Chapter 219: Not Lily?

The Lily who entered the room had a somehow different atmosphere. Since Stevie died she had not shown a smile that could truly be called a smile, yet now she was smiling. And with her whole face at that!

"Lily, what’s wrong? Do you need something?"

Even I thought I had asked something stupid, yet because Lily was eerie nothing else came to mind.

"It’s me, me. Don’t you understand?"

"’Me’ is Lily, right?"

"Wrong! The form is Big Sister Lily, but the heart is not Big Sister Lily — it’s Stevie. Stevie Nix!"

Lily pointed at herself and said she was Stevie, yet is it true?

"It’s a little hard to believe..."

"I see, of course, hehehe. I can’t believe it either, but it happened."

She touched her hair and twirled it around — a habit of Stevie’s when she was in a good mood. I cannot think Lily would deliberately do that.

"What happened? Don’t tell me you took over Lily’s body?"

"That’s so mean-sounding! I only borrowed it a little! You see, when Big Sister Lily is alone at night she keeps crying, and tonight she fell asleep just like that, her heart completely exhausted, so I tried to encourage her, saying ’Do your best!’ to Big Sister Lily’s heart. Then, pon! I slipped inside Big Sister Lily. And when I tried moving the body it moved, so I thought I’d try going to Robby-sama’s place, and I came!"

"No, ’I came’..."

Now that she says it, her hair looks somewhat bluer? A boyish impression is visible. The chest remains Lily’s, though.

"Robby-sama, you didn’t think something strange, did you?"

Stevie (provisional) glared at me.

"No no no, I didn’t think anything."

"Is that so? Could it be that my coming is a bother? Is a dead soul entering another person’s body and visiting creepy?"

Uuun, when asked that way it is exactly so. In the first place I myself am a soul that came from another world and entered the body of a prince who was on the verge of death. Therefore it is not strange for a soul to enter the body of someone who has lived in a close environment in the same world, even if not on the verge of death. Yeah, let’s think that!

"Stevie? Asking Lily ’Stevie’ feels somehow strange."

"Yes, what is it?"

Stevie? made a "what?" face. Did Stevie not make faces like that?

"In the present state, is it completely only Stevie’s consciousness? Is Lily’s consciousness sleeping or something?"

Stevie (provisional) laughed in a pleasant-looking way and said,

"Big Sister Lily is awake. She’s awake and looking at me from a corner with narrowed eyes, ehehe. She’s glaring as if to say ’What selfish things are you doing!’ Big Sister Lily, sorry— just a little longer, lend it to me—"

She was speaking to the Lily inside herself, yet she is showing me something quite surreal.

"So, what did Stevie come for? Ah, sorry, that was a strange way of putting it. My head’s processing can’t quite keep up. So, you came to see me? I’m happy about that in itself."

Lily and Stevie (provisional) are overlapping in my sight. Is that how it actually looks? Or is something working inside my head to make it look that way? No no, stop thinking such difficult things! Stevie (provisional) is Stevie!

"Robby-sama, you fought today and you’re boiling, right? Because Big Sister Lily said no, you’re enduring, right? So in place of Big Sister Lily I thought I’d come and be held by Robby-sama! If that happens, maybe both I and Big Sister Lily will feel good—, ufufu."

Stevie said something unexpected! Today’s Stevie has many lines. And she is proactive.

"Hah!? Really? I’m happy, but is it all right?"

My face is starting to grin a little.

"I came because it’s all right! Actually I thought I’d appear when you celebrate my birthday, but because Big Sister Lily says stiff things I felt sorry for Robby-sama. Aaaahn, Big Sister Lily, noisy! Be quiet a little! This is between Robby-sama and me, so don’t stick your nose in unnecessarily!! Eeh? My attitude got bigger after I died? Because when you die it’s equal and equal before God, God said so! So Big Sister Lily..."

I have to stop this one-person play.

"Um, Stevie-san."

Stevie shook her head and said,

"Ah, I’m sorry, Robby-sama. Look, Big Sister Lily! Robby-sama is troubled. Be quiet a little, aaah, you, u! ru! sa! i—! Yes, it’s all right now, Robby-sama."

She gave a sharp rebuke toward someone (surely Lily) and turned a smile toward me.

"Is it really all right? Have you finished talking with Lily?"

I asked cautiously.

"It’s fine. The talk is settled! Don’t worry. Now, because I came for Robby-sama tonight, here!"

I feel as if Stevie has become brighter to the point that I wonder whether her personality changed after dying. While I was thinking such things she suddenly hugged my head and buried my face in her chest.

"Kuuuu—!!"

When I put my hands on Stevie because I could not breathe a little, I ended up grabbing her breasts; the nipples were hard.

"It’s bad of me to borrow Big Sister Lily’s body, but I wanted to be held once more, ehehe."

She presses my face into her chest and squishes it around!

"Ugonyunyu—"

Because my face is buried between the breasts the words do not form. Yet I am in a happy environment.

"I always wanted to try something like this once! Because I heard that when a man buries his face in a woman’s chest it feels good."

Feeling as if I would suffocate from Stevie’s excessive expression of affection, I forcibly released my face from the chest!

"Pubah! Haa, haa, Stevie, your personality changed, didn’t it?"

"Yes? Me? Is that so? It’s the first time I’ve been told that, though?" ℯ

"First time" — of course, because only Lily and I know.

"Yeah, somehow you’ve become brighter, or more talkative."

When I said that she went "Uuun, is that so?" and put a finger to her mouth while thinking. Yeah, she never did that sort of thing, that sort of gesture; she was more rough.

"Um, after I died I feel as if I stood in the same place as Robby-sama. Before I was waiting to be called by Robby-sama, waiting and waiting, holding back for Big Sister Lily, unable to say my own things. But now I’ve become free and I feel as if I no longer care about that. I don’t have to hold back for anyone and I can hug Robby-sama tightly. Even if Robby-sama doesn’t notice, being able to hug tightly whenever I like is happiness. And now that I have a chest it’s this different! I’m feeling it, ehehehe."

The way the talk keeps changing is like Stevie. The words "logical and orderly" do not apply at all.

"Haa, is that so. A maiden’s heart is complicated."

Because I do not understand I brush it off.

"That’s right! Didn’t you know? Hehehe."

"You weren’t such a cute character, so what happened?"

"I told you already! Please believe me! If you won’t believe me I’ll go home?"

"Sorry, sorry. There are various other things I want to ask..."

"If you keep saying only that sort of thing Big Sister Lily will wake up!"

"I see, sorry."

"Robby-sama is somehow different too, isn’t he? ’Sorry, sorry’ — it’s the first time I’ve heard that."

"Eh... is that so? I haven’t changed at all, though?"

"See, ’ore’."

"Please don’t pursue that too much."

"Yes, yes, understood! But I understood that Robby-sama is somehow brushing it off and lying, you know?"

Stevie laughed with a mischievous face.

"How can you tell?"

"Because, look, it’s that Appraisal thing. Lily said she received it from me, right?"

"Ah, aah..."

"That’s it, that!"

She said it extremely proudly, yet

"If that can also judge truth and falsehood and distinguish friend from foe, it would have been better if you had used it earlier. It’s too late to say it now, though..."

At my question Stevie made a face as if a painful point had been struck.

"Because I didn’t know. Even saying friend and foe, Big Sister Lily only found it; in my case I thought it was distinguishing people who like me and people who dislike me."

I will not say that in that case most humans would have appeared red.

"Then what about the truth-and-falsehood judgment?"

Stevie grinned and, while raising her index finger and waving it, said,

"Robby-sama, I will teach you one thing. Is that all right? The creature called a human does not speak the truth. If the truth is one, the remaining ninety-nine are only lies or ambiguous things. Therefore one must not trust what people say!"

"Haa..."

"Therefore I decided not to do truth-and-falsehood judgment. If I do such a thing I will become unable to trust anyone. Because even Robby-sama is like that, right?"

"No, I am trying as much as possible to speak the truth. I did so toward Stevie as well, didn’t I?"

Stevie made a startled face and said,

"I am sorry. I spoke out of turn. Please punish me."

She bowed her head with a pekori. I stroked that head and said,

"It’s fine already, Stevie, raise your face. Now, you went to the trouble of coming to see me. Show me your face."

"Yes."

I placed my hand on Stevie’s cheek and looked carefully at her face. For an instant it seemed to blur, yet immediately it became Stevie’s face. Mental magic? No, that can’t be. Yet because I was able to meet Stevie, that is fine.

I brought my face close and kissed Stevie. I parted her lips and inserted my tongue. Uuun, the taste of Stevie’s saliva? In the first place I had not remembered such a thing. Stevie also sought my tongue. Holding Stevie’s head I greedily drank Stevie’s tongue.