"Uwaa... You really did just openly occupy my room for the entire night."
Early the next morning, Shiro returned from the courtyard and pushed open his bedroom door.
There, the Oni sisters were still asleep on his bed, hugging each other without even having changed clothes.
After leaving the room last night, Shiro had spent the entire night in Roswaal Mansion's courtyard so he would not disturb the sisters' heart-to-heart.
He had also used the time to organize his thoughts regarding Excessive Awakening.
The experiment he originally planned to perform last night had therefore been postponed until now.
The noise Shiro made upon entering disturbed the sisters' sleep.
Both wore peaceful smiles.
Their eyelashes trembled before they slowly opened their eyes.
Then—
"Sister, Sister. Shiro-sama is making so much noise in the room first thing in the morning."
"Rem, Rem. A sparrow flew into the room at dawn and immediately started chirping."
The first thing they did after waking was complain about Shiro in perfect comedic harmony.
"Hey!"
"You two are maids, aren't you?!"
"Where did your professionalism go?! You should've been up working ages ago!"
Ram merely yawned.
"Did Shiro-sama forget?"
"We are no longer maids of this mansion."
"Until Shiro-sama leaves, Rem and Ram only need to temporarily handle the mansion's meals."
"All other duties are no longer our responsibility."
Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Then where's my breakfast?!"
"Hmm..."
Ram sat up on the bed and tilted her head innocently.
"Ram slept too comfortably and forgot?"
"Don't think acting cute will let you get away with this!"
"Also, is it just my imagination, or have you gotten increasingly disrespectful toward me ever since I took you away from Roswaal?"
"It's fine."
"Because Ram is cute, Ram will be forgiven!"
After finally talking things through with Rem, Ram had become noticeably livelier.
Faced with Shiro's accusation, she blinked at him as though her answer were completely reasonable.
"No, you absolutely won't!"
"And you and Rem look exactly the same aside from your hair and figure!"
"Then Rem is cute too!"
Ram reached over and stroked Rem's head.
Rem cooperatively revealed a gentle smile.
Compared to Ram, however—Rem still possessed somewhat more of a conscience.
After Ram finished speaking, Rem climbed out of bed and apologized to Shiro with a red face.
She explained that she and Ram had only accidentally fallen asleep there last night.
If punishment was necessary, Shiro could punish Rem alone.
Then she immediately hurried to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for Shiro and everyone else in Roswaal Mansion.
As an aside—Perhaps because Shiro had successfully helped Rem resolve the knot in her heart, his portion was visibly more luxurious than everyone else's.
Expensive ingredients alone were piled into a small mountain in his bowl.
Even Roswaal could not resist complaining that Rem was using ingredients purchased with his money to give someone else special treatment.
Shiro brushed him off with—
"You're eating food made by my maids too. Consider the ingredients their wages."
After finishing his lavish breakfast, Shiro went alone to an open field within Roswaal's territory.
He had deliberately searched for the most spacious place he could find.
Simply walking here took half an hour.
Aside from grass, there was almost nothing nearby.
Even the nearest decorative landscape feature stood hundreds of meters away.
What he intended to do next carried some danger.
Before coming here, Shiro had specifically ordered Rem and Ram to guard the surrounding area.
During the experiment, nobody—including the sisters themselves—was allowed to approach too closely.
And if they heard any strange roaring—
They were to leave immediately without the slightest hesitation.
"Alright..."
"Experiment begins."
Shiro looked across the empty grassland.
In his mind, he reconstructed the structure of Rem's Oni horn.
Then he slowly mobilized all the magic within his body at once.
When he had previously stepped halfway into Excessive Awakening, horn-like structures had also appeared on his forehead.
But unlike Rem's horn—Shiro's horns were purely physical mutations.
They had no actual function.
To prevent himself from turning into a beast capable of thinking only about slaughter once he fully entered Excessive Awakening—Shiro intended to transform those horns into restraints capable of suppressing his future rampages.
Just as Oni horns absorbed mana floating through the atmosphere—He wanted to modify his own horns into organs capable of absorbing and storing excess magic from his body whenever he lost control.
His magic was deeply connected to his soul.
So doing this would not only help him retain a sliver of rationality during Excessive Awakening—It would also allow him to draw out the stored magic within the horns when necessary.
Shiro released the restrictions on his body.
He allowed his soul to pull his flesh along with it.
Very quickly—Something began emerging from his head.
A pair of enormous horns appeared.
They swayed like black smoke, yet possessed a terrifyingly massive presence.
"Haa—"
The divine markings across his back began to burn.
"Hehe..."
An indescribable pleasure surged directly into Shiro's brain.
A chilling smile of pure delight spread across his face.
Having already experienced this sensation once—He immediately understood what was happening.
His level of existence was evolving toward something higher.
Every cell in his body was radiating joy.
His mind was rapidly becoming incapable of holding anything except destruction.
Even so—Shiro desperately suppressed the pleasure caused by his rapidly increasing strength.
He did everything possible to preserve his humanity.
Unfortunately—It did not last.
As time passed, an indescribable pressure began radiating from Shiro's entire body.
His white hair gradually lengthened until it reached his waist.
The enormous horns above his head slowly condensed into solid form.
His golden pupils narrowed into the vertical slits of a beast.
Even his fingernails elongated into sharp, slender claws.
Then—At the very moment his modification was about to be completed—Snap.
The thread holding Shiro's sanity together broke.
His consciousness sank into a bottomless sea.
He felt himself rapidly swallowed by a layer of fog.
His senses gradually vanished.
The surrounding sounds were pulled farther and farther away until everything reaching his ears resembled distant echoes from another world.
Then—
His vision blurred.
Color slowly drained away.
Until finally—
Everything became pitch black.
The next second—
"▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇—!!!"
…