What Are You Doing, Sis? (13)
What Are You Doing, Sis? (13)
Sitting in the restaurant chair, Rosemary swung both legs like a swing and hummed a tune.
'It worked, right? It must have worked. It definitely worked.'
The moment Aether had gazed deeply into the Mirror of the Inner Self, the deed was as good as done. She would have recovered all the memories she had lost to the other objets d'art, and she would have returned to the version of her eldest sister that Rosemary remembered.
It was still too early to celebrate, though.
'First I have to find out whether she intends to stay with us.'
Given that she had left the Demon King's army once before, whether her sister would take their side remained an open question.
To begin with, her eldest sister did not bind herself to things like race. She would reject even a god if that being proved untrustworthy, and she was the sort of person who would associate with someone less than a speck of dust if that person possessed deep loyalty.
That was simply the kind of sister she had always been. Assuming that recovering her memories would automatically make her side with the Gold-Eye Tribe was a hasty judgment. If the situation turned unfavorable, she might even end up in a position of direct opposition to the Demon King.
'It's because of that elf bastard. If I can't track him down and kill him in secret....'
Romance or whatever it was, her eldest sister seemed to be on fairly close terms with that elf. It was even possible that he was the reason her sister was successfully adjusting to academy life.
'If things had come to this, winning her over wouldn't be easy, would it? What if Rosemary manufactured some clumsy scenario to sow distrust toward humans, only for the scheme to be exposed?'
'Ugh. Just imagining it is horrifying.'
If she didn't want Demon King Castle turned into a mushroom farm, she had to move carefully and with deliberation.
Together with Rote and Frey, she waited for the restaurant bell to ring and sank into thought.
'Still, since Haspelt did land a solid blow to the back of her head, there's a chance, right?'
There had been an incident in which Haspelt had tried to sell her eldest sister off to Prince Clion over research funding.
Rosemary herself had orchestrated the whole affair. Through Blanton, she had brainwashed the Imperial Family and pressured Professor Haspelt to hand Aether over.
'If that plan had succeeded back then, everything would have gone smoothly by now.'
Regrettable, but what could she do? Some days brought failure.
At any rate, Rosemary had been the one pulling strings, but she had done no more than apply a push from behind. It had been Kleis Haspelt who had consented to the deal. Of her own free will, Haspelt had attempted to exchange her eldest sister for an enormous sum of gold coins.
This was the foolishness of humans. Some of them only needed a little prodding, and they would make the wrong choice all on their own.
Rosemary sneered inwardly. Ignorant little fools.
-Ding-dong
"Your order is ready."
"Yahoo!"
Even the Elankaya Mountains could wait until after a meal.
The moment the bell rang, the Fox Beastmen Tribe girl sprang out of her chair. Frey carried the plates out in order.
A richly aromatic beef stew came out first. A flame-grilled tomahawk steak, steamed potatoes with herb salt, and perfectly cooked green peas followed.
The salad, sprinkled with balsamic and Oriental dressing, gleamed with vivid color, and the fricassée of finely chopped chicken sautéed and airlifted from Kaurelia was enough to make the mouth water just from the smell alone.
Last came the carbonara that Aether enjoyed. Perhaps the cook had been heavy-handed with the pepper; a sharp, biting fragrance rose from it.
This was a personal matter, but Rosemary was not terribly fond of piperine, the compound responsible for black pepper's spiciness. That sort of thing was marginally better when mixed with beryllium, which imparted sweetness.... The problem was that she couldn't very well add a toxic substance as a seasoning right in front of other people.
It would be fine. This plate was for her sister.
Despite having wrecked the Imperial economy, the academy's meals remained luxurious. They had certainly grown much more expensive, but contrary to expectations, the price hikes in the dining hall had not been especially steep.
'The Chairman must have pulled some strings.'
The man was irritatingly competent in useless areas.
Well, that aside.
"Heehee, this looks so good!"
Rosemary truly could not bring herself to like Frey. It wasn't simply because of the girl's small frame or her behavior.
'That someone of my standing should share a table with a Beastman who isn't even of the Dragon Tribe.... How has the world come to this?'
The times had changed, and changed far too much. When she had lived as royalty, she could never have dreamed of such a thing.
But eating separately would be awkward in its own way. This little brat was one of her sister's closest friends. She had to keep her under surveillance somehow and create an opening to coax her into betrayal.
That was easier said than done. At least as far as Rosemary could see, there was no crack to be found in the feelings between these two girls.
One was excessively kind, and the other was innocence itself.
She hated these flat, one-dimensional human types the most. They were so unchangingly consistent that slander and intrigue rarely worked on them. Far from committing betrayal, even if they were betrayed, they would probably just be sad for a little while and then move on.
If someone got their head bashed in from behind about a thousand times, even a person like this might change, but... regrettably, the lifespans of humans and Beastmen were not that long.
"Anyway, why is Aether so late?"
"Right. Is something wrong?"
"I'll go find out where she is."
Sensing her moment, Rosemary rose from her seat.
The instant she stepped outside, she put a Mana Cigarette between her lips and lit it. Thanks to decades of practiced skill, locating her sister's position with Scope took no time at all.
"Let's see...."
What she was most curious about was how her sister had changed.
"Found...! Huh?"
[I'll kill them all.]
Rosemary's pupils expanded like a full moon.
"Wh-wha-wha-what...?"
Rosemary lost her center of gravity and staggered. She had nearly toppled backward from sheer shock.
Oblivious to the Mana Cigarette burning down to its end, Rosemary tracked Aether's movements.
Aether had retrieved something resembling an iron plate from the dormitory and was heading toward the campus dining hall. A strange light lingered in her golden eyes, making them gleam more faintly radiant than usual.
A resolute, solemn expression. Eyes that glowed like a gas lamp.
It was the emotional display exhibited when a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe harbored hostility toward something. Rosemary knew it well, because she had stormed into the basement with a similar look on her face when she had gone to capture Vermel.
"She said she'd kill them all.... Wh-who does she mean to kill...?"
Rosemary's mind raced.
The Demon King's army? The Empire?
The odds were even. Until she asked the person in question directly, she had to rely on guesswork.
However, after a brief chain of reasoning, Rosemary lifted the corners of her lips. Her eyes held the conviction of victory.
'Yes, Sister. Wipe out every last one of the humans.'
The last person who had dealt Aether a flail-like blow had been Haspelt. That meant her grievance against that woman had clearly been redirected into hostility toward humanity as a whole.
Even if that weren't the case, Rosemary had never committed any great wrong against Aether. That she would turn such an adorable sworn sister into a corpse? The very suggestion was absurd.
"Sis, over here, over here!"
She waved with the brightest expression she could summon.
Death was walking right toward her face.
**
After the lunch—at once light and heavy—had concluded, Rosemary waited for a moment when she and Aether would be left alone together.
"Shall we two talk for a little while?"
Aether nodded without a word. Sensing her opening, Rosemary led her away to a quiet wooded path.
She couldn't stand it. Her curiosity wouldn't let her hold back any longer.
"...Sis, do you remember who I am?"
The answer came without a beat of delay.
"Why did Blueberry transfer into Tillet?"
The moment she heard the name Blueberry, Rosemary's face lit up like a child receiving a birthday present.
Aether had a habit of addressing all the cadre officers of the Demon King's army, the Great Machines of the Nine Heavens, by nicknames. For instance, she shortened the name of her younger sister Akasha, the joint 2nd Seat, to 'Kasha.'
That same sister had often called Rosemary 'Blueberry.'
There was no special reason. It was simply because Rosemary's hair was the color of a blueberry.
In other words, it was a term of endearment she could never have spoken aloud if her memory had been lost.
She was ready to leap for joy, but Rosemary first reined in her emotions and delivered only the necessary words.
"Why else? I dipped my toes in to take you back home with me, Sis."
"No need. Turn back."
"You still have no intention of returning?"
"No."
Rosemary produced two Mana Cigarettes from her coat. She placed one between her own lips and settled the other between the lips of Aether, her superior.
"Goldenstein."
"Oh, you know these?"
"I was once urged to smoke them by the Fox Beastmen Tribe and gave them a try. Was that what you meant when you said you'd started some pointless business last time?"
"Yes. It's part of the operation as well."
Aether merely raised the corner of her mouth. The muscles around her cheekbones did not move — unnaturally so.
She exhaled, hoo. Two plumes of smoke wound upward through the dense canopy of branches.
"Do you know which side I'm standing on, that you'd say something like that to me?"
"If you had sided with the Empire, you wouldn't have said that sort of thing to me."
"...You've gotten quite good at sounding people out, haven't you."
"I learned everything from you, Sis."
"Your artful flattery is truly impressive. But sucking up like that won't promote the 4th Seat to the 3rd Seat."
"Who knows."
Having burned through her Mana Cigarette, Rosemary covered her mouth with a fan and smiled with her eyes.
Even Aether, supreme as she was, would not have realized that Rosemary had activated Scope in that brief moment and overheard her sister's 'I'll kill them all' declaration. For now, the initiative in information was hers.
"At any rate, you have no immediate intention of returning home, correct? May I ask why?"
"Don't you already know the reason?"
"Pardon?"
"At the entrance ceremony, you released three hundred Drakes and spoke to me through one of them. What you said then was this."
-How ever did you think to test into that place and enroll? That's why I'm envious of you. I could never pull off something like that.
"That remark was clearly made on the assumption that I would not be returning to the main force."
"Fufu, how sharp of you."
"And in the middle of all that, you went spouting casual speech at me too. Didn't you?"
"Back then, I had no choice — I was enforcing discipline."
"Hoh, you were trying to enforce discipline against me...?"
When Aether twisted her lips, Rosemary flinched like a mouse caught in a trap. It seemed she had misspoken.
"Th-that was me enforcing discipline on the others, not on you, Sis...!"
"I know. It was a joke."
"Phew...."
It was unmistakable.
Now that her sister had recovered her true self, even a joke sounded terrifying.
"Whether I go back later or not, I have to do my research. And in that respect, Tillet offers a very good environment."
"The castle has far better equipment than this."
"But there's no one there to assist me."
"If you wish, I can help you drag them to the castle."
"I'm telling you there's no need."
Whatever her sister was researching here, it was not Rosemary's field of interest. Still, if her sister wished it, she had no choice but to wait.
"So what was it you were trying to research?"
The Flare project that Aether had been working on before losing her memory had been sealed away. Yet her sister showed no sign of bringing up Flare.
"You can't tell by looking?"
"I am too unworthy for it to register."
That meant she was staying at the academy for some other research.
When Rosemary tilted her head and gestured that she wanted to know, Aether spat out the Mana Cigarette she had been gnawing and parted her lips.
"You'll find out in time."