I’ve lied and said I’d do anything, but I can tell! I meant that! What’s up with this body?!
But while she reeled from this, Lloyd suspected she was lying to get off the hook.
“Then it’s time you tell us everything! Were you the one in charge of the experiments on prisoners?”
“Yup! I was! I told Warden Urgd what to do!”
“““Huh?”””
Lloyd merely asked the question, and Eve admitted to everything. All jaws dropped.
Eve herself was just as flabbergasted.
She hadn’t been working an angle. That was just an admission of guilt! Way beyond putting her foot in her mouth. It was a full-on confession!
Feeling more and more like her body was not her own, she failed to hold back a little sob.
This was a real “killer driven to the edge of a cliff in a suspense drama” move.
Anzu had taken a beating earlier, so she came back into the fight swinging.
“So wait, you’ve been lying to us this whole time? Everything that went down at the prison was all your doing?”
“O-of course not. I mean, how would I benefit from any of that?” Eve scrambled, trying to take it all back.
“Tell the truth!” Lloyd said. “Why did you order that?”
“Short version, I needed powerful soldiers to plunge the world into chaos.”
An inexcusably evil reason, and everyone just gaped at her.
“Or…not that, but…”
Unable to think of an excuse, Eve shifted uncomfortably.
If her goal had been to use necromancy to create mechanical soldiers, Sardin was not about to stay quiet.
“Ah-ha! Rokujou Kingdom banned research into necromancy, but you needed it to make these soldiers. That’s why you had the mafia infiltrate my government and spread corruption! You were the real mastermind all along! Even taking my wife Ubi hostage!”
“……Dad.”
“Dad.”
Both his daughters were shocked to see him this furious.
Eve would have ordinarily used his fury to pull the rug from under him, but she was way off her game.
“N-necromancy…? What’s that again? Can you eat it?”
Hardly the time for that old chestnut.
“Is what King Sardin said true?” Lloyd cut in. “Were you the true culprit forcing Amadine’s hand?”
“Um, that was someone else working for a cause I don’t share, but I did talk them into it for purposes of my own. Corpse-control tech has uses way beyond weaponry, ya see. You know that firsthand, right, King Sardin… Aughhhh!”
Eve clapped her hands over her mouth, but it was too late. Sardin was ready to punch her.
“It was effective. No doubt about it. What I am doubting is whether you possess a single shred of humanity—”
“Sardin, my man, you can cut her in half later, ’kay? I’m not quite sure why, but she seems ready to spill all the beans.”
Anzu was usually the first to draw her sword, so this helped Sardin calm down.
“Hngg… Heh-heh… Fair enough.”
He smirked, which infuriated Eve.
“Ack… Dammit… I hate when people sneer at me!”
She gnashed her teeth, but Lloyd’s onslaught wasn’t over yet.
“Tell us about the Jiou Empire! We thought Eug led the usurpation, but was that you, too?!”
“I sent Eugy in there to try and turn them into the world’s common foe. She turned that Sou fellow into their false emperor… Well, I talked her into the whole thing. Eugy, Sou, and your brother figure Shouma were all dancing in the palm of my hand. Such good work—aughhhh! Why can’t I shut up?!”
“A common foe?!”
“If everyone was focused on Jiou, Profen could sneak around doing the real dirty work. We could experiment with weapons all we liked! If only that had upended the world like I wanted. Unfortunately, the Azami army took care of things before it became an international incident. All my plans, gone up in smoke! But I didn’t let it get me down! I have tons of ways to plunge the— Argh, blabbing all this is just humiliating!”
Eve collapsed in a heap on the table, quivering.
“Is she…”
“Compelled?”
“To answer…”
“Lloyd’s questions?”
“Huh? Are you?” Lloyd asked, shocked.
“Yes! ………Wait, really?” Eve was now asking herself. Hopelessly lost, she wound up blaming Lloyd.
What did he do to me? This isn’t what I want! Did he slip me a truth serum? Is this a Kunlun secret technique? A new kind of rune?!
Certain he’d done something, she glared at him.
And the moment he entered her vision…
ba-dump, ba-bump, ba-dump! Ba-dump!
“Hahh?!”
Her heart was racing. Like when you jump into a cold pool without warm-up exercises and feel like you’re about to die. But her body was overheating like she’d just left the sauna. Her cheeks were flushed, like she had an internal dryer. Even Eve was starting to figure it out.
What the… No, no… Is this love?!
She looked at Lloyd again, and it was like he was surrounded by a sparkling glow. Brighter than an SSR pull in a mobile game gacha.
This gleaming vision just struck her as gross.
But…whatever her mind said, her body was twitterpated.
Wha?! Like my body and mind are fighting—?!?
Only then did Eve figure it out—only then did she remember. This was not her body. It belonged to Asako Ishikura.
No way! No! Asako, have you fallen for Lloyd?!
In hindsight, Eve should’ve noticed several warning signs.
After meeting Lloyd, she’d had a vivid dream of the past, envied the girls talking about love, plus the prince-on-a-white-horse thing…
All spurred by this boy. Asako’s love for Lloyd had started to awaken her mind.
And since Eve was inside her, that meant her time limit was coming up fast.
“T-to hell with that! I’m so close!”
“Quiet down!”
“Right, sorry! ”
Even as she raged, the other mind quickly apologized—with heart symbols!
She couldn’t control this body, and that left her sweating profusely.
Everyone around her was now convinced—she could not dodge Lloyd’s questions.
“What’s going on?” Mena said, squinting hard at these proceedings. “That love frequency thing— Did Lloyd seriously claim another girl?”
“Natie, what do you mean by another?” Ubi smirked.
“Don’t tease me now, Mom!”
Ubi was clearly comfortable enough to banter.
“But…like, is she a girl? I mean, whoever’s in there should be pretty up in years… Ow!”
“Once a girl, always a girl, Allan. Still…”
This was clearly far beyond what love usually wrought.
“Eve seems genuinely flummoxed by her own answers,” Sardin said. “It’s like two personalities are fighting for control.”
“Then…,” Allan mused, “is one personality in love with Lloyd, and the other fighting her on it?”
“Even the cheapest mystery novels don’t use that kinda twist anymore!” Renge argued. “Is that even what this is?”
They were edging steadily closer to the truth, and Eve was panicking.
“Th-that’s not true at all!”
“We’ve got her spooked!” Anzu’s grin broadened.
Sardin and Threonine joined her. “Whatever the cause, let’s follow this thread. We have her hooked.”
“It’s time we land this fish and have ourselves a meal.”
“Wh-what’s with those grins?!” Eve was now genuinely frightened.
“Let me ask you this, Lady Eve,” Threonine said. “Recently a local lord named Tramadol mixed curses into wine, causing an upheaval. Were you behind that, too?”
Eve did her best to avoid answering.
“I-I’ve never heard—”
“Lloyd.”
Threonine slapped the boy’s back. Not really getting it, Lloyd asked, “What do you say, Eve?”
“I lit a fire under that Sou fellow, encouraging him to undermine Azami! I wasn’t directly behind it, but I was the indirect cause. Argh, this again! No more!”
“During the incident, Tramadol transformed into an unnatural creature. Was that your doing? Lloyd.”
“Well?”
“I used him as a guinea pig for my human experimentation! I wanted to learn about the effects of the demon lords I’d captured! Stimulating the subject’s guilt bestowed a huge power-up, a real good one, but the man himself was an unhygienic mess, and he was easily defeated! Urgh.”
Watching Eve confess to everything was really starting to entertain Anzu.
“Lady Eve. Did you just make friends with me so you could use me?”
“Thaaaat’s not true at all! I just enjoyed your company! I mean that!”
Eve was very firm on this, and Anzu just grinned.
“Right, Lloyd. Peel away this villain’s mask.”
“Um, so what’s the truth?” Lloyd asked.
“She’s so plain-spoken and relatable, so we naturally connected!” Eve said. “Eventually, I did start using her to gather intel on rare demon lords and the stuff we needed to seal them away. In the end, I totally deceived her. But if that need hadn’t arisen, we could have been pretty good friends, so I do feel bad about it. Aww.”
“O-oh…” Anzu said, caught somewhat off-guard. Eve looked just as awkward.
“……Why are you blushing?” Phyllo growled.
“Uh, sorry,” Anzu said, fairly deflated. “Not great with these things.”
She may have accidentally been in a heartwarming mood, but Eve was past caring. Her inability to fight Lloyd was clearly a grave threat.
Crap, crap! Super crap! I’m in deep shit!
If Lloyd said “Confess to all your sins” Eve would likely obey that without question. A shiver ran down her spine.
Listen to me, you lovelorn fool of a body!
The pride of the possessor.
Anzu’s question had broken off the stream of questions, and Eve seized her chance.
“Time-out! Bye!”
“Ack! Wait, where are you going?!”
“Bathroom! Or not! Picking flowers! Gonna take time to pick ’em all!”
With that, Eve skedaddled, out the door in the blink of an eye.
“She ran for it! Should we give chase?” Mena yelped, on her feet.
Threonine and Sardin waved her down.
“No need. This is her home base. There’s nowhere for her to run.”
“And she’s admitted to most of it. Lloyd, you never cease to amaze. A miracle! How’d you do it?”
Lloyd had no idea what he’d done, and just looked baffled.
“Huh? Miracle? She was acting kinda weird, but…”
He never even suspected she might have fallen for him. Mena noted that and was impressed for very different reasons than her father.
Anzu was largely feeling better about everything, so she thumped her sword on the floor, grinning merrily.
“Okay, Lady Eve may have blown this joint…but what if she snaps and starts causing chaos?”
“The elegant approach would be to merely pulverize her beyond argument and take control.”
“I dunno what’s elegant about that, but if it comes back to hurt her, she’ll quiet down a while.”
The domain duo were as hotheaded as ever.
Phyllo sighed, then grinned. “……Simple. I like it.”
Cornering a villain with brute force was totally her style.
“Okay, Lady Eve! Last stand!” Anzu crowed.
Lloyd had other concerns.
“I’m curious about Eve, but how’s Marie doing?”
He was worried she’d made a mess in a foreign palace— He really was like a mom. Marie really should reflect on her actions.