by Yuu Kamiya
Turning her eyes away from the planetary core, which emitted several times the brilliance of a star, already too much to look at directly, a single thought revolved in Jibril’s heart.
—Otherworlders…no, Immanity—is truly a fearsome race.
In this world where the ranking was absolute. In this world where combat was forbidden and everything was decided by games. That Immanity, a whole ten ranks below her, would actually—kill her. The laugh that welled up in the back of Jibril’s mind was crossed by the speech of King Sora that had been passed on to her.
“…Born with nothing, and so can become anything, and therefore the strongest race—eh?”
Could it be that their hands could even reach the God…?
At the edge of her vision, haven taken the brunt of the whole string of losses due to not being a player, free-falling without consciousness, Steph caught her attention.
“—Truly a fearsome race in many ways.”
While she wished in her heart that she could watch them to the end. The blaze of the last moments of the planet roared death as it overtook space, and everything went white for all of them.
“…You killed me.”
“Hey. Welcome back.”
“Do you get it?! I’ll say it one more time?! You killed me!! I did not say ‘You almost killed me’; I said, ‘You killed me’!! I said that three times because it is so important?!”
“But you’re alive. You know what they say about fighting games, right? They’re cheap as long as you survive.”
“I did not survive! You killed me!!”
Rushing at Sora as if to grab him by the collar, Steph screamed on.
“Y-y-you—Not only did you use me as a decoy, but you let me die and you didn’t even care!!”
“It’s not like you really died. Who cares.”
“Ah—ah—”
It was all she could take. It was finally time for her to let loose the entire stock of her anger at this man. And she opened her mouth—just as Sora spoke.
“But we would have lost if it weren’t for you.”
“Uh…”
If she hadn’t drawn about the targets that someone had raised. Just as Jibril said, Sora and Shiro would have been rendered unable to continue easily.
“And, thanks to you, we got Jibril. You’ve helped us save Elkia.”
“…Uh…um……”
“Thanks, Steph. Sorry to always make you do the hard stuff.”
As Sora patted her resoundingly on the head. The rage that a moment ago was like a volcano about to erupt dissipated.
“Uh…um, yeah, uh, uhh… Y-yes…indeed.”
Steph, her face reddening for a reason other than anger, looked down, intertwining her fingers.
“Yes…indeed. If it means saving Elkia, for me to go through a little hardship… A-and, anyway, you two…had it hard, too, with all the psychological warfare and…everything. Yeah…”
As Steph mumbled on, filling space, loosening her expression, Shiro.
“…Brother…you gonna change jobs…from King…to Playboy?”
“Don’t be like that. Not everyone is as easy to manipulate as Steph.”
“I can hear youuuuuuuu!!! Aaaaaaaah, I haaate this; I hate hate hate hate you!!”
Steph cursed the God. O One True God, why did you prohibit violence? Now before me is a man I would give my life to punch.
“…You have defeated me, utterly.”
Bowing her head with a bounce, as if the terror that just unfolded never happened. At the center of the library, just as before the game, sipping tea as if to take a break, Jibril.
“…May I ask you one question?”
“Yeah?”
“I can see that you led me to answer using the morpheme ‘jaku [feeble]’…but.”
Sora’s show of anger had been another act, to make her think of a word associated with weakness. But, still—
“There must have been infinite other possibilities… What were you planning to do if I picked another?”
“We prepared for about twenty. But, yeah, if you picked one other than those, we would’ve been pretty screwed.”
Though Sora said this with playful cheer, still Jibril knew. This man—in this short time. Had read her personality and narrowed it down to twenty. But, even so, it was too risky of a gamble. For this game in which he only had Jibril’s word that everything would be put back when it was over. This man had even used the time limit of his survival as a bluff, and, to that, she could only say with the utmost respect.
“You’re quite mad, aren’t you?”
—But, Sora took this with a chuckle. At his words—those she’d waited for in the sixty thousand-odd years since her life began, Jibril widened her eyes and drew in her breath.
“We’re taking on ‘God’—we gotta have mad skills, right?”
It rang in Jibril’s ears like gospel and made her heart quiver.
—Taking on—God. Aiming their bows—at Tet. Jibril—hoping that he please not say no, but still steeling herself—asked.
“Are you…in earnest?”
Having realized the truth, Sora replied. “Sure, we are. I mean, haven’t you wondered how we got to this world?” he said, as if revealing a spoiler. “I’ll tell you the answer first. The one who summoned us to this world—is Tet.”
—It took away Jibril’s power to speak.
“We beat him at a game, so he threw a fit and brought us into this world, telling us to try beating him by the rules here. He’s the one who set up this game; we don’t have any choice but to take him down, do we?”
That’s all it was. Usurping the One True God was as simple and obvious as that.
“So, Jibril, from today, by the grace of the Covenants, everything you have is mine.”
As Sora spoke, Jibril could only gaze at him as if he dazzled her.
“There are many things that need to be done in order to overthrow the God, but there are only so many things that can be done from the position Immanity is in. We need to do everything we can to get power, knowledge, and chips to bet. Your knowledge and presence will be useful.”
—Like Mary receiving the Word of God.
“Oh, and those books on my tablet, they were just bait; you can look at them all you want. As people from another world, what we need most to take over the world is someone with knowledge. If it’s gonna help you become even more knowledgeable, we want you to read your fill and make use of them.”
To Jibril, wetting her eyes as if drunk, Sora, further.
“Also, you’re free to keep using this library to store your books just as you have. However, Immanity needs it, too, so you have to let the academy use it again. You will be responsible for the books. How does that sound?”
At this string of words. Jibril, at last, knelt before Sora. Dropping a single tear, joining her hands as if in prayer. No, actually in prayer, she bowed her head.
“Oh, my departed Lord. Artosh, thou who granted us life, and now hast none… At last I—we have fulfilled our ardent desire to find a new master worthy of our service, of our submission…”
“Uhh, is that really your reaction…?” Steph, dissatisfied with this turn of events, dropped her shoulders and muttered. “J-just so you know, these siblings are perverts, okay?! They make me dress disgracefully, they make me act like a dog, they’re foulmouthed, beastly, twisted, human garbage siblings, okay?!”
“…Steph…beg…”
“S-seee! They even do things like this!!”
But Jibril, already way off on a trip, answered vacantly:
“…Do you mean to say this poses a problem?”
“Huh…?”
“They will take down Tet, who assumed the throne of the One True God without fighting; they brought vast riches from another world; they, as mere Immanities, defeated an Elf and even myself; they are those who revolutionize all conventional wisdom.”
She folded her wings, moved her halo back, and bowed her head. This was a Flügel’s single—gestu
re of absolute loyalty, shown only to her master.
“Goshujin-sama, my master, my lord.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“—I am Jibril, one pair of the Council of Eighteen Wings, of Ixseed Rank Six, Flügel.” She attended him solemnly, as if making a vow before a god. “All that is mine belongs to you, my lord. Now that my thoughts, my rights, and my body belong totally to you, Lord, it would be my greatest delight if you would use them to their fullest, as a foundation on which to build your grand plan.”
“Sure, leave it to us. Right, Shiro?”
“…Mm, we gotcha…”
“This is absurd! Also, just how long do you intend to keep me acting like a dog?!”
Still in the pose of the last command—beg. Steph’s scream resounded and echoed throughout the library…
Kappoon… The manga sound effect for bath scenes—yeah, right. Anyway, it was bath time. For today—actually, just for the second time for Shiro since coming to this world.
“…So, again, I have to wash her while you stand fully clothed?”
“Don’t worry; there are no cameras this time. Anyway, Shiro, get used to taking baths already.”
“Makes…my hair all scratchy…I don’t like it…” said Shiro once more, sullenly, with a pout.
“Come on, Shiro, we moved around so much today, you’ve gotta take a bath.”
Even Shiro had never—no, probably no human—had had as eventful a day as this.
“In that case.”
Jibril popped out of nowhere and addressed Sora.
“Whoa! Jibril, where did you come from?”
“I will come from anywhere to be by your side, Master. More to the point: If you have hair concerns, why not try this shampoo?”
She pulled it out.
“Brought to you by Flügel, a shampoo specially formulated with spirit water. Your hair will shine, and you’ll have a whole new look, soft and sleek, without doing any damage at all. Quality you can count on.”
To the Flügel spouting lines straight out of a commercial, Sora spoke.
“Wait, before that, let me point out an issue here—why are you naked?!”
“…Mm.” Shiro started turning her head at these words.
“Steph, don’t let Shiro look this way! It’s not appropriate for minors!”
“It’s quite all right. I have judged there to be sufficient steam to avoid impinging on these ‘moral codes’ you spoke of, Master.”
“…Hm… Jibril’s got skills…”
With Shiro’s murmur, Sora inwardly sympathized, but.
“No, I mean, in the first place, why do you need to be naked just to bring shampoo!”
At this question, Jibril. Kneeled and bowed her head.
“For I, Jibril, am your humble slave, Master. It is the natural duty of a slave to wash her master’s back and eh-heh…eh-heh! Eh-heh-hehh…”
“You call yourself a slave when you’re making that face?! You textual deviant!”
It could be assumed that her intention was to check all the particulars that she had failed to check before the shiritori game. But—.
“…Jibril…‘Stay’…”
“Eh—?!”
Jibril was forced to sit on the floor on Shiro’s command.
“Wh-what? What…is the meaning of this?”
Though she’d become Sora’s property, and she’d sworn fealty to Sora and Shiro. Wasn’t Sora the only one to whom she was bound under the Covenants? But then.
“…Oh, I see. ’Cause Shiro and I have all our property shared…”
If Jibril became Sora’s. That meant she automatically became Shiro’s. Sora arrived at this conclusion after Shiro.
“…I’ll use…your shampoo…but R-18 developments…are off-limits.”
“Th-that’s my Shiro—your brother admires that coolness you’ve got; chills, man…”
While Sora swallowed. Still Shiro stayed cool.
“…Jibril…you can watch…but stay.”
“Whuhhhhh, come ooon! With all this steam, you tantalize meeeee!”
Sora, unable to see Shiro having her head washed by Steph and apparently having learned how to handle Jibril from Sora, expressed his respect without reserve.
“Oh, Shiro, that’s incredible; your handling of Jibril is really, like, wow… You’re my idol.”
And so—
“…I can’t believe I’m starting to get used to having a bath like this; I hate myself…”
Steph, as she expressed herself, felt her humanity degrading little by little. With a smile, she wept a solitary tear…
CHAPTER 3
SACRIFICE
A bit beyond downtown Elkia, in the suburbs, was the Elkia Grand National Library. The place had been retaken from Jibril, but remained under her management. In its kitchen, which Jibril had apparently set up herself, was Steph. But her face was one of utter exhaustion, suggesting that she had not slept properly.
“…At this rate, I’d rather they’d just stayed cooped up in their royal bedchamber…”
Sora and Shiro, having taken back the library, now no longer cooped up in their royal bedchamber, but instead the library. Steph, busy with the domestic affairs, while also having to come all the way to the library to make reports and even make tea.
“What is it that obliges me to do this… I am no tea lady, after all!”
But, in the back of Steph’s mind as she grumbled was recalled that scene after the match with Jibril.
“Thanks, Steph.”
—Ba-bump, went her heart…
“It’s an implanted emotion! They’re just using me for their benefit!!”
As Steph thus screamed and engaged in her new daily routine of digging a hole in the wall with her head, suddenly, she was accosted by a voice.
“Oh, if it isn’t little Dora. I see you’re as industrious as ever.”
“Can you not call me ‘little Dora’?! Wait, when did you even get there?!”
Though there’d been no sound of a door, Jibril was standing there as if she’d always been there.
“I have a message from my master.”
“Oh? Um, can you answer my…”
“Let’s see… ‘Jibril says there’s all kinds of stuff in the kitchen, like sugar and butter and shit. Apparently it’s all ours now, so I guess you can use it; knock yourself out’—those were his words.”
“…Huh?”
—She could use sugar and butter? Th-that would dramatically expand the scope of sweets she could—
“Hey, they’re just indirectly telling me to make delicious sweets for them, aren’t they! Just how far are they planning to walk over me!! I’d rather they tell me I can take a break!!”
Bam, bam, bam.
“I’m sorry to bother you in the midst of your head training…” said Jibril, extracting a note. “However, my master has made a note regarding a type of sweets that interests him based on a cookbook he found in my collection—”
“Why, thank you! I will certainly—ah!” Jibril’s eyes looked distinctly amused, and Steph flailed her arms with a blush. “No—this is…”
“I have heard the story. It seems that my master ordered you to fall in love with him.”
“E-exactly! And by some kind of swindle tantamount to fraud, you know! Can you believe it?!”
Steph, seizing on excuses to justify her actions, raised a smoke screen. Meanwhile, Jibril seemed all the more curious.
“Well, I don’t know. I have little understanding of the ways of Immanity love. Please forgive me.”
“Oh—i-is that so?”
“Indeed. For ours is a race that only reproduces when necessary. All I need is love for my master. My grasp of the subtleties of the heart to which Immanity refers as ‘romance’ is limited to what I have heard.”
Jibril so casually mentioned her master—that is, Sora—in the same decisive sentence as “love.”
“Uh, well…um, by ‘love,’ you mean…the, master-disciple kind, right?”
; “I am little capable of making such distinctions. What do you mean by normal love?”
“Uh, yes… It’s as if, when you see them close to another your heart constricts; when they’re away you become uneasy; that kind of…—Huh?”
Realizing that her first love—was Sora, with whom she’d been forced to fall in love against her will.
—Realizing, in other words, that everything she just said was about Sora. Realizing that Jibril, watching sunnily, could see it all. Blushing redder than a tomato and panicking, she said:
“I-I-I-I-I’m only talking in general, you know, in general! I-I don’t have any personal—”
Jibril only smiled at her utterly unconvincing defense.
“I see. With that, as I have delivered by message, I will take my leave.”
“Uh, all right… Thanks for—huh?”
She was gone. In the second she’d averted her eyes…where had she gone?
“……—(Peek!)”
Glancing at the recipe on the table for the sweets in which Sora had taken an interest, Steph.
“W-well… If we have butter, there are certain sweets I would like to try myself, after all. And, if I’m going to make them for one, it’s not much more work to make them for everyone. Yes, yes, that’s it. It’s in passing, only in passing.”
Steph started to rummage through Jibril’s kitchen.
“Hmm… The first thing is to figure out where everything is, I suppose…”
“Let me explain.”
“Eegh?!”
Jibril popped up once more soundlessly from behind.
“The preparation equipment you will need is in this cupboard. The dishes are over there. The ingredients and spices are on the shelf above. The tea set is here. The oven was made in Avant Heim, but I have summarized the directions for you in Immanity here. With that, I leave you to your devices.”