[Congratulations, host, on winning the warm sweater knitted by Kojima Kana. The system will retrieve your prize immediately.]
Once again controlled by the system, Shirase opened the bedroom door and walked straight to the living room.
Kana casually looked over from the sofa. "I ate all the cookies you made the other day. Can you make more—eh? Why are you heading to my room?"
Under Kana's astonished gaze, Shirase strode directly into her bedroom.
The first thing that met his eyes was the neat bed and tidy desk. As a mature older sister-type with maxed-out womanly charm, Kojima Kana had always excelled at taking care of household chores.
"Did you leave something in my room?" Kana slipped into her slippers, following unhurriedly.
She didn't treat her bedroom as some forbidden zone. After all, Shirase was currently the closest person to her—they'd even bathed together—so entering her room was no big deal.
Standing curiously behind Shirase, she laughed lightly as she saw him walk toward her wardrobe. "Hmm? Could it be you wanted to inspect my wardrobe? But I should warn you, big sister's clothes are all quite mature."
To her surprise, Shirase didn't open the wardrobe doors. Instead, he stood on tiptoe, taking advantage of his height to reach up and open a small storage compartment above the wardrobe.
"Wait—that's…" Kana's pretty face instantly changed, but before she could stop him, Shirase had already pulled out a brown half-knitted sweater.
At the same moment, the system's voice echoed.
[Host has successfully acquired the reward. Please rate this [Free Hosting] session promptly.]
"Why did you take that out…?" Kana's expression turned shy, her cheeks pink, bashful yet hopeful—clearly anticipating Shirase's praise.
Holding the unfinished sweater, Shirase asked, "Did you knit this especially for me?"
"Not exactly just for you…" Kana smiled awkwardly. "When you first moved in, I didn't have any friends at school yet, and since I had plenty of free time, I started learning how to knit."
She paused, then looked up at Shirase with shining eyes. "How is it? Isn't the style nice? I followed patterns from fashion magazines."
"It really is nice." Shirase gently touched the fabric, noticing its extraordinary softness—far softer than ordinary yarn.
While Shirase wondered about this, Kana smiled happily. "Right? My taste is pretty good, isn't it? Originally, I planned to give it to you around autumn as a surprise… Hey, what are you squeezing? It's just a sweater—why are you kneading it so much?"
Kana's words trailed off halfway as she noticed Shirase's puzzled expression, his hand continually squeezing around the front of the sweater. Now even she was confused.
Shirase stopped and asked, "Did you hide something inside this sweater?"
"No…?" Kana replied blankly.
Thinking for a moment, Shirase decisively lifted the sweater, opening its bottom to peek inside. And then—
He froze.
Black.
With lace edges.
And very large.
Yep, it was definitely Kana-nee's size.
Wait—no, no, no! That's not the important part!
Why on earth would she hide underwear inside a sweater meant for me?
He immediately recalled that Kana-nee was occasionally careless with minor details. She must have absent-mindedly stuffed her underwear inside, then completely forgotten about it.
And judging by her confused expression, she clearly had no clue about it now.
"What's wrong?" Kana asked curiously, seeing him frozen stiff.
"It's nothing," Shirase replied calmly. "I was just marveling at Kana-nee's skills. Even fashionable sweaters like this one—you knitted it yourself." As he spoke, he casually turned and reached upward again to return the sweater.
"Hehe, what can I say? Big sister's just that amazing~" Kana proudly puffed out her chest.
Just as Shirase thought he'd smoothly gotten away with it, standing on tiptoe, arms stretched above, about to tuck the sweater back into the compartment—
A black strap suddenly slipped out from the sweater's unfinished opening.
Shirase felt his blood freeze.
The next second, the entire bra fell out, landing perfectly over his face.
The straps dangled, swinging back and forth.
Kana's proud smile froze instantly, and everything went black before her eyes.
Silence engulfed the room.
One second.
Two seconds.
After a full five seconds passed, Shirase finished stuffing the sweater away. Only then did he calmly remove the underwear from his face and say in an even tone, "If I told you I didn't know your underwear was hidden in there, would you believe that nonsense?"
Kana's usually fair face flushed bright red. "At least you know you're talking nonsense… Then could you explain how you knew I was secretly knitting you a sweater? I don't remember ever mentioning it."
Remembering Shirase's earlier squeezing motions…
Kana felt a wave of embarrassment overwhelming her.
Shirase mused, then answered, "Intuition?"
"You're lying!" Kana blurted out, raising her voice as her face grew even redder.
This kid—he's definitely doing it on purpose!
He must have secretly discovered her knitting project before. But the way he squeezed the sweater just now—was it a hormonal impulse common among adolescent boys?
Kana's blush intensified, even spreading warmly over her pale, jade-like ears.
"Sorry, I really couldn't think of a better excuse," Shirase said honestly.
After all, it was the damned system that fetched the sweater.
"You… please put my clothes down first. Don't hurt them," Kana muttered incoherently, utterly mortified.
Shirase kindly cooperated. "Don't worry. They're in tip-top shape."
With that, meeting Kana's embarrassed and frustrated gaze, he casually tossed the garment onto the bed.
"I'll step out first," Shirase quickly said, intending to escape the crime scene.
"Wait a minute." Kana stopped him again.
Under Shirase's steady gaze, Kana nervously pressed her black-stockinged legs tightly together, the elegant curves beneath her pencil skirt accentuated beautifully by her tense posture.
Sadly, no one currently held shares in Kojima Kana—not even imaginary shareholders.
Kana took a deep breath, forcing her voice to sound natural. "Shirase, you're growing up, and as your big sister, I've been there too. I understand boys your age are curious about girls in every possible way. So, I don't blame you at all. Even that earlier squeezing… ah, that inappropriate action—I'm not angry."
Shirase's eyes narrowed slightly. Why did these words sound so familiar?
Oh, right.
He'd seen the exact same lines somewhere in certain well-known "works."
---
T/N:
Hey everyone, thanks for reading. If you're enjoying the translation, dropping some Powerstones would really help out your hardworking translator (100 stones = 1 bonus chapter, 200 = 2 chapters, and so on—easy math, right?).
If you're feeling especially generous, or maybe just impatient, you can support the translator at patreon.com/wisetl. Totally optional, but hey, early access is always a nice bonus.
Oh, and don't forget—join the Discord at discord.gg/wisetl. Come chat, share theories, or complain directly to the translator—trust me, they love it.
Anyway, see you in the next chapter~
say thank you to hayasaka guyss