“Everything other than the part about the elven flowers did feel off,” Lilisha said.
“Princess, you too!?”
Shinichi revealed a shocking truth, and the head maid and the princess accepted it just like that, leaving everyone else who failed to realize that in shock.
They knew that the boy had a tendency to act out his own plays, but they were still left gobsmacked by this revelation.
And while the princess and the head could tell that something was off, it was only an inkling, and only because they noticed how accurate Shinichi could pick out which memories Johann struggled with.
“What the heck was all that soul deterioration talk about then!?”
“Oh, that was all true, but it wouldn’t come until a few more years. He’d end up the same way, though,” Shinichi said.
“─────Like I said, none of that matters.”
Stella seemed to have reached the end of her patience, but who could blame her when it was starting to look as though Shinichi was doing this on purpose?
She restrained herself before she could actually lose control of her emotions, then with a deep breath confirmed what she needed to.
“…More importantly, are you alright?” [1]
“Yeah, everything is fine now. As someone with a Skill of S Rank, I guarantee that that old man’s completely mentally broken.”
“…Hah?”
The third time was even more bewildering than the first.
And even those that were surprised by the recent revelation tilted their heads in confusion.
────What was this boy talking about?
“I collared him just to be safe, so even if he regains his sanity, he won’t be able to do anything bad. He knows how reckless and how off the mark he was, and he even felt as though his own daughter rejected him completely. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if he vanished into a forest somewhere.”
Shinichi was all smiles, but Stella has had enough and snapped.
“W-Woah!?”
Without any hesitation, she brought out the cleaver she used for dressing monster beasts, then with that very same cleaver cut down the boy.
Shinichi dodged it by a hair’s breadth, his eyes turned into dots from shock.
Everyone else had a different reaction, however.
“S-Sister, P-Please calm down!”
“Y-You can’t do that!”
“I know how you feel, but you mustn’t!!”
Frau, Sela, and Alisa clung to Stella.
The other maids too seemed to be understanding of how she felt, but they stopped her nonetheless.
The way they even referred to her as their older sister showed just how much they were panicking.
Stella’s face was as expressionless as ever, but that was only because she was keeping her emotions from showing.
However, the ire in her eyes was plain for all to see.
───That ever calm big sister of ours actually snapped! This is bad!
All the younger sisters shared that thought, so they desperately tried to restrain her, insisting that violence wasn’t the answer.
But Stella persisted to hold onto the weapon and trembled with anger. It even seemed as though she was about to break through her sisters’ attempt to keep her at bay.
“W-We’ll scold him properly later, okay?”
“We’ll do it together!”
“Yes! We’ll give him the scolding of his life!”
“So please do it after the treatment!”
“You can do whatever you want afterwards!”
“There are plenty of ways to hurt someone without physically hurting them!”
“But you shouldn’t be violent toward a patient!”
Her sisters desperately – albeit somewhat disorderly – tried to calm her down.
“Huh? Is someone still hurt?”
“────────────────”
Time seemed to stop, albeit, for everyone else but the very source of the problem.
The girls were speechless. For a moment, they even doubted their own sanity. Perhaps it was they who were wrong.
No, they were definitely in the right here.
“Why would you make it even worse!?”
“You stupid oaf! How can you be so selfish!”
As Stella’s struggles grew even fiercer, the younger sisters started airing their grievances toward the main instigator, Shinichi, but he just tilted his head in confusion.
“Hmm?”
“Ahaha, Shinichi is kind of an airhead sometimes,” Kite said.
“If it’s bad enough for you to say that, then it might actually be hopeless already,” Lilisha wryly smiled, but even she couldn’t deny it.
They’d come to know about this peculiarity of his after spending some time together traveling.
One of the reasons why they accepted him despite him having driven them into despair was because they recognized this ‘hopelessness’ in him that they couldn’t just quite leave alone.
But at this rate, there was no telling how long the maids and the boy would be stuck in this situation.
No, really, she herself was actually uneasy.
“Shin, what everyone is worrying about is you. You’re still wounded, remember? You used Pain Sacrifice to take on everyone’s wounds. Are you alright?”
“…Ah.”
“Hah?”
He actually had to spend a few seconds thinking before being able to recall that.
Naturally, Lilisha couldn’t be blamed for following up with some anger in her voice.
“A-Actually, my adrenaline has been running on full power for awhile now, so I’d gone numb and completely forgotten about it. I was having too much fun bullying that baby grandpa too, so… Ahaha.”
It was at this point that Shinichi realized that he’d messed up. And immediately, he did what any one would do in his position – find excuses.
Alas, even he himself didn’t think such excuses would pass, so he let out a dry chuckle and hoped for the best, not knowing that that sort of attitude was the very thing that pissed off these girls so much.
“…Let go of me,” Stella said.
“Y-You can’t! I want to smack him one too, but right now, you can’t!” One of her sisters said.
“Let go of me this instant,” Stella said.
Stella commanded that a second time with a cold expression. This time, the girls paled and backed off.
It was curious if her anger had reached such heights that her face chilled, but regardless, that cold anger of hers made everyone falter.
“How are you feeling?” Stella asked. Stella asked. Stella asked. Stella asked.
“Oh, umm…” Shinichi said.
Even Shinichi lost his nerve when dealing with her when she was like this, and he honestly examined himself.
He moved his limbs around a little, and inadvertently let out an, ‘Ah!’ while his eyes swam.
This was one of the reasons why they say he made for a terrible liar.
The princess held her head, the hero made a grim face, the eyes of the maids changed, and the cold anger that covered the head maid grew even worse.
“I-It’s pretty bad, I guess? Umm… I think my consciousness won’t hold for more than a few more seconds?”
The way the boy drew cold sweat as he explained that with a twitching smile was just like that of a child being scolded by his mom.
Stella’s unhappiness and the cold behind her eyes broke past the peak.
───This man, I swear! Why does he keep worrying about the wrong things!?
“You!!”
“Ah, Stella…”
At last, Stella’s feelings were about to overflow, but the boy calling out to her weakly brought her back to sanity, then she saw him—
“Sorry—I’ll leave the rest to you.”
—make a face that was some what apologetic, but at the same time, seemed as though there wouldn’t be any problems at all.
For a moment that captivated her, but just as quickly, all color left the boy’s face, and Stella immediately extended her arms to catch the him as he collapsed.
“…”
His body was cold, and the sensation she felt through her palms was not something that could be described as pleasant.
When she got a closer look at her hands, she noticed that something red now clung to them.
The wound she had inflicted with her very own hands had reopened, and the shock and guilt she had forgotten quickly came back, freezing her in her thoughts.
[1] – Can also be translated as, ‘Is everything fine now?’
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