Shiki Tohno opened his eyes to the familiar ceiling of his own home.
"Awake now, brother?"
A cool voice reached him from beside the bed while his mind was still hazy.
He sat up and looked toward the source.
Akiha sat in a chair by the bedside, holding a book, though it was unclear how long she had been waiting.
The book seemed to hold something as precious as gold—she kept her gaze fixed on it even as she spoke, not once glancing up at him.
"Akiha… is it all over?"
"Yes. Though there were some losses, this incident has come to an end."
Akiha's slender willow-like brows furrowed slightly as she placed the book on her lap, her eyes still not meeting his but instead drifting toward the window.
"Thanks to that man named Roy, the cursed spirit from last night has been eliminated. He was indeed the mastermind behind this surge in cursed spirit activity. With his death, the frequency of cursed spirit incidents in Tokyo should return to normal."
Shiki's room was on the second floor, and from the window, he could see the fountain in the mansion's front garden and the evergreen trees planted in the yard.
And the morning sun spilling over the horizon.
"It's already morning…"
Shiki looked outside—today was unexpectedly clear. The sun had already risen well above the horizon, so it must have been past seven or eight o'clock.
He tried getting up, expecting lingering pain from the injuries he sustained when the cursed spirit knocked him unconscious the night before. But to his surprise, there wasn't the slightest trace of discomfort—he stood up effortlessly.
Even the usual weakness from his chronic anemia was completely gone, leaving him feeling as if he had been reborn.
His body brimmed with inexhaustible energy, as if he could punch a bull to death.
"..."
Shiki silently took in this body that felt almost foreign to him, as if realizing something. After a long pause, he spoke with difficulty.
"Akiha… you made a contract, didn't you?"
"That's right."
He had expected her to evade the question.
But to his surprise, Akiha admitted it calmly.
"My deal with Roy took effect the moment I signed the contract with him last night. From now on, Tokyo will follow his lead. In exchange, he 'revived' you, brother, and enhanced your physique. Supposedly, you really can punch a bull to death now. Quite fitting for your eyes, isn't it?"
It was indeed a good match.
Shiki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception granted him the supernatural ability to kill any living being with a single strike.
The only condition was that he had to touch the target's lines or points of death. Tracing a line or piercing a point would bypass any defenses or regeneration, instantly ending his opponent.
The biggest drawback had always been his own frail constitution—his abysmal physical abilities made him a poor match for these eyes. Even if he aimed for an enemy's death line, his sluggish strikes often failed to land.
But with the enhancements Roy had provided, his combat prowess had skyrocketed. Now, even if he faced a cursed spirit like Mahito alone, he stood a decent chance of defeating it in a direct confrontation.
"Did he have any other demands?"
"No."
Akiha shook her head.
But then she seemed to remember something.
"No, there was one more request—he took two squad leaders from the guard unit."
Though those two were exceptional as soldiers, they were ultimately refugees without any magical aptitude and couldn't be considered core talents of Tokyo City.
So, Akiha handed those two squad leaders over to Roy.
"Where is he now?"
"He left early this morning."
Shiki had nothing to say.
He wasn't entirely in favor of handing Tokyo City over to Roy.
From any angle, he didn't believe Roy would be a benevolent ruler.
But he was the primary beneficiary of this deal, and the scales in his heart had indeed tipped toward accepting it at one point. So even if he had countless concerns, he couldn't voice them.
Doing so would make him feel like he was being greedy—wanting everything without compromise—and that would disgust him.
In such a cruel world, greed itself was a stepping stone to death.
Still, it didn't sit well with him.
If Tokyo City were to become a discarded pawn in the future, then Shiki would be the greatest sinner.
Though their interaction had been brief, he felt that given Roy's character, such a possibility wasn't out of the question.
Rather than saving as many people as possible, Roy's approach leaned more toward eliminating enemies whenever possible.
If the two came into conflict, he would undoubtedly prioritize his own goals without hesitation.
"Tohno-kun, you're awake! I made you some porridge!"
Just as Shiki was sinking into gloom, a cheerful voice called from outside the door.
A brown-haired girl with twin tails carefully carried a steaming pot into the room, her face lighting up when she saw Shiki standing there, looking perfectly healthy.
"Yumizuka-san?"
The moment he saw the girl enter, Shiki stiffened, his mouth falling open in shock as he stared at her with disbelief.
"That was a bonus from the deal—or so that man said."
In Roy's words, Akiha explained why Yumizuka Satsuki was here.
Last night, after realizing he could undo Mahito's curses, Roy had restored all the transfigured humans he could find to their original forms.
That said, the only surviving transfigured humans were Waver and Satsuki, whom Mahito had unconsciously thrown away. The others had either been killed by the guard unit or turned into javelins and hurled too far to recover.
Satsuki had been incredibly lucky—she had only been transfigured two days prior, so her body's cells still remembered their original form. Using his authority over bodily modification, Roy stimulated her cells' memory, restoring her in no time.
As for whether this incident—especially the various transformations Mahito had subjected her to—would leave psychological scars, that wasn't something Roy concerned himself with.
"Brother, you don't need to burden yourself like this."
Akiha glanced at Shiki.
Though he hadn't said anything, what was on his mind had never escaped her notice.
"I agreed to this deal after careful consideration."
"That Roy guy definitely isn't a good person. Even if he appears friendly on the surface, it's just a facade he puts on to deceive people... But I think if we truly want to restore the world to how it was before, it might take someone like him to make it happen."
Shiki gazed at Satsuki, who looked bewildered as she listened to their conversation. After a long pause, he let out a deep sigh.
"...Perhaps you're right after all."