A Gift Declined
"Why would I?"
She had simply dropped the life she'd created off at the Frelia household on a whim, curious to see whether it would thrive without her—and then walked away.
Purely out of curiosity.
Was that something a parent could actually say out loud?
"....."
I couldn't even summon the will to argue. Even if I voiced every grievance I had, she wouldn't get angry that I'd defied her. She would only be genuinely curious about why I was upset in the first place.
We simply didn't think the same way. I didn't want to call her Mother anymore. That thing was not my parent—nor Shion's. All I wanted now was to pull whatever information I could out of her and get the hell out of this place.
"....I see. In that case, I have one more question."
"What is it?"
"Eve told me I still haven't awakened my potential. Could you explain what that concept actually means?"
Potential. Eve had once said that if I awakened mine, I would become dramatically stronger overnight.
"Mm, looks like Eve didn't explain it in full detail the way I told her to. Our little Eve listens to Mommy so well. Such a good girl~!"
"Hehe."
Eva ruffled Eve's hair with open praise. A thought struck me then—maybe Eve, raised her entire life under a creature like this that only resembled a human, was a victim in her own right. Of course, that didn't change the fact that she was still my enemy.
"Right. Potential. It's the abilities your component materials spent a lifetime honing. Once you awaken it, you gain free command over the specialties of those materials."
Eva pointed at Eve and elaborated.
"Eve was made from scholars. I deliberately used a single shared type of material—scholars—to push her potential as far in one direction as possible. The potential that manifested from that is.... Eve's tentacles."
Built on the scholars' innate gift for endless acquisition of knowledge, Eve had gained tentacles that could absorb an opponent's abilities.
"Hmm.... But with our son, I'm not so sure. Even if they were all fiends, each one lived a completely different life. I have no idea what kind of potential you'll awaken."
In short, mine was impossible to predict. I just hoped it wouldn't involve something grotesque like tentacles sprouting out of me.
"There are two ways to awaken potential. The first is for you to grasp the shared specialty of your materials on your own—but that's practically impossible. Even if your soul was forged by binding theirs together, you don't carry their memories. Which is why there's a second method."
Eva drew a glass vial of crimson liquid from her pocket.
"If you drink the potential catalyst I made especially for you, you'll awaken it immediately. But they say parents who just hand everything over stunt a child's independence, don't they? So I'm going to make a deal with my son."
"A deal?"
"Mm-hm. A deal that will make both my son and his mother happy."
Eva gazed into empty air for a moment.
"Son, do you know of a demon named Megan Astorius?"
For the first time, her expression hardened into something rigid.
"The kind of demon who, if the other party is a demonkin, cuts them down without question—no matter what ideals they held, what life they lived, or what good they ever did."
Eva Cardena clenched her teeth.
"That demon took someone precious from me. Forever."
"........"
"I.... don't understand it. Why do people call that demon a hero? He never raises his blade against the human trash who commit every filthy crime imaginable, yet he slaughters innocent demonkin who lived honest, upright lives without a shred of mercy. That bastard is nothing but a filthy racial bigot."
Coming from a woman who had ground countless people into experimental fodder for her own curiosity and then abandoned the life she'd carefully created at some remote household, it was rich—but Eva did have a point.
Megan Astorius never killed a human. Not even those who earnestly tried to murder him. But if the opponent was demonkin, he cut them down regardless of who they were. Valiant demonkin warriors. Helpless demonkin farmers. Elderly demonkin heavy with years. Even demonkin children, dismissed as future evils, fell to his blade without a moment's hesitation.
Having watched Megan Astorius across countless playthroughs until I was thoroughly sick of him, I could evaluate him objectively. He was a madman with a creed. But there's an old saying: kill one man and you're a murderer; kill a million and you're a conqueror. After taking so many demonkin heads, he had become humanity's irreplaceable hero. Of course, that was also because people in this world ran demonkin contempt as a passive skill.
"Which is why I'm going to destroy him no matter what."
Eva Cardena's eyes flashed open wide.
"I'll kill him, and I'll shatter every single thing he loves."
"I see."
"And for that, I need my son's help with this plan."
Plan. The word alone made me ask on pure reflex.
"Could you tell me about this plan first?"
"Of course. I'd never keep it from my own son."
I hadn't expected her to open up so easily, but Eva—fully immersed in her mother-and-son game—spoke without a shred of suspicion.
"Son, you know Megan Astorius is coming to Luin Academy in four days, right?"
"Yes. Of course I do."
"I'll keep it simple. Mommy and Mommy's friends are going to ambush Megan Astorius at Luin Academy that day."
....Just as I'd feared. It was happening. That settled it—I needed to map out the enemy's scale and posture right now.
"Wow, that's incredible. And who exactly are these friends of Mother's?"
"Mommy's made so many amazing friends, you know."
Eva shrugged and began rattling off names. The list stretched on without end. Among them were several 7-Star powerhouses. My heart grew steadily tighter, though none of it showed on my face.
Rough tally: including Eva herself, five 7-Star combatants. Seven at 6-Star. Thirty-three at 5-Star. Everyone below that added up to roughly fifty more. It was a force so massive someone might mistake it for an army marching to war. That many people carried a grudge against Megan Astorius, apparently.
....This is bad.
The Academy's current forces could not stop the catastrophe about to unfold.
Even with Megan Astorius there....
Megan Astorius was an 8-Star. Strong enough to hold off three 7-Stars at once by himself—but the numbers on the other side were simply too high. Even if Megan tied up three of the 7-Stars, two would remain. Suppose Merquin, the guardian spirit of Luin Academy, pinned one of them down—that still left one free. And none of this even accounted for the 6-Stars, 5-Stars, and 4-Stars below them.
Luin Academy's professors typically sat around the 5-Star mark. Even giving them a generous count of about forty, they were still badly outnumbered. In short, the power gap was overwhelming.
"While the 6-Stars and 5-Stars keep the Academy's forces occupied, Mommy and the other 7-Stars will hit Megan Astorius all together. Even that demon won't be able to withstand five 7-Stars at once."
Eva's eyes glittered with pure vengeance.
"Which brings me to what I want to ask of my son, my daughter, and all the other failures.... attack the students. Sure, a bunch of small fry are still small fry, but there are enough of them that variables could pop up. Your job is to cut those variables down as much as possible."
"........."
"Son, Mommy understands how you feel. Having to kill the people you've lived alongside with your own hands.... it must be hard. Of course it is. But won't you push through just a little—for Mommy's revenge? They're fundamentally different beings from you anyway. No need to feel any kinship."
Eva Cardena curved her lips into a seductive smile and gave the potential catalyst a little shake.
"Here. Mommy even brought you a present. Why don't you drink this first, and then we'll finish talking?"
She held the potential catalyst out to me. A glass vial of crimson liquid settled into my hand. If I drank it, I would definitely become stronger. Awaken the power, then escape cleanly according to plan—nothing could be better than that.
But I—
"Sorry, but I'll have to pass on that~"
I hurled the catalyst straight at the floor.
Crash!