"..." I follow my brother through the castle, this is actually quite funny since he is not at all satisfied, finally I am coming out on top with at least the bare minimum of victory after so many defeats and disappointments.
"Big brother" I call his attention as we walk through the castle, I wonder if he controls the direction we're going, or if he just knows exactly the path he should follow.
"Do you need anything, little sis?" His voice is full of dissatisfaction, which puts a smile on my face.
"Leviathan is really strong and tall, don't you think! I'm sure it would be great to be carried by him, while pressing my thighs on his head, getting really high to see the ground from a new perspective."
"..."
"..." Valac holds me and puts me on top of him while I use my thighs as support, pressing them to get a foothold, and then he starts walking with me on his back.
'I knew it! Jealousy is wonderful! I love this!' I feel much better doing this, they've always used me, so there's nothing wrong with using him as a "vehicle" to carry me.
"Big brother, what can you tell me about Aurora?" I question him as we walk through the endless corridors, there are many forks and paths, but Valac follows them perfectly, as if he knows exactly the way to go.
"What do you want to know, little sis? Are you interested?" He speaks proactively, probably trying to earn positive points. I lean forward, putting my face in front of his, while my hair falls like a curtain, covering his vision.
"Leviathan told me some things about her, but I'm very curious about other things."
"..."
"Is there a problem, big brother?"
"Don't you think you're getting a little too close to Leviathan? When did you get so close to him?" His jealousy is noticeable.
"Yes, I like Leviathan, so we're close...we've gotten closer in the last few months and had lots of fun conversations." It's not exactly a lie, it's just not that kind of close we are, but it's not like Valac knows that. He bites his lips, and I see a drop of blood dripping.
'What a rare event, it's super hard to see them injured in any way.'
"Big brother, so what do you know about Aurora? You jumped off the subject." I say, leaning back again, and he continues walking.
"I want to know where I can find her, would it be possible to inform me?" He must know where she is, and he must know what I need to do to find Aurora.
"I can't tell you that, little sis." He denies it, even though he's feeling a lot of jealousy, but I don't care that much, I can find it on my own.
"Okay, big brother, I can ask Leviathan later."
"..." He takes a deep breath and sighs, controlling the anger I'm causing with pure innocence. My tone is not bad, it's simply common, which doesn't make it seem like I'm doing it on purpose.
"Big brother, you're very angry, but why don't you resolve this directly with Leviathan?" His anger is noticeable, but he doesn't do anything, nor does he go after Leviathan. I wonder why they don't kill each other.
"We have rules among us, there's no need to go settle things with Leviathan."
'Leviathan? Not Levi anymore? Hahahaha, he's mad.' This is very funny, he's being a bodyguard and still cheering me up, what a "good brother" I have here.
"Rules, big brother? But who could force you to follow the rules, I don't understand?" I question, curious. I think maybe it's Aurora? Or not, I have no way of knowing.
"They are personal rules made among ourselves, there's no one to make us follow them."
"So... what prevents one of you from betraying the other?" I question with doubts, but he doesn't answer.
'That means... any of them can betray the other if they have a good reason?' This only confirms that my idea might work and I can push them to the limit by redirecting the anger from me to another.
Valac is angry, but as I only mention Leviathan, the anger redirects to him without affecting me, which is good and proves that I can succeed.
Now the real question is who I should choose, if I choose the wrong one I will have problems, there are 7 of them, so I have a 1/7 chance of choosing correctly.
However, the point is not just to choose the winner, I have to choose one who won't do really bad things to me, like Beelzebub, who is a disgusting and terrible being.
This changes the choices I can make, leaving Leviathan, Lucifer, and Valac as the most suitable for me to choose, since they are the ones I think are the strongest and have minimally acceptable personalities.
"You're trying to trick me, aren't you, little sis? You think I'm a fool." He says as we enter his area of the castle.
"I'm not." I deny that I'm trying to trick him.
"Do you think I'm an idiot?" He just asks that.
"Don't you believe me?" It's obvious that tricking him wouldn't work so well, and at some point he would notice.
"I don't believe you at all, you mention Leviathan too much, trying to instigate the intrigue, must be related to your suspicious titles, isn't it?"
"I'm not trying to trick you, and I can prove it!" I have a way to prove that I'm not trying to trick him.
"Is that so? And how could you? Tell me what proves you're being honest and not just trying to instigate conflict between me and the others? Don't you think your questions are too direct?"
"With such direct questions, either you're trying to instigate conflict or you're a complete idiot, so how can you prove you're being honest?"
"The biggest proof I can give you is my life!"
"...Your life? Don't you not die from what you're talking about?"
"I'll 'kill' myself as many times as necessary for you to believe!"
"...You? I doubt it."
"Then throw me out the window."
"..."
"Why don't you do it? Throw me out any of the windows and I'll stay there, getting hurt until you believe!" There's one thing I have a lot of, and that's determination. The gray world is so monotonous.
Hurting myself is still something I don't like, but if it's to get Valac's full help, hurting myself is the least of my concerns.
"You're lying."
"I'm not! You can throw me out the window right now, I'll prove to you that I'm being completely honest about this! Why don't you throw me? Let's go right now! I won't resist."
"That window there! Look at that monster! It serves, just let me go in that window and that monster will start attacking me, it looks very dangerous." I say as I see a window with a strange, large monster.
It looks like some kind of quadruped beast with huge teeth and strange eyes, of course the windows are special, so the monster doesn't see that we're here.
"..." Valac holds me and actually opens the window, putting me on the other side of it. I start walking towards the monster, which seems to be sleeping even though its eyes are open.
With courage, I give a weak punch to the monster's eye, making it wake up and get agitated while I stand still, I just hope it doesn't hurt that much. The monster notices me and raises its paw to crush me.
But just as it's about to hit me, the monster is crushed, becoming a terrifying sight on the ground that makes me feel a little sick, it's become a mashed mass of flesh.
"Why didn't you try to run away?"
"Because... you don't believe me, I'm just asking questions, but you say I'm lying and trying to manipulate you, you know I'm insecure and stupid, and yet you treat me like a liar."
"Leviathan would never do that, he believes in me, so why don't you believe me, big brother?" I play the emotional card.
"...Are you being honest? So you really think Leviathan is better than me?" I hear a strange sound as the ground and trees crack.
'Oh-Oh... this got out of control.' I didn't think it through, if he sees that I "didn't" lie, it means I really think Leviathan is better than him.
'If I deny it, it will be clear that it was a lie.'
"I-I'm sorry, big brother... Leviathan is better." I speak, looking away as the trees in the scenery rot and his mana leaks, he's very angry.
"I see, so you're just asking all these idiotic questions because you're stupid, I can't believe you prefer that cold, scaly reptile." We reappear at the window we were at before.
"...Where are you going?" He starts walking without saying anything, but the furniture and paintings gain slight cracks.
"Weren't you going to the farthest area of the castle?" His voice is cold, and his gaze is strange.
"Y-Yes." Without saying anything else, he moves forward. I foresee that I will have problems later on, he must be thinking about how to punish me.
I just follow in silence, it doesn't matter if I'm punished, at least he'll take me to the place I want to go first. I wonder what's in that area that I don't even have the slightest knowledge of.
Although my body trembles with a slight fear, I really could have been very hurt by that monster, I was lucky that since I'm not smart, Valac easily accepted my proof of honesty.