Chapter 307 Addicted To Happiness

A/N - This chapter contains the use of things similar to drugs, so if you feel uncomfortable reading that, then you may skip this chapter as it only builds the relationship between these two characters.

*****

Suddenly, she began to choke on a large chunk of meat, so she went to go grab the cup of water but fumbled and knocked it over.

"*sigh*... Eat as much as you want. It isn't going anywhere," I say, handing her my cup of ice-cold water.

"*cough* *cough* *cough* *cough*... Thank you," She responds before digging back into her portion of the boar.

She is just so cute…

"So, are we going to be staying here forever?" She asks.

"Nope… But maybe for the next year or so. I'm on vacation right now, so I want to use all of it before going back home," I responded.

"I see… Wait, why are your vacations so long?"

"A year is long? It's normally about five years,"

"Ah… I see…"

"Anyway, how old are you? Because you might be the bigger sister, to be honest," I say as she was much stronger than me, and that could only be explained through years and years of continuous training.

"About… 21… I think,"

"21?! Are you sure?! Did you not regain most of your memory back?!"

"I'm fine… How old are you?"

"Around… 330 years old,"

"Damn,"

Arpious looked as if she was trying her hardest to suppress her laugh as she continued to eat, snickering a few times in between.

"So you're like my baby sister?"

"I guess…" I responded.

Wow. I still can't believe she's only 20 years old… She must've been born with some innate overpowered skill because her level of growth is impossib- wait… She was on a corrupted plane… Maybe she had to train constantly and constantly learn in order to survive. Perhaps that's why she's so strong.

All the thinking made my head hurt, so I just shoved my thoughts away and cuddled up next to my cute baby sister, who continued to devour the boar in front of her.

"I still don't know how you survived a corrupted plane," I muttered, resting my head against her shoulder.

"Well… It wasn't exactly a pleasant survival. I think I might've ruined my brain for life with everything I was doing to keep me positive," She muttered, and her eyes shifted with a bit of sorrow before returning to normal.

"Okay! Let's stop thinking about this, and let's eat and part!" I shouted, bringing up the mood, and I saw her smile before standing up with me.

…

A few weeks have passed, and we finally asked each other a very important question that had been lingering on our minds.

"What is your evolution?" We say in unison.

"Ah, my bad. You go first," Arpious says, so I, of course, didn't reject her offer.

"Frozen Moth Queen,"

"Oh, is that why you have those brown and blue bug wings on your back? Is that also why you have a kaleidoscope-type eyes?"

"Exactly… Also, how did you see my kaleidoscope eyes? They're impossible to detect, even for high ranking demon lords,"

"I didn't. It was just an assumption as you don't have a pupil, but your eye still looks pretty close to a normal eye… It's hard to explain,"

"You could just say they're bug eyes,"

"But that sounds offensive,"

"Awwwww…. Are you worried about making me feel bad?" I ask, rubbing my pale white cheek against her own cheek.

"N-no,"

"Come on. It's bad to lie~,"

"Tch… My evolution is called the: Ten Faced Devourer of Demons," Arpious completely ignores my convincing and announces an evolution I had never heard of before.

Hmmm… It must be something from another plane…

"What does it do?"

"You'll see… Eventually," She responds an expression filled to the brim with shame.

"You should be proud of your evolution because most monsters don't get to evolve throughout their entire life span,"

"But I'm not," She responds through gritted teeth.

Her face was pained as she glanced at her hand.

"I guess I won't pry any further, but remember, you can talk to me whenever you want,"

"Okay," She responds before I give her a light peck on the cheek.

She blushes a bit…

"Oh, are you falling in love with your big sis?"

Suddenly, her blush disappeared, and her pained expression was once again replaced with something else… disgust.

"Yuck," She mutters before pushing me away.

"Ah, so you really do see me as a sister… I'm glad… Or is it because I'm not beautiful enough?"

"I don't want to say,"

"You're making big sis sad,"

"Never…"

I chuckled a bit before drinking the now warmed hot chocolate.

…

I had come back excited from hunting as I got a rare catch today… Mountain Yeti meat!

It's different from regular yeti meat as it doesn't freeze with the cold. Instead, it remains juicy and warm. It is a delicate meal and experience that can only be enjoyed at high-quality restaurants without cooking it.

"Arpious! I'm home!" I shout, slamming the front door, only to see her lying on the couch, a yellow oni mask on her face.

She then took it off, breathing out yellow fumes that made her smile, and her eyes were bloodshot red.

"Ah… You're back so early… I didn't want you to see me in this state," She muttered, her voice sad, but her expression was completely filled to the brim with joy.

Is that mask some sort of pipe?

She then put the mask back on before inhaling once more, making the mask disappear and yellow smoke to slowly rise out of her eyes, nose, and mouth.

"Foooooo,"

She breathed out the last bit of smoke after filling her lungs with the substance.

"*sigh*... What is that?" I ask, throwing the massive yeti arm into the cabin, and as I already drained its blood, nothing leaked anywhere.

"One of my skills. It allows me to pick an emotion that increases my power in a certain aspect, and the one you just saw increases my speed. Sadness increases my strength. Anger increases the AOE. Disgust increases my magic power. And finally, fear increases my defense,"

That's a pretty handy skill…

"But do you actually gain more of the emotion?"

"Yeah… Happiness makes me so happy. I feel like I wouldn't have a problem with dying,"

Then that's a terrible skill… Wouldn't that mean sadness is just a sentence for death?

"Don't worry. The sadness doesn't affect me much… I'm used to it," She says.

I sat down next to her and give her a hug as the high was already seeping away.

"I'm addicted to this feeling… It feels so good… But I know it's not real… But I can't stop using it. This was the only reason I managed to not break mentally on that god-forsaken plane," She mutters, laying her head on my shoulder.

"I see… It must've been hard," I say, comforting her for a bit longer before hopping off the bed and handing her a piece of the yet meat.

She digs into it, letting the juices seep and melt into her mouth like the most fabulous butter in the world.

"So good," She muttered, tears leaking from her eyes.

….

Another few weeks have passed, and Arpious has been unable to stop using the mask, even with my support, so I decided to go on a hunting trip with her in order to clear her mind a bit.

"Oh yeah, I guess I haven't shown you my weapons yet," She says before summoning two weapons into her hands.

One extremely long and black katana and one massive three-bladed scythe had three more daggers dangling by its end.

"Wow," I could only mutter as she slashed once at the rare yeti king in front of us.

"Amaterasu… Prometheus…" She muttered, and a black flame gathered around her katana while a bright red flame gathered around her scythe.

She then swung both weapons down, cutting the yeti king into four quarters that disintegrated with the flames.

"The amount of XP you get here is tiny," She muttered.

"Really? I thought it was a lot,"

"Well, maybe my evolution is higher than yours," She shrugs, which seemed to have a backhanded hit to it, but I just ignored it.

"Well… That's nice. Anyway, I think I have a solution to help you fix your addiction," I say before we quickly fly back to the cabin.

Upon arriving, I slam open the door and reach down under the couch where I thought I tossed my pipe.

"I quit a while ago, but you can use it for now. You might have to go searching for some substance to smoke though," I say, handing her the small gray pipe, which she gladly received.

"Oh, nice,"

"Nope~ You have to thank me correctly… What do you say?"

"T-thank you,"

"Good girl. Now you'll need manners if you want to reconnect with civilization again," I say, stroking her hair.

Her smile only grew wider as I gave her a kiss on the head.