"I am Seele. I am truly Seele, not some Herrscher of Death."
However, Seele had no intention of denying the sins committed by the Herrscher of Death.
"Perhaps death is the best way for Seele to atone."
Seele could sense that if she died one more time, the power of the authority of life she had once bestowed upon the Imaginary Tree would be exhausted. This time, she would enter an eternal sleep.
But not long afterward, Seele drew a scene depicting Mama Vill-V's death.
At that moment, all the emotions Seele had accumulated burst forth like a collapsing dam.
"How could this happen? No... Before that happens, Seele has to do something. Seele must protect Mama Vill-V!"
Seele tightly gripped the blue butterfly badge against her chest. She squeezed it so hard that its edges sliced through the skin of her palm.
Crimson blood stained the blue butterfly in a gradient of color.
"Seele won't run away anymore. Seele can do this alone."
"Authority of life, please help me one more time."
"Mr. Butterfly, please carry me into the sea's embrace."
Upon the Imaginary Tree, a new bud quietly bloomed.
Within the Sea of Quanta, a new possibility was taking shape.
"This time, Seele will make her own true choice—a happy ending in which Seele alone is gone!"
...
"In other words, by using the power of the Sea of Quanta, Seele can borrow the power of the Herrscher of Death from a parallel universe even without becoming the Herrscher of Death herself."
"That is my conclusion." Within Vill-V's mind, Expert conveyed her hypothesis to the others. "Of course, this is purely an inference based on the information provided by Lecturer. For concrete evidence, we would have to ask Seele herself."
Conductor understood immediately. "Oh, that was quite clever of Seele. Although a branch of the Imaginary Tree and a bubble world in the Sea of Quanta are not the same concept, the fact that branches can fall away and become bubble worlds shows that some connection still exists between them."
"More importantly, those additional branches were created by the Herrscher of Death's authority in the first place. It could hardly be easier for her to make use of them herself."
Pure Evil complained, "Seriously, can every member of the protagonist group pull off tricks this ridiculous? I gave you that butterfly badge so you could call for help, not so you could activate some unstoppable one-woman-army mode! At least show this supergenius a little respect before you start cheating, all right? Even Expert still hasn't figured out how to connect the Imaginary Tree with a bubble world, yet Seele just says, 'I reckon this should work,' and suddenly she can borrow the power of the Sea of Quanta?"
Id said, "Seele must have endured a great deal of suffering."
Pure Evil replied, "You can't explain something like this with the word suffering. If suffering could forge strength, I'd take a drill to your tiny skull every day, Id."
Id said, "Huh? Please don't. I'm afraid of pain."
Noticing Vill-V's slight hesitation, Seele moved her scythe aside to avoid hurting her. "Teacher Vill-V, what's wrong? Your reaction speed was delayed by 0.2 seconds."
"You actually noticed, Seele... Yes. Because of an accident, my consciousness temporarily needs to use a Divine Key... or rather, a kind of mental apparatus, to relay my consciousness," Vill-V explained succinctly.
It seemed that Seele was still the same considerate child as ever. She had keenly noticed even such a minute change in Vill-V.
The vigilance in Vill-V's heart relaxed.
And at that very moment...
Seele...
Attacked!
She raised her scythe, her hands moving as fast as lightning while the blade carved a silver arc through the air.
Whoosh!
A wine-red gleam flashed, accompanied by the brilliant colors of quantum butterflies.
Vill-V's Cardinal Device automatically moved to protect its master, but... against Seele's quantum-level edge, it was unsurprisingly sliced cleanly in half.
Crack!
It parted as cleanly as cream beneath a scorching dinner knife.
Bzzzt—
Vill-V felt a sudden chill across her chest and had no time to react.
She had never imagined that Seele would suddenly attack her!
Had Seele not drawn her scythe for the same reason other children displayed their toys?
So Vill-V had been the toy all along?
The sharp blade sliced open the front of Vill-V's clothes.
One moment Seele had been baring her heart, and the next she was literally trying to bare Vill-V's.
Yet Vill-V felt no fear. Instead, she worried about Seele.
Could Seele have been... taken over by the Herrscher of Death?
Vill-V firmly believed that the gentle Seele would never hurt her.
The readings from her intelligent vital-sign analyzer confirmed that belief—
Vill-V's body had not suffered the slightest injury.
Seele's attack had stopped at the fabric and had not harmed Vill-V at all.
Meanwhile, unlike the Cardinal Device, Zeo showed absolutely no intention of protecting its master.
It wisely preserved itself by lying still and playing dead.
Coo, coo, coo!
When it saw the edge of Seele's scythe embedded in the wooden floor before it, its entire body trembled in fright. It covered its head and bent forward, unable to bear looking.
Coo, coo, coo!
"Aaah, Zeo, stop moving around!"
When Zeo twisted beneath her, Vill-V immediately lost her balance and began to topple over. "See? A reaction delay of 0.2 seconds really is too slow, Teacher Vill-V."
At that moment, Seele drifted over and caught Vill-V around the waist from the side.
Vill-V recovered from her daze and stubbornly retorted, "Who could have expected the once-timid Seele to fight so dishonorably when we met again?"
Besides, the way Seele held her seemed strangely familiar. Why was Vill-V the woman in her arms yet again?
Damn it. When would Vill-V finally rise up and seize the initiative?
"Thank you, Seele."
Vill-V felt Seele's scorching breath spill across her collarbone.
Only when Vill-V lowered her head did she discover that Seele's scythe had sliced open the clothing across her chest. The garment that had already struggled to contain her slipped helplessly to either side, baring the ample, firm swell of her breasts. Their naturally prominent pink tips stood out against her skin, fully exposed beneath Seele's gaze.
Seele's eyes held an inexplicable longing.
Id hurriedly grabbed the remnants of her clothing with one hand. "W-Wait, Seele. What are you trying to do?"
Magician said, "Pfft, hahaha! Id, you wanted to see Seele's chest, so now Seele wants to see yours. Equivalent exchange. Perfectly fair. Conductor, I told you not to leave Id in charge, but now look what's happened. Id is in an even more awkward position, and don't expect me to clean up her mess."
Pure Evil said, "Hehe, maybe Seele wants some milk. What a devoted daughter. Come on, Mama Vill-V, squeeze some out for her."
Conductor said, "Don't talk nonsense. Where would we even get any milk... Expert, could you help Id?"
Expert said, "..."
Lecturer said, "I think this might be a good opportunity to give Seele a lesson in adolescent physiology. We're still developing too, after all..."
Id cried, "Whoa, Lecturer, not you too! That's enough already!"