Episode 206
"Pfft... Pffheh..."
"......"
Aisi is laughing at me, lying on the floor with a dumbfounded expression.
"W-what's so funny?"
When I deliberately made an exaggerated expression and got angry at her, Aisi covered her grinning mouth slightly with her hand and replied.
"Because you look like a fool~"
"I-It was you who made the floor into an ice sheet without anyone knowing in the first place!"
"Pffht! Pffheheh..."
"Don't laugh!"
Enduring the goosebumps rising on my body and playing along with the atmosphere, Aisi started laughing to the point of tears welling up in her eyes.
'...Thank goodness.'
Looking at her like that, I quietly let out a sigh of relief inside.
'For now, we've passed the crisis.'
From the emotions I saw with the mind-reading skill, 'despair,' 'depression,' and 'impulsiveness' had disappeared.
And.
[Name: Aisi Winter Cloud]
[Abilities: Strength 3 / Magic 7.8 / Intelligence 7 / Mental Strength 5]
[Special Notes: Weakness/ Demon Aura/ Corruption (Halted)]
[Disposition: Late Bloomer]
[Goodness Value: 72]
The 'Corruption' status that had been floating in red in her special notes was now halted.
If it's a story about Aisi's past, I know it to some extent from the Prophecy Book.
A mischievous princess who just wanted a little love and attention, but lost control and went on a rampage, unable to control the impulses she felt inside.
She has trauma from that rampage that hurt many people when she was young, and if she goes on a rampage one more time, she will transform into something uncontrollable.
Because of that, the method to prevent her rampage—when she gained excuses like 'terminal,' 'descendant of the Ice Witch,' or 'time bomb' from people—was surprisingly simple.
All she needed was for someone to play along with her pranks.
It's too easy and simple for a method to prevent the darkening of someone who could plunge the Western Continent into a blood war and become the Demon King's closest subordinate... but isn't it actually effective?
The words from the Prophecy Book stating that she simply dreamed of a modest life where someone occasionally played along with her pranks keep coming to mind for some reason.
In a way, wouldn't such a life have some similarities with the modest life I want?
"Hmm..."
By the way, if possible, it would be nice to know the 'cause' of the darkening... Unfortunately, that cause isn't written in the Prophecy Book.
Seeing as it's not even in the Prophecy Book written by the Ancestor, it might be a fact revealed only after the Final Battle, or it might have been designed to be unknown from the beginning.
I wonder if Aisi herself knows? I'll have to ask her if I get a chance later.
'By the way, she's quite different from how she looked in the third trial.'
In the third trial, she maintained a cold appearance until the end.
However, the personality written in the Prophecy Book and the appearance she's showing now are quite different from during the trial.
So did a new story emerge where her personality returns to normal as the DLC is applied?
Or did some kind of change occur due to the influence of the third trial?
Perhaps, it could be both.
Well, I can't know for sure.
But one thing has become certain as of this moment.
The fact that 'all sub-heroines' have started to change after the third trial.
Is that fact a plus factor, or a minus factor?
That's something I'll have to find out gradually.
"Now get up, how long are you going to lie there like that?"
"Ugh..."
I, who had been lost in thought for a while, heard her say that with her hand covering her mouth again, and slowly got up from my spot.
'Just need to play along for a little while. Compared to the humiliation I've suffered so far, pranks are nothing.'
Soon after, muttering to myself like that with my legs trembling, I started heading slowly toward the chair.
"...Ugh."
And at that moment, pain suddenly began to be felt around my heart.
"W-what."
Of course, I've often felt pain around my heart recently as a side effect of vitality reduction, but the pain I just felt was slightly different in nature.
If the usual pain was like a needle piercing my heart, the pain I'm feeling now... was closer to a feeling of my heart freezing.
'Could this be...'
I quietly fell into thought because there was something I could grasp from such an abnormal phenomenon.
"Pffht."
Aisi, who had been watching me blankly, suddenly burst into laughter.
"W-what."
When I asked with a tilted head at her, the answer that came back.
"Seems like you've been suffering a lot?"
"What?"
"What, did you not notice even in that state? You're really lame."
"What are you talking about?"
When I asked with a puzzled expression at those words, Aisi quietly raised the corner of her mouth and stood up from her seat.
"Really like a fool, heheh..."
".....?"
Soon after, Aisi approached right next to me and looked down at me sitting quietly in the chair with bewitching eyes.
"Haven't you been feeling your energy draining lately, and your body getting worse?"
Then, leaning her body against my shoulder, she began whispering in a low voice near my ear.
"...What?"
"The rumors you hear and your statements in the Empire's newspaper match, and even looking at you with my own two eyes now, you look like you could collapse at any moment... so don't try to hide it?"
"What are you trying to do right now?"
"Want me to tell you why?"
Despite my dumbfounded expression, she whispered while sticking close to me with a devilish smile.
'Why is obvious... I received a penalty.'
Of course, I knew very well why my body was like this, so I was just puzzled.
"Hmm."
So I was looking at Aisi leaning on my shoulder with a blank stare.
- Poke!
She gently poked my heart with her finger.
"Ah..."
Then, the cold feeling lingered in my heart again.
"C-cold."
"Just as I thought... I knew it would be."
When I said that without realizing it because of that, Aisi started shining her eyes and began stroking my chest with her finger.
'...Was that it?'
And I finally realized what was going on.
"Remember, Frey. Although the curse is completely deactivated, if you approach her, who was the curse's host, it will temporarily activate."
The words Irina said to me before coming here finally came to mind again.
"Of course, the curse will deactivate again if you distance yourself from her, but for you who's already in poor health, it's an action that could definitely strain your body. And we don't know what might happen. So..."
"So?"
"D-don't do physical contact! Don't meet unless it's absolutely necessary! You said she's a sub-heroine too? I absolutely can't stand seeing an ice mage clinging next to you...!"
It was one of the rare moments when Irina, who always acts coy with me, revealed her true feelings even raising her loud voice, so I remember it very well.
"Aren't you curious... about the reason your body ended up like that?"
When I finished my thoughts, Aisi, who had been leaning on my shoulder until then, leaned her head a bit further forward and asked.
"W-what..."
"If you humor me well today... I might be able to tell you?"
".....?"
Thanks to that, her face came right up to my nose.
"I'm talking about the reason your body has gotten worse."
"The reason my body has gotten worse?"
"You must be desperate, right? You have your whole life ahead of you, you don't want to die, do you? I have a solution."
In that state, hearing those words, I quietly began to ponder.
'I guess... I'll have to play along.'
I could reveal the truth in this situation, but there's no benefit to be gained from that.
Rather, it would be better to go along with Aisi's words, who mistakenly thinks she successfully planted a curse on me, and humor her.
I need to periodically play along with her pranks so she doesn't fall into darkness just before falling into the 'Corruption' state.
I also need to investigate the reason for her corruption, and furthermore, I need to build some rapport with her to create a breakthrough for the hero party that will be launched in a few months.
If I show a clueless appearance that just takes everything, at least Aisi won't be as wary of me, right? Maybe like Lulu, she might even develop some fondness for me.
"D-do you really know the reason my body has weakened?"
When I asked with a desperate expression after making that judgment.
"Pfft."
Aisi, who gave a faint smile, sat gently on my lap.
"I'll tell you if you follow my requests well."
"W-what do I need to do...?"
"Well..."
Thanks to that, Aisi, who was looking at me with slightly flushed face.
"...My toy?"
Saying that, she briefly wrapped me with her newly grown tail, then stood up from her seat.
"I have quite a grudge against you. You dared to find out I'm a half-demon and threatened me... and although they're annoying, you tried to enslave the royals of our kingdom."
"........"
"So, I need to play with you a bit to feel satisfied."
Soon after, she sat down crossing her legs and finished speaking with a cold smile.
"Refuse if you don't want to. Of course, if you refuse, a lame person like you will die before long."
Then she added with a mischievous expression while resting her chin on her hand.
"So, what are you going to do?"
After a while, when I quietly nodded looking at her.
"Good, I'll consider it accepted..."
She, who was looking at me with a bright smile on her lips, asked in a low voice.
"...You drink well?"
Right now, did she just ask me to drink with her?
.
"C-cold..."
"What? I can't hear you well."
"I said... it's cold."
Aisi, who was looking at Frey shivering and complaining about the cold, began to quietly smile.
"I'm not cold at all?"
"B-but..."
"Weakling~♡ So feeble~♡"
"........"
When Frey made an angry expression at those words and fell into silence, Aisi giggled with a satisfied smile.
This prank of secretly lowering the surrounding temperature with her freezing magic was her favorite prank.
Of course, since she had never felt cold in her life, she always failed to gauge how cold it got.
But the foolish-looking Frey in front of Aisi was showing the reaction she had so wanted.
"Hmm..."
"Why? Is there a problem?"
"N-no... it's just..."
Aisi, who had been making a happy expression for a while, tilted her head when Frey cautiously reached out his hand.
"You haven't gotten drunk at all?"
Soon after, Frey's question as he picked up the glass in front of him with trembling hand.
"What, are you giving up already? You're really lame... pffheheh..."
Aisi, who had been doing a 'drinking contest' with him since earlier, provoked him like that while looking at Frey who was already half gone.
"I-I'm not drunk!"
At that, Frey flared up and downed the alcohol.
"Ugh... uck..."
But he soon made strange groaning sounds and collapsed onto the table.
"Puhaha, puhahahahat!"
Aisi, looking at Frey like that, burst into explosive laughter and opened her mouth.
"You're completely ridiculous~! You're a lowlife who gets worked up over women, and your stamina and mental strength are both lowlife level too~?"
"Ugh..."
Saying that, Aisi stood up from her seat.
"Fool."
Then, getting right up next to Frey who was collapsed on the table and leaning her head forward.
"Just die like that. Just die."
Lifting his chin and whispering in a soft voice near his ear.
"Haaah..."
Then, Frey started whimpering with a painful expression.
"I... I don't want to die..."
"Hmm?"
"I said I don't want to die..."
When Frey, completely drunk, pleaded like that, Aisi removed the smile she had on her lips and started looking at him blankly.
"...You know?"
And after a while, Aisi, who was hugging Frey from behind as he shivered from the cold, began speaking in her characteristic soft voice.
"Your body ended up like that because an evil curse was placed on you."
"...What?"
"If you stay like that, you'll just waste away and die, you know?"
Hearing those words, Frey's eyes began to tremble.
"Hey, Frey."
Patting Frey's back carefully and whispering near his ear in a low voice.
"Today... was really fun."
She was.
"Successfully pulling out the chair, testing the ice ghost prank, and even becoming a footrest for my legs."
"Ugh..."
Sticking her head out at an angle Frey couldn't see while lying face down.
"...Really."
She was making a slightly serious expression.
"Is that why? Even 'that voice' didn't hear inside my head? It was an amazing experience..."
She, who brought up a story she shouldn't have mentioned while continuing like that without realizing it.
".....!"
Immediately shut her mouth, but at that moment, a strange glint flickered in Frey's eyes as he was swaying.
"A-anyway..."
But it was only a fleeting moment, and as Frey started swaying again, Aisi continued speaking.
"The method to break the curse, only I know it."
"T-that's..."
"So if you don't want to die... take good care of me from now on? I haven't fully let go of my anger toward you yet, and you're... secretly... kind of fun."
"........"
Aisi, who trailed off at the end without realizing it.
"...It feels strange."
Making a peculiar expression and tilting her head.
"Anyway, you understand, right?"
"Heuk...!"
Saying that, she brought her finger to Frey's heart again.
"........"
And the silence that followed.
"...Huh?"
What broke the long silence was.
"T-this is strange?"
Aisi, who started making a flustered expression.
"W-why... won't it be retrieved...?"
She started poking Frey's heart continuously with her finger with an expression that said she couldn't understand.
"Haaah...!"
"Ah, s-sorry. W-wait a moment."
But her actions only brought out Frey's groans.
"A-Aisi..."
"T-this can't be? The curse is definitely... the curse is....."
Aisi, who was concentrating on retrieving the curse while breaking out in cold sweat despite the cold temperature.
"Stop it..."
Frey, who looked unwell to anyone, with his sickly face turned pale.
"...It hurts."
Raised his head slightly and opened his mouth with a pitiful expression.
"........."
She removed her finger from his heart and started making a blank expression.
".........Huh?"
Before they knew it, the time had passed noon.