55 — Chapter 55

With her perspective much lower than usual, Elma realized she was inside a dream.

Trees with lush leaves towered far overhead, stars shimmered in the distance, the occasional cry of a beast brushed past her ears, and she could feel the very breath of the forest.

This was surely a scene she had actually witnessed as a child.

Just when was it?

(…But, I tried not to go outside the prison very often… so if I’m in a forest, it’s probably… a few years ago…)

Once she had grown enough to take down a dragon with a single blow, her father figure Isaac, [Gluttony], often took her out for hunting and swimming, so it was likely then.

—No, the perspective was far too low for that.

This was from even further back, when Elma was much smaller.

(…That’s strange… Big Brother [Greed] told me that little children shouldn’t go outside…)

Her memory was unusually hazy.

But yes, her “brother” Horst had been so worried about her that he supposedly never let her go outside when she was small.

(…Why was he so worried about me, again?)

The question that had suddenly surfaced slipped through the cracks of her thoughts like falling sand.

She couldn’t remember, but that was fine.

After all, Horst being overprotective was nothing new.

As the family member closest to her in age, he was always with Elma, looking after her more devotedly than anyone else.

The instructions her overprotective brother had given her were too numerous to count.

Never walk outside alone.

Never consume strong liquor or highly fragrant flowers.

Never show your crying face, angry face, or your face when you’ve just woken up to anyone other than “family.”

Above all, you must never show your eyes.

If there are others around during those times, count to ten in your head before opening them.

Even as a young child, she had wondered about the reasons behind some of these rules.

However, when told that this was “normal,” she simply nodded, accepting that was just how things were.

“—There now, you’re alright.”

Thinking she heard a nostalgic voice, Elma looked around.

There was no one there.

Yet, the voice echoed and hummed, wrapping Elma in a gentle embrace.

“It’s okay to wake up now. Open your eyes. Don’t worry, it’s only me here.”

A kind, cheerful voice, colored with a slight smile.

Ah… Elma let out a sigh of relief and slowly lifted her eyelids.

“Big Brother… Gr-eed…”

When she opened her eyes, the nostalgic figure of her brother was there.

With the reddish-black sunset at his back, he was looking down at her with a smile, wearing his usual clean white coat.

Her mind was fuzzy as she wondered why he, who was supposed to be in prison, was here, before finally reaching a conclusion.

I see—I am still inside a dream.

Even if it was a dream, Elma was happy to see a precious member of her family, and she gave a soft smile.

“I’m happy.”

Horst gently stroked his “sister’s” bangs, nodding peacefully.

“Me too, Elma.”

Those slender fingers, capable of such delicate scalpel-work, smoothly stroked the corner of Elma’s eye.

“I was so worried that something scary might have happened to you.”

Her eyes, which should have been the color of the dawn—were dyed a deep crimson, like the dripping sunset.

Horst covered Elma’s eyes with a gentle hand, admonishing her in a tone like one would use to reason with a child.

“Look at you, Princess. You’ve let your guard down quite a bit, haven’t you? Come now, close your eyes and count to ten.”

Elma obediently counted to ten and lifted her eyelids once more.

Appearing there were her usual violet-tinted navy blue eyes, though they were still a bit unfocused.

“…”

“Did the chemicals I injected for detoxification and sedation work a bit too well in the direction of relaxation? It’s rare for you to forget about your eyes. As I thought, rather than my ‘instructions,’ it might be better to just take you home and have [Envy] put a hypnotic suggestion on you…”

“…”

Seeing Elma staring blankly as if she were still in a dream, Horst knit his brows.

Just as he concluded that he should simply abduct her right then and there, Elma spoke up softly.

“…Big Brother.”

“What is it, Elma?”

Despite his overprotective plan to kidnap and lock her up again, he answered her with extreme kindness.

To him, both actions were born from his affection for Elma.

Because she was precious, he was kind.

Because she was important, he would cage her.

However, Elma continued.

“Am I… a member of the Demon Race?”

To that question, he could not provide an immediate answer.

“…What makes you ask that?”

“I feel like… I am… bad with the scent of liquor used as a base for holy water… and the plants and flowers used for… magic spells…”

“…”

Horst fell silent.

The truth that he—or rather, Elma’s mother—had kept hidden was beginning to unravel.

Realizing this, a slight tremor of agitation ran through him, followed by a fierce irritation toward the surroundings that had allowed this to happen.

How dare they.

Elma—his precious, precious little sister—should have stayed within that warm cradle forever.

“…If that is the case, then I am… an existence that must be destroyed… a child of sin. And perhaps… that is why Mother was imprisoned—”

“—Heh, you say the strangest things, Elma.”

Horst let out a pleasant laugh, not letting a single trace of his true emotions show.

“If having a low tolerance for alcohol and a few flowers you dislike makes someone a member of the Demon Race, then this world must be crawling with them.”

He declared it with absolute certainty.

Simultaneously, his mind began racing with plans to have [Sloth] and [Envy] reinforce her mental suggestions the moment he returned. He needed to drug Elma right here and take her back, then reveal her true identity to the others.

No, before that, he had to tell Heidemarie that he’d realized the truth about Elma’s nature.

Or perhaps she had seen through it long ago? And was leaving her be regardless?

As his thoughts whirled, the still-dreamy Elma continued.

“…But, that might be for the best.”

“Eh?”

“Because—”

A small smile played on her lips.

“If that’s the case, then surely… I won’t have to make you worry anymore, Big Brother…”

“…”

Horst’s eyes flew wide.

“…What did you say?”

“Because the Demon Race is strong. They say they don’t die easily. If that’s true… then I won’t ever have to… make Big Brother [Greed] sad again… right?”

“…”

Completely blindsided, Horst found himself speechless.

With that gentle smile still on her face, Elma’s voice grew gradually fainter.

“That way… as long as I stay healthy… I can properly… take the place of… your ‘sister’—”

Before she could finish saying she could be a proper substitute, she drifted off into the world of sleep once more.

Horst stood by the bed, utterly stunned.

Then, he slowly raised his palm and covered his mouth.

“…Ha.”

The laugh that escaped him was trembling slightly.

A substitute.

She had certainly said it.

She had seen right through him.

She knew that Horst was projecting his own blood relative onto her.

She knew that he didn’t see her as “Elma,” but only as a “fragile sister who must be protected.”

And this was despite the fact that he had never breathed a word to her about the younger sister he had lost in the past.

“…You really got me this time.”

With his brilliant mind, he could immediately deduce how the young Elma must have felt, constantly having someone else projected onto her rather than being seen for who she was.

She was loved, cherished, and gazed upon—but it wasn’t her. It was someone else, just beyond her reach.

It must have been heart-wrenching. It must have felt empty.

And yet, she was actually worried about him. She was determined to be a proper substitute for his sake.

“…I wonder which of us is actually the guardian.”

Horst etched a self-deprecating smile on his face.

Heidemarie had once admonished him, saying that Elma was no longer a baby.

She was right.

Without him noticing, the precious girl who had been so young had walked much further ahead than Horst, even reaching back a hand to protect him.

—You really should graduate from Elma already.

Suddenly, the conversation they’d had in the prison flashed back to him.

—I’m not thinking about dragging Elma back by force right now. Because, you see, I trust her.

“…”

Horst bit his lip slightly and stared at the girl lying on the bed.

Elma.

His precious, precious “little sister.”

They had only been apart for two months, but with her eyes closed, her face looked much more mature than when they had last met.

No, perhaps she had been that way for a long time, and he simply hadn’t noticed.

He watched her sleeping face intently for a while before finally letting out a sigh.

“…Okay, I get it.”

With that, he gave a light shrug of his shoulders.

“I’ll give up on taking you back this time. Because… I trust you too, you see.”

With one corner of his lip curled up, he put his discarded glasses back on and lowered his bangs, returning to his plain, inconspicuous appearance.

He gave Elma’s smooth cheek one last, lingering stroke before leaving the room.

Remembering what Lucas had said, he doubled back and knocked on the adjacent door.

When Lucas appeared immediately, Horst spoke with few words.

“The treatment is complete.”

“I see. Thank you. How is she? She’ll wake up soon, right?”

“Yes. It seems she was already exhausted, and the scent she’s sensitive to simply did her in…”

As he delivered his makeshift excuse, Lucas naturally tilted his head in suspicion.

“Is that true? I don’t think people often faint from scents, and she seems to have been sleeping for quite a while.”

“Sigh… It is a rare case, but it can be viewed as a type of anaphylaxis. Usually, allergies manifest through oral or transdermal contact with fine powdered components, but in her case, certain fragrance components trigger it. If she has experienced similar symptoms in the past, it wouldn’t be strange for her body’s defensive reactions to show even more intense symptoms from the second time onward. Furthermore, her sense of smell appears to be extremely acute. Do you understand all that?”

Getting annoyed, he rattled off the fabricated explanation at high speed.

It lacked any real logic, but Lucas, being a layman, seemed to accept it for now.

“…Well, I suppose I can understand that her physical makeup is specialized in various ways.”

Horst felt a surge of irritation at the man’s knowing nod and the slight smirk on his face.

What exactly did he think he “understood”?

To begin with, the mere fact that a pest who looked like he had a bad track record with women was loitering around his precious Elma was enough to make Horst’s blood boil.

‘Though, I suppose it’s only because these idiots were making a fuss in the forest near the prison that I noticed Elma was here.’

He briefly recalled how he had ended up here.

Horst occasionally observed the ecology of the forest bordering the prison and the magical beasts living there as a change of pace.

This time, while “strolling” through the woods to vent his irritation during the card game, he had sensed a swarm of Demon Moths taking flight all at once.

Curious, he had rushed to the scene, only to find Elma being carried down the mountain on Lucas’s back.

An unexpected encounter.

But Horst was not one to hesitate. He had immediately dashed back into the prison to prepare—including the chemicals needed to knock out the real doctor and cloud his memories—before finally rushing to the manor.

“…Is this, too, the karma of the Frenzel line?”

“What?”

Lucas knit his brows, having failed to catch the low murmur.

After staring at the man’s gallant face, Horst opened his mouth wide, as if he were simply going to repeat himself.

And then—

“If that girl collapses again, I’ll gouge out your eyeballs without anesthesia.”

He threatened in a voice that crawled along the floor.

“…!?”

The other man’s eyes went wide with shock.

Horst gave a bright smile and returned to his previous tone.

“It was with that level of spirit that I performed the treatment… so please, rest easy.”

“…A-Ah…?”

Lucas recoiled slightly.

Before his true identity could be questioned, Horst spun on his heel.

“Well then, if you’ll excuse me.”

With that, he made a quick exit from the hallway.

Feeling somewhat refreshed after taking his frustrations out on Lucas, he finished a few other chores. By the time he returned to the prison, he had regained his usual composure.

“Oh, welcome back, [Greed].”

As he headed toward the top-floor room that had become their hangout, Heidemarie noticed him immediately and looked up.

She appeared to be organizing her hand; she held her cards in a fan in her left hand, while tapping her lips with her slender right index finger as she thought.

“Well, well. Your luck with cards is as sickening as ever, [Lust].”

“Oh, it isn’t luck. It’s the fruit of effort and skill.”

When Horst peered over her shoulder, Heidemarie looked up from the sofa and gave him a mischievous glare.

Despite the seductive look, Horst didn’t seem moved in the slightest. On the contrary, he smoothly slid his fingertips into the cleavage of her dress.

“Ah—”

“I suppose tucking strong cards into your bosom counts as ‘effort’ too, doesn’t it?”

With that, he flashed a card for everyone to see.

The Joker.

The strongest card.

“Hey now, Marie! You were cheating after all!?”

“Now, [Envy], I was just keeping it safe. I haven’t used it yet, have I?”

“Hiding a card in your person is the problem in the first place!”

Liesel yapped away, but Heidemarie didn’t seem to care.

Horst expected the newcomer, Clemens, to have the strongest reaction, but even that didn’t happen. The man had long since lost his composure; he was staring at his cards with the desperate look of someone cornered.

There wasn’t a trace of the rationality that had barely remained earlier.

‘My, my. It looks like he’s been plucked quite thoroughly while I was gone.’

Horst gave a cynical laugh at the pitiful sight.

Then, to ensure at least some semblance of fairness against the beautiful usurper, he spoke.

“There should only be one Joker in a game. Cards that don’t belong should stay quiet and move to the sidelines, right—?”

With that, he tore the sneering Joker card in half.