Vol 1 Chapter 8 – Erosion

At that exact same time, Christela was paying a visit to Electra’s bedroom.

“How are you feeling, El?”
“I’m fine, Onee-sama. Did you go out of your way just to check on me?”
“My cute little sister collapsed. Of course I did.”
“Thank you, but everyone is overreacting. It’s really nothing.”
“I see… I did come to see your face last night just in case, but Selphi stopped me. She said, ‘She’s already asleep. Don’t wake her.'”
“Fufu, Onee-sama, you’re terrible at impressions.”
“Hmph… So? What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“…You wouldn’t have collapsed for ‘nothing.’ What did that human do to you?”
“Nothing at all, Onee-sama.”
“That’s not an answer, El. Answer me.”
“……Hey, Chris-nee-sama. He’s a strange person, isn’t he?”

El suddenly said something completely unexpected.

“…Don’t change the subject.”
“No, I haven’t changed it. You want to hear about him, don’t you?”
“Mu… Well, yes, but…”
“He didn’t do anything to me. Really. He just gently stroked me.”
“…So it has nothing to do with you collapsing. Is that it?”
“No, me collapsing was definitely his fault.”
“………You’re not making sense. El, don’t make a fool out of me.”
“Sorry, I don’t mean it like that. Even I don’t understand it. What that human did at that moment. But, it’s not like he used violence on me, or attacked me with magic.”
“………”
“It’s just, when he touched me, and I looked into his eyes. How should I say it… That feeling I had when Chris-nee-sama got angry at me for the first time…”

At that, El gasped and her eyes flew open, as if the pieces had finally fallen into place.

“Yes, I remember now, at that time I… at that time I…”

Saying that, El hung her head, muttering to herself.
Thinking this was far too suspicious, I reached out to grab El’s shoulder—only to realize her body was trembling.

“I was terrified. I was so, so scared of that human, I couldn’t help it. That’s why I ended up screaming.”

Tears welled up in the eyes of the El who looked up again, and it suddenly occurred to me just how long it had been since I last saw this little sister of mine cry.

“But, he was gentle. He stroked me so gently. I was lonely. I hate humans. Yes, I’ve killed more humans than anyone else. And yet, why. Why, why…”
“Hey, El, what’s wrong, El?! Pull yourself together!”

Unlike the disrespectful nickname the humans had given her, she might be a bit emotionally unstable, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with her intellect.

However, seeing El begin to repeat “Why” over and over again like a broken audio playback spell, I became anxious that she might have suffered a mental breakdown.

“Hey, Onee-sama.”

Tilting her head with enough force that I almost expected a snap, she looked at me with an expression that already seemed completely back to normal, leaving me entirely bewildered by the sudden change.

“‘By repeating questions and answers, one can get closer to the truth,’ he said.”
“………?”
“I want to see him again. But, I’m scared of him. I don’t know what this feeling is. So, please let me think alone for a while………”

……With words I didn’t know, for reasons I couldn’t understand, El rejected my probing.

Since it seemed I wouldn’t be able to get anything more out of her anyway, I reluctantly just told her to rest and left El’s bedroom.

Stepping out, I called out to Selphi, who was waiting outside the room.

“………Selphi.”
“………”
“You were there yesterday too, right. What was the situation like?”
“………?”
“Ah, not just El, but that human’s state as well.”
“………! ………!”
“……Like he had a fever, kind of flushed, you say?”
“………!”
“You’re sure it was love? ……Don’t be ridiculous. I know your habit of having delusions, but read the room. You read too many human romance novels.”
“………!”
“That human too? He was looking at El with eyes of deep affection? ……Give me a break. That’s enough, step back.”
“………”
“Also, Selphi. I know you’re a shy one, but please, speak up a little louder.”

……In the room now devoid of her older sister, Electra hugged her knees on the bed.
The feel of her soft cardigan suddenly became strangely irritating, and she brushed it off her shoulders.

“……I was lonely. I finally understand, I was lonely. But, Onee-sama is here too. Aroma, and Selphi. And yet, what on earth is this void in my heart……? The me right now is no longer lonely…… I shouldn’t be.”

That truly horrific something that Nine called love began to deeply violate Electra’s mind, little by little, bit by bit.

Electra doesn’t realize it.
Just what kind of flower the seed sown in her heart by Nine will bloom into.

Electra is no longer lonely.
Because the kindness surrounding Electra had undoubtedly reached her heart.

The affection her older sister and friends had wanted to convey for years and years had finally borne fruit, and her dangerous adolescent phase—which should have naturally passed in a few more years—had abruptly come to an end.

Electra will no longer senselessly hurt anyone else.
Even without hugging something so tightly that her arms break an innocent life, a part of her heart had unequivocally been ‘filled.’

“My chest is…… thump, thump. Is this what it means to hurt……?”

As of right now, not a single demon knew just how grotesque, cruel, and irreversible this truly was.

That was, surely, a misfortune.