Laying on the bed, Diablo gazed up at the ceiling.
──It feels like, it was always like this.
Misreading someone.
The moment he thought that he had gotten along with someone……
Feeling that the other person thought of him the same way he liked them……
But that, all of that was a misunderstanding.
To the other person, he himself was a worthless existence, and after learning of that, he would be hurt by that person.
Did Shera come in contact with them only on the surface?
She didn’t look skillful enough to make lies. Was even that just an act? Did she just get along with them on a whim from the beginning?
No, their bond with Shera was genuine……
But that might be his own selfish impression……
He was going around in circles.
A knock could be heard.
From the sound of the door of the room being struck, Diablo picked himself up from the middle of his muddled thoughts.
He wouldn’t answer.
The one that made the knock came into the room.
It was Rem. She sat down beside the bed that Diablo was laying on.
「……No matter how I think about it……I believe Shera’s actions to be, unbelievable.」
It wasn’t a tone that criticized him.
She was probably announcing the results of her rational speculations.
Diablo kept silent.
Rem continued her speech.
「……That stupid Elf can’t do something like fake an act……If she could, there were a lot of things that she could have done to more profit. She’s dumb, and she has terrible memory……From the beginning, she tried to hide the fact that she was royalty, you know? Despite that, she’s an idiot that grandly named herself as Greenwood, you know? That girl……She can’t make something like a lie. Both faking an act and making a pretense, she can’t do either.」
Certainly, that was true.
If she wanted to hide the fact that she was royalty, she simply just needed to use an alias.
Shera didn’t do that.
Even though there was no merit whatsoever in not doing it.
Rem asserted.
「……There’s no mistake that it’s magic. There is magic that can manipulate intent after all.」
That possibility, it was something that Diablo had considered.
「However, she didn’t look like she was being manipulated. At the very least, among the magic that I know of, there doesn’t exist a magic that can make someone assert their thoughts that precisely.」
「……There’s the 《Slavery Choker》, isn’t there? This is also magic that manipulates other people.」
「It didn’t look clumsy to that extent.」
At the time when they first met, there was a time where he ordered Rem and Shera against their will.
To get along and shake hands with a smile──that was the order.
At that time, the two of them shook hands with a smile.
However, they were saying complaints out loud, and had a strange expression where they smiled while looking like they didn’t want to.
Even it if coerced them to do the action, it didn’t change their will.
After taking a moment of silence to think, Rem made a rebuttal.
「……However, last night, Shera and I had a talk. It was a talk about her dreams of the future. After that, it was a talk about her future with us.」
「Didn’t she just think that you would be delighted if she were to have that kind of talk?」
「……What meaning would there be in that? Moreover, to think that she would go away without saying a single word to me.」
「It was probably because you guys got along that it was hard for her to see you.」
「……Was it that kind of atmosphere when she left?」
「………………No……」
Diablo recalled the Shera from earlier and the conversation──
「Don’t you need to say goodbye to Rem?」
「”More importantly”, I need to hurry and return with Onii-sama to the Greenwood Kingdom.」