Void (2)
Pinned beneath a girl while she stripped off my upper clothes.
If not for the Curse of Emotionlessness, I would have been thoroughly rattled. The feelings were muted, but they weren't gone entirely.
Why was she undressing me, exactly?
I couldn't make sense of what she was doing.
"O-Oppa had… two moles on his collarbone… No matter how carefully you disguised yourself, something like that would… …They're there? Th-then on his chest…"
"Hold on—how do you even know that?"
Different genders or not, maybe they'd bathed together as kids. I'd never had a younger sister before the possession, so I had no idea.
Even when I spoke to her, Clara didn't spare me a glance. She kept searching my body. Her face was flushed, her breathing rough, her pupils trembling—she looked a little dangerous.
Should I use the Curse of Illusion?
My arms and legs were bound by something, so I couldn't move, but our bodies were touching. It was possible. Doing something like that, though, would truly be past the point of no return.
A younger sister who starts doubting her brother's identity the moment the illiterate older brother suddenly starts reading.
I left Clara to it and calmly sifted through Karl's memories.
Sure enough, there was no memory of Karl ever reading. The letters the family sent to the sanatorium had been read aloud by a priest, and when letters went home from the sanatorium, a priest had written those too. My mother, Lady Manfred, must have received the discharge request without realizing I'd written it myself.
Then how could I read the script of the Laviart Empire at all?
The moment I thought that, a phrase drifted through my mind.
• You acquire Laviart language proficiency equal to your native language ability prior to possession.
• You acquire other national language proficiencies equal to your foreign language abilities prior to possession.
And this insane system decides to tell me that now.
"Hah… hah… Even the scent is Oppa's… so then what on earth…"
Clara had her nose pressed to my body now, sniffing me. Please tell me this kid didn't have some kind of dangerous taste.
"O-Oppa… Karl Oppa had one thing he feared most of all… Do you know what that is…?"
Well, that would be the illusions he saw every single day.
I almost answered that way, then thought better of it and dug through my head just in case.
The real answer wasn't hard to find.
"…That in this world, I might be the only one who suffers like this. That no one might ever understand me."
"…Oppa?"
I could probably brush past this by claiming I'd learned to read at the sanatorium—but once suspicion starts, it's hard to stop. I wasn't skilled at lying to begin with, and I'd never studied acting. Karl's memories weren't some convenient tool that served up the right scene whenever I needed one, either.
If I covered it up now and got doubted again later, the situation would only be worse. And it wouldn't just be Clara. Someone else might catch on too.
Maybe settling into the barony for life wasn't going to work. Getting stronger fast and striking out on my own might be the better play.
"…This body is your brother's. That much is true."
Clara's pupils flared wide. Her hair and the hems of her clothes began to lift into the air. She was drawing up mana.
Was she about to attack me?
Thanks to the Curse of Emotionlessness, I could stay cold even in a crisis like this. The moment she showed any sign of striking, I'd hit her with an illusion and get out.
That was when it happened.
"Huh? Why is this locked? Young Master? Young Miss?"
The library door rattled. Sophie, the maid who'd gone to fetch snacks, was back.
Clara's hair and clothes settled naturally back down.
"…We'll finish talking in the room."
Clara had never much liked the Manfred Barony.
Wherever you went, it was manure stench and thick-bearded men. No place for a noble young lady, she'd always thought. The only person who suited her was Karl.
A delicate face, unlike the other country boys. A manner that was always careful, always proper. She hadn't looked at her own brother as a romantic prospect, of course—but she'd thought, at least, that she'd like to meet a man like him someday.
"Ugh… please… please…"
"It's all right, Oppa. Calm down."
The problem was how little time Karl ever spent looking whole. As always, he was buried in the blankets, shaking. Clara took his hand and offered gentle encouragement.
"I'm scared… I'm so scared… Clara…"
"I know, Oppa. You're seeing something frightening, aren't you?"
"That's not it…"
"What?"
"That in this world, I might be the only one who suffers like this… that no one might ever understand me… that's what scares me…"
"…"
Clara had no answer for that.
It was true—even she didn't fully understand Karl's pain. Hallucinations or not, he had to know in his head that they weren't real. Could they really be so terrifying that he couldn't even live a normal day?
Curses weren't common, but among the cursed, those afflicted with the Curse of Illusion weren't especially rare. Most cases, though, were inflicted later in life by dark mages, so the curse was usually lifted before anyone ended up like Karl. Someone born with the Curse of Illusion—she'd heard Karl might be the only one on the entire continent.
"Oppa. I'm going to study hard at the Academy."
"Mm…"
"And I'm going to become the lord of this land."
"Really…?"
"Yes. And I'll make a place where you don't have to be alone."
"…That would… be nice…"
The strength went out of Karl's hand. He'd fallen asleep. He always shook with terror until he was utterly spent, then collapsed into unconsciousness like fainting.
"Besides, no sovereign of any nation has any interest in looking after this land."
The Laviart Empire had only kept it as imperial territory in preparation for the next war—to secure a supply route. Beyond that, the land was useless. And if the Empire ever won its wars, this barren stretch wouldn't even catch the Emperor's eye.
It occurred to her that gathering the cursed here—people who, like this land itself, received not even a god's glance—and letting them live looking after one another… might not be such a bad idea.
So that her pitiful blood kin would never again believe he was the only one in the world who suffered.
When she said we'd finish talking in the room, I'd assumed she meant hers.
She led me, quite naturally, to mine.
"So. You. What are you, really? What's your goal?"
Clara kept her mana drawn up, one hand stretched toward me, watching me with full wariness. Without physical contact, I had no way of beating her.
"C-Could we maybe sit down and talk?"
"No."
"You knocked me over earlier. Everything hurts…"
"I said no."
"Like I told you, this body really is your brother's. This Karl guy is way too frail…"
Clara sighed and tipped her chin toward the bed. Her hand tracked my movement as I went. I sat on the edge of the mattress, but she showed no intention of relaxing her stance.
"Talk. Now."
"I was just… someone ordinary. Not a mage like you. Nothing special. Then I came to and I was in this body. I have no idea why any of this happened."
I laid it out calmly. Information she hadn't expected came pouring out at speed, and Clara looked shaken.
"Karl tried to hang himself with a rope at the sanatorium. My soul entered this body at that exact moment. The body is still Karl's, exactly as it was. His memories carried over to me as well."
"…And I'm supposed to believe that?"
"No. You don't have to. I can barely believe what I'm saying myself. Like I told you—I was a normal person. I'd never even heard of anything like this."
"…"
"I was only explaining what your suspicion already told you. That I'm not Karl."
"Then the real Karl Oppa… Oppa's soul… what happened to it…?"
"I don't really know. Maybe the moment he decided to die, he was freed from this body."
"…Ha."
Clara crumpled where she stood. I didn't know if I was allowed to reach for her, so I just watched. Tears began to slide down her cheeks.
"Oppa… why would you choose that… Then my dream… this land, for Oppa…"
"You said you wouldn't leave Karl alone. You wanted to build a place where people like him could live together?"
"…"
"I don't think you need to give up on that dream. For all we know, Karl might come back."
"Come back…?"
"I mean… maybe he didn't leave this body. Maybe he just left it with me and went to sleep."
"…Then when Oppa comes back, what happens to you?"
"Who knows. Maybe I just disappear. Or maybe I get to go back to my original body."
Clara wiped her tears, then started in with more questions.
"Why pretend to be Oppa and come to our territory?"
"I can handle the Curse of Illusion, so I didn't particularly want to stay locked up in that sanatorium. And aside from Karl's memories, I had nothing else to rely on."
"And your plans from here?"
"Someone else might get suspicious the way you did… so I figured I'd train hard with Brenden for a while, then leave the territory."
"Haa… Please don't. Like you said—Oppa might come back."
Clara stood, brushed off her clothes, and held both arms out toward me. When I just stared blankly, her expression soured a little as she explained.
"Hug me. And don't get any weird ideas. I just want to be held by my blood kin."
After what she'd put me through earlier, not getting weird ideas was a tall order. I swallowed that thought, stepped close, and carefully took her into my arms.
"It's hard to believe what you're saying… but if you're right, then Oppa probably died right there. And a day like this—being held by him—would never have come, not in my whole life."
"Probably."
In truth, he wouldn't have died. Maria would have found some way to keep him alive. But after that, Karl would have walked the path of a demon worshipper, and the Manfred family would have fallen—so it was also true that a day like this would never have come.
"So for now… let's get along, Oppa."
I was glad she'd accepted it this way.
"Well, while the mood's warm… there's something I've been wanting to ask…"
"…What is it?"
There was nothing left to hide now. It was time to ask Clara about mana and the Void.
The Curse of Obsession only took effect after I died. Left alone, it was nothing but decoration. I needed to get my hands on mana and make it my own power.