“Luke, I’m sorry!”
“I already forgave you. Now stop trying to cling to me.”
Sorbi felt so sad at Luke’s hand pushing her away.
A few days ago, he wouldn’t have pushed her away like this anytime she tried to hug him!
“Sis, Luke has gotten so cold…”
“Ha, self-inflicted.”
Yerna thought as she watched Luke’s strange demeanor.
‘Sure, Sorbi has been annoying. Always hugging me at random times… And besides…’
The fact that Sorbi taught him that peace sign, well, it was no wonder his fondness for her had dropped.
“But…! You enjoyed it too, sis! Why do I have to be the one hated…?!”
Sorbi felt wronged.
They all enjoyed those cute poses in the photos, so why did she have to take the blame?
However, Luke’s reasoning was not based on such simple revenge.
What was he even getting revenge for?
Revenge meant doing something that would make the other person dislike it.
So what kind of revenge was it to not let her hug him?
That opinion implied that letting her hug him was seen as a ‘gain.’
And Luke firmly rejected the notion that being hugged was a ‘gain’ for Sorbi.
It was just that lately, Sorbi’s frequency of hugging him had increased to an obnoxious level, so he simply decided to keep her at a distance and reject her outright.
After all, if it wasn’t Sorbi, he didn’t have anyone else hugging him.
At this age, embracing a young woman was an embarrassing thing to do.
He couldn’t say he wouldn’t feel ashamed.
“Look at that, his expression is incredibly cold!”
“Luke looks the same as usual…”
“No, he’s totally cold!”
In Sorbi’s eyes, a delusional filter had already been placed over everything.
Objectively, Luke’s expression was just a blank one.
It was the usual expression he made when he was reading.
Anyway, rejected by Luke, Sorbi could only watch him from a distance.
Sipping her coffee and stealing glances, she saw him still sitting in the same position inside the box, reading.
‘I understand it’s due to his cat instincts…’
How could he sit still in that tiny box and read without moving at all?
He didn’t seem to dislike physical activity.
Meanwhile, Sorbi absolutely hated books.
She found it strange that Luke could read a book full of text for hours on end, not even with pictures.
“Do you think if I give him a book as a gift, he would forgive me?”
“Maybe? But Luke is really picky about his book preferences. If you get him something random, he’ll just be disappointed.”
Yerna recalled the extremely disappointed expression Luke had made when she once gifted him a fairy tale book about mages after she said it was a “magic book.”
She had been flustered back then but later felt relieved when she saw the sparkle in his eyes when she took him to a bookstore.
“R-Really?”
But Sorbi couldn’t go with Luke to the bookstore. She had a visceral aversion to bookstores.
It reminded her of when she was preparing for the Forest Keeper exam, or something like that.
And anyway, Luke might not even want to go to the bookstore with Sorbi.
“Sis, recommend something Luke would like.”
“Even if you say that…”
In fact, Luke would often smile appreciatively at whatever Yerna gave him.
She was his benefactor and guardian, so he always showed her a natural smile without showing any dislike.
Feeling a little good from that special treatment, Yerna smiled and spoke.
“Oh, he likes magic devices. Like a phone or something.”
“Oh, right! A phone!”
Sorbi exclaimed, jumping up as if she had a brilliant idea.
“Erna, doesn’t Luke still not have a phone?”
“…Sorbi, are you really thinking of getting him one?”
Buying Luke a phone!
Wasn’t that quite expensive?
Surely, since he had officially been promoted, it would be possible to activate a phone, but…
“Don’t you think that’s pushing it too far?”
“Hehe, sis, shopping is my only hobby.”
Yerna stiffened up upon seeing Sorbi covering half of her face with her hand and grinning like a villain.
“Are you really going to buy it…?”
Giving him a gift like that would indeed be a great help.
“…”
Sorbi paused for a moment in that position and thought about her bank balance in her head.
‘If I buy what I want, it might just barely cover it…’
She wanted to get him a new one so badly, but it wouldn’t work.
Sorbi relaxed her villain-like smile into a gentle one and sat back down.
“…It seems giving him a new one won’t work, but we have an old one at home.”
“Really?”
“But the plan is for you to pay for the service.”
“Okay! I was worried because Luke didn’t have a phone, so this is great!”
——
“Luke, will you hug me just this once?”
“Is it that again? I’ve already told you countless times not to disturb me while I’m reading.”
Luke sighed, pondering how to pacify the childish girl in front of him.
Sorbi, with a triumphant expression, revealed her hand held behind her back.
“Luke, can you really say that after seeing this?”
Her tone was unusually upbeat.
The way Sorbi’s voice sounded so excited made Luke feel slightly uneasy as he looked up.
“Sorbi, what on earth do you…”
He paused.
Luke’s eyes that had been casually moving stopped.
Sorbi was holding a rectangular object, a fusion of modern magic technology, perfected with thousands of magical circles.
Yes, it was a ‘phone.’
But Luke tried to dismiss that brief glance as he continued to speak.
“…What is it? Are you trying to show off?”
“Why would I show off? This is yours.”
Luke briefly doubted his hearing upon hearing those unbelievable words.
Had his auditory senses malfunctioned upon becoming this body?
He scratched his ears a few times to confirm he could hear just fine and nodded.
“…Wait, I must have misheard. Can you say that again?”
In response, Sorbi flashed a grin and stretched out the phone toward him.
“No, you heard it right. This is a gift for you.”
“!?!”
“…Sorbi. Really? You mean this is your gift?”
Luke jumped up from where he was sitting, marking his place in the book.
It was an offer that truly made his mouth water!
It wasn’t a metaphor; he was genuinely salivating.
Rushing over toward Sorbi, he began to stutter.
“Can I… really have it?!”
With that, he could leap ahead several generations in the knowledge of magic circles.
No, just by skimming it for a few minutes, he had already improved and corrected sixty percent of past magical formulas.
What would it mean to ‘own’ such a masterpiece of modern magic?
He would skip several generations in the magical knowledge he possessed.
As he reached out in a daze,
“But!”
Sorbi taunted, raising the phone with a mischievous smile.
“‘If you say, ‘Thank you, Sorbi,’ I’ll give it to you.'”
“What?”
“You heard me? Say, ‘Thank you, Sorbi!'”
“…”
Luke was momentarily speechless.
‘Sister’ and ‘thank you’ were phrases that completely denied his identity as Luke Irushi.
It was a term used to refer to women above oneself!
There was truly no title that suited him less.
Although he, on the surface, looked like a boy, he was older than Sorbi and had lived over a hundred years as a male.
His pride was…
“If you don’t want it, then I guess I’ll just have to sell it…”
“…Thank you, Sorbi….”
When it came to rewards, the phone was far too great.
“Huh? What did you say?”
Even though she clearly heard it, Sorbi pretended not to, smiling widely.
Luke felt his temper rise internally as he swallowed his emotions.
‘It’s been so long since I’ve felt this embarrassed…!’
With the resolve of a great mage, he struggled to suppress his feelings.
He felt like his hands and feet were tangled up in shame, but he forced his voice and tongue to work, fulfilling Sorbi’s request.
“Thank you, Sorbi…!”
“That was just perfect!”
– Click.
As Luke’s sentence ended, a mechanical sound echoed from behind Sorbi.
“Ah…?”
Luke was finally lost in thought about the phone when he suddenly realized Sorbi had been hiding one hand behind her back.
After accepting the phone she handed him, he felt an odd sense of foreboding and used magic sight on her phone.
‘This magic formation is…’
Realizing what it was, Luke exclaimed in horror.
“Sorbi! Isn’t that the ‘Sound Recording Magic’?!”
He carefully set his own phone down and burst out of the box like it had exploded.
-Bang!
Of course, that was with speed enhanced by “Enhance Body” and “Wind.”
“Wow! You really are fast!”
But Sorbi, as the Forest Keeper of Luke Forest, was agile enough to dodge Luke’s sudden charge.
She had anticipated Luke’s speed, allowing her to escape from the lodging immediately.
Luke considered placing some grease on her shoes to trip her, but unlike Dayton, she didn’t look sturdy enough to avoid serious injury.
Besides, it was undoubtedly an act of gratitude to buy her a phone, so he didn’t want to overdo it.
If he could cast a shield spell on someone else, he’d have done it without hesitation, but to protect someone else required at least the authority of the Fourth Circle.
Light? Too noticeable.
If he emitted enough light to briefly blind someone, everyone would know he’d used magic. Perhaps even Yerna would see.
Luke didn’t want Yerna to witness him using magic without permission.
“Give me that phone!”
“Haha! I can’t do that! This is something Sorbi will never give away!”
With a refreshing laugh, Sorbi dashed across the forest, with Luke—still in his pajamas—desperately chasing after her.
Earlier, Kirk, casually drinking water with a towel draped around his neck while jogging lightly around the lodging, thought upon witnessing the chase between a child and an adult.
‘Looks like it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have them exercise like this every once in a while.’
It had been quite a while since Sorbi had laughed like that while sweating.
Meanwhile, Luke looked like he was on the verge of tears, looking so sad.
Come to think of it, he remembered her making a fuss about wanting to give him a present today, just after calling her ‘sister.’
“Looks like he’s going to be hated again.”
He didn’t even know what he had done wrong.
——–
A little later, both Luke and Sorbi finally exhausted from the chase, stopped, and Luke deleted the recorded messages on Sorbi’s phone.
Unbeknownst to him, the voice recording was already uploaded to the Forest Keeper’s group chat.
As everyone in the group chat burst into laughter at her prank, only one person couldn’t laugh along.
“…Sorbi. You’ve crossed the line.”
“W-What’s wrong, Yerna?”
“Luke hasn’t even called me ‘sister’ yet… and here you are, blackmailing him for a present and trying to jump the line.”
“Eh? Is that really true…?”
“Sorbi, get on the ground. Let’s start from one.”
“S-Sis! Please stop, please!”
“Sorbi, your back is lowering.”
“Ugh-!”
That day, Sorbi grew a little healthier.
