The Same Kind of Being

I am......

The instant countless tentacles burst from Eve's body, my hand flew to my sword on pure reflex.

I locked onto every twitch of movement through my Nature Realm, ready to unleash Retaliation the moment those tentacles came for me.

But time stretched on, and the tentacles never once turned my way.

"Oh, Brother. Honestly. As if I'd attack you right now~"

Eve gave a shy little smile and drew the tentacles back into herself.

"Saying you won't attack me right now implies you might later, doesn't it?"

"Who can say what the world has in store? Of course I have no intention of hurting you just yet—but if you suddenly charged at me meaning to kill me, I'd have no choice but to fight back, wouldn't I?"

Those tentacles. The claim that she would make them into one. And that face. All of it was far too familiar.

Eve Cardena.....

There was no question. That girl was Eve Cardena.

Eve Cardena.

The final boss who appeared near the ending if the player's character was Jeremy and he had become lovers with Shina.

Her specialty was predation through tentacles. But if all she did was eat things, she never would have been the final boss of Shina's lover ending.

She could absorb the flesh, mana, and even the abilities of whatever she consumed, and put them to use as her own.

Later on, that power takes her all the way to a realm bordering on 8-Star.

Naturally, a being with a broken ability like that could never exist by chance.

Eve Cardena was an artificial life-form created by her mother, Eva Cardena.

Eva Cardena—a mage of once-in-a-century skill, and just about the only person in the entire Grand Fantasia setting who possessed any real knowledge of bioengineering.

Gifted with staggering magical talent and a mind sharper than anyone else's, she had begun creating artificial life-forms roughly twenty years ago out of sheer curiosity.

In the process, however, she had taken more lives than anyone could count, and so she had been registered as an S-rank dark mage.

For the past ten years she had thrown everything she had into building ever stronger artificial beings, and her reason boiled down to one thing alone.

"Eve. If you and your mother have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a goal you're working toward, may I ask what it is?"

"Of course."

Eve answered my question with a bright, open smile.

"The ruin of Megan Astorius. That is my mother's wish, and mine."

About fifteen years ago, Eva Cardena had fallen for a demon man and started a family with him.

Not long after, Megan Astorius had taken her husband from her. From that day on she had lived for nothing but Megan Astorius's destruction, honing her gifts with single-minded fury.

Even so, for all her prodigious magical skill, the idea of Eva Cardena surpassing the hero Megan Astorius on her own was all but impossible.

She never abandoned her revenge.

If she could not surpass him herself, she would create a life-form that could—and with that obsession burning in her, she had never stopped forging stronger and stronger artificial beings.

And of all the specimens that effort had produced, the finest stood right in front of me: Eve Cardena.

.....Why is she at Luin Academy already?

In the original timeline she was supposed to appear before the protagonist roughly five years from now, already at a level bordering on 8-Star. So what was she doing standing in front of me today?

What variable had caused this? Because Jeremy wasn't here? No—Jeremy's simple absence as the protagonist wasn't enough to explain Eve suddenly transferring into Luin Academy out of nowhere.

Then what on earth......

Ah. Don't tell me.

Was it because of me?

Between the game I'd played and the situation I was living through now, two major factors were different.

First: Jeremy was not attending Luin Academy. But that alone couldn't properly account for Eve's early appearance, so I set it aside.

Which left the second factor....

I'm still alive, aren't I?

Whether the early-game villain who showed up for a flash and got disposed of—Shion Frelia—had survived or not.

Eve had been saying it all along. That I—Shion Frelia—was her older brother.

So because I lived when the original story had me dead, something shifted and Eve showed up ahead of schedule?

The theory wasn't ironclad, but for the moment it was the most comfortable explanation I had.

Wait a second—if that's the case.....?

The identity of Shion's mother—the dark mage who had approached Andres Frelia, borne him a child, and then fled—had never been revealed in the game.

So I'd naturally assumed Shion's mother was some throwaway extra....

Shion's mother was Eva Cardena?

But why? Hadn't Shion's mother infiltrated the Frelia family to carry out a mission? What mission could someone of Eva Cardena's caliber possibly need to sneak into House Frelia to complete? No—missions were things superiors handed down to subordinates in the first place, and she didn't exactly have anyone above her.

If she hadn't approached Andres to carry out some mission the way the story claimed, then why go near a man she didn't even love, give birth to his child, and run? It made no sense.

My head was spinning with confusion when, all at once, a line from the detailed physical examination came back to me.

The detailed exam had told me my body lacked any internal consistency—as if it had been assembled from the parts of many different people.

"......."

A chill crawled up my spine and seeped through my whole body.

"......Eve. Just one more question."

"My, you really are full of questions, Brother. Still—I don't mind that about you either, you know?"

Eve answered with a bashful little grin.

"Am I the same kind of being as you?"

"........"

For an instant, Eve's expression went rigid.

"Wh.... what do you mean by that, Brother? Eve doesn't quite understand...."

She tilted her head in a clumsy show of confusion, pretending not to follow.

"I'm asking whether I, too, am an artificial life-form—just like you."

"......Hmm. Strange."

Eve furrowed her brow and murmured, worrying her lip lightly between her teeth.

"Mother was certain you wouldn't know your own identity. How did you figure it out?"

That was it.

Shion—I—had never been human.

"Heh. If you want to survive as a 1-Star at this Luin Academy, you need at least this much intuition, you know?"

The shock of learning I was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an artificial ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠life-form nearly twisted my face—but my trait, Deceiver, locked every flicker of feeling behind a perfect mask before it could show.

"Ara? You're not nearly as surprised as I expected."

"Appearances aside, I've had more than my fill of absurdities. So no—it's not all that shocking."

A lie. I was extremely shocked. If I'd learned this somewhere with no one around, I would have been screaming my head off.

"That's my brother for you. Your birth secret just got exposed and you treat it like nothing—so cool and collected! You're amazing!"

"Is that so."

I brushed her praise off with an easy smile.

"Hmm.... If you'd been really shaken, I was going to wait until you'd calmed down a little before saying this—but since you're barely surprised at all, I might as well tell ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you now."

Eve took a step closer and looked up at me.

"Brother. Won't you destroy Megan Astorius with me?"

"Haha. Please say something that makes sense. Megan Astorius is an 8-Star swordsman. By what means exactly do you propose we bring him down?"

"Well, you're right that Megan Astorius is terribly strong. Strong enough that most people wouldn't even dare think of harming him. But in the end, no matter how great a hero he is, he's still only one man."

Eve's smile turned chilling.

"Brother—how many people in this world do you think hold a grudge against Megan Astorius?"

".....Don't tell me you mean to join hands with everyone who hates Megan Astorius and attack him together?"

"Oh, of course not. The world isn't some utopia. People aren't going to link arms over the single shared point of hating Megan Astorius. However...."

"Not everyone—but some of them. Enough to join forces and strike."

"As expected. You're so sharp, Brother."

Eva Cardena meant to ally herself with various figures who loathed Megan Astorius and attack him as a united front.

And since I had come from her as well, I was supposed to fall in line with the same heart. That was the pitch.

".....Haha. I wonder whether my joining would even be of any help. Sadly, unlike you, Eve, I'm not particularly strong."

"Well, I suppose you might feel that way."

Eve gave a little shrug, as if telling me not to worry.

"But that's only because your true potential hasn't awakened yet, Brother."

.....Potential? What was that supposed to mean.

"I have something called potential? Could you explain a little more clearly?"

"I'd love to, but..... Mother told me not to go into detail about the potential. She said she'd summon both of us later, so she'll probably tell you herself then, won't she?"

With that, she spun lightly on her heel and turned her back to me.

"Well then, Brother—let's leave it here for today. I was just starting to get hungry. I hope we meet again soon~"

Eve showed me her back and began to drift slowly away.

I had no intention of letting her go like that.

"Eve. Stop right there."