Chapter 26: Uncomfortable Cohabitation

I knock Emerald out?

Emerald’s house smelled like a new house.

Well, it can’t be helped that it smells like a new house since it’s from the center.

“I thought the house design would be green since it’s Emerald…”

The green wasn’t properly filled with any furniture, so it was extremely dull.

There was even only one room.

Hey, doesn’t that mean the three of them have to share a room?

That’s a bit odd.

“Tamako’s sleeping again.”

“That’s right.”

Tamako, well, she fell asleep as soon as she got home.

She wasn’t feeling well anyway, so it was natural for her to end up like this.

“It’s much better for me if she were asleep, but…”

Tamako, who would pour out despair energy when she was asleep, liked it better if she was asleep longer than awake.

The problem was that she wouldn’t have time to feed off that despair.

Why did it have to be the same room?

If she were the landlord, she could have used the large room by herself and given a small room to tenants like us, right?

‘My plan to share a room with Tamako and suck out all her despair.

When should I…

I don’t know about the usual Emerald, but in her current state, I thought I could knock her out easily.

Look, she’s still a little unsteady as she walks.

“Go to bed first, Akari. I’ll just clean up a bit and then go to bed.”

“Yeah, well…”

I didn’t think she’d get away with it like this.

This is why I don’t like quick-witted magical girls.

I sighed inwardly at Emerald telling me to go to bed first.

Ah, I don’t know.

For now, I’ll just be down and sleep.

I hope that when I wake up, a world full of despair will unfold.

I muttered a wish that would never come true and closed my eyes.

Maybe it was because I was hungry, but I slept really well.

The next morning.

When I woke up and went outside the room, Emerald was lying down in the living room.

I rubbed my eyes at the unbelievable sight.

Emerald was still lying on the floor.

Huh?

“Midori, are you okay? Midori?”

“Ugh, ugh…”

Even though it looked like she wasn’t okay to anyone, I asked just out of courtesy.

Her face seemed red, and she seemed to have a fever.

I lightly reached out and placed my hand on Emerald’s forehead, and a warm heat flowed through my palm.

Oh, it’s hot.

I almost touched her.

“Then why are you pushing yourself too hard…”

“Aka, Lee.”

“Don’t talk and stay still. I’ll carry you to your room.”

As I said that, I lightly picked up Emerald.

Hmm, it’s a lot lighter than that.

It was incredibly light for a magical girl who punishes monsters with an iron fist.

‘Are you not eating well?”

The person who was force-feeding me like that wasn’t eating herself.

I could sense a malicious intent from Emerald.

“Please, get down… Akari…”

“Oh, if you keep pushing yourself like that, you’re really going to get in big trouble, right?

Humans need to rest a little to be efficient.”

He pressed down on Emerald, who was lying on the bed, trying to get up somehow.

Can you stop forcing yourself to move after all that time spent sick?

Now that he finally has a chance to devour Tamako’s despair, how dare he throw dirt…!

‘A magical girl is a magical girl after all…’

Unconsciously trying to stop the monster’s actions.

If I were a magical girl, I might have been touched by Emerald’s actions.

“Come on, let me cool you down.”

“Uuuuu…”

It wasn’t nice to have Emerald’s sweat on my hands, but I didn’t want to bother bringing a wet towel, so I just placed my hand on it.

What do you think, magical girl, what’s the monster’s body temperature?

And a magical girl being nursed by a monster, think about it, it’s embarrassing!

He chuckled and rubbed Emerald’s forehead.

“When else would I put my hand on her head?”

Perhaps because her forehead felt cool, Emerald’s moans began to gradually decrease.

Hmm, could she be asleep?

I tilted my head and strained my ears, and her regular, wheezing breathing tickled my ears…

This is really you.

I wish you’d give her a nightmare.

Even when she was in the hospital, Emerald never had a nightmare.

How can a human be like that?

It was such superhuman mental power that even a monster like me would stick out her tongue.

Even after going through that, she didn’t unconsciously let out despair while sleeping.

Tsk.

Oh, right.

Now that I think about it, I think I heard somewhere that if you hear a word while you’re sleeping, you’ll have a dream related to it.

I stared blankly at Emerald, who was sleeping without moving, and slowly moved my body closer.

Oh, so… um, let’s start lightly.

“Apocalypse.”

“Ugh…”

Woof—Oh, that’s effective?

Just saying the word apocalypse caused this level of despair.

Since this wasn’t an opportunity that came often, I decided to suck up as much despair as possible this time.

Okay, then what should I say next—Ah, right.

“Did you think you’d be able to get rid of me just because I came back?”

“Ah.”

Woof—This, this is it!

I let out a hot breath at the sticky despair that was flowing through my despair circuit.

Ugh, this sensation is something I can never get used to no matter when I feel it.

It felt like my body temperature was skyrocketing.

Maybe it was because of the despair of a magical girl, but my despair circuit started to run wild.

“Hoohoo, hoohoohehehe, hehe… churp, huuh…”

If someone saw me from the side, wouldn’t they look like I took some kind of drug that I shouldn’t have?

For example, a character with a different body size from Emerald standing next to me and staring at me with a blank expression.

… Huh.

[You, you, you…..! What the heck are you! Get away from Emerald right now!!]

“Wow, whoa!”

I fell on my butt in surprise at the SD character who flew in with a whoosh and slammed into me.

What the heck is that?

No, no.

You knew that, you idiot!

I wanted to hit myself in the head with the sudden realization.

A magical girl always has a partner by her side, you idiot!

At this point, it would be okay to just consider it a voluntary report.

It felt like there’s a monster here, so catch it.

I wasn’t stupid enough to just grab it when my despair circuit was already spinning.

What do I need right now?

Persuasion?

Would a magical girl’s partner fall for the monster’s persuasion?

A favor?

Would a magical girl’s partner do the monster’s favors?

Threats?

A magical girl’s partner might fall for the monster’s threats—who knows?

He raises the corners of his mouth.

He promised himself to refrain from monstrous behavior as much as possible, but he couldn’t help it in this situation.

He made eye contact with the SD character, working hard on the despair circuit that had already started to turn.

[He, he saw me…? How…?]

“What should I do?”

He gave off the most threatening impression possible.

As if he thought that if he did something foolish, Emerald’s safety might be in trouble.

“Please keep it a secret from Emerald.”

[-] “If not, we might be in big trouble, right?”

Now that Halo has risen, there’s no way I can hide the fact that I’m Apocalypse.

Up until now, I’ve only been suspicious, but from this moment on, I’ll be sure.

But there was still hope.

‘If I just shut this guy’s mouth here, I might be able to deceive him a little more…’

Since Emerald was unconscious, the two-headed character in front of me didn’t have to tell Emerald.

If this happened, I’d have no choice but to stick with Emerald.

This was also a difficult choice in many ways, but since I did something stupid, I had to accept it.

You are a monster?

“Yes, that’s right. You’re a monster created by the doctor.”

…First, calm down that despair energy.

If the alarm goes off, it’ll be irreversible.

Did it work, me?

The moment I calm down the despair energy, Emerald won’t suddenly jump up and fire the magic gun, right?

As I bit my lip at the conflicts that flashed through my mind, I eventually began to calm my despair by following the words of the character with a double body.

Phew, I thought it was going well, but I didn’t know there was a trap like this.

Even after losing consciousness, I still trapped the monster.

This disgustingly magical girl-like magical girl!

Wooooow…

[Okay. Let me introduce myself first. I’m Mei.]

“Please call me Akari.”

My fate is good.

Introducing myself to a monster.

I forced the corners of my mouth to hide my depressed mood.

Ah, if I had known this would happen, I would have endured it a little longer.

Tamako’s despair was enough, so why did I get greedy?

It’s a bit awkward to say this from the beginning, but I can’t trust the monster.

“Well, I guess so.”

It was obvious.

There was no way a magical girl would listen to the monster.

[You’re having this conversation because you want to pass quietly, right?

If I was going to eat the emerald, I would have done so a long time ago.]

“Right, right?”

No, I don’t like it; it feels like the initiative is being taken away.

However, since the two-headed character—Mei’s words were all correct, I couldn’t say anything in return.

I wanted to stick a straw in Emerald’s spine, not cause a scene.

“Why is my monster student like this?

The most unfortunate monster in the world was right here.