Chapter 4
Praised by My Absolute Fave

In the pitch darkness, my absolute fave was waving his hand to me from across a big river. In the middle of the big river, hung a narrow bridge.

That smile on him was exactly that. The precious smile that was akin to a god’s, only available in the ‘Friends Route’. That smile, as if his facial muscles had slightly come to life; the one that had totally struck my heart.

That handwave, is he calling for me? If my absolute fave is waving over there, I can only go there, right? There’s even a bridge to enable me to go too. 

As soon as I got up on my feet, my hand was tugged.

I retreated a step towards the direction of the hand tug, and was immediately stifled for breath. A small hand was firmly connected to mine, yet I couldn’t see beyond the end of it.

“Sorry, if I go over there, I feel suffocated. What’s more, my absolute fave is calling for me on that side.” as I muttered that, the hand tugged me even stronger. Once again, a crushing pain in my lungs washed over me.

When I turned my face towards my absolute fave, his face had returned to his usual expressionless one. Ah, he just called me with that subtle smile. I was specially called by him!

Wait, I was about to open my mouth to call out to him, but coughs leaked out instead.

My absolute fave, who was supposed to wave his hand as he waited for me, lowered his arm and turned on his heels.

Ah, I was left behind.

The falling icicles on my chest chilled my body. The only thing that was warm, however, was the hand that was holding mine, and it slowly thawed my body when it should have been freezing.

Whose hand was it, I wondered, so once again, I turned my head towards its direction.

“Br..other…”

The sound of my hoarse voice sounded strange to my ears. And then I noticed that the glare that I had thought was blinding me for a moment was the faint light of a night lamp, illuminating the room. In front of my eyes was my absolute fave—my big brother in shota version—with a contorted face, nearly in tears.

There, I regained my senses.

In that dark place, the one who kept on holding my hand was my absolute fave in real life, my beautiful big brother Orsis. He was not the absolute fave with almost dead facial muscles.

Yes, I’m Alba, five years old, the stepbrother to my absolute fave; this time I seriously was at the brink of death.

For real, that big river had actually appeared in front of my eyes, you know! Apparently, I went into a coma, and I only came around after a week had passed since Brother’s birthday party. It took me three days before I could properly raise my upper body; I was a bit terrified that it was taking me longer than usual to recover.

When I was able to sit up on the bed against the pillows, I bowed my head deeply to Father, Brother, and Mother as they gathered in front of me, “I’m sorry, I ruined Brother’s big day.”

All three of them took it in turns to pat me, who was in deep remorse, on the head.

“It’s alright. The one who ruined it was not you, Alba. Launen disease attacks are more likely to occur when the patient’s heart is under too much stress. That day, weren’t you subject to something done by my father and mother? There was a red bruise on Alba’s hand. I’m going to seriously give those two a good scolding.”

“Urm, but because I had a seizure, Brother’s birthday party—”

“It’s okay. The greetings were settled anyway. Look, Orsis is worried about Alba, so why don’t you smile like you always do?”

“Father, Brother…”

This display of kindness touched me even more deeply. Even at this moment, Brother’s hand was still holding mine; it felt really warm. It was precisely that—he was channelling his little bit of magic by linking our hands. Before, there had been a few times where we ran out of medications and my mother and maternal grandparents took turns holding my hand and I managed to survive; this time it was Brother who kept being my lifeline.

When I looked down at our joined hands and saw my brother, he was smiling faintly at me. The back of my nose twitched at this warm smile—it was not that subtle one from the ‘Friends Route’. 

Ah, this is so precious. Smiling Brother is too precious to the eyes. Oh my, he is already beyond adorable!

“Brother… Thank you so much.”

“Alba is a good boy, you can properly open your eyes!”

He wiped the tears rolling down my eyes with his sleeve and gently patted my head, praising me again and again as a good boy. His hand made me so happy that I wished, from the bottom of my heart, that I could live.

But I understood that just wishing was not enough to keep me alive. In a few years, I would only be the little brother in his memories. So, as I definitely would love to see with my own eyes my brother growing up with his facial muscles in great shape, I decided to start taking action in order not to die. 

What would I do, you ask?

I put on the bag that Father had bought for me and wore comfortable clothes that would be okay even if they got dirty. In case of another attack, I also put my meds in the bag. I then secretly brought out the teleportation magic circle drawn on magic paper from Father’s study. For my stomach when I turned hungry, I packed the bread I had left uneaten behind others’ eyes that morning inside a handkerchief. 

Other than that, I also equipped myself with a small knife, in case of monsters appearing. I knew that such a small knife couldn’t be used to defeat monsters, but since I couldn’t use magic, I at least wanted something for self-defence. A sword would be too big for a five-year-old to handle, so the small knife would be used as a last resort. I wouldn’t have recommended a normal five-year-old to use a knife though, because it was dangerous.

When I was satisfied that I was ready, I set up my magic circle.

The destination was the forest where the school that Brother attended in the main story held its annual survival training. There, Orsis-sama and the MC of the game fell down a cliff and found a new kind of herb that could be a cure for Launen disease. As for the exact location… I was not sure, but the survival training followed the same route every year and I knew the in-game map of the area in my head. So I guessed I would know it when I got there.

I didn’t think about what would happen if I lost my life there. Because if I didn’t do this, there would be no future for me. Especially because my seizures were getting more severe with each passing year. Children with Launen disease were said to lose their lives before they could even celebrate their ninth birthday. There were so few children affected by the disease that it was designated as incurable.

Nevertheless.

If by doing this, I could find that new species of herb, I might be able to live and witness with my own eyes my absolute fave growing up to be at least as big as that cool and divinely beautiful Orsis-sama in the game. On top of that, it made me sick to my stomach when thinking about how Orsis-sama and the MC got even closer after discovering that herb. 

So I thought, Why not kill two birds with one stone and discover it myself?

The only problem was the lack of firepower and my poor fitness. I just needed to cover those with my courage then.

“Alba, today’s—” just as I was about to activate the magic circle, the door of the room opened.

Ah, I was planning on going to find it secretly. I widened my eyes in panic and met Brother’s gaze. When he saw that I was surrounded by the light of the magic circle, he suddenly rushed towards me.

When the light receded, I was transported to the survival training forest along with my brother.