Chapter 46: Like a Human

"..." Nio stares at Ryu as she gets up from the ground. Nio is satisfied. She’s slowly crushing the opposition to her desires. Her copy spent too much time manipulating Stelaria for her to let some nobody ruin everything.

’Haaa... this is the weak point of manipulation no one ever talks about. It’s like a game of Jenga — move the wrong piece and the whole thing collapses...’ Nio takes a deep breath, having handled everything better than she expected. She herself admits she’s no genius at manipulation.

Unlike being arrogant and thinking she can just manipulate anyone, she discovered the limits of manipulation from within the game itself, all because she spent two years manipulating many female players for items.

And when she was exposed by one, everything crumbled because word spread and her entire web of lies broke, to the point that she could never again manipulate veteran girls, only newcomers. So she quickly understood what Ryu was doing.

If Ryu keeps putting things into Stelaria’s head, eventually Stelaria will unintentionally pass those bad ideas on to others who aren’t under Nio’s control and who might discover things they shouldn’t.

"Ryu, as the second-highest authority of the church, you owe me servitude whether you like it or not, and I order you to stop this before I get irritated." Nio watches Ryu staring back at her.

"...What do you plan to do with the Theocracy..."

"Nothing, not yet... I’m still trying to be a ’good girl.’ I can help the theocracy reach even greater heights... but if you unmask me, the good girl will die, and maybe no one wants to see what the ’good girl’ really is when her performance gets ruined."

"...Your analogies are unsettling."

"Then I’ll make it clearer. If my mask falls, your blood and the blood of everyone in this kingdom will fall with it."

’I can’t let any extra problems arise. I already have too many problems...’

"..."

"Don’t look at me with so much disdain. Lies are more comfortable, aren’t they? Besides, don’t pretend you’re not just like me. Look at you. You clearly care very little about the theocracy... it’s her, isn’t it?" Nio glances at Stelaria on the ground.

Ryu ends up giving herself away, because it always comes back to Stelaria. A bond she exposes involuntarily.

"We’re the same. We’re two girls who only care about what matters to us, and who only hold positions that help others because it benefits us. I don’t know what you feel for Stelaria, but if you want her safety, then I can guarantee it will depend on how much you help me."

"...You really don’t want anything from the Theocracy? I can’t see a very bright future near something like you."

"Good morning, Ryu." Nio suddenly says good morning to Ryu, who looks at her confused. She glances at the night sky. The moon is still far too high for it to even be close to dawn.

"...What is that supposed to mean?"

"It’s a greeting. You know, I wonder... we’re all quite similar, aren’t we? Race doesn’t matter. In the mind, we’re all so alike..." Nio deliberately slips from the rooftop, falling to the ground while pulling a pair of scissors from her inventory.

An exaggeratedly large weapon, so big it’s larger than her own body. The blade of the scissors gleams with a faint lunar glow reflected onto the wall.

"I realized that you see me as a villain. I’m the villain of your little story, and Stelaria sees me as someone important. I’m the relevant side character in her story. So I’ll give you a chance."

"...?"

"You see, I love stories. It’s a trait of mine. If the world were a story ruled by each person’s protagonism, you’d win, wouldn’t you? I’ll attack you. If you land a hit on me, even if it doesn’t hurt me, I’ll become your slave. By everything I’ve built, I swear to obey anything you ask." Nio moves. The dragging of the scissors produces a horrible screeching sound on the ground.

"W-What?"

"You can’t understand why, can you? Let me explain." Nio swings the scissors. It’s nowhere near as fast an attack as she can make, which allows Ryu to dodge. But even barely dodging, her arm is severed and goes flying, falling to the ground below the balcony.

"A-Ahh..."

"We’re both bad people. We have quite dirty, selfish souls, and isn’t that fascinating? A bad feeling brings us closer, just as it makes us ’human’ in a certain sense." Ryu leans back against the wall, panting, while touching the stump of her arm.

"A-Are you insane? C-Completely insane?" Ryu doesn’t understand the comparisons, but Nio isn’t doing this for her. She’s doing it for herself, because she’s realized she’s still as human as any human in her deepest self.

She hasn’t stopped being that player from the past. Her body changed, her biology changed, the way her mind works changed, but her feelings are still the same as always, and that makes her happy, because it’s still her in there inside that "shell."

"..." Ryu draws a blade from her clothes. The blade expands, becoming an axe. Nio drags the scissors, a weapon so overwhelmingly heavy that even she has some difficulty lifting the object in her hands.

When Ryu’s blade collides with the scissors, it shatters and Ryu’s head is nearly torn off by the scissors. Nio delivers a kick, slamming Ryu against the wall.

Even though Ryu has more technique and experience, it’s useless in the face of [Absolute Power], and she finally understands something.

"Urgh..." Nio pierces her stomach with the scissors closed and then opens them. The blade expands the flesh, cruelly shredding and tearing her body as organs and blood begin to spill out along with a wet sound of constant dripping.

However, Ryu noticed something that Nio failed to notice. Ryu expected to see pleasure. She expected to see hatred. She expected to see madness. But there was absolutely nothing. Nio merely observed her own attack like someone confirming a hypothesis.

Nio was testing her humanity and the proof that she and Ryu were "the same," but her act completely distances her from being the human she proposed. She’s happy thinking she’s still that person from the past, but her body acts in a way completely alien to what a human would do.

A human would feel hesitation, guilt, fear, revulsion, regret, or shock. But Nio doesn’t even feel sadism. She feels nothing, and it’s precisely because of this that she’s deceived by her own logic.

"It seems this isn’t how your story collides with mine, is it?" Nio feels no pleasure as she pulls the scissors out of Ryu, who slides to the ground and begins to die.

"..." Ryu says nothing, realizing that the monster in front of her is mistaken about what she thinks she is. The two of them are not the same, and Nio is far darker than she lets on. Soon, Nio tosses one of her potions to Ryu without helping her drink it.

"Drink. If you manage, you’ll survive..." Nio shakes the scissors, cleaning off her blood, completely unaware that she lost the answer regarding her humanity the moment she chose to test it this way and felt nothing.

She could still justify herself, but now it’s impossible to have any justification for this other than: she is no longer human, not even in her own mind, even if she doesn’t realize it.

Nio happily begins walking into the church, putting away her scissors, while Ryu, with great effort, drinks the potion, fighting until the very last second to survive. As she reaches the potion, she manages to drink it and begins to be healed.

"...M-Monster..." Nio solidifies the opposite image of what she sought. A monster. That’s what she is, and nothing more.