“Mr. Akuto looks so cute when he’s sleeping. Squish, squish, squish!”
“You mustn’t poke him, Princess. Akky’s exhausted.”
“Hey, Akky boy! Break time is over!”
“Tamamo, no it’s not. It’s recommended to have a fifteen-minute break for every hour of gaming.”
“Shut your trap, Yeleniana! You follow that stupid rule, and you ended up a four-eyes anyway!”
“I offered up my eyesight to my love of Japanese novels, not video games! I have no regrets!”
“Miss Judge, Master’s eye mask is falling off.”
“Aww… He’s really so cute… I could stare at him forever. ♥”
The rowdiness made me open my eyes.
I saw a pink, fancy room around me.
Outside the window, the lights from a group of buildings sparkled against the night sky.
Right…we’re having our party to celebrate the end of the trial.
It was a weekend evening after I had hurried to finish all our urgent work.
We had all gathered on the top floor of the royal palace’s tower, aka the princess’s room, and were playing video games.
“Oh, Mr. Akuto! Wake up and smell the nulla poena sine lege!”
On my right was the princess, with her innocent, lighthearted smile.
“Sorry, I must have fallen asleep. How long was I out?”
“Exactly twelve minutes.”
On my left, Shiro held an eye mask in her hand.
“All right, time to get up—oof!”
Boing—as I tried to sit my upper body up, my face smushed into something soft.
“Eek! Oh, Akky…”
A familiar, familial smell. It was my sister’s magnificently huge boobs.
“Wh-what are you even doing?!”
“Letting you use my lap as a pillow, of course! We always used to do this.”
I looked at her face upside down. She blushed as she smiled down at me.
“Yeah, when I was a little kid!”
I was surprised she was so okay with doing this kind of skin-to-skin in front of everyone. My head fell back down after hitting her breasts and was buried back into her soft thighs. There seemed to be no escape from this booby trap.
“Aw, after it’s been so long since we got to do this kind of thing…”
“You should care more about what other people might think.”
“What? It’s fine! We’re all like friends here, anyway!”
Friends.
Shiro, the princess, Ileana, and Tamamo.
“Well, I’m not friends with that dumb elf!”
“Hey, Tamamo. You must be pretty embarrassed with how everything went down. First you worked as the bad guy’s counsel, then you went and got brainwashed. Don’t you think it’s about time you turned in your lawyer’s pin?”
“What? Of the eighteen charges you brought to the court, how many of them were accepted, huh? A measly six! You lost two-thirds of them—twelve! You lose! Loser! ☆ Loserrrr! ☆”
“There’s something wrong with your logic—”
The two of them started bickering again.
“I didn’t say we were friends. I said we were like friends. After all, it’s not right for people related to the court to get too close to one another. The only friends you need are the Law and the Truth.”
That last part sounded like some kind of weird moral out of a kids’ show.
In any case, Tsukasa seemed back to her lively old self.
“I’m glad you’re recovering, Tsukasa. Are you feeling all better?”
“The mana IV thing they gave me really made me feel better. I’m fine now. Sorry for pushing so much of the responsibility on you while I was in the hospital.”
“It’s no problem. You’re just a girl, anyway. You shouldn’t overdo it.”
I needed to take this chance to say what was on my mind.
“Okay? No more risky stuff that’s gonna shave years off your life. Promise me.”
We sat on the carpet, staring at each other. As a man, there was no way I was going to let my now fifteen-year-old sister die before me. And her lack of knowledge about this world was dangerous. I had tried to remind her of this, out of worry, but…
“Akky. Do you really think you can say that to me?”
The atmosphere shifted. Her big, reddish-brown eyes had a glossiness to them.
“You’re the one who’s been overdoing it. If you’d made any wrong moves, you might have been made into compost yourself. And you even got your hair turned stark white… Doesn’t the wound on the back of your head still hurt?”
She reached over to pet my head.
I’m the one who was making her worry.
I might’ve been the only person Tsukasa felt like she could rely on in this world.
“This is nothing compared to the pain that the victims are feeling.”
If anything, the aching wound on the back of my head just made me feel more motivated to keep moving forward.
“We’ll judge the evil forces of this world together.”
There was no use anymore dwelling on whether I should be allowed to judge.
“After all, that must be why we were summoned here.”
If this was your average isekai fantasy story, the Japanese person who came to another world would be able to use some kind of special power bestowed on them by God. But there was something different about my acquisition skill.
I had realized one way to use it when I shattered the oldest sacred artifact. If I acquire a power, I can inspect and verify it. And if I become its owner, I can destroy that power. That must go for any power, no matter how divine.
“Tsukasa…let’s keep working on your plan to judge God. Before we ourselves get judged.”
I had always wanted to have special powers.
Something like a cheat skill or a superpower in battle. I’ve always loved cool powers like that.
But that’s all in the past now.
In a world where the various races are no longer fighting to survive and are just living prosperous, peaceful lives, super-strong powers might not be necessary. Conversely, someone getting seduced by such a power then trying to covet it would only plant seeds of conflict. I don’t believe it’s possible for everyone to only use that kind of power for their own self-preservation. And sometimes, like in Gilvert’s case, a person can become ugly and warped as a result of trying to hide their transgressions.