~ Chapter 21: Armors are not cute! ~

[Leonidas' point of view]

 What could I say?

The 'ritual' was indeed something that took me completely by surprise and dealt a serious mental blow. Seeing my own mother, aunt, and even our maid hop around us while pretending to be bunnies was mentally devastating for me, but not so much for my little sister.

The horror... I thought.

“I think we broke him.” aunty said as she poked my left cheek with her finger, and I wobbled like an elastic band when she released the pressure.

“Oh my! This is unexpected. But look, Cassandra was absolutely delighted by our 'spell'!” mother said and giggled.

Indeed, I was broken. My mind had shattered to tiny little pieces, and I was left unable to gather my thoughts. Only the aftertaste of that overwhelming 'ritual' remained. Thus, I could only smile with a twitching right eye and stare blankly at the ceiling.

“Sigh... As I said, Leonidas hates me...” aunty said in a dejected tone of voice.

When she heard her, Cassandra stopped giggling. The little girl got up and approached me. She stopped when she was standing next to me on my left. Lifting her palm up, she then gave me a slap on the back of my head. Thanks to her strength, I stumbled forward and landed at mother's feet.

“Ow...” I groaned and rubbed the back of my head.

Looking back, I saw my little sister with the shadow of a demon floating behind her. With her eyes alone, she was telling me to fix this, or else an unspeakable Hell was waiting for me.

Cassandra was a child of a few words, unlike me, but if glares could kill, then she would have no problem becoming a top assassin. Thus, my only choice given the current circumstances, especially since I didn't want her to be mad at me, was to give up and stop being stubborn.

“Fine...” I grumbled.

I got up on my feet and dusted off my clothes. Mother was looking at me with curious eyes to see what I was going to say or do, so I ignored her for now.

With a sigh, I pointed at aunty and declared “I don't like how you look! Armor bad for lady! Not cute! I don't want sister to look like you! I want sister to look like mother, frilly and cute not like... this.” I moved my arm up and down to point at her everything... armor, muscles, and all.

Mother and aunty blinked surprised and after looking at each other for a moment, they stared at me.

“So you want me/Eliza to wear a dress?” they asked at the same time.

“Cute and frilly dress, yes. Plain dress or armor, NO!” I stated my demands.

“Erm... Kiddo... sorry, but I... mmph?!” both mother and the maid stopped aunty from saying another word.

“We'll dress her up for the two of you! She'll be all cute and frilly in no time at all!” mother declared with a bright smile.

“Mmphu?!” aunty tried to say something.

“We'll be right back!” the two women left while dragging aunty away, who desperately tried to object against her beautification process.

Once they were out of the room, I looked back at my little sister.

Ah... she's glaring! She's glaring! I thought.

I showed her a wry smile in return.

“I like armors more than frilly dresses! Aunty's armor was cute!”

“Cute? Huh?” I couldn't follow.

It was at that time when I should have realized that there was something terribly wrong with my little sister's sense of style and beauty, because a half rusted and worn out armor was definitely anything but cute or beautiful from an aesthetic point of view.