“And... um...” Sanae continued.
There was still no response.
“Umm...”
Well, that’s how things had gone.
The source of the heavy atmosphere was Pamil. Her expression had been dark ever since the accident. It hadn’t changed even when Kyouhei returned from helping, and she hadn’t responded at all when either of them had tried to talk to her. That had put Kyouhei in a bad mood as well, so the conversation between them had ground to a halt. Pamil herself seemed to be caught up in her thoughts.
“Ah, I-I know, Senpai, w-why don’t we go for some tea? I know a place that does good ohagi near here.” Sanae sounded like she was struggling to breathe. She must have really been unable to stand the current atmosphere; normally, there’d be no way on earth that she would invite Kyouhei out for tea.
“Y-Yeah, sure, I’m kinda tired,” he agreed. He seemed to have noticed her plight, as he stopped and smiled at her.
But... Pamil had kept walking in silence.
“Pamil?” he called to her.
She then stopped. “...Ah, uh, you...” she mumbled, “you two go ahead. I’ll... head home first. I... remembered something I had to do.”
“Eh, but—” Sanae protested in vain.
Pamil resumed walking, without listening. Rather than her being considerate of the other two... it looked more like Pamil was running away. They watched her grow distant.
Finally, Sanae turned to him: “Uhm... Senpai?”
“Yeah?”
“Um... it might be a bit rude, but... something’s off with Pamil-chan... it’s bothering me. Did... something happen?”
“Ah... yeah...” he admitted with a grimace. He had a fair idea of what had happened.
● ● ●
“A Royalty Prohibition Charter...?” Sanae asked, her acorn eyes blinking behind her glasses.
They were in the Japanese café that she had recommended. It being her favorite café, the interior was dark, like a thick forest, but it gave a calming mood to the place. The ohagi and matcha that came with it were both delicious, and seemed rather cheap, the drink and food coming to 600 yen.
“It’s...” Sanae began with an unhappy expression, looking up at him, “...I understand you want some calm... but... a ‘Royalty Prohibition Charter’ is... a bit...”
He hadn’t expected that reaction. What he’d expected was for Sanae to agree with it, understanding it was for Pamil’s own sake.
Well... various bits of chaos had resulted in both Kaoruko and Sanae knowing the full details about Pamil. They had gone with him to retrieve her after she had been kidnapped, so Kyouhei had decided that talking them through everything would lead to less confusion.
Therefore...
“But the Bergmann Kingdom doesn’t exist anymore, she’s not a body double android for anyone; she just needs to live as my sister Harumi, doesn’t she?!” Kyouhei’s anxiety over it all had made his voice suddenly grow harsh.
Sanae cowered, but spoke up anyway: “...If I... was just forbidden... from doing any magic at all... I probably wouldn’t know what to do... it’s something I think of as being part of me, so forbidding it... would really...”
She stopped speaking, but he realized what she wanted to say. “I’m at fault then?”
“N-Not quite... but... um...”
Then, a hefty silence filled the space between them.
Whether she had strange powers or not, whether she had the bizarre backstory of the royal family or not, Kyouhei knew that Pamil was herself. He thought he did. That wasn’t what made her who she was, at least there was no reason there for Kyouhei to accept her as his sister.
She was utterly lacking in common sense and would do crazy things. She wasn’t street smart at all, and had an odd innocence to her. She ate and smiled the same as any other girl, and if you looked closely, she was really expressive.
But...
“Ah... I-I’m sorry...!” Sanae cried out, suddenly realizing what she’d said. “...B-But I couldn’t leave her looking so sad... I-I’m sorry, Senpai... you, um... Ah, I’m going home, goodbye, Senpai!” Sanae’s face was bright red as she gave a slight bow and ran off.
Kyouhei was left alone in the café.
It definitely is my fault, he thought to himself.
“Part of her, huh?”
Something she used to define herself; her position in society.
Actually, it didn’t need to be something as grandiose as that. Anyone would struggle if something they viewed as only natural was denied to them. Even if that denial was intended for the good of the person in question.
The image of Pamil that Kyouhei had in his head—that which didn’t need the elements of royalty or body doubles—wasn’t actually Pamil. He’d been using the excuse of her being his sister and forgotten to meet her halfway, even if he hadn’t realized it.
Suddenly, he started to worry about Pamil. He stood up and headed towards the exit.
“Huh?”
“Ah... um...” muttered Sanae from where she stood with rosy cheeks at the cash register.
“Murata-san?”
“Ah, umm, I need to pay my share.”
She’d noticed that she’d left before Kyouhei and forgotten to pay her own share, so she’d come back.
“Ah...” said Kyouhei with a slight smile, “it’s fine, my treat.”
“But—”
“Think of it as a tuition fee,” he joked with a shrug.
“Huh?”
Sanae didn’t seem to understand what he meant, and blinked at him in confusion.
● ● ●
After going through the usual harsh security measures, Kyouhei stopped at the entrance, lost for words. “...Wha...”
Something had been left in the entrance.
A familiar something.
“...Ah, Kyouhei,” Pamil said, suddenly appearing from behind the black boxy object. She gave a clumsy smile as she spoke falteringly: “Welcome... home.”
“What are you doing?”
The object was the coffin that Pamil had been inside. Well, if you were to believe her claims of being an android, it was probably her transport/management container and interface. It clearly had several bits of machinery attached to it, which lent credence to the latter.
✦ ✦ ✦
Back to the point.
Pamil was silent, her eyes were downcast and she wouldn’t meet Kyouhei’s gaze.
“Pamil?”
“I’m getting rid of it...”
“Eh?” Kyouhei asked, not grasping the meaning.
“I’m... Harumi Nanbu,” she answered in a faint voice, “not Princess Pamil Terrill Karl Bergmann’s body double, or the FR-MC09 ‘Pamil IX,’ so I don’t need this... There’s no point in keeping it.”
Kyouhei was wordless.
“I noticed in the commotion earlier,” she continued, “that I... wanted to go help that performer right away, but I couldn’t move. I could have easily moved the thing from on top of him. It wasn’t that heavy, and I could have used the Royal Beam to pulverize it. But... I couldn’t.”
“You...”
It was almost certainly because of the prohibition charter that Kyouhei had written.
“I... focused more on being your sister than keeping that man safe.”
“No, you—”
“Someone like that isn’t fit to rule. They’re not fit to be a princess, so I... have no right to call myself that.”
Kyouhei had no answer for her.
“I have to choose one or the other, and I’m stuck in the middle. So if I want to be your sister, I need to get rid of everth—”
So that’s why she was throwing away everything that was a sign of her past. So she could be Kyouhei’s sister tomorrow, she was abandoning what she was the day before.
Ah, I get it, he suddenly realized—he himself was the same.
He got fixated on averageness because he feared that he might regress to what he had been like years prior. He was scared of becoming that person again, a person that would hold a gun—a weapon that would easily take someone’s life—without the slightest unease.
That was why he avoided touching the guns. Why he refused to open up the photo album despite missing his past.
But... that was just a part of him, so he couldn’t get rid of it.
“You don’t need to throw it away,” he told her.
“Eh?”
“I was wrong,” he said with a sigh, resting a hand on her head, “you can be the same way as you were when you came out of there. You can be yourself, so... let’s forget that Royalty Prohibition Charter.”
Her eyes opened wide.
Then...
“Kyouhei...” she said, her expression brightening in joy.
“In exchange, you’ll be learning common sense as long as you’re here. It has nothing to do with being a princess or not; it’s that whole ‘when in Rome’ thing. We’re doing it properly, so make sure you’re ready.”
“R-Right!”
“And...” Kyouhei said with another sigh, knocking on the coffin, “don’t just throw things out. Oversized trash collection needs to be arranged in advance. Put it back.”
...
And that’s how it went. Pamil would be both a princess’ body double android and Kyouhei Nanbu’s adorable sister—today, and tomorrow too.