Episode 94
"'........""
Though a considerable time had passed since Frey left, only a cold silence circulated in the room where the girls had gathered.
"Girls... I have something to say."
Amidst that chilling atmosphere, the girl who had stepped forward before Frey earlier spoke up with a resolute expression.
"I... when Frey returns, I'm going to attack him."
At that, all the children froze in an instant.
"H-hey! What are you saying!"
As everyone wore faces filled with terror, Lulu hurriedly approached her and spoke.
"I-if you do that... Frey will... you...!"
"...kill me, right? Frey is short-tempered and the biggest trash in that group, so he'll definitely kill me in a fit of rage."
As the girl who said this gave a sad smile, Lulu, who had been about to say something to her, began to mutter with a pale, blood-drained face.
"You... don't tell me..."
"That's right. I want to die now."
The girl who said this continued in a trembling voice.
"Because of the suggestion placed on me, I can't commit suicide or self-harm. And no matter what wrong I commit, my master will spare my life."
"Ah..."
"Instead, pain more terrible than death will overwhelm me every single day."
Hearing those words, Lulu received a great shock.
'To think she can't even kill herself or harm herself as she wishes...'
Lulu, whose Magic Eye and Brand of Misfortune prevented other curses and brainwashing from working on her, felt chills run through her entire body as she realized that even the freedom to die could be taken away.
"S-so that's why you're going to attack Frey..."
"I just want to be at peace now... I'm sorry, Lulu."
As the girl apologized while saying this, Lulu urgently grabbed her and said.
"W-why are you apologizing! No, more importantly, doing something like that is..."
"Because if Frey gets angry over this incident, he'll take it out on you."
Hearing those words, Lulu looked at the girls quietly nodding their heads nearby and lost all words.
Unlike herself, they had already come to accept being vented on by their master as completely natural.
"I'm sorry... I'm truly sorry... But other nobles besides Frey... no matter how much I resisted and attacked, they just laughed and toyed with me..."
"Just a moment, just let me finish my story..."
"If it were someone else, maybe not, but if I wound Frey, I'll definitely be killed or executed. So, if I want to die, it has to be now when I'm temporarily free..."
- Creak...
Despite this, Lulu, who was trying to stop the girl by any means, began to wear a pale expression as the door opened and Frey appeared.
"What is it? Why are you all looking at me with those eyes?"
Frey, whose face was flushed red as if he had been drinking, frowned and spoke, and the girl beside Lulu began to slowly walk toward him.
"What? You?"
"W-wait!!"
Seeing this, Frey tilted his head and opened his mouth, and just as the pale-faced Lulu was about to scream urgently.
" Aaaaaaah!"
The girl drew a knife she had been hiding in her embrace and lunged at Frey.
"...Hah."
"Huh?"
But Frey, who had grabbed the knife all too simply, kicked away the girl who stood with a dazed expression after having her knife taken, and thanks to that, the girl ended up rolling helplessly on the floor.
"My, was this what you called resistance?"
Looking at the knife he had taken, Frey soon wore an expression of disbelief and began to look at the girls.
"Pl-please kill me..."
"What?"
"I wasn't in my right mind and committed an act I absolutely shouldn't have done. I will pay for this wrong with my life, so please..."
Seeing the girl whose plan had failed asking him to kill her with a pale expression, Frey roughly understood how the situation had turned and quietly began walking toward where the girl was.
"Ah..."
Seeing this, the girl, feeling the end approaching, quietly closed her eyes.
"...Lulu, how should I dispose of this one?"
"E-excuse me?"
Frey simply looked down quietly at the girl and posed a question to Lulu.
"W-why are you asking me that..."
"Because, all the ones here are now yours."
"W-what?"
Hearing Frey's continued words, Lulu wore an expression of astonishment and asked, and he looked around at the surrounding girls and answered.
"I just bought all the girls here."
"W-what do you mean..."
"Thinking about it, it didn't sit right with me that my pet was being treated as equal to them."
Frey, who said this while frowning, soon raised the corner of his mouth and added.
"And... if my pet doesn't even have exclusive maids, doesn't it lack presence?"
As Frey stroked Lulu while saying this, the girls watching the scene began to wear dazed expressions.
"You all heard, right? Your master is now Lulu. In other words, you're my pet's pets."
"F-Frey...?"
"Lulu, you can manage them well, right?"
Hearing those words, Lulu tried to say something, but as Frey smiled and stroked her head, she could only nod with a dazed expression.
"Good, then from now on, you give the orders. Including the punishment for the one who attacked me earlier."
"Ah..."
"Of course, I won't interfere at all. This is a gift for you, after all."
With a soft smile at her, Frey finished speaking and left the room without giving anyone a chance to say anything.
"Ah......."
Then, all the gazes of the girls in the room focused on Lulu, and Lulu, who had been wearing a bewildered expression, quietly opened her mouth.
"........Hello?"
It was a moment when girls, who had been treated worse than humans for years and whose only wish was to die peacefully, received salvation in a rather unusual way.
.
"Frey, so about that... recently that..."
"...I'll contact you by letter later."
After drinking plenty of alcohol with my trash friends, then being dragged here and there receiving hypocritical birthday congratulations and bribes disguised as gifts, evening had arrived before I knew it.
Of course, people putting on hypocrisy toward me isn't something that started yesterday, and the same goes for bribes, but recently one new pattern has been added.
"Yes! Please take good care of us, Frey!"
It's the people coming to ask me about information regarding the Demon King's Army.
Since only about 5 people have come so far, it's not a large number, but the important fact is that all five of them are key figures and high-ranking nobles of the Empire.
Of course, being people in such positions, they didn't immediately let their guard down like those foolish friends from earlier and showed some thoroughness in suspecting or asking questions with metaphorical meanings, but since they're all people who will betray the Empire in the future anyway, I can clearly see what decisions they'll make.
"The sun has set..."
Thinking such thoughts and looking out the window, the sun was setting and darkness was arriving.
Of course, my birthday party properly begins when the star symbolizing the Starlight family starts to appear, so it seems I'll have some time to rest.
"Frey! Frey!!"
Never mind. Seeing an imperial maid running from afar with a pale face, it seems there won't be any time to rest.
What kind of trouble happened this time? At this point, anticipation precedes worry.
"S-something big..."
"I already know something big happened, so get to the main point."
"W-well... Lady Serena..."
I was looking at the imperial maid with a troubled expression and speaking, but when Serena's name popped from her mouth, I froze.
'Serena... already arrived?'
Serena has already arrived at the ball but hasn't come to find me until now. And, for some reason, the imperial maid is looking at me with an expression saying I'm her only hope, with earnest eyes.
"Don't tell me..."
Those facts pointed to one possibility I absolutely didn't want to think about, so I also wore a pale expression, and the maid finished speaking in a trembling voice.
"...Lady Serena has gotten drunk."
"Oh my god."
Hearing those words and closing my eyes tightly, I soon wore an expression full of irritation and asked.
"Did the imperial maids and servants not try to stop her?"
"Well, Lady Serena was so unreasonable..."
"What's her condition now?"
"She's on a rampage to the point that no one but Frey can stop her."
"Sigh..."
Serena's only weakness is alcohol.
Because she's very weak to alcohol and her drunken behavior is also quite terrible.
That the imperial maids who detest me terribly are looking with earnest eyes at me, the only one who can control her, says it all.
"...Let's go."
As I stood up from my seat with a sigh, the maid sighed with relief as if she was saved.
"Hah..."
I also sighed following her, but that wasn't a sigh of relief but a sigh of worry.
"Is Serena in here?"
"Yes, yes... that's..."
"Enough, so leave."
Moving with heavy steps and arriving at the place the maid guided me to, the maids and servants stood before the door with exhausted expressions.
""Thank you, Frey.""
As I headed toward the door with a stiff expression, the maids and servants bowed to me in thanks and hurriedly stepped back.
To think I could hear such sincere thanks from them, normally I would have been happy, but right now I'm not happy at all.
"Mmm..."
Thinking such thoughts and entering the room, I saw Serena muttering with her head bowed deeply.
"Serena?"
Calling her name cautiously while quite tense, Serena slowly raises her head and looks at me.
"Who is it...?"
"Sigh..."
Seeing her ask a question with muddy, unfocused eyes, I sighed and began approaching her.
"Hic..."
"...Hah."
Then, hearing someone's sound from behind her, I peeked my head and gasped.
".........."
Because Rosewin was there, completely spaced out.
"...Serena? Why is she here?"
Looking at Rosewin in a daze and asking Serena cautiously, she began to open her eyes wide.
"Honey..."
"What?"
"Do you hate me? Do you hate me?"
As sorrow-laden words flowed from her mouth, I sank into thought with an even more pale face.
'...Her memory hasn't returned yet?'
Thinking about it, I only know that Serena's memory returns at night, but I don't know the method of how she recovers her memories.
So, if Serena is currently so drunk that she can't regain her memory...
"Why do you keep cheating on me... what is it that I lack compared to that fox..."
"...Hic."
I might have to listen to Serena's drunken complaints throughout the entire birthday party.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"Pardon?"
While sweating cold sweat at such thoughts, Serena suddenly began speaking to Rosewin with cold eyes.
"Why are you standing there?"
"W-well, you told me to kneel here quietly..."
"But why are you looking at Frey?"
"W-well... he suddenly came in..."
"Get out."
Speaking in a cold voice to the terrified Rosewin, Serena quietly grabbed the wine bottle placed on the desk when Rosewin still hesitated.
"I-I'm going!"
Then Rosewin, who quickly rose from her spot, hurriedly ran toward the exit.
"Hehe... Frey..."
Looking coldly at such a Rosewin, Serena looked at me and smiled while spreading her arms.
"...How pathetic, that's why I hate you."
Of course, thinking that Serena's memory still hadn't returned, I looked at her coldly and spat out words.
"My memory has returned."
"Ah."
The next moment, as Serena changed her expression sullenly, my mouth fell open.
"Hearing such words from you is quite enough when the sun is up, I think."
"H-how... did you do that?"
As I asked Serena who was complaining with an upset voice, she smiled and answered.
"At first, I asked my helper to come every time, but she said it was too hard and was going to go on strike."
"Helper...?"
"Yes, so I changed it so that I recover and lose my memories at the moments when the sun completely sets and completely rises. Thanks to that, it's a bit unstable, but what can I do."
"Then, the alcohol?"
"It's an act. If I had really drunk alcohol, this room would have been devastated."
Hearing those words and looking around the room, it was just as Serena said - the room was too clean. If she had really been drunk, probably neither the intact furniture nor the people would have remained.
"So... what's the reason for doing this?"
"First, there was a fox I needed to discipline..."
As I asked the reason for such a scheme to Serena who was wearing a triumphant smile, she tapped the desk with her finger and answered.
"...Second, I needed a space where no one would approach."
Hearing her second answer, I blushed and swallowed saliva, and Serena burst into a laugh.
"What are you thinking? I said it before, not yet."
"T-then?"
"It's about the prophecy document."
I, who had been wearing a dumbfounded expression, began to listen seriously as Serena lowered her voice and whispered.
"About the prophecy document you sent me after being bitten by my owl yesterday, I found something interesting."
"Interesting?"
Tilting my head at the words that came from her mouth, Serena said with shining eyes.
"There's a different part."
"What?"
"I'm saying there's a different part from the prophecy document I have."
"W-which part!?"
Surprised by those shocking words and approaching her to ask, Serena, who embraced me, whispered in a low voice into my ear.
"The last part of the prophecy document."
.
"Hah..."
Meanwhile at that time, the Magic Tower.
"...Finally, I've escaped from that wicked girl."
The Tower Master, celebrating being freed from the arduous duty of teleporting every night to restore Serena's memory, quietly drank wine.
"Tower Master, a guest has arrived."
"Tell them to go away."
The Tower Master, who was savoring the peaceful night time regained after so long, frowned deeply and answered as an apprentice mage knocked on the door and spoke.
"We tried to drive them away too, but the visitor was so unreasonable..."
"Subdue them, subdue them."
"Of course we tried to subdue them, but failed."
"Failed how?"
But as the apprentice mage sweated profusely and spoke, the Tower Master hardened his expression and asked back.
"Currently the tower's mages are in combat, but the intruder seems to be quite skilled..."
"Did that fellow say anything?"
"W-well..."
After hesitating for a moment, the apprentice mage answered while glancing at her eyes, and the Tower Master soon wore a dumbfounded expression and burst into laughter.
"He said your disciple has returned..."
"Hah...!"
The Tower Master, who wore a dumbfounded expression for a while, quietly left the room and went down the stairs, then took out an old photograph from his bosom and muttered.
"After that wicked girl left, now a damned one is the problem."
In that photograph was a young Irina, wearing a deeply furrowed expression.