“Mom! We’re back!”

Hill pushed open the gate to the yard and called out loudly.

When she saw what was inside, her heart clenched. She hurried into the house.

There was no sign of Hill’s mother in the humble yard. The wooden table and chairs lay scattered across the ground.

What little food there was had been crushed underfoot. It was obvious someone had done it on purpose.

Someone had come through here before they got back.

“Mom! Mom, are you all right?”

Inside, Hill was holding a haggard-looking woman and calling to her anxiously.

The woman’s frail figure showed through her thin clothes.

Anyone who’d lay hands on such a weak woman was clearly a terrible person.

“Cough... Mom... I’m fine. But where have you been? You came back so late.”

The woman smiled as she spoke, discreetly covering her side as she slowly got to her feet.

“Oh? And who’s this...?”

She’d suddenly noticed me standing in the doorway, covered in blood.

When she saw my face, the woman looked surprised at first, then appreciative, and finally worried.

“She’s a big sister my little brother and I met on the road. She’s really pretty!”

Hill wiped the tears from her eyes as she explained to her mother.

She didn’t want her mother to know she’d been in danger.

If her mother found out, she’d be heartbroken. Hill couldn’t bear to see her mother upset again.

“Sorry to impose...”

She nodded. Was she worried I might stay here?

Hill’s family really wasn’t well-off. You could even say they were poor.

If I stayed here, this family probably wouldn’t be able to make ends meet.

“Well... if you don’t mind, come inside...”

The woman sighed and shook her head. She took my sleeping little brother from my back and invited me in.

Night always fell quietly, and the huge full moon rose into the sky.

Streaks like shards of silver flowed across the thick, ink-black sky.

This was the night sky of another world.

After changing into something more comfortable, I sat quietly in the yard, listening to the mother and daughter argue fiercely inside.

“We can’t let her stay.”

“Why not? Big Sis is really nice!”

“No. We don’t have enough food to feed another person. She has to leave.”

“Hill gathered lots of berries. We can sell them tomorrow!”

“She’s an outsider, understand? Just for tonight. Let her stay here for one night, then send her away tomorrow.”

The woman firmly rejected Hill’s request, just as I’d expected.

This family was too poor to take in a fourth person like me.

Not only was there no man in the family, but the mother didn’t look very healthy either. Having me here would be too much of a luxury for them.

“Mom, you’re being so unfair!”

Hill shouted back at her mother.

Hill rushed out the door, grabbed my hand, and headed outside.

I looked at the kind-hearted child before me and sighed helplessly.

I let her small hand lead me as we wandered through the village.

Neither of us said a word along the way. We didn’t know how to look each other in the eye.

We’d only just met, and tomorrow we’d have to part.

“Um... Big Sis... I still don’t know... what your name is.”

Hill sniffled as she spoke. Until now, she’d only ever called me Big Sis.

It was so rude not to know the name of the person who’d saved her, even after all this time.

A name, huh? Right. I should come up with one for myself.

What should I call myself? A name I liked, one that would suit this world.

“Helawei. That’s my name.”

I thought long and hard, but couldn’t come up with a name that fit.

In the end, I had to slightly alter the ID I used online and go with that.

I really wasn’t good at coming up with names.

“Huh? Does that mean your family...”

Hill looked surprised.

Then, as if she’d suddenly realized something, she lowered her head and didn’t dare look at me, like a child who’d done something wrong.

It wasn’t until later, when I learned how family names worked in this world,

that I understood why Hill had made that face.

People in this world cared a lot about their names.

They believed names were sacred, and every generation inherited its father’s name.

If the father was gone, they inherited their mother’s name, and so on.

Only when someone had lost every blood relative

would they be left with a name that belonged to them alone.

When Hill heard my name, she must have felt bad for being so thoughtless.

She must have thought she’d brought up some painful memories, which was why she apologized like that.

“Lilinai Hill. You can just call me Hill, Big Sis!”

Hill looked at me with determination. Even though she’d have to part with me tomorrow,

she’d decided to make me happy now. She absolutely wouldn’t let me remember sad things again.

“Okay. If you can, could you stop calling me Big Sis and just use my name?”

I was glad to see Hill cheering up again.

But why did hearing her call me Big Sis over and over grate on me so much?

“Um... Okay! Big Sis Vivi!”

Hill frowned and thought for a moment, then suddenly broke into a bright smile as she called me that.

That sounded nicer than Big Sis, and it was prettier, too. She really was clever.

V... Vivi, you banana peel! Why was this getting more and more girly?

I’d have been better off with Big Sis, damn it. But when I saw her radiant smile,

I had to swallow the words that were already on the tip of my tongue.

“Sure. As long as you’re happy. Don’t mind me.”

“Big Sis, are you really leaving tomorrow?”

Hill tugged on my skirt—no, wait, my pants. My pants...

“Yeah. Don’t be sad. I’m glad I met you. If I hadn’t, I don’t know how much longer I’d have wandered around that forest alone.”

I crouched down to her level, gently wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and spoke softly.

“I’ll never forget you, Big Sis! Besides, you’re so pretty. I don’t think I could forget you even if I tried.”

Hill gazed at my face in the moonlight.

My already fair skin looked even paler and more immaculate, as if it had been blessed by the moonlight.

“A moonlit beauty.”

Maybe that was what you’d call the big sister before her.

Thinking that, Hill couldn’t help but smile through her tears.

She really had met someone whose beauty was beyond reason.