Under the mind-bending Nightmare Magic, everyone in the Soma Familia fell under Takumi's control. With a turn of his will, the few members who had bullied Lili in the past were brought into the manor one after another. Together with Zanis, they all knelt before Takumi and Lili.
"What's going on?"
"I can't move—my body won't move!?"
Aside from Zanis, the others cried out in panic. It was a pity for them that no one outside would be answering those screams.
Seeing the extra faces lined up before her, the anger in Lili's eyes burned hotter. "It was you—over and over you snatched the valis I bled for, forcing me to steal, to rob, to swindle!!!"
"It wasn't my fault—everyone did it—ugh!"
Canoe got out his last excuse; the next instant Lili's short blade punched through his throat. He clutched at the wound and thrashed, but the gush of blood would not be stopped.
Lili, killing with her own hands for the first time, couldn't help a wave of nausea at the sight.
"Because of a split over the haul, several Soma Familia members seized a chance to assassinate the captain. But after the infighting, Zanis reacted in time, and both sides perished together. Lili, how does that ending sound to you?"
Takumi reached out and set a light hand on Lili's shoulder—offering steadiness as his level voice filled the manor. Zanis and the others went chalk-white and shook their heads frantically. They tried to open their mouths and say more, but by the time they did, the knife had already drawn its line across their throats.
[Ding! Randomly plundered trait: Business Savant (Green)]
[Business Savant (Green): You possess an uncanny intuition for commerce.]
"Zanis's trait… pretty useless." Takumi chose to fuse it anyway, then pulled his gaze back and looked toward the administration tower where the familia's upper offices were—Soma's room was over there.
"Let's go meet Soma."
"Understood, Takumi-sama."
Lili drew a deep breath and followed. Her feelings toward Soma were tangled—resentment, and gratitude both. Resentment for his inaction; gratitude for the food he had once given her so she could keep living.
Deep in a spacious room, Soma was grinding several herbs together with a mortar on his worktable. Takumi's Nightmare Magic could not touch a god. Soma had heard the screams and pleas outside, but from beginning to end he paid them no mind and only kept mixing the ingredients for his wine.
When the two pushed the door open and came in at an unhurried pace, Soma at last knit his brows a fraction. Without even turning around he said, "Noisy. Leave. I've entrusted every thing to Zanis. Go to him."
At that attitude, Lili's temper flared up at once. "Why, Soma-sama—why do you ignore our voices! You weren't like this before—you even gave me fried potato balls. Why let Zanis and the others run wild? Why!!"
At last Soma turned. From beneath the curtain of his long bangs he gave Lili a languid glance, as if this were all supremely troublesome, and said, "Listening to you children—so quick to drown yourselves in wine—what meaning would that have?"
"The voices of children who wallow in liquor… never really reach anyone."
Hearing that flat, affectless tone, Lili went rigid, speechless. Faced with the god's chilling divine detachment, she understood what lay in his heart. No accusation would matter; Soma had become wholly indifferent to the lower world.
Perhaps finding her words mildly interesting, Soma took out a bottle of Divine Wine, poured a glass, and held it out to Lili. "If you can say the same thing after drinking this, then I'll listen to you."
The crystal-clear liquor in the cup gave off a cool fragrance that dazzled the senses. Once, she would have been too frightened to drink. Now, the wine didn't seem so terrifying.
Lili did not drink. She set the glass down.
She let go of asking and second-guessing why Soma had chosen this path. The last sliver of gratitude she had hidden away for him dispersed without a trace. She turned, walked back to Takumi's side. "Takumi-sama, I don't have any wishes left. I already have my answer…"
"You found your answer, Lili, but I'd like to test something."
Takumi met Soma's ink-dark eyes, strode up, and closed a hand around his throat. "Mm—what do you think you're doing!?" Soma choked, lifted off his feet, and stared at Takumi in struggle and confusion. Why would a mere mortal lay hands on a god?
Smiling, Takumi let a thread of divine power run down his fingertips. In the widening of Soma's pupils he said, "Just running a test."
"You're a god as well…"
Before Soma could finish, the power that outstripped time itself surged from Takumi's body. Under divine power's blessing, Recovery was pushed to the absolute limit.
"[Reversion Recovery]."
He gave Soma no time to react. The ultimate force of Recovery descended. Wrapped in it, Soma could clearly feel his power ebbing away. In the span of a few breaths he had fallen to the level of an ordinary man.
"How… how is this possible? I—"
Feeling the emptiness inside, disbelief twisted Soma's face. In the next second, Takumi picked up the wineglass and shoved it to Soma's lips, forcing a mouthful down.
"Kah! Kah! Heh—hahaha—so delicious—ahhh—"
A moment ago he had been perched above it all; in the next he was lost in the wine's magic. He capered where he stood, ecstatic under the Divine Wine's exquisite rush.
Lili stared, startled. Takumi said mildly, "If he were just a mortal, this is all that would happen to him—the same as all of you."
Beating the lure by will alone—those people are not ordinary. Plainly, stripped of his divinity, Soma wasn't even that.
It didn't last. A few seconds later, Takumi's Reversion Recovery faded. With godhead and divine power surging back through him, Soma came to again. The memory of his disgrace—entranced by his own wine—flashed through his mind like lantern slides.
This time he bowed his head, speechless, shame flooding that once-indifferent gaze. Having truly stood in the shoes of the children he'd scorned, tasting the Divine Wine's wonder for himself, he had looked exactly like them.
....
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