Chapter 141: Future sister-in-law
I breathed in the cold air and climbed into the carriage.
Inside the carriage, Blanc was waiting for me.
“The result?”
“…”
My silence was followed by an answer.
“Well…”
In the darkness of the carriage, Blanc watched me closely.
“Why…?”
A cautious question followed.
It was understandable.
I had been fortunate enough to have a quick meeting, and I should have been told that I could pay for it and that she would do it for me, if not right away.
“Are there some curses that the saint cannot remove…?”
“If there were, I would have felt better.”
As my words trailed off, the carriage pulled away.
The world outside the carriage hadn’t changed, but it never felt beautiful.
I thought I had long since stopped resenting the world.
Alas, there was still more to resent.
My jaw clenched and I stared out the window for a while.
I realized the silence was passing, and I glanced at Blanc, who was waiting for my answer andI opened my mouth.
“…It’s complicated to explain, but it’s impossible to force the saint to do something.”
“Ha, what kind of situation is that? Do you think it’s better to tell the cursed person first? Did you ask him? It’s not like he doesn’t know his condition.”
“…I agree with you on that point, there’s no way Zetto, with his senses, wouldn’t recognize the energy in his chest, but if I asked him, would he be kind enough to tell me? He’d probably hide it because he hates causing trouble.”
Moreover, Bernice knew of Zetto’s curse. This confirmed my suspicion that the energy in his body was a curse.
Even though I had already guessed it, my head was throbbing with confirmation.
“So…?”
“Well, the ‘Zetto I know’ was.”
Past tense.
Not that Blanc would understand the ‘real meaning’ of that.
Okay.
The Zetto I knew was like that.
Pretending to be okay.
Pretended to be fine.
His gentle smile, the one he showed me every time, came back to me as a bony lie.
Zetto had deceived me and faced the demons alone so I lived but he died.
The world after ‘that day’ was much different than I had dreamed.
It was an incomplete world with nothing but despair and regret.
I was incompetent…and I don’t think I’m any different now.
An incompetent regressor, that’s who I am now but if there’s one benefit to being a regressor, it’s that I’m well aware that my current self-loathing doesn’t help.
If I don’t move, nothing will change.
The world I lived in was like that and the ugly scars on my abdomen proved it.
“What can you do? At least knowing that makes things easier, even if the details are problematic…”
“I do know. I know, but…”
It was a ridiculous way to undo a curse that endangers people’s lives.
It was like something out of a fairy tale, or maybe a real fairy tale, but it was so romantic that you wouldn’t think it was a demonic curse.
A kiss from the one you love.
I’d rather have Zetto show me how to do it.
Even if he knew it was a curse, he wouldn’t know how to break it.
It’s in the book.
A blind Zetto would have a hard time figuring it out without confiding in someone.
And if he had talked to St. Bernice about it, he might have already accepted his death.
A curse that even a saint couldn’t fix.
It’s a terrible thing, isn’t it?
‘Then…’
…Why did he bring his sisters to the Academy?
I wonder if he felt the curse before and brought his sisters to the Academy.
The Academy is safe.
The meaning of those words, spoken so casually, is now fully understood.
“…Aizel.”
“Huh?”
Blanc, who had been staring at me, smiles bitterly.
Then she walks over to me and hugs me.
Why?
It was a baffling gesture.
It wasn’t until I was in her arms and realized that her clothes were getting wet that I realized why.
Luckily, thanks to Blanc’s concern, it didn’t take long for me to regain my composure.
As I wiped the moisture from my eyes, I asked Blanc a question.
“Blanc…”
“Mmm?”
“Teach me how to kiss.”
“…Did I hear you wrong, what does that mean, Aizel…?”
Blanc doubted her ears.
“Ah.”
I blurted out in a rush.
***
Zetto’s sisters, Rei and Gepetti’s presence had quickly spread throughout the Academy.
Their status as just another cadet’s sisters was nothing special, but it was all due to Zetto’s fame.
Not only because of his physical features, but also because of his deeds since entering the academy, which have piled up and piled up to the point where it’s said that if you don’t know Zetto, you’re a demon within Innocence Academy.
When Rei went grocery shopping with Gepetti, she was deeply perplexed.
The whole world was Zetto.
No matter where they went, people recognized them.
‘What is a blind saint…?’
Rei recalled the image of Zetto nonchalantly cleaning up the corpses of the demons.
Everything about him was far from saintly.
So it was that Gepetti and Rei were at the market, buying ingredients for a meal.
Rei didn’t have much to do, but she was bored with being stuck in the dorm, so she followed Geppeti around when something caught her eye and made her stop in her tracks.
Gepetti spoke in a firm voice to Rei, who was crumpling her cheeks against the glass.
“You can’t.”
“…Don’t you have enough money?”
“No needless spending.”
Rei’s eyes widened, and in the glass window in front of her was a glowing doll.
It was the rabbit doll that had been in charge of Becky in Coby and Becky.
“And if you already have a stuffed animal, why didn’t you bring it? You’ve got Sheddie, and you’ve got plenty to cuddle with.”
Gepetti was right, Rei already had a stuffed animal but she shook her head as if she didn’t understand.
“Gepetti, you don’t know much about the world of dolls yet, but this isn’t a ‘normal’ Becky. It says so on the label. It says ‘limited edition’.”
“I don’t see the difference.”
“I can tell. The fur is made from a different material.”
With the hero’s keen senses, Rei recognized the material of the doll beyond the glass.
It was a high quality Becky, unlike the countless other Becky’s she’d seen. No doubt she’d get a good night’s sleep if she slept with it, Rei thought.
‘I mean, she’s nothing compared to Sheddie, but…’
Sheddie was out of the question since when Zetto leaves the room, so does Sheddie.
So she’d be ready for the moment when she’d need a replacement.
Limited edition.
There’s even only one left.
Rei didn’t bother to ask how she’d gotten herself into the position of arguing with a girl over a doll.
Right now, all that mattered was that she could get her hands on it.
“Geppeti.”
“No.”
Unfortunately, Gepetti was only following Zeto, not Rei.
At that moment, someone in the store approached the doll.
“Ah.”
It was a competitor.
The woman stepped in front of the doll and boldly put her hand on it.
She was a bit tall for a competitor.
“It looks like something a child would be interested in…”
The irony was that Rei, who had just said that, was not exactly a child.
Rei jerked her gaze up since the uniforms of the academy cadets were now completely familiar.
…Braided red hair she recognized from somewhere.
Rei recognized the woman’s face and locked eyes with her.
“…”
“…”
They exchange glances through the glass window.
‘…Was that Yuri Clementine?’
It was none other than Yuri, Zetto’s friend from the other day, who picked up Becky’s doll.
‘Zetto’s sister…’
Yuri was embarrassed.
She had sneaked out of the academy in the middle of a joint combat drill that lasted well past the end of the school day to buy a limited edition Becky doll.
She had been collecting everything related to Coby and Becky, so she couldn’t pass it up.
She wondered if the white-haired girl next to Rei was also Zetto’s sister, since she heard he has two younger sisters.
Glancing at Geppeti, Yuri guessed so.
Rei then looked back and forth between the doll in Yuri’s hand and Yuri’s face and her face became despondent.
She thinks that Yuri must be trying to give the doll to someone as a gift.
‘Maybe she wanted to buy this doll?’
In Yuri’s eyes, it seemed so.
Indeed, it did.
Yuri was torn.
It was a limited edition, and if she missed this opportunity, it would be hard to get one. Especially now that she was at the academy and her radius was limited.
After all, she had seen the same wistful expression on the face of the child she was looking through the window at, Rei.
But she couldn’t overcome her love for Coby and Becky so she didn’t care.
They were other people’s children, not hers anyway.
But were Zetto’s siblings really “other people’s children”?
Suddenly, Yuri’s mind flashed back to the scene where Rei and Gepetti were saying things like, “I like sister Yuri!” to Zetto.
Wasn’t this a golden opportunity to get ahead of Aizel?
And if, and I mean if.
If she were to marry Zetto as her father said, then Rei and Gepeti over there would be sisters-in-law to her.
Yuri looked down at Becky, who was looking up at her with cute eyes.
‘…It’s a shame, but it can’t be helped.’
She decided to consider this an investment in her future sister-in-law.
Yuri walked over to pay the bill.
“Hah…”
Rei sighs when she realizes the doll is gone.
“Good.”
Gepetti gives Rei a pat on the back.
Just as Rei and Gepetti were about to leave.
“Hey…!”
Yuri stops them in their tracks as she hurries out of the store.
Turning her head, Rei stares at her with wistful eyes.
In Yuri’s hands, the “Becky” looks even cozier than when it was on display in the store.
“You’re Zetto’s brothers, right? Rei…? I met you yesterday, remember?”
Rei nodded weakly as Yuri approached her with those words.
“You must be a friend of brother Zetto, I’m Gepetti.”
Gepetti, who had suddenly become a lively younger sister, introduced herself.
Yuri and Gepetti exchange introductions.
“So, Yuri, why did you call us?”
“Oh, I thought maybe Rei wanted to have this doll…”
“…”
Rei’s eyes sparkled at Yuri’s question.
Her eyes were filled with anticipation, and her pupils had the air of a hero.
“Anyway, since we’re going to be staying together at the academy, can you consider it a gift from your sister? Take care of yourself, Rei. You too, Geppeti.”
The doll was handed to Rei with a smile and Rei took it carefully.
“Thank you.”
“…Thank you.”
Holding the doll in his arms, Rei bows her head low.
Watching, Yuri smiles wistfully.
Geppeti then asks Yuri a question.
Isn’t she in the same class as brother Zetto?
When Geppeti asks where Zetto is now, Yuri replies that he is in the Academy’s main building.
“…If you’re free, would you like to take a look around?”
The formal class was already over, and they were still doing sums.
Yuri thought it would be fine to go in and out of the classroom.
Rei and Geppeti exchanged glances, then nodded in agreement.
Geppeti wanted to get a feel for Zetto’s relationships with women, and Rei was just fine with it.
***
“This is the classroom. It’s class A, so only the best cadets are here.”
Yuri explained as they stopped in front of a door with a sign that read “First Year Class A”.
“We’re in self-defense training right now, so… We’re the only ones here, but…”
Yuri trailed off as she placed her hand on the door.
The door swung open, revealing the interior of the classroom.
Geppeti rolled her eyes, trying to find Zetto quickly and Yuri, who had opened the door, did the same.
Zetto was lying on the floor with platinum hair hung down over his face.
“Ms. Aizel, you seem to be making a lot of mistakes today.”
“I know.”
Seeing that, Yuri slammed the sliding door of the classroom open.
BANG!
The sound drew Aizel’s attention, who was poised to pounce on Zetto, to the door.
“”……””
A strange air current flows between Yuri and Aizel.
Gepetti, being a very capable AI, could easily figure this out as a word pops into her head.
‘Harem…’