Chapter 23: Good child, be strong! (Patreon)

"Lady Pandora..." Seeing this, the two of them said nothing more and simply turned their eyes to Pandora.

Regulus held his tongue for the moment, still shadowed by what had happened before, while Ley—having just finished arguing with Regulus—wanted to know why Pandora had said what she'd said.

"Might I ask, Archbishop Ley." She spoke up without preamble. "Have you noticed that Archbishop Rui treats you two with excessive respect?"

"Huh?" Ley's already crooked features twisted further. "Ah—isn't that just normal?"

Wasn't it only natural for a younger sister to respect her older brother?

Pandora shook her head. "But excessive respect isn't a good thing between siblings, is it? Between family, too much respect is really just distance in disguise."

"..."

That left Ley speechless.

Watching Pandora's smile, he found himself carefully replaying every moment he'd shared with Rui.

It really had been too much respect...

"But—but we've always eaten the food she cooks for us, and we accept it every time! If she were distancing herself, why would we keep accepting it?!"

If it came to how much the two brothers cared for their little sister Rui, it would rank among the very best. But—

—what they didn't know was that Rui thought they were both idiots. (Underline that.)

"Because Archbishop Rui only ever accepts things passively." Pandora simply shook her head, helpless. "I'm sure Archbishop Regulus understands exactly what I mean on this point."

Regulus, who'd been in the middle of lecturing Geuse, stopped short at suddenly being called out.

"Huh?!" He hadn't been listening to Pandora and Ley's conversation, so he had no idea what she'd said. "Lady Pandora..."

Seeing this, Ley yanked his blade out of the table. "See? There's a man so drowned in his own worthless words that he missed what Lady Pandora said—now he doesn't even know which way the food is."

"Lady Pandora..." Ignoring Ley's jab, he asked bluntly, "I was busy lecturing this feeble elf on how to become a flawless being like myself—surely it's understandable that I missed it?"

Under normal circumstances, he'd have let it go and gone about his business—but just now, it sounded like Pandora had handed him a chance to show off.

How could he possibly let that slip by!

"Lady Pandora said you're quite the expert on the subject of 'passive acceptance.'"

"Huh?!"

Regulus turned to Geuse, who'd spoken up, and scowled.

"So you actually heard her—which means you were listening to Lady Pandora while I... was being ignored by you? Don't you know how rude that is?"

And here he'd been lecturing so earnestly, only for his audience not to be listening at all!

"I can only assume this means you..."

Knock, knock, knock.

"Please quiet down, Archbishop Regulus." Pandora rapped her knuckles on the table.

"I..."

"That way, I won't hold it against you that you weren't listening to me before."

"..."

"Now then, shall I continue?"

Regulus, now on his feet, was already breathing hard.

As for why...

He couldn't kill Pandora, and he couldn't out-argue her either, and worse still...

"In that case, I won't continue with that topic." She'd already said what needed saying to Ley anyway—what he did with it was up to him. The real matter at hand now was—

"Archbishop Regulus, do you happen to know what 'learning' means?"

Regulus was a handful—a hundred-percent extremist, the type who'd bow and scrape to you one moment and flip on you the next.

"Huh?!" Hearing his name come up again, Regulus shot her a strange look. "So what if I do? So what if I don't? What right do you have to lecture me?"

"Do you know what a 'teacher' is?"

"Hey, don't push it too far!"

"Do you know what..."

"I've given you far too much face!"

In almost the same instant, he hoisted up the sofa, and just as he was about to hurl it—

"'Archbishop Regulus, why have you stood up?'"

...

"I—!" He stared, eyes going wide, at Pandora standing there perfectly composed and the sofa that had somehow returned beneath him.

"Do you know..."

"No, I don't!"

As he spoke, just like before, he rose to his feet and lifted the sofa again.

Then... then he was back sitting on the sofa again.

This cycle—throwing punches, kicking—repeated more than ten times over.

"Lady Pandora..." Even Geuse could barely stand to watch anymore.

"Archbishop Regulus, people need to communicate with one another. Take me, for instance—I've been trying to communicate with you this whole time, but you..."

Pandora held up a hand to stop Geuse, paying no mind to Regulus, who looked ready to explode at any moment, and sighed.

"Communicate?! Why should I communicate with you?"

"Because it's the one best way to solve a problem."

Regulus scoffed at that. "Heh. Well, I happen to think this is the best way!"

This time, instead of lifting the sofa again, he grabbed hold of the solid wood table.

In an instant he tore it clean out of the floor, roots and all, punching a hole through the ceiling; the massive tremor sent the Witch Cult members and beasts out in the front hall into a panic.

"'Archbishop Regulus, you haven't done anything, have you?'"

She spoke up just as the table came crashing down toward her.

"..." Regulus's mouth opened and closed, but no words came out, as he watched the conference table—which had been in his own hands just a moment ago—snap back to exactly where it had been, the ceiling whole again without so much as a crack.

"Damn it! Damn it all!" In the end, all he could do was slump over the table, clutching his head, and shout those words.

Even back when he'd fought Capella, he'd never felt this stifled. Sure, Capella couldn't be killed either, but at least he'd been able to smash everything around her to pieces—the thrill of that destruction had been enough that he hadn't even minded how irritating she was; he'd simply wrecked the old estate and left. But faced with Pandora...

There was nothing—nothing at all—he could actually do!

Just then, Pandora walked over and patted him on the shoulder.

"There, there, Archbishop Regulus. I know deep down you used to be a good boy—it's just unfair treatment that made you turn out like this."

[Author's Note: Thanks to readers "Xiaojiu~" and "hencosa0254" for the 100 VIP points! Also—please leave flowers! Please share! Please add to your collection!]