01
I have a younger brother. He's been a troublemaker since childhood and is often treated like a freak by others. Mom and Dad made up a story to take care of him.
"Ranpo, in this world, everyone plays a different role, and each role has its own responsibilities. You can't just expose people for acting out their roles, or... you won't get any of the little desserts Mom made tonight."
"I knew it. How could adults not know the truth? They're so annoying. If they know, they should just say so. I don't understand how adults think."
"Ranpo..." Dad's voice grew stern.
Ranpo pouted and gave in. "I know, I won't expose them anymore. Dad, can you not take away my dessert?"
Standing on tiptoe in the kitchen on the other side of the wall, I watched Mom make the little desserts and heard every word of Dad and my younger brother's conversation. "Dad, you're lying. Mom said we shouldn't lie."
Mom crouched down, gently stroked your hair, and smiled warmly. "Luoman, this isn't a lie. It's Dad's love for your younger brother. Ranpo can see right through people at a glance, and that's dangerous for a child whose mind isn't fully developed yet. Dad just wants the two of you to grow up safe and sound, so could you keep this from Ranpo? Think of it as a little secret between you and Mom and Dad."
I wanted to have a little secret with Mom and Dad, but I didn't want to deceive Ranpo. "If none of us tell Ranpo, he'll be really sad."
Mom kissed my forehead. "We can tell Ranpo when he grows up. We're just waiting a little while, not keeping it from him forever."
Mom was right. I wasn't deceiving Ranpo; I was just telling him later.
But, Mom, you never told Luoman when we'd count as grown up.
02
I'm Edogawa Ranpo's older sister, though I was born five minutes earlier. It seems Mom left all the brains for me.
Luoman is always losing things, and her memory is like a fish's.
She can't learn things that I understand at a glance. She always gets scared when strangers come to the house and hides in Mom's arms. Until she was five, she couldn't even understand the riddles Mom and Dad made up.
She's an idiot... but she's a tiny bit better than me at some things.
When we were little, a kid in the class next door kept bawling over a rabbit's death.
I pointed out that the rabbit had been stuffed to death with vegetables. If he'd killed the rabbit, why was he still crying? It was strange.
After I asked, the kid didn't stop crying. He got even louder, and the noise was so bad I had to cover my ears to block the assault. Luoman stopped him with just one lighthearted sentence.
"The rabbit just went to heaven and became a star. Don't cry. If you miss it, look up at the stars. It won't blame you, because you only wanted the rabbit to have enough to eat, right?"
The kid was comforted just that easily. I didn't understand how that worked at all, or how she managed to do it.
Around the age of five, Luoman finally managed to solve riddles like I could. But she was strange: she could come up with the answers without explaining how she'd solved them or distinguishing the details, as if she were copying a prepared answer. I studied her for a long time and finally concluded, "She probably grew a brain, but it didn't finish growing."
Apart from being smarter in that one respect, she was still as forgetful as ever. Whenever she lost something, she needed me to help find it.
How would my idiot older sister survive in this world without me? Sigh...
Luoman is more sensitive and better at empathizing with others.
She's a little silly in some ways.
Her name is "Roman," meaning "romance" in Japanese.
The female lead has an amazing supernatural ability and is SSS+ in luck.
The explanation of her ability is in the author's note for Chapter One.
Theme: Become Ranpo's pillar, and live freely and romantically
