Inside the fast-food restaurant.
Looking at the brother standing before him, in this body, Sulu wore a complicated expression as his gaze traveled up and down.
Unlike the original owner, who had inherited their mother's looks, Rhode had inherited more of their father Tonks Potterley's features. His angles were rugged, and beneath a slightly gloomy hawk nose, his full lips were often pressed tightly together, giving him a resolute expression.
At that moment, though, Rhode was stuffing a beef burger into his mouth with absolutely no regard for appearances, swallowing it down in great gulps—almost without chewing.
"You... how many days have you gone without eating?"
The way he was acting reminded Sulu of a starving ghost, or a vagrant who'd been wandering around the park for days.
"Two days and one night... Long-distance steam trains are hard to get tickets for these days, and the food they serve onboard is way too expensive..."
After wolfing down seven Big Macs, Rhode Potterley gulped down a large glass of orange juice and finally sighed with satisfaction. "The moment I got your letter, I came straight here..."
"I'm sorry... I've already dealt with my problem!"
Sulu shrugged, feeling a little regretful.
If Rhode had arrived a day earlier, he might have made a completely different choice.
"Is that so... Looks like I'm late!"
Rhode nodded, then gave Sulu another once-over. "Hmm... The little runt's grown taller and sturdier! What I wanted to say is... It's good to see you again!"
He tried to force a gentle smile onto his face. It was clear he'd done his best.
Counting the years since the original owner fell out with the family, it's been four years since I went home, hasn't it?
Sulu's expression grew wistful. "How's the old man... doing? And why did you send me that letter before? What was that thing in it...?"
Since there were plenty of people around, he didn't say the name of the black magic page aloud.
"He... isn't well. Not well at all!"
Rhode's movements faltered.
"What happened?"
Don't tell me our old man's gone missing. That'll make me think of a certain TV show.
Sulu grumbled to himself. Rhode's reply came in a deliberately lowered voice. "He... Well... how should I put it? He went to a very distant place, using the method you know about!"
"The method I know about?"
Sulu's hand tightened slightly, and a sea of flames seemed to rise before his eyes.
It was the most agonizing scene in the original owner's memories: Tonks's failed ritual to advance to a new class!
Even though these were only fragments of someone else's memories, his body couldn't help trembling slightly, and his cheek twitched. "Looks like... we need to have a proper talk!"
"Of course!"
Rhode wiped his mouth with a napkin. "We really do need to talk... and we need somewhere quiet!"
He stood up naturally.
Sulu glanced at Rhode's pocket, then simply went to pay the bill himself.
An empty lot on the outskirts.
There was nothing around them, and the view stretched far into the distance.
As Sulu and Rhode walked, they told each other about what had happened to them.
Since Rhode had given him that page from the black magic book, Sulu didn't hold back. He told him everything that had happened afterward.
Well, everything except that he'd crossed into this world and had a cheat. He couldn't possibly let that slip.
The main points were Beatrice's mutation and Catherine, who'd been hunted down.
Rhode looked grave. He paced a few steps before speaking. "That Catherine you described sounds a lot like a Shadow Binder. Transcendents in that class can do incredible things with shadows, but they're not hard to deal with. They're just very evil, because the shadows they control have to be stolen from other people!"
"That's easy for you to say..." Sulu's face darkened.
He could tell that his brother was strong, both in strength and physique—stronger than he was. That hug earlier had nearly made his bones ache. Rhode was unquestionably at a 'superhuman' level.
"That's true... Any Transcendent, regardless of their class, is incredibly dangerous to ordinary people... You handled it well!"
Rhode spoke gently. "As for that school board member, I'll talk to him. You won't have any more trouble from him."
Hearing that put Sulu considerably at ease.
But Rhode's expression turned more solemn than ever. "The most important thing... is that Corpse Princess, Beatrice! I'm afraid she really has mutated!"
"What exactly do you mean?"
"The page of the magic book I gave you really was spoils from a battle. It came from a secret society that worships death... Of course, I'm no good at ancient languages, so I couldn't fully decipher the writing. I just thought it might be important, so I asked you to take a look."
Rhode explained.
"If I hadn't had that magic, I might've been arrested as a murderer by now..." Sulu shook his head.
People at the top knew about supernatural powers, but the lower-level officers handling cases might not. Even if what he'd said had caught the attention of those higher up, how many kind souls would have come to the aid of a poor kid they didn't know in that situation?
Sulu had never liked pinning his hopes on other people's kindness.
"I'm not saying you handled it badly. It's just... very abnormal!"
Rhode furrowed his brows and stopped walking. "By all rights, no matter how you tried to use that black magic, as an ordinary person you were bound to fail... But because of the unusual nature of your target, and because you used the moon as the source of power for the ritual, something changed."
Sulu recalled what had happened. It was true: without the Attribute Panel, he wouldn't have been able to learn the skill Corpse Maiden Creation at all.
Even if he had learned it, the chance of failure would have been high.
In the end, it had only worked because some unknown force had lent a hand.
"That girl... Beatrice. You said Catherine cared a lot about her. Judging by how often she sacrificed girls, Beatrice must belong to a very special type of person. If she'd been in the Church of the Goddess of Light, she might have been raised to become a Saintess... But in the eyes of certain Evil Gods, she'd make an excellent vessel for their descent!"
Rhode's next words made Sulu's expression change dramatically. "You mean... some evil being interfered with my ritual, making Beatrice its 'sacrifice'? Or its 'Avatar'?"
"Exactly. But... you were the one presiding over the ritual, and that didn't change. This mysterious connection and suppression will make the product of the ritual turn on you. She has to kill you to become truly free—or, you could say, to belong completely to some other being!"
"Then why didn't she kill me?" A chill ran through Sulu, and he pressed for an answer.
"Rituals and ceremonies are mysterious and complicated... I can only offer a few guesses! From the fact that you could still more or less control that Corpse Princess afterward, it seems the other being only managed to influence her a little at the time. In other words, it couldn't take control away from you. That being made the ritual succeed, but only planted a seed!"
"A seed?"
"Maybe it's because the Dawn of Gods has only just begun. The righteous gods are all asleep, and the Evil Gods can't easily awaken or descend... So it's only a seed!"
Rhode said, "But a seed will eventually grow. That Corpse Princess is blessed by death, so her strength will certainly grow rapidly... Once she passes a certain threshold, she'll have to perform some kind of ritual and kill you, her 'original master,' to advance and become truly 'terrifying'!"
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