Yeah, That's Right, Brother (3)
Outer Deities' artifacts inherently carry a colossal amount of phoron. They're basically radioactive. Touch them the wrong way and you're screwed.
Scholars had studied exactly what happens when someone mishandles an Outer Deity's belongings, depending on the entity's type. They discovered that anything connected to the Descartes faction destroys the mind.
"Urk!"
As if to prove the research was accurate, Royce's mouth formed a perfect circle as a groan tore out of him.
For the briefest instant, the tip of my caliper had brushed his hand.
A 0.2-second draw.
It wasn't even a smack or a tap. I had truly touched it with the force of an atomic speck before pulling away again.
Blade control so exquisite it would have brought tears to the eyes of any supreme master.
The third-rate nobody—someone who hadn't even reached the threshold of becoming an Outer Deity initiate—foamed at the mouth, completely unable to comprehend the profound universal principles behind it.
"Ooooh..."
"Honey? What's wrong?"
"Huuuoooh..."
"Honey, what the—huuoooh!"
Eida Kersil, his wife, immediately sensed something was off and rushed over to check on him, but I showed no mercy. She soon displayed the exact same symptoms—her eyes glazing over as every muscle in her body contracted like a reanimated corpse.
The completion of the paired qi deviation, achieved.
"Whew..."
I exhaled and spoke calmly.
"Don't worry. I struck with the flat of the blade."
Even Cartesia would have shed tears at that level of skill.
— The God of Wisdom and Curiosity is aghast.
I had, of course, read Outer God Slayer, and through several (accidental) experiments, I had already predicted how others would react upon contacting the caliper.
Less than a second of contact—a mere graze—would result in foaming at the minimum and fainting at the maximum.
In simple terms, I had just raised both of their phoron levels from three hundred to five hundred in a single go.
It wasn't enough to kill them or turn them into vegetables, but it definitely made the experience feel like absolute shit.
Anyway, I had to deal with the aftermath.
"...Hey. You. What the hell did you just do?"
Exactly like this.
Seti couldn't hide her shock as she stared at Rustilla's parents, who had collapsed like neatly folded laundry.
"I said, what did you just do?"
Seti rushed over and checked on Rustilla's parents. Rustilla herself jumped up in alarm and joined her, feeling for a pulse.
Fortunately, both breathing and heartbeat were normal. I shrugged.
"This one did nothing at all."
I had drawn and sheathed the caliper back into subspace in the blink of an eye. Unless someone had truly exceptional eyesight, there was no way they could have followed the process.
Fuck. Seti was at a loss for words.
"...Up we go. Excuse me. Are you all right?"
I stood up as well and helped support the pair. Then I sat them in wheelchairs and began pulling them along.
"It seems the two of you must have been quite exhausted from rushing all the way here out of concern for the young lady. I shall escort them back personally, so you should stay here and have a nice, long chat with her."
"Can you do something about that dogshit way of talking?"
"Well then, I shall take my leave. Adios."
Squeak, squeak, squeak.
The antiquated wheelchair creaked as it gradually moved into the distance. The focus in Seti's eyes slowly faded as well.
"Sister."
"..."
"Sister?"
Rustilla smiled bitterly and beckoned to Seti.
"Seti, come over here for a moment?"
"What is it?"
"There's something I need to tell you about Eidel."
Rustilla took several deep breaths. She was steeling herself. When revealing something this big, preparation was essential.
"I'll only say this once, so listen carefully."
Everything she had observed about Eidel with her Mind's Eye until now.
The things she had kept to herself, the burdens she had carried alone.
The stories she had never dared speak aloud for fear they would burden Eidel or get him dragged off to prison—Rustilla finally laid them all bare in front of Seti.
"Ah..."
Having learned everything, Seti let out a soft sigh.
"To summarize... all the times Brother was so cruel to me were because of an Outer Deity?"
"Probably."
"And the fact that he's finally come to his senses and ended up like this... is because his pure heart has been completely restored?"
Rustilla shook her head.
"I'm not sure about that part. The only things that can block an Outer Deity are Constellations."
Yet Eidel had no Patron behind him.
"So I thought, maybe when he was little his sense of self was too vague, so the Outer Deity could control him easily, but now that's no longer possible..."
"The thing that almost hurt your parents just now—was that an Outer Deity possessing Brother's body? And the one who stopped it was Brother himself?"
"...Yes. Probably."
Most of it was speculation, but one fact was undeniable.
Eidel was living his life in constant contact with an Outer Deity.
Seti silently drooped her shoulders.
The absurdity of it brought tears to her eyes.
So all the bullying she had suffered was the result of a Descartes Outer Deity manipulating her own brother's mind?
"Th-this doesn't make any sense. How could something like that latch onto him... What could it possibly gain from it...?"
It had been a misfortune for Eidel, a misfortune for the Rheinland family, and an immeasurably huge misfortune for Seti's own childhood.
And it had all been the work of an Outer Deity.
At the same time—though it was only a guess—Eidel had apparently fought it off to some degree.
Sorrow and admiration existed side by side in her heart.
But there was one question left.
"Why didn't you tell me from the beginning?"
"...Because if I'd told you from the start, you might have reported your brother."
"..."
Seti was speechless.
Six months ago, she had genuinely wished Eidel would drop dead. She had cursed him every single day, hoping he'd spend his life picking up trash on some frontier planet.
If she had known about the Outer Deity back then, her hatred would have devoured any pity and she would have reported him without hesitation.
But now?
She couldn't.
He was the person she had grown closest to among her blood relatives. He was the only one who treated her—the younger half-sister born from a different mother—without any walls between them.
Therefore, she absolutely could not lose him.
"...Seti."
Rustilla took Seti's hand and held it tight.
"I want to save Eidel."
There was a simple way to send him to the space prison, but that would completely destroy his life. That wasn't the method Rustilla wanted.
"No matter what happens, I want to give him a happy future instead of a bleak one."
Because he had saved her.
So she wanted to save him in return.
Rustilla's jade-green eyes shone with intelligence. The girl's face, after a good night's sleep, was as pale and clear as flour.
Seti finished gathering her resolve. She organized her thoughts. She squeezed Rustilla's hand and nodded.
"...Me too."
The warm voice she had heard last night.
Uh, yeah. That's right, bro.
Those words had definitely come from her half-brother, not from an Outer Deity. Otherwise, such a gentle tone could never have flowed from one person's voice.
"We have to save him. He's family."
"Yes. Let's do it together."
They wanted to kill the Outer Deity.
They didn't want to lose Eidel.
That was the greatest conclusion Seti could reach.
Rustilla's parents woke up shortly afterward.
I had been escorting the two of them to the first-year faculty office when they saw me, screamed, and shot up from their wheelchairs.
"What the hell do you think you're doing right now!"
I brought my index finger to my lips and made a shushing sound.
"Father, we're right in front of the faculty office. I'd appreciate it if you kept your voice down."
"What?"
"Quite a few of the supporters who came for the event have already left, so the atmosphere is like a funeral in there. If you shout that loudly, what will everyone think of you?"
It was exactly as I said. The area around the faculty office was filled with funeral wreaths.
Rustilla's father wasn't a fool. He let out a groan, clicked his tongue, and rose from the wheelchair.
I opened the faculty office door and called for Teacher Kendra.
She came shuffling out, rubbing her eyes.
"Eidel, is it really all right for you to be up already?"
"Yes. For some reason I'm perfectly fine."
The doctor had told me to shut up and rest because of my condition, yet after one good night's sleep I was back to normal.
"Teacher Hammington, have the reallocation test results been finalized?"
"Ah, the test results..."
Kendra looked troubled.
That was understandable. The test had been halted right before the final stage, so deciding on class transfers for the students was no easy task.
The administrative department was probably dying inside right about now.
"It's not completely decided yet. Still, at least one student will be transferred into my class."
"Rustilla?"
"...How did you know that?"
"She showed a bit of potential."
Rustilla's parents frowned.
"I'm Rustilla's father. Teacher, what exactly did you mean by that remark?"
"Ah... so you're her parents. I didn't realize."
Kendra answered confidently.
"I am Kendra Hammington, the instructor in charge of this year's first-year elite class."
"E-elite class?"
The elite class.
In first year, it gathered students ranked from first to about twentieth in the entrance exam. In second year, it gathered the top twenty from the previous year's rankings for separate, intensive study.
Students in this class received full institutional support.
The most notable perk was guaranteed admission to the college division without an entrance exam.
If Stellarium Academia was a prestigious high school, then Stellarium College was a prestigious university.
Wow! Graduate high school with excellent grades and enter a top university for free, no exam required!
Incidentally, Stellarium's university courses were the real deal. Which was only natural, of course.
"M-my daughter is going into the elite course..."
"Congratulations in advance, Father, Mother."
"Is this really true?"
Rustilla's mother grabbed Kendra's hand tightly. Her face twisted with joy.
That was the face of a PhD candidate who had just succeeded in publishing an SCI paper.
It was an expression not just anyone could make. Had she perhaps graduated from graduate school herself?
While I was entertaining such trivial thoughts, Rustilla's parents began drinking the proverbial kimchi soup of premature celebration.
"Honey, this changes the whole conversation. Let's forget about transferring to Iruiel and keep her here."
"Yes. That might be for the best. After all, academic prestige matters most in law school."
"Teacher, you must handle this incident properly. This is something we could sue over. You understand that, right?"
Good grief.
There wasn't much a teacher could do when faced with nightmare parents. Kendra's face showed her plummeting authority as sweat rolled down her skin.
She asked cautiously.
"What improvements would you like to see...?"
"Please allow the introduction of fifth-generation androids into the dormitory. Ten or more, if possible."
"...I'll look into it."
"Oh, and one more thing. Install cameras in every room..."
"Goodness gracious."
I sighed and cut the two of them off.
"Father, Mother. I'm sorry, but Rustilla has absolutely no need for androids or security cameras."
"What are you talking about?"
"Teacher. You still have the CCTV footage from that time, right?"
"Huh? Yes, but why?"
"Could you show it to us for a moment?"
I led the two of them into the faculty office and showed them what had happened during the reallocation test.
What appeared on the screen was—
Rustilla slicing B-rank golems into minced meat.
Two weeks later, a new student joined the elite class.
And.
Zernya's ranking remained unchanged.