“Shit.”
Humafu lunged toward him.
Miseria was just watching. Rico didn’t seem like she fought. No one was coming to his aid.
He raised his fists.
Guess I gotta.
“Taste my cheap-ass blades!” Humafu snarled.
“Huh?”
“Cheap, dull blades… You’re gonna taste ’em!”
“Yeah, you said as much.”
“Dull blades are…yawnnn…” She’d been acting funny even before the yawn. “…’eap ’ives….’urt ’ore…”
She tried to rub her eyes and bumped the sunglasses in the process. They fell to the ground, revealing more of her face.
The shape of her eyes alone made her look pleasant. But they were bloodshot, and when she yawned again, they teared up. Like she’d been up all night for the first time ever.
“Are you…sleepy?” Rogue asked, stunned.
“’hut up!”
She sent the knives toward him, but they were as slow as turtles now, and he easily avoided them. They traced a wobbly arc in the wrong direction entirely. “Guuuh.” Humafu let out a groan and toppled over face-first. He had little reason to, but Rogue caught her anyway.
“So…sleepy…”
“What’s her deal?” he asked with her in his arms.
“Humafu—the Noble Council designated her the Seventh Witch, code name Sleepless. She’s unable to sleep unless she’s killed someone, so ever since her incarceration, she’s been permanently sleep-deprived.”
He looked closer, and she was making sleepy noises, but each time her eyes almost closed, they popped back open. She was stuck in this loop in Rogue’s arms.
“You’re messing with me right?
“So…sleepy…”
“My arms ain’t your pillow. Go on, scram.”
“No…I’m sleeping here…”
Humafu had her arms around him and was shaking her head.
Rico looked relieved.
“She’s in her quarrelsome phase. Let’s peel her away.”
With practiced ease, she took Humafu from him and dragged her away across the floor.
Rogue couldn’t help but be impressed.
“Can’t believe you get by in a place like this, Rico. Hats off to you.”
“Always nice to be appreciated.”
He thought her lips might have turned up just a bit. She bowed once, then hauled Humafu off into the back. Rogue watched her go, then rekindled his anger.
“……Did you have to drag me into that?”
Even he was startled by the edge to his tone.
“I do apologize,” Miseria said, still lying in a heap on the floor. “You’re a reliable man, Rogue. That was cool.”
“Don’t say what you don’t think.”
“I do think it! A lot! My, what a dashing figure you cut, swooping in to save me from Humafu! I want to hit the town and tell everyone! Rogue here is the coolest!”
“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter. You could easily have fed her one of your dreams and saved your own ass.”
“Hmm, that would be tricky.”
At last, Miseria picked herself up. She moved over to Rogue, making herself look so serious, he was rather taken aback.
“……‘Tricky’ how?”
“Well, these collars are rather limiting. I can only keep that spell going for a short period of time. The moment she’s got her hand on my throat, she’s won.”
“……Then why’d you start a fight?”
“Because I thought it would be funny? And I had a feeling things would work out this time.”
For some reason, she looked rather bashful.
“This time? You do this shit all the time?”
“More times than I have fingers and toes!”
He sighed.
Genuinely appalled.
“……Some people never learn.”
“Once you swallow, you forget how hot it was. Only a fool dwells on events of the past.”
“You are owning yourself so hard right now.”
At this juncture, there was a thunk.
“H-how are you just…talking to Miseria?!” a panicky voice exclaimed.
“……Hmm?”
He turned to look at the new girl who’d interrupted. She had dull brown hair and wore a nun’s habit. She was pointing a shaky finger at Rogue. There was a book at her feet. Clearly, she’d dropped that, generating the loud noise.
“A-are you okay? No injuries? Did she do anything to your mind?”
At a glance, the girl did not look like she belonged there. Her gaze was going every which way, and her ears were bright red; she seemed to have no confidence or pride.
Unsure what to make of her, Rogue managed to answer, “Not that I know of.”
She remained so distraught that he was not sure she’d heard him.
“My, my, if you don’t introduce yourself, he won’t know who you are. Do the thing,” Misera said, smirking.
“R-right! I’m______”
The girl put one hand on her hip and held the other out in front of her, her gloved fingers forming a peace sign.
“I’m the Saint, Catherine! The Third Witch, with a deferred beheading of three thousand eight hundred years! Tremble in fear before me, Rogue Macabesta!”
“Uh……”
Rogue had no idea what to do with that. The girl herself appeared mortified. Her jade eyes filled with tears, and her pale skin flushed so red, she might as well have been in hot water. She was stuck in that pose, shaking like a leaf.