episode_0100

Lien’s expression, which seemed to have left her spirit, barely returned to normal.

For a moment, hostility appeared in those eyes, then disappeared. And what took its place was a deep sense of fatigue.

“I declared that I would make you a slave, and then I appealed to you that I had a weakness, but you didn’t attack.”

Of course, it was an action taken because I thought he wouldn’t attack, but it’s inevitable that I’ll have complicated feelings if I actually check it out.

“… What does it mean?”

“Mr. Nine is a truly kind person.”

It’s not that there’s a problem with the speed of judgment, since the speed at which he revealed his intention to attack was slow. He was just reluctant to attack someone.

“I think it was supposed to disappear, so I don’t think about my own safety. If I didn’t have a purpose to protect the military academy, I would have disappeared long ago.”

“… … Even if it’s true, it’s not nice when someone pretends to know too much about you, Seha… .”

Nine spoke, regaining her original tone of voice, perhaps because her embarrassment had subsided somewhat and she had definitely stopped imitating Lien.

“Even in Master Wars, that aspect of you didn’t change. You protected the cadets somehow, and if you could have done so until the very end, you would have chosen to disappear voluntarily. … However, Lien didn’t know that fact.”

“… … .”

In Jaehee’s memories, Lien was a feminine, smart, and mysterious ‘adult’ who seemed somewhat aloof. However, the real Lien was just a child who took care of herself a little better than her peers.

If I had to be specific, I would say that he was much quicker than Jaehee to realize his own feelings, and that he was incredibly obsessed with her in places that couldn’t be seen.

If nothing special had happened, I probably would have confessed my feelings and started dating Jaehee. There might have been some awkward moments, but I think we would have become a good couple.

But things took a big turn when Lien became the Master.

“The Master, and a very powerful Master at that. A Master with incredibly powerful mind control abilities. I couldn’t help but feel nervous.”

“… … … … Really, you speak as if you know everything… .”

So Lien came to believe that she had to get rid of Nine somehow.

But how on earth can one subdue Nine, who has powerful mind-manipulating abilities and is also a spirit?

Nine’s ability is to manipulate the opponent who has been fed bodily fluids into a doll. She has no attack power at all. So she had to inevitably create a ‘doll that can do that’, and there was only one opponent in the Judith Military Academy who could do that.

Jaehee’s two hands, or more precisely, the Guan-su (貫手), can also hit the spirit body. Lien used them to attack Nain, but Nain did not die even after being hit by the fatal attack.

It was a plan that had little chance of success from the beginning, and when it failed, Lien tried to take her own life. The reason she wanted to take everyone with her must have been because of her petty opposition to Nine.

Nine had no choice but to increase the output of her psychic power to prevent that… and Lien’s psyche was destroyed.

And Nine, who could not bring herself to reveal that fact, shared a part of her mind and possessed Lien, and has been acting as if she were Lien ever since.

“It wasn’t a bad excuse for a hastily made excuse that he lost his memories, was it? Jaehee believed it, and even though he felt something was off, he accepted it because he lost his memories.”

“… It was a lie just to avoid that moment. As a result… it became the worst lie… .”

Nine, muttering as if lamenting. It must be that her regret is greater than her caution toward me. I asked.

“Is recovery possible?”

“My ego and memories are shattered into pieces, but… I have about half a year to somehow mend them… .”

Nine, who had been mumbling her answer, suddenly raised her head and glared at me.

“I understand that you know about it. I don’t know how you knew, but let’s just move on. …Why did you do that to Jaehee when you knew everything?”

“That’s what you’re doing?”

“You incited Jaehee to do that to me… even though you knew it wasn’t Lien… .”

His voice trembled strangely when he said, ‘That kind of thing.’

Nine died before reaching puberty. Although she remained as a ghost and experienced various things and grew through learning, she was probably still unfamiliar with sexual matters.

“That’s to strengthen the effect of the threat.”

“… The effect of intimidation?”

“In the situation up until yesterday, saying ‘Lien’s mind was actually destroyed and she was as good as dead. That’s why I was taking her place’ is a world of difference from saying that in the current situation.”

Jaehee tried to accept and forgive Lien. Nain, who could not bear to reject Jaehee who spoke so earnestly, ended up accepting Jaehee’s confession.

Would Nine really be able to say, ‘Oh, but actually, Lien is basically dead and I’ll take her place…’ in this state?

“I couldn’t tell you the truth… … .”

I nodded in agreement.

Jaehee must have been looking at her with those big eyes full of hope, but it wouldn’t have been easy to throw dirt in those eyes.

But Nine shook her head.

“Not only Jaehee… but Lien was also so happy… . I just couldn’t say no.”

“Are you recovered enough to judge something like that?”

When I was puzzled by the somewhat unexpected words, Nine quietly explained.

To put it simply, Nine sees the human mind as something like an extremely complex Lego building block made up of tens of thousands of pieces.

Short-term memory, long-term memory, various experiences and sensory information are each made up of several blocks, and the adhesive called self glues and combines them to form the final form.

And now, Lien’s bond has been broken by Nine’s mental waves, and some of the blocks have melted or broken. Nine is now gathering the fragments, filling in the parts that were lost when they were destroyed, and when everything is ready, he will reassemble them and return them to their original state.

During this process, Nine had seen countless fragments of Lien’s memories. However, those blocks, which had been nothing more than a collection of information until then, suddenly began to glow the moment Jaehee confessed… Nine could never ignore that twinkle.

“Even in this situation, you are so happy, you want to accept it, how can I tell you the truth… .”

In other words, it was a joint attack by both Jaehee and Lien.

If Nine had been the one making cool-headed judgments from the beginning, she wouldn’t have even thought of disguising herself as Lien. Even though she knew the dangers of that act, she couldn’t do anything about it.

“Thanks to you, you became a very good threat to me.”

“… Do you have any reason to think I would just accept that threat? I could subdue you and erase your memories? ”

“If he really wanted to do that, he probably wouldn’t have even talked to me. You could have just subdued him from the beginning, and checked the parts you were curious about by looking into his memories. You know that the human mind is delicate, and you’re careful about touching it. You’re probably also afraid of destroying Lien’s mind.”

Nine kept her mouth shut.

But what crossed his face was a clear sense of guilt.

Nine will likely be unable to perform psychic attacks for some time, or perhaps ever. At least not willingly.

“Besides, erasing my memories now means getting rid of ‘another’ person Jaehee trusts and relies on. Can you do it?”

“… What a shameless kid, really. I’ve seen a lot of kids who take advantage of others, but Seha, you’re the first one to be this shameless.”

“I can do this because I believe in your goodness.”

“The part where you decide to do that and scratch your insides is really absurd… .”

Nine let out a long sigh.

Then he raised his head and looked straight into my eyes.

“I want you to know this. The reason I listen to you like this and don’t get angry at you is not just because of the reason you think. I’ve been pushed to this point. I’m also anxious that I have to change myself, even if it means forcing myself.”

Blue-glowing eyes stared at me. I didn’t feel like they were using any abilities. However, I felt like I was being looked at by someone a little more mature than I knew or deduced.

“They say the scales of the heart are half and half. But I still want to listen to what you have to say, because I don’t feel like you have any ill will toward me, Jaehee, or even Lien.”

“… .”

“It’s funny how you complain about the fact that you seem innocent. Then, shall I say? ‘I’m full of thoughts of doing bad things to you and Jaehee. And it was the same with Lien, you really don’t have an eye for people!’ ”

“You would say something like that if I told you to… . And you, you bring up Lien so casually… .”

Ugh. Something is off from the scenario I had in mind. And it must have been traumatic for him to not know that Lien would do something like that, and yet he volunteered to talk about it… .

“Actually, I want to say that I didn’t see things wrong. Of course, I was surprised at the time of the incident, but when I look back on my memories like this, I see that he was just a cute and shy kid.”

“… The guy who tried to kill you and take you all with him?”

“Because it was my fault for not realizing it before it got that bad. There was room for misunderstanding.”

“… This guy.”

I took out my phone and showed a photo.

Nine’s eyes, which had been looking at me with a puzzled look, were filled with longing.

“Really… Really there’s nothing you don’t know… … .”

The photo is from almost 30 years ago. It shows a woman who looks exactly like Jaehee, wearing the uniform of the Judith Military School.

“She was the older sister I admired. She was surprisingly similar on the outside and inside, and she was the only person I could really be comfortable with. After I died and only my ghost remained, I cried so much that I lost 5kg.”

The reason why Nain protected Judith Military School even while dying must have been because of her existence. She was Nain’s first love, but she died in an accident not long after graduating from Judith Military School.

“When I first saw Jaehee, I thought she was that sister’s twin sister or daughter. No matter how I thought about it, the age didn’t match, so I knew it was a coincidence, but that made my heart flutter even more. I thought she might be that sister’s reincarnation.”

And Lien, who was so fond of Jaehee that she turned on her radar and was on guard for a potential love interest, noticed this. That was what ultimately drove Lien wild.

Masters are incompatible. But there is a Master who is more powerful than you. It even seems like that Master will have affection for the one who is most precious to you.

Nine defended Lien, saying that it was something she couldn’t help but be desperate about.

“… Since this is the result, I can’t say anything to show off.”

I looked at Nine, who said that with a pitiful expression, with complicated feelings.

Even though I knew it, she still cares for Lien enough to protect her in this situation. Her affection for the cadets is truly admirable.

Even if it leads to ruin, I won’t regret it.

I don’t intend to leave it like that though.

“It’s a good story to me. I’m satisfied if I can make you a slave, so if you believe in my good intentions, I won’t deny it.”

“You’re full of the desire to deny it. … More than that, I’ve been saying that since a while ago, but I’m a master. I’m not in a position to be a slave. I don’t think you know that, so what are you thinking?”

I shook my head.

“You can. There are conditions, but our family has the ability to turn a master into a slave. You can even stop being a master if you want.”

“… Hard to believe.”

“I don’t think you’ll believe it easily either. On the contrary, if you believe it right away, you’ll be shocked and wonder if you don’t have the ability to doubt others. So I’ll make it easy for you.”

I put my hand on Nine’s… no, my body is Lien, but anyway, I put my hand on Nine’s collar.

“One week. For one week, when I call you, come to me and listen to me. After a week at the latest, you will beg to be my slave. If not, then I will cleanly let you go and step aside.”

“… What if I refuse?”

“Well, it’s obvious. I’m going to reveal all your secrets to Jaehee.”

Unfortunately, it was difficult to say that it had much power as a threat, because… .

“I don’t think you have any ill will toward me or Jaehee. So even if I reject the offer, I don’t think you’ll expose it.”

“There are two possibilities. If Mr. Nine’s prediction is wrong, I can reveal the secret at any time. And if the prediction is right, I can reveal the secret out of consideration for you and Jaehee.”

“… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .”

A look of concern crossed Nine’s eyes. Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to wait for that worry to end. I decided to simplify the situation.

I pushed the car seat back, stretched out, and pressed down on the nine.

“If you resist, I will take it as a request to expose you.”

Nine shivered as I put my hand inside her blouse. When I frowned, Nine opened her mouth urgently.

“Okay, wait… . Oh, no, I don’t mean to reject you… . But promise me… .”

With a bright red face, he avoids eye contact and speaks stammeringly.

“This body is Lien’s, so you shouldn’t do anything that will leave scars or aftereffects… . And you shouldn’t do anything that Jaehee… will notice is strange… .”

“… You don’t have to think that Jaehee is weird, right?”

“That’s… funny♡!”

Nine moaned loudly when I pinched her nipple hard. However, both of us knew that it was not just a reaction of pain.

“The body is Lien’s, so I’m pretty well prepared… .”

Even though it is Nine’s first experience, the body possessed by her is not like that. I will actively push her and make her voluntarily choose to become a slave as quickly as possible.

What comes to mind is the ending they met in Seraph of the End.

Nine is eventually defeated by enemies who are blatantly targeting the Judith Military School. Naturally, Lien, who was receiving treatment, is left in a doll-like state with her mind destroyed and unable to recover.

Jae-hee’s mind is broken after losing Nine, whom he admired as the chairman, and then losing Lien, whom he believed would return to normal one day. He attempts revenge but fails, and the ending that awaits him is either death or being sold into slavery.

Even if the player intervenes, there is no option that ultimately leads to the survival of Master Nine. Therefore, Lien is also abandoned, and the best she can do is to support Jaehee’s spirit so that it does not break down and to use her as a slave.

Now that I have the power to turn a master into a slave, I have no intention of accepting such a development. I will do whatever it takes to escape.

Well, I’m not saying you’re doing it out of good intentions, am I?

I just want to quickly obtain a strong character that has OP abilities despite being an unconquerable character?