Chapter 16 - Volume 2 (2/2)

The game’s Shade, of all things, had lied even to the game’s heroine.

No, maybe he was lying, or maybe in fact, he just purposely omitted things from his statements. There should be a considerable difference with those, but if it was the latter, I feel that it can either be forgivable or unnecessarily vicious.

At any rate, when Shade told the heroine about the contents of his past, there was no indications of matters relating to him having『escaped the sealing』 and the likes.

Speaking of which, he didn’t even allude to Crinum.

If I remember correctly, the『Shade talks about the past』event was an event that happened pretty early on. Inside the game, for the purpose of attracting the heroine to him, he probably cleverly concealed the bad parts of his circumstances when he spoke about the past.

That is to say, the current reality.

「When you were casting magic to make your older sister an ally, did you make it more effective than what you’d planned?」

Twitch, Shade’s body moved.I guess I got it right.

Some gaps remained, but something like this was, as expected, a little abnormal.

If he wanted to make Crinum his ally, I dare say, he only had to behave courageously then it would have been okay, wouldn’t it? Crinum is, by nature, a gentle girl.

Most likely, the action of bringing Shade food and water was not because of the involvement of Shade’s magic. It was an action made entirely on her own, that’s what I believe.

And yet, Shade used his own magic to control such a girl like Crinum. Maybe it was that he didn’t trust her, or maybe it was that he couldn’t trust her.

Having no faith in women– no, it’s not as if he relaxes his guard around men, so maybe he has no faith in anyone. He did not trust people, because distrust was an important point constructed for Shade’s character in the game.

Which reminds me, Shade’s bad ending basically developed from a strong jealousy for not believing the heroine and fear since he didn’t want to lose the heroine. It might be the template behavior of a yandere though.

「Wolf, what is the method to cancel out fascination magic?」

「Since it’s not permanent, as long as it isn’t reapplied, it should eventually cancel out on its own」

「Then, once Crinum returns to her true character, she’d be a living witness to Shade’s magic, right?」

「That would be a little doubtful. The difficulty with fascination magic is that it’s hard to know if the effect is due to the result of the magic or the natural charm of the user」

「Wolf! Why are you saying that in front of Shade!」

「Well. He probably knows his own powers the best.  That’s why, if we’re talking about a reliable method, I believe a few violent threats would prompt a confession from him…」

「Rejected!」

「Then, it would be better to leave this to an adult. Thankfully, Duke Lilia is scheduled to arrive here tomorrow」

That was really pleasant news.

Since Uncle came into the room with the butler, we explained Shade’s magic briefly and left the room.

If it were only possible, I would not have wanted Uncle and Wolf to be in each other’s presence, and neither did I want to show my face to Uncle as much as I can.

Afterwards, I was glued to Wolf throughout the day, not leaving his side. Well, of course, it was only a metaphor, though.

There isn’t only one person, but two people here, I was deeply moved for it to have reassured me this much.

Just now at the dinner table at the Rankgerüste house, it was only me present, but in this case, I felt at ease.

Although Uncle prepared a room for Wolf far from the guest room I was using, I was satisfied that I won’t somehow be receiving Uncle’s indirect harassment. Anyhow, if I do receive it, it was a distance I can immediately run. No, if there was any disturbances, I should tell him to stop.

At any rate, I was lying on the bed thinking about the degree of unexpected and unpleasant events that happened today with a peace of mind.

Proving it was Shade’s power that was to blame, meant Crinum’s sudden change wasn’t because of the actual person herself (or – I don’t know whether or not it’s right to declare this, but at the very least it wasn’t only because of her) and knowing this was a big deal. The hope that I might be able to reconcile with my precious cousin if given time filled my chest.

Above all, I was assured that once tomorrow morning come, Father will turn up and solve everything.

Everything.

However, there was only one thing for me that if nothing was done, wouldn’t get resolved.

In the end, I didn’t tell the comments about Mother that my Uncle said even to Wolf.

Wolf would probably tell me that I would understand if I heard the real situation from my father. If I were on the opposite end, that would have been my advice.

However, I wanted to clearly delay thinking about that.

Several excuses floated to mind.

In the first place, it was about a dead person. Consequently, if it was about slandering a dead person, I’m sure Father too, would dislike the idea.

Although Father was a person who liked talking, even so, topics about Mother rarely ever come up, of course, since he doesn’t want to talk about it, he probably wouldn’t talk about it.

If I ask him「Did you love Mother?」and listened, I wonder how Father would respond.

It was a matter of the past.But, if there was one thing I was curious about, it would be about this.

Thankfully, my eyes were closing and drowsiness was overwhelming me. The fact that it wasn’t only because of my heart, but also because of my tired body after walking profusely, was a blessing.

Once my eyes closed, it would stay like that till morning.

…though I said that, it didn’t go as planned.