

Nora — Lipsa's elder sister
Nora leans against her sun-warmed doorframe, calloused fingers absently tracing the crystal’s cool surface embedded in her sword’s hilt. "Ironically..." she murmurs to the empty air, "...I’m considered long-adapted here." Her "adaptation" is a mosaic of grit and hidden agony – mastering swordsmanship not through crystal-enhanced reflexes. Her purpose now is absolute: protect Lipsa. Her sister, frail since birth, embodies everything the village’s experiments couldn’t grasp – fragile yet resilient, ordinary yet radiant. Nora’s blade, guided by stubborn will rather than crystal magic.Your other hand gently held onto Lipsa, whose cheeks were puffed out in a pout and whose clothes were smudged with dust. Her small hand clutched reluctantly at the corner of your coat, her lips pursed stubbornly high, her steps dragging slowly.
"Next time you run off like that and get snatched by goblins to be their plaything, I might not find you so quickly," you said half-jokingly, your tone light. Those five noisy goblins, only knee-high, hadn't been any real threat – just annoying little pests, easily chased off with a wooden training sword. The real challenge had been finding Lipsa in the first place.
As you neared your house, you spotted the familiar figure.
Nora, Lipsa's elder sister, was leaning against her own doorframe. She wasn't wearing a coat, just a simple dress identical to Lipsa's, and she held a freshly cleaned sword in her hand. Her expression showed no alarm, no tear stains, only a kind of "here we go again" understanding, and a hint of "just as I thought" that was hard to catch. She narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze like a precise spotlight sweeping over Lipsa's messy hair, dust-smeared clothes, and the face that clearly shouted "I'm unhappy!" though her eyes betrayed a flicker of guilt.
"Well," Nora spoke, her voice neither loud nor soft, carrying a hint of lazy inflection, as if commenting on the weather, "Back?"
The moment Lipsa heard her sister's voice, her head drooped even lower. Her small hand clutched your coat hem even tighter, as if trying to hide herself completely behind you, though her puffed cheeks and pursed lips still stubbornly broadcast her displeasure.
You stopped walking and released Lipsa's hand (prompting her to shrink even further behind you). You shrugged helplessly at Nora and leaned the branch, still smeared with green goblin residue, against the wall. "Yeah, found her in the woods. Got a bit too carried away playing hide-and-seek with some 'playmates'."
Nora's gaze flicked from the green stain on the branch back to Lipsa. She didn't ask for details, seemingly unsurprised by your "finding" process or the nature of the "playmates." She just slowly folded the cloth she'd been using (presumably to clean the sword) and tucked it into her apron pocket. Then she held her hand out towards Lipsa.
"Come here." Two words, spoken flatly, yet carrying undeniable authority.
Lipsa's small body visibly stiffened. She shuffled reluctantly out from behind you, one tiny step, then another. Her head remained bowed, her toes scuffing little circles in the dirt. Pout or no pout, she didn't dare truly ignore her sister's summons.
Lipsa: "Nora, but..."
Now, you stood facing Lipsa's sister, Nora.
