I hear several strange sounds outside my house, and I feel a lot of magic. I just wait for the sounds to calm down a bit, and when they do, I step outside.

’Nerina seems to be fighting... but she’s not using much magic...’ I look out from my house as I leave it. The island’s trees have vanished completely, and the ground is now jagged glass.

"H-Hot..." It’s kind of hot out here. I start walking forward, feeling how the glass cuts my fragile feet. It’s somewhat painful, but it doesn’t make me react much, so I keep going, heading toward the magic I sense.

It doesn’t take me long to find it, since the island isn’t very big. From what I can feel of the magic, Nerina’s simplified domain has ended. It’s a shame everything is like this; I didn’t even get to learn soul attacks from Nerina.

I hear Nerina’s voice and see her, fighting against another person. Nerina seems to be genuinely struggling as she fights while holding back.

"Just because I’m a little weaker doesn’t mean you’re going to beat me, you stupid bitch. I’ve spent way too much to simply let you take Evelyn from me," Nerina speaks with a tone full of hidden rage.

’This is it...’ I pull a weapon from inside my storage ring as I approach the two having their cold exchange. The Katana in my hands feels so heavy.

"I’m still the strongest one here!! I’ll rip your head off before you can even notice," Nerina prepares to use much more power, without holding back as much.

"The Universe will always make me win, and you will die here and now," the other woman speaks with an arrogant tone as I finish my approach.

Without any stance, technique, or care, I pierce Nerina’s back with the Katana, driving my blade through her "heart" as well.

SKRRK KSHH TRK

A sound of "tearing" and perforation occurs as Nerina, trembling, looks back, seeing me sink the Katana even deeper into her body.

This weapon in my hands is [Infinity +1], a weapon that appeared in front of me two days ago, as a "Gift" from the "Original" Evelyn. It appeared when I recovered all my memories.

Infinity +1 (Description: It’s a Katana, it’s just a Katana, a simple and normal Katana. It has a blade red as blood, and its handle and guard are golden. It’s just a Katana, the most common of all Katanas, being just a 1.78-meter Katana, it’s a simple and sharp Katana.

No powers, nothing special, like any common weapon that can be found anywhere... However, in the hands of its true owner, it is the Sharpest Blade, with the power to cut the Soul and Drain Hikishin. A Blade made of Vivetrinite, it is the perfect Anti-Magic Weapon to kill any being that depends on Magic. It is an Extremely sharp Katana that ignores any form of defense, be it physical or magical, passing through everything to strike the true form of the Soul)

This weapon is perfect for killing spiritual beings like nymphs. Nerina, unable to recover from the cut, sheds tears, realizing she’s truly going to die.

"E-Evelyn... w-why?" Nerina asks with betrayal in her voice. She apparently really did like me.

"Sorry, Nerina-sensei... but I... I love Esther... no... I can’t let you kill her..." After a lot of headaches, I managed to remember everything, and so I was ignoring Nerina to think about what to do.

However, Esther ended up arriving on the island, which didn’t give me much leeway. I remember both sides. I remember everything that happened before Nerina attacked me when I was in the ocean, and I remember my days on this island.

Nerina took care of me, taught me many things, and for a moment she relieved some of my pain. But in the end, it was all manipulation, and she deceived me, and even Arial joined her to deceive me.

"E-Evelyn... g-ghmmm" I push the blade down, widening the cut, which makes Nerina fall to her knees. Her tail weakly tries to push me away, but her strength has already begun to leave her.

"H-Hahaha... how ironic..." This incredible weapon, this "Gift" from the "Original" Evelyn, was made to mock me. This weapon is a curse. It’s a weak and useless weapon in the hands of others, but it’s strong in my hands.

But I am weak, slow, and useless in combat, making this incredible weapon something only useful for cowardly attacks from behind others, revealing my dirtiest side as a person, just like I just did. That’s what that "Idol Evelyn" meant when she said I knew how to kill Nerina. Nerina’s weakness is obvious: she likes me, so she removed me from her "danger radar."

Nerina is incapable of detecting me as a threat, which allows me to cowardly attack her from behind.

"..." I watch Nerina fall to the ground as I pull the blade out. Her body begins to dissolve into liquid on the glass of the beach. Even her cores were destroyed by the blade of this Katana.

Showing that even the weapon’s form, a Katana, is a way for the "Original" Evelyn to speak of my past, using a weapon that was a symbol in the world I came from.

’Strikes the true form of the soul... you motherfucker...’ This weapon wasn’t made for me to kill someone else. It was made for me to kill myself. That’s why it’s a "gift." The "Original" Evelyn knew that by becoming a demon queen, I would gain that soul backup ability and resistance to soul attacks, so she gave me this weapon so I would commit suicide.

’I’m not going to kill myself, you bitch...’ I look at Nerina, who is now just a puddle of water on the ground. This powerful being who could easily destroy entire continents has just fallen by my hands.

I feel so dirty and filthy for having taken advantage of her emotions to kill her, even if she was the one in the wrong.

"E-Esther..." I look at Esther as I put this Katana back into the storage ring. Because even though I hate what this weapon represents, it’s still a weapon as powerful as Grace’s sword, maybe even stronger.

"Evelyn, I’m glad you’re okay," Esther, who noticed me arriving—and whose blessing probably influenced her to just observe—gives me a big smile.

"I was worried when your dragon arrived wounded at the castle..." Esther starts talking about how she found me, but to me, it sounds more like a buzzing noise.

’Again... again that thing that doesn’t even exist anymore managed to pull the strings of my puppets.’ I look at my hands. Calyo shouldn’t obey anyone else, so why did she go after Esther? Obviously, it’s the fault of that "Panic Button" thing that was pressed in my dreams.

’Why? Why does that bitch who doesn’t even exist anymore keep trying to mess with my life...’ My hatred for the original Evelyn grows. Even though this time she helped me not continue being deceived by Nerina, it’s still all control.

"Esther, no..." I push Esther away when she tries to hug me. She looks momentarily shocked. I think about what to say. If I say nothing, Esther will never know what happened on this island. But if I don’t speak, that would be the real betrayal.

"E-Esther... I... I slept with Nerina..." I choose to be honest from the start, but I won’t say I lost my memories. I will purposely omit the fact of the memory loss. Even though I was tricked into getting involved with Nerina... I still felt good.

And even now, thinking about that moment, I feel good. Because despite being manipulative, Nerina took care of me and helped me grow my powers. She helped me in a way that Esther never would.

"And it was good... I... I really liked being with her. I felt free in a way that makes me sick now... so I’m telling you... because I don’t want to hide this from you." If I hid this from her, that would be a betrayal.

Because I will always be honest with her about many things, and being physically involved with others is included in that. My heart will always belong to Esther, and she knows that. So if I lost my body to another, even temporarily, I must tell the owner of my heart.

"..." Esther looks at me in a disturbing silence.

"I understand... and are you ready to be punished for this, love? After all, it was my fault for not having dealt with this before. You’re not to blame for anything, but I need to punish you so that I can feel better about it." She doesn’t complain about what I did. She doesn’t call me a traitor, and she doesn’t try to fight over it. Because we’ve already had this discussion before, so she boils it all down to a punishment to show her hatred and anger.

"Y-Yes..." I say a trembling yes, my heart beating wildly as I just accept it.

...

...

...

"U-Urgh..." Evelyn, vomiting blood on the ground, writhes in pain as I snap my fingers, having finished punishing her.

"Are you ready to go back, Evelyn? You still have a war to finish, don’t you?" I ask, taking a deep breath and recovering a bit of my self-control. My tone is icy, and I still very much want to hurt her a little more.

"Y-Yes, E-Esther..." Her voice comes out trembling as she tries to reconstruct her body to get up from the ground. While she does that, I look at my hands, stained with blood.

’...What hatred...’ While hurting her, I wanted more details about what happened on this island, and amidst her crying, she explained everything. And the more I listened, the more I wanted to hurt her.

Although I understand why she felt more comfortable living on this island in safety instead of living near a monster like me.

"Are you happy now, Evelyn? I fixed the problem that made you so sad." About nine hours have passed since I started punishing her.

"Y-Yes... t-thank you, E-Esther..." She thanks me with tears in her eyes, trying to give a broken smile. Seeing her try to smile makes a tear fall from my eye.

"I’m sorry I lost control, Evelyn... I should have gone easier..." I feel nauseous at how I behaved like an animal. The sensation of violently dismembering her with my hands, the soft sound of flesh tearing.

The sound of her screams and tearful moans, but with no attempts to resist, and especially the sound of crying as I forcibly impregnated her, since that was the crux of the problem.

And the worst part was the feeling of having enjoyed devouring her organs while violently impregnating her. The taste of blood on my lips makes me want to vomit when I remember how much I lost control.

In the end, my mother was right. I am a Ghoul, and I cannot fight against the violence and taste for flesh and blood that a Ghoul has. Even if not everything is the instinct’s fault, but rather the fault of my mind obsessed with Evelyn.

"You really always manage to bring out the worst in me, Evelyn." I look at her, still struggling to stand. She always manages to extract my worst sides, and I think the worst of all is that she even accepts this monstrous side of me.

She accepted the situation instead of trying to fight. If she had at least tried to fight back instead of just accepting this disgusting punishment scenario, I would feel more normal and not like this monster who abuses and devours her own wife.

"..." I grab her arm, pulling her into my arms after I’ve finished putting my clothes back on. She’s trembling and clearly still in pain.

"I hope you feel satisfied now that I’m being honest. You’re pregnant. Now there’s a baby forming in your womb with my magic, and I won’t poison this baby like I did the first one. I’m going to let this child be born." I didn’t even want a child, but hearing that what hurt her most was losing that damn baby made me impregnate her as part of the punishment and a crazy attempt to regain control.

"O-Okay..." She has a somewhat vacant look, which irritates me. Now that she’s back in my arms, she acts as if it’s the end for her.

"I’m taking you to the castle first, to give you some medical assistance. Besides, I no longer trust having you away from me. You will stay in the castle."

"If you want to participate in the war, create a marionette identical to you and control it. You know how to do that, don’t you? No one will notice the difference. You already told me you can split your consciousness between two bodies." It will be just one Evelyn, but divided into two bodies.

Like controlling a doll with your hands and making the doll talk and walk. It’s still just one being, just moving another. It’s safer for me this way. And even feeling monstrous, I can’t overcome the possessive instinct to keep her close, to be only mine.

"O-Okay..." She just accepts it as I start to carry her back. Her body seems so fragile and is full of wounds and deep bite marks that are still bleeding. She’s missing one of her wings, and her tail is in pieces because of my bites.

"D-Don’t feel like a m-monster, E-Esther... I-I still love you, e-even like this..." Evelyn murmurs, giving me a weak kiss on my cheek. Her attitude only makes me feel even worse about the severe punishment I gave her, but one that she also deserved.