The villainess will survive!

Part 88: Ivy Castria

One body could only hold one soul at a time after all, but the same limits couldn't be said for which soul lived within. 

It's never been publicly recorded before, but theoretically, it should work as long as you pushed aside enough space inside the container. 

'Ivy' had shown so much symptoms of missing parts of her soul, including the fatigue. 

Even the poisoning that had been pinned on my head, it had to be that exhaustion that caused her collapse. 

I only assumed it was part of the stress she had been facing at some point, but this thought was only a few strands of the spider web. 

The more disorganised someone's mental state is in, the easier it is to tear away pieces of their soul. 

Another hint that had gone right over our heads was that her reputation and grades suddenly increased rapidly on the second semester, contrary to her mediocre performance before. 

This was also exactly the time of the entrance of Ria, her companion bird. 

I had suspicions that the bird did do something, but never had it connected to Elijah's words about the original Ivy's soul. 

And by the fact that the real Ivy had been tearing away Roselyn's soul bit by bit to make space for herself, we could all conclude that she wanted to repossess her original body. 

"Was the original Ivy pushed into a magical bird's body?"

I asked Elijah to come up, and then shoved the bird into his arms. 

It could barely twitch a wing with it's injuries from the spell's backfire, nevermind flying away in his hold. 

"No, it seemed that her soul got pushed out during my creation of this world, and instead took the shape of mana. This is her own condensed soul, with mana giving it a corporeal form. Quite like a magical creature, actually." 

I nodded while absorbing all this information in my head, knowing that even gods weren't perfect creations. 

"Then, is our contract done here? You've found the soul out of place, and you don't need to interfere with this world anymore." 

After all, our contract was just a bridge for him to this world, so he could not only watch over his self-created space but also be able to take actions in it and reform any crinkles. 

Elijah silently stared up from the bird, at me, and then behind me. 

"Not yet, I suppose", he said disinterestedly. 

He clearly wasn't telling me everything, and while a feeling within urged me to interrogate more, I stayed silent and decided to turn back and watch the scene in the ball unfold. 

Most of the people seemed mostly wary of the sudden peace, but the principal stepped forward. 

With a word from him and Nurse Molly beside him, they sighed in relief and decided to step forward to watch the remnants of this disaster. 

After seeing that everything looked normal as before, most people were getting their things to leave after this traumatising near-death experience. 

Other the almost-vacant space in the middle of the destroyed ball, save for the few people who participated in stopping the crisis, the hall was pretty much blank. 

There were only the marble floor that remained, along with bits of the walls and ceiling. 

Very unlike the lively party it was before. 

Mother had left a few moments ago as the spell locking us in finally broke down, after most of the guests had hurried away. 

Father had been holding her up and out the door while she shakily clutched her belly, this luckily only being a false labour session. 

My gratefulness to avoid this catastrophe not only stemmed from keeping my own lives, but also having others be able to see the next day, including the one in her belly which had not yet had the chance to see the world yet. 

I walked to Onii-sama, fully happy and in a bright mood. 

"Ah, Roselyn." 

He said without looking back, attention fully on the pair of girls who were cheerfully chatting and laughing. 

Adriana had tears of relief at the edge of her eyes, and Ivy's appearance didn't look much better. 

"Onii-sama, aren't you going to—" 

As I turned back to face Onii-sama, I realised that something was wrong with Onii-sama. 

If my eyes weren't tricking me, he was a bit translucent and I could see the rubble on the other side through him. 

I frowned, wondering if the stress from the explosion had affected me, but after a few rounds of eye rubbing, it seemed that Onii-sama's state only got worse. 

I started to panic in earnest when I tried to grab him, and my hands only went through him. 

"My whole life, this life, has been focused on changing my little sister's fate and being a better big brother." 

"I even manipulated the Crown Prince to achieve my goal." 

"I thought if I raised you better and spoiled you less, you would turn out better." 

"But in the end, you weren't really her. I can't fault you for that." 

"It was only until a bit later until I realised that this 'Ivy Castria' was the real one who I wanted to save, ever since." 

"But it seems, even without my help, she was able to change into a better person." 

"As a big brother, I truly am happy. What better gift could I get?" 

"It seems I won't need to be watching over her anymore, she has finally found someone who would accept her for herself." 

Onii-sama turned to smile sadly at me, with the same adoration he used on 'Ivy' just before.

"You too. You're also my sister, take care of yourself." 

"And I don't deserve whatever pity you give me. I've been a terrible brother, this is only fixing things." 

A tearing sensation welled up at my eyes, and I realised what he was implying. 

Onii-sama's foot started to dissipate into golden particles. 

"They can't see me anymore, and soon my existence will soon be forgotten." 

Half of his whole body had already dispersed into the floating particles. 

"This is but a selfish request of me......but could you please remember me?" 

I started sobbing in my hands, tears streaming down my face as I attempted to wipe them with my sleeves. 

"I.....*hick*.....I will! Onii-sama, I won't forget you!" 

"I! Will! Never!" 

Onii-sama smiled sadly once more, until finally closing his eyes and disappearing with the wind.

I watched blankly as the particles carried themselves off into the distance. 

".....But in the end, did you ever forgive yourself?", I whispered quietly.