The Empror's Trap

Siyue's daily life was very simple.

In this world, there were no games, no digital tablets, and certainly no r18 images to look at.

So, using her supposed illness and hysteria as an excuse, Siyue chose to stay home and not go out. Every morning after waking up, she would draw. When tired of drawing, she would read books and study the maps of this world, mentally playing a certain notorious 18+ game in her imagination.

Over time, having thoroughly read many works about this world, she had built up a rich knowledge base. However, this knowledge remained merely theoretical—in the short term, it seemed unlikely she would find any practical use for it.

So Siyue stretched lazily, then grabbed the fox she was raising and headed straight for Kenji's room.

Besides the aforementioned entertainment, all she could do was stay by her brother's side. Although coming to this terrible world was quite frustrating, in some ways, she was fortunate to have arrived with her brother. Otherwise, she couldn't even imagine how she would survive.

She ran to her brother's room next door and opened the door without hesitation:

"Bro, do you have time..."

Then she saw Lina leaning on Kenji's shoulder.

"..."

Her mind raced wildly for a moment. In that instant, Siyue imagined many things: a future where her brother abandoned her, a future where she was sent away, a future where she faced strangers and was too nervous to speak...

"Ah, Siyue, what is it..."

Kenji turned his head. He was quite relieved that Siyue had come at just the right moment to help him out of this awkward situation. However, when he saw Siyue's face, the rest of his words died in his throat.

Siyue just stood there, as if frozen in place, then slowly clutched her head, her face filled with terror as two streams of tears flowed down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's wrong? I swear I didn't do anything!"

Kenji was completely bewildered. He had no idea what had upset this little one, and now Lina had also turned to notice Siyue's distress.

For Lina, seeing Kenji flustered was indeed amusing, but not like this. Besides, to her, Kenji and Siyue were like her own family. Seeing Siyue in this state, Lina also panicked.

"Young miss, what's wrong with you?"

Lina quickly ran to Siyue and held her shoulders.

But Siyue, overwhelmed by her imagined cruel future, didn't even notice Lina's words. She was simply terrified by thoughts of her life ahead.

"Brother... not yet, I'm still too young..."

She was still young, and Kenji surely wouldn't... abandon her to live a shameless life with just the two of them, right? That's what she was thinking.

But these words sounded quite different to others' ears.

Kenji froze. Something about these words felt very wrong.

Lina was even more shocked, as if struck by lightning. She turned to look at Kenji in astonishment, then back at Siyue.

Wait, these two were blood siblings, right?

What had young master done? What kind of plot development was this?

"Young master, please explain," Lina said with a seemingly friendly smile. "What exactly did you say or do to the young miss?"

"I'm telling you, I have no idea. Do you believe me?"

"...I believe you."

"I'm not lying to you, if you don't believe me... Huh? You believe me?"

Kenji had prepared himself to explain at length, but only then realized that Lina had said "I believe you."

"You said you would never lie to me."

Lina sighed, then crouched down to look at Siyue. "There must be some misunderstanding. Young master, why don't you talk to the young miss?"

...

A few minutes later.

After much persuasion, Kenji finally convinced Siyue that he wouldn't abandon her to fend for herself. Only then did Siyue calm down.

However, Siyue's misunderstanding made Kenji even more embarrassed—damn it, i really hadn't planned for any two-person world... No, there was absolutely none of that improper relationship that Siyue had imagined!

"I've never seen the young miss like this before..."

Lina was quite frightened too.

Thinking back, the young miss had once been brilliant, well-read, the perfect talented young lady. When had she ever been like this? Now, though still brilliant and well-read, since developing her hysteria, things had gotten very strange. It was as if she had become a different person.

"It's all right. You know she can't be away from me in her condition."

This was Kenji's explanation.

"Lina, I won't lie to you, and I'm glad you trust me... To be honest, Siyue doesn't actually have hysteria. Sometimes, she's just overly dependent on me... The reasons for this are complicated, and I hope you can understand."

Kenji wouldn't lie to her, but he reserved the right not to tell the whole truth. This wasn't because he didn't trust Lina, but because he simply didn't know if he and his sister's experience could be spoken about.

Supposing the force that brought them to this world came from some higher law, and revealing their origins would mean leaking heavenly secrets?

Kenji still didn't know who had sent them to this world, or what kind of power could transport people here. He was clueless about it all, so he could only hope Lina would understand his position.

Some things, for safety's sake, required careful consideration.

"I understand, young master. The young miss has deep feelings for you. I've known this for a long time, but I never imagined it would be to this extent..."

Ah, Lina, you've probably misunderstood. Her feelings are deep indeed, but not to that extent. She simply cried out of fear because her extreme social anxiety made her panic about not knowing what to do without her brother...

Kenji thought this but dared not say it out loud—mainly because Siyue had now calmed down, and he feared she would scratch him.

"I'm sorry for scaring you both... So what were you two doing just now?"

Having recovered, Siyue returned to her slightly mischievous self. Naturally, she wouldn't easily let go of what she had witnessed, and began to question what that scene was all about.

"Just taking a rest," said Lina.

"Resting? Resting on my brother's shoulder?" Siyue looked thoughtfully at the two of them.

Tsk, what nonsense. I am not a child. Who would believe such a story?

Taking a rest and immediately leaning on someone? If she got sleepy and wanted to take a nap, would she crawl right into his bed too?