Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

Chapter 278 - How to skillfully trick a brother-con imouto

Today, your onii-san was acting strange wasn’t he? Do you want to know the reason? I’ll tell you then. Amazingly enough, your onii-san was selected to be the Hero. The previous Hero was also your onii-san though, but I’ve killed him. Since Heros are a nuisance you know. Maybe I should erase him, hmm. What to do, hmm. Maybe if someone would cooperate with me then I wouldn’t need to erase him though, huh. Hint hint.

The end. That was a digest version of the conversation with imouto-chan. Currently, due to the incident of Yamada-kun becoming the Hero, I was shocked to see that imouto-chan has gotten over-excited and has a nosebleed. So it wasn’t a superstition that when you get over-excited you can get a nosebleed. From there it seemed like an “onii-sama talk” was about to begin, but Felmina-chan stopped it, so that problem was avoided. Nice going, Felmina-chan. Just what I’d expect of a former high-ranking noble. Her talking ability is way above mine.

Incidentally, when it was revealed that Yamada-kun had become the Hero, there was another squawking magpie who began to act up. Well, it’s vampire girl after all. Come to think of it, I had forgotten to explain that bit. To silence her as quickly as possible, I kicked her flying. Like in a gag manga she sunk into the wall, so she should be quiet for a while. Seeing that, I get the feeling that all the colour drained from imouto-chan’s face out of dread, but don’t mind it. Afterwards, I also got the feeling that Felmina-chan laughed scornfully at her, but I’m sure that’s just my imagination.

「What do you want me to do?」

So, the current situation is that imouto-chan is at a loss.

「It is a simple matter. If you want to save your onii-sama then just betray your country. If you are unable to do that, then you will lose not just your country, but your onii-sama’s life, and also your own life. Which will you choose?」

Felmina-chan was rather lively as she drove imouto-chan into a corner. Looking at her like this she’s basically a “noble girl villainess”. She usually restrains herself, but Felmina-chan was originally an ojou-sama from a good house after all. I’m sure it’s more in her nature to be giving orders than taking orders.

Imouto-chan is pondering all this with an expression of anguish. Sometimes she shows threatening signs, but she quickly suppresses it and stops. It seems that she knows that even if she tries to attack us she’ll simply be beaten in return. Well, imouto-chan could never beat me no matter how she tried. For a non-reincarnator human she might be exceptionally strong, but I’m sure she wouldn’t even match Felmina-chan anyway.

Imouto-chan pondered and pondered, and finally gave in. To be honest, I was surprised that she pondered this much. After all, she is a pathological brother-con after all. I had expected her to immediately reply with something like “if it’s for onii-sama’s sake then I’ll do it!”.

Based on the observations of the clones, this girl doesn’t have any kind of patriotism. Instead, she might even hate the country. With the family environment she was raised in, she gets on quite badly with her mother and brothers, except Yamada-kun of course. Well, they’re the queen and next king of this country though. Because of that, I hadn’t really been expecting her to resist crushing the country.

Ah, I get it. If she cooperates with us, then that means she’s opposing her beloved onii-sama huh. So that’s why she pondered so much and is so depressed huh. Imouto-chan is hanging her head with a face like the world is about to end. Felmina-chan, and vampire girl who recovered before I noticed, are looking at imouto-chan’s face and grinning. Why you……

「In love with one another yet forced to be enemies.」

I whisper into imouto-chan’s ear. Suddenly her shoulder makes a massive shudder.

「All the more reason for the forbidden love to ignite into passion.」

This time she twitches in response.

「When he finds out the truth, all his thoughts will be focused on you.」

「I’ll do it!」

Easy. What’s with this empty headed yandere brother-con? You wouldn’t believe that a moment ago she had a face filled with despair, but now she has a sloppy smile with her mouth hanging open. This girl is broken - better do something soon. Actually, it’s already too late. In order to keep her motivation going, next time I’ll bring her some novels with the main character being a heroine who fell in love with her enemy. The type where in the end the two get together with a happy ending of course. Well, I don’t think that’ll be happening with imouto-chan and Yamada-kun though.

I’ve now secured imouto-chan who has developed a delusion of getting together with her nii-sama after overcoming a trial, so next we’ll move to where Natsume-kun is. And off we go directly to where Natsume-kun is with teleport.

「Huh? What?」

When we teleported in, Natsume-kun was in the middle of brainwashing some elite surveillance people. I’ve been following his actions through my clones, and step by step he’s been using brainwashing on the monitoring people to undermine them it seems. And, the ones in charge of the monitoring are from Ooshima-kun’s house. Ooshima-kun’s house is a dukedom in the kingdom. The duke and duchess have already been claimed by Potimas. What that means, is that Natsume-kun is already moving in a nice direction, without even me giving him instructions.

「Hm? You’re… Wakaba huh?」

Even though the illusion should be concealing me, I was seen through in an instant. It seems that Kusama-kun saw through to my real face in an instant as well, so it seems that people who already knew my face aren’t affected. Come to think of it, this is the first time that we’ve met while he’s been in a relatively sane condition huh. Well, I’m about to make that remaining sanity “log out” though. To the clone inside Natsume-kun’s head - do it.

「Ah-heigg?」

Natsume-kun makes a strange noise and his eyes roll back in his head.

「「「Woah」」」

The voices of vampire girl, Felmina-chan and imouto-chan overlap. It seems that they couldn’t stand the fact that they had the same reaction, as vampire girl and Felmina-chan start glaring at each other. Don’t squabble over something so trivial.

First of all, by way of the clone that has taken hold of Natsume-kun, I set up the suggestion that imouto-chan is an obedient cooperator. While at it, I induce him to take actions so as to overthrow this country. All done. Ah, I’ll alter his memory of us to be supporters as well I guess.

When the falsification of Natsume-kun’s memory is finished, his eyes roll back and while making odd sounds his body trembles and spasms then stops moving after one big leap. Finally, as if nothing had happened his expression returns to normal.

「Ahh, Shiro huh. What is it?」

Natsume-kun will now no longer recognise me as Wakaba Hiiro, and instead I’m established as Shiro. For no particular reason.

「Use these girls.」

I point at the girls standing behind me. Imouto-chan will be Natsume-kun’s assistant, and vampire girl will take hold of the Empire from the inside. As for Felmina-chan, we’ll return to the demon territories together for a job. With that as the general outline, for now I’ll have imouto-chan take the role of Natsume-kun’s advisor and reins-holder. With regards to the Empire, it’ll take a bit of time until a message from Natsume-kun can get there, so it seems that vampire girl’s debut will take a bit longer. That being the case, I leave imouto-chan in Natsume-kun’s care and leave.