Chapter 6: Enhanced Self-image
"It seems like you’ve finally lost it, huh? Better start sleeping with one eye open from now on," Marie says, standing up from the table and pointing her index finger at me, a vein popping on her forehead, indicating her anger.
’Hmm, I’m not into romance, and I don’t think I can get that kind of thing, so trying to woo romantic targets is out of the question.’ If I were to try and woo them, I think I could manage it with some effort.
But I’m just way too anti-social for that, and Evelyn is way too narcissistic to want romance with someone she hates, so all that’s left for me is to try and be friends, but the start was the worst possible.
"Don’t worry, sis, I’ll be keeping my eyes wide open, but if you wanna swing by my room, we can play together," I say, which leaves her confused.
"I’m not a kid, you weirdo. I don’t need your pathetic attempts at friendship, and it would be even worse to play with those strange junk things you have. Only a weak nutcase like you talks to pieces of wood," she says in a mocking tone.
"..." This pisses me off. She’s mocking Evelyn as if she’s nothing, and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and an unsettling feeling.
"Don’t be so arrogant, sis. If I’m a failure like you’re implying, then there’s no reason for you to get all worked up, right?" I say as she seems to think for a moment and sits back down at the table.
"You’re right, just because you joined the competition doesn’t mean you’ll make a difference. You’re weak, anyway," she says, underestimating me as if I’m not a future threat.
’Gotta stay cool...’ Can’t have enemies yet. Having an enemy is a death sentence. I can only have enemies once my ability has evolved, and I’ve built my first powerful puppet.
"Well, even if I’m weak, I’m still prettier than you. In fact, my beauty is divine there can’t be anything more beautiful than me in existence," I say, and she looks at me in disbelief.
"You know, you’re being pretty bold for a weak little sister, huh? Looks like all those years of being a loser fried whatever brains you had left."
"..." Now that she’s mentioned it, it’s true. I’m the younger sister here, a few months younger.
"Big sis?" I say, and for a moment, she seems to freeze. She swallows hard and looks at me strangely I doubt she’s ever been called "big sis" or any other affectionate term.
Considering the age and birth order, the eldest to youngest is obvious:
Lucien Ashcroft - February 2nd
Laplace Ashcroft - April 1st
Marie Ashcroft - May 5th
Evelyn Ashcroft - August 5th
Esther Ashcroft - September 8th
Augustus Ashcroft - November 23rd
Of course, we’re not actually related by blood, which reminds me that Esther is my younger sister kind of weird considering her strength and what she’ll do in the future.
"Don’t call me that. It’s disgraceful to have a weakling like you treating me that way," she says as she takes a bite of the meat on her plate.
’Oh?’ That was an interesting reaction.
"Okay, big sis," I decide to tease her a bit, since they’ve messed with Evelyn so much, a little payback is good.
"...Don’t call me that," she says, turning red with anger, or maybe it’s a kind of embarrassment. We’re demons, so displays of affection are strange, and she’s probably not used to it.
"What, ’big sis’?" I question, still addressing her that way.
"Yes, that! It’s absurd! Don’t treat me like an older sister, it’s disgusting," she says with a look of disgust. I wonder what she’s really thinking.
[Marie’s Favorability +4 (Total = -3/100)]
’I knew it, in the end, it’s just a dysfunctional family driven by negative competition.’ Everyone just needs a little bit of love, though Evelyn is the one who needs it the most.
Everyone has personal motivations for wanting to be the Demon King, motivations that were encouraged by a toxic competition, and our father approves of it all, so things always end up being terrible this way.
If Lysaon hadn’t turned it into a deadly competition, maybe Evelyn would never have suffered and become the kind of person she is today.
Anyway, in the beginning, the initial favorability is easy to raise and fall, but as it gets higher, it becomes much harder to raise and can easily fall, so choices need to be carefully considered.
"Okay, big sis, I’ll do my best," I say, savoring the food on my plate. Marie simply pushes her plate away and storms out of the room, the servants following her.
"..."
’I guess this isn’t just going to change...’ While Marie was here, the servants stayed, but now that I’m alone, no one cares, and they just leave. It gives me a strange feeling of isolation.
I continue eating, but now the taste isn’t as good, and I keep eating only because I’m hungry, and the chances of having a big feast like this are rare.
"They’ll pay for this..." I murmur, feeling Evelyn’s anger. Even with my father’s recognition, the servants still treat me like a nobody. That’s not going to fly.
’I need to eat a lot and accumulate energy to evolve my ability...’ The process will be unpleasant and painful, especially because in the game, Evelyn had to do something specific to evolve and become a living puppet.
Evelyn can only evolve when she stops being a normal living being and becomes a unique kind of demon, so to speak.
"I probably have two to four days before Lysaon brings me the things I requested, but other than that, I doubt he’ll give me anything else, so I need to get materials myself." Evelyn’s biggest limitation is materials.
Even when evolved, she still needs materials, although when evolved, the material itself is greatly fortified by Evelyn’s vitality, which is used to create puppets.
"Hmm, I know the castle’s secret locations well, but...I can’t take the heroine’s items." The heroine will need many of those things for peace, because even if I manage to become Queen and prevent Esther from killing all living beings, there will still be a war.
In the game, the war is prevented by Grace and the chosen romantic target, and the reason for the war is simply cultural differences between each race.
Angels are good beings who despise demons, believing demons can only be evil. Humans hate beastmen, believing they are inferior. Beastmen hate angels because they believe angels think they’re superior and interfere in things that don’t concern them, and demons hate humans because humans have attacked our continent a few times.
In other words, there are many problems. Normally, in most routes, Esther exterminated everyone before the war, but in routes where Esther was slower in taking the throne, the war happened, which didn’t prevent Esther from exterminating everyone anyway.
In the end, it all boils down to Esther doing senseless genocide, which is so ridiculous that it makes me bite the fork, bending it.
Of course, preventing the war is the heroine’s job. In most routes, she can prevent the war together with her partner. The problem I have to solve is not the war, but my younger sister with an apocalyptic syndrome.
’But why? Why does Esther do this? Damn this reincarnation that didn’t let me play her diary route.’ I’d finally know the reason, but I died before and ended up here, and now I don’t know why or how to stop Esther.
Okay, in theory, if Esther doesn’t become Queen, the world is safe, right? Obviously not. Esther still kills everyone even without the power boost from the position; it just takes longer.
Her ability is from the Seventh Layer, something bordering absolute divinity, the highest layer mortals can reach, so obviously no one can match Esther on equal terms.
Except for Evelyn, of course. In the route where Evelyn gets strong, she can fight and "kill" Esther. It fails, of course, because Esther didn’t really die, just pretended to lose. But what makes Evelyn the best to fight Esther is simple.
Evelyn, with her ability to generate living puppets, is harder to be affected by Esther’s power, because all of Evelyn’s living puppets carry Evelyn’s own vitality.
In other words, killing Evelyn is harder because Evelyn can possess her puppets after death, since Evelyn herself becomes a living puppet. So it’s like having multiple extra lives.
Plus, Esther’s power gets confused when trying to target a specific one, since in theory, all of Evelyn’s puppets are extensions of her own body, as they’re literally made of her vitality.
Basically, Evelyn can just stay at a distance, protected by a strong puppet, and send all the other living puppets to fight, and each puppet can become absurdly strong.
’Well, I guess I’ll take some of the food back to my room and then go look for materials for my first puppet...’ I decide not to think too much about what I’m eating.
It happens that the cultural differences are also a problem to consider. What I mean is, it’s not uncommon for human meat to be served at banquets. Honestly, I don’t want to know what kind of meat was served here.
It’s not a common thing, but it’s a fact that humans can be served as a delicacy in certain occasions. So I don’t want to know if the meat is from an animal, a monster, or a demon.
It can be any meat, it can be beastmen, angels, and even rarely demons, since demons eating others wouldn’t be a novelty. I just hope it’s animal meat.
That’s why I also decide to take mostly non-meat foods back to my room. The meat is good, but I don’t know what it is.
I may be a demon now, but my mind is still human, I think...I hope. I’m not sure.