The Pope of the Holy Word Church personally issued a statement.
It announced that Prince Yugo of the Lengzand Empire had been selected as the new Hero.
Almost simultaneously with that announcement, they would put the finishing touches on things within the Kingdom.
Natsume-kun had done well.
Using brainwashing, he'd brought Yamada-kun, the other reincarnators besides Sensei, Oshima-kun, and Hasebe-san under his control, already seizing a portion of the Kingdom.
Furthermore, he had managed to sweet-talk the First Prince and Queen—who were obsessively clinging to the throne—into joining their side.
The King, whose thoughts had been unconsciously guided by
When Natsume-kun brought this up and casually mentioned that the First Prince might never get to sit on the throne at this rate, the First Prince and Queen fell in line without any resistance.
Everything was in place.
Just to be safe, the vampire girl and I were standing by in the Kingdom, but unless something highly irregular happened, we had no intention of interfering.
Unless one of the reincarnators was about to die or something along those lines, we'd just watch how things played out.
"Heheheh. Finally. I can finally stick it to those guys!"
Natsume-kun, disguised as a bodyguard for the First Prince, wore an evil grin.
Beside him was the little sister, wearing a somewhat vacant expression.
The little sister had been brainwashed by Natsume-kun partway through.
In the beginning, she hadn't grasped the gravity of the situation, but gradually she realized that what they were doing amounted to overthrowing the Kingdom—their homeland.
Moreover, the finishing touch would result in the deaths of many in the Kingdom's upper echelons, including her own father, the King.
She was a yandere whose love for her brother had exploded off the charts, but even she hadn't gone so far as to lose all common sense.
She couldn't be ignorant of what consequences this would bring for the brother she loved so dearly.
So, before she could fully come to terms with it, she'd been brainwashed by Natsume-kun.
If she were still in her right mind, there was no telling when she might pull the rug out from under them.
Besides, this way, even after she was restored to sanity, there would be a valid excuse—that she had been brainwashed.
Wasn't it a wonderful situation for her to be rescued from the clutches of brainwashing by her beloved brother's own hands?
How touching.
What came after, though, wasn't my concern.
She could have her precious brother heal whatever emotional wounds resulted.
Even if I'd been the one to put her up to it, she'd gone along with it of her own volition to at least half the degree.
If she regretted it later, serves her right.
"So? What am I supposed to do?"
The vampire girl I'd brought along seemed bored.
Up until now, she'd helped with charming the Empire's upper echelons and the Kingdom's soldiers, but there was nothing for her to do during the main event.
Oh, no, wait.
"Go kill Potimas for me."
In the midst of the confusion, have Potimas in the Kingdom eliminated.
The Potimas here didn't appear to be a cyborg or anything of the sort, so dispatching him should be easy.
If she had nothing to do, she might as well kill him to pass the time.
"Got it."
The vampire girl agreed and went off to kill Potimas.
Good.
Go wild to your heart's content.
The vampire girl had been looking particularly vibrant lately.
Ever since the Pope of the Holy Word Church had approached her with a deal and she'd accepted, she'd occasionally been grinning to herself in a way that was frankly unsettling.
What's more, she'd started calling the Pope "Uncle," and I'd genuinely worried she'd finally gone off the deep end.
But Mera said there was nothing to worry about, so I left it alone.
To make matters worse, I was told, "This is none of your concern, Lady, since you'll be left behind," which shut down any further probing on my part.
It kind of hurt.
I sent the vampire girl off, Natsume-kun departed humming cheerfully, and all that remained was to observe how events unfolded.
I settled into a room within the castle and elegantly enjoyed some tea.
Incidentally, consuming the caffeine in tea posed no problem.
After I'd collapsed from drinking coffee before, I'd gone to Earth and looked it up, only to discover that spiders get drunk from coffee.
Apparently, the caffeine in coffee was the cause, but in my case, it seemed I wasn't reacting to caffeine itself—rather to the coffee that contained caffeine.
When I cautiously tried caffeine-free coffee, nothing happened.
Similarly, drinking tea that contained caffeine also had no effect.
I know it doesn't make any sense, but that's just how it is.
Nothing to do but accept that this was how I was built.
While pondering such trivial matters, I watched the farce playing out inside the castle through my clairvoyance and my divided bodies.
Yamada-kun and the little sister went to the King's room, and the little sister killed the King.
Timing it just right, the First Prince and his bodyguards burst in.
Natsume-kun, mixed in among them, launched his attack on Yamada-kun at the First Prince's command.
Natsume-kun's sword shattered Yamada-kun's blade, and the return stroke inflicted a wound on Yamada-kun.
The sword Natsume-kun carried was, of course, a magic sword crafted by Oni-kun himself.
No matter how fine a blade Yamada-kun possessed, it couldn't withstand it.
Wounded and forced into a disadvantageous position— Delighted by this, Natsume-kun proceeded to unload all his frustrations as a parting gift.
That said, he didn't go so far as to reveal my connection to the Holy Word Church.
And then, at the perfect moment, Sensei crashed the scene.
She pulled off a narrow rescue of Yamada-kun, and the two of them fled.
Of course, Sensei was able to rescue Yamada-kun at that precise moment because I had been manipulating things behind the scenes.
Sensei didn't know that.
"It's done."
The vampire girl returned.
In her hand, she clutched Potimas's head.
Just the head.
It seemed she'd managed to kill him successfully.
"Good work."
For some reason, she held the head out toward me.
What? Should I eat it?
I'd accept it if she were offering.
"How are things on your end?"
"First stage of the farce: complete."
Yamada-kun had escaped the castle as planned.
Now I would set up one final act in this farce before sending him out of the royal capital.
What happened after that was up to Yamada-kun and the others.
S20 Descent Arc