"But father, I am all grown up now. I can stay-"

Rin’s younger brother complained but their father was not in the mood to hear him out. The last look he gave Rin was a warning to not mess things up.

Rin had no interest in wasting time on them. Instead, he tasked the ghosts to keep an eye on them and focused on the girl who looked like Shelly sitting in front of him.

Now, how could he verify that this was the same Shelly he knew and not merely someone with her face and voice? Should he bring up an old memory? Or maybe—

"I don’t like your family. Should I take care of them for you?"

Shelly spoke as if she were commenting on the weather. But the look in her eyes was unmistakably familiar.

"I’ve never had good luck with the families I was born into.. But it looks like you were fortunate with your family this time."

"That old man is irritating. But I’m keeping him around because he’s useful to me. So, about my offer..."

Shelly navigated the question back to her offer and Rin did think about letting her handle his family.

With a Duke’s resources and connections, it would be possible to make sure Rin’s family was ruined. But letting someone else handle it felt unsatisfying.

"I would like to take my family down myself. That is my task for this round. What about you?"

Rin asked, even though he already knew what Shelly’s objective was.

"Me? I don’t think my goal is anything important."

Shelly dodged the question immediately, not showing it on her face what her real goal was.

However, Rin already knew her setting and he reached for Shelly’s hand to lightly rub it reassuringly.

"Shelly, it’s alright. You don’t have to hide your character setting from me. I won’t be put off by it, no matter what it is."

Rin promised and the look in Shelly’s eyes changed.

"You cannot say that. You don’t even know what I want-"

"I’ve heard things about your character, Shelly. So I can guess what what your character wants. Once I’ve completed my goal, we can focus on your goal afterward."

Rin promised and Shelly choked on the water she was drinking she was drinking. Rin moved over to her to check on her, but Shelly immediately grabbed his hand and pulled his wrist toward her.

Her eyes looked softer and more vulnerable than Rin had ever seen and he braced himself for whatever she was about to say to him.

"Rin, is that a promise? No matter what I want to do, you won’t feel disappointed?"

Shelly was trusting Rin by letting him see her vulnerable side, so how could Rin make her feel insecure? He decided to reassure her.

"I promise I will not feel disappointed. Even if you want to lock me away and keep me to yourself, I will allow you to do that. After all, we cannot have you fail this task."

Shelly lowered her head and Rin was no longer able to see her expression. He was interested to see what face Shelly was making but Shelly pushed him away before she got herself under control.

"I see. So, what have you planned?"

Shelly brought the conversation back to the main topic and the awkwardness in the room sharpened into tension.

Rin did have a plan, but he had no way to ensure that it would work...until now.

"Shelly, how often do you go to the royal palace? Have you had a chance to meet the current Crown Prince?"

Rin asked her and Shelly’s expression immediately soured.

"I went to the royal palace just before coming here. But I did not like that place. Everyone there thinks too highly of themselves and they get on my nerves. As for the Crown Prince...all I heard was that he was in seclusion and no one was allowed to meet him."

Rin nodded at Shelly’s words, and the situation became clearer in Rin’s mind. He had someone who ended up in the same story as Shelly, Albus and Amelia.

It was an unexpected stroke of luck. But now that he knew where he was, he decided to change his plans.

"Shelly, can you do me a favor and get a message to our dear Crown Prince ’Albus’? Tell him that if he needs evidence of House Raven’s corruption, then I will provide it to him. But only if he is serious about competing for the throne."

Rin had a lot of ways to bring his family down, but using the crown prince would make things easier for him and his allies.

Even in the original story, Albus had gotten an anonymous tip about a noble house’s corruption which Shelly delivered and that established him as a serious contender for the throne.

Somehow, events were unfolding exactly as they were supposed to, which made Rin nervous and excited at the same time.

He was sure that the system would have a lot to say about this...but the system was nowhere to be found.

In fact, Rin had not heard from it ever since he ended up here.

The rest of the system’s functions were working normally, so Rin could only view this as an abnormality.

’I will need to ask the system about this once this story is over.’

__________

[System connecting with the mainframe. Data is being uploaded.]

[Next phase of the operation is under maintenance.]

"So, how is it going? I heard that you finally started the experiment. But honestly, did you have to cut off satellite access? It’s annoying not being able to use our phones?"

"The waves emitted by this creature disrupted all satellite signals once its power began to surge. We should consider ourselves fortunate that this was the only side-effect that occurred on a large scale."

"So, did anyone find out why there was a sudden surge of feedback that caused the outbreak?"

"No. All we know for now is that this happened because a ’segment’ came in contact with the main body. However, the segment and the main body were too far apart that assimilation did not occur."

"This is not good. What do you think, our resident pink-haired mad scientist?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Honestly, this has nothing to do with my darling so I don’t care. Ah, and I was so hopeful that this would bring my darling back."

"Miss Karina, aren’t you worried about your daughter?"

"Huh? Shelly will be fine. Not that I care if she lives or dies. I just need her to protect the segment our dear Kalos couple managed to cultivate."

[System reboot complete. The next phase of the apocalypse will begin soon. New information will be loaded to the segment...]