Chapter 133. Kiana: Am I a Matchmaker Now?
Slow?
Not even a little!
Back home, late at night after dinner.
Lying on the bed, Bronya Zaychik, exhausted from a busy day, was enjoying her lover's massage.
Seele was still in the shower, and as Xander looked at the smooth, fair back under his hands and listened to Bronya's soft murmurs of comfort, his mind was elsewhere.
Any lingering thoughts of intimacy vanished.
He simply kept massaging, and after a while, his hands even came to a stop.
Unlike Elysia, Sirin was Bronya's longtime close friend.
He had planned to take things slowly, but after returning home and seeing Seele and the others, he realized he couldn't hide anything.
Rather than wait for conflict to erupt later, it would be better to lay things out from the start.
"What's wrong?"
Feeling the hands that made her feel so comfortable stop, Bronya asked with her eyes closed.
"Um…"
After hesitating for a moment, Xander finally gritted his teeth and said, "Didn't I go accompany Sirin's stream today?"
"Mm.
We watched a bit during our break.
It was pretty fun.
So?"
Before Bronya's voice even fell, Xander added, "Don't be shocked by what I say next."
"Go on."
He took another deep breath and spoke seriously.
"I think Sirin might like me."
"Oh."
That calm reply stunned Xander.
A moment later, he couldn't hold it in.
"No, I'm not joking.
I'm serious."
"I'm not brushing you off."
She turned her head, opened her eyes to look at him, amusement flickering there.
That made Xander a bit flustered.
His voice grew tangled.
"But… wait, you knew?"
Bronya nodded lightly and answered evenly.
"I knew.
And also…"
She paused, met his eyes, and curled her lips.
"Yesterday, Sirin told me herself."
Pleased that he had confessed on his own, she was in a decent mood.
Xander: "????"
Sirin?
Told her herself?
It took a full ten-plus seconds for the words to sink in.
His mouth slowly fell open.
His expression turned bewildered.
So he was the last one to find out?
Seeing the reaction she wanted, Bronya felt satisfied inside, though her face remained calm as ever.
"Why?"
His voice was a little dry.
"Why what?" Bronya asked, knowingly.
"If you knew Sirin felt that way about me, why did you still let me go today…"
He cut himself off halfway through.
No way?
Surprise and disbelief began to surface in his eyes.
Before he could say more, Bronya threw a bucket of cold water on him.
"I never said I agreed."
"…"
So she said she didn't agree, but still tacitly allowed him to go to Sirin's place—what did that even mean?
Seeing the doubt in his eyes, Bronya didn't explain.
She lay back down and said softly, "Keep massaging."
"Huh?
Oh…"
Closing her eyes, Bronya sighed inwardly.
Speaking of "latecomers," wasn't she also a latecomer who claimed the fruit that was once Seele's?
Even if at least half the reason lay in Xander's fickleness, everyone knew that one hand can't clap.
If she hadn't had the thought, he couldn't have forced it.
She had considered the three of them simply living like this for a lifetime.
But Cocolia reopened a crack in that once-firm conviction.
Kaguya was wedged in.
And she blended into their lives smoothly.
By now, both she and Seele felt no rejection at all, treating Kaguya as one of the family.
Once the first breach opens, the second and third are no longer so difficult.
And, to be realistic, Elysia—whom even she and Seele together might not outplay—was still watching like a tiger stalking its prey.
If Sirin really joined, Sirin would surely be on their side.
Xander's heart couldn't be controlled, so better to guide it to stay with her and Seele.
That way, it would count as being with them all along, wouldn't it?
…
Realizing she was starting to rationalize it with palace-drama excuses, Bronya let out a self-mocking laugh in her heart.
She knew perfectly well these were comforting reasons.
The real reason was actually what Cocolia had brought up before.
Schicksal's gene technology.
When a life that should have been brief is extended several times over, even by more than tenfold, those once-unyielding convictions begin to feel not as important as she had imagined.
Of course, using that as an excuse to neglect her and Seele would be absolutely unacceptable!
Click.
Just then, the sound of the bathroom door closing came from outside.
Bronya suddenly spoke.
"By the way, don't tell Seele about this yet."
"Huh?"
He paused at first, then nodded blankly.
He didn't know what Bronya was plotting, but he did understand one thing.
From now on, when facing Sirin, maybe he could try responding to that feeling.
…
Elsewhere, at Kiana's home.
Kiana had been holding back a bellyful of questions, but with both her parents at dinner, she hadn't been able to ask a single thing.
Finally, after the long torment of finishing the meal, Kiana couldn't hold it in anymore.
She dragged Sirin straight to her room.
"Nothing really happened this afternoon?"
"I've said it several times—nothing!"
Shaking off her wrist, which Kiana had yanked until it hurt, Sirin sat casually on the bed and frowned.
"No, that doesn't add up.
That guy actually held back?
Or were you so tsundere he didn't notice?"
Muttering to herself, Kiana looked utterly baffled.
Hearing that, Sirin's face flushed red and she retorted in a hurry.
"Who's tsundere?
You're tsundere.
Your whole family's tsundere!"
"But aren't we basically family?"
"Th—
Anyway, I'm not!"
"Heh~"
With a dismissive chuckle, Kiana forced her brain—threatened with devolving into a paramecium by too much time with Mei and the other girls—into motion.
No need to test anything now.
She could confirm that Sirin was into Xander .
They all used to hang out together, so when did Sirin get charmed?
Before this, the two had never been alone…
Wait, that's not right!
Kiana wasn't stupid, and after finally getting her gears turning, some distant memories resurfaced.
At that festival, weren't the two of them alone together?!
It hadn't felt like anything at the time, but the more she thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed!!
Could something have happened then that made this naive pufferfish fall for him?!
She knew her own sister all too well.
Because she had always attended a girls' school—and because her eldest sister blocked all those banquets and social events—Sirin was probably the easiest in the family to fool.
Most importantly, Kiana remembered that it was due to her own negligence that Sirin was left on her own.
At that thought, Kiana's face twisted up.
So Sirin liking Xander … was basically set in motion by her own hand?
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