“Eek!” shouted one of the women. She banged her hand against the shield, but to no avail; it bounced back at her with a crackle. They didn’t seem to have any magic items that could work around the barrier. If that was the case, then this would render harmless all five of our attackers.
“Don’t touch the shield! It isn’t safe,” I said.
“Oh! So you’re worried about us, are you? Such a nice man!” shouted one of the women sarcastically.
“Well, since you’re so kind, Kaito,” started Verrick, “why don’t you just release us? If you don’t, we’re all liable to die, after all.” With that, he looked knowingly at the four women in his company. They nodded in turn, and he released a volley of ice magic without even hesitating. The icicles flew like pellets from a shotgun every which way, ricocheting off the inside of the shield and tearing their skin to shreds. Taking it further, he unleashed a fireball, causing sparks to fly and scorch all five of the girls.
He was acting completely suicidal. Even so, he showed no hint of hesitation. He really didn’t care if he died.
“Wh-What do we do, Kaito?”
“If we don’t do anything, they’ll all die!”
I couldn’t forgive Verrick for hurting my friends, but I also couldn’t just watch our attackers die. If I stood by while they perished, my life in this new world, which had been fun up to now, would be shrouded in a cloud of darkness.
Besides, we hadn’t even had a chance to discuss whatever this was. Surely it was some unfortunate misunderstanding. The best course of action was to ask what had happened, clear up the misunderstanding, and arrive at some kind of reconciliation.
Still, if I removed the shield, we would surely come under attack. From there, if I didn’t fire back, there’d be no end in sight but, conversely, if I did shoot back, then I’d kill him right then and there.
“...Of course,” I said. I remembered seeing a news report when I was a kid about people who got disoriented from seeing flashes of light on their TV screens. My beams were made of light too. It wasn’t out of the question that a laser beam could have the same effect.
I drew an image inside my head and, a moment later, dropped the shield that contained Verrick and the others.
“As I thought: too kind for your own good. You couldn’t just watch us die, even though you’d be safe if you had.”
“If I’m going to be attacked, I at least want to know why! I want to know why the hell you’re targeting us, so please let me ask about it tomorrow!” I said.
A bright light began to shine at the feet of Verrick and his companions before shooting upward with a bang. A dazzlingly bright pillar of light extended high into the sky and illuminated the street. Reflexively, the three of us looked away as it grew.
A light that causes loss of consciousness as it washes over you: Stun Beam. When imagining it, I hadn’t invested it with any destructive power, but if it were fired in a straight line like the Death Beam, it was still liable to affect people other than its target. For that reason, I had given it the shape of a pillar.
They must have passed out by now, I thought. Squinting against the brilliant light, I turned back toward the pillar. I turned off Stun Beam, and the light abruptly faded. As it did, I saw Verrick and his cohort topple to the ground.
“Wh-What happened?”
“Did you kill them...?”
“No, they’re just unconscious,” I reassured them. I released the shields that had covered the rest of the people on the street, most of whom began to nervously draw closer.
“Thank you! You saved my life...”
“Was that man...Verrick?”
“It really was him. I can’t believe that Verrick would do something like that...”
“I can’t believe it myself,” I told them. “He’s out cold right now. I don’t know when he’ll wake up, so please return to the safety of your own homes.”
“O-Okay... I’ll do that. If Verrick attacked me, I’d be absolutely helpless...”
“Thank you so much for saving us, sir.”
After everyone gave a word of thanks, they returned to their homes. With that taken care of, we turned our attention back to our erstwhile attackers.
“I’ll go take their magic items. If you don’t feel safe, you can leave and I’ll—”
“I’m brave, so this isn’t scary at all!” said Frieze.
“I-I feel better when I’m with you, Kaito,” said Oltea.
“Thanks. I’m glad to have you two here,” I said. I wasn’t comfortable searching through a woman’s clothes, so I really appreciated the help. I left the women to Oltea and Frieze while I searched for magic items on Verrick’s person, taking anything that seemed like it could be a magic item. One of the rings on his hand had a crystal ball affixed to it that could have been a devil stone. I reached for it.
“...Hmm?” I said, noticing something.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s just...” I trailed off.
A pin badge was stuck into Verrick’s palm: the gold emblem of an A rank adventurer. Another just like it was attached to the lapel of his coat.
“Why would Verrick have two of these?”
“Maybe he misplaced one, got a reissue, and then found the one he thought he had lost?”
“Even if that were the case, why would it be stabbed into his hand?”
“Maybe to make sure he wouldn’t lose it?”
“Would he really do that...?”
“I don’t know,” Oltea said. “I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking. Let’s just get what we need and go.”
Oltea and Frieze searched the women’s bodies, pulling up their shirts and whatnot to see if they had any magic items hidden away. Keeping my eyes averted, I collected Verrick’s ring and pendant.
He only seemed to have small stones on his person. I wondered why he hadn’t brought the devil-stone-adorned cane he’d been holding when we first met. I didn’t know what kind of magic it was capable of channeling, but if he had used the cane in a surprise attack rather than his kamaitachi blasts, I would almost certainly be dead right now.
Had he underestimated me, or had he just decided to kill me suddenly and without much preparation?
“Hmm? What’s this here?”
“Did something happen?”
“No, it’s just... These two both have wounds on their hands.”
“That’s probably from struggling inside the shield, right?”
“This one is just a tiny wound like a needle would make... Can this woman heal herself or something?”
“She’s healing?”
Curious, I had them show me the wounds. All of them had the mark in the same spot on their hands: a scar that looked as if it had been left by a large needle. Frieze reported another and, on a hunch, I checked Verrick’s body too, only to find the same wound on his hand. It was fresh—not yet scabbed over—and must have been made this evening.
“Maybe it’s some kind of bug bite? More importantly: what should we do with Verrick and them?”
“For now, we’ll heal them up. After that, we turn them over to the public safety regiment,” I said. The public safety regiment was an organization similar to the police. I didn’t know if they’d believe my explanation of the situation, but I couldn’t just leave Verrick out here on the side of the road.
I fired Cure Beam at Verrick and his companions. Like a shower of mist, particles of light rained down on their bodies and healed their wounds nigh instantaneously.
Suddenly, an angry voice came from the sky. “Hey, what are you doing over there?” Three men dressed in cloaks swooped down and alighted on the street. When they saw Verrick, their eyes widened.
“It’s Verrick!”
“Did you do this?!”
“What the hell happened here, huh?”
“We were attacked by Verrick and his companions. They’ve only been knocked unconscious; they’re not dead.”
“...Attacked? By Verrick?” one of them asked. All three of them looked bewildered by the information. It was unimaginable that Verrick would ever launch a surprise attack like this. It wasn’t the kind of thing he did. Given the circumstances, it was far easier for them to assume that we were the guilty party.
“I’m telling you, we didn’t attack them!” Frieze said.
“Ask anyone who lives around here—they’ll tell you the same!” said Oltea. As if they had been listening to her, the people of the area started to emerge from their homes to share.
“If it hadn’t been for them, it would have been a disaster!” said one.
“You public safety regiment boys were nowhere to be seen, so these people had to protect us!” shouted another. So these men were the public safety officers, it seemed. This must be a squadron that was stationed nearby, summoned to the scene by the unignorably bright pillar of light.
“I’m...sorry we doubted your story. But...you won? Against Verrick?” one of the officers asked us.
“Kaito is really strong! He didn’t even lose to an A rank adventurer!” said Oltea.
“Kaito... Ah, you’re Kaito, huh?”
“You know me somehow?”
“The rumors get around. I didn’t think you’d be able to defeat Verrick, but, well... Anyways, thanks for your hard work. We’ll take it from here and deal with them,” said the officer.
“Just to be safe, though, I’d like to ask you a few questions,” said another. “Why don’t you swing by the guardhouse in the morning.”
“Sure thing,” I said. The men of the public safety regiment bowed briefly to us and then got right to it. They used magic to levitate Verrick’s motionless body off the ground and into the night sky. The witnesses who had testified in our favor returned to their homes and the residential district was once again engulfed in quiet.
Oltea let out a heavy sigh of relief. “I’m absolutely exhausted...”
“Seriously,” said Frieze.
“Me too... By the way, are you two still drunk?” I asked. Both of them seemed surprised at the question.
“I guess that sobered me up!” Oltea said.
“I wasn’t just pretending to be drunk, you know!” Frieze said, red in the face and flustered. We continued down the street. This time neither one of them begged me to pet her tail.