The way my brother was living in the labyrinthine city was so painful to watch that it felt unbearable.

　It seemed as though he might be swallowed by the darkness of the maze and vanish without a trace.

　I was driven by anxiety, yet I meticulously maintained the video site, carefully crafting my brother's videos. As a result, viewers began preferring the edited videos over live streams, causing the apparent number of viewers to decrease.

　I forced myself to act cheerful, continuing to play the role of a somewhat harsh sister, but inside, I felt as if my heart were tearing apart.

　My brother might die.

　Yet I could do almost nothing.

　If only he would open the message so I could back it up—but even that I couldn't manage.

The only other transferees nearby are Alex and Jeanne.

Among them, I've sent Alex several messages asking for help, but he himself receives a large number of distressing messages. Even if I ask him to look after my brother, he might not have the capacity to do so.

I visited Alex's family home when I had time and met his family, but honestly... it didn't seem like a particularly supportive household.

This otherworld transfer inevitably reshapes the lives of the transferees' families as well.

After all, it's simply losing one family member.

Not everyone can send off their loved ones with a smile, even from afar in another world.

Amid all this, my brother met Reflair.

I can never thank her enough.

If I hadn't happened to meet Reflaira at that particular moment—no, quite forcibly—I doubt my brother would have remained hidden in darkness, and he would have eventually died.

And the gem of resurrection.

When I heard about it, I truly cursed the gods with all my heart.

Just as I began to hope that deepening my relationship with Reflaira might bring positive change to my brother’s heart, one step at a time, that hope was suddenly shattered.

So when my brother set his sights on winning the viewership race,

I hesitated for just a moment—whether or not to support him.

But I had already decided I would stand by my brother.

No matter how painful the choice, I would support him.

Caren and I put off creating the edited version of the video and instead guided our viewers toward live streaming. Thanks to that, our older brother's viewership exploded, yet the path to first place still seemed far away.

I played my final card.

Keeping Ozawa imprisoned proved useful.

I reignited a global campaign accusing our brother of being the murderer of the older sister.

I spread rumors—some true, some made up—that Caren and I were involved, that it was a family conspiracy, that it was a case of jealousy, stirring up outrage and driving traffic straight to our brother's channel.

Even so, the only time he briefly reached first place was truly due to his own strength.

Because he's the world's greatest brother.

He's someone who can face down even the most terrifying monster alone.

But I was a bit too meticulous, leading to a brief conflict with Refreia, which ultimately cost me first place.

Still, I understand her feelings.

Her brother left alone, never saying he wanted to die together with her.

That's both his kindness and his cruelty, though...

Still, we managed to defeat the Demon King, and my brother returned safely.

Both Kuren and I had been cutting into our sleep time throughout this ratings race, so exhausted like my brother, we finally got to rest deeply for the first time in ages.

Though, when we woke up, my brother was still in a coma, causing us some worry.

And then, saying goodbye to Refreia.

We had no shortage of tasks—liberating Ozawa, asking Jeanne to hand over the gem of resurrection for the dead, and so on.

In any case, we were gradually moving in the right direction.

If we kept going like this, there shouldn't be any problems... that's what we thought.

◇◆◆◆◇

Jeanne's request, however, was completely unexpected.

It was simply, "Please reduce the number of messages."

The girl always checked every message that arrived, and seemed to act exactly according to what was written within.

In the first place, her journey toward Meltya, where her brother resides, was prompted by a message she received—something along the lines of, "A transfer survivor named Hikaru, who killed his childhood friend without consequence, has fled to another world. I want you to deliver the final blow." Such a message, which anyone else would have ignored, was the catalyst.

I never thought she'd actually go to kill her brother, but I still sent her a message saying, "Verify the truth."

Regardless of her motive, the crucial point was whether meeting her brother would help—or whether it would be a net positive or negative.

All transfer survivors are thoroughly investigated beforehand.

Among them, Jeanne Collet stood out for her eccentric behavior and striking beauty, earning her especially high popularity.

Fair porcelain skin with Nordic blood, strawberry blonde hair,

large, piercing blue eyes that suggest strong will, long limbs, a slender build.

Yet her hobbies are computer games, skipping school, and spending her days working part-time jobs and playing games—she's a delinquent girl. The extravagant piercings in both ears are her trademark, so popular that they sparked a global trend of getting multiple ear piercings.

The word "star quality" was probably made for someone like her.

And so, she meets her older brother.

At first, she was a little worried, but once she saw her adventures in the other world, her worries quickly vanished.

Jeanne Collet was just a good-natured fool.

Not in a bad way, though.

Without considering gain or loss, and unable to refuse requests, her personality seemed to be causing her significant harm, as far as I could tell. When she eradicated the monsters dwelling in the ancient ruins, she accepted nothing but a bed and food—barely any money at all.

Logically, this should have been a job for a knight. The very fact that a lone traveling girl was entrusted with such a task reveals the villagers' cunning and deceit.

And yet, the reward for completing it was nothing more than a simple bow!

In truth, she should have taken what she needed by force. She didn’t. She’s foolish.

It was the same in another village, when she was asked to eliminate mountain bandits.

How torn must she have been during that mission? Even if she’d been granted an unfair advantage by the gods, and possessed great strength, she couldn’t have been entirely unmoved by the act of killing another human being.

Even the small amount of wealth she acquired from the bandits' hideout, she gave to the villagers, taking only a single night's lodging and a meal before leaving the village. Foolish.

Yet, the entire world loved her.

You'd understand why if you just watched her.

I even grew fond of her myself.

"Serican~. What should we do? Even if we reduce the messages, how many are still getting through right now?"

"Jeanne, about a hundred messages arrive daily. So, it's probably like a hundred thousand messages sent every day. Then it shouldn't be too hard, right?"

"Earlier, somewhere, there was a large-scale message survey. Should we use that data?"

"Yes. Also, we'll need a little money."

"No problem~. That's exactly why I've been earning money!"

Having received Jeanne's "homework," I immediately launched my campaign.

To be blunt, Jeanne's "request" was on the simple side—honestly, I was relieved. The gem of resurrection is a one-of-a-kind item in the world. I'd expected something far more difficult.

Still… she really is a kind-hearted person.

"Well then, let's get to it!"

"Understood, my good sir!"

To deliver a message to a transference recipient, two factors must be overcome.

The first is "affection."

The stronger your feelings for the recipient—the more deeply you care, the more eagerly you anticipate their response, the more you truly think of them—the more likely your message will reach them.

This intangible emotion—love, in essence—when stronger, makes message delivery easier.

The second factor is "volume received."

For example, if 100 people with similar feelings send messages, about 20 will actually get through. This is a proven, reliable statistic after repeated testing.

What happens if the number increases to 1,000? One might assume around 100 would get through, but that's not the case. At best, only about 30 to 40 will make it through.

What if we increase it further to 100,000?

Surprisingly, the number that gets through drops even further, to around 100 or so.

And just when you think that’s the limit, if we go even higher—up to about 1 million messages per day—the delivery rate suddenly plummets, dwindling to just one or two messages.

And those one or two messages are almost always from family members concerned about the transmigrated individuals.

The higher the total volume, the more intense the selection process becomes.

If we deliberately create such a situation, the number of messages reaching Jeanne will likely drop to around two or three per day. The difficulty of getting through will surely increase to the point where my messages can no longer get through.

Specifically,

let's launch a campaign centered in France: "Send a message to Jeanne! The sender of each accepted message will receive a 100,000 yen prize!"

We won't know which country sends the most messages, but theoretically, what matters most is the total number. It doesn't matter which country runs the campaign, as long as it's a place where Jeanne is well known and people are interested. Of course, applications can be submitted from anywhere in the world.

The key is increasing the number of messages lacking genuine emotion—so we'll introduce the distraction of "money."

These distractions cloud love and drastically increase the number of low-acceptance, worthless replies. Moreover, even if a message reaches Jeanne, the money cannot be received unless registration is done through a site created by Karena.

Advertising costs for launching a campaign run into hundreds of millions, yet if everything goes well, only a tiny fraction of those who apply will actually be hired and receive payment.

In any case, considering the rarity of the "Pearl of Resurrection," this is an exceptionally low price.

And indeed, after launching the campaign, results were visible within just a few days.

Truly, the world's top star. The number of messages received through the site alone has already exceeded ten million.

The effect of the saturation strategy is overwhelming—after paying a few people early on, no further messages from those solely motivated by money were accepted.

I don’t fully understand why God made such adjustments, but perhaps this was a subtle hint that the messaging feature was just an afterthought.

Looking at the message screen, which hardly ever delivered anything anymore, Jeanne said, “Well, I guess we really did pull through. I’ll keep my promise. This gem goes to Serika—your brother.” Then I high-fived Karen.

It was disappointing that her brother didn’t come in first place in the ratings race, but it’s true that he became a bit more positive through it.

In the end, we landed in a decent place.

“Well then, I’m stepping out for a bit. Karen, I’m counting on you.”

“Going to pick up Nanamin?”

That's right. There's some administrative paperwork to handle, so we need to get to the location a bit earlier. We can't just hide in a container and bring it all the way to America. Anyway, I've already secured a permanent residency for Nanami-sister, so I could technically just bring her along by force. ...But we're taking a private jet anyway.

"Wow, that's awesome. Using a private jet?"

"This isn't a joke! And besides, we probably won't need that kind of money again anytime soon."

Chartering a small jet costs tens of millions for round-trip, but with video revenue now bringing in hundreds of millions monthly, there's no point in holding back.

I'll admit it myself—I, along with Nanami-san, am a person of interest (…). I'd rather minimize contact with the media and onlookers, and above all, time is precious.

"Then, Linda. Let's go."

"Yes, boss. I and John will accompany you."

"I'm counting on you."

The Linda I hired here is a top-tier bodyguard, and her team of eight, whom she assembled, provides round-the-clock protection for me.

We're not adults, yet we possess more money than we can possibly spend—our existence is fundamentally unbalanced.

Linda's bodyguard team was introduced by the government, so they're likely spies or something similar. But I have no intention of harming America's national interests, nor do I hold any dangerous ideologies myself.

If we're being protected by the nation, it's a fair exchange.

I didn’t have any connections to hire clean, high-level personnel either.

I pulled out my smartphone and pressed the line call button.

"Ah, hello? Izuna? Yes, it’s Sereka. It’s been a while. Yes… that’s right, that’s right. About that matter… Yes, could you please start the demolition of the house? Please begin with Kurose’s place first. As for Souma’s house, we’ll take care of it after things are settled… Yes, I’ve got a rough idea now. Also, I’ll visit Grandpa’s place again tomorrow. Yes, ah, it’s fine. I’ll let Grandpa know from my side. Yes, yes. That’s right~ Then, I’ll be going."

The place where Nanami-sister will come back to life is in her sister’s room at that house.

The description of that resurrection gemstone also stated, “Reincarnates at the place of death,” so there’s no doubt about it. Gods never break even that single rule.

The real issue is whether the one who has truly come back is actually Nanami-senpai herself, and that's something I'll have to verify for myself.

...If it turns out to be something else that merely resembles Nanami-senpai... then we'll just have to deal with it as the situation demands—either win it over or destroy it. That's exactly what gods do. Nothing would be surprising at this point.

At the very least, Nanami-senpai's body has already been cremated, and her bones interred without waiting for the forty-nine days.

So it's certain that this entity is not the original physical form. I've tried not to dwell too deeply on what that might mean. After all, whatever happens, it'll just happen.

Ultimately, even if it were a perfect copy, an identical human being, whether it's truly "Soma Nanami" herself is irrelevant. Thinking about it would be pointless.

"Well then, I'm off."

"Hey hey. Be careful, okay? Try not to get stabbed by a Nanami fanatic."

"That area's already rigged, so you'll be fine."

Stepping out from the front door, I squinted against the blinding sunlight.

The world appeared completely unaffected by the chaos of the other world—everything remained unchanged.

Really, the other world is just that: a different world entirely. It has nothing to do with our world.

If I hadn't had my family transferred too, I probably would've just watched from the sidelines. To me, only my older brother, my younger sister, and Nanami-san mattered. I didn't care much about anyone else.

(Fanatics... Do people really exist like that?)

The possibility of religious figures reacting to the "resurrection" and attempting to seize Nanami-senpai had already been accounted for. As of now, there's been no movement around that house. Large religious groups won't stir until they actually see someone come back to life—probably something like that.

By then, we'll have long since escaped Japan.

　

So the immediate concern is the onlookers. The Nanamin fanatics mentioned by Karen are included in that group.

No matter when the sister comes back to life, since the timing of the brother using the treasure has already been broadcast, preventing onlookers is absolutely essential.

For now, we'll have local demolition contractors handle the demolition of both Cross's house and the sister's house, obtain road usage permits, and on the day in question, block off access to prevent onlookers from getting in.

At first, I considered having my grandfather block the road with dozens of black-painted luxury cars, but that would surely draw too much attention.

The dismantling has already been entrusted to Izuna, so that’s not a concern.

Additionally, measures against onlookers have been thoroughly prepared. As usual, it’ll end up requiring quite a bit of money, but if it can be solved with money, that’s fine.

The only remaining issue is whether the handover of the items between my brother and Madame Jeanne will go smoothly... Well, that’s something we can only pray for. Jeanne is not much of a talker, and my brother is likely to be wary of transmigrants.

John loaded the luggage into the trunk, and I got into the back seat of the car.

We’ll head to the airport in the Bentley.

All the cars we have are my father's. I was annoyed when I realized I'd end up buying two right after arriving in America, but still, the fact that he chose sturdy-looking vehicles might mean he considered us a little.

My father is now traveling the world with my mother.

They'll return from their around-the-world cruise in half a year. Karen and I won't be able to fully enjoy our newfound freedom... but not having our parents around during this busy time is invaluable.

Ozawa was arrested, and my brother's innocence has been proven.

All that remains is for Nanami-senpai to come back to life using the jewel of resurrection.

If we manage to recover about twenty percent of what we've lost, that would be acceptable.

It's a decent pace. We'll definitely make up the remaining eighty percent.