Chapter 4 — Sleep, until your life is over • Episode 4–2 — Hypnotism ⑤
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
A few days have passed since that day when I should have refused Elephant-san’s confession and asked her to remain my friend, but on the contrary, she insisted that we start as friends, as usual, Elephant-san doesn’t break the distance between friends when we are in public, but when we are alone, we instantly approach each other.
Goodness, how can she say such an embarrassing thing like, “You really like me, don’t you?” Of course I like you, Elephant-san, but I clearly told you that I like you as a friend. How positive or whatever or what it was called… I love that about you, but, as I said, I don’t think I should be forced to kiss you. I’m glad it was me, but it’s a crime to do something like that to a real grade school girl, right? I wonder if Elephant-san knows what she’s doing…
「Sudden Cannon!!」
As I fretted in agony, a mass of compressed air shot out like a response and exploded at the same time it landed on the Diest. The entire upper half of the body is obliterated, and the Diest is scattered into the air like crumbling sand without regenerating.
But then, there are so many Diests these days that look like other animals attached to the human form. The Baron-class Diest that Press-san just kicked out also looked like a humanoid of about 3 meters with the claws and fangs of a beast added to it, or should I say a beastman? It was like that.
Perhaps it had some special ability, but I don’t know the details because it disappeared with a single blow from Press-san without even having to demonstrate it. However, I feel that the recent strange humanoid Diests have become less regenerative or softer than before, or that the durability aspect has somehow deteriorated.
I think the only changes that have occurred in Diests up to now have basically been enhancements, such as the development of special abilities or sudden changes in strength, but I wonder if this strange change also has something to do with the imminent appearance of the King of Distortion. I have given a report to the Magic Bureau, but so far they have not been able to find out anything.
「Hmmm, no matter how they’re called Baron-class, they’re still a little too weak, aren’t they?」
「Yes, I agree. I don’t mean to make fun of them, but I think they would’ve been about Knight-class before now to not be able to regenerate with just one blow from you, Press-san.」
「I know, right? Maybe a notification malfunction?」
「I don’t know, I can’t say at this point, but if it’s equipment failure, the Magic Bureau should contact us.」
「Hmmm, well, is there any point in us worrying about this and that? Then, see you later, Syl-chan!」
「Yes, thank you for your time.」
Press-san is right, there is no point in getting too worked up about what you don’t know, and it’s best not to just let your guard down and not worry too much.
After confirming that the notification of the Diest outbreak was in a state of defeat, Press-san greeted me lightly before disappearing in the shifting light. This time, Elephant-san and Blade-san were either not available or didn’t notice the notification, so it was just the two of us with Press-san, but that girl is not as obsessed with taking care of me as she says she is, so it’s pretty easy to work with her. She left easily even now. If this were Blade-san, she would have asked me to have tea with her afterwards. I don’t mind if I think it’s for the sake of appealing to the audience as a good friend, and by extension, for Elephant-san, but I can feel that they are really trying to be friendly with me, and I feel sorry for them.
However, Press-san is uselessly attached to me when Blade-san or Elephant-san are with me, so perhaps she’s not really interested in me, but I think she is playing a friendly and open character to me. Elephant-san is a bottomless kind girl, and Blade-san is a kind girl with a strong sense of justice, but I still don’t understand Press-san.
「U–Uhm! Sylph-san!」
「…What is it again?」
I was about to leave, too, when I was approached from behind and turned around, slightly taken aback to see that she had come again. I had learned to recognize the voice of the person who had been talking to me so persistently over and over again.
「What do you want, Succubus-san? I’ll tell you first, I’m not going to be your friend.」
「Please call me Saki! Why is it impossible? You get along well with everyone else, don’t you?」
「As I said before, we are just acting like we are friendly on the surface as a check against territorial raiders. If that’s okay with you, I don’t mind playing with you like we did the other day.」
「Ugh, you had fun the other day, though! I want to be a real friend with Sylph-san!」
「Then it’s as I’ve said many times. I don’t make friends with Magical Girls.」
I know that Elephant-san’s acceptance of me is a miraculous exception, even for me. I don’t have such childish dreams of revealing my true identity to anyone and everyone and then having them accept me.
「Just now, you looked very Lazuli-like… so cool…」
「Huh? Lazuli? What are you saying?」
Where was the cool factor in what I just said? I mean, what is that Lazuli?
「I knew, this can’t be helped… Yeah, it’s just a little bit, just a little bit…」
「…? If that’s all you have to do, I’ll leave you alone.」
Succubus-san suddenly turned her head and started mumbling to herself. It’s a little painful to refuse a small child’s request in such a brusque manner, but a lenient attitude here will only show her a dream that won’t come true. It is in the child’s best interest that I take a firm stand.
「I’m sorry, Sylph-san!
Open The Gate Of Daydream!!」
「Ehh——」
.
「S–Sylph-san? Are you really asleep?」
Sylph drops her staff to the ground and stands there with a blank expression on her face. The light has completely disappeared from her eyes, and they are unfocused.
Succubus waved her hand in front of her eyes and called out to her lightly, but she didn’t respond at all. The girl is so unresponsive that one wonders if she’s being ignored, but when a Magical Girl uses mental pollution-type magic, she can tell by the response whether or not it has worked. And although Succubus was using this magic for the first time, she still felt confident that she had succeeded.
「Please forgive me, Sylph-san, it’s just for today. Open The Gate Of Dream」
This is a magic that charms the subject and makes him or her like someone. However, Succubus consulted the sloth fairy about the means to become friends, and since the answer was this magic, she was completely mistaken. She had no idea what she was a Magical Girl based on.
To make someone like you is not to make them like you as a friend. It’s to make someone fall in love with you, not as a friend, but romantically and sexually. That is the real effect of this magic.
「The next time I clap my hands twice, you will wake up, Sylph-san. But the magic will remain in effect. If I clap my hands three times after that, the magic will cease to work.」
With a successful response to the enchantment spell as well, Succubus implores Sylph with a slight tremor in her voice. Succubus had no idea how to do hypnosis, but she had gone to the trouble of using the unfamiliar Internet to learn how to use her magic. Succubus was an excellent student who was able to prepare and review.
「Here it goes.」
The words, of course, didn’t reach Sylph, but she muttered them as if to make up her own mind and then slapped her palm vigorously with a sharp, clapping sound.
「——Huh? I, what was I…!? Eh, wha–, ah,」
Sylph, who had regained consciousness with a start at the sound, blinked her eyes and moved her gaze busily as if something was amiss, the moment her eyes meet those of Succubus, her face visibly becomes redder and redder, and she cracks up and makes meaningless noises without even being able to speak properly.
Succubus didn’t quite understand the meaning of that response, but she thought that this should make Sylph like her anyway, so she cheerfully threw out the words that she had told her so many times before and she had refused to hear them without punishment.
「Please become my friend!」
「I–I refuse! I don’t like you at all! Don’t get me misunderstood!!」
With an unprecedentedly strong tone and somewhat impatiently spat out, Sylph fled, enveloped in a shifting magic circle.
「…Did I perhaps, failed it?」
Succubus’s face turns blue as if her blood has drained from her veins at Sylph’s response, which is not at all what she expected, and in fact seems to be angry with her. She had completely believed the sloth’s argument, and had never thought that she would fail.
「She said she didn’t like me, and that I had cast a spell of enchantment on her!?」
There was definitely a successful response, but maybe the magic wore off quickly. Pooh-chan also said that the time of effect depends on the resistance of the opponent, and he wouldn’t be surprised if Sylph-san would lose the effect of such a thing very quickly, Succubus was very impatient, thinking that she had completely failed and that Sylph had found out about this evil trick.
「But on the other hand, I’m probably glad I failed. It still means that this way of doing things is not a good idea. Urgh! I’m a stupid fool who has succumbed to temptation, stupid! I am the lowest Magical Girl!! I am no different from those who came before…」
She smack herself on the head and be sorry, be sorry, Succubus tells herself.
She was so eager to be friends with Sylph that she went out of control, but she has a sense of ethics to the extent that she would’ve been able to restrain herself if the fairy hadn’t said something unnecessary in the first place. Even if things had gone as planned and she had been able to get along with Sylph for the day, she would still have realized that it was wrong.
「My impression is not just zero, it’s negative… No, this is no time to be depressed! Anyway, I have to apologize first! She didn’t take me seriously, because it’s the same as before, I must apologize to Sylph-san for the terrible things I did to her.」
Even if she hate her for the rest of her life, it is inevitable considering what she have done. With that in mind, Succubus will now chase Sylph around to apologize.
However, for some reason, Sylph’s face turns red and she runs away when she sees Succubus, and the opportunity to do so doesn’t present itself.
