— You died.
This message was displayed in my log window. In my now monochrome world, I examined my body to see it was completely healed. I looked over at Alumis to see her saying something to Rose and Claudia.
I can’t understand what she’s saying but she keeps motioning to my dead body. She hasn’t started torturing them yet, but I don’t have any time to waste. I called out to Medea-nee in my mind.
The next moment, in stark contrast to the monochrome world, fluttering blue and pink colours appeared above me.
Cherry blossom coloured hair and a pale blue dress that revealed much of her chest. She gazed at me with her dark purple eyes. It was Medea-nee in her true form which had only appeared in the book version.
It was Medea-nee in her full Goddess appearance.
“Fufu~, it’s your one and only goddess onee-chan. I’m glad that you wanted to see me, but do you think you have time to be wasting?”
“I know that. I want to revive right away, but…I don’t think I’ll be able to beat Alumis as I am now.”
With Alumis ability to regenerate, anything less than a killing blow is useless. So my only options are to hit her with a magical attack so powerful it overpowers her resistance or to kill her with a single physical attack.
I don’t have any skill capable of accomplishing that. If I were to fight her several times I might be able to beat her eventually, but my resurrection skill will be on cooldown for twenty-four hours after I revive.
Alumis is going to start torturing them soon. There’s only one thing I can think of.
I opened my status window and scrolled down to my bad statuses. I placed my finger on the SS ranked skill Feminist.
“– Yuzuki-kun, do you know what you’re doing.”
“I know.”
When you increase the rank of a bad status, you gain SP. If I increase Feminist to SSS I’ll gain 5,000 SP.
The price for this is I will no longer be able to even think about harming women. I’ll be completely at the mercy of any women I come into contact with.
Still —
“This is the only way I can save them.”
Without even hesitating I increased its rank to SSS. Medea-nee’s eyes opened wide as she watched me do this. Was she surprised that I actually did it?
While Medea-nee looked on, I wondered what skills I should get.
“Those two really are important to you.”
“Well…yeah.”
Claudia wants to pursue the same dream as me and work with clothing. Plus, she’s not a yandere.
Rose is a yandere, but she’s completely different than a yandere like Alumis. She’d do anything to be liked by me but still respects my will.
I want to keep living in this world with Rose and Claudia.
So —
“I’d do anything to help them.”
“Even at the cost of your own free will?”
“Alumis doesn’t fall under the effects of Feminist, right? Then, I don’t have anything to worry about. I know I can trust those closest to me.”
If I can defeat Alumis, I’ll be able to get the fruit that lowers bad statuses. If I’m able to lower its rank, I’ll still have problems with the skill, but they’ll be manageable.
I trust that those two won’t take advantage of the situation.
“…you trust those two that much? I’m a little envious.”
Medea-nee whispered to herself sadly. I was a little surprised to hear this —
“You idiot. Of course, I was talking about you as well.”
I laughed as I said this.
“…eh?”
“You didn’t realize? I’ve already raised Feminist to SSS. I did it so I can protect them, but….”
If Medea-nee wanted to she could just say, “I want you to forget about Rose and Claudia and stay by my side.” She could easily force me to do so.
But Medea-nee didn’t do anything like this.
I trust her as much as I trust either Rose or Claudia. I wasted no more time and focused on what skills I should learn.
Silence followed. I don’t know what Medea-nee is doing right now. All I can see is my status window.
What skills should I learn?
With Goddess Medea’s Blessing, my speed was equal to Alumis. If its effects ended when I died, it may be a good idea to increase my physical abilities. I checked my status and saw the blessing was still active. It still has twenty minutes remaining, so I shouldn’t have to worry about that.
I decided to raise my skill with the longsword from E to S.
The SP required for this was 5,100. I only got 5,000 SP from raising the rank of Feminist, but I had more SP that I had accumulated from the previous days.
I also learned jujutsu and increased its rank to E using the SP that I had leftover. With this, my combat skills became:
Long Sword: E > S / Close Combat Mastery: E / NEW Jujutsu: E
I wasn’t a match for Alumis before, but, with this, I should be able to defeat her. No, to save those two, I have to defeat her.
“Medea-nee –”
The moment I called out her name, she hugged me from behind.
“…I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Wrapped in Medea-nee’s warm embrace, I responded calmly.
“…are you just saying that because of the effects of Feminist?”
“No, that’s not the case. I didn’t like you at first, but I’ve gradually become attracted to you.”
This was how I genuinely felt. My words may have been influenced by Feminist, but…I knew this was how I felt.
“Yuzuki-kun, will you…. No, please, show me your cool side.”
“– Yeah, leave it to me.”
Medea-nee began to cast her spell. A bright light began to fill my vision, and the next moment, I was back in my body.
“Kukuku, I’ll continue this torture until your minds break. I’ll make you regret ever laying a finger on my Yuzuki.”
Alumis was tracing a finger over the pattern covering her abdomen while saying this. Her face was covered in pure ecstasy. Then, she looked back at me.
“Wha –!? You resurrected yourself!?”
Alumis was stunned as she watched me pick up my longsword and get to my feet.
“How are you alive?”
“Who knows?”
I have no reason to tell her and I can use her confusion to my advantage.
“Ku, you must have a resurrection skill of your own…. I didn’t expect that, but…it will be impossible for you to use it again. I’ll just have to kill you once more!”
Alumis transformed her right arm into the water tentacle and swung it at me.
But, she was too slow.
My speed hasn’t increased nor has Alumis become slower, but her attack was easy for me to read.
This seems to be an added effect of increasing my longsword skill to rank S. Her attack seemed slow and I could anticipate where her attack would land.
I waited for her tentacle to get within arms reach before bringing my blade up in one swift motion, cutting the tentacle in half down the middle. Alumis let out a terrible scream as her face was contorted with pain.
“That’s not going to work anymore.”
I said this plainly as I held my sword out in front of me.
I already know that Alumis is some type of spirit of water. Even if I cut off her tentacle, she won’t suffer much damage. I can’t stop here.
I have to defeat Alumis in order to save Rose and Claudia.
“You’ll die here.”
I moved closer to Alumis without ever taking my eyes off of her.
“Ku, why…. Why won’t you accept my love!?”
Alumis became enraged and raised her right arm. The tentacle that I had cut in half lifted in response. My attack had only made her more deadly.
If I keep cutting it, it will just replicate and make it harder for me. For now, I just deflected her attacks as I looked for an opening.
“Ku! Do you think you’ll be able to keep this up!?”
Her left arm turned into a tentacle and several other tentacles emerged from her back. They all flew forward to attack me.
There were ten tentacles in total and they each acted independently of one another. I parried each of them with my sword and took the chance to lop off any when I had the chance. Whenever I cut the ends of her tentacles off, they’d take a few seconds to reform.
“How…. How have you become so much stronger!? What is happening!?”
Alumis was the one attacking, but I was parrying all of her attacks while still walking towards her. The closer I got to her, the more she fell into complete disbelief.
“What…what are you!? Ku, I guess I have no choice. It’s a waste to just simply kill those girls, but –”
Alumis’ words were cut short. The moment she took her focus off of me, I rushed forward and thrust my blade into the centre of the pattern on her stomach. As I rushed forward, she was able a few attacks on me, but this should be it.
Alumis screamed and collapsed to the ground.
“…how…? When did you realize my power came from…my pattern?”
“You’ve been touching it whenever you use your powers.”
I had a hunch, but I didn’t know for sure. If I was wrong, I would’ve kept stabbing her until one of us was dead.
“You…saw…? You were really watching…me?”
She was in pain, but when she looked up at me, it was as if she were looking at her lover. I pushed her body with my left hand and her body slowly slid off of my sword.
A liquid poured out of the fresh wound. It wasn’t water but blood.
“Ah…your face will be the last thing….”
Alumis stretched her hand out towards my face. Just before it reached me, her hand seemed to melt away. Her hand fell to the ground and turned into water, leaving a slight stain on the dirt below. Her entire body seemed to lose its shape before it finally turned to water. Alumis was now nothing more than a puddle on the ground.
After watching this scene, I walked into the spring and cut down the tentacles holding Rose and Claudia. I then carried both of them to the shore.
I was worried that they may both be dead, but after getting them to shore I confirmed they were still breathing. I didn’t see any serious wounds on them either. I don’t think they’re in danger of dying.
The problem is —
“Rose, Claudia, are you both okay?”
I gently shook each of them in an attempt to wake them up. Rose let out a slight groan as her eyes slowly opened.
“Rose, are you okay? Can you understand me?”
Even if they’re both alive, it’s possible their minds have already been broken. I just need her to answer me. I prayed that she would as I called out to her.
“Yuzuki…onii-san?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Can you understand me?”
“…yeah, I’m fi–”
Rose tried to stand but quickly collapsed into my arms.
“–hyan!”
The moment I touched her she let out a sweet moan.
“…Rose?”
“Hnn~, I’m so sensitive. Just being touched by you….”
“Oh, sorry. But I don’t want to just put you on the ground.”
I tried my best not to touch her more than I had to, but Rose hugged me tighter.
“…Rose?”
“That tentacle was playing with my status window, but…it just hurt. It didn’t feel good at all. But now that I’m being touched by you, Yuzuki onii-san, I feel so good….”
“– Master~, I can’t, mou~, I can’t stand it anymore~”
At some point, Claudia had got up and was now clinging to my back.
“Ah…amazing. Just hugging Master feels about the same as when he intensely plays with my status window… No, it must be ten times better….”
“Umm…what are you two saying?”
It should’ve felt like those tentacles were tightening around their very souls. Now that they’ve been freed, I was expecting them to be relieved that they were free, but what is going on with them?
Claudia whispered in my ear to clear up my confusion.
“When the tentacle was wrapped around me, all I could think about was how much pain I was in.”
“…so you don’t want to be touched, right?”
“Wrong. I can’t stand this feeling anymore. My senses are so sharp right now that I can’t help but wonder what it would feel like for you to play with me, Master…. Ah, I can’t bear it any longer.”
I finally understood what they were going to say. With Claudia on my back and Rose hugging me from the front, they said,
“Yuzuki onii-san, will you please –”
“– mess up our minds, bodies, and souls.”
These two girls whispered this into my ears.
This won’t hurt either of them. And that’s why I readily accepted.
