90 – Dangerous Powder

―The Sage was taken down?

―He reflected Tsutsumi’s spell without even chanting!?

―So it’s true, Brad really is the Demon King!

Behind Ares, everything beyond the throne—including the back wall—had been blown away. The classmates who had teleported in, along with the nobles and retainers of Burnak, all began to murmur in agitation.

I found myself hoping that the bitch who had bullied Megumi and Nemo wasn’t still standing there in one piece. If she thought she could get away with tormenting my little sister and her friend, she was dead wrong—this wasn’t nearly enough payback!

“Wh-what is this ridiculous magic!? Stop joking around! Explain yourself, Ares!”

“I never imagined the Demon King Brad would descend so soon… From Sieg’s report, he was supposed to be just a useless womanizer, the worst kind of man…”

That bastard Siegfried… spreading trash talk about me to other countries too? Low blow.

“Brad-sama is nothing like that! Take back your words at once!”

“That’s right! If Brad’s ‘the worst,’ then Sieg’s lower than the dirt under the earth, a disgusting little worm!”

Freesia, Lily!

The sisters stood up for me, refuting Ares’s insults. …Though, Lily, if you put it that way, you’re still leaving me at “the worst.”

As I was silently wincing at her phrasing—

“Brad-sama is a wonderful man who holds us sisters in his arms night after night, filling our lonely hearts with love.”

“Brad-denka’s a stallion who never goes soft in bed!”

“…”

Could you not broadcast our bedroom life to the entire throne room? My reputation’s going to crash-limit every single day if you keep this up.

――How pitiful… the Saint of Liebenlasia, branded with the Demon King’s lewd crest…

――And both sisters, defiled…

――Hide your women!

――He’s going to impregnate every female in this country!

Impregnate every single woman in the nation!? What kind of unstoppable sex machine do they think I am!?

The murmurs spread through the hall. Riding that momentum, Ares turned to rally his followers.

“People, listen! The Demon King Brad intends to sacrifice the citizens of Brynhildr to complete his awakening! If we let him go unchecked, not only our lives, but the entire world will perish! But if we strike him down here and now, we will be remembered for all time as heroes!”

Yeah, he really knows how to work a crowd. In terms of charisma and presence, he’s definitely leagues above Siegfried.

As the Burnak nobles and courtiers grew inflamed by Ares’s speech, I turned my gaze on the woman sitting on the throne.

I didn’t even glare, but with Brad’s naturally sharp eyes, it was enough to make her shrink back like a frog cornered by a snake. I stepped forward as I spoke, and she tumbled right off her chair.

“Hey. I just want to ask you something. You’re the one who bullied Megumi and Nemo, aren’t you?”

“Eek!?”

In that moment, thinking of my former-life little sister, I forgot all about being Brad.

Anger surged to the boiling point, when suddenly a hand touched my shoulder.

“Anmeltz, let’s stop this already. If you apologize properly to Nemon, she might forgive you…”

I turned back to Megumi who was beside me, appealing to the throne-girl to surrender. Nemo too nodded vigorously, agreeing with her words.

…So her name’s Anmeltz. Weird name.

While I was musing, Anmeltz went pale, scooting backward on her butt across the floor.

Even after being bullied, cheated on, and thrown in a dungeon, Nemo was still ready to forgive her. What a saint.

She’s basically a saint.

“Yup. She is a saint.”

Wha—!?

As I thought that to myself, Megumi suddenly turned, beaming at me with a knowing smile, answering the words in my head like she’d read them.

Even if she’s my sister from my past life, she can read me this well? Scary.

Put aside my muscle-brain self, if an ordinary person tried to go head-to-head with Megumi in psychological warfare, they’d never stand a chance.

And yeah… if someone genuinely faces their sins and regrets them, I don’t have the heart to punish them too harshly. Especially when Megumi and Nemo are willing to forgive her.

So then… if Anmeltz surrendered, what kind of punishment would be appropriate?

But before I could decide, everything was overturned.

Anmeltz suddenly burst into laughter.

“Ah-hahaha! You think this is over? I still have a trump card! Ares—do it already!”

“But… that’s forbidden…”

“Shut up! If we lose here, it’s all over anyway! You don’t want to end up licking that Demon King’s boots, do you!?”

“…Let it go, Julia. After facing Demon King Brad myself, I know. We cannot defeat Demon King Brad.”

“What!? You won’t know until you try! I’m not about to bow down to Okada or Nemoto! I’d rather die than be humiliated like that!”

Anmeltz stomped forward, snatching a small pouch from Ares’s breast pocket. She waved it before us with a crazed grin.

“Do you even know what this is?”

From the state of Tsutsumi’s body, I had already guessed, but it was clear Anmeltz had no intention of repenting.

I was about to play dumb, but then—

“Oh, that’s zombie powder, right? Sprinkle it on someone who’s half-dead, and they’ll turn into a zombie. Planning to use it on Sage Tsutsumin, turn him into a lich or something? Hmmm.”

“Don’t just blurt out everything I was going to say! Learn to read the room, damn you! That’s exactly what I hate about you!”

“Megumi doesn’t hate you, Anmeltz. If you stop bullying Nemo, we could even be friends.”

Watching their exchange, the dynamic between the two became clear. Anmeltz was prideful to a fault, always forced to taste defeat at Megumi’s hands. Megumi, on the other hand, seemed listless and detached, but her sheer ability was overwhelming, making victory or loss irrelevant to her.

That effortless dominance… the mark of an unconscious, absolute winner. Even as her brother, I found it terrifying, though to me, she’ll always just be my cute, downer little sister.

“Friends!? You and me, equals!? Don’t make me laugh! I’ll prove right here and now who’s superior! Maybe you’ve tamed the Demon King, but you’ll never beat a lich! Tsutsumi, finish them!”

“Uuuuuh… uuuhhh…”

Anmeltz loosened the pouch string and dumped it over the burned man’s head. A cloud of sinister purple powder drifted down, coating his scorched flesh.

Zombie powder…

Smoke began to rise from his skin as he writhed in agony. But the ever-mounting aura of malice around him only made my blood run faster, part of me was actually… excited.