“…” I stare at my sister lying on the moon’s surface, anxiously waiting for her to wake up. I even thought about healing her, but her own regeneration recovered her so quickly it wasn’t even necessary.

‘Her regenerative power surpasses mine… interesting… I wonder when I’ll reach that level?’ Analyzing our brief fight, even while she was injured, everything about her was absurd.

Her reaction time, her speed, her strength, her endurance, and above all, her instincts that allowed her to handle everything I threw at her during the fight. She might not have used magic directly, but just the Mana she discharged was overwhelmingly powerful.

‘Oh, she’s waking up!’ I see her stirring slowly. I sit down on the ground near her, waiting for her to open her eyes, but before she does, her tail shoots toward me, wrapping around my neck.

She squeezes, trying to strangle me, which doesn’t work very well since my lungs have changed to store the hydrogen I breathe and use minimal amounts, as space has a limited quantity per cubic meter. So, I can last quite a while like this.

‘Her tail is strange… too soft, yet also rough…’ I look at her as she opens her eyes and immediately stares right at me.

“H-Hello… older s-sister,” I say with a smile while she seems to analyze me. Soon, her eyes widen, and her tail loosens, falling weakly to the ground.

“You… have a horribly childish voice,” is the first thing she says, about my voice. Her own voice is seductive and elegant, even excitingly so here in space.

“…” I get irritated that the first thing she notices is my voice. It’s not my fault my voice is like this; it’s all because of the hydrogen I breathe and the fact that I’m in space, not using sound to speak.

“I released you from that prison. I think the first thing should be a ‘thank you,’ right?…” I say, hoping for some recognition, not for her to comment on my voice.

“…”

“I’m not going to thank you… I was close to breaking the seal myself… you just sped up the process…” she says, turning her gaze to look at the planet.

“Are you the new Demon King? It seems… Mother replaced me…” she says in a sad tone, and when she says that, I remember how my mother treats her.

‘I guess… in that regard, I was lucky…’ Our mother clearly likes me, while despising her.

“Why would I thank the child who stole my place? It’s funny, isn’t it… I don’t hate you… seeing you in front of me is strange. I feel like I know you and that you’re important to me.”

“How can I care about someone I just met? Family bonds are truly insane…” she says, still staring at the planet.

“Is that all you have to say, older sister?” I feel somewhat disappointed. It’s not quite the reaction I expected.

“What’s your name?” she asks, looking at my face with a cold expression.

“Pandora.”

“…It’s a good name. So tell me, Pandora, what do you expect from me? I’ve lost everything, haven’t I? A long time has passed. Everything I built has crumbled. Probably most of those I knew are dead. And in the end… I failed my mother.”

“I had… over 5,000 years to fulfill her wish, and yet I failed as a daughter. And now my replacement comes here to see me… I don’t think I need to show any affection, do you agree?” She has a point here.

“You’re absolutely right, older sister. But I like you! And I think we should get along! After all, we’re family, and I always wanted a sister!” I say with a smile.

“How old are you?” she asks, and I answer honestly.

“Two years old! But I’m almost three!”

“…You… are stronger than I was at that age… I had the strength you have now when I was 5 years old…” she admits with a strange tone.

“…”

“Pandora, let’s be realistic… I know Mother hates me… I know the image she has of me. She never tried to hide how disappointed she is in me…”

“I have no talent.” When she says that, I’m shocked, because it seems absurd for the being considered the strongest Demon King in history to say she has no talent.

“…”

“You seem naive in that way… Pandora, talent has nothing to do with power… I am strong. My mother never denied that fact. However, being strong doesn’t automatically imply having talent for our race.”

“For a race that adapts and evolves infinitely, any member of our species can become strong, even the most failed one. The difference is how quickly we do it, and that’s where talent shines.”

“And I don’t have that talent… I don’t know if you know, but our race has its talent defined from the exact moment we begin to form. The most efficient way to measure our talent is through the eggs.”

“The longer we take to break and emerge from the egg, the less talent we have. The Egg itself is the test our mother created to know our talent from the start, and I failed the egg test.”

“I was born too late, when the egg was already extremely fragile. And the egg test is extremely precise because it’s the first extreme environment that forces us to adapt.”

“The egg isn’t what it seems. Even the liquid inside isn’t meant to feed us…” She starts talking about the egg, and I admit I don’t know much about it.

“What do you mean?”

“…The egg was designed to force our race to react, through various tests. The first is drowning. The egg starts 100% full of that viscous liquid and quickly prevents breathing once our body is 100% formed and we start breathing.”

“Then there’s the overheating. That liquid heats up quickly. If we don’t get rid of it soon, we’ll start getting cooked inside the egg. Then there’s the hardness.”

“The ‘younger’ the egg is, the stronger, more rigid, and harder it is…” She says these things, but I never experienced that.

“Strange, my egg wasn’t like that. The liquid wasn’t hot, and the egg, although hard, I still broke it. Like, I hit it until a crack opened to get out.”

“Besides, that liquid was actually quite tasty, and I was starving, so I needed food too.” When I say this, the atmosphere grows tense.

“…”

“I see. So you do have talent… If the liquid inside the egg wasn’t hot, it means you broke the egg prematurely… It seems you are Mother’s favorite child…” she says with a tone of injustice in her voice.

“Congratulations. You were born with talent… a great feat, I suppose? It means your adaptation is better than mine, which also means you’ll quickly become stronger than me.”

“Meanwhile, I’m here, extremely weakened. I failed to do what my mother asked… and I was even sealed away… Life seems to have its favorites.” She says this without knowing anything about me.

‘What is it with everyone judging me like this!!? What the hell! My life never started out perfect!’ I don’t say anything despite my anger at this arrogant statement.

“Older sister, do you want to come to the planet with me?” I ask, still with respect.

“Have you already conquered the world? I conquered the world when I was 10 years old,” she says, while I shake my head.

“Not yet, but I’ve practically conquered the world! I’ve already killed the heroes, subjugated the humans, eliminated the dwarves, made the mermaid goddess one of my girls so the mermaid race isn’t a problem, and only the dragons and elves remain! I’ve even met my mother…” When I list all this, the atmosphere becomes heavy and unpleasant.

“…”

“I really want to kill her… Pandora, I really want to kill you. You’ve met our mother in person?! It took me over 3,000 years just to see her in person… Even to hear her speak to me took over a thousand years…”

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt so jealous and envious of a being before…” she admits honestly, in a disturbing way.

“W-Well… older sister, I don’t know what to say… I thought a lot about what I would say when I met you… but everything fell apart when your first reaction was to try to kill me… Now… how about coming to the planet with me?” I ask while she ponders.

“Pandora, do you understand that you stole my life? Your existence destroys any meaning my existence had. If you exist, I have no reason to exist either.”

“Because I live only for my mother’s desires… but my lack of talent made me fail in everything she wanted. And now you are here to do what I couldn’t.”

“So your existence completely encompasses mine… If Mother created you, it means she no longer expects anything from me… In other words, I’m trash to her now…”

“That’s why I ask you, Pandora, what am I supposed to do? There’s no such thing as fighting for affection. You can’t fight for our mother’s affection… because her affection is selective.”

“And the moment I was born, I was already destined not to receive her affection. However, if I struggled and fulfilled her wishes, I could still receive it… but only while I was the only one.”

“Now that she has you, any chance I had is gone… And if I kill you… she will start to hate me for destroying the one who can fulfill her wish.”

“You know what’s the worst part? I don’t hate you… this racial bond really prevents me from hating you… So now I’m here, stagnant… I would destroy the universe for our mother… but that’s not what she needs, and I am incapable of giving her what she needs…”

“…” When my sister says this, I finally understand her. I understand the reason she is like this. I understand why she’s acting differently than I thought.

She isn’t just acting differently than I thought; she’s acting exactly how she has to act. She’s acting like a person who has lost everything that was her reason for existing and now doesn’t know what to do.

And the worst part is, the one responsible for her losing her reason to exist is me. And I’m right in front of her, but she doesn’t hate me because she isn’t even capable of hating me due to our race.

How could she love or show affection for the being who represents the destruction of her entire meaning for existing? Of course she can’t.

“…Older sister… I’m going to the Abyss soon. Don’t you want to come with me? I don’t think it’s over for you yet! You might not be what our mother is looking for to fulfill her wishes anymore…”

“But you can be the one who fulfills her other desires! Have you ever stopped to think that now you can focus on more direct things she needs but never asked for because it would have been disadvantageous to hinder your previous mission?” I encourage her, and she seems to think.

“…It’s a start… You’re going straight into the Abyss?… I really do have a brave little sister…” She gives me a small smile.

“Alright… I guess I’ll go to the Abyss too. It’s the safest place for me to be. I’m sure that damned whore Elysia will try to kill me as soon as she finds out I’m free from the seal.”

“And I know she won’t do anything if I’m in the Abyss. As soon as she notices the seal is broken, she’ll undoubtedly act,” she says, and I agree.

“Now…” Before I can speak, she punches me upward under the chin, slamming my face into the moon. It’s so strong it makes the entire moon tremble and my head bleed.

“Consider that payback for stealing my life. Now we can return to the planet. I believe at least a few servants from my time are still alive, and I want to see them again,” she says authoritatively while stretching.

‘D-Dammit!!! What a miserable older sister!’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep