"...Hmmm...uhhmmm..." I’m swimming peacefully inside Evelyn’s spiritual plane, until suddenly I feel her entering it, which catches me by surprise. I quickly get out of the water, seeing Evelyn hugging her knees.

"Little fruit, how did you get in here?" I ask, confused. Normally, she shouldn’t be able to enter here, right? She can’t do this on her own, as far as I remember.

"Arial?..." Evelyn lifts her head, and she has a very dark look on her face. It’s not that I don’t know what happened, but I’m surprised she isn’t crying.

"How did you get into the spiritual plane?"

"Medicine."

"?"

"The last few weeks I haven’t been able to sleep right, I’ve been having insomnia and nightmares, so I started taking sleeping pills. Seems like this time I might have overdone it a little..."

’Wow...she really seems pretty messed up...isn’t it dangerous to take so many pills you become unconscious?’

"Why aren’t you crying?" This time I don’t joke around, sitting down beside her curiously.

"...Why would I cry?... I’m... disappointed. I didn’t know I was pregnant, so I don’t feel anything about that, but knowing Esther went that far just makes me physically sick..."

"I already knew about the poison, but I wasn’t doing anything about it, so I was just confused, I didn’t think it was that relevant... if I had known the reason ’for that,’ I wouldn’t have let her do it..." I touch Evelyn’s back.

"You’re really not going to cry?" I don’t get it, and not getting it makes me extremely confused. Evelyn has cried for much less, so why isn’t she crying now? Did she finally just break completely?

"...Arial, if someone cuts a finger once, they cry from the pain. If someone cuts a finger ten times, they feel the pain. If someone cuts a finger a hundred times, they don’t react anymore. Why would I cry? When I already knew how evil Esther can be."

"I think... I’m past the stage of crying over this kind of thing... I even know what Esther’s thinking. Esther must think I don’t feel anything for the ’Baby’ because I didn’t know it."

"And she’s right, I didn’t even know about this supposed pregnancy. Apparently, only Esther and my mother knew. But even though I don’t feel anything for the baby, I feel something for Esther."

"And this betrayal... it fills me with disappointment in her. I thought... I... I just thought we were getting better... I thought everything was getting better between us... but every time things improve, Esther makes everything worse..."

’Why is she opening up to me now? Does she expect me to say something?’ Honestly, I don’t feel anything about what Evelyn is talking about. What am I supposed to feel? I have nothing to do with this.

"Do you want to die?" I decide to ask this, considering her look and how many pills she must have taken to sleep. Actually, isn’t the lack of sleep a problem in itself?

"No."

’She didn’t even hesitate... so she really isn’t thinking about killing herself...’ I don’t know!! And this is starting to irritate and frustrate me. Evelyn is a very confusing girl.

"Aren’t you going to get revenge? Esther took something from you!"

"No..."

"Pathetic! So you’re just going to let it slide that your child was murdered by your wife before it even started to take shape? Honestly, you’re so weak!!"

"A pathetic little fruit!! You barely seem like a nymph, acting like this..." She just lowers her head to my insults, and this really, really, really, really frustrates me.

"Don’t want to die, don’t want revenge, won’t cry! You’re not going to do anything?"

"..."

"Haa..." I sigh, looking at this confusing thing. It’s obvious she came in here by accident. I hadn’t even noticed she’d started using sleeping pills, but what matters is she clearly won’t do anything to Esther, and this will clearly make Esther think she can do whatever she wants.

"..." I stay quiet, watching Evelyn for a few minutes. She doesn’t say anything, just staring into space in absolute silence. She seems like a broken toy, staying still so statically like that.

"Evelyn..." I sit down in front of her, grabbing Evelyn’s face by the cheeks and making her look at me.

"H-Hmmm?" I kiss her on the mouth. She’s so shocked her eyes go wide, while I push my tongue into her mouth, until she realizes and tries to push me away.

"W-What are you doing?" she asks, wiping her hand across her mouth.

"That hurts me, Evelyn. My kiss can’t be that bad for you to wipe your mouth like that," I say with a smile.

"What’s wrong with you?"

"My problem is all your stupid melancholy. I was totally at peace here in the spiritual plane, and out of nowhere you come here with your negativity!! And do you know why your melancholy is stupid?"

"Because you’re sad over someone who only treats you badly!! Do you know what a monster in nature would do? It would cut Esther’s throat while she was sleeping! Animals don’t let their partners abuse them, monsters don’t let their partners abuse them, so why are you less clever than mere animals?" I let her go and say this so she’ll stop this around me.

"Shut up! You don’t know anything! You don’t even know what it’s like to love someone!" She stands up agitated while I also stand up, puffing out my chest.

"What a bullshit argument. I don’t know love? That’s your argument? To defend yourself from that? She killed your child, and you’re here sad, but doing nothing about it! You’re a disgrace, Evelyn! A disgrace as a demon and as a nymph!"

"It’s almost absurd that we’re the same species! How can you, pathetic like this, be the same as me? Hahahaha!! Isn’t that a sick joke!?"

"Shut up!!! You barely understand any feeling that isn’t curiosity and personal satisfaction, how can you talk about what I feel? At least I have feelings, I’m not a puddle of dirty water that uses other people’s bodies as a home! You’ll never even be able to understand what I feel!"

"Puddle of dirty water!?! Watch how you talk to me, you ungrateful fruit!! If you weren’t so pathetic, we’d get along much better!" I grab her hands, while she tries to push me.

"I don’t want to get along better with you! Leave me alone! Get away from me! Go mind your own business!! I don’t need to stand here listening to the crap you say, you manipulator!!"

"You would never understand the sadness I feel about what Esther did!!" Evelyn frees one hand and slaps me across the face. I’m shocked by this and end up letting her go.

It didn’t hurt. How could it hurt if I’m a liquid? But the audacity and ingratitude of this act is what catches me off guard.

"..." I look at Evelyn, and for the first time I truly understand. I stare at this "confused" girl and I understand perfectly. Evelyn isn’t just "sad" about what happened.

No, the truth is she doesn’t want to change what happened. For her, it’s simply easier to let all the bad things continue as they are than to try to make things better, because if you try to make things better and fail, it only gets worse.

So, in her absurd logic, it’s better to just suffer with what’s happening than to try to improve, the laziest possible way to try to protect yourself, like animals that abandon their young to predators just to avoid dying.

’Selfish...’ I look at my chest, the "core" I was trying to form again. I, who had lost my two cores to be able to enter Evelyn’s spiritual plane, had been trying to make a new one from the start.

"...?" Evelyn watches me tear the fragment from my chest. Before she can react, I shove the fragment into her mouth, pushing my fingers inside and forcing her to eat it. She tries to fight, her body convulsing and straining, but it’s too late and she ends up swallowing.

"Y-You...?" Evelyn is confused, while her body emits a faint blue glow.

"What did you do?" she asks incredulously.

"Nymphs are beings that use others’ feelings to attract them. How do you think that works if we don’t understand feelings?"

"...!?" She seems even more confused.

"We are beings that do understand feelings, but we don’t feel them the way others do. We understand that if someone loves another person, if we kill the loved one, that person will cry."

"It’s action causing reaction. That’s the way we girls know something happens based on emotions, even if we don’t feel them the same way."

"Nymphs don’t have a heart, don’t have a brain, don’t have any emotion-regulating organs. So, Evelyn, how does a nymph feel things? Feel physical sensations? The answer is simple: the core composes our physical ’bodies.’"

"Naturally, a nymph’s core stores her emotions..." I approach Evelyn, who seems much better.

"I just absorbed some of your emotions. You said I would never understand you, Evelyn, but now I understand your pain. I understand what you feel and your sadness, and I understand your love." Some tears escape my eyes.

It’s strange. I’ve never fed on this feeling. Normally just seeing was enough. I feel sad.

"T-That’s not what I... meant... wait, you... you literally stole a part of my sadness?!"

"You also have a core, Evelyn. That’s where your emotions are stored... Your emotions are so dense... and disgusting... and like a sad well... I also gave you a little bit of my emotions. That’ll help you feel better. It’s called symbiosis. Nymphs can share like this among themselves." I hug Evelyn, enchanted by this sensation.

"YOU PARASITE!!!" She tries to push me away, understanding what I did. I’m feeding directly on her sadness. Since I don’t have anyone to hunt, I was already somewhat interested in this anyway.

"I understand you now, Evelyn!! I love you." I kiss her mouth, making her fall silent as I hold her in my arms, ecstatic from this grotesque explosion of emotions.

Nymphs have few emotions, not because they can’t have emotions, but because they store them in their cores. Feelings are like numbers: they don’t fade with time, but are slowly accumulated and spent when used.

"You noticed, didn’t you? But you can’t stop!" I murmur against her lips, seeing the silvery strand of saliva connecting us. I’m sure Evelyn noticed that all feelings are stored, but the difference is Evelyn doesn’t live like a nymph.

Nymphs live years without seeing anyone, so a nymph’s "food" is a rare, occasional event. Evelyn lives in society, so she has access to intense feelings constantly, and being a demon, she constantly generates her own emotions.

"I’m sorry, Evelyn! Sorry I didn’t understand you before! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!" She isn’t depressed like this just because she’s sad, but from excessive accumulation.

"I’m going to devour this!! I’m going to nibble on you every day, little fruit. I’ll tear away every little piece of your pain! We’ll hurt each other together." I’d never thought of taking a piece of her emotions for myself.

I feel so sad. My "heart" hurts. I feel like they’re stabbing me nonstop in the place that hurts most, but I like it. I like this stimulating pain, and now I understand Evelyn’s pain.

"You’re disgusting!!" she says angrily, because I ate a part of her sadness, so she became less sad. Of course, there’s a limit. This is the maximum I can eat for today. This is the max, unfortunately.

"Disgusting? Hihihihahahahaha!! We’re so alike!! And yet I’m the disgusting one here?" Evelyn is "feeding" on the negativity Esther generates for her, probably without meaning to, but it’s a fact she’s doing what any nymph would do.

"You’re just too young!! A young little fruit who doesn’t quite understand the world! My bad, Evelyn! I’m kind of old. I forgot what it’s like to be young and overdo it!" I feel drunk in this sea of emotions I’ve absorbed.

It’s probably her fault for being this mess between demon, puppet, and nymph. Instead of just passively absorbing ambient feelings, she absorbs even the feelings she generates herself.

And because she’s someone emotionally intense, she easily gets overwhelmed by her own emotions before they can become fuel for her core.

"Haa... Haa..." Evelyn pants, falling to her knees confused. An effect similar to when extreme adrenaline wears off, the feelings that kept her standing have cooled considerably.

"Feel better?" I ask, seeing her flushed.

"...Don’t kiss me anymore. I’m married." She puts her hands in front of her face, coming out of that 100% depressive state. I still feel the sadness in her, but now she’s a little better.

"Not going to thank me? I’m really sad and in pain just from helping you." I can’t stop feeling this emotional pain. It’s such a painfully intense burden.

"...Thank you..." She hugs me, catching me by surprise.

’Thank you?... she thanked me...’ I feel a slight warmth in my heart. It’s... pleasant, I’d say.

"You’ve already noticed you’re overloading yourself, right? Is it okay if I keep nibbling on the edges of your emotions?"

"...It’s okay... it’s better than the crazy things I was thinking... anyway... I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get rid of this sadness... so at least I’ll use you as medicine..."

"Urgh, how mean, saying you’ll use me so easily... at least I’m a sweet medicine, right?"

"...Don’t say you love me anymore. It’s disgusting... One Esther in my life is enough." She doesn’t answer me, but I let her go and move away from her.

"Of course, little fruit... haaa... haaa..." I end up falling to my knees, having completely consumed the emotional fuel. This makes my body and mind return to normal, causing confusion for a few seconds before generating a certain disgust in me.

"Evelyn, get out."

"?"

"I don’t want you here right now." I expel her from the spiritual plane, throwing her back to reality while I stay on my knees feeling my heart race.

"H-Hahaha... that was intense..." I’m a bit nauseous. It’s like the "drunken" state other races go through. I have a headache from experiencing Evelyn’s sadness and love all at once, even though the duration was less than 2 minutes.

"So sleepy..." A light lethargy hits me as I lie down on the ground, weakened because my core is now flooded with emotions. Evelyn’s core seems much more complex than a normal nymph’s core.

"Evelyn... I hope... you enjoyed the brief relief I gave you..." I touch my lips, feeling that something inside me has changed. Feeling her emotions awakened emotions in me that were never active. I think things are going to get interesting soon.

I know I didn’t cure Evelyn. All I did was something like a temporary emotional sedative that helped her regulate her emotions temporarily. Now I’m anxious for the future.