Elysia didn't sleep. Though she really was a little drowsy, as she calmed her mind and carefully observed, she discovered that her underage companion really was quite handsome.
Time passed bit by bit, until Cocolia pushed the door open. "Time to eat, Shiraha."
This was a job she'd snatched away from Kiana.
Intercepted mid-route!
The brat before her might also look like a Herrscher, but that was fine. This brat seemed quite polite, clearly had humanity.
Shiraha glanced at the bed, then turned back to Cocolia. "Cocolia-nee... can I eat in the room?"
"Of course."
Cocolia shot another glance at the blankets. The raised curve did indeed seem to suggest someone was inside, but she couldn't see a thing.
After she left, Shiraha resumed his earlier posture, diligently admiring Nee-chan's features.
Good thing Nee-chan is beautiful. Allows him to keep gazing this long.
"Actually... there's no surveillance in this room."
Elysia's voice was tinged with laughter, her starry eyes curved into crescents as she watched him.
"Then why didn't Nee-chan say so earlier?"
Shiraha's expression crumpled. This stretch of acting hadn't been difficult, but it really had been dull.
Nee-chan was indeed beautiful, but staring nonstop wasn't exactly sustainable. His eyes were too young, eight-year-old eyes couldn't contain that much beauty.
Elysia hummed lightly. "After all, someone wants the all-capable fairy lady to keep working like an unpaid laborer forever."
"No wages. No entertainment. Nothing at all."
Still, at least there was a child to tease. She reached out, preparing to ambush Shiraha and yank him fiercely onto the bed.
It wasn't like Shiraha would resist anyway.
"Nee-chan~" Shiraha drew out his voice, just about to play along, when he noticed Nee-chan's arm. It had grown somewhat transparent.
That froze his entire expression solid. What kind of joke was this? Rewinding time for one small area should have been incredibly simple for Origin, shouldn't it?
When Origin had first been born, it could already purge the effects of Honkai. Let alone the current, fully mature Origin, this was the combat ceiling of the Previous Era, fighting for first or second place. How could using her power just once...
He shook his head hard and pressed down firmly on Nee-chan's arm. Elysia blinked. Why so rough all of a sudden?
"Nee-chan~" Shiraha's voice was drifting and mournful. "Haven't you noticed yet? You've gotten a little... translucent."
He lifted Nee-chan's hand and held it by the window, aligning it with the sunlight outside.
Now even Shiraha himself could vaguely glimpse the scenery behind the edges of her skin.
Elysia-nee had faded a full shade.
Not an illusion. Not a trick of the light. She'd genuinely, tangibly faded a full shade.
Elysia couldn't have cared less. The raised hand circled down and scooped Shiraha right back into her arms.
"Who cares? Anyway, I haven't scattered yet."
To be precise, the fact that she'd even survived this time had already come as a surprise to Elysia.
She'd originally planned to use her last remaining strength to try and connect Shiraha with Origin, to let him take her place as the Origin of this era, and then reshape this world into the one the two of them had dreamed of.
In the end, Shiraha's compatibility with Origin had been decent. Or perhaps his reaction had simply been very fast, instantly adapting to and wielding that power... to reject the gift outright.
Shiraha's eyes were dark and mournful. He couldn't force out a single trace of a smile.
"Alright, alright, Mr. World's Number One Killer. Forgive your big sister a little selfishness."
She truly couldn't bear the sight of this place any longer. The power from before had brought so much vitality back to this chaotic land. At least for the next few years, grain yields here should match the normal levels of the interior.
Shiraha still wanted to say something, but footsteps sounded again from the doorway. He struggled free and rearranged his expression back into one of perfect obedience.
Cocolia pushed open the door. Seeing the usual Shiraha, she suddenly sighed with emotion: even children weren't all the same. If only Sin were as well-behaved as Shiraha and Seele.
"It's fine if you can't finish. I'll have someone come clean up later."
After showing her face, Cocolia didn't plan on doing this sort of thing all the time.
Shiraha was confirmed to be from Anti-Entropy's core. Leaving a good impression was enough.
"Mm." Shiraha nodded. "Thank you, Cocolia-nee."
Looking at the obedient Shiraha, Cocolia sighed again in her heart. This time she thought not only of Sin, but of the Twins as well.
After seeing Cocolia off once more, the voice of a copycat echoed in Shiraha's ear. "Thank you, Cocolia-nee~"
Elysia's voice was full of laughter, the end lilting upward. She followed Shiraha's line of sight but didn't linger there.
Cocolia was very beautiful, a textbook doll-like face. But it had nothing to do with her.
Shiraha glanced at Nee-chan. "Time to eat, Nee-chan."
He looked at her arm, faded a full shade. His heart ached. Nee-chan's power really can't be used regularly. This ethereal fading is far too fast. If only there were a way to replenish her magic, like in the Holy Grail War, where you could replenish through... an exchange of fluids.
Before testing it, he'd still been able to harbor some hope. But now it seemed his gentle, adorable, whimsical Nee-chan had only one function left: being cute.
He sighed silently in his heart but didn't let it show.
Elysia sat up and obediently opened her mouth.
Even though she could touch objects, when Shiraha was holding her hand, if someone was feeding her, why should she feed herself?
In the living room.
Siegfried's expression was extremely subtle. That sensation of having swallowed a fly simply wouldn't go away.
That stinky brat couldn't actually be a Herrscher, right?
And a good Herrscher at that? Not only did no Great Eruption occur, but he could also make the surroundings bloom with new life and restore everything around him to its original state?
Kiana ate very quickly. At the entire dining table, she was the only one wholly devoted to eating, eating, eating!
The child truly had never eaten anything good. The best thing she'd eaten in the past year was the somewhat gamey meat her dad would roast straight after hunting.
"If you have questions, just ask them. After all, it seems you've got nowhere else to go in the future either, Siegfried."
Tesla spoke flatly.
For Siegfried, this world was indeed vast. But aside from Anti-Entropy, there truly was no place left that would take him in.
Siegfried couldn't hold back. "Aren't you afraid that brat will go berserk?"
The magnitude of that Honkai eruption earlier had frightened him. If Welt hadn't stopped him, Siegfried would've already shaped Shamash into a greatsword in his hands.
The corner of Tesla's mouth twisted. "You'd go berserk before he ever would."
"Shiraha's currently living with the Ryoma family. Happy home. Happy life. Has Mei looking after him all day. Has his own imaginary delusion of an older sister. And back home, every now and then he runs into the brilliant Himeko."
Why would he ever go berserk?
That sensation in Siegfried's mouth, like he'd swallowed a fly only grew worse. That brat really did seem pretty happy. An orphan, sure, but someone raised him, someone cared about him, someone kept him company. Far better off than he was.
"Shiraha..." Welt mused for a moment. "We've more or less watched him grow up."
"Power. Ideals. A place to belong. None of these are hard for Shiraha to grasp. Perhaps precisely because they're so easily within reach, this child has retained an obedient streak. Very well-behaved."
The corner of Siegfried's mouth twitched. Well-behaved? He recalled the expression Shiraha had worn while incessantly mocking him.
That brat isn't well-behaved at all!
An innately evil little punk who only acts that arrogant in front of me, huh?!