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Required flags:
– Natalia’s affection for Olivia must be below a certain level
– Plum’s affection for Natalia must be maxed out by Chapter 94
– The White Salamander’s regeneration must be stopped by Chapter 96
– Arrold must be killed in Chapter 98 before he gets to teleport away

Once the requirements are met, an extra option will show up at the end of Chapter 99 when dealing with Plum’s Sorcery Core. Select ‘I’ll do something about it’.

Only a faint light passes through the thick curtains covering the windows. I don’t want others to see me like this, and I also don’t want the one doing it to see me too much. I’m sitting down, my apron off, and my chest exposed so Plum’s lips can suckle on me.

The embarrassment is killing me. But Plum is oblivious to that, continuing to sap out mana directly from my exposed Sorcery Core.

“Mm-”

My body’s most important and sensitive spot keeps getting stimulated. I feel like my knees would give in if I wasn’t sitting on a chair.

“Sister?”

Plum looks up at me, worried because of the sound I just made.

“It’s fine, keep going.”
“…Okay.”

Hearing that, Plum buries her face in my chest again to take my mana. Soon I feel her tongue come out, licking up more of the freshly produced mana. After some time, the wet sounds start to put me in a weird mood.

All of this is happening so that Plum can have mana.

Her limbs have all been rebuilt, but since we can’t source a Sorcery Core with enough mana output to sustain her body’s activity. Sorcery Cores like the White Salamander one are really rare in the first place.

So now she’s been adapted to store and purify external mana, which she needs to recharge once she runs out of it. Annabelle did it at first, but when I offered to help we were shocked to find out that she stores mana more easily if it comes from me. The current theory is that since I had to infuse her with my mana to tear her off the White Salamander, my mana’s qualities have been imprinted on her.

But even then she can only be active for around five hours in a day, and I can’t charge her every day. Once Olivia graduates she’ll go on a different path from Christina, so we really have to find a different power source for Plum by then.

Actually no, I already have an idea. I just don’t have any reassurance that it’ll work, and it might put myself in danger.

“Sister.”

Hearing her call me brings me back from my thoughts.

“Did you get enough?”
“Yes. The appropriate amount of mana has been confirmed as stored.”

But she just keeps staring at me, not moving away. While I try to figure out what’s happening, I notice her leaning snuggly onto me.

“What happened?”

I ask, but Plum doesn’t reply. She’s staring straight at me, but not at my eyes, it’s… a bit lower…

Something soft brushes against my lips. By the time I realize it’s Plum’s lips, they’re already gone.

“Lady Ruri told me that’s a rite to cheer someone up. You looked worried about something, Sister, so I decided to try it. Did it work?”

I’m still struggling to comprehend what just happened, but Plum just acts like it was nothing.

“Oh…um…err… I see, thank you Plum.”

Ruri is putting all sorts of ideas in her mind again. I really want to reprimand her and tell her to not do things like that so carelessly, but for now I can only smile knowing Plum did it because she was worried for me.

“I’m glad it helped you feel better.”

Ah, wait, did she just smile?

Right, why am I still hesitating? I’m Plum’s older sister, I shouldn’t be scared of anything for her. I don’t know if it’ll work or not, but we’ll just have to research it.

I open my eyes and get blinded by bright lights on the ceiling.

Right now I’m wearing nothing while lying down on an operating table in Annabelle’s laboratory. This looks a lot like I’m a surgery patient, but I guess that’s how working on a magic automaton looks like.

I turn my head to the side and see Plum lying just like me.

“I see you’ve reactivated safely. Your Sorcery Core isn’t operating normally yet though, so be careful to not push yourself too far.”

Annabelle tells me that with a slight smile, having finished the procedure.

“So tell me, Miss Annabelle. Did it work?”
“Pffheh, of course. It’ll take a bit longer for Plum to wake up though.”
“I see. I’m glad then.”

I had Annabelle take apart my Sorcery Core, so half of it could be transplanted into Plum. That’ll likely diminish the amount of mana I can generate a lot, but I’ve always been brimming with it so I probably won’t feel the change. Plum seems accustomed to my mana too, so she should be able to accept the half soon enough.

After that we just need to wait for enough mana to be purified.

“Umm…Natalia, thank you so much for doing all this for Plum.”

While I sigh in relief, Christina finally manages to utter some words, full of emotion and doing her best to hold back the tears.

“Don’t mention it. It’s the least I can do as her sister.”
“Sister, huh… Well, if you’re happy with that, so be it.”

Annabelle mutters that, seeming to hint at something. She knows I’ve reincarnated.

In a way, there’s no real connection between me and Plum. She’s built with the same type of nerve threads as me, but that’s not the same as sharing a blood connection. I still think of her as my sister, though. I also think she’s really cute when she tries her best to understand and match those emotions. Even if she was built, she’s still her own self.

That’s why I want to be her older sister. Though having been a male in my past life makes my emotions about it a bit complex.

As time passed, the trees of the Valhen Woods were felled as Bamel expanded, and after many years more roads were established and Ophelia’s mansion became part of the suburbs, no longer being a lone building hidden in the forest.

Plum arrived there sixty years after Olivia’s class graduated from the Magic Academy. After accompanying her master through her last moments, Plum had become free, so she came to me. Strangely enough I was in the same situation, so it was a strange coincidence.

And then even more time passed.

Plum was conducting an alchemy experiment in one of the rooms of the Gardeland mansion.

During her life, Christina had conducted gradual modifications on Plum, and while she was still not exactly the same as Natalia, she was strikingly similar.

“No abnormalities… but no reaction either.”

Plum was looking at a bed, on which her sister was lying down.

Natalia did not need much sleep in the past, but in later years she would be active for less time, until eventually she just did not wake up again.

Plum perused not just Christina’s research, but also Natalia’s and Annabelle’s, and even through Ophelia’s old files, but nothing she tried had any effect, and no matter how much she examined Natalia’s body, there was nothing that seemed off.

Before she fell asleep, Natalia told Plum that she was a reincarnated man from another world, and that her decrease in activity was likely connected to her past life and consciousness as a human.

“Even if my body is that of a magic automaton, my soul remains that of a human. So I fear my lethargy comes from my soul’s lifespan reaching its end.”

Natalia looked saddened by it all when she explained that, but she also looked satisfied.

Her unexpected second chance at living had been fulfilling and amusing. By then Natalia could no longer get up, but the way she spoke made Plum feel that her sister had truly lived in this world, even if she was a lifeless magic automaton.

Still, if only-

There was a sudden knock on the door.

“Excuse me, housekeeper.”

One of the maids who worked in the mansion entered the room. Anyone could see at first sight that she was not human. While Natalia had been the first maid of the Gardeland estate, more joined her with time. Many of which were monsters that had various human features.

“I just received a message from the Young Lady, she’s scheduled to return in three days.”
“I see. We should prepare to welcome her then. Go to Bamel to gather ingredients, we’ll prepare high quality meat for her dinner.”

Plum was the current housekeeper of the mansion, in charge of all the maids. She had inherited that position from Natalia.

The current master of the mansion was also of Olivia’s bloodline.

“Also, there’s something I’d like to verify here alone.”
“Understood. I’ll head out to gather the ingredients then.”

The maid bowed respectfully and left the room.

Some time later Plum made sure the maid’s presence had faded before moving closer to her sister’s face.

She looked at Natalia’s silky silver hair that reached her shoulders, her long eyelashes, and voluptuous lips. As similar as Plum was, she was far from being so beautiful.

Plum did not know how Natalia truly felt in her last days. Natalia had always been somewhat obstinate and stubborn, so she probably did not want to show any weakness, and instead left behind words that would encourage and help those she left behind.

But even then…

“Sister, I…”

I wanted you to be with me for longer.
I wanted you to teach me more things.
I wanted you to pat my head more.
I wanted you to call my name again.

They looked almost like twins now, but Plum was still Natalia’s little sister.

If Natalia’s soul had truly passed away, then no matter how much her body was treated, she would not wake up again. And if she actually got to move again, she would no longer be Natalia.

Plum was fully aware of that. But even then she could not bring herself to give up.

“This is just my own unfulfillable selfishness.”

Just hearing Natalia call her name would be enough. That wish, her desire, was proof enough that Plum possessed her own consciousness now. Leaning her body forward, she placed her lips on her sister’s, who would sleep forever.

“Let’s do it again when you come back… the rite to cheer you up.”

Plum stepped back and took a deep breath. It was time to focus on her duties as housekeeper of the Gardeland estate.

~FIN~

Author’s Note:

After a lot of debating and failed ideas, this is how the Plum ending came out.

So far all the alternate endings have been lolisboth (Mir is an adult, but her body is clearly that of a loli, and Plum was created as one since the beginning)

Natalia justifies that by saying “I’m not a lolicon. The people I like just happened to be lolis.”

Plum: “By the way Sister, since you were a male in your past life, then should I call you sisbro?”
Natalia: “Ruri told you to ask that, right? I’ll go discipline her for a bit.”