"Something felt off. Too good to be true."
I stared at Iris while holding the bottle.
Her expression had been frozen since I started rummaging through the cabinet.
"What's in it?"
"Alcohol, probably. Put it down. Let's drink something else."
"No. I need this one."
I uncorked it and brought the bottle close to my lips.
—Crash
Iris struck my hand so hard the bottle flew to the wall and shattered.
I might not recognize the smell of alcohol, but I could identify this scent.
The same fragrance that came from Mace's mouth as she lay in bed.
"Aha, I knew it. You knew what this was."
"...I just didn't want to give my brother something I didn't know."
"Should I tell you instead? It's drugs. 'Ice,' isn't it?"
"I can't know everything in the cabinet."
"You definitely didn't buy it to use yourself.
You don't show any of the typical addict symptoms."
I approached the liquid flowing down the wall and floor, getting it on my hand.
I flexed and extended my fingers beside my face while meeting Iris's gaze.
"Ain, don't touch that."
"What were you planning to do with this? Turn me into an idiot?"
"I... Big Sis would never do something like that..."
"Then explain, you fucking bitch."
The bottle fragment I threw pierced through the cabinet's glass.
Startled, Iris flinched and raised her arms to cover her face.
"If it's not you or me, then...
What could our family's proud eldest daughter possibly need such a vicious drug for?"
"I... I don't know... Ain... Please believe me..."
"Were the people getting in your way of fucking your brother that annoying?
Why are there so many clinging to someone with nothing? I want to kill them all.
Is that what you thought? Smart. A clever method befitting an honor student."
I continued while pulling out the shard that had embedded in my hand when I picked up the pieces.
"I... I don't know what you're talking about..."
"You killed her. Mace.
The nun we saw in front of the cafe. The teacher invited to the Academy."
"N-no... I didn't..."
"Not yet. But you were planning to.
But actually, you already did. Someone slit their wrists and died because of it."
"A-Ain... Big Sis really..."
"Disgusting. Why did you do it, huh?
I played along with the family act so well. Wasn't it enough unless you got to fuck me?"
"N-no... Really..."
I grabbed Iris by the collar and shoved her against the cabinet.
I couldn't kill her until that repulsive mouth spit out a reason.
"It suits your gloomy temperament perfectly.
Why didn't I realize? That my sister was the kind of person who'd commit such fucked-up acts without hesitation.
That stuttering and acting innocent—it's just a mask you wear in front of me, isn't it?"
No. I don't even need a reason.
She'll just deny it anyway, and it's true she hasn't acted on it yet since it's from a past life.
Let's just crush her throat and kill her right here.
"Mace died. Because of you.
Because of someone like you who nobody would want even if offered.
It hurts like my chest is being gouged out, enough that this already torn place will never heal."
The rage that had been accumulating throughout my time at the manor.
The rage that boiled and burned inside me turned toward her.
Uncontrollable rage extinguished my will.
Even though she'd never answer, I ended up asking for a reason.
"Tell me. Why did you kill innocent Mace, even feeding her drugs?
Answer me, Iris. Fuck, don't just stay silent—answer me."
"Because that slut was loved by Ain!!!"
The answer I thought would never come returned.
The strength in my hands loosened.
"...What?"
"Th-that nun... Ain... on Ain's lap...
Prayer, prayer room... th-there... even to Ain's house...
How... from the Academy... I drove her out... why..."
Iris was clutching her head instead of the throat I'd been strangling.
Her yellow eyes kept blinking.
She held both temples as if suffering from a headache.
"Huh...? Why... No... I didn't... I... I don't know...
A-Ain... P-please believe me... Just... just thoughts...
A dream... I only dreamed it..."
Her yellow eyes slowly moistened in confusion.
I dodged her hand reaching toward me as I stepped back.
...I don't know how Iris recalled it, but I know what I need to do.
I approached her ear so she could hear clearly.
I spoke while letting her touch my cheek.
"Hey, Iris. I'm curious about something."
"B-Big Sis... really didn't..."
"Did you really believe I could love someone as disgustingly twisted as you?
Even knowing that rotten heart of yours?"
"My... my head... keeps..."
"I have a confession. When I kissed you, when we lay facing each other looking at each other's faces.
Every single time, I forcibly held back the nausea that came up.
Why was that? Was it my problem? I kept wondering."
"D-don't... Please..."
"Thinking about it, it was because of the stench from a whore in heat looking at her own brother."
"Hic... A-ah..."
"Those eyes that look just like mine—they were unpleasant, like looking in a mirror."
"Kk... Hic... Uh... Hic..."
"And what's with that hair color? It looks like protruding veins. Fucking awful to look at."
"Kkuk... Kkuk... Kk..."
One more step forward would do it.
I drove in the final dagger.
"Iris, you know what? Right now, won't you go somewhere far away and die?
You think so too, don't you?
That someone as vile as you has no right to be alive."
I hated hearing her sobbing moans.
Not out of sympathy, but because I hated the noise filling my ears.
Strangling her throat would stop it. I slowly pressed near the carotid artery.
"Kk... Kek... Hic..."
"Be happy. I'll follow right after. Dying by your beloved brother's hands."
I admired Iris's face growing paler.
Her body and breath withered as she gave up resistance.
To think the last thing she'd see before dying was something like this.
To think I tried so hard to love this.
I spent futile time in debt and guilt.
Love aside, I really did like her.
But before Iris's breath completely stopped, the locked doorknob rattled.
—Bang!
With a sudden noise, something struck my shoulder hard.
I rolled on the floor, hitting the desk.
An unnatural gust flowed through the sealed room.
"Unnie! Are you okay? An intruder... A burglar?"
Along with a high-pitched voice, Roxanne entered the room.
Wind created by Mana whipped through the air.
The door that had fallen off covered my body.
A few more seconds would have been enough.
In the dust-filled room, Iris's coughing continued at length.
"Ain...? What are you doing..."
"Fuck off, kid. Let the adults talk."
I got up again and approached Iris.
My whole body tingled with every movement, as if I'd hit places that shouldn't be injured.
"Why is Unnie like that? What did you do..."
What I was about to start doing again.
Roxanne blocked my way as if to stop me.
"Did you... fight? It doesn't look like you're trying to talk..."
"Move."
"If you don't explain..."
Roxanne drew the sword at her waist and threw it to Iris leaning against the cabinet.
Fuck, it missed.
Roxanne pushed me aside and picked up the sword that had fallen to the floor.
"Just... You're angry, right? First calm down..."
Noticing my gaze still fixed only on Iris, Roxanne raised her blade.
Perhaps because of my eyes fierce with murderous intent, Roxanne took a guarded stance.
"...Don't come closer. You're agitated right now."
My shoulder that got hit was dislocated and creaking.
It's fine. It's the side without an arm anyway.
"Don't come this way! I warned you!"
It's enough to strangle Iris's throat.
If the other arm won't work either, I'll just stomp on her with my foot and kill her.
"Ain... O-Oppa, don't come. Get away from Unnie."
My knee throbbed with each step.
Roxanne trembled as she sheathed her sword again and held out her hand.
Stupid.
Even after I treated her that way, she still responds with magic instead of swordsmanship.
"Last warning. Please... Oppa, you're hurt too..."
I don't know what expression Roxanne was making.
I kept looking only at Iris, only at the person I would kill.
The whirlwind wrapped around Roxanne's hand swept through the room again.
I couldn't dodge the magic about to fly because of my staggering legs.
Though I had no intention of dodging anyway.
"No!!"
With Iris's scream-like shout, my vision brightened enough to mistake it for day.
The room became as cool as winter in an instant.
Through my squinted eyes, I could see several white masses standing.
The room was filled with a snowstorm.
Tiny snowflakes fluttered from the ceiling and furniture.
I opened my eyes properly to identify the objects before me.
Flame-red hair trapped in transparent ice.
Roxanne was frozen like a statue in the same pose I'd last seen her.
Like the other things around her, in a thickness that would never melt.
Heavy breathing came from behind the statue.
Iris, her frost-covered hair disheveled, watched the disaster she'd created.
The whites of her eyes, enlarged enough to push through her shrinking irises and pupils, hinted at the shock she must have felt.
Suddenly feeling something off, I looked around my body.
In the room where everything was frozen.
I realized that only my body had no snowflakes or frost covering it.
A snowstorm so massive that even its creator couldn't escape it.
Only I was outside its radius, not frozen by even a thread.
She had excluded only me from the magic's target—not herself, not Roxanne, but only me.
—Creak
Roxanne, who had been in a precarious position, swayed greatly.
—Crash
Soon she fell to the floor and turned into glass-like fragments.
Her shattered body slid across the frozen floor.
A sharp, small piece of ice, presumably part of her head judging by its bright red color, hit my shoe.
"Roxy...?"
Iris called out to what was now only traces in a barely squeezed voice.
She crawled across the floor and swept up the scattered Roxanne with her hands.
"R-Roxy... Roxy...? Wh... what...?"
Iris began groping the floor like a horse.
She repeated the same words as if unable to believe it and started rubbing one spot on the floor.
I stood still and watched.
An absurd farce that wouldn't even make me laugh hollowly.
Yes, there's no doubt about her love.
In that chaotic situation, with a split-second judgment, she weighed Roxanne and me.
Iris chose for Roxanne and herself to get hurt rather than me.
I, who had stabbed her with daggers, was more precious than Roxanne, who had stepped forward to protect her.
I suddenly wondered if Iris had ever hurt me.
I recalled her restless appearance whenever I got even a small scratch.
What does this suggest?
What does she fear more than her own death?
I picked up the red ice fragment by my foot.
Because I'd devised a way to leave the biggest scar on Iris.
"Iris, sorry to interrupt while you're distracted. Can you look here?"
Iris's blank eyes turned toward me.
"A-Ain... R-Roxy..."
I aimed the edge of the raised fragment under my chin and said:
"The sight of me, whom Big Sis cherishes and loves, dying in a state worse than a dog.
Watch carefully and never forget for the rest of your life. Treasure it even in your dreams."
Once, twice, three times, four times.
I repeatedly stabbed until the strength left my hand.
Perhaps thanks to the cold filling the room, or because it was sharper than the dull knife at home.
It hurt less, making it much easier than my first suicide.
I felt the cold sensation piercing my tongue and entering my mouth as I collapsed to the floor.
My open eyes slowly began to blur.
Until the moment before closing my eyes, I didn't look away from Iris.
So she could never forget my appearance.
So she could suffer recalling it for the rest of her life.
.
.
.
【 BAD END: Big Sis, Want to Watch Me Go Crazy? 】
Not funny. You fucking idiot.
I'm sick of accommodating your terrible sense of humor.
Watch with your eyes wide open.
I'll show you what's really funny.