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“Damn it! Why…Why did I give it the name Punishment Vanishment at that time…?

I should have gone for Vanishment Vanisher. Even if I were to use the same Punishment Vanishment, I could have gone for a cooler one like a fancy Peerless under the heavens and God destroyer… Kuuuu!!” (Sazan)

Sazan had stolen away my one other Soul Bracelet, but it seems like she still didn’t calm down with that, she was slapping her hand with the other.

It seems like Sazan doesn’t regret the fact that her ultimate magic stinks of chuunibyou, but the fact that the quality was low.

That does sound like her, but I want to say that’s not what you should worry about.

“Hey, I am sorry to say this when you are worrying and all, but aren’t you worrying about the wrong thing?” (Souma)

“About the wrong thing? Are you saying you don’t understand the coolness of Peerless under the heavens and God destroyer?!” (Sazan)

“No, as I said…” (Souma)

It seems like she seriously doesn’t understand the issue.

Sazan was looking at me with a glare, and I chimed in as if going good grief.

“In that case, I will say this without reservations… In the first place, Peerless under the heavens doesn’t translate to Punishment!” (Souma)

“Wa?! …Guh, that’s true. My attention was so taken away by how cool looking it was and the image of the protagonist, that I ended up forgetting the connection between the words.” (Sazan)

Sazan dropped her shoulders, dejected.

But it is nice to see that she is honestly admitting her mistake.

I continue speaking with the intention of encouraging her.

“I of course admit the overwhelming potential of the words Peerless under the heavens. I also understand that it fits the image of the protagonist.

That’s why, how about changing it a bit while maintaining the image and sound of it? Like Providence of the Heavens.” (Souma)

“I-I see! I don’t like to admit it, but that’s quite the good suggestion. Providence of the Heavens. Nice words that amplify absolute justice and surpass the constraints of mortality.” (Sazan)

“Hehe, right? Also, rather than god destroyer, I would say god undoer…wait, that’s not it!” (Souma)

I unconsciously ended up acting like an editor there, but that doesn’t matter.

No, it is not like it doesn’t matter, but that doesn’t matter. I do have to think about a cool name that connects better, but there’s something I have to do first.

“For now, can you please get off me already?” (Souma)

I would like her to worry more about how she has been straddling me for a while now.

The situation has not been fixed since the moment Sazan jumped and fell on top of me.

She was hammering my chest while going ‘damn it, damn it’ and it hurt, but it is also ticklish.

“D-Don’t misunderstand. It is not like I forgot because I was so into thinking of a name for the spell.

It is just that you are at fault, so I am keeping you in place so you reflect…” (Sazan)

It seems like Sazan is digging out excuses here, but that’s not the issue.

“No, it doesn’t matter who is at fault. You are a girl, so that kind of stuff is…see?” (Souma)

I thought Sazan would get angry at suddenly being treated like a girl, but she flapped her mouth.

“Ah…A-At this point in time…!” (Sazan)

“Even if you tell me that, I just learned about it recently.” (Souma)

I learned that Sazan was a girl in the rewind world when she took off her mask, so if we are more precise, rather than recent, it is the future, but it is certainly recent in terms of feeling.

Being told this by me, she must have felt something.

Sazan was sitting with legs crossed like a girl on top of me, and her legs squirmed restlessly.

No, I would like to say that you should stop that, but it seems like that doesn’t work for Sazan who has been acting like a man for a while.

“Well, even if I didn’t know, we even took a bath together, so it might be weird for me to say this, but…you should think about your own actions a bit more…” (Souma)

“Wait! What are you talking about having a bath together?!” (Sazan)

“Heh? What, you ask…” (Souma)

I was about to say it and then noticed.

Me having a bath with Sazan was in the rewind world.

The current Sazan has no memories of that.

“No, that just now…I remembered wrong, or like, a verbal slip…” (Souma)

“W-Wait! Wait a moment! You said you rewinded time… Y-You bastard…what did you do to me?!!!” (Sazan)

At the time when I was soothing Maki who was confused by the cat ears, I obviously told the others about the rewind.

To think it would bite me here.

“Calm down. I didn’t really do any—” (Souma)

“As if! T-There’s no way I would take a bath with you!

B-Because you have to get n-naked in the bath!” (Sazan)

“W-Well, that’s true, but…” (Souma)

You tried to enter the bath with clothes at first, you know.

No, now that I think about it, it was to hide your own gender.

“It doesn’t matter! I just have to confirm with this!” (Sazan)

Sazan held the Soul Bracelet while saying this.

Moreover, not the one she had before, but the one she stole away.

“If there’s one other bracelet, it must mean this is the one that I had on before the rewind, right? I don’t know why you have this, but everything will be solved if I read those memories.” (Sazan)

“W-Wait!” (Souma)

“…Muh?” (Sazan)

Sazan looked at me dubiously at the sudden stop.

But I can’t let Sazan see those memories.

I think of an excuse to convince Sazan.

“Y-You know, it would be one thing to see the memories of others, but seeing your own memories would unnerve you, right?

You wouldn’t be able to tell which ones are your real memories and stuff…” (Souma)

“There’s no need to worry about that, it is not like I plan on seeing all the memories.

Even if the accumulation of memories is indifferent, you can arrange the memories in the bracelet and choose which when watching.” (Sazan)

In other words, if you were to wish to see the memories of the bath, you can see that with pinpoint accuracy, huh.

Sazan looked at me with a criticizing glare.

“More like, the capacity of the bracelet is used to seal the Evil God, so you normally delete the personal memories before passing it on.

And yet, you used the bracelet on your own volition without any proper sorting…” (Sazan)

“I-I see…” (Souma)

So Sazan was planning on showing me only the memories of her related to the Evil God.

I might have ended up seeing the parts that Sazan probably didn’t want me to see, but it really must have been out of her expectations that I saw everything, even the unnecessary parts.

When thinking about that, I do feel like I did something bad here.

“Anyways, as if I can believe in a guy that deceived me into entering the bath with him!

I will confirm my own memories to see what happened!” (Sazan)

“No, wait! If you put it like that, it would sound like I am like Baccarat—” (Souma)

But my words didn’t have any effect this time around.

Sazan raised the bracelet with no wasted movements and shouted.

“Souls trapped in the infinity! Bring back the memories of the soul cleansing room back from the lost world!” (Sazan)

“Just say bath…” (Souma)

The soul cleansing room sounds cool and at the same time doesn’t, but I didn’t even have the time to retort to that and…

“Unya!” (Sazan)

Sazan’s body shook as if she had been hit by lightning, and then groaned in place.

Rather than in place, it is more like on top of me though.

I hesitantly speak to her.

“O-Oi, are you okay?” (Souma)

“As if I would be okay! Something like that…something like that…” (Sazan)

Sazan was in tears when she raised her head.

Seeing that state of hers, it is clear that she has succeeded in inheriting her memories, but I ended up asking.

“So, you did see it?” (Souma)

“I did! Not only did we enter the bath together, Leila jumped the wall the other day, and even the day when I was thrown into the bath!!” (Sazan)

Sazan shouted desperately.

I thought about it for a bit, wondering what this wall jump of Leila was and…

“The wall jump…bath? …Aaah, when you peed yourse—” (Souma)

“Unyaaaaaaaaaaaa!!” (Sazan)

I was stopped by the desperate scream of Sazan.

Looks like she even saw the memories related to the bath.

It seems like the embarrassment was not letting off even when she shouted, she went ‘wuuh’ and wriggled on top of me.

“W-Well, leaving aside the wall jumped, couldn’t you have just refused me when I invited you to the bath?

If you were embarrassed, even more so, but you should be more aware of your own gender and—” (Souma)

“S-Shut up! I don’t want to hear that from the guy that didn’t notice at all even when seeing my ch—my body!” (Sazan)

She said with an angered tone.

Speaking of which, she did cross her arms and hid her chest there.

“Ah, wait!” (Souma)

That’s when I remembered something outrageous there.

“The Horned Paon at that time! What was that?” (Souma)

When I saw it in the bath, Sazan had a splendid…no, a way too splendid Horned Paon.

Now that I know Sazan is a woman, that’s weird.

Or more like, it would be weird even if she were not a woman.

Could it actually be a curse?

I wondered this and asked, and Sazan instead asked me with a dubious tone.

“What? You didn’t see that part in the bracelet?” (Sazan)

“Aah, what I wanted to know was your past after all. I haven’t seen your memories of after you left the island.” (Souma)

Well, I only limited the day, so I clearly saw even unrelated stuff about the Evil God like the Punishment Vanishment.

When I honestly admitted this, the eyes of Sazan grew even more grim.

I hurriedly made an excuse.

“W-Well, even if I say the past, it is just the events that remain in your mind. Yeah!” (Souma)

“That’s true, but uhm…t-there’s the times when I went to the b-bathroom you know…to pick up flowers…” (Sazan)

Sazan grew red all the way to her neck as she asked this while supporting herself countless times.

I see. I understand her worry.

But that’s an unnecessary worry.

“I swear on my name that it is okay on that front. As I said before, I only saw the memories that remained in your mind. The special moments.

The things that fall into daily life events didn’t really remain in your mi—ah!” (Souma)

“Oi, what was that ‘ah!’ just now?!! What did you remember?!” (Sazan)

“…N-No, it is nothing. It was just my imagination. Yup.” (Souma)

“As if! Just say it already! Say it!” (Sazan)

I lost to the intense questioning of Sazan who was half in tears from even before I said this, and averted my gaze from her desperate eyes.

And then…

“…Water magic on your bed.” (Souma)

“Umyaaaaaaaa!!” (Sazan)

The moment I answered, Sazan screamed as if the world was going to perish and grappled me…rest omitted.

 

A few minutes after I calmed down Sazan who was rampaging on top of me.

I accidentally said ‘N-Now, it is normal to wet the bed when you are a child. It is not like you did the same when you grew…up…’ and a tragedy happened where Sazan went ‘You are definitely doing this on purpose, aren’t you?!’ and got even wilder.

But she must have gotten resistance from the dark history incident of before, I managed to calm her down in the end.

“Anyways, that was true, huh.” (Souma)

And this must have been the fortune within the misfortune.

Even when we were making this much of a ruckus, Seirie-san continued reading without noticing anything.

There was the possibility that she was simply acting as if she didn’t notice when I was testing her, but this time around, that shouldn’t be the case.

Because…

—Hehe.

—Mugugu.

—Argh!

—Ehehehehe.

—Hmm?

Is she matching the scenes of the book?

The expressions of Seirie-san were changing with every turn of the page.

“It is like a paper mask performance.” (Sazan)

Seeing the disgraceful behavior of someone else might have cooled her head down, Sazan muttered this in a calm state.

That’s quite the way of putting it, but I agree too.

Or more like, this is most likely that. The case where the related party is completely unaware and if you were to point this out, they would end up super depressed.

“W-Well, for now, let’s talk about our matters.” (Souma)

I do want to see Seirie-san all flustered with her glasses, but it is fine if she is concentrating.

Right now I don’t have the time to see the individual event of the librarian-san.

“Hmph, right. And so, what were we talking about?” (Sazan)

Sazan pushed her chest out as if saying there’s nothing she fears anymore.

Rather than saying she has returned to her usual attitude, it is more like the best bluff she can muster, but well, after hearing about her dark history and then her we—the water magic incident, she probably won’t have anything to fear anymore.

“It is about the bath matter of the rewinded world. You saw, right?

In the end, what was the Horned Paon?” (Souma)

I asked quickly in order to have her forget about my verbal slip.

But It is true that I am wondering about it.

Or more like, it was a mystery that such a big thing could be contained in her clothes.

“Ah, y-you, where are you looking?!” (Sazan)

I unconsciously looked at Sazan’s crotch, and she complained after noticing this.

She is probably not used to such gazes, she desperately tried to block my gaze by slouching, but that instead made her body stick to mine even more, and I ended up skipping a beat there despite myself.

“Aah, no, that’s not it. The Horned Paon! What was that Horned Paon?” (Souma)

I forcefully adjusted my thoughts that were about to derail, and asked again.

She was still slouched as if wary of my gaze, and the masked girl began to speak indifferently…or maybe trying to make it sound indifferent.

“It is hard to make something big look small, but it is easy to make it look like something small is big.

That’s why the me from that time…uhm…I couldn’t do anything about my c-chest, so I had to do something about the lower part with magic.” (Sazan)

“Magic?” (Souma)

Being told this, I remembered.

Speaking of which, just before entering the bath, I feel like Sazan muttered something while desperately reading a book…

“In other words…” (Souma)

“Yeah, that Horned Paon was an illusion. There’s a spell called Metamorphosis that lets you transform into a monster, right?

I used that to recreate the head of a Horned Paon in one part.” (Sazan)

“Metamorphosis… I see, an unimplemented illusion spell.” (Souma)

As you can tell from the glasses that let me transform in Loic, there was no point in transforming into characters in the game of Nekomimi Neko, or like, there was no AI made to recognize that you have changed your appearance.

However, it existed in the talks of the citizens and the lore, so it might not be weird that Sazan can use those kinds of spells.

“You said I couldn’t bring a staff in the bath, so the effect ran out in the middle and it was terrible, you know?” (Sazan)

Sazan must have thought I was convinced with that, she said this as if wrapping it up, but that explanation is not enough.

“Wait, I still haven’t asked the important point.” (Souma)

“Hm? What is it?” (Sazan)

“Why is it that you showed a Horned Paon in order to fake your gender…?” (Souma)

I finished saying that a bit hesitant, and Sazan looked at me with eyes as if saying ‘what nonsense is this guy asking?’, and answered as if natural.

“—Cause men have Horned Paons growing on their crotches, right?” (Sazan)

……Hm?

I wonder why.

I feel like I am encountering a heaven breaking misunderstanding here that surpasses imagination…

“Uuuh, you are kidding…right?” (Souma)

It is true that Sazan was raised as the seal priestess and didn’t get involved with many people, so you could say she is extremely oblivious of the outside world, but she apparently traveled by herself, and she is already this old… Could this be…

“Kidding? What part?” (Sazan)

But my faint hope was destroyed by the words of Sazan.

Yeah well, how to say it, I did think it was weird since the time we took a bath together!

Cause just imagine it.

Your comrade had a literal Horned Paon head growing from their crotch, and then they say it is a Paon while waving around its nose.

Even if you use elephants as a metaphor, if you really were to see an elephant growing on their crotch, you would either bring them to a hospital or bring yourself to a psychiatrist.

This is the world of Nekomimi Neko, so I didn’t doubt my own sanity, but I did seriously think of the possibility that this was a curse.

But I didn’t even imagine that such a misunderstanding would be created.

“Uh, Sazan, do you know about metaphors?” (Souma)

“Metaphors?” (Sazan)

“You know, men don’t really have Horned Paons growing there…

Speaking of which, didn’t you see it when we went into the bath together?” (Souma)

“Didn’t see what—auh!” (Sazan)

It seems like she noticed in the middle of it, and she got confused in an instant.

She then moved her face closer to me and shouted in excitement.

“A-As if I would look at it! I didn’t have the leeway to think of anything aside from hiding my own things. I-In the first place, something like that is…d-dirty…” (Sazan)

So the concept of dirty existed in her head, huh. Leaving aside the shock, it seems like she didn’t see it.

I am relieved and at the same time troubled.

“Anyways, think about it calmly. It is weird for the head of a monster to grow from a human, right?” (Souma)

I tell this logic to Sazan who seemed to have had blood rush to her head.

But it seems like that had the opposite effect on the stirred up Sazan.

“L-Lies! You must be saying weird stuff for a while now to deceive me!” (Sazan)

Looks like beating around the bush instead created doubts in her.

I hurriedly explained myself.

“N-No, it is the truth. In the first place, under what basis are you making this assumption…?” (Souma)

“I-It was written in the book!” (Sazan)

“…Excuse me?” (Souma)

“T-That…they said stuff like ‘Michelle-ojousan, the creatures called men all have monsters on their crotches’ and ‘the Horned Paon of George was already big and standing tall’!

I remember it clearly!” (Sazan)

She is making an unbelievable misunderstanding as always, but that did make it click.

“I see, George in the Attic!” (Souma)

The moment I said the name of that book, Sazan showed her surprise.

“Y-You knew about it?” (Sazan)

“Rather than knowing about it, it is more like I learned about it just now.” (Souma)

Before I saw the memories of the bracelet, Sazan must have been talking about this book when mentioning George and Michelle.

As you can tell from this title, George in the Attic, that smells like an old man, it is the only book within the possessions of Sazan that has ero scenes.

It is about the interactions of a girl called Michelle and the fairy(?) in the attic, George, and it’s a book with plain binding with no illustrations or anything, but that must be why it managed to get through the strict education filtering of her father.

“I don’t remember the small details though.

You know, it seems like you were reading it over and over, and you read that book at night mostly inside of the blankets, so…” (Souma)

“Unyaaaaaa!!” (Sazan)

The moment I said that much, Sazan raised a scream that was as strong as the time with the dark history…no, with slightly more intensity than that time as she used both hands to try and cover my mouth.

In other words, it wasn’t that fast, but it felt as if she were in a dire situation here.

“O-Oi, just what—” (Souma)

“Forget it! FORGET IIIIITTTT!!” (Sazan)

She tried to cover my mouth with her hands, but I grabbed them and stopped her.

It is not like I will forget if my mouth is covered, but it doesn’t look like she is in a state where such logic will work on her.

“Hey, is it really that embarrassing that you were reading that book that mu—” (Souma)

“Unyaaaaaaaaaaa!!!” (Sazan)

“Owah!” (Souma)

She turned into a cat with how flustered she got.

She has become such a cat she is even competing for the cat spot of Mitsuki.

“Wa, stop rampa—ebuh?!” (Souma)

I was stopping the hands from covering my mouth, but she must be trying to shut me up regardless, she instead used her body to cover my mouth.

I must understand that this naturally turns into a posture like that of hugging. Even though I normally don’t pay it any mind, I felt like the chest of Sazan being pushed onto my face was kind of soft and it made me flustered.

Anyways, this position is bad in a lot of ways.

“G-Got it! I have forgotten it already! I have, so please calm down!” (Souma)

I forcefully pulled her away and declared that I surrendered.

“R-Really?” (Sazan)

There’s a term called cornered rat, but this is a cornered cat.

Sazan was looking at me with eyes filled with wariness like that of a wounded cat.

“You won’t talk about that book anymore?” (Sazan)

“I won’t, I won’t.” (Souma)

I nodded profusely.

When I did, I could tell that Sazan loosened up a bit.

But the next words were even more difficult to answer.

“You won’t try to deceive me anymore by saying that you don’t have a Horned Paon?” (Sazan)

“N-No, as I said, I am not trying to deceive you here. Really…” (Souma)

“Don’t lie! Even my Mother-sama told me that men have something women don’t have in the days when she was healthy!” (Sazan)

“That’s not wrong, but it is not a Horned Paon…” (Souma)

I tried to fix the misunderstanding, but it doesn’t work on Sazan whose embarrassment has gone over the limit and is currently losing her mind.

“Y-You must be trying to deceive me here in that fashion to do something weird to me!

Just like George! Just like George!” (Sazan)

“Why did you say that twice?! That’s not it… Aah, geez, this is such a pain!” (Souma)

I grabbed the arms of Sazan and spun her body around.

“Hya?!” (Sazan)

Sazan raised a short scream, and her extended arm shook the table, making boxes fall from above, but I didn’t pay attention to that.

There’s no way Seirie-san would stop reading her book just from this.

I switched positions and, this time around, we ended up in opposite positions; me on top and Sazan on the bottom.

“…Eh?” (Sazan)

Sazan must not be able to keep up with the change in the situation, she looked up at me dumbfounded for a while, and the moment she understood that her own body was completely restrained by me, fear showed in her eyes.

And then…

“…Souma?” (Sazan)

She called my name uneasily.

Her normal haughtiness and boyish feeling was not there, and it was the voice of a girl.

The moment I heard that, something similar to happiness crawled from my back, and at the same time, I thought of something.

A great idea to have this masked priestess acknowledge her own mistake.

I open my mouth while pushed by excitement.

“—In that case, I will show you.” (Souma)

There was no need to think in the first place.

There was no need for pointless words.

The knowledge of Sazan was simply something feeble gained from books.

If she has wrong knowledge, then I just have to overwrite it with something even more persuasive.

And the thing that can do that is already here.

“It might be too stimulating for a shut-in priestess-sama, but you are the one at fault, okay?” (Souma)

“What…? What are you trying to…” (Sazan)

She must have felt fear from my tone, Sazan struggled below me…

But it is already too late.

“—Confirm with your own eyes if it  really is a Horned Paon!” (Souma)

I extended my hand that was not holding down Sazan, and…

 

“How was it? Heard what you wanted to hear?”

The one who entered the room leisurely was Maki.

It is most likely around 30 minutes since Maki left the room.

You could say the impatient Maki endured well.

“In a way, you could say I did get to hear about it, and at the same time didn’t. Anyways, we are taking a small break for now.” (Souma)

I answered this, and Maki finally noticed what was off.

“Hm? Speaking of which, where’s Sazan-chan?” (Maki)

“Aah, if it is Sazan, she is there.” (Souma)

I hid my internal agitation as I pointed to the corner of the room.

At that place, there’s the masked mage curled up with her back sticking on the wall.

“What is she doing?” (Maki)

“…Who knows.” (Souma)

She is mumbling something with blank eyes, but that’s probably not what Maki is asking here.

I said in a casual tone while cold sweat rushed out from me.

“She is going to get scared if I approach her, so can you please speak to her?” (Souma)

“Hmm, what’s with that? So weird.” (Maki)

Maki was finding this strange, but it seems like she still intends to follow what I tell her.

She went to Sazan with light steps.

“How was it, Sazan-cha—” (Maki)

“……It wasn’t a Paon…” (Sazan)

“Eh?” (Maki)

Maki spoke to her with a casual tone, but her voice cut off at the weird state of Sazan.

On the other hand, Sazan didn’t react at all to Maki approaching her, and…

“—That was even more…even more sinister. Like an Evil God. An Evil God Fragment…” (Sazan)

She was simply mumbling those words.

Sazan was mumbling nonsense over and over, and Maki could only tilt her head.

“Souma, what did you do to Sazan-chan?!” (Maki)

She obviously noticed something was wrong here, she questioned me intensely.

“…Uuuh, I simply showed her a bit.” (Souma)

I felt bad while I tried to dodge the question, but it obviously didn’t work on Maki.

“Showed? Showed what?” (Maki)

“That’s…” (Souma)

Having the topic pursued, my eyes swim.

That was a mistake.

“Aaah!!” (Maki)

Maki sharply followed that gaze of mine and raised her voice loudly.

I tucked it away hurriedly right before Maki came, but I must have been in a real hurry there, now that I look closely, there’s clear skin color from the opening.

“Could it be…Souma!” (Maki)

Maki’s face was filled with anger in an instant, and I covered my mistake with both hands.

I already have no choice but to tell her everything.

Because the gaze of Maki was directed at the source of Sazan’s fear.

“Showing Sazan-chan something like that, you pervert!!” (Maki)

—The box that had ‘Black Corner’ written on it and the many books filled with skin color.

——

Author: Mindbreak!! (With ero books)

There has not been a beep about the Evil God (real one) until now!!

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