

With her face filled with expectation and her eyes sparkling in anticipation, my sister handed me the cookies. As a result, the snacks my sister made ended up with me.

‘The reason why the kid doesn’t like you is because you do this kind of things.’

Sighing, I gave Knox the cookies.

 “You want cookies?”

“…Yes.”

Still wary of my sister, Knox quickly ate the cookie as soon as he got it.

“Is it yummy?”

…He nodded.

Then, he looked at me with those clear eyes of his.

My sister, who was staring at him eating, silently screamed ‘Kya~’ and smacked my shoulder.1

“Amy! Amy! Give him more! Give him more!”

“…Diana.”

…My shoulder hurts, you know? I shook my head, disappointed with my sister, and handed him another cookie from the basket.

I said it hurts. It hurts!

Even if I told her it hurt, it’s not like she would stop anyways. It’s been like this these past few days.

“Knox, listen to me while you eat.”

He nodded.

“The Night forest is the largest forest in the Eastern Continent, where both animals and monsters live. Amongst those who live here, there is a man called the ‘monster hunter’, who hunts down these monsters. Do you understand what I’m saying? “

To be honest, I wondered what was the point of me telling all this to Knox, but I was diligently explaining the information in the encyclopedia that my sister bought. I took it upon myself to teach him the language and common knowledge he should know once every day.

“The part of forest we’re living in now is the Night forest.”

“Night forest.”

“Yes, and in this forest, there lives small monsters and dangerous ones. So, you should never go out into the forest.”

My sister and I had been living with these monsters. My sister, who used to work as a knight, would hunt small poultry animals or collect herbs and wild vegetables. Since I wasn’t capable of doing so, I could only stay inside the house.

“This is the only safe place here.”

This place within the Night forest, which was inhabited by many monsters, was the only place without any monsters. So we called it the ‘safe place’.

It was normally hard to find since it was small but luckily, my sister and I managed to find it. Maybe it was all planned out by the author.

Come to think of it, then isn’t Knox really amazing? He managed to travel through the forest even though he was just a child. I mean, he managed to pass through the forest that was inhabited by evil monsters… Luck is luck, but thinking about how he travelled through a forest that even adults found difficult to cross with these small hands and feet was heartbreaking.

“Oh, it’s already 4.”

“Oh my, really?”

“Today’s class ends here.”

Normally, we would have dinner a little past 5. But these days, in order to get Knox into his bedroom before nightfall, I played a little trick. To be honest, until now I had not seen Knox’ original form. My sister was a light sleeper, so when I tried to sneak out at night, she would notice it and wake up like a ghost and ask me where I was going.

Thanks to that, I have not seen even seen the hair colour of the adult Knox. Even though a few days have passed, it’s amazing how there had been no problems with adult Knox so far.

‘At this rate, nothing would go wrong right?’

While I was putting the books back, Knox’s gaze was locked onto me again.

“Estella.”

“Oh my, you already remembered it? You’re so smart!”

My sister replied first to Knox’s mumbles.

“Estella. I also really like that word. To me, Amy is a person who twinkles like a star. Knox, you feel the same too right? You like Amy right?”

“Diana.”

“Then come hug me.”

(Diana’s actually asking Amy to hug her.)

“…”

For the first time, Knox was looking directly at my sister, who was swaying her body and coming towards me. Knox’s violet eyes, which were like jewels under the sun, stared at my sister who hugging the struggling me for a long time.

“Diana, stop it. You’re in charge of dinner today.”

“Hmph, you’re embarrassed by me, aren’t you?” You shy little thing. But that’s why I like doing it, come, I’ll give you another hug!”

“Enough… Ah! Ah! Stop!”

After hugging me tightly once more, my sister skipped to the kitchen. Annoyed at my sister who only just started preparing dinner, I tidied up my dishevelled hair.

Before I knew it, Knox was hugging the book and staring at me.

“…Amy.”

“Yes?”

After calling out in a hesitant voice,  he didn’t say anything despite his lips looking like he was about to say something.

Looking down slowly, Knox only hugged the book tighter.

“…”

As if it was replacing something.7

He hugged it very tightly.

***

That night.

Behind the sky blue curtain hanging by our window, the sky was dreary with the stars sparkling one by one. Quietly, I turned my head and looked at my sister.

 ‘Are you in deep sleep?’

I raised my hand and waved in front of my sister’s closed eyes. My sister, who would usually have noticed by now, was unexpectedly quiet.

Of course. Just now, during her meal, I mixed her water with hard liquor. Although the liquor was meant to be used for cooking it was still very strong, so I sometimes used it to soften leather. After drinking this, my sister must have been knocked out. So, leaving my sleeping sister behind, I crept out the door. 1

Sorry, Diana.

But this is for the sake of our survival.

I quickly apologised to her in my head and closed the door carefully. Afterwards, I eyed my destination which was the door in front of me.

Unlike the first time I tried to do this, I gulped nervously and immediately grabbed the doorknob and turned it.

‘Nice timing.’

When I was younger, I had escaped in the middle of the night before without my sister knowing. It was just to open the fridge to get food but now, opening doors without sound was a piece of cake.

The room Knox was sleeping in was surprisingly cool. I noticed it was because the window was left slightly open. Did Knox open it? Casually, I turned my head but then, I froze.

On top of my bed, which I had been separated from for a while, laid a man who was sleeping peacefully.

‘…Was my bed always this small?’

No matter how small my bed was originally, the man atop of it made it look tiny. When I examined his body, I couldn’t help but be fixated on his chest. His entire body was made out of purely muscle. The moonlight illuminated his body, exposing his bare arms which were hanging out of the blanket.

I just realised.

Holy moly. He was half-naked, wasn’t he? I slowly crept up to him.

As I was getting closer to him, I managed to get a good look at his face.

This was crazy. My breath hitched in my throat. I couldn’t help it, the only way I could describe how I felt when I saw his face was through slang. (I guess in korean when you say your ‘breath hitched’, it’s slang?)2

His long drooping lashes drew shadows over his pointed nose and below it, his stubbornly closed lips… I turned my eyes away in a hurry.

I could’ve been stuck mesmerised if I had continued staring any longer.

I felt goosebumps rising throughout my entire body. I turned my head towards the pillow slightly and gulped when I saw his dark hair.

I was reminded of the princess who got stuck, lying in a glass coffin. This was a man beautiful enough to have been mistaken for a statue.

‘S-since I’ve confirmed that he’s changed, let’s go back.’

If I stayed here any longer, something bad might happen.

After checking the man’s face, I hurriedly put down the hands that I didn’t even know I raised.

My hands were clammy and full of sweat. I was so nervous it was as if I was staring at a rocking bridge.

Tak!

If it just weren’t for my hands…

“…Who are you?”

Read latest Chapters at WuxiaWorld.Site Only

My body was swept around roughly, and the abrupt motion forced the breath out of my lungs. I then felt the soft mattress behind my back and when I opened my eyes again, I found myself lying on the bed.

Gulp.

I was starting to drool.1

T/N: