Tell Me
"Laura-niiim...!"
With a soft whoosh, Laura's avatar slipped free of Irene's palm and darted out of the laboratory. When we hurried after her, she clenched both tiny fists, screwed her eyes shut as if pouring every ounce of strength into the effort—and then, all at once, her body ballooned to an enormous size.
Tears welled in Irene's eyes all over again.
"Didn't you say gigantification was impossible now...?"
"Ah! All the mana that had built up in your avatar is gone, so you've completely recovered!?"
Laura's avatar bobbed her head and beamed a bright, smiling squint. Looking thoroughly delighted, she spun one full circle around the garden before returning to Irene, shrinking back to her tiny size, and settling contentedly into her palm.
So an Evil God's avatar becomes more harmful the more mana it accumulates?
Ordinarily, mana is the very source of life. Accumulating it is beneficial; losing it is harmful. With an Evil God's avatar, however, the opposite was true. The more mana piled up, the more her activity and functions declined. Past a certain threshold she even slipped into a state of suspended animation called Mana Sleep until she could break enough of it down. It seemed she possessed a physiology completely unlike ordinary living things or spirits.
No—wait. Even other creatures are harmed if they inhale too much mana.
The moment that thought crossed my mind I remembered that the cause of monsterization was precisely an excess of mana, and I nearly smacked myself. Too much mana is toxic to everyone. Looked at that way, an Evil God's avatar wasn't so different from any other living being after all.
"Ah."
Mini-Laura slipped free of Irene's hand with a soft pitter-patter of wings and flew straight toward me. When I held out my hand she alighted on my palm, then nuzzled her cheek against it, eyes curved in pure happiness.
Evil God Kali grinds her teeth as if her mood has soured.
At that exact moment Laura's avatar startled so hard she bounced into the air, then fled trembling into Irene's arms.
She was that terrified of Kali? Was Kali's power far greater than I'd realized?
Nah. No way.
It was probably just that Laura was an Evil God of a lower rank than Kali. How much lower, though...? When I first met Laura she had seemed terrifying. Lately she just looked... kind of pathetic. Or rather, cute more than pathetic.
"A-anyway! Good thing it wasn't anything serious! Th-thanks! I'm going now!"
"Trying to sneak off? We still have accounts to settle, don't we?"
"...What?"
"..."
Irene had been trying to slip away unnoticed and froze the instant I caught her. I made a circle with my thumb and forefinger right in front of those wavering eyes. If something goes out, something ought to come back in return.
"You should pay the consultation fee before you leave."
"C-consultation fee? What nonsense...! You said it was just Mana Sleep! She would've woken up on her own if we'd simply waited!"
"You didn't know that until a moment ago, which is exactly why we're having this conversation. If I'd sent you home without fixing anything, would you really have been able to wait calmly until Lady Laura woke? Even if it took weeks? Months?"
"Ugh..."
"Now you understand. I didn't merely heal Lady Laura's avatar. I lifted months' worth of mental anguish off your shoulders in one go."
"Th-that... isn't entirely without a point..."
Even if I had failed to wake Laura's avatar and sent them home, nothing catastrophic would have happened. She would simply have broken the mana down on her own and returned to normal. But would Irene's mind have endured until then? Trapped for months—not days, not a week—in the terror that she might lose Laura's avatar forever? Impossible. The way she had come crying to me made that obvious to anyone. Irene herself couldn't deny it; she ground her teeth but said nothing more.
"If you've received help, you ought to pay the proper price, don't you think?"
"Uuugh..."
"Whoa! Mister looks super evil right now!"
"That sounds like something a shadowy mastermind would say..."
"..."
Charlotte's eyes sparkled with pure admiration. Yulia parted her lips in mild awe. I was certain I had delivered a perfectly ordinary, reasonable line. So how had it come to this? Sister, please stop trembling. You're making it look like some wicked villain is blackmailing an innocent lady.
"W-what should I... do then...?"
"I'd like to run some experiments on you, actually. So cooperate for me, will you? We'll call that the consultation fee."
"W-what did you just say!?"
Her face flushed scarlet. Then she glared at me with a mixture of shock, contempt, and raw shame all tangled together. I was still wondering what on earth that look meant when—
"Kh...! To think my own little brother was entertaining such filthy fantasies while looking at me...! I really, truly hate this, but... if you're going to demand payment that way...!"
"...Ah."
Evil God Kali sighs and shakes her head.
Trembling, Irene still edged slowly toward me. Her expression said just kill me already; she looked ready to surrender everything. Only then did I realize what misunderstanding she had leapt to.
"No. I'm researching black magic, and so far the only sample of someone who has absorbed neodymium is me. I want to add you as a second data point to improve stability—"
"Ah."
"..."
"Mm. Mmm? That's what you meant? I knew that. Yep. I knew the whole time. I was just pretending not to so I could see how you'd react. I was testing whether you might actually be a perverted little beast who looks at his big sister with lecherous eyes. Yeah..."
"..."
Irene fanned her blazing face with both hands and babbled nonsense. I was left completely speechless. Sister... why do you keep manufacturing black history for yourself like this...?
I want to die. I want to die. I want to die. I want to die...
Seated on the examination table, Irene covered her face with both hands and sobbed in pure misery. She was going insane. Why was it that every time she stood in front of Aslan she only ever managed to show him these humiliating sides of herself? Last time he had dragged her into the reverse world and forced her to confront a past she never wanted to see. This time she had thrown a full tearful fit over something that turned out to be nothing.
Strictly speaking it was all her own fault, yet Aslan wasn't entirely blameless either. Ever since the day she had clung to him and escaped the reverse world, looking at him somehow loosened every tight knot inside her and left her heart strangely at ease.
I really hate this... Because of you my poker face completely falls apart...
And if anyone asked whether that was a good thing, the answer was an absolute no. For more than ten years she had maintained that poker face. She had buried her true self so thoroughly that she could no longer even remember which feelings were genuine, performing the personality that "suited the Belmont name." One glance from Aslan and the whole façade came crashing down.
It was infuriating. After all the work she had put into managing that image! Her cool-beauty ice-queen concept was completely exposed. If it were only in front of Aslan she might have endured it—but his bodyguard and those tiny little things he was raising to devour later had seen everything too...! Ah, she wanted to crawl into a hole and die!
Before long Irene's quiet sobbing had turned into open wailing.
"Still at it, I see. Don't you ever get tired of this?"
"As if I could just stop. The image I spent my entire life cultivating is being smashed to pieces right now."
"You should be more worried about it getting smashed even further."
"Don't tell me you're planning to spread today's events all over the place!?"
Irene twisted her face and seized Aslan by the collar. He merely let himself be grabbed, expression perfectly calm.
"Is spreading it not allowed?"
"You dare spread a single word... I'll kill you... I'll really kill you... I'll kill you and then follow you into the grave..."
"..."
Voice thick with tears, she shoved him down into a chair and drove the heel of her high heel between his thighs. Even then Aslan didn't flinch—well, maybe he flinched a little.
"Do I look like I'm joking!?"
"I don't know about joking, but you do look like you're putting on a tough act."
"What...!?"
"I keep wondering why I was ever afraid of you. There's not a single reason a younger brother should fear a soft-hearted, timid big sister who treasures the people around her so much."
"W-what are you saying...!"
"Isn't it all right to stop the act now? Father isn't around anymore to keep you locked in that role."
"..."
"Or is it that you still want revenge on me?"
"...!"
As if the words had struck a vital point, Irene's body jerked. Aslan was right. There was no longer any reason to maintain the cool-beauty ice-queen persona or to play the villainess. The only reason she still refused to stop was so she could pay Aslan back. The very person who had created this villainess—she wanted to make him regret it. That single desire had kept the mask glued to her face even after their father died.
But if her hatred for Aslan kept fading... if the thirst for revenge continued to die down... then what was she supposed to live for now...?
"I don't know..."
"..."
Tell me. Please tell me.
You made me into this. So take responsibility and teach me how to take the villainess mask off as well.
Irene clutched Aslan's collar tighter, her grip almost a plea.