Pokémon: My Parallel World Daughters Revealed

Around the dining table, all five women simultaneously turned toward Asher.

”Uh...”

Asher put down his fork.

”Who wants to go first?”

”I’ll go first.”

{Diantha} eagerly volunteered and stood up.

She picked up a piece of toast, used her fork to scoop up a little jam, carefully spread it across the bread, then held it to Asher’s mouth.

”Hubby, open wide.”

”Ah——”

Asher opened his mouth and took a bite.

After chewing twice, he asked: ”How come you’re not making me feed you first today?”

{Diantha} froze.

Then her brain cells began burning at maximum speed.

”B-Because...”

”Because I felt like feeding you today!”

Asher nodded.

”I see.”

”Then can you give me a little more jam?”

Having successfully survived the question, {Diantha} breathed a sigh of relief and instinctively answered:

”No problem!”

The instant those two words left her mouth she froze.

Everyone else at the table looked up in unison.

”Diantha.”

{Dawn} slowly put down her fork.

”What did you just say?”

”I...”

”I didn’t say anything.”

{Diantha} was still trying to struggle.

But it was already too late.

”I’d like to make an accusation.”

{Misty} raised her hand.

”The soul inside Diantha’s body is Dawn.”

[System Notice: Correct accusation! Contestant Dawn has been eliminated!]

All the strength seemed to leave {Diantha} at once.

She collapsed onto the table.

”That was way too fast...”

”I didn’t even get the chance to show what I could do...”

”You did pretty well.”

Asher patted her head.

”At least the way you fed me toast was cute.”

”What good is being cute in a soul-swap battle?!”

{Diantha} furiously bit into the toast, converting her grief and indignation directly into appetite.

{Cynthia} cleared her throat and stood.

”Then I’m next.”

Perhaps she still hadn’t adjusted to the body’s center of gravity—

Because as {Cynthia} walked over, she suddenly lost her balance and pitched straight forward.

”Careful.”

Asher reacted quickly and caught her by the arm.

”Pfft.”

Tiana failed to hold it in and sprayed a tiny bit of porridge from her mouth.

”Since when did Cynthia become this clumsy?”

{Dawn} asked suspiciously.

”I’m not!”

{Cynthia} flushed bright red.

”I-I’m just a little nervous!”

”What are you nervous about?”

{Dawn} rested her chin in her hands, clearly enjoying the show.

”It’s not like this is the first time you’ve met Hubby.”

”You’ve been married forever. Why are you suddenly acting like a lovestruck teenage girl?”

”You’re the lovestruck teenage girl!”

”Oh?”

{Dawn} propped her chin on both hands.

”There’s only one person in our family who’d answer in that tone, isn’t there?”

{Cynthia} opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

At this point, she desperately wanted to just give up on pretending entirely.

”I don’t care anymore!”

”I just want to feed my husband some breakfast!”

”Why does this have to be so hard?!”

{Misty} calmly set down her teacup and raised her hand.

”My accusation—”

”The soul inside Cynthia’s body is Misty.”

[System Notice: Correct accusation! Contestant Misty has been eliminated!]

{Cynthia} collapsed onto the table and buried her face in her arms.

”I’m not satisfied...”

”Mom Misty.”

Tiana reached over and poked her shoulder.

”When you were pretending to be my mom, it really felt like you were performing in a stage play.”

”Tiana, shut up.”

{Cynthia} replied in a muffled voice.

”So now there are only three left.”

Asher swept his gaze across his remaining three wives.

”Who’s next?”

{Dawn} casually raised one hand.

”Hey, hey, wait a second.”

”What flavors of ice cream are we missing from the freezer?”

”I was thinking of restocking later.”

The instant she said that—

{Elesa} looked up almost instinctively and blurted out: ”We’re out of Oreo chocolate mint. There are still two tubs of mixed Berry flavor, but only one vanilla left.”

The dining table fell silent again.

Tiana’s mouth formed a tiny O.

A smile spread across {Dawn}’s face as she prepared to raise her hand—

But another voice beat her to it.

”I’d like to make an accusation.”

{Misty} raised her hand and spoke with perfect clarity.

”The soul inside Elesa’s body is Cynthia.”

”And the soul inside Dawn’s body is Elesa.”

[System Notice: Correct accusations! Contestants Cynthia and Elesa have been eliminated!]

[Soul-Swap Reveal:]

[Diantha’s body contained Dawn’s soul.]

[Elesa’s body contained Cynthia’s soul.]

[Misty’s body contained Diantha’s soul.]

[Dawn’s body contained Elesa’s soul.]

[Cynthia’s body contained Misty’s soul.]

[System Notice: The soul swap has ended. All contestants’ souls have returned to their original bodies.]

[Regular-Seat Chat Group]

”Hahahahahaha! I’m bankrupt! Completely bankrupt! I bet my entire future-wife fund! Now I don’t have a wife or any points!”

”Bro, wake up. You didn’t have a wife to begin with.”

”Thanks. That hurt even more.”

”Everyone who lost their bet, assemble! I’ll start crying first!”

[VIP Chat Group]

[Volkner]: I surrender. So this is the power of a Best Actress? Diantha barely said anything the entire time, just sat there, and somehow sent all four of the others packing.

[Lt. Surge]: Nah, I feel like Elesa was hard-carrying the whole match. Diantha basically got a free win.

[Leon]: Honestly, yeah. Elesa baited Misty first, then forced Cynthia to expose herself. That’s a double kill. Her damage numbers were through the roof.

[Flint]: But that’s exactly the problem! She did all that work, and Diantha swooped in at the end and took the win. Did those two secretly coordinate beforehand or something?

[Lucian]: No. We all fell into the same mental trap. We assumed that if someone possessed a particular body, they would try to imitate the owner of that body. But Miss Diantha used a more sophisticated strategy—she wasn’t pretending to be Misty. She was pretending to be Cynthia.

[Wallace]: I see. As long as Cynthia wasn’t eliminated early, Diantha remained safe. And there was a high probability the two of them would survive until the end together, allowing Diantha to maintain control over the game.

[Valerie]: So when Miss Elesa forced Cynthia to reveal herself at the end... she was actually exposing her own identity at the same time?

[Elesa]: ...

[Volkner]: HOLY CRAP!! So Diantha wasn’t playing checkers—she was playing 4D chess the whole time!!

[Skyla]: Master was incredible! I bet one hundred points on her and turned it straight into ten thousand! Master, please accept my worship!

[Diantha]: No need to worship me. Just treat me to hot pot sometime.

[System Notice: This competition has concluded!]

[Congratulations to Diantha for winning the Champion’s Reward—Future Elaria will arrive in the real world! Duration of stay: One month!]

The instant the System announcement disappeared a gentle pillar of white light rose from the center of the estate courtyard.

When the light faded—

Elaria was already standing there.

She wore a light-colored floral dress and a wide-brimmed white hat.

Diantha was the first to rush over.

She immediately wrapped her daughter in a tight hug.

”Elaria!”

”My Elaria!”

”Mom missed you so much!”

Diantha hugged her so tightly that Elaria’s feet actually left the ground.

Elaria obediently hugged her back.

”I missed you too, Mom.”

Standing off to the side, Tiana repeatedly shook her head.

”Little Sister Elaria, that entrance was way too plain.”

”Want your big sister to teach you a cooler way to make an entrance?”