When I went back downstairs, I could tell at a glance that the atmosphere, which had been loosening up, had gotten tense again.
The moment I returned, nearly every person there stabbed me with their stares.
Well.
Is my presence really that stressful for everyone? I see, I see.
Kusama-kun still hadn't come back, and there were a few others who hadn't returned either, so the short break could continue a while longer.
And with that, I would extract myself from this storm of glaring eyes!
I noticed Ogiwara-kun was sitting seiza-style on the floor, but I decided to pretend I hadn't seen that.
Ignoring the piercing stares, I walked toward the door leading outside.
As I was about to pass through, Urushihara-san started to stand up, but two girls sitting on either side of her stopped her.
I pretended not to notice that exchange, opened the door, and stepped outside.
Whew.
What is this sea of needles I'm walking through?
So uncomfortable.
Can I just bail?
No?
Yeah, figured…
Once this break was over, I'd have to resume the explanation session, but if Oni-kun was going to stay in that state, his support was looking iffy.
I probably couldn't count on Oni-kun's help anymore.
That meant someone else would need to step in, and there was really only one candidate for that role.
As for that candidate — the vampire girl — she had propped herself up against the black wolf she'd summoned and was soaking up the sun.
Hey, vampire.
Is that really okay?
Is this really fine with you, vampire?
She was creating a scene that felt like she was picking a fight with every vampire on the planet.
If she weren't a vampire, it would be a perfectly heartwarming sight. But she is a vampire, so…
"What?"
No, don't just "what" me.
Apologize to every vampire who hasn't overcome daylight!
"Nice weather, huh~? If the smell would just go away, it'd be so comfortable I could probably fall asleep right here."
Apologize!
Apologize to every vampire in the world!
It was nice weather, I had to admit.
The sun blazing down brilliantly.
The black wolf the vampire girl was leaning against was fluffy and made for a pretty nice cushion.
If you could just do something about the stench drifting over from the scorched wasteland, it really was the kind of weather where you could nap comfortably.
While I was thinking all this, the vampire girl actually closed her eyes and settled in to sleep.
"Ow!?"
For some reason I got irritated, so I gave the vampire girl a light kick in the side.
She glared at me with a "what the hell are you doing" look, but this was force majeure — nothing I could do about it!
This was all the vampire girl's fault!
"What? Is it wrong to take a nap?"
It sure is!
"Oh please. It's not like my being there changes anything at that gathering. And if it's fine without me, I might as well not show up."
She did have a point that she'd been pretty much invisible back there, but with Oni-kun basically stepping back from his support role, that left me in a bind.
Somehow I had to shove the explanation duty onto her!
…Could she even handle the explanation?
I had all sorts of doubts, honestly.
"I was bored and it made me sleepy. Can you blame me?"
She said that and let out an adorable yawn.
That languid attitude of hers was strangely alluring.
Honestly.
Getting needlessly seductive like that.
Should I give those shameless breasts a squeeze?
Oh, no, never mind.
In my mind, the Demon King was smirking darkly while rubbing her hands together, so I quickly forgot about the breast topic.
"Besides, why would Master owe them any explanation at all? That Hero was going on about some right to hear things or whatever, but they don't actually have any such right, do they? We're just being considerate enough to tell them out of the goodness of our hearts. We don't owe them anything, so why not just leave them be?"
Wow.
The vampire girl had apparently been accumulating more stress during that explanation session than I'd realized.
Then again, I could understand how she felt.
The vampire girl had made a clean break with her previous life.
She drew a clear line — past life was past life, and this life was this life — so to her, the reincarnators were barely acquaintances she'd interacted with a bit long ago. If that.
Actually, they might not even qualify as acquaintances.
So she believed she had no obligation to be kind to them.
Honestly, that wasn't a wrong take.
There really was no obligation for us to explain anything to the reincarnators.
The only reason we were bothering at all was because they were victims too, and it felt harsh to just throw them out into the unknown with no idea what was going on. That was it.
We had no obligation, no duty.
As the vampire girl said, even what Yamada-kun called their "right to hear things" was really just at our discretion.
"Master, if anything, I find it far more puzzling that you'd go out of your way to give them such a detailed, patient explanation. Even though you're supposed to be bad at that sort of thing."
Hey, that last line!
It might be true, but there are things you can say and things you can't in this world, you know!
"A heartless, cold-blooded nonhuman master with not a shred of empathy—"
And now there was even more added on.
Vampire girl, want to have a quick chat behind closed doors?
It seemed like we still had a long way to go in terms of mutual understanding.
"Fine. I'll take over the explanation duty."
Just as I was about to drag the vampire girl to My Home for a nice little talk, she made that proposal.
Wh… at…!?
That vampire girl? Read the room?
"What's with that shocked face? What exactly did you think I was?"
Clumsy little vampire.
I must have let my thoughts slip through somehow, because the vampire girl made an annoyed face and stood up.
The black wolf she'd been leaning against sank into her shadow and vanished, as if being swallowed up.
"Seriously. If I leave it to Master, the whole thing will just drag on forever. And Kyouya-kun seems wrapped up in his own issues, so he's not likely to handle it well either. Might as well just get the boring stuff over with quickly."
With that, the vampire girl strode back toward the treehouse where the reincarnators were waiting, as poised and elegant as you please.
Who was that?
The one radiating that capable career-woman energy?
"What are you doing? Let's just get started and get it over with."
The vampire girl turned around at the door and called to me.
My soul felt like it had halfway left my body as I staggered after her.