The old man put up a good fight.
He managed to close the overwhelming Status gap through sheer grit alone.
I honestly didn't think he'd hold on that long.
It's almost a waste not to keep him around in this world.
In the end, he gave it everything he had and was cut down by Ogre-kun.
I'll just say it was a magnificent end.
What caught my attention was that Ogre-kun seemed to snap back to his senses for just a moment near the end.
Hmm.
So he hasn't been completely swallowed by
There might still be a chance to pull him back at this point.
Though saying that, I have no idea how to do it.
Black might know, but I sealed him away already.
Sorry, Ogre-kun.
There's nothing I can do for you.
Hang in there.
Anyway, Ogre-kun gets left alone for now.
The real issue is the human academy and the Demon race academy.
The problem at the Demon race academy is that the little vampire girl has started forming a reverse harem and is drinking the blood of its members.
From what I can tell, she seems to be using some kind of hypnosis or charm when she feeds?
The victims don't seem to remember having their blood sucked.
Hmm.
Well then, I guess there's no problem?
She's a vampire, after all.
Vampires drink blood — that's what they do.
If anything, she wasn't drinking enough before.
Aside from when I fed her, she never took blood on her own.
Maybe as her body grew, her vampiric instincts finally blossomed?
I get the vague sense that blood-sucking has a slightly erotic feel to it, so it wouldn't be strange for changes to happen around puberty or thereabouts.
Well, either way, it'd be faster to just ask her directly.
"Blood? Yep, I've been drinking."
She answered with a casual, as-if-to-say "and?" kind of tone.
Ah, I pretty much already knew without asking.
The little vampire girl has officially debuted as a vampire.
That breezy reply says it all.
In other words, her vampire consciousness has grown stronger than her human consciousness.
The soul is pulled by the body.
Even with the same soul, if the body changes and you live in it for long enough, the soul gradually transforms to match.
The little vampire girl used to be human.
But now she's a vampire.
She still has memories of when she was human, and those feelings remain, but she's living as a vampire now.
Naturally, her soul drifts closer to vampire than human.
The little vampire girl's vampiric thinking is already dominant.
She no longer has any resistance to drinking blood.
She probably sees it as a snack when she drinks from her reverse harem members.
She's really gotten deep into it.
Part of this might be my fault.
The reason the little vampire girl awakened to her vampire consciousness so seamlessly is probably because the gap from her human days is too vast.
Ever since she was little, I trained her and kept upgrading her soul.
No wonder she's changed so much from her original human self that nothing remains of the original.
Ha ha ha.
Well, it's not a bad thing.
If you're born a vampire, you have to live your life as a vampire.
Having your human consciousness linger forever is nothing but a hindrance.
Rather than agonizing over it like Mela did that one time, it's infinitely better to have her act with full awareness of being a vampire.
So, keep it up!
The little vampire girl situation is settled.
As for the Professor, she seems to be meeting with someone.
There's a
It looks like they're about to start some kind of operation in the Analite Kingdom or whatever it's called.
I don't know the specifics of what they're planning, but it's obviously nothing good.
I need to intensify surveillance.
Quietly, I send clones to follow the two.
Their destination turns out to be the royal castle, of all places.
The Professor and Potimas meet with two children in a room of the royal castle.
"Professor, when someone introduces themselves, it's only polite to introduce yourself in return, you know~? How about that~?"
"My apologies. I am the fourth prince of this kingdom, Shurein Zagan Analite."
"I am the eldest daughter of House Analbard,
Hmm.
These two looked like they might be reincarnators.
I'd been prioritizing the Professor, so I hadn't been able to infiltrate the royal castle yet, but this has taken an unexpected turn in an unexpected direction.
There was another reason I couldn't get into the royal castle, though.
"Mm-hm. A prince and a duchess, how lovely~. So moe~."
"Wait — Oka-chan!?"
"You shouldn't add -chan to the Professor's name~? But you're correct~."
Confirmed.
Ah, so the prince and the duchess are reincarnators.
Talk about being born winners from day one.
Meanwhile, I was born as a spider-type monster in a labyrinth?
The gap is just too cruel.
"So, could you tell me your previous-life names~?"
"Ah, I'm Yamada Shunsuke."
"I'm Oshima Kanata."
Pff—!?
Gah, cough!
I nearly choked on nothing.
Why are you broadcasting that, D—!??
Hey!
Oshima-kun?
Why did you get sex-swapped?
Well, I mean, when you reincarnate, it's not strange for your gender to change.
But this — D definitely did this on purpose, right?
Come on...
Professor, this isn't "moe" material.
This is a major problem.
What do I do about this?
Well, I can't really do anything about it, but still.
Ugh.
What kind of person was Oshima-kun again?
Hmm.
Oh, I remember.
He once confessed to me.
To be precise, it was to
That memory isn't exactly a pleasant one.
Oshima-kun came in expecting to be rejected outright.
When I turned him down, he just said "I figured" and backed off without any fuss.
But the unfortunate thing for Oshima-kun was that D took notice of him at that point.
It's not exactly gender identity disorder, but Oshima-kun had very little interest in the opposite sex.
Boys are beasts, basically.
And yet, Oshima-kun's desires were weak.
That became clear from observing him after the confession.
The way he looked at girls was different from other boys.
And Oshima-kun himself was probably more aware of that otherness than anyone.
That's why he confessed to Wakaba Himeiro fully expecting rejection.
He wanted to create the fact that he'd confessed to a girl.
And to someone where rejection was a foregone conclusion.
If he could create the fact of having confessed, he could hide his inability to be interested in girls.
Getting rejected meant no need to date, which was actually convenient.
He confessed on a long shot, and sure enough, got shot down.
What a story to tell.
Yeah, it still doesn't sit well.
Basically, he didn't truly like her at all — he confessed and used her.
And that was to me, of all people, but the memory is still there.
Did D feel the same way about it?
Maybe that's why she changed Oshima-kun's gender as a little act of spite.
That kind of thing is totally within her character.
Hmm.
All that said, there's no question D is giving him special treatment.
Even if it's just as a toy.
She might have slipped some weird Skill into him — I wouldn't put it past her.
Adding him to the strict surveillance list.
And there's one more person of interest.
Yamada-kun's little sister.
There were three people I'd flagged as possible reincarnators based on rumors in this country.
Three prodigies, all born around the same time and all called geniuses.
Those two turned out to be reincarnators, but the Professor had ruled out the last one.
She probably used her Administrator privileges to check.
Not a reincarnator, yet a genius who rivals one.
Intriguing.
Maybe I'll look into that little sister too.