Volume 7, Ending X-02: The Mental Leeway to Enjoy the World's Destruction
“Now, a question: What does it mean for me to win or lose?”
“…”
(Ending X-02 Open 07/21 11:25)
The Mental Leeway to Enjoy the World's Destruction
That sudden voice caused everything to freeze.
Kyousuke turned his head like a rusted doll and found that pure white evil standing there.
“Hello, brother☆”
“You…!!!???”
“Isn’t there something you should be concerned about far more than how I survived? It’s a much, much, muuuuuch more pressing issue.”
What was she talking about?
His attempt to completely kill the White Queen had failed. How could there be a darker despair than that?
But just as he prepared to scream without thinking, the White Queen softly placed her slender fingertip on his lips. That was enough to silence the near-crazed boy, so the gently smiling evil spoke.
“Broootherrr? Surely you aren’t going to say you don’t know what I was planning this time, right???”
“What…are…?”
“Oh, dear. Oh, dear, dear, dear! It isn’t often I get to see you when your brain isn’t functioning! But an ignorant and incompetent brother is so very cute, so this isn’t a problem at all. Well, I’ll overlook this since it’s like watching your beloved’s face just after he wakes up.”
Her smile grew to mocking laughter and she was close enough to feel the heat of her sweet breath.
“Now, brother. The outcome is not always determined by fighting, don’t you think? In fact, I am the White Queen who stands at the peak of everything! Did you really think I would be so afraid of some newcomer nemesis that I would work to eliminate her in advance? Does that really sound like something the strongest would do?”
“…”
That was true.
There was one question he could not understand.
He understood why Bridesmaid would attempt to prevent the construction of a method to kill the White Queen. But what was the White Queen’s reason to get involved in this one? He doubted this evil would beg for her life even at the moment of her death, so would she really bother getting up for something like this?
Of course, it could always just be one of the Queen’s games.
But that was the same as a self-proclaimed expert declaring a bizarre criminal’s mind was simply impossible to understand. That meant abandoning all thought. He could never track down the truth like that.
“Why…?”
“Yes, yes?”
“Why are you here, Queen…?”
“I see your mind has finally started functioning again, brother.”
The White Queen whispered to him from so close she was practically nestled against his chest. Everyone else was supposedly here as well, but only her voice reached him.
“Now, a question: What does it mean for me to win or lose?”
“…”
“It of course does not mean for me to let my physical strength do the talking and simply beat you up, brother. If I set my goals that low, I could have simply attacked you head-on without disguising myself as Meinokawa Aoi. Right, brother?”
She was saying that taking Meinokawa Aoi’s place and approaching Kyousuke had been a way of accomplishing her own goal, not Bridesmaid’s.
That brought only one thing to mind.
“To earn…my trust…?”
“Correct!! My brother really is a genius once he wakes up!!”
He hated how she praised him for an answer so obvious a moron could have given it.
But she continued regardless.
“That’s it, that’s right, and that’s correct. I, the White Queen, simply wanted a quick way to grab a hold of your trust so I could stay by your side. That was my one and only goal. Now, then. You understand where this is headed, don’t you? If you say you don’t, I’ll just have to open up your skull to see if it’s actually empty inside. Okay, my - dear - brother. What was my ultimate objective in all this!?”
“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………It can’t be.”
“Approaching you disguised as Meinokawa Aoi was no more than what you could call a practice run.” The White Queen smiled. “Since you ultimately had your doubts, I guess I can’t say I earned a perfect score, but since I did successfully bind a contract with you and face the same enemy alongside you, it wasn’t a failing score either. Now, brother, it’s time for a review. Where did I go wrong in all this? Was it wearing the red hakama? Or was it too hard to distract you when Doctor S was such a lackluster decoy enemy?”
“It can’t be!?”
“Then we just need an even more hopeless nemesis.”
He realized she had that look in her eyes.
A crazed light filled her eyes, proving she believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was doing the right thing.
“It would solve everything if we have such an overwhelming nemesis that I am dragged down from my position at the peak of the peak and fall to the #2 spot or lower. After all, brother, you are opposing me because you ranked the threats to the world, concluded I was at the very top of the list, and decided you could let everything else slide until you had dealt with me, right? So if an even more hopeless nemesis showed up and attempted to destroy this world, my world, humanity, and all the Materials, you would be forced to temporarily join forces with me, wouldn’t you?”
“…That’s not possible.”
Shiroyama Kyousuke’s thoughts turned toward the Unexplored-class he himself had embedded in the world.
And he shook his head.
He had already failed once with the White Queen. If that chaos repeated itself again, it would no longer be an accident. It would prove that Shiroyama Kyousuke was a grim reaper for the world. That was the fear that inspired him to speak.
“That won’t happen! She is…The Colorless Little Girl Dedicated to a Single Goal (aie - a - oio - ei - ueo - ioa - e - uai - ee) is an Unexplored-class thoroughly tuned to kill only you. She’s too specialized to withstand normal combat. She would lose like normal if she fought any other Unexplored-class!!”
Of course she worked that way.
Creating a Material and embedding it in the world meant that anyone could summon it if they met the conditions. Even if the conditions for the vessel were quite delicate, this would all be meaningless if she could be used for something other than killing the White Queen.
And yet…
“Oh? What an odd thing to say, brother.”
Had there been an oversight in his reasoning?
Had he embedded a wrong answer in the world?
As sweat poured down not just the boy’s face but his entire body, the White Queen continued nestling up against him with a wicked crescent moon smile on her face.
“In the Third Summoning Ceremony, I defeated the rest of the Unexplored-class and made all the laws of the world my allies. And the true arrival of the Fourth Summoning Ceremony was signaled by my defeat. That means it has all been literally swapped out. But was she really ready for that? Not you, but that girl.”
And she said it.
“Even if she was perfectly safe to begin with, did you not think that her logical design would be altered for the worse when I let her defeat me? Yes, it must have been an incredible shock to that insolent Colorless Little Girl when I let her test out her full power on me and even let her kill me.”
Facts:
*In the Blood-Sign Summoning Ceremony, the loser receives a shock equivalent to seeing their god slaughtered before their eyes.
*Based on the Three and the White Queen, the high-level Unexplored-class Materials seem to have a “heart” capable of communication.
*The defeat of the White Queen threatens to tear into the souls of not just humans but Materials as well.
*Even as The Colorless Little Girl Dedicated to a Single Goal (aie - a - oio - ei - ueo - ioa - e - uai - ee) achieved success, her internal structure was damaged.
*And the world faces a new stage and a new threat: the Fourth Summoning Ceremony.