“Heehee. Hee…”

“Ron.”

“Squeak, squeak, squeak. Empress. Empress. The woman who made me like this. I hate her, too. Should I kill her? Should I kill her?”

With a strange twist in his neck, he walked slowly towards us, making eerie sounds.

He seemed completely out of his mind. Seeing that, Ken’s face also stiffened. It was only natural to be shocked to see the brother he cherished become such a spectacle.

“Do you hate me?”

He had already reached his limit. Beings with incomplete sanity due to being twins. Beings that should die, but are alive. Despite the help from another sorcerer that kept Ron alive, he was still living, filled only with the desire to survive. It was pitiful.

What was the original Ron like? Was he really a selfish being who lived just to survive?

“I hate it. Hate it. Hate it. If it weren’t for you, if it weren’t for your sister… my brother wouldn’t have hated me. It would have been easy then. I would have survived. Yes, yes. I messed up all the plans. She doesn’t give me power anymore. I’m going to die. Hate it! Hate it, I want to live!”

“Who is ‘she’?”

“She. She. She. The one who saved me. Different from things like you. I have to live. I have to live. Ah, if I take your sister’s throat, I might survive. Because she hates you. That’s why.”

“Beatrice. Is it her?”

His fidgeting stopped with the sound of grinding.

“…”

“Lady Beatrice, right? The only sister of the Duke?”

“…”

“That’s right.”

“She will be angry. She will be angry.”

“Caught?”

“Your sister should have died. Should have died! If she finds out… If she finds out, I will… kill her. I will kill her. Twist her delicate neck!”

His eye veins turned red. As if to show that he wouldn’t stay still, he expressed anger towards me. At that moment, a light flashed, and transparent spider threads revealed themselves in the star palace.

Ron, who was approaching me, got entangled in them.

“What’s this? What’s this? Why am I caught? Why!”

“Perhaps I made you feel like you want to kill me, just in case, and it seems to work well.”

Sehelus made the safest place, the star palace. If someone showed hostility towards me, she said this would happen.

I didn’t know if it was spider silk, but anyway, his magic was still effective.
And that power was formidable.

No matter how much Ron struggled, his body showed no sign of movement. On the contrary, the more he moved, the more entangled he became in the spider threads.

“I’m going to kill. I will kill. Me, me…!”

“Unfortunately, that won’t be possible.”

“Empress Mama. What on earth is this…?”

Ken, who was sticking close to my side, opened his eyes wide. It seemed utterly incomprehensible to him. As if the situation made no sense at all.

“If you show hostility towards me here, this is what happens. I tested it by touching Ron, and it worked well.”

“Ah… Then what you said earlier…”

“No. It won’t end here. Perhaps Ron is currently alive thanks to someone’s power. And now, I’ll push away that power and infuse Ron with my power and Ken’s power. That way, he will… come back to life. Not just ‘sustaining life’ but finding his ‘own self.'”

Ken still had a puzzled expression. Honestly, I didn’t understand either. Nevertheless, I believed in myself, the words of the sorceress, and Sehelus’s gift.

“Then… Can Ron live…?”

“Well, who knows. Just believe. Probably… if he realizes being caught like this, the chances of him being abandoned by ‘that person’ are high. He was only kept alive by that person’s power, and if that power disappears… Ron will also die.”

“…He should have died.”

“It’s not definite that twins must die. But… the curse of those twins seems unavoidable. Anyway, we should be grateful to that person. She gave us this opportunity.”

“Ron… suffered a lot before becoming an adult. Could it be related to that? Since then, he inexplicably showed hostility towards me.”

I slowly approached Ron’s side.

“Since then, it might have been moments of living just to survive, to avoid death. And in a situation where he was moving under someone’s influence… he was probably…”

“I see. I really didn’t know anything.”

“I didn’t know either. If someone hadn’t told me, I still wouldn’t have known.”

“Who informed Mama?”

“It’s a secret. Let’s do this quickly. We have to… save Ron.”

Unconsciously, I stood in front of Ron.

“I’m going to kill. I will kill.”

He continued to repeat the words of killing.

“Ken, will you hold my hand?”

“Ah… Yes.”

He quickly grabbed my hand. Closing my eyes, I felt his power. To save Ron, my power and Ken’s power had to merge and flow into Ron.

Only then would the power from the other being filling Ron disappear, and only the desire to live would remain, allowing Ron to live normally.

‘Sehelus, help me. This should work, right? I really want to save these two in the world I’m creating, to eliminate tragedy from the story I’m writing… Help me make that possible.’

At that moment.

“Nya!”

Whether it was a random sound or the actual cry, it couldn’t be determined.

After a brief and concise meow, the compressed power of Ken and mine found its proper place, flowing into Ron, having been skillfully compressed, allowing him to open his eyes again. When I opened my eyes, there was no sign of the cat anywhere.