One week after the politician's daughter's birthday party, school resud with the second, and final, sester of the year.
And, speaking of birthdays, tomorrow is Emir's fifteenth.
January 12th.
Naturally, whether he is aware of it or not is a different topic, but I've been waiting a while now for this event, and I will not let it go to waste.
After so retrospection, I ca to the realisation that I hadn't made nearly as much use of his Supernatural Ability, Absolute Contract, as I could have. There were the contracts with Minami and Selina of course, but aside from that, I wouldn't be able to na many other instances if you asked to.
The main reason for that is because I thought there was no real need for it at the mont, and even the asurent of Truth is useless when it cos to giving advice for such broad and vague questions such as 'what can I use Emir's Absolute Contract for?', and so I have pretty much left him alone for the most part
Therefore, this is the ti I will use to rectify that.
I always knew his ability was sothing phenonal, but I don't think I ever truly ca to understand what it was capable of; such a thing seems to be natural when it cos to the topic of Supernatural Abilities, but now that I've caught a further glimpse of his potential, I have decided to deepen our relationship and put him to use.
At the very least, I need to keep him close enough to the twins and to Selina―I already have a firm leash on those three, but Emir has always been a bit of a wild card due to his unduly justice-oriented predisposition.
He may not always listen to , but he's much more likely to listen to the others. As long as I can control him through them, then it's fine, since I'm sure I won't be able to make him sign an Absolute Contract like I did Selina.
He's young, and a doughty kid, but he isn't such an idiot to fool for signing a contract with . Although I may have established so rapport with him over the recent weeks, I still notice his eye on . That wariness caused by our first encounter hasn't faded, and it's clear he knows I'm not exactly who I appear to be.
In any case, if I can just get close enough to him that I can convince him to make more Absolute Contracts with , and ones with more ambiguity, it would be an undeniably powerful gain.
Moving on, I still have a couple of concerns about what occurred on the day of the party.
Most strikingly is, of course, the conversation with that girl, Araceli Arévalo.
The self-proclaid fan of mine who not only knew the truth behind all of my false identities, but who also had a stake of interest in as a person, or more specifically, an interest in my safety.
That encounter was unlike any other I've experienced be it during my ti in the Playground or thereafter.
I looked back; even just glimpsing her from afar provoked sothing unidentifiable within . Each occurrence, I got that feeling more and more, that sothing about her was off, though what exactly it was, I wasn't aware.
And then, it turned out she was related to the Forbidden Knowledge.
Sothing like that would be nonsensical to call a coincidence, and she even admitted it herself that she could not tell .
I first considered the possibility that she was a forr Warden herself as she knew 'Cipher', but that thought was automatically ruled out because of her age that is confird to be the sa as my own. Then, I thought she could have simply been related to a Warden, but even then, it wouldn't explain why she seed to know personally or why she would have access to the Forbidden Knowledge.
There was quite literally an endless supply of questions sprouting within my mind, but receiving even one single answer was simply not sothing that was possible, and instead, the more I thought and considered the possibilities, and the more I thought about things logically and with rationale, the more questions and confusion that blossod in turn.
All I could really know was that I needed to take so kind of action, and that I needed to do it sooner rather than later.
I have enemies in this world.
Professor Marcus Lynton and the Wardens for a start, plus anyone else who might covet my asurent of Truth such as the world's governnts.
I don't know if Araceli Arévalo is my enemy, but although she seems not to hold anything against so far, I certainly can't dismiss the possibility that she might stand in my way eventually.
The fact alone that she possesses Forbidden Knowledge is a threat I need to be wary of, after all.
Thus, I ca to the conclusion that I needed to act quickly.
What exactly I need to do, I don't know, but any action is better than inaction when attacks could co at any ti.
Especially with that Kiryuuin bastard turning his attention back towards , I can't afford to sit still.
Not quite as if goosebumps arise on my skin, but rather an echoing chill throughout my bones.
Intuitively, or by instinct, a feeling.
Just like that, I knew it without 'knowing' it
Things are about to change.
❖─────❖─────❖
"My... birthday?"
Towards Emir, who looked back at with widened eyes, I nodded.
"Yes."
"..."
His mouth slightly gaped as only the sound of the T.V. in the background could be heard. Seeing such speechlessness, I continued, "So, what do you want to do? For the rest of the day, ask for anything."
"...Why?"
Hm?
He narrowed his gaze and looked at as if with scrutiny.
"What?"
Emir lightly scratched the back of his head, "Sorry, but I don't think you would do sothing for just because it's my birthday. I don't an to be rude or anything, but it feels out of character for what I've seen you do in the past."
Ruffling his hair as he wore an awkward look, I sighed.
This guy... As I thought, he still keeps in mind the attitude I showed back during the infiltration of the Hirane Facility. Perhaps acting so over the top like that was a mistake, but well, what happened, happened.
It's not like I can change what actions I showed in the past, but I haven't revealed to him any of the things I've done since then anyways, right? So, from his perspective, I should be gaining enough trust to more or less offset that.
There was the ti he confronted about the event at the Aurigan Arena, but he has no real proof that the culprit was , so it's fine. Plus, Sana and Sona were also on my side that ti, which helped pacify him.
"That's understandable. But, you know, that's exactly the reason I want to do sothing for your birthday."
I said this, to which Emir raised a brow and questioned , "What's that supposed to an?"
I began the reconciliation with a cheap smile.
"It ans I think we got off on the wrong foot. You've seen the way I am with everyone else; I'm not really that bad of a bad person, am I? Anyway, I don't want us to be at odds or anything, and honestly, I don't want the house to have an uncomfortable atmosphere. If you think about it, it just makes things harder for everyone around us too, no?"
With folded arms and an increasingly relaxed expression on his face as he listened to my words, Emir seed to be becoming more and more open to the idea I was illustrating.
Of course, as an objectively amiable person, Emir wouldn't want his friends to be uncomfortable around him more than anything else, and so even if he was silently opposed to it on the inside, he would be more than willing to deepen our relationship if it was for their sake.
Well, if things go to plan, he should soon see that being close to is sothing that cannot be topped, so once that realisation occurs, he'll stay even by his own regard.
"...You have a point; it's clear that everyone else doesn't know how to react when we're in the sa room. Even then, can you really say to with a straight face that this isn't just ant to get off your back when you do sothing bad?"
He hit with that sort of accusation, but there was no need to deny it.
"Why, of course it'd be a lie for to say I'm not doing this partly for that reason. Still, it's only that―a part of it. I don't really do bad things anyway, so it doesn't matter to that much what your opinions of are. The main motivation for to do this is exactly what I stated previously, nothing more and nothing less."
Needless to say, this wasn't entirely true.
The main motivation is to have the power of Absolute Contract Creation under my control; not to make the others' living circumstances more comfortable.
If they had that large of an issue with the state of things then they would bring it up to anyway, so it can't be that untolerable for them.
It's not like Emir needs to know all of that, though.
"Whatever doubts you might have about it, just shove them away for now. Whether what I want is sothing you agree with or not, doesn't matter right now."
"..."
"It's your first birthday since escaping hell; don't you want to enjoy it?"
With the corners of my lips arched, I spoke in a tone that left no room for dispute.
"Emir. Have you heard of a 'birthday wish'? I'll grant you one, so tell what you want."
As always, so long as it didn't go against my own wishes, I don't care what it is.
Reviews
All reviews (0)