My sister is a villain in an eroge?! (hiatus)

We went into the kitchen, where the young lady watched me intently as I prepared a tea set, which made me nervous, but I handled the pressure well. I could only manage a couple of steaming cups and a pot of hot tea. I took a deep breath and hoped in my heart that everything would turn out perfectly. I took a silver tray and carefully arranged the tea in the most presentable manner possible. I considered putting some cookies I had baked earlier, but I wasn't sure about their quality, so I didn't.

"Looks good." The young lady acknowledged with a nod.

"Thank you." I said, a little proud of myself.

With a new and energizing mood, I took the tray that was cold to the touch in my hands; maybe things were finally going to get better; In my heart, I couldn't help but wish that. We continued down the halls, and the young lady was now walking behind me, apparently watching my every move. Under her seemingly innocent gaze, I couldn't help but feel nervous again. As we walked, I couldn't help but ask a fearful question.

"Are you sure I will be okay, young lady?"

"You should be fine as long as you don't spill tea all over him." Young Lady laughed as she joked.

'I can do it' I thought as I laughed at the young lady's joke.

We talked about some things while our footsteps were the only thing that echoed through the corridors, and the young lady laughed while making jokes, brightening my mood. When I got close to an intersection, I turned, colliding with something hard and falling backward. The tray and tea spilled, accompanied by the sound of the cups and teapot crashing to the floor. The boiling liquid fell to the ground as I let steam escape, wasting my efforts. But that didn't matter right now. When I saw the person in front of me, my eyes widened in horror.

His black hair was combed back, with a few unruly strands falling forward, and his deep red eyes gave him a slightly intimidating air, but the grimace on his handsome but boyish face made my heart race with fear. His white shirt was soiled from the tea I had made. When we collided, he had also fallen; his hand was resting on a piece of a broken cup, slightly bleeding. The young lady ran to his side, helping him get up, and gave me an angry look I hadn't seen before. My eyes became moist, and I tried to get up, but a pain in my ankle prevented me from doing so.

"I-I-I-I didn't m-I didn't mean to." My speech was a stuttering mess with a few sobs thrown in. I had finally reached the point where I believed nothing worse could happen to me, so I sobbed pitifully while my maid's clothes were stained with tea and tears.

In front of my glazed eyes, the shadows seemed to come to life. A beautiful black-haired woman appeared and went to Nathaniel's side, concernedly looking at his bleeding hand. I didn't care when the other woman with brown hair pulled out her daggers, apparently ready to murder me. I just cried; I moaned in sadness and frustration, utterly oblivious to everything around me.

"Young master, let's go to the infirmary." A slightly concerned voice spoke up.

"Wait." The boy replied with pain in his voice, and then I heard footsteps approaching me.

"Are you okay?" Said the young master, looking at me with concerned eyes. He didn't seem to mind the drops of blood running down his hand as he crouched down in front of me.

I didn't respond and kept sobbing; I was so frustrated with everything that even the risk of not responding to a nobleman seemed insignificant. I didn't realize the young master was holding my slipperless foot until it was too late. My injured foot from the slippers was a horrible sight; I tried to move it, but the pain made me grunt slightly. He became aware of this and turned to face the black-haired woman who was watching the interaction from the sidelines.

"Let's take her to the infirmary." He ordered, then put his hand on my head and stroked my somewhat unkempt hair. "Aria right? From now on, you'll be my personal maid."

His smile reassured me slightly, and I managed to form a sentence between hiccups. "You're not angry?" I wiped my tears away with my uniform.

As my gaze shifted to his injured hand, he laughed softly. "Don't worry, it wasn't on purpose." He continued to stroke my hair, knowing exactly what I was thinking. "I know you've been working hard." He said softly.

My eyes became blurry from tears, and my vision became blurry for an unknown reason. Despite the fact that I had just cried, tears flowed down my cheeks once more. I was sure it was an ugly sight to see me cry so pitifully, but for some reason, my heart felt warm as the young master smiled softly and gently hugged me. This time, I didn't cry alone in my room; someone else was present, which was comforting.

(***)

Nathaniel POV:

+4,000 affection points.

+12,000 fate points.

+5,000 affection points.

[Aria:

Love: 0% >>> 20% Affection (Believes you are a kind person)]

"(That was a success.)"

Charlotte smiled as she watched her shadow servant Alea carry Aria to the infirmary.

"(Yes, but I had to walk around the mansion like a fool for over 15 minutes.)" I said annoyed and Charlotte laughed by telepathy.

"(Is that what you're bothered by? I assumed you'd be complaining about having to stab yourself with the cup you were carrying)."

"(Well, that hurt as well, but I'm a little more resistant to it)." I shrugged, looking down at my bandaged hand, which had a small blood mark.

"(I understand how tedious it was to wait for my cue to exit down the hallway. Having shadow servants is convenient but also a pain in the ass)." As we walked, Charlotte nodded.

Aria, who was being carried by Alea, Charlotte's shadow servant, slept peacefully, snorting lightly. She was so exhausted that a single heartfelt cry sapped all of her remaining strength. That gave me an idea of how exhausted her mental state was. Perhaps she would in a week to be the Aria I knew from the book, a cold and emotionless heroine. But that didn't happen, and I was relieved about it.

' I wasn't sure I could fix her.' I sighed, relieved.

We walked until we reached the mansion's infirmary, opened the doors, and a swarm of people in white coats dashed towards me, completely ignoring the girl sleeping in Alea's arms. I was almost overwhelmed by the amount of attention I was receiving. A plump, gray-haired woman approached me and quickly extended her hand toward my wound. A bright green light illuminated my injury as golden flecks fell onto the bandage, and the throbbing pain I felt vanished as if it had never existed. As I marveled at the magic, the closed doors swung open with a clang, and a blast of cold air swept through the infirmary.

"Has my son been hurt?" My mother spoke coldly, her red eyes glowed menacingly as she scanned the faces in the room.

Her black hair fluttered down her back as she waited for an answer, but she vanished and reappeared in front of me, frowning at my bandaged hand. Aria opened her eyes, terrified, and couldn't help but tremble. Charlotte gave me a look, and her red eyes sparkled with understanding, and without needing to speak, a plan that would win us many points formed between us.

"I'm fine; I've already been cured." While my mother remained angry, I responded with a smile.

"Who?" she asked, not bothering to stifle her murderous intent, which had even Novem on high alert. But apparently Charlotte, Aria and I were not affected by it.

"No problem, Mom, Aria hurt big brother, but-" Lilia cut her off before she could finish her sentence.

"Aria?" Lilia said as she looked at the girl who stiffened under her gaze.

My mother's hostility had subsided, but she still appeared annoyed and disappointed. I was sure she would scold Aria harshly, and Aria's tearful expression indicated that she too knew she would be scolded. But before my mother could say anything, I dashed over to Aria and shielded her behind my back.

"Mom, it was an accident." I said this as I looked sideways at the girl who was cowering on my back and unconsciously grabbed a piece of my shirt with her trembling hand.

"Still..." My visibly calmer mother was unsure.

"She was hurt as well, mother; there's no reason to punish her for something she didn't do." I declared firmly, giving her a slightly angry look.

."M-mother." Lilia murmured in a daze, abandoning her angry demeanor in favor of a fearful and perplexed expression. I'm sure she's thinking that if it got too far, I called her more formally than usual, obviously on purpose.

"It's okay, if my child is okay with it..." she spoke with a guilty tone giving me worried looks.

"Thanks mom" I said smiling innocently, and she sighed visibly relieved.

+1.000 affection points.

+500 affection points.

"Heal Aria immediately." Lilia smiled as she sat on a chair next to a bed and placed her order. Alea placed the girl on a bed at her request, and the doctors worked to heal her injured ankle.

"(This complicates things)" Charlotte spoke to me telepathically as we both looked at my mother, who was watching everyone in the infirmary.

"(Distract her, I need to earn more points)" I spoke as I moved with a concerned look towards Aria, who was watching timidly a nurse heal her foot.

"Are you okay?" I asked, shifting to her side of the bed, sitting on the soft hospital bed, under the doctors' watchful eyes.

"Y-yes, thank you very much, young master," she said, ducking her head to avoid my gaze.

"That's great." I sighed in relief, then stroked her head slowly, like a master congratulating his pet. "However, don't call me young master; from now on you are my personal maid, remember," I said, a sulky expression on my face.

"Th-Then... master?" Aria spoke hesitantly, casting an upward glance at me.

I peered out the corner of my eye to see if my mother was looking, but Charlotte was doing a good job of distracting her, so I stroked Aria's cheek gently and nodded in approval. "Excellent."

+30,000 affection points.

+20,000 fate points.

[Aria

Love: 20% >>> 50% Slight crush (She feels something she has never felt before when she looks at you)]

[Ding!...]

[Congrats to host 1 for getting the achievement 'Crush']

[Generating rewards...]

[Congratulations! Host 1 has won 15% discount in the info store for 5 years]

'huh? I'll look into it later' I said, trying not to show my confusion on my face.

I ignored the surprised expressions on the faces of the majority of the people in the room, including Novem's narrowed gaze. I wasn't doing anything wrong, but it could have been misconstrued. I honestly didn't care what these worthless people thought of me; I needed to show Aria that I accepted her openly and that it wasn't just words, so I decided to do it in a public place where she could see that I wasn't ashamed of her or anything like that; it would also make people treat her more respectfully now that they knew she was going to be my personal maid and that I valued her a lot. Rumors spread like wildfire in this age of no entertainment, and a rumor was a source of free entertainment, and now they had something to talk about, and it would eventually reach the ears of the young maids who treated her badly....

I stood up from her side, watching the shy Aria look down at the attention, and she gave me a somewhat reluctant look as she saw me leave. I ignored her and walked over to my mother, who was chatting animatedly with Charlotte, oblivious to the rest of the room's silence. I nodded to my little sister, who gave me a proud smile, almost as if she expected to be congratulated.

"(Excellent work)" I said this with a soft telepathic sigh.

"(Of course! I hope you didn't forget about the promise)." She spoke as she pulled on my mother's hand to leave the infirmary.

"Come on, mom, there's nothing here to do." As we walked to the infirmary's exit, I spoke up.

"(I haven't forgotten, and I hope to work with you again in the future.)" I said it in a formal manner, as if I were a businessman conducting a job interview.

"(Thank you, boss)." She responded to my joke.

I felt somewhat in tune with Charlotte's plan when I heard it; it was the typical save the damsel in distress, but this was more 'save the girl about to break'. It wasn't a method I liked; it was risky to make such a move on such a young girl, but I saw it as a possibility for a few reasons. First, Aria was more mature than her age suggested; two, in the novel and game, she faces similar or worse bullying than she does now, and yet she persevered; her will was strong and unbreakable. It wasn't for nothing that she was descended from a sacred knight.

With this plan in place, we only needed to act as her emotional pillars, the only ones who didn't abandon her when she needed them the most, and we'd have someone on our side who was loyal. 'Everyone is a slave to something,' and in this case, Aria would be a slave to both fear and affection; fear that we would abandon her one day, and affection that we would shower on her. I smiled, perhaps a little more distorted than I should have, but I was excited because if we worked together, our only concern would be the other continent, all the heroines would fall sooner or later, the protagonist would suffer, and we would live happily ever after. The life we always deserved at our fingertips.

'Power does not change a man; it only reveals who he is.... How exactly am I?' I continued walking through the mansion's corridors, thinking.