Chapter 1: My Younger Sister is a First Year at the Royal Academy for Strongest Female Knights
1
I was debating whether to have soba noodles or grilled fish for dinner tonight when my younger sister Suzuha burst in crying loudly.
“Big brother, big brother! Waaaaah!”
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
I listened to Suzuha as she buried her face in my chest.
Apparently she had challenged an upperclassman to an arm wrestling match at school and lost badly.
“I’m so sorry! Even though I’m your sister, I’ve shamed the name of my strongest big brother!”
“Huh? But I’m not the strongest or anything, I’ve never even claimed that. I’m just a normal guy!”
The school Suzuha started attending this spring was the Royal Academy for Strongest Female Knights.
It’s the most prestigious knight training institution in the kingdom, known for its extremely difficult entrance exams.
Even noble young ladies who had been trained by private tutors since childhood almost always fail to get in.
So the fact that Suzuha, from a commoner family like ours, passed was an incredible feat.
“Of course you’re strong, Suzuha! But the world is big, so it’s only natural to lose sometimes too.”
“But to lose against someone other than you, big brother…!”
“You’re training to become a knight now, right? So you’ll have to fight many strong opponents. Use this loss as motivation to get stronger for those battles, okay?”
“…Yes, you’re right big brother. I still have much to learn.”
I could see the fire return to Suzuha’s eyes.
Looks like she had calmed down. What a relief.
“Alright, to help you win the rematch, how about katsu curry for dinner tonight?”
“Yaaay!”
As a typical athletic girl, Suzuha loves meat, fried foods, beef bowls – pretty much anything hearty.
Definitely more than soba or grilled fish.
I know it’s not good if I spoil her with heavy food too often, but tonight I’ll make her favorite to cheer her up.
As I head to the kitchen, Suzuha calls out to me.
“By the way, about that rematch…”
“Yeah?”
“It will probably happen this week, or next week at the latest.”
“Isn’t that pretty soon?”
I wonder if they really arm wrestle that often at a knight training school. But Suzuha says,
“Actually, the next match won’t be against me, but you, big brother.”
“…Why me?”
“I was so frustrated about losing, I kinda blurted it out as we parted… ‘My big brother is much stronger than me!’ Like that.”
“Oh boy…”
“She seemed very interested when she heard that.”
I have a bad feeling about where this is going.
“She asked me all about you, so I told her everything – how strong you are, how wonderful, manly, and how you trained me up to this level…”
“…………”
“In the end, she was so curious she said she wanted to visit and challenge you herself soon. Hehe, how foolish for her to come seeking revenge against you, big brother!”
“……No dinner for you tonight, Suzuha.”
“Why not? ”
In the end, depriving a growing athletic girl of dinner was too cruel. Her large katsu curry dinner was downgraded to a small bowl of somen noodles.
Suzuha seemed to reflect deeply on her actions.
2
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On my way out to buy ingredients for dinner, a beautiful girl I didn’t recognize called out to me.
“Are you Suzuha’s big brother?”
“Um, and you are…?”
“How rude of me for not introducing myself sooner. I am Yuzuriha Sakuragi, the student council president of the Royal Academy for Strongest Female Knights.”
“You’re a noble lady?”
The Sakuragi family is one of the three great duke houses of this kingdom,
second only to royalty in status and authority. They are truly the noblest of the nobles.
The top noble families here forbid anyone not directly descended from using their family names.
So if she’s using that name, there’s no doubt this girl before me is the real daughter of the Sakuragi duke house.
“I came to talk with you, do you have time now? It’s rather urgent.”
“Of course, my home is shabby but please come in.”
“Not at all, I’m the one intruding.”
I bow and usher Lady Yuzuriha inside.
Never disobey the nobles –
that’s the wisdom of the common folk for surviving smoothly.
“Let me prepare some tea now.”
“Oh please, don’t trouble yourself.”
Lady Yuzuriha tries to decline, but I must offer proper hospitality.
I brew tea with the finest leaves in the house and serve her some hard senbei crackers on hand. She frowns after taking a bite – they’re tougher than expected it seems.
“So what did you want to discuss?”
“Ah yes. I was interested when I heard about you from Suzuha.”
“From Suzuha…about me?”
“You seem puzzled. I take it Suzuha hasn’t told you the story yet? Let me explain from the beginning then.”
I’m shocked when I hear what happened.
Apparently Lady Yuzuriha was the upperclassman that Suzuha lost an arm wrestling match to before.
Of course any first year would lose against the student council president ace of the top knight academy in the kingdom.
“Ahh, my foolish little sister has caused tremendous trouble.”
“No, that’s not why I came. You see, social status doesn’t matter at our academy, and I was the one who challenged her in the first place. It’s school tradition for student council candidates to test new students who got the top exam scores with a match.”
“I see, so that incident itself isn’t a problem?”
“Of course not.”
Lady Yuzuriha continues explaining that she had been looking forward to facing Suzuha in particular.
Because Suzuha accomplished something only one other student in history had – passing the combat entrance exam by defeating the examiner knight.
Incidentally, the first person to achieve that feat was Lady Yuzuriha herself two years prior.
“And after enrolling, I’ve never lost a single match in training or exams at the school. I was getting a bit bored, so having Suzuha show up after replicating my entrance exam feat really got me excited thinking I finally had a worthwhile opponent.”
“I see. So was she a disappointment then?”
“Not at all. She exceeded my expectations.”
“Oh?”
“Without a doubt, she was stronger than me two years ago. I barely won by the skin of my teeth as student council president. Honestly, it could have gone either way. She really was incredibly strong.”
“Thank you for telling me that. Hearing it from Lady Yuzuriha herself, Suzuha will surely be delighted.”
Suzuha isn’t really interested in most people.
The exceptions are those she acknowledges as equal or superior to herself in strength.
Like me, or Lady Yuzuriha.
So praise from Lady Yuzuriha would make her happy for sure.
“And after that fight, something even more interesting happened.”
Ah, could she mean…
“After the match ended, Suzuha said something completely unexpected…”
“I sincerely apologize for my rude behavior!!”
I cut in and prostrate myself on the floor.
A flawless dogeza, smooth as a flowing river.
“I have heard what insolent remarks she made after. My foolish little sister truly does not know how to behave before nobles–!”
“Please, don’t apologize. I didn’t come here to blame you for that.”
“…That’s not why you came?”
I peek up at Lady Yuzuriha from my dogeza position. I catch a glimpse of mint green panties under her skirt as she sits.
But nevermind that.
She tells me to sit up normally, so I hurriedly go into seiza.
“No, that’s not it. But well, it doesn’t matter. Please don’t worry about rudeness or me being a noble or anything like that. The academy rules strictly prohibit discrimination by status, and I don’t care for it myself either.”
“I see…”
“So from now on, please speak freely without regard for my position. But tell me – is it true Suzuha’s brother is stronger than her? I heard that from Suzuha.”
“Um, well I am her older brother, so…”
“And you’re the one who trained Suzuha to her current level?”
“Yes, that’s true. But I just taught her some unorthodox fighting…”
“And you thoroughly massage her body after training every day?”
“Well, that’s about all I can do as her brother.”
“Hmm…”
Lady Yuzuriha strokes her chin, pondering something.
I’m guessing this conversation is going in an unfortunate direction, just as I feared.
Please let me be wrong…
“So for now, would Suzuha’s brother humor me with a match? Of course, I expect you to come at me seriously. And I will face you seriously as well.”
My bad prediction came true.
Ah geez… What’s so fun about a noble young lady student wanting to brawl with me?
***
Thanks to Lady Yuzuriha’s consideration, we move our location to a wide forest right outside the royal capital.
She says this land belongs to the Sakuragi Duke family, so I can go wild here without issue.
More than that, I wish she would be considerate about not fighting in the first place.
Oblivious to my feelings, Lady Yuzuriha smiles and says,
“I only ask one thing of Suzuha’s brother. During the fight, please don’t hold back at all. I intend to come at you with everything I have too.”
“Uhhh…”
“You don’t seem motivated at all – alright, if I judge that you’ve fought well, I’ll have the duke house give you a reward. That should motivate you a bit more right?”
“Yes, let’s start right away, immediately, come at me now!”
“You’re so easy to read…”
You shouldn’t underestimate commoners.
No matter how unmotivated I may be on a noblewoman’s whim, the prospect of a reward means I can seriously go all out. If it means more side dishes for dinner, banzai!
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