There were many topics I had to ponder about but one of them took absolute priority over the rest. It was about how to survive. Now that Aginaci was with me, I couldn't abandon her to her fate by letting her go to school alone. She needed to graduate to have a chance in this world. And this also applied to me. Since I used the school card to get Aginaci to stay with us, my father wouldn't tolerate any nonsense from me ever again on this topic.

Most of my new classmates were dangerous, on different levels. Aginaci and I were only easy prey for them. Fortunately, not everything was hopeless. While it was true that they were dangerous, some of them weren't evil. This made me think of a possibility. In the heat of the moment, I previously blurted that I wanted Aginaci to be my ally. Now that I wasn't under so much stress, this seemed like a pretty good idea. What if I applied this concept to some of my classmates?

'If I can get a few strong classmates as my friends, they could serve as bodyguards for me and Aginaci. Brilliant.'

It was bad to think of future friends like this but beggars couldn't be choosers. I also had the incredible advantage of knowing everything about them. I thought this would be doable.

Speaking of knowledge, another idea came to mind. What if I used their knowledge to get stronger? Some of them weren't freaks from the start and became strong progressively. I could do the same, using the fact I knew what they had done.

However, there were two issues with this solution. One, it would take some time for me to get any results. And two, I shouldn't get caught by them. If they noticed that someone was doing something they weren't supposed to, it would be hard to guess how they would react. In the worst case, it could be a direct game over.

My thinking was interrupted by Elodie's thoughts, right in front of the door.

("Why is it so quiet in there? What could they be doing? No way, could it be…!")

I sighed in advance at the incoming headache. A fraction of a second later, she barged into the room, the door opening with another bang. Slamming doors was one of her many special skills and she proved it once again at this instant.

"You can't do this sort of stuff in here!"

I wasn't surprised by her intrusion but that wasn't the case for Aginaci. The poor girl jumped so hard that she almost fell from the chair. My sister looked around the room and let out a very dumb noise.

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"Huh?"

There was obviously nothing happening that she expected. I was still lying down on the bed and Aginaci was on the computer. We were far enough from one another that there could be no misunderstanding, no matter how one tried to push it.

"Hey! Look at how you startled Aginaci! You almost gave her a heart attack! What do you think you're doing?"

It was the perfect opportunity to get back at her for once. She still looked dumbfounded for a while and blushed a little.

"N-no, I thought you two were…"

"We were what?"

"Ugh…"

"I know what you're thinking about. You're such a pervert."

"What? You're the pervert! I know what you have on your computer!"

"S-so what? Look at your dirty mind, trespassing into my room and scaring the hell out of Aginaci. You should apologize to her!"

"I…"

("Maybe I was a little wrong here.")

'Yeah, not just a little.'

She turned toward Aginaci.

"Sorry…"

"It's fine…"

"Alright, get out now."

"Wait. You're letting her use your computer?"

("Even though you hate it so much when I use it?")

"Yeah. So what?"

("Wow. Does he like her so much? Didn't he only meet her today? Was it love at first sight?")

"Huh… Let me stay here too."

'Why is it that little sisters never let their brother in their room but still consider his room as an extension of theirs?'

"Not even in your dreams. Get out, you and your dirty thoughts."

("I can't believe he's treating me like this in front of her! Who does he think he is?")

"Oh yeah? You'll pay for this!"

She scrambled out without forgetting to slam the door real good on the way out. Even my mother got angry at her this time.

"Stop slamming doors, Elodie!"

Not that the storm passed, I faced Aginaci.

"Sorry about this. She's at that age."

She shook her head.

"It's fine."

("I can see she's doted on a lot by her family. How envious. If only I had a fraction of this back then…")

We looked at each other for another moment until she continued.

"I have a question for you."

"Go ahead."

"Why are you doing all of this for me? Why are you helping me?"

("What do you want in exchange? Is it my body?")

That was a bit more than one question but it was natural for her to ponder these things.

"Do you want the raw truth or the embellished truth?"

"The raw truth."

("Better to know now and regret it than getting trapped later. He could still be lying too, anyway."

"In that case… The raw truth is that I took pity on you. After what happened today, I thought I was the most unfortunate person on the planet. But then I thought about you and I felt silly. You were in a much worse situation than mine. So yes. There's nothing beautiful about this. I just took pity on someone in a worse situation than mine."

("Pity? I've been pitied a few times in my life but there's still a long way between cheap pity and moving to help a stranger.")

"That can't be all, right? Even if you did pity me, would you go out of your way to do all of this for me? Please, tell me the truth."