My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

One week after the politician's daughter's birthday party, school resumed with the second, and final, semester of the year.

And, speaking of birthdays, tomorrow is Emir's fifteenth.

January 12th.

Naturally, whether he is aware of it or not is a different topic, but I've been waiting a while now for this event, and I will not let it go to waste.

After some retrospection, I came to the realisation that I hadn't made nearly as much use of his Supernatural Ability, Absolute Contract, as I could have. There were the contracts with Minami and Selina of course, but aside from that, I wouldn't be able to name many other instances if you asked me to.

The main reason for that is because I thought there was no real need for it at the moment, and even the Measurement of Truth is useless when it comes to giving advice for such broad and vague questions such as 'what can I use Emir's Absolute Contract for?', and so I have pretty much left him alone for the most part

Therefore, this is the time I will use to rectify that.

I always knew his ability was something phenomenal, but I don't think I ever truly came to understand what it was capable of; such a thing seems to be natural when it comes to the topic of Supernatural Abilities, but now that I've caught a further glimpse of his potential, I have decided to deepen our relationship and put him to use.

At the very least, I need to keep him close enough to the twins and to Selina―I already have a firm leash on those three, but Emir has always been a bit of a wild card due to his unduly justice-oriented predisposition.

He may not always listen to me, but he's much more likely to listen to the others. As long as I can control him through them, then it's fine, since I'm sure I won't be able to make him sign an Absolute Contract like I did Selina.

He's young, and a doughty kid, but he isn't such an idiot to fool for signing a contract with me. Although I may have established some rapport with him over the recent weeks, I still notice his eye on me. That wariness caused by our first encounter hasn't faded, and it's clear he knows I'm not exactly who I appear to be.

In any case, if I can just get close enough to him that I can convince him to make more Absolute Contracts with me, and ones with more ambiguity, it would be an undeniably powerful gain.

Moving on, I still have a couple of concerns about what occurred on the day of the party.

Most strikingly is, of course, the conversation with that girl, Araceli Arévalo.

The self-proclaimed fan of mine who not only knew the truth behind all of my false identities, but who also had a stake of interest in me as a person, or more specifically, an interest in my safety.

That encounter was unlike any other I've experienced be it during my time in the Playground or thereafter.

I looked back; even just glimpsing her from afar provoked something unidentifiable within me. Each occurrence, I got that feeling more and more, that something about her was off, though what exactly it was, I wasn't aware.

And then, it turned out she was related to the Forbidden Knowledge.

Something like that would be nonsensical to call a coincidence, and she even admitted it herself that she could not tell me.

I first considered the possibility that she was a former Warden herself as she knew 'Cipher', but that thought was automatically ruled out because of her age that is confirmed to be the same as my own. Then, I thought she could have simply been related to a Warden, but even then, it wouldn't explain why she seemed to know me personally or why she would have access to the Forbidden Knowledge.

There was quite literally an endless supply of questions sprouting within my mind, but receiving even one single answer was simply not something that was possible, and instead, the more I thought and considered the possibilities, and the more I thought about things logically and with rationale, the more questions and confusion that blossomed in turn.

All I could really know was that I needed to take some kind of action, and that I needed to do it sooner rather than later.

I have enemies in this world.

Professor Marcus Lynton and the Wardens for a start, plus anyone else who might covet my Measurement of Truth such as the world's governments.

I don't know if Araceli Arévalo is my enemy, but although she seems not to hold anything against me so far, I certainly can't dismiss the possibility that she might stand in my way eventually.

The fact alone that she possesses Forbidden Knowledge is a threat I need to be wary of, after all.

Thus, I came to the conclusion that I needed to act quickly.

What exactly I need to do, I don't know, but any action is better than inaction when attacks could come at any time.

Especially with that Kiryuuin bastard turning his attention back towards me, I can't afford to sit still.

Not quite as if goosebumps arise on my skin, but rather an echoing chill throughout my bones.

Intuitively, or by instinct, a feeling.

Just like that, I knew it without 'knowing' it

Things are about to change.

❖─────❖─────❖

"My... birthday?"

Towards Emir, who looked back at me with widened eyes, I nodded.

"Yes."

"..."

His mouth slightly gaped as only the sound of the T.V. in the background could be heard. Seeing such speechlessness, I continued, "So, what do you want to do? For the rest of the day, ask for anything."

"...Why?"

Hm?

He narrowed his gaze and looked at me as if with scrutiny.

"What?"

Emir lightly scratched the back of his head, "Sorry, but I don't think you would do something for me just because it's my birthday. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but it feels out of character for what I've seen you do in the past."

Ruffling his hair as he wore an awkward look, I sighed.

This guy... As I thought, he still keeps in mind the attitude I showed back during the infiltration of the Hirane Facility. Perhaps acting so over the top like that was a mistake, but well, what happened, happened.

It's not like I can change what actions I showed in the past, but I haven't revealed to him any of the things I've done since then anyways, right? So, from his perspective, I should be gaining enough trust to more or less offset that.

There was the time he confronted me about the event at the Aurigan Arena, but he has no real proof that the culprit was me, so it's fine. Plus, Sana and Sona were also on my side that time, which helped pacify him.

"That's understandable. But, you know, that's exactly the reason I want to do something for your birthday."

I said this, to which Emir raised a brow and questioned me, "What's that supposed to mean?"

I began the reconciliation with a cheap smile.

"It means I think we got off on the wrong foot. You've seen the way I am with everyone else; I'm not really that bad of a bad person, am I? Anyway, I don't want us to be at odds or anything, and honestly, I don't want the house to have an uncomfortable atmosphere. If you think about it, it just makes things harder for everyone around us too, no?"

With folded arms and an increasingly relaxed expression on his face as he listened to my words, Emir seemed to be becoming more and more open to the idea I was illustrating.

Of course, as an objectively amiable person, Emir wouldn't want his friends to be uncomfortable around him more than anything else, and so even if he was silently opposed to it on the inside, he would be more than willing to deepen our relationship if it was for their sake.

Well, if things go to plan, he should soon see that being close to me is something that cannot be topped, so once that realisation occurs, he'll stay even by his own regard.

"...You have a point; it's clear that everyone else doesn't know how to react when we're in the same room. Even then, can you really say to me with a straight face that this isn't just meant to get me off your back when you do something bad?"

He hit me with that sort of accusation, but there was no need to deny it.

"Why, of course it'd be a lie for me to say I'm not doing this partly for that reason. Still, it's only that―a part of it. I don't really do bad things anyway, so it doesn't matter to me that much what your opinions of me are. The main motivation for me to do this is exactly what I stated previously, nothing more and nothing less."

Needless to say, this wasn't entirely true.

The main motivation is to have the power of Absolute Contract Creation under my control; not to make the others' living circumstances more comfortable.

If they had that large of an issue with the state of things then they would bring it up to me anyway, so it can't be that untolerable for them.

It's not like Emir needs to know all of that, though.

"Whatever doubts you might have about it, just shove them away for now. Whether what I want is something you agree with or not, doesn't matter right now."

"..."

"It's your first birthday since escaping hell; don't you want to enjoy it?"

With the corners of my lips arched, I spoke in a tone that left no room for dispute.

"Emir. Have you heard of a 'birthday wish'? I'll grant you one, so tell me what you want."

As always, so long as it didn't go against my own wishes, I don't care what it is.