“Pwakyuuhaa janahachi sankyuuni!”
A hellish scene of pure pandemonium had broken out among the ruins of what had once been the Demonkin Nation’s royal palace. A huge supernatural explosion had obliterated the castle, sending debris raining down on the surrounding streets of the capital like a hailstorm of fire and brimstone. Houses, shops, and military barracks were all destroyed, although the residents could count themselves lucky if that was the full extent of the fallout.
A single human—the fake C—crawled out from under the rubble, and the soldiers who had managed to survive the initial blast moved to engage the mystery man. But when they drew close enough to get a good look at the fake C, many of the soldiers suddenly started babbling like madmen before attacking their fellow comrades and even themselves. Notably, though, the affected soldiers didn’t attack with spears, swords, or even their fists. In fact, their victims would have preferred they had used conventional weapons.
“No! Stop! Snap out of it!” one soldier yelled at his crazed brother-in-arms who had hold of him, but unfortunately for him, it was to no avail. The hapless grunt screamed bloody murder as his fellow demon bit through his neck with his bare teeth before sucking out his blood and tearing away at his flesh, ululating rabidly throughout.
The ruins turned into a crucible of madness as the crazed fought the uncrazed. There were no high officials around to restore order because they had all been buried under the rubble, so it was left to the few sane soldiers to deal with the chaos as best they could. If they needed to, they would slice off the legs of the lunatics, or just put them out of their misery altogether. Mages among the soldiers attempted to cast anomaly cancellation spells on their manic brethren, but they were totally ineffective, which meant under the circumstances, the sane soldiers were forced to perform summary executions on their former comrades.
This nightmare situation continued unabated until a savior appeared to provide some desperately needed relief.
“SSSR Advanced Anomaly Cancellation—release, shall we?” said a mellifluous voice that rang out in the chaos. All eyes turned to a young woman who was wearing a hooded cloak, though despite her rather austere, discreet choice of clothing, it was plain to see that she had an hourglass figure accentuated by a large chest and legs that were long, statuesque, and perfectly proportioned. Even though the hood shielded her face from view, everybody standing in the rubble of the ruins could tell that this mystery figure was a stunningly beautiful woman.
In her guise as the Wicked Witch of the Tower, Ellie restored the sanity of everybody in her immediate vicinity using her gacha card, and because it was an SSSR card, it worked where regular sorcery had failed. The affected soldiers acted like they had just woken up from being possessed by ghosts.
“Wait a minute. I recall running up to investigate the explosion at the palace, but... Huh? Why can’t I remember anything after that?” one soldier remarked.
“You’re sane again? Thank the Goddess!” another serviceman whooped, laying down his spear in relief.
Another of the soldiers turned to Ellie. “It’s all thanks to that item you used! Pardon me for asking, but do you have any more of them? Normal cancellation spells didn’t do anything, and there are still a few more people who have gone crazy.”
“There’s no need for that. We’re already taking care of them as we speak,” the Wicked Witch said, her tone laced with a touch of annoyance. The soldier looked around and saw yet more beautiful young maidens using Advanced Anomaly Cancellation cards on the victims. The young women all wore maid garments and were floating around the rubble thanks to the translucent, fairylike wings on their backs. In other words, these women the demon soldiers were looking at were fairy maids, and putting two and two together, they at last realized the identity of the stunning young woman in black.
“Fairy maids and a woman wearing a hood?” one of the soldiers said slowly. “Hey, wait! Are you the Wicked Witch of the Tower?”
Even the soldier who had originally been grateful for her help raised his weapon and pointed it at Ellie, precisely as he should since the Wicked Witch had been declared an enemy of the Demonkin Nation.
If I capture her, I’ll be a total hero, thought the soldier. And I’ll get a guaranteed promotion! Other soldiers were having similar thoughts and gulped avariciously.
Ellie completely ignored all of the weapons that were pointed at her and pulled a sealed letter out of her cleavage with an air of irritation. Some of the soldiers looked away out of modesty as she did so, but their bashfulness was quickly replaced with wide-eyed shock when they heard the witch’s next pronouncement.
“I have in my hand a letter from Prince Voros authorizing me to act as his official proxy,” Ellie declared in a matter-of-fact tone. “In that capacity, I have been empowered to hand down mandates in his stead. You gentlemen are free to give in to your greed and attempt to seize me where I stand, but it will only result in your deaths, which would be a shame after you managed to survive this disaster.”
She looked around and started with her first order of business. “It might be an idea for you to try to save your friends, especially those who are injured or still buried under all of this rubble. I would also ask that some of you go on patrol around the capital to take stock of the damage that has been caused by the falling debris. A food distribution program must also be set in motion for the survivors. This is just the start of the numerous tasks I will have you perform.”