Ch.173Chapter 173

The Professor brought an enormous stack of papers and placed them in front of me.

I flinched in surprise at the heavy thud they made.

The papers weren’t bundled together as one. There were various stacks of different thicknesses, perhaps organized by topic or subdivided into different classifications.

“Let’s start with this.”

The Professor seemed to have prepared in advance, picking up the smallest bundle from the top and showing it to me.

“What is that?”

“Research papers about Ouro. I wrote them all myself from beginning to end.”

The Professor smiled brightly.

It was her own collection of materials that she had completed by observing and documenting various things while visiting the Research Building at the Academy during this winter break.

She hadn’t received help from other professors or graduate students.

She had formed her own hypotheses and worked hard to prove them. As she witnessed Ouro gradually becoming more human-like, she documented the evidence of these changes, slowly adding more pages.

As the thickness increased, the Professor was learning more about Ouro, and by the time it had accumulated to a certain point, it became proof that she had researched a great deal about Ouro.

The fact that she was showing me these results probably meant she wanted me to understand as well.

It seemed she wanted to tell me that she had found some sort of solution to ease my anxiety about Ouro’s changing appearance.

“Ouro will continue to change. She’ll eat properly and her sleep cycles will gradually shorten. Would it be easier to explain by saying she’s becoming more human?”

“…Is she becoming different from me now?”

“I can’t be certain. But since we can’t say you’re the same, all we can do now is observe.”

The Professor looked at me with a gentle smile.

Ouro is becoming human. Hearing that gave me a strange feeling.

I wished we could both remain Demon Gods, or if we had to change, that we could both become human together. But since that wasn’t possible, I felt somewhat disappointed.

If Ouro becomes human first, if Ouro becomes an adult first, that might be frustrating.

“What if I die several times first and then become human like Ouro…”

“Ah, that might be a bit unreasonable…? If Ourr were to grow while still a Demon God, it would be dangerous.”

“Oh.”

That could be incredibly frustrating.

I thought it was a really good idea, but it was immediately rejected. I felt disappointed.

The Professor was clearly worried that I might be having dangerous thoughts, but despite appearances, I was a Demon God.

Although I hadn’t met other Demon Gods, I was one who couldn’t face true death.

I was the type who felt nothing about dying, so I was concerned about how to reassure her.

From a human perspective, even dying once is dangerous, so it naturally gets interpreted as a bad thought.

“I’m becoming an adult before Ourr!”

As soon as Ouro burst out of the room, she proudly declared this.

It was somewhat different from her usual self.

“…So what.”

“Ourr always brags about being the big sister or the mother, but in the end, you’ll remain younger than me.”

Ouro raised the corner of her mouth with a smirk.

It was good that she was experiencing various emotions through social interactions. But when she directed those emotions toward teasing me, it made me feel a bit spiteful.

“You.”

“Me.”

When I threw a word at Ouro, she pointed to herself and added another word in response.

My head throbbed. How could she be so determined not to back down with every single word?

“Come on, Ouro, come sit here too. Since we’re here, shall we learn a little?”

The Professor organized the documents and placed them in front of us.

Ouro still needed more study in various areas, while I could understand difficult words from having read books.

Because of this, the Professor usually spoke to me first when the content seemed difficult. But now that Ouro was here, we couldn’t leave her out.

She had Ouro sit beside us and was silent for a moment.

She seemed to be contemplating how best to explain this.

“From now on, Ouro will change to become more like a human, and I’m trying to make Ourr become more like Ouro. However, unless we create a new body, it’s difficult to change the quality of magical power being used, so the thickness of these papers keeps increasing.”

“Is it still incomplete?”

The thickness of the papers was evidence of the Professor’s efforts.

It’s difficult to fill even one page with the same words, but it was astonishing to see how these papers, filled with numerous sentences in small handwriting, had created such thickness.

It was also shocking to think that scholars who do research might all study this much.

I often thought about wanting to study various things following the Professor’s example, but it seemed a bit overwhelming to study enough to produce something like this.

“Yes, it’s incomplete. Later, if results change, there will be a lot to discard. Though it’s more like setting aside than discarding.”

“Setting aside?”

“Well, you’d only write about processes connected to results, right? If something is irrelevant or too disconnected, removing it would make things cleaner.”

Hearing the Professor’s explanation, I found myself nodding.

Ouro, who was sitting beside me, tilted her head as if she didn’t understand.

“What are you talking about?”

“We’re talking about research papers. You’ll understand someday too, Ouro.”

“Mmm.”

Ouro nodded at the Professor’s explanation.

It was time for Ouro to roll around in bed. She seemed to be getting sleepy again today.

With Ouro behind us, the Professor and I continued our conversation alone.

“Professor, do you really think there might be a way?”

“Hmm, I wonder. Like before, if two personalities could exist in one body, it might be possible, but right now I’m not sure…”

I recalled the moment when the Professor and I created Ouro’s body.

The reason Ouro began showing human characteristics was because she inherited the Professor’s magical power. But trying to do the same thing again presented many problems.

To begin with, being reborn like Ouro again would be a bit…

“No, um… well… it does seem a bit…”

Even if the Professor brought a definite answer, it would still be problematic.

If being reborn was the solution, it would mean I’d have to stay inside Ouro’s belly for a month, and the resistance to that idea was no joke.

There was no way I could endure that with a sound mind.

Compared to the fear of being left alone in the distant future, it might seem trivial, but I couldn’t ignore the shame and resistance that loomed right in front of me.

With a reddened face, I hung my head low.

“I don’t think that’s right…”

“Huh?”

“Just, I think it would be too embarrassing…”

Mumbling, I declared my surrender.

Ouro’s situation was different from mine.

Two personalities but one body. In a situation where one had to give up their body, we increased the bodies to two. It was no different than two people receiving two chairs in a game of musical chairs.

Unlike Ouro, who didn’t mind because she was unconscious anyway, I already had a body and was conscious.

I couldn’t go back to that state.

“Ourr’s face is red. Alright, I’ll think about it again, Professor.”

“Yes…”

The Professor smiled bitterly and put the papers aside.

I understood that she had formed hypotheses and created theories, but she couldn’t actually implement them to produce results.

As I covered my hot face with both hands, the Professor hugged me slightly as if to reassure me.

Leaning slightly against the Professor’s body, I momentarily forgot it was winter due to the warmth that was transmitted.

When I entered the room, I saw Ouro rolling around on the bed and quickly averted my gaze.

Ouro, whose eyes briefly met mine, tilted her head and then spoke to me.

“Ourr, what’s wrong? What were you talking about with the Professor?”

“I want to have the same body as Ouro, but to do that, we’d have to use the same method… and even that’s not certain.”

“The same method?”

“I, I would have to do what I did when I made Ouro…”

Trying to explain it again was unbearably embarrassing.

Ouro stared at me blankly and then tilted her head.

“What method was it? I remember you bragging about giving birth to me, but I don’t really understand what giving birth means.”

“I don’t think you need to know that much.”

I flinched.

I averted my gaze with wide eyes, but Ouro pressed on.

“I’m curious.”

“Would you like to ask the Professor…?”

“I want you to tell me. You said you gave birth to me, right? That you’re my big sister? My mother?”

She threw back at me the things I had said before.

Back then, I had said those things to show that I was somewhat superior, but hearing them now made them incredibly embarrassing.

Groaning softly with an “ugh,” I hung my head low.

Just when I thought my face had cooled down from when I was next to the Professor, it heated up again.

Blood rushed to my face. It felt like my facial muscles were beating like a heart.

“I’m curious.”

“W-well… when Ouro was very small, you were in my belly and then came out into the world like this. It’s different from humans, growing a body with magical power.”

“How do I come out? How am I made?”

“Well, I guess you could say that if we hold hands and sleep, you’re created…”

With a pouting mouth, I gave a nonsensical explanation, and Ouro grabbed my hand firmly.

“Then it’s easy. If Ouro and Ourr hold hands and sleep, Ourr can take over that body, right? Then Ourr can get what she wants.”

“I guess so…”

It became even more awkward when she believed such a nonsensical statement.

It was something she should have just brushed off, but Ouro believed it and immediately tried to implement it.

“Let’s sleep.”

This isn’t right.

It was obvious it wouldn’t work, but seeing Ouro’s innocent belief, I couldn’t bring myself to speak and just kept my mouth shut.