Experiment, huh...

Selene’s blunt words somehow made me realize something.

Although her explanation was too "advanced" for me, at least I could understand some of what she said so far.

"Experiment? Time shift?"

Selene just shook her head.

"Do you actually understand, idiot, pretending not to get it, or just trying to be sure? I’m dizzy!"

Damn it. You’re actually younger than me, you know!

For some reason, I felt a little annoyed by her cocky attitude until now.

Know-it-all. Stubborn. Always thinking she’s right and the smartest person alive.

That’s Selene, proud as the smartest being in the world.

"Kairi... my ears are burnt, you know~"

She said, slowly shifting her gaze toward me, which made me swallow hard because suddenly my throat felt dry.

"What are you two even doing? And what are you talking about? I don’t understand anything at all!"

Suddenly Azalea butted in, probably dizzy listening to our conversation that was suddenly so connected yet dragging on.

And Helena? She was asleep.

Maybe she couldn’t keep up, too tired, or just bored with the convoluted talk just now.

"Look, even my sister fell asleep listening to you guys!"

Huft.

Whether I liked it or not, I had to explain to Azalea.

But before that...

"No. Not yet, Kairi."

What the heck?! This one always complicates things!

"What’s wrong? Why do you suddenly want me to stop?"

Then Selene said casually and comfortably,

"The capacity of these humans won’t reach such knowledge."

What she said basically meant, ’Yeah, they don’t get it because their brains are dull.’

I immediately fired back.

This time... exaggerating my emotions like in a soap opera to make things messier, I shouted,

"WHAT? ARE YOU SAYING AZALEA IS STU-"

Suddenly Selene pounced and covered my mouth with her hand, which smelled like a pus... damn, crazy! It smelled awful!

No doubt, she wanted to kill me. Or at least make me pass out.

Honestly, I had seen her fiddling with her crotch before she started explaining those things.

But I didn’t realize the reason she was doing that was actually to prepare for moments like this!

Without thinking twice, I immediately licked her hand.

Hehehe, at least it’d be quite an experiment.

"Kairi, that’s too gross. Stop! Ahhh~!" She sighed like she was being f*cked, even though I wasn’t doing anything.

"It feels so good, dear Selene~ Don’t worry..."

Azalea stood there with an expression that could be described as staring at a couple having sex.

A look so disgusted and degrading, as if we were the lowest creatures on earth.

"Can you guys... just once stop calling each other ’dear’ like you’re not siblings?"

"But we’re actually not siblings!" We answered simultaneously without hesitation.

Azalea then held her head, like she was desperate listening to us.

More precisely... me and Selene.

"Yeah, I get it! But, um... how do I explain this, I’m confused."

After thinking hard, Azalea said again, "In this world, you two are siblings, right?"

"So before my sis knows about this... can you stop being lovey-dovey in front of me just for a moment?"

She said bluntly.

"Why? Are you jealous?" I couldn’t help but be to-the-point. Brutal as usual.

After all, our lovey-dovey thing wasn’t her business.

And didn’t she once do that with Helena herself?

Eh, wait...

Azalea suddenly blushed. Wow, this must be someone else’s doing again, probably hers.

"Selene!"

Hearing my half-complaining shout, she just grinned mischievously.

She deliberately projected what I was thinking to Azalea without me knowing.

And of course, she could do that. This girl really can do anything.

"H-how do y-you two know?" Azalea stammered, probably confused and nervous her secret was out.

Unconsciously, we both blinked and said, "It’s a secret, duh."

Azalea just gave a sulky look, "Fine, if you won’t tell..."

She took something out of her pocket, and Selene’s eyes suddenly lit up and went wide.

"Eh, give that to me! I’ve been looking for that for a long time!"

Like seeing millions of yen, calm Selene turned into someone desperate for that thing.

By the way... it was a ring that didn’t look like anything special.

"Kairi, that’s not an ordinary ring."

I just nodded, understanding her meaning because she had already done a long monologue, like:

"That’s Arthur’s ring!"

"With that ring, I can know the secret behind aura power!"

"That magic ring is only owned by Archons to hide and suppress their powers! I really want it!"

Yeah, that’s her monologue was all about.

"No, I won’t give it until you explain how you know all that!"

Said Azalea, this time blushing, as if what we were doing was undressing her piece by piece.

Well, not that I wasn’t willing to do such things.

After all... her body looked as graceful as a violin.

"Pervert. Your mind is really dirty right now, Kairi."

"Yeah, and I’m fully aware of that."

"Hey, you two are talking about me, right?!"

We both shook our heads, again simultaneously.

"Lying bastard."

Azalea said while holding her body, as if I had already touched her or something like that.

Then Azalea went back to that again. Eh, wait...

"Big Sis Selene~!"

"Yeah, sorry. I did it on purpose because I was curious to see the reaction."

Wow, this was way out of bounds.

Azalea, already terribly embarrassed, then approached and said,

"I-if you w-want... I can do it too..."

Eh, I didn’t ask for that either. And no need to invite me like that.

Damn you, Selene. Can you stop? Or I’ll slap you!

If you want me to adjust anything else, just say!

Selene, still holding that smug little grin, finally sighed and tilted her head with exaggerated guilt.

"Okay, okay—my bad. I am sorry for messing with your heart like that, my dear~"

She said, raising her hands in mock surrender.

Then—of course—she giggled.

Not a dignified chuckle. A real one.

One of those breathy, airy little laughs that slipped out like she couldn’t help herself.

"I mean, come on, Kairi. You should’ve seen your face. It was hilarious! Like a cat caught in a summoning circle."

My eyes twitched.

I glanced at her, still laughing.

Is she serious?

Laughing like that after pulling a brain-f*ck straight out of a psychological horror novel?

She’s clearly enjoying this. She’s enjoying this too much.

The image of her grinning like an idiot—like this whole thing was a game—burned in my skull.

This lunatic’s enjoying every second. She’s a hell-bent masochist to the core. A sadist too. The worst kind. The type who gets off on psychological warfare and sprinkles glitter on it.

Yes, she’s a masochist. A sadist. No, possibly both at once.

A hell-bent, chaos-giddy freak who lives off the emotional instability of others like it’s a candy.

My palm moved on its own.

Slap.

It wasn’t hard. Just sharp enough to be real.

Selene blinked slowly. Then tilted her head with that annoying faux-innocence, rubbing her cheek with cartoonish slowness.

"Owww~" she pouted. "You’re so mean, Kairi. It hurts"

"You’re such a pervert," I muttered flatly.

She beamed. "Takes one to know one."

And I really hate that you’re right about that.

I didn’t even dignify that with a response.

Just squinted at her like I was trying to mentally delete her from this dimension.

A gasp came from the side.

Azalea—who’d apparently woken up at some point—was wide-eyed, mouth agape.

Her hands hovered uselessly midair, like she was trying to physically grasp the situation but kept dropping it like an overused tape records.

"You... you just slapped her," she whispered, as if bearing witness to divine blasphemy.

"She deserved it," I said without looking.

"You both need a shaman," Azalea deadpanned.

Selene perked up immediately. "Ooooh~ should we form a group? The Perverted Trio? I call dibs on designing the uniforms!"

Azalea stared at her like she just committed high treason against sainthood.

"I used to worship you..." she muttered, horrified. "I literally wrote your name in my prayer journal. I quoted your speeches during student assemblies. I would pray in the name of you five times in a day. I even made a mental statue just to worship you."

I shrugged. "Yeah, well. My bad. I guess... you’ll have to get used to it."

I pointed a thumb toward the smug woman beside me.

"Because your so-called holier-than-thou Senior Selene is actually like this."

"A total perverted scum."

Azalea stared at the floor like she was watching her world shatter frame by frame.

Selene, ever the shameless criminal, giggled again.

That girlish, breathy one she used as a fake reaction to feign guilt.

She even did the whole "oh no, you got me!" hand-over-mouth thing.

Then grinned. "Oh no~ So, sorry for shattering your perfect image all of a sudden."

"Oh my, this is so embarrassing you know~ I mean I didn’t like to admit this at all...." she said coyly.

I narrowed my eyes.

She was definitely loving it.

And somehow, that made my opinion about her getting even worse in my eyes.