Chapter 79

Garnet was trying to create a touching atmosphere, but it didn’t take long for that atmosphere to shatter.

[Ah, Akari! Isn’t it cheating if you butt in like that?!]

“…”

“…”

Garnet looked at me as her tone suddenly changed.

Well, it wasn’t because of the tone, but more because the voice from the speaker called my name.

I didn’t expect her to suddenly call my name like that.

“The voice is so distorted, I can’t tell who it is.”

[What…!]

“If you show yourself directly, I might be able to tell…”

I wouldn’t stop her if she ran away, but I wondered if she’d abandon the Monster Girl she worked so hard to create.

After all, she must have scraped together every last bit of scarce materials to make her.

[Ah, I get it! I’ll come out, okay? I’ll come out!]

“Hurry up. Before I come looking for you.”

[Ah, I said I get it!]

From the sound of things, she was really rushing over.

Sigh, seriously. At this rate, who’s the protector here?

“Huff, puff, whew…”

“This kid…”

“Long time no see, Doctor.”

It took about 10 minutes, huh?

I smirked slightly as I watched the Doctor gasping for breath.

Where were you when I needed you? Now you’re causing trouble when I don’t.

As I pondered what to do with the Doctor, he slowly crept closer to me.

“Ah, Akari…”

“So you abandoned me and were busy making something else, huh?”

“Th-that’s…!”

“Since you abandoned me once, it’s easy to do it twice, right? My role was just to mess with Curs, huh?”

“N-no!!”

The Doctor yelped and then started glancing at me nervously.

Anyone could see he was worried I might be upset.

If someone else saw this, they might think I was bullying an innocent child.

When in fact, I was the one being bullied.

“W-well… out of the blue, but I caught Curs.”

“What?!”

“Whoa?! Y-you scared me… Magical Girl! Don’t shout like that! Whew, I thought my heart was going to drop…”

You made me with your own heart, so what do you mean your heart is going to drop?

Ah, are you telling me to drop? If that’s the case, just say it.

“What are you talking about? You caught Curs?”

“Ah, Akari…”

“Garnet, if you get too close to a monster, you’ll get attacked, you know? Especially if it’s a monster with a bad personality like this one.”

“…”

The Doctor clung to me, trembling, as if he hated Garnet’s hope so much.

What’s with the scared act? You’re the one who tried to create an Apocalypse to kill all the Magical Girls.

“Anyway, tell me. What do you mean you caught Curs?”

“Well, you see…”

At my words, the Doctor stammered as he began to speak.

I wasn’t particularly curious, but I guess it was for Garnet’s sake, who seemed curious.

I was also curious about her reaction after hearing what happened to Curs.

“It was no trouble catching Curs after you thoroughly defeated him. It was also no trouble to extract Curs’ Despair Core and use it to create this child.”

“Doctor…”

Perhaps because she liked the Doctor who created her, Aya called out to him in a pitiful voice.

So, you used Aya’s body as a base and Curs’ Despair Core as the heart to create her?

Looking at it this way, it really does seem like Apocalypse mk.2.

Even though there’s no halo above her head.

“The problem was the quality of the Despair Core.”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It means Curs’ core wasn’t as valuable as mine.”

The Doctor pouted.

Admittedly, it did feel similar to me, but it didn’t feel overwhelming.

Was it because you used a normal human child instead of a Magical Girl?

Still, you called her a Monster Girl, so…

“Not very like you, Doctor.”

“Not like me? What do you mean?”

“I thought you’d throw a fit calling her a failure or something.”

After all, you have a replacement for me, so isn’t that enough?

Given your nature as a monster, it’s possible.

But the Doctor’s expression as he looked at me was unusual.

It felt like he was looking at something he cherished.

“I wouldn’t say such things to a child I created.”

“Ugh.”

“What?! I was trying to make a touching moment! Ugh, ugh…!”

What are you even saying? You’re just spouting nonsense.

A child I created? Who? Me?

Well, physically, the Doctor did create me, but…

‘After treating me like that…’

“At first, I didn’t realize it, but now I know! I need you!”

“Yeah, right.”

The Doctor’s face was filled with an inexplicable desperation.

A face so innocent that any human would have fallen for it.

But what about the true intentions behind that face?

“I-it’s true! I really need you! I’m desperate!”

“How desperate are we talking?”

“Th-this much!”

As he said that, the Doctor stretched out his arms.

…Hmm, that doesn’t seem like much.

I frowned as I looked at him, and the Doctor started sweating profusely.

What, did you realize this isn’t enough?

“Thiiiiiiiiis much!!!!”

“Instead of doing something so stupid, give me a concrete reason.”

The gazes of Garnet, Aya, and I turned toward the Doctor.

Look, three people are curious, okay?

Even the Doctor seemed to find it difficult to shake off the attention of three people.

“W-well… I’ve run out of all the despair I had.”

“There’s human despair, right? You can just eat that.”

“I can’t survive on such trivial despair!”

Is that so?

Admittedly, I’ve never seen the Doctor eat human despair…

There must have been a reason why he told me not to eat human despair before.

Well, it’s probably because he inherited the trait of not being satisfied by human despair.

“You’ve managed to survive this long without it.”

“R-right? I’m this guy—”

“Aya.”

“There’s a reason I created Aya!”

What followed was a series of lame excuses.

The despair created from the Despair Circuit, not the Despair Core, was similar to a Magical Girl’s despair, so he created her to survive, but the purity was less than the despair he produced, so it didn’t fill him up, and so on.

Can’t you see there’s a kid listening?

“So, you created Aya to make her earn your meals.”

“…You’re trash.”

“N-no, it’s not like that… Ugh, if you hadn’t run away, this wouldn’t have happened!”

“You’re the one who tried to make me work without even feeding me.”

The Doctor tried to argue back, but I had a valid reason.

Right after creating me, you didn’t even feed me and sent me to fight Magical Girls.

Even if another monster—no, even if another monster’s grandpa saw this, they wouldn’t tolerate it.

It’s one thing to make me work, but at least feed me first.

Yeah, that’s right.

“B-but I like the Doctor…”

“See? You wouldn’t abandon a kid who likes you, right?”

“Abandon her? After all the effort I put into creating her!”

The Doctor raised his voice as if it were absurd, and I chuckled.

Well, if you went as far as using Curs’ Despair Core to create her, you must have put a lot of effort into it.

“What about me?”

“…What?”

“How much effort did you put into creating me?”

But teasing the Doctor wasn’t over yet.

I could have asked if it was too much to tease the creator—my mother—but I thought it was okay to tease a mother who abandoned her child a little.

Honestly, I was curious.

Given the genius setting, did you just whip me up in no time?

Or did you go through trials and errors to finally create me?

“…Of course, I put my entire life into creating you.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

This time, his answer was serious.

Too serious.

It was hard to believe this was the same loud Doctor.

‘Of course, I’m not moved by this…’

My heart had long since hardened like a monster’s, so I didn’t feel much emotion from the Doctor’s words.

Ah, I see—that’s about it.

“Really, don’t you think about coming back to me? I’m really, really sorry…”

The Doctor’s apology was sincere.

A tone completely different from the one he used when toying with Magical Girls in the original story.

But there was no way I could say yes.

If I went back to the Doctor and Emerald misunderstood, it would be a huge headache.

“No.”

“Th-that’s so blunt…”

I shook my head as I looked at the sulking Doctor.

A parent already trying to cling to their child…

Honestly, if the Despair Circuit was running, I wouldn’t care if ten thousand Doctors were by my side.

But my goal as a monster is to cling to Emerald and live a long, thin life.

There’s no need to live surrounded by human attention.

“But, well, it’s fine if you come to me whenever you need despair.”

“Ah, Akari…!”

As if moved by my words, the Doctor clung to me.

Garnet’s gaze, as if looking at a moral wreck, was piercing.