— Morning.
Shannon endured the sleepiness and sat up.
Before, even if she slept late, her kind sister had woken her. Meals had been prepared, cooked so she could eat them easily.
Then her sister would head to the academy and Shannon would spend the day idling alone.
Lunch was already prepared; when she got hungry she’d eat it.
At night her sister would look after her again.
There had been servants a few times, but she’d tested her magic eye on them, and they’d run.
— No, she’d driven them out.
Shannon’s new daily routine —
“Ngh… have to get up…”
Even when she didn’t want to leave the bed, she rose early because of the scary teacher.
Changed clothes. Headed to the kitchen.
Shannon’s eyes didn’t see, but her other senses were sharp.
And her Skill compensated for not seeing.
With that particular Skill, Shannon judged people’s emotions from the fluctuations of their mana.
The magic eye showed her mana flows that ordinary eyes cannot.
Touching them, learning to manipulate them — she’d developed it… but.
“You’re late, Shannon-chan.”
Reaching the kitchen, a woman was already prepping food.
Novem.
“S-sorry.”
Her morning mood was as bad as it gets. Even forcing herself up early, late was the verdict.
The reality that made her old life feel like a lie — started here, in this kitchen.
“Go wash your face. Once you’re done, take out the plates. After that… no, first, go check on Lord Lyle and Poyo-Poyo-san.”
A little while back, the kitchen would normally have had Novem and Poyo-Poyo moving around. But now Poyo-Poyo was sleeping in the storage shed with Lyle.
From the morning they’d be repeatedly shaving and melting metal.
She heard intense arguments at times.
“Those two… are still asleep.”
Shannon used her eye to read Lyle’s and Poyo-Poyo’s states. She could check even from the kitchen — her eye was that strong.
She could select and see whatever she wanted.
Novem said:
Novem’s mana, normally unwavering, was — looked at carefully — extremely dense. Not noticeable to a casual look — but clearly abnormal.
Shannon had never seen a person like that.
“Then go wake the two of them. Tell them to wash their hands and faces.”
Novem kept at the cooking.
Shannon counted three people who made her think I can’t win.
One was her sister Miranda.
Another, Novem.
And the last, met through the party — Ceres.
Of those three she could not defy, when one ordered her, current-Shannon could only obey.
”…Fine.”
She left the kitchen and made for the garden door, then went outside.
The morning sun wasn’t blinding to her, but she could tell the weather was nice.
Even seeing differently from other people, Shannon’s eyes saw more information than visual sight.
At the storage shed — junk strewn everywhere.
Lyle had wooden crates lined up sideways and was lying across them.
A blanket on him, half-off.
Poyo-Poyo was in sleep mode — standing, eyes closed. Both of them were dirtied with what looked like black soot.
Shannon looked at the big box placed inside the shed.
Four legs.
Wheels rolled nearby. She’d thought he was building a carriage, but from the look of it — no.
“What is this junk… took days making this?”
Lyle, supposed to be an adventurer, was now going to the library or the academy, coming back, and making something with Poyo-Poyo.
The library — to see Clara.
The academy — to Damian’s lab.
Aria — whom Shannon remembered playing with as a small child — left every morning for instruction.
Her sister Miranda, having graduated from the academy, was now attending a private academy to acquire the trap-related skills adventurers used.
Novem, despite seemingly not needing it, was training her magic.
All three were moving to polish themselves.
In the middle of which, only Lyle —
“S-stop… that’s not the Best Lyle…”
(…Best Lyle? What’s that? Isn’t this guy a narcissist.)
He seemed to be groaning in a dream.
His shirt was open; the blue gem visible.
(I see six lights. Inside Lyle there’s another light.)
A blue Gem that didn’t seem the same as Aria’s — Lyle’s blue Gem —
Six lights inside.
One glowed within Lyle and seemed assimilated.
”…S-stop… I won’t, anymore…”
She pinched Lyle’s nose.
Lyle started thrashing as if suffocating and jolted awake.
“It’s not my fault!”
Saying that, he bolted upright, panting.
He scanned around, then — for some reason — looked enormously relieved.
Several of the lights in the blue Gem began to move.
He held his forehead and looked at Shannon.
”…Don’t not wake me normally.”
“Eh? I called first.”
To the lying-with-a-straight-face Shannon, Poyo-Poyo — somehow already up — said:
“Lie. She called the crystallization of my and chicken-bastard’s love junk. And she didn’t call you.”
Crisp-faced delivery — with a black smudge near her nose.
”…You two, go wash your hands and faces. Novem is waiting.”
Lyle:
“Breakfast? What is it today.”
Getting up and leaving the shed, Lyle was minding the menu. Whereas Poyo-Poyo —
“That she-fox! Defiling my sanctuary!! Chicken-bastard, breakfast — I—”
“No, I’m eating Novem’s. — Also, an automaton oversleeping… learn from those three.”
The three — the maid-automatons at Damian’s.
Shannon had heard about them, but Poyo-Poyo overreacted.
“Do not compare me, the special model, with mass-produced units! Are you listening? If you don’t listen properly I’ll cry! I’ll cry so much you’ll find it intrusive!”
”…You’re already plenty intrusive.”
Saying intrusive with a smile, Lyle — Poyo-Poyo took it as I hate that smile! and got excited.
(What were the ancients thinking, making automatons like this.)
Poyo-Poyo, connected to Lyle by a thin thread, had Lyle’s mana flowing through her body. The flow was clearly unlike a person’s.
Similar — but with a definite difference.
The two heading to the manor traded insults but seemed close.
Shannon shut the shed door and felt heavy — she hadn’t been moving her body much.
As she went to enter the manor, Aria came flying out the front door.
“Bad! I’ll be scolded! If I’m late again Lyla-san’s fist—!!”
A sandwich — bread, ham, vegetables — in her mouth, Aria hand-combed her hair, checked her clothes and gear, and bolted off.
Lately scrapes and bruises were on the rise; in the bath, she’d say aah, that stings — like a grizzled old man.
She’d become more masculine than when she’d first come.
And yet, in front of Lyle, she put on her cat-face.
If she knew it was known, she’d surely flush and panic.
She used to be the spear-swinging tomboy from a martial-arts family.
Now, more female warrior.
The trend had grown stronger lately. Receiving instruction, polishing herself — but Shannon worried, in her own way, whether she’d lose something as a woman.
(Sleeping in the living room in only underwear — should I tell her Lyle saw? — Or where is she even going?)
While Aria seemed to gradually be straying off the path, Miranda, ready now, also came out the front.
“Oh, Shannon. Still out here? I thought you’d run from helping Novem — you were here.”
A smirking sister.
Not in academy uniform. A skirt and a tossed-on jacket — casual.
Carrying a bag — inside, trap-related tools.
She used to be kind and motherly; now her darker side had come out, and she’d grown strict with Shannon.
But more pressing right now —
”…I-I forgot!”
She’d been told to fetch Lyle and Poyo-Poyo, and she’d been loitering in the garden.
She hurried into the manor. Miranda said:
“Keep at it today! I’ll be back by afternoon.”
Even so, current-Shannon’s top priority was Novem waiting in the kitchen.
In the kitchen, Novem was ignoring Poyo-Poyo and watching Lyle eat the breakfast she’d finished preparing.
“That she-fox! That role is mine!”
“Is it good, Lord Lyle?”
“It’s good.”
A warm scene — and Novem noticed Shannon and smiled at her.
No disturbance in her mood. Calmer, even, than when she talked with Lyle. So calm it was frightening.
No disturbance. Normally people — even Poyo-Poyo — fluctuated. Novem didn’t.
When she’d noticed, Shannon had found it terrifying.
Instinctively — danger.
“Shannon-chan.”
“Y-yes!”
“Wash your face and hands first. After breakfast we start with cleanup.”
Not angry.
But that’s what Shannon found scary.
Then —
“Ah, today I’m dropping by Damian’s, then on to the library, so no lunch. I’ll eat out. Poyo-Poyo —”
“Naturally accompanying chicken-bastard. — Must watch that the bespectacled woman doesn’t lay a hand on chicken-bastard’s chastity.”
Lyle looked at Poyo-Poyo, then at Novem:
“Damian didn’t tell me to bring her today. I’ll leave her — work her hard.”
“MASTER!! — But, I cannot defy orders!”
Energetic Poyo-Poyo had mana fluctuations Shannon couldn’t read as glad or sad.
Lyle was normal. Slight fluctuation.
Novem too — very slightly fluctuated.
“Understood. Any preference for dinner?”
When Lyle started thinking it over, the lights in the blue Gem began moving again. As if speaking to him.
And Lyle seemed to be hearing it.
(What is that Gem, anyway?)
Aria’s red Gem didn’t do this. Four lights visible, but they sat quietly.
No self-assertion.
Lyle’s blue Gem was — almost noisy.
— Noon.
Eating the lunch Poyo-Poyo had prepared after holding the kitchen, Shannon and Novem ate together.
Tired today too.
Cleaning, laundry, errands —
She belatedly regretted not insisting on keeping servants in the manor.
“Shannon-chan, your manners are coarse.”
“It’s fine. I can’t see.”
Novem stared at her.
“Hii! I’ll do it properly! Fine, I’ll do it!”
“Yes. Since you can do it, do it properly.”
She couldn’t defy anymore.
Before, she could touch others’ mana and disturb it — but after touching Novem’s and being terrified, she couldn’t bring herself to.
Mentally, she’d lost the will — touching had become unbearable.
“Eat properly. I can’t cook for chicken-bastard, but on orders I do put my heart into it, you bastard.”
The food Poyo-Poyo had cooked was good.
Hard to believe it was made by an automaton.
Even an ordinary person — even an ordinary woman — would be hard-pressed to cook this well.
But the mouth was terrible.
Shannon asked:
“Absolutely no heart in it, right? — You really care for Lyle that much.”
And —
“S-stupid. I don’t like him or anything. — His hardworking figure is just dazzling, his innocent sleeping face is just cute… anyway, it’s not like that!”
Suddenly, like reciting from a play, the automaton burst into performance. Shannon wondered if she’d broken.
But Novem was normal. Said nothing.
Poyo-Poyo finished and looked refreshed.
“Hmph. I’m steadily working through my lines I wanted to use collection. At this rate, the last scene is guaranteed happy-end. — What lines should I use next?”
Shannon thought:
(She’s a pain. …Yeah — the ancients were somehow off.)
Leaving the basking automaton, Shannon resumed eating.
— Night.
When all that was left was sleep, Shannon got into bed and spoke.
“Haa, tired…”
She’d been relying on servants and Miranda; she found this life — unfamiliar to her — extremely hard.
The first and second days the muscle soreness had been bad.
She’d been playing the frail blind girl until now, and there she’d been on the bed groaning.
Miranda had seen and laughed — infuriating.
But since she’d been forgiven for everything she’d done, she couldn’t defy her.
Each day, her sister acquired trap-related skills, advancing at a speed that suggested innate talent.
To defy a sister like that — what punishment would follow — was too scary to test.
“By the way — what’s good about him?”
She wondered every day.
What’s good about Lyle?
She couldn’t believe Miranda would choose someone based on looks alone.
That he was a fine adventurer she could see. He had at least eight Skills.
And Aria put on her cat-face in front of him — obvious as it was.
Poyo-Poyo didn’t even try to hide it.
And then — Novem.
That Novem — only in front of Lyle did her mana fluctuate.
”…Is there some good point?”
Lately she’d been thinking only about that.
If this kept up, her sister, drawn in by Lyle, was going to grow so strong it would be irrecoverable.
She wanted to stop it but couldn’t think of a means.
“You watch. I’ll get you back someday — Lyle!”
Saying it, Shannon thought about Lyle until she fell asleep.