Sensei and Yamada-kun and the others headed back to the academy.
Natsume-kun was restrained, and the Assassins were also captured by other teachers who had rushed to the scene.
Before that, I'd already weakened them with my Evil Eye, so they were caught by the teachers without much fuss.
Also, the earth dragon I'd been worried about ended up causing no trouble at all and was collected by the teaching staff along with its cage intact.
It was pretty meek, all things considered.
What was even the deal with that earth dragon?
Anyway, Natsume-kun was currently locked up in his room. Being held under house arrest, essentially.
Even if he'd caused problems, Natsume-kun was a prince from another country. It wasn't like they could just punish him on the spot.
Well, "not on the spot" didn't mean he couldn't ever be punished. Given how things were going, it was only a matter of time before he faced consequences.
I needed to do something about that before then.
I teleported to Natsume-kun's location.
"Son of a bitch! There's no way this ends like this! This world is mine! Mine, only mine, mine alone! I won't accept this kind of ending! I won't accept it! I'm not done until everything is in my hands! That damn elf! I'll get my revenge no matter what! I'll never forgive them, never! Someday I'll take everything they have! Just like everything was taken from me! Just you wait! Everything they care about, I'll smash it all to pieces! And then, while that bitch is crying and screaming, I'll laugh as I break her apart! Just you wait! I'll reclaim this world!"
Woooow.
Can I go home?
What is this? What even is this?
This guy has completely snapped.
Honestly, I kinda want to pretend I never saw any of this and just leave.
At this rate, he's going to earn some Seven Deadly Sins-type Skills on sheer emotion alone.
Hmph.
But I can't exactly just walk away.
If I left this alone, things would get really bad. Well, "bad" might not be the right word—"dirty," maybe?
Yeah.
Let's keep the escapism to a minimum.
Also, the fact that he hasn't even noticed I'm standing right here... He's clearly not seeing anything around him anymore. Pretty convenient for me, honestly.
I quietly restrained him with thread.
Then I turned him to face me, and — activating the Evil Eye.
I stripped away his consciousness.
What I took out then was a tiny fragment-body, about the size of a fingertip.
I wiggled it right into Natsume-kun's ear canal.
His body convulsed with little spasms, but I ignored that.
It's fine, it's fine. He won't die. He'll just start picking up radio signals from who-knows-where. And if he follows those signals — well, well — a life of downfall awaits him.
Congrats!
Once I confirmed the fragment-body had properly reached his brain, I healed his ear for him.
I mean, all sorts of things in his ear had been punctured on the way to the brain, after all.
Going out of my way to heal him like this — I really am the kindest.
And with this, Natsume-kun was essentially my puppet.
I could have fully dominated him too, but in that case, his soul's growth would almost certainly slow down. It'd be better to leave it at just guiding his thinking to some extent.
Unless an emergency came up, of course.
Oh right, I should erase my memory from his mind too.
Tap, tap.
For now, I'd keep him holed up and steer him toward acquiring Skills. Based on this trajectory, he'd probably snag Greed. If things went well, Lust too.
And once that happened, they'd be mine. Before he could establish Dominator Authority, I could swoop in and hijack them.
Right now, the ones I had under my control were Pride, Sloth, and Patience — the Dominator Skills I'd started with — plus the Envy the vampire girl had acquired, and the
On the flip side, the ones I'd lost control of were Temperance, Diligence, Compassion, and Gluttony.
Compassion had been one I originally possessed, but before I could interfere with the Dominator Authority, a new owner had already been decided, and they'd gone and established it. So I was locked out of that one.
That new owner happened to be Sensei.
What a pain in the neck.
The ones still untouched were Greed, Lust, Humility, Mercy, and Purity.
I'd have Natsume-kun go after Greed and Lust. After that, the plan was to discard him.
The problem was Humility, Mercy, and Purity.
It'd be ideal to have someone take them, but if the person who acquired them went on to establish Dominator Authority, that would defeat the whole purpose.
As long as they didn't know how to establish authority — like the old me — it'd be fine. But if someone among the elves turned out to be the one, that'd be trouble.
The safest option would be for someone I already had on hand to acquire them.
The vampire girl? Humility? No way she has that kind of mentality.
Mercy? Absolutely not.
Purity? Borderline at best — and besides, she'd started having men attend to her lately, so that was a no-go.
Was there someone out there brimming with talent who fit the bill?
I sensed a magic activation.
The guard outside the door appeared to have been knocked unconscious.
The door was opened slowly and carefully.
A single girl walked in.
She had a certain resemblance to Yamada-kun.
Well, yeah. They were blood relatives, even if only on one side.
Her name was...
Judging from the dangerous aura around her, she'd probably come here to assassinate Natsume-kun.
This girl was quite the overprotective little sister type, after all.
Of course she wouldn't leave alone the person who'd tried to kill her brother Yamada-kun.
And there it was — someone brimming with talent, likely to acquire Dominator Skills.
"Who are you?"
The little sister fixed me with a guarded stare.
Hmm.
Now then, how should I go about winning her over?