Chapter 223 - The Real You
Having grown bold after consuming Angelica, I triumphantly swing open the door to the interview room.
On the other side of the hallway, there isn't a line of police officers with guns drawn... instead, nothing but empty space stretches out before me.
"Huh?"
It's a letdown.
Is this some kind of trap?Or am I just not on camera yet?Is that round machine near the ceiling actually a sprinkler instead of a camera?
As I stand there with my arms crossed, groaning, Angelica calls out to me from behind.
"What's wrong?"
"...It's too unguarded, so I'm actually on guard thinking something might happen. I thought the police would be swarming in with a huge commotion."
"Ah. It might be quiet because Erin-san did various things."
"That girl did?"
"She did. She must have used her Brainwashing magic to its full extent and dragged the officers into a dream world."
"Did she happen to come here with Erin?"
"She did!"
According to Angelica, she had arrived here in a patrol car, carrying Erin in her cat form.
Which means those two policewomen cooperated... just as I was indulging in such a sweet interpretation, a series of bombshells were dropped one after another.
"This morning, you see, I was woken up by the sound of someone banging loudly on the front door. And when I opened it, there were lots of men standing there. They're called investigators, right? Those people. They had police IDs and warrants and things."
"Wait... wasn't that a house search?"
Hold on, did the police barge into my apartment?
Ignoring my stunned silence, Angelica continues her smiling reminiscence.
"The investigators just walked right into the house, you know? Don't you think that's beyond rude? When I went into a combat stance, Ayako pulled on my sleeve with a terrified face, saying, 'It's better to just comply.' Since even Ayako was that scared, I got frightened thinking these people might be serial killers, and my will to resist vanished in vain."
"What do you think Ayako-chan is? No, that doesn't matter. Keep going."
"I think Ayako is a demon you can actually reason with. Where was I? Let's see. Ah, right. Rio-san was saying things like, 'It's bad if my boyfriend gets a criminal record, thinking that I'll be denounced by society as the lover of a criminal, I...!' and was getting all worked up by herself, saying nonsense."
"A high school girl got worked up in front of the police... what was Philia doing?"
"She was wetting herself."
"S-So, as a result of the house search, the investigators realized I'm living with lots of girls, and they even found out that among them are extreme masochists and bladder-control-challenged older sisters?"
"The investigators were muttering, 'It's like a museum of fetishes,'" she said.
Will I ever be able to reintegrate into society?
Even if I do, won't I be constantly pointed at as a dangerous man who collected three-dimensional women like he was pulling gacha in a social game?
"...So, how did you shake off the investigators, Ange? No, wait, I haven't heard about Chloe and Erin's behavior yet. Did Erin use her Brainwashing magic while Chloe was behaving herself?"
"Unfortunately, Chloe-san was not behaving. She generated a Light Sword with a period-drama-style line, saying, 'I shall swing my blade to protect Lord Father's honor,' and charged at the investigators."
"Hey!? Tell me no one died!?"
What the hell is that father-complex swordsman girl doing!?
"It's okay. An investigator took evasive action, and a single photograph fell from his pocket to the floor, causing him to freeze. ...It was a photo of the investigator with a little girl. That's right, those men were also someone's fathers. The moment she saw it, Chloe-san seemed to lose her will to fight. She was screaming, 'I can't kill this person!'"
"Because of her father complex, she burned with murderous intent, and because of her father complex, she was neutralized..."
I mean, men on a battlefield are statistically likely to be married, so are the mass-produced Chloe Series actually useful?
If just pinning a photo of them with their daughter to their chest makes them stop attacking, then honestly, I wouldn't be scared at all even if the Chloe Army invaded from another world.
"Since things had become completely out of hand, while Erin-san was using Brainwashing magic to regress the investigators into infants, a female officer with a pale face rushed in. That's how we got into the patrol car. Those ladies are on Father's side, right?"
"A-Ah... which means right now, around the apartment, there are police officers wandering around having regressed into babies. That's a scene from hell."
...Unforgivable.
The only one allowed to regress into a baby is me.
Returning to being a zero-year-old in front of Angelica should be a privilege granted only to me...!
As I continue walking down the hallway, feeling a strange sense of justice erupt at an inappropriate timing, I ask:
"By the way, where is Erin?"
"I think she's attempting to break in through some window. She'll probably join us soon."
"I see... I mean, her mana has returned enough for her to use large-scale magic. She hasn't brainwashed me without me knowing, has she?"
"Brainwashing? Do you have reason to suspect that?"
"Well, you see, lately I've been strangely horny, and I fell into a state of Confusion just because I couldn't see girls for ten or so hours; isn't that weird?"
"...Regarding that matter."
"Oh? So Erin did something after all?"
"Erin-san says that Father might have been a womanizer to begin with."
Angelica and I both stopped in our tracks at the same time.
"...Impossible. I'm... a womanizer?"
"According to Erin-san, with her current mana, she can't manipulate a human as powerful as Father. If Father has been feeling restless and horny lately, then that is simply his innate temperament."
"L-Lies. Does that mean my true personality was that of a lecherous playboy!? Then what, are you saying my self in the other world only had his lust suppressed because of the pressure of being a Hero and because he had a specific partner like Elsa!?"
"You're stating the correct answer yourself."
"..."
"In the first place, you're guilty the moment you form a Party Member group consisting entirely of the opposite sex."
"No, that was because—"
"Also, the investigators said that ninety percent of Father's social circle seems to be teenage girls. You've been exchanging contact information with every idol you've co-starred with, haven't you?"
"Ange... Angelica-san?"
"...Who is Father's true favorite?"
"For now, let's stop talking about that here, okay? Please?"
As I struggle to appease her while trembling in fear, I have absolutely no fatherly authority left.
The prestige of the Hero? That was blown away at a very early stage. It had already vanished the moment I voluntarily regressed into a baby in front of Angelica.