Akira and Selena were now standing in the throne room.
"Brother… what exactly were you thinking?" Selena asked, with a completely exasperated expression.
"What do you mean?" Akira replied, genuinely confused.
After the chaotic scene earlier, he had already explained to his army that everything was fine and that he hadn't been captured, and he immediately tried to go back to Erika to continue their conversation. But Selena had ordered him to leave Erika alone and summoned him straight to the throne room.
Now, she was berating him, and Akira had no idea what he'd done wrong.
"I'm talking about what you did to Erika-chan!" she snapped.
Akira answered with righteous indignation, saying, "I only did what you told me to do, alright? You said to tell her what I was thinking, and that's what I did. I didn't do anything wrong."
Selena stared at him, exhausted. "Brother, I don't know where your brain is, but what you said was basically a proposal. You need to think before you speak!"
"Yeah, I'm not an idiot," Akira said firmly. "Didn't I say I meant exactly what I said?"
"…Huh?" Selena blinked. "Wait. What? What did you just say?..... WHAT?"
"What? Why are you saying 'what' so many times? It makes no sense," Akira frowned.
Selena said, "Wait, what I asked was if you proposed to her, knowing full well that's a proposal!"
"Yeah," Akira replied, as if it were obvious. "Wasn't that the plan?"
"What plan are you talking about?!" Selena demanded.
"The plan to make her the owner of my heart and force a relationship between us," Akira said plainly. "That whole battle with the werewolves, that was planned for that, right?"
Selena stared at him, shocked. "…Wait. How did you know I planned that?"
"Well, you did say that if I messed this up, you'd manipulate my fate and make me fall into dog poop," Akira said. "So I figured you did that back then, too."
Selena asked in shock, "Just from that?! What if I was joking?"
"Because that whole fight was weird," Akira continued, unbothered by her reaction. "When we were playing King's Game before the battle, I lost every match. That's basically impossible for me. My luck stat is S-tier, and losing even once is rare. And for Iori to even suggest that game, knowing I always win, is suspicious. He must have known my luck was going to be bad. And then him saying, 'I'll stay behind, you take them and leave,' like some heroic sacrifice? That's just stupid. It would've been easier if we had both fought together. The fact that our parents didn't come to save me immediately is suspicious, too".
"And that barrier, too. It was almost like it's designed to counter me. As if they knew I'm not that good at hand-to-hand combat. The boss stayed back and let his underlings die, and the barrier vanished right after he drained all my mana. It felt like a deliberate chance for me to win.
"And finally, that extra werewolf attacking Erika and Haruna? Out of nowhere, just as I was about to win? And then you suddenly show up to save us. Everything about that was too convenient. After hearing you can manipulate my fate, I realized you planned it. Am I right, dear sister?"
Selena sighed and said, "Just so you know, I can't manipulate your fate if you're truly in a life-and-death battle."
"Which means I wasn't actually in danger," Akira concluded. "Our parents were probably watching, ready to step in if things got bad. And if they were watching, I wasn't truly in danger, so you could manipulate my fate, right?"
Selena sighed again. "…Yeah. You're right about everything. I really didn't expect you to figure it out."
"Sister, I may not be great emotionally," Akira said calmly, "but I'm one of the smartest people on the planet. It's easy to figure this stuff out if I try."
"I know," Selena muttered. "I just thought you'd ignore it like you always do."
"I did," Akira said with a shrug. "I just figured all of that out just now. In fact, I practically forgot about it until now."
"…Are you angry?" Selena asked.
"Not really," Akira answered. "I do think you wouldn't hurt me for no reason. And I know you have your own plans. So don't worry, I won't interfere with them. I know you have your reasons."
"Good," she said. "Then be an idiot and ignore all of it, or my plans won't work. Deal?"
"Deal," Akira nodded. "That's what I like doing anyway. If I think about everything too much, I'll figure it all out and then nothing's fun."
Selena sighed. "So… what you said earlier. Did you seriously mean it?"
"I did," Akira replied.
"Then… do you love her?" she asked.
"I honestly don't know," Akira admitted. "You know I can't feel emotions like love normally. I might be able to feel them in this body, but I've never felt them before, and Google wasn't much help either. So I don't know what I feel. I don't really understand marriage or anything like that… but if you're asking if I'd spend the rest of my life with her, I'd be completely fine with it. But if she doesn't like me and doesn't want to be with me, I won't be sad either. So… I don't really know."
Selena folded her arms. "And if she says she doesn't like you? You do remember your heart belongs to her, right?"
"I'll just rip it out and give it to her," Akira said casually. "I might not be able to regenerate it completely, but I can keep myself alive until I make an artificial one."
Selena sighed deeply. "Only you would say something like that, like it's normal…"
Akira said, "It would really be helpful if there were an affection meter that could measure my feelings for others. Something like those in dating sims, it could be useful."
Selena blinked at him, then said, "Yeah… that's not a bad idea. I could do that too."
"Really?" Akira asked, tilting his head.
"Well, it could take some time," she admitted, "but yeah, I could make something like that."
"Hmm… interesting," Akira murmured.
Selena leaned back slightly and continued, "And brother, don't worry about your emotions and stuff. I'll take care of it. I have a lot of plans, so just leave it to me."
"Was it really that important?" Akira asked.
"Yes. It's really important," Selena said firmly. "So I want you to leave everything to me. Don't question it, and don't even think about it, alright?"
"Sure, I guess," Akira replied casually.
"And about Erika-chan," Selena added, "just don't say anything weird to her without my permission."
"But you said to tell her what I thought," Akira reminded her.
"Yes," Selena sighed, "but as I said before, that was just to make her feel better, not to propose to her. Well… It's not really a bad thing, but you could've messed it up. So at least tell me before you do something like that, alright?"
"Sure, I guess," Akira said again, his tone unchanged.
Selena sighed quietly, thinking how this was going to take a lot more effort than she expected. Then, before she could say more, Akira suddenly asked, "Oh, sister, about the reward from the mission, that seed of destiny, can you give it to me now?"
She stared at him for a moment, watching how he could switch topics so easily; it was almost dizzying. That was exactly what made him both easy and impossible to figure out.
"…Fine," she said at last, standing up. "Just stand there and don't move."
Selena walked toward the throne and sat down. A tiara appeared on her head, and a holographic control panel materialized in front of her. She tapped a few buttons, and a massive tree of light, like a projection of the Imaginary Tree, appeared in the middle of the throne room near Akira.
"Whoa… is that the Imaginary Tree?" Akira asked, eyes widening slightly.
"Not really," Selena replied. "Just a projection. Place your hand on it, brother."
Akira nodded and stepped closer. But just as he was about to place his hand on the glowing trunk, he paused, sensing someone's presence. Both siblings turned to see Erika awkwardly stepping into the room.
"Oh, Erika," Akira said cheerfully, as if nothing had happened earlier. "Are you here to see me get a new power-up, too?"
The way he spoke, as though their intense earlier conversation had never happened, made Selena sigh. Erika, too, felt some tension leave her shoulders, seeing Akira acting like his usual self, calmed her more than she expected.
"N-No," she said, awkwardly. "I just want to go back to the dorm before curfew. I don't want to miss it… But I don't know the way back, so I wanted to ask you."
Both Akira and Selena stared at her with complicated expressions.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Erika asked nervously.
Selena said gently, "Erika-chan… you see, it's around 11 p.m. now. So the curfew's already passed."
"What?!" Erika exclaimed. "There's no way I slept that long! It was only like 1 p.m. or something when I passed out!"
"Yeah," Akira said, "but Selena here sped up the time outside, so it's already night out there."
"Hey, I did it for you, brother," Selena shot back. "Didn't you say you like flying in the night sky?"
"Yeah, but I didn't know you could just play with time," Akira argued. "And you did it without asking me, so it's not my fault."
"But I did it for you, so you should take some of the blame too!"
"No way!"
The two of them kept bickering back and forth, completely ignoring Erika, who was growing more and more irritated by the second. Finally, she stomped her foot.
"Both of you, stop!" she shouted. "And first explain to me what the hell you both did!"