Training and Sparring (1)

The affection had actually increased, but the state was depressed?

When I checked the status in the morning, the affection was the same, but after sleeping with Daisy, it rose.

Even seeing that, the word 'depressed' was clearly written in the state.

She must have known about Daisy.

The reason for her depression was simple. She had feelings for me.

She saw me as a man, not just a brother, and was depressed that Daisy had taken me away. My guess.

So, to push her affection higher, I trained with Daisy every day.

I even sucked her blood right in front of her. Daisy's blood tasted good. Since she was the daughter of the martial family, her blood carried high-purity mana, and my body recovered quite well.

Is this trashy?

I dismissed the thought. I wasn't in a position to be picky about cold rice or hot rice.

I had to somehow get her affection over 70.

Right now her affection stood at...

The ten days of stimulation had worked better than I expected, in a negative way.

Negative states piled up on her status, which was a bit eerie...

But her affection had slowly climbed, inch by inch, until it hit the wall at 69 and refused to rise any further.

By inducing jealousy through Daisy, offering subtle words, or giving light skinship, I was doing the kind of thing a modern-day playboy would do, yet I kept at it steadily.

Still, it wasn't enough.

Despite how much I messed with her mental state to raise her affection, I couldn't break the 70 barrier.

Because her feelings for me were still unstable.

Because of the lock.

Because this was a game world, I finally realized it.

The game setting had the condition "clear a specific event to unlock affection lock".

The affection lock existed at 69 to 70 and at 99 to 100.

To reach the true ending, I had to clear every normal ending—one single route for each named male character—and use the conditions obtained from them.

That was the game producer's design.

When you cleared A's ending, a clue appeared near the end to unlock B's affection lock. Clearing B's ending gave a clue to unlock C's, and so on.

Moreover, if I didn't collect all the normal endings, I couldn't even reach the branch point to the true ending.

Those game details might have been good for otaku playing the game, but from my position as someone who had been isekai'd into the world, it was truly a shitty situation.

Moreover, I had no interest in seducing male characters. My goal was my sister, so the fact that her affection lock was in place made ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it even worse.

I didn't know the clue to unlock my sister's affection lock.

"Shit."

Time was running short. Only about a month and two weeks remained. Until now, honestly, I had thought I could reach 70 quickly.

As expected, 69 had been smooth sailing.

Since there was no female character route in the game, I wondered if females also had affection locks. Why not detail it here? If it was a reverse harem preview, why not just implement the male characters carefully?

My vision was starting to blur a little.

*

I spent a sleepless night accepting that I couldn't raise my sister's affection right away.

I didn't call Daisy, and when my sister came, I sent her away.

This was the first time I had been alone since possessing this body.

Both Daisy and my sister seemed worried about me.

Staying in the room too long would only burden everyone. Half-dead was enough after one night. I hadn't been that depressed to begin with.

There might be a way, but if I gave up when facing a real problem, it would be pointless.

So I started with what I could do.

All night I meditated to recover my body. Thanks to the blood I had been sucking from Daisy, my condition had improved significantly.

With my body lighter, I came out of the room and met my sister, who had been waiting since last night.

"Scarlet!"

"...You waited the whole time, didn't you?"

When I asked why she had waited so long, she simply nodded, as if my coming out was a good thing.

Soon after, I saw Daisy running toward me from far away, holding up her long skirt.

Even though she wasn't a martial family daughter, she had decent strides in high heels. It was a proper gait.

"Master!"

"You two are the same."

Both greeted me with bright smiles the moment they saw me. Like a dog seeing its master. Should I give it a tail later?

I checked Daisy's condition. She looked quite haggard, having stayed up worrying about me all night. When I asked if she was okay, she nodded without hesitation. I had nothing to say...

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. There was something I needed to think about."

My sister sighed in relief at my answer.

I could easily see that it was an act for my sake. I didn't say anything because my sister might feel bad.

Both my sister and Daisy.

Since they had both decided to take care of me, reassuring ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them was my responsibility.

"Sister."

"Huh? Why?"

"How about we have a sparring match soon?"

At my words, my sister tilted her head, looking confused.

Until now, I had been half-resting in the mansion while recovering my body, but it was time to start training.

To enter the academy, suppress the heroines, maintain proper relationships so they could grow, I needed to be at least slightly stronger than them.

And I also wanted to increase the time I spent with my sister through sparring.

"Suddenly?"

"My body's almost recovered."

"It's been a while, so it's good, but..."

"Not now. Since it's been a while, I need to get my hands dirty too."

Magic usable in real life could be practiced alone in my room, and thanks to the blood, I was quite skilled at handling mana and blood. But when it came to actual combat, I would be clumsy without experience. I had no choice.

I would have to practice alone.

"Got it. Well... if your body's not good, tell me anytime? I'll give you some blood."

"W-what kind of nonsense are you spouting...?"

I didn't answer, and Daisy was in a panic.

Anyway, I nodded. My sister smiled happily. Recently, my sister, whose face had been getting darker because of Daisy, smiling like this was refreshing to see.

When we were ready, we headed down to the basement of the mansion.

Why not the training ground in the garden or somewhere? Because I and my sister were vampires.

Even if we had overcome sunlight, darkness was better, so the shaded, humid basement was preferable to the bright outdoors.

Coming down, it felt quite cozy. In the corner of the training hall, two coffins were placed.

The lids were open, and the inside was neatly cleaned. It was probably prepared as a resting space for me and my sister.

First, I closed the door to the basement and opened my status window.

Most of my stats had risen to a significant level. Mana had also increased. The Authority trait that had been with my sister had returned.

For now, the trait I needed to get used to handling was the usage of Void. The Bloodline trait had been mastered inside the mansion, so I just needed to create combat skills. But this trait had never been used before.

Especially since all three unique traits were connected to Void, training Void would naturally involve handling the unique traits.

It would be tough, but I had to do it.

Void meant absolute emptiness. Not nothingness, but something that existed yet had no content.

And it was my mana attribute.

The Void attribute.

Exists, yet does not exist.

I held a small mana sphere in my palm. A black sphere. Instead of the red or dark-red light a vampire would normally emit, it was pitch black, as if it had swallowed all light.

I wiped my palm and dropped the mana sphere onto the floor.

Crack.

The floor of the training hall was carved into a circle where the sphere touched, and then the sphere disappeared after fulfilling its role.

If I had compressed it more by adding more mana, it would have dug deeper.

Complete annihilation of touched existence.

That was the true nature of my trait Void and my mana attribute.

A mana attribute that swallowed users from the moment they were born, one that shouldn't exist.

Someone besides Scarlet possessed this trait. Only one person. Knowing who it was, I trained even harder.

The Demon King.

A boss character that didn't speak, a shit-eating villain.

If it was a preview, I would have gone with the one-route visual novel style.

But to keep the fantasy feel, the main villain, the Demon King, was another owner of the Void mana attribute besides me.

Even rarer than me, and with the same mana attribute ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as me?

Thinking about it now, I guessed that the reason Scarlet didn't appear in the original story was probably because of this attribute.

Or why would such a character not exist.

With this spec, even if my sister tried to troll, Scarlet could have neutralized it with power or strength.

Yet it didn't appear, which meant the problem was so severe that Scarlet couldn't intervene.

Perhaps he died before the original story began.

....

"Haah."

I exhaled.

First, I would do what I could.

Seduce my sister and train to become strong.

To survive together with my sister, the villainess who would fall or die in any ending.