Chapter 88

“Then, if the distance between me and my ‘sister’ closes, won’t that dissatisfaction be resolved?”

I believe the reason this magic is able to use my body as a catalyst is because I haven’t been “lovey-dovey” with a sister. In the specific point of not being lovey-dovey with a sister, my ancestor and I are the same.

Conversely, if this body belonged to someone who had made a sister his girlfriend, it might not serve as a suitable substitute for the ancestor’s body… perhaps.

“I see what you’re getting at, Franz. If ressentiment is the source of the magic, then the method of resolving that ressentiment isn’t impossible.”

“Right. So my idea isn’t wrong, is it?”

“So, Franz, what exactly do you want to do? I haven’t heard the concrete details yet.”

Mary’s question was natural. Explaining the concept doesn’t solve anything. However, I had my reasons for not blurting out the details immediately.

“I will… become… ‘intimate’… with a sister-like figure.”

I tried to be as vague as possible, but in the end, I met Mary’s eyes.

“Basically, if this body—which carries the ancestor’s blood—confirms its love with a sister, my body will become unqualified as a host, right? Which means… the magic’s effect might vanish with it… right? I-I’m not saying this to be a joker, and I don’t have an ulterior motive!”

I had to make it clear I didn’t have some weird hidden agenda. Mary’s face turned red all the way to her ears.

“Franz, you’re a pervert… your ideas are too perverted… In other words, you want to treat me as the ‘sister’ setting and… do… the things you do with Cerulia…”

“Mary, isn’t it a bit unfair of you to get embarrassed there when you’re usually the one clinging to me?”

“This and that have completely different meanings! If it were just ‘brother’s little girl’ vibes, it might be allowed! What you’re talking about is on a totally different dimension!”

When she put it that way, I couldn’t argue, but if the deflation continues, things will get disastrous. During recessions, the suicide rate tends to increase significantly. For example, suppose the number of suicides increases by three thousand over the previous year. You don’t often see wars where three thousand people die in battle. In other words, a depression kills a massive number of people.

“Mary, please!”

I lowered my head and begged.

“Alright, Franz. No… Big Brother.”

When I looked up, Mary was fidgeting, poking her index fingers together.

“Since it’s for Big Brother… I’ll do… whatever Big Brother wants to do…”

“Thanks, Mar—”

“Guh! This is excellent! The ‘little sister’ archetype who acts like she can’t be honest but ends up obeying anyway! I could eat three loaves of bread to this!—”

My thanks were drowned out by Cerulia’s voice. She’s eating too much bread.

At that moment, I heard that “inner voice” again.

—You… did you actually have a sister? And you’re going to master your desires?! What… no way… Wh-what will happen now… Even I do not know…

He’s flustered. He’s definitely flustered.

But it seems he can’t actually perceive whether I have a real sister or not. Indeed, whether I have a sister is something decided after I was born. If the ancestor’s influence is only on my blood or flesh, he wouldn’t be able to judge that.

“Hey, Papa and Mama won’t come in here, will they…?”

Mary asked in a sugary voice.

I wondered if she had ever called my parents that before, but then realized—she’s getting into character.

And… are we doing this right now? The deflation effect is still ongoing, so we can’t exactly take our time, but…

Cerulia exited silently with a bright smile. As she left, she gave me a cheer: “Master, please do your best.” Understood. I’ll do what I have to do…

“M-Mary, yeah, it’s fine…”

I was incredibly nervous too.

“Big Brother… these clothes are hard to take off, help me…”

Mary made the request while looking up at me.

Is this really going to be okay? I hope I don’t have a spell on me that makes me suddenly explode or something.

Calm down. This is to do something about the deflation. In fact, is it more effective here to let oneself be swept away by desire? A-anyway, I just have to do what needs to be done!

Mary and I carefully performed succubus-like acts.

Slowly, while being gentle with Mary’s body. After all, I can’t do anything to hurt my sister. The person in front of me is my cute little sister. My cute little sister. My cute little sister.

“Big Brother… Mary is so happy…”

Mary kept calling me “Big Brother” the entire time.

We were truly challenging the social order…

And, after doing succubus-like things for a while—

My body began to glow, and my whole frame became incredibly hot!

“This is just like when we recited the poem!”

“Big Brother, it’s okay! Hold my hand!”

Fortunately, the light and heat subsided quickly.

“Is it… okay now? I hope the deflation hasn’t accelerated further…”

“I don’t know for sure, but… j-just in case, maybe we should continue…”

“Understood…”

In this world, there are times when it’s okay to stop, and times when you absolutely shouldn’t. This was the latter.

The next day, we went to the market to check the situation.

Prices had returned to normal, and the shops that had been temporarily closed were back in business.

“Man, sorry about that. Until yesterday, it was like I was possessed; I was making everything way too cheap.” “If we kept that up, the shop would have gone under. It’s okay for things to be a bit more expensive now.”

I could hear exchanges like that between clerks and housewives.

“That’s a relief. Everything is back to the way it was.”

Cerulia smiled with a refreshed face.

“Yeah, it really is good. I’m so relieved.”

“And it seems the bond between Master and his ‘sister’ has deepened as well.”

Ah, I knew she was going to poke at that eventually.

“That was a special one-time service,” Mary said, gripping my sleeve tightly. She kept looking down, so I couldn’t really see her expression.

“Yeah, sorry for putting you through that.”

“But, if you’re ever in a real bind, you can tell me… I might consider it…”

Even if she didn’t meet my eyes, her face was turning red, so I could pretty much tell what was going on.

Maybe I was actually lucky not to have such a cute little sister in real life. If I did, I probably would have agonized over it just like my ancestor, Mary’s brother, did.