Cleanup (2)

Listening to Liliana shriek at the top of her lungs, I pulled the Contract of the Hellish Delinquent off the desk.

"What the hell is our jungler even doing?! Why am I the only one who ever dies?!"

I was certain the hidden clauses only revealed themselves when she held the thing in her own hands.

It lived up to the name Hell's Contract. Granted, I'd used one on Scarlet myself — but what could I say? Nobody told her to fall for it.

The reason I'd taken the contract out was to find out whether I could get in touch with Liliana's mother. Unlike Liliana the shut-in NEET, her mother had lived a proper life in society. She might know something about the Demon King.

I remembered the wording clearly.

I still remembered the day Liliana first sent a letter to her mother. Thinking back on the text that had appeared then, there had been no mention of it being a one-time offer.

Which meant we could contact Hell again.

I stared a hole through the contract. Maybe I just needed to ask.

"Hey. Think you could give me that contact method one more time?"

A slow seep of mana began to bleed from the parchment.

"I should've tried this sooner."

It was really that easy? So I could just get in touch whenever I felt like it?

"Ah… that's a shame."

The contract had answered before I even said it out loud. Maybe it could read my mind.

A sheet of letter paper — the same kind Liliana had used last time — drifted softly down from above.

Come to think of it, this thing was top-tier.

The Hell's Contract I'd lifted from Gill Stephen's pocket had only been upper-mid grade. But the Contract of the Hellish Delinquent was the highest rank there was. Of course the effects would be better.

"Hrm."

The Contract of the Hellish Delinquent. The word it kept emphasizing — delinquent — sat strangely with me.

The options that had come up back then had been ridiculous, too.

Just looking at the list made my head hurt. She'd gotten a lot better since then, but the Liliana who'd first been summoned was a delinquent through and through — a life spent holed up in her room playing games, her back turned on the world.

But if you thought about it in cliché terms… delinquents usually came from well-off families. You didn't call a homeless guy causing trouble on the street a delinquent. You just called him a lunatic. It was the children of established nobles and royalty who earned that particular label when they went off the rails.

"…She's supposed to be from a powerful family?"

I snuck a glance through the crack in the door at Liliana, mid-stream.

"Thank you for the four hundred dollars~ loli-loli-loli~. You want me to put on something sluttier? Yeah, no. Not happening. You bunch of perverts."

She was picking a fight ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with a donor and running her stream like a protection racket.

"…Yeah, I really don't see it."

Then again, she'd said herself that she came from an ordinary family and didn't know much about the Demon King. Maybe I was just overthinking it.

Heroine Status Window.

That wasn't what I wanted to see. I wanted the scores — the ones based on how much influence they had on this world. Liliana hadn't originally been a heroine, so a score had been assigned to her.

The system window appeared the instant I thought it.

"Seventy…?"

Liliana had definitely been at sixty-five. She'd gone up five points. Lim Sol had ticked up too, from ninety-three to ninety-four.

So the scores update in real time as their influence grows.

Another new piece of information. Fine, Lim Sol I understood — but why was Liliana sitting at seventy? It really did feel like there was something there. Or maybe she'd just gotten stronger because I had.

Scarlet, the spy I'd planted on Elise, was at thirty-two. She'd barely had any presence in the original, so of course she only came out to about 0.3 Lim Sols. Terrible cost-effectiveness.

"Gonna hit the bathroom real quick."

Liliana stepped out of her room at just the right moment.

"What the. Why are you peeking into my room?"

She locked eyes with me waiting outside her door, and I held out the letter paper.

"Liliana. Want to contact your mom?"

"Huh? All of a sudden?"

"Yeah. I've been looking into it for you. Apparently you can get in touch once a month."

She took the paper from my hand, smacked her lips, and set it on the desk.

"Alright. Hmm. Mom makes me a little nervous, though."

I'd been hoping to score a few cheap points, but her reaction was lukewarm at best. Last time she'd been sobbing and begging me to let her talk to her mother. Why the sudden change?

"Why? You don't want to?"

"It's not that… Mom's my rival."

"…?"

"It's nothing~. I gotta pee. Move."

"Uh, yeah."

Liliana disappeared into the bathroom.

"Rival… am I getting the meaning wrong?"

A rival in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠love. Maybe it meant something different in Hell.

I sat down on the couch and tried to figure out what "rival" meant on the other side.

The next day was Friday.

The academy's notice — stay inside the dorms for the cadets' safety — had been extended another day. Locked in until Friday, the cadets had taken to wandering into each other's rooms to kill time.

Lucy had baked cookies and come over to hang out in Rumi's room.

"Rumi, these are good, right?"

"Yeah. They're good."

"Hehe. I've gotten a lot better, haven't I?"

"You're amazing, Lucy."

Lucy had discovered that her cookies tasted terrible, thrown herself into brutal training, and had finally reached the point where she could bake something actually edible.

"I should bring some to Lee Hoyeon tomorrow. Cookies this good, he'll actually enjoy them."

"Hoyeon ate them happily last time too."

"Th-that was just him pretending they tasted good!"

The wound was still fresh. Hoyeon had eaten them with such gusto that she'd shown them off to her other friends — only to be told they tasted like poison.

"Rumi. Let's do this. A personality test."

"Mhm. Okay."

Whenever Lucy took the lead and suggested something, Rumi's answer was always yes. They'd grown up with no parents, leaning on each other, and just looking at each other's faces was enough to make them happy.

"How about this one. If you went out with your boyfriend? One: amusement park. Two: zoo. Three: water park."

"I like the amusement park."

"Uh, I'd go with… the zoo? The water park means you'd have to wear a swimsuit."

Lucy didn't like showing off her body. Men's eyes on her made her uncomfortable.

"I'm gonna go wash my hands real quick."

Lucy smiled a little, watching Rumi still unable to say she was going to the bathroom. Even though they were twins barely any time apart, Lucy had always believed that as the older sister, she had to take care of her younger one. She had, ever since they were little.

It never occurred to her that it might have become overprotection.

"Personality tests are pretty fun, actually."

Lucy drifted into thought, looking at another quiz pulled up on her smartwatch.

"Hrm… a boyfriend."

If I got a boyfriend, how would it even happen?

Someone's face drifted unbidden into Lucy's mind.

"…Ugh, stop. Seriously."

She shook her head hard and looked back at the screen, but one man's face refused to leave it.

"Uuugh…"

Lucy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was well aware of the messy, undefined thing between Lee Hoyeon, Rumi, and herself. And having watched Rumi her entire life, she could tell what her sister was thinking just from the way she moved.

Rumi liked Lee Hoyeon. And Hoyeon probably had feelings for Rumi too. Lucy could feel it — the way he was just a little kinder to Rumi than he was to her.

Lucy wanted them to stay friends like this. Forever… nobody pairing off, the three of them just hanging out. That was the only way her heart would stay settled.

"Haaah…"

Her head was a mess.

Friday morning.

Another notice: no going outside today either.

"Mmhnnn…"

I woke myself up properly by palming the breast of the naked Liliana sprawled beside me. Locked inside with nowhere to go, there wasn't much to do except have sex with her.

"Nnh… Master. First thing in the morning?"

"I just wanted to touch them. They're so soft."

"Mmh."

What to do today. Sex with Liliana could wait until later. Breakfast first.

"Let's get fried chicken."

"I'm getting sick of chicken."

"Whyyy… let's get chicken. We can work up a sweat on the way there. Hm? Master."

"…Fine."

A little bell I'd rigged on the dorm window gave a bright jingle.

"It's Scout!"

"I told you, it's Scarlet."

We both got up and headed for the living room. Nobody was visible beyond the big picture window, but the moment I opened it, Scarlet came slithering in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠along the ceiling.

She landed with a clean, sharp thud.

"Ooooh. Cool. Scout."

Liliana clapped for the stylish landing.

"Scarlet. You already have something to report?"

To keep Elise from catching on, we'd agreed to talk face-to-face instead of using any communication method that left a record. I'd told her to report anything that might be useful, no matter how small — but she'd come back in less than a day?

"I've brought back something big, Hoyeon."

Scarlet fidgeted with her right ear, then pulled out a piercing and handed it to me. Her eyes were gleaming. She looked quite pleased with herself.

"C'mere, Scout."

"Y-yes."

While Liliana and Scarlet played, I connected the piercing to my smartwatch and checked the footage stored inside.