Shiro could not hear even the slightest trace of reluctance in Rem's words.
Which meant she genuinely believed it.
Because it was Ram, there was nothing wrong with entering someone else's room without knocking.
That was simply how deeply Rem loved and trusted her older sister.
Shiro could only sigh helplessly.
"Don't you spoil your sister a little too much?"
"It was the same before. Even though you and Ram are sisters, you're always taking most of the work onto yourself while letting her slack off."
"That's exactly why Ram developed this terrible habit of barging into a guest's room without knocking."
Rem shook her head.
"That isn't true."
"Rem takes those jobs because they are the only things Rem can do well."
"If the more capable Sister handled them instead, she would do an even better job."
'So if Rem can't even do these things properly, then Rem has no value at all.'
Rem quietly clenched her small fist, leaving the latter half of that thought buried in her heart.
"Maybe."
Shiro nodded without taking Rem's praise of Ram too seriously.
He simply assumed it was a younger sister's blind admiration for her older sister.
No matter what Ram did, Rem could probably apply some kind of automatic filter that made it look amazing.
Arguing with her about it would be pointless.
He might as well talk about something else.
Shiro glanced at the open copy of The Witch of Envy on the desk and casually asked—
"By the way, what do you think about the Witch of Envy?"
"...!"
After receiving no answer for several seconds, Shiro raised his eyes.
What he saw was Rem's face twisted with fury.
Her normally doll-like features had distorted under the force of her anger.
Her brows were drawn tightly together, while the single blue eye visible beneath her bangs contained an emotion even stronger than rage.
Killing intent.
Simply mentioning the title "Witch of Envy" had caused the usually polite maid to reveal almost pure hatred.
Even the air seemed to grow heavier beneath the killing intent spilling from her body.
Yet that was not what drew Shiro's attention most.
It was the glowing horn that had suddenly emerged from Rem's forehead.
That was right.
Rem, who looked almost indistinguishable from an ordinary human, now had a horn jutting from her forehead like one of the monsters described in ancient myths.
But from Shiro's perspective—Rather than a glowing horn, it looked more like a crystallized concentration of magic.
The instant that crystal appeared, the mana contained within it strengthened Rem's body by far more than just twofold.
She merely stood there—And countless spiderweb-like cracks spread across the floor beneath her feet.
As the killing intent around her continued intensifying, those cracks rapidly crawled farther across the room.
"Hey! Wake up, Rem!"
"!"
To prevent the furious girl from collapsing the entire room, Shiro immediately shouted and dragged her consciousness out of that bottomless sea of hatred.
Fortunately, he reacted in time.
Any later and he might have needed to use force to knock Rem out of that state.
"I..."
Rem abruptly returned to her senses.
She instinctively raised a hand toward the place where the horn had grown from her forehead.
But her fingers touched nothing.
The glowing horn had already disappeared along with her strange state.
Only the devastated room remained as proof that it had ever existed.
"My apologies, Guest."
"Rem is feeling somewhat unwell and behaved disgracefully."
"Rem will take her leave now. Sister will come later and guide Guest to another room."
Rem bowed to Shiro.
After apologizing, she hurriedly left.
But whether it was her anxious footsteps or the fist she had clenched so tightly it nearly drew blood—Her condition clearly could not be explained away as simply "feeling somewhat unwell."
The words "Witch of Envy" had apparently struck some deeply buried wound.
Enough to draw out almost tangible killing intent.
"Still... a horn, huh..."
Shiro watched Rem's hurriedly retreating figure and raised a hand to touch his own forehead.
Back when he fought Saikyo Nene, something similar had faintly begun growing from both his and Nene's foreheads.
Nangou Torajirou had told him that it was a precursor to a Desperado undergoing Excessive Awakening.
The reason Excessive Awakening occurred was because a Blazer's physical body gradually became unable to keep pace with a soul that had already surpassed fate.
To become even stronger, the Blazer was forced to push their flesh into the inhuman realm alongside their soul.
Nangou Torajirou had speculated that the demons and monsters recorded in ancient legends might have originated from Blazers who had once entered Excessive Awakening.
For a Blazer, Excessive Awakening did not merely mean becoming stronger.
It was also proof that one had ceased to be entirely human.
Shiro did not know what possessing such a horn meant in this world.
But since both phenomena involved horns—Studying Rem's might provide some useful reference for his own path toward Excessive Awakening.
With that thought, Shiro immediately took action.
He stepped out of the room and walked along the corridors of Roswaal Mansion, mentally reviewing the personalities of everyone who lived here.
Just as Rem blindly idolized Ram, Ram spoiled Rem just as heavily.
If Shiro asked Ram about Rem, she would probably refuse to tell him anything.
Worse, she might suspect he had some strange intentions toward her sister and throw him out.
Emilia had only moved into the mansion relatively recently, just like Shiro.
She might not know much about Rem either.
And if Emilia did not know, there was no point asking Puck through her.
As for Roswaal—That man had enough schemes in his head for eight people.
He had practically been hinting that Shiro should go slay the Divine Dragon.
Unless absolutely necessary, Shiro had no desire to ask him.
Which meant there was only one person left who both knew the mansion well and was relatively easy to talk to.
Shiro deliberately allowed a small amount of mana to leak from his body.
Then he followed the flow until he reached a certain door.
Click—
"Betty, there's something I want to ask—"
"Big Brother is amazing! This top-tier fluffy texture... Uwaaah...!"
A blonde little girl was lying on a bed inside the Forbidden Library with an expression that anyone would immediately describe as utterly perverted.
And clutched tightly in her arms like an addictive substance—Was Puck, wearing an extremely helpless expression as Betty buried her face in his fur and inhaled deeply.
The instant Shiro opened the Forbidden Library door—That was the chaotic scene that greeted him.
Every greeting he had prepared caught in his throat.
Thousands of words ultimately condensed into a single sentence.
"Sorry for disturbing you."
…