"...Something feels off," I murmur, staring at the system. My maid looks at me, confused, as she approaches.

"Antares-sama, is something wrong?" the maid asks while I shrug, my gaze fixed on the names on my status screen.

"I'm not sure, but I think so? Look at this." I show her my Status screen. Unlike others', mine is special and displays far more information.

"Do you notice anything strange?"

"...The lines with 520 million names are red?" she says, and I nod.

"Yes... they're red. Strange, right? They should be white; that's normal. If they're red, it means the destiny of all those people changed at once, and the Goddess of Fate is rewriting the records..." I say, confused.

"But isn't it normal for people's destinies to change sometimes?" she asks, and I shake my head.

"Of course not! It's normal for a few people's destinies to change, but never such a large number! If this many have changed, it means someone influential did something that affects millions of lives all at once, and I'm trying to figure out who the hell did it." This could be bad, or it might not change much, since the changes could be minimal.

"I need to resolve this, so I'm heading out! Please take care of things here..." I say, leaping from my bed.

'This could get chaotic, or it might not matter... I hope it doesn't bother me and that I quickly notice the differences...' I want to be quick about this. If someone created some common good that can be used in daily life, that would already be enough to cause this, showing there's a 50/50 chance it's either good or bad.

...

...

...

"Hey, Eve!! Don't you think it's time for a break? You've been at this for a long time. I know we're puppets and don't need sleep, but resting is still necessary when we're exhausted," I say to Eve, who is brandishing her sword.

Ever since we arrived at this mansion, she hasn't stopped training, which is bad because she's ignoring the fact that Evelyn-chan needs help. Evelyn-chan is trying to be strong, but it's obvious she's struggling.

"Syl'Vyr, don't bother me," she says coldly as I approach. I swing my staff, freezing her feet to the ground, and she finally looks at me.

"What..."

"Eve, Evelyn-chan is sad, and you're ignoring that fact, focusing only on yourself. You hit me before because you wanted what was best for Evelyn-chan, so why are you being so selfish now, you bitch?" I say irritably, cursing her for being such a hypocrite.

"..."

"I'm not... ignoring her..." She sheathes her sword, breaks the ice, and walks to the edge of the training area, sitting in a chair and picking up a towel to wipe off her sweat.

"I'm doing my best, but Syl'Vyr, I can't help Evelyn-sama with this..." She speaks as if she's certain of this, which fills me with frustration.

"Why not? She needs someone to..."

"For what, Syl'Vyr? To flatter her? To lie to her? What do you want me to say to her, Syl'Vyr? Tell me, what do you think I should say to a person who is being forced to marry someone clearly abusive and doesn't even have the right to choose?" she asks coldly.

"Evelyn-sama is getting married in four days, and she knows it. For her, it's a countdown to completely losing her freedom. I won't lie to her by falsely saying everything will be alright."

"W-Well... no, I didn't say to lie..."

"No, Syl'Vyr, you're asking me to lie. Often, comforting someone is just telling a beautiful lie... consolation is only real when it has a logical basis."

"Tell me, do you think everything will work out? Do you think we can annul this marriage and everything will be resolved? I don't think so. We're... weak. We don't have the power to challenge beings like the Demon King and Esther."

"I-I know, but it's still unfair to leave Evelyn-chan alone," I say, still trying to defend my point.

"..."

"It's not, because Evelyn-sama will handle it alone... she always does. I don't know if you've noticed, but Evelyn-sama is strange... she always suffers about something for a while, then decides to ignore it and goes back to being the usual active and cheerful Evelyn-sama."

"She's sad now, but only until she decides enough is enough and starts planning things again, which should happen by the wedding day... as long as Esther doesn't make her suffer more, she'll be back to normal soon." She says this absurd thing with conviction.

"That's it!!! Are you just going to ignore it completely? What kind of servant are you! How dare you complain about me when you act like this!" A throbbing vein of irritation appears on my forehead, but I try not to be impulsive and don't attack her with magic.

"..."

"Haa..." She sighs as if talking to me right now is tiresome. She picks up a water pitcher to pour herself a drink, completely ignoring me, but I shatter the pitcher with a flame arrow, drenching her with the water.

"..."

"Coward," I say, frustrated by this. I'm there with Evelyn-sama every day, while she barely shows up, just training here as if this training is more important than anything.

She stands up, throwing the broken glass handle to the ground where it shatters. I brace myself for a fight, but she doesn't do anything as I expected. I was so prepared to be attacked that I even set up a magical landmine with fire and earth magic to stop her.

"I'm not a coward; I'm a strategist. If you think I'm a coward, then tell me, did Evelyn-sama care about anything you said to her these past few days?" she asks me.

"W-Well... no..." Evelyn-chan didn't care much about what I said. She listened, but distractedly, usually spending that time looking out the window or holding a small mirror and staring at her appearance.

"Exactly. She didn't care. Do you know why? Because Evelyn-sama has never truly received care before! She's lived her whole life alone, without friends, without family, and without love. She doesn't know how to receive affection, attention, care, or consolation."

"When she's sad or frustrated, all she knows is that she must focus on looking pretty. That's all that matters to her in times like this. Talking to her when she's in this state is like talking to a door."

"I've already tried it, and I know what I'm talking about. Evelyn-sama will be fine soon... because that's how she is. I'm not being a coward; I'm just giving her the space she needs to recover on her own."

"If you keep talking to her about what's wrong, she'll just take longer to recover. Besides, I can't stay too close to her..." She says while looking toward the mansion.

"What do you mean?" I ask, confused.

"It doesn't matter. Just know that I can't cross a certain 'line' of closeness with Evelyn-sama. If I do, she and I will have problems. When Evelyn-sama is sad, she becomes needy for attention from mirrors."

"And I look like her, so if I stay close, she starts observing me while speaking normally. But I'm not a mirror. She quickly gets discouraged by that when she also realizes it's not the same thing."

"Evelyn-sama is a complex girl. Everything I'm saying is so you wait calmly. Waiting is not neglect. A servant must know when to wait for their master. When she's ready, she herself will start talking normally."

"..." I fall silent. I'm not entirely sure if she's right, but she's correct that comforting Evelyn-chan isn't working for me. It's actually kind of frustrating because she doesn't respond properly.

"...Do you want to train with me, Syl'Vyr?" Suddenly, Eve speaks calmly, as if I hadn't done anything outrageous.

"...?"

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not angry. It's great to see you came here to fight with me for Evelyn-sama's sake. In fact, I'd love it if you really came to complain to me if I ever fail Evelyn-sama... It was just... a bit rash of you to assume I didn't care about her."

"Since we're both free, let's train together. I need something beyond a static wooden dummy. You also need to get stronger," she says with a smile, but it quickly disappears.

"I don't trust Esther, and I'm sure you've noticed it too... This mansion... is bizarre, and honestly, training here alone is not only exhausting, it's strange," she says, and I agree, calming down.

"Yeah... it's strange..." I agree with her that it's strange. My detection spells and sharp instincts don't work properly here. Magic seems to be blocked, and my instincts get confused.

"Strange is an understatement. The mansion has a dead air about it. It's cold, and I'm not talking about the current chilly weather. The gaze of the people in this mansion lacks the slightest desire to live. They're like zombies who would kill themselves if Esther ordered it, and not even out of loyalty, but because there's no 'life' left in them."

"Hahaha, yeah... We're the puppets, but these guys are the ones who seem like puppets," I joke, but Eve doesn't laugh; she just rolls her eyes as if I'm being stupid for making jokes now.

"I'll use a wooden sword. Wait a moment for me to rest, and then we can start training together," she says, heading to the sword rack while I deactivate the landmine.

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