"You really do love talking to yourself. Clearly, you don't know anythi—" "You don't know anything"—perhaps that was the line Rita had said most often since coming here.
So often that before she could even finish, Sogo Doma could not help saying, "Can't you say something else?"
"Huh?"
"Otherwise, I'll return those exact words to you..." As Rita froze, Sogo spoke up. "Do you really understand Mashiro?"
"You're saying I don't understand Mashiro?"
"Or rather, do you really understand what you yourself are thinking?"
"Hm?"
"You said it was because you didn't want Mashiro's talent to go to waste..."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Then can I ask you a question? If—yes, if—one day in the future, you met a child even more talented than Mashiro, what would you do?" At that, Sogo Doma actually turned serious. "Would you abandon Mashiro?"
"How could that ever happen...?"
"Why couldn't it?"
"Mashiro is a painting genius said to appear only once in a thousand years..."
"Just because of that?" Sogo Doma smiled. "I originally wanted to keep a low profile, but after hearing you say that, I'll come clean. Mashiro, prepare a canvas and brushes..."
Upon hearing that, Mashiro, who had been given the order, was the first to blurt out, "Sogo, you're finally going to paint?"
"Huh?" Rita, on the other hand, said, "Are you sure you want to paint? I'm not Mashiro..."
But before she could finish, Sogo Doma interrupted, "Are you saying you're not so easy to fool?"
"..." Did this guy know Mind Reading or something? Rita fell silent for a while before saying, "Good that you know. If your painting is about as good as that Eriri's..."
"It isn't..." Mashiro was the one who spoke. "Sogo paints very well..."
However, to Rita, that reaction was simply proof that