“Alright, we’re done now.”
“Is it over?”
“Yeah. I was originally going to measure the distal parts like your hands and feet, but since the Neomium reaction converges to zero, it’s meaningless.”
“…”
After finishing the experiment.
Irene gathered her clothes and pursed her lips.
“I’m really going crazy…”
‘Why is my heart pounding like this…?’
Throughout the experiment, her heart had been racing uncontrollably, leaving her utterly bewildered.
Was it because she’d shown too many embarrassing sides of herself lately?
No. Paradoxically, after displaying so many humiliating moments, she felt somewhat calmer.
The person she hated the most had now become the one she felt most at ease with.
Accepting that fact made her feel a bit more comfortable.
“I’m heading out now.”
“Sister, and…”
“I know. The compensation for the damages I caused last time, right? I’ll send it. But really, how does it cost so much to repair a few broken skeleton bones…”
“As long as you know.”
“…”
But still, she couldn’t get used to her changed younger brother.
Even though he was sneering with the same despicable face as before, she didn’t feel particularly bad about it.
She wondered what was happening.
‘Is this what it means for family to be precious?’
When she was young, she hated him to death.
But now, the only person she could rely on was her brother.
Emilia was too clueless to depend on…
‘His Black Magic research was more decent than I thought.’
When he was interrogating me about where I had a chunk of Neomium, I thought he had finally gone mad with Black Magic like Father.
But seeing him conduct the research himself, she realized all her worries were unfounded.
If it’s Aslan, it’ll be okay.
Instead of dragging the Vermont family into ruin with this research presentation…
It would become an achievement that elevates our prestige.
Having not trusted him and only interfered until now, she decided to patiently trust him from now on.
If I trust him and he loses his mind again and does something stupid…
Then I’ll just kill him myself.
That was roughly her mindset.
‘At least until the academic conference, I should take care of any disturbances.’
Of course, the full authority to manage the family was with Aslan.
But there was still a world Aslan didn’t know.
He couldn’t even imagine how many forces jealous of Vermont were lurking in the shadows.
Aslan didn’t need to know.
Because I can handle it all myself.
It was enough for someone like me to know the darkness of the underworld.
“Hmm…”
Climbing into the carriage heading for the capital, Irene looked out the window and fell into thought.
No matter how much she tried to forget, the dream she kept having resurfaced again.
[Hide yourself. Close your heart, silence your voice. Hide yourself so thoroughly that eventually even you forget who you are.]
Surely, that was a memory from her childhood…
Who was the person I was conversing with in that youthful voice?
[Someone you can trust will appear. Just wait until then.]
And who was this ‘someone you can trust’ that it mentioned?
She had kept forgetting, living on…
But thinking back now, she felt that it was thanks to the owner of that voice that she could naturally hide herself and act as the villainess Irene Vermont.
Because she believed that someday, someone she could trust would appear.
Because she had hope that she could one day stop this painful act.
If she thought she had to hide her heart forever, she wouldn’t have been able to start, but she could begin because she believed there was an end.
But where exactly is that end…?
‘The person I can trust isn’t Aslan, surely.’
Aslan is definitely an ally now, but…
Surely he isn’t the ‘someone I can trust’ that the voice spoke of.
After all, Aslan was the very person who made her hide her heart and act as a villainess.
He was a scoundrel with a rotten personality who miraculously reformed, that’s all.
It wasn’t that a new trustworthy person had appeared.
“Could it be that someone else is occupying Aslan’s body right now…?”
Unintentionally voicing such a possibility, Irene’s expression hardened.
Huh?
“Pfft… No way…”
Then she realized how absurd what she just said was and let out a hollow laugh, shaking her head.
Surely, that can’t be.
Her imagination had gone too far into the realm of fantasy.
“It would be nice if it were true…”
If this nonsensical delusion were true…
She could definitively determine the reason her heart pounded whenever Aslan was near.
She could stop acting as a villainess and return to the mansion.
Irene smiled bitterly, imagining such an empty ‘what if.’
***
“Ah, geez. I’m not a cat owner or anything.”
[The Evil God ‘Kali’ is proud of you for accumulating glorious battle scars!]
After Irene left.
I finally let out the groan I had been holding back and clicked my tongue.
Being strangled by my sister who was having a nightmare and sleep-talking, and covered in scratch marks all over my body…
I was like a butler raising a giant cat at home.
If I keep putting up with my sister’s hysteria, I’m going to die.
I can’t even lie because of Laura’s eyes, so…
The past 18 hours were pure hell.
Still, the hopeful thing is that even Irene is starting to show signs of improvement.
Although she had turned dark because of Aslan during his crazy days, when embraced with kindness, she seemed to be gradually becoming more affectionate.
It’s still difficult for her to stay at the mansion, but my sister will get better over time.
I began to envision a future where even this messed-up family is slowly returning to normal.
‘Though there’s a chance I might end up wrecking the family even more…’
Previously, whenever Irene approached, she exuded killing intent.
The sight of her sharp heels was enough to make my lower regions tingle with fear, so I hadn’t noticed it before.
But this time, I discovered a new fact: a very pleasant scent comes from Irene.
When someone is terrified and trembling, desires naturally take a back seat.
But as Irene became somewhat gentler and my tension eased, her sweet fragrance from close by stirred uncontrollable impulses.
‘I have to endure.’
To me, she’s the first woman I’ve met since coming to this world.
But from Irene’s perspective, I’m a younger brother who suddenly reformed one day.
In other words, there’s no chance anyway.
Thinking that way, I could neatly give up… though it seems I have some lingering feelings.
“Aslan! Is the experiment over? Where’s the data… Ah!? What’s with your appearance!”
“Ah.”
Just then, the door burst open. Julia appeared, and as soon as she saw me, she was startled.
“You’re a complete mess! It was that woman again, wasn’t it?”
“Well, yes…”
“You were fine when you were with us. Why is she so desperate to get at you… Ugh, what’s all this?”
“I’ll heal quickly, so you don’t need to worry.”
“I’m not okay! Seeing such beautiful skin, enough to make one unconsciously envious, messed up like this hurts my heart. Come closer.”
Julia grabbed my ear and pulled me sharply.
I obediently let myself be dragged.
She pulled me down until our faces were very close, and then she was startled herself, letting out a small “Uh” and stepping back half a pace.
Julia’s cheeks turned slightly red.
She then grabbed my chin and turned my face to the side, preventing me from making eye contact.
“Don’t look at me.”
“…”
“I-it’s not that I don’t like you looking at me! It’s just overwhelming! If I’m conscious of Aslan’s gaze, I feel like I can’t do anything, that’s all…”
Perhaps realizing her tone was too sharp, Julia hurriedly added explanations to cover it up.
I almost burst into laughter at that sight.
Even without such excuses, I knew from the beginning that Julia wasn’t being prickly because she truly disliked me.
“What on earth did you do to end up like this… Stay still. I had a feeling this would happen, so I’ve been carrying lots of band-aids.”
“…”
Julia rummaged through her pockets and pulled out a handful of character band-aids.
I wondered why she had so many.
It seemed that ever since I got hurt and had a wound on my cheek last time—also because of Irene—she started to prepare thoroughly.
“Don’t move.”
She grabbed my arm and started sticking on the character band-aids.
Of course, since the wound was long and had four parallel cuts, those small band-aids couldn’t cover it.
So Julia started to overlap and connect the band-aids, sticking them over and over again.
“…”
Thanks to that, my arm was quickly being covered with shiny character band-aids.
Momentarily speechless at the shocking visual, I glanced at Julia, who was sweating profusely and concentrating, and smiled.
“I told you not to look at me.”
She’s clumsy in the way she shows concern.
Julia might be the only one who scolds with sharp words while carefully treating someone’s wounds.
At this rate, even during our engagement ceremony, she might act prickly while holding out her hand to have the ring put on.
Just as I thought that might not be so bad…
“Ah!? I’m running out of band-aids… These are the ones I’ve diligently collected from magazines!”
I wondered where these character band-aids came from.
It seemed they were freebies that came with the magazines the mansion subscribed to.
Running out of band-aids, Julia became flustered and quickly fell into panic.
“Oh no, what should I do…!”
“Anticipating this, here comes me!”
Then, Bang.
The door opened with a sound more forceful than when Julia entered.
Charlotte appeared, wrapped all over in bandages.
Was she cosplaying as a mummy?
“Hohoho! Shiny band-aids? Julia, you’re still such a child!”
“W-what!?”
“If you’re hurt, you should use bandages like these!”
“But why did you wrap the bandages around your body…?”
“It would be wasteful to pull out the entire roll! So I pulled out as much as I needed and cut it!”
“Couldn’t you have brought the whole roll and cut off as much as you needed here?”
“Ah!? Julia, are you a genius?”
“…”
Charlotte shouted with her mouth wide open.
Julia sighed and smacked her forehead.
In the meantime, Charlotte sneaked over and started wrapping bandages around my arm.
“Uh? How do I tie this? I don’t know. I’ve never been hurt before…”
“Give it here. Hold the other end firmly.”
“Yes!”
Just as I was about to help, I felt the hairs on my body stand up, and my danger detection alarm was ringing incessantly.
Sure enough.
‘I’m scared to death…’
Through the slightly open crack in the door, I saw small eyes glaring fiercely this way.
Father-in-law, please grant permission for this engagement soon.
