“Speak.”
As expected of an expert in this area, Andrea immediately took action without needing me to say anything. The blade against the guy’s neck cut into his flesh, and a stream of blood flowed.
Dressed like a shining paladin, the action she was taking was something even a corrupted paladin wouldn’t do.
Of course, if it helps me, I didn’t have any reason to complain. I wasn’t sure of the exact plan, but anyway, he was here to cause widespread devastation in this area, so nobody would say anything if she acted a little rough.
“Humans are really easy to handle, aren’t they? Right?”
“Uh… the Andrea pointing a sword at your neck is also a human, you know. And all the kids here are beastkin. Where exactly are the easy-to-handle humans in this situation?”
Ah, I reflexively tackled back after hearing such a wrong statement.
“……”
The room fell into silence.
In the midst of this, Andrea, who had a sword to the neck of the high-ranking demon, smirked at me.
This was clearly a tense situation, but I couldn’t feel tense at all. The two knights in front of me were clearly overpowered characters.
Was there even a timing for me to step in?
“Khahat, hahahahahahaha!”
Seeing her burst into laughter again, it seemed like she had a tendency to laugh to brush aside difficult situations. A perfect personality for getting chewed out by a boss.
Well, given that she’s stuck down here in the sewer, maybe she was someone the witches didn’t particularly like either.
“You know, the emotions you feel are really easy to handle. There was no need to use witch powers to cast magic.”
Ah, it seemed she had decided to ignore me.
“If it were that easy, why would they create magic points and hide them away in this smelly sewer?”
“……”
The atmosphere once again fell into silence.
“The fact that there are magic points means you intended to cause some kind of incident, right? If you were aiming to stir things up just by controlling emotions without magic, you could have caused a riot without those.”
I glanced around. Children with deep hatred in their eyes, each holding weapons.
Yeah, creating those emotions should be possible. Children tend to chase after those who protect them. Especially if the children had no one to protect them, it would have been easy for them to gather things for food.
And if those children were trained for a long time… if they were trained steadily over several years, not just with words but also with violence, they could be armed and used as child soldiers. They could be made to strap bombs on themselves and leap into enemy territory.
Even if it wasn’t a sight I was witnessing right now, it happened somewhere in the world I lived in.
However, the government in this world wasn’t such a soft target.
No country among all the local governments had legalized firearms. Because of the existence of the demon army as a clear societal enemy, there always needed to be a minimal level of vigilance. The news of the daily casualties and injuries on the battlefield had become a mundane occurrence for society, but that didn’t mean the hatred for demons had diminished.
That minimal vigilance prevented them from turning these children into walking bombs.
After all, you need at least some materials to make bombs and guns.
“That’s why you devised this ridiculous scheme.”
“Hehehehe……”
The demon chuckled at my words. It was a bit horrifying seeing them bleed from all over while laughing, but I wasn’t afraid.
“Well, that’s right. It was all just pointless. No matter how much time we spend trying to shake society, we cannot develop into a riot. Your image of us has already been formed. Even if some start a riot, it would be quickly suppressed.”
To my surprise, the demon admitted this readily.
“But you missed your point.”
The demon grinned.
“When did we ever prepare for a riot?”
“……What?”
“What we needed was just the emotion of hatred.”
“……Ah.”
Only then did I realize what the demon was trying to say.
I hurriedly reached out my hands, but—
“It’s already too late. What I needed was just a little bit of time.”
The demon laughed widely.
“That was really close.”
And then, the magic point exploded.
“I told you, humans are easy to manipulate like this—”
From the fading view, I could hear something continuing to speak, but it was abruptly cut off with a scrape.
*
I messed up.
It seems like the problem was my delay for various reasons. I had been leisurely thinking and acting, and in the end, I couldn’t stop something that could have been avoided.
“Clara sister!”
Someone grabbed my shoulder and forced me up while I was lying on the ground.
The darkened vision slowly returned to normal, like thick fog being swept away by the wind. Of course, unlike fog, it was black.
As I blinked my eyes to regain my sight, Andrea’s face filled my vision.
“It’s not over yet.”
“But the magic point…”
“We don’t know what happened yet. Apparently, this was a different type of magic point than last time. Considering we’re still here, that is. There are no beasts or demons around.”
As Andrea said, there was nothing left where the magic point had been.
“……I think I have an idea of what it was intended for.”
It was Rina’s voice.
“Ah…”
Rina’s words made Aurora sigh.
The appearance of the children surrounding us had changed a little.
No, it wasn’t that their form had changed. They still held weapons. They were still glaring at us. But their energy had changed.
Just a moment ago, they were too fearful to attack us. Now, they were trembling, ready to tear us to shreds at any moment.
“It must have amplified their emotions. Specifically, their intense hatred towards the church.”
“……Just like how it was with the cadets?”
“Exactly.”
Rina let out a deep sigh as she put her sword back in its sheath. It wasn’t that she sheathed it back on her waist. She had sheathed her sword into her hand, turning it into a bludgeoning weapon.
“I’ll handle this. Linea, you stay too.”
“Got it.”
At Rina’s words, Linea also sheathed her sword like Rina.
“But…”
“Sisters are right. Clara sister has things to do.”
Andrea interrupted me.
“There must be something big happening above. We can’t afford to waste any more time.”
“Well, that’s true. We’ll be fine here. We’re not weak enough to be done in by a bunch of kids. And the same applies to them.”
At Rina’s words, Linea nodded.
“……Okay.”
In the end, I nodded.
Objectively speaking, even if those kids learned some martial arts, they wouldn’t be a match for Rina or Linea. After all, children have limits to their energy.
Moreover, considering these were starving kids who couldn’t even eat properly, it was even more unlikely.
“Then I’ll leave it to you!”
“This way. Please follow closely behind us, public servants.”
In the end, leaving Rina and Linea behind, we decided to head up to the surface.
“Try not to die if you can.”
“I wish you luck.”
“……Stay safe.”
“I’ll pray for your safety.”
Aurora and I lightly greeted them before quickly turning and running. The two knights who took off behind us quickly overtook us and charged ahead, followed at a distance by the public servants rushing along.
Yeah, what had happened had already happened.
We needed to resolve this situation no matter what.
Deciding whose fault it was could wait until after we took care of the responsibility and solved everything.
Grinding my teeth and running, I rationalized it to myself.
*
Running with all my might, I eventually found the manhole I entered from and emerged outside, greeted by a completely silent city.
It generally wasn’t a lively area, but there shouldn’t have been absolutely no one on the streets.
Having completely climbed up the ladder, I saw the backs of Andrea and Uncle Paul, who had arrived first.
And in front of them—
A woman stood.
“……Hmm.”
The beautiful woman with long black hair down to her waist spoke as she looked at me, who had come up from the sewer.
“You’ve finally arrived. But it’s already too late.”
“……Who are you?”
Honestly, I felt I knew roughly who she was without needing to ask.
“I’m probably just as you imagine.”
“……No, I know you’re a witch, but I’m a little confused. Is it hatred or resentment?”
At least it wasn’t greed. It definitely wasn’t lust either, and as I pondered if it was resentment while running, I remembered having seen resentment before. So, it must be either hatred or resentment.
“……I’m the Witch of Hate.”
Seeing her cheeks twitch made it seem I had touched her pride.
“I see.”
Having run hard and being out of breath, I sighed heavily.
“Well, fine. I’ll admit it. Your plan seems to have succeeded. What the plan is, I don’t know.”
“Well.”
The witch glanced around her environment and continued.
“To be honest, I can’t say it was a complete success. It was meant to be done without anyone noticing. I’d like to ask how you realized and got here.”
…Her overly relaxed attitude made me quite angry.
“Let’s just assume it was an intuition.”
“Hmm.”
The witch narrowed her eyes and stared at me.
“Well, fine. If it makes sense, then I’ll accept it.”
The witch shrugged her shoulders and continued.
“So, earlier I said it wasn’t a complete success, but thinking about it, I believe I could use that slight failure to turn it into a more perfect success.”
That is, she would do something to me. Kill me, cripple me, or abduct me in some way.
I was curious if she could do anything at all from her standpoint.
“Oh, don’t suddenly rush in.”
As I clenched my fists and infused them with miraculous power, the witch raised one hand.
And at the same time, I heard someone approaching from behind.
“……”
It was the beastkin.
Unlike those kids earlier, they didn’t seem ready to attack. Instead, they looked like they were in a state of hypnosis. Their eyes unfocused, they walked around like zombies.
“Here, there are plenty of beastkin. And—”
All at once, the beastkin raised the weapons they held to their own necks.
“……”
“Now, what do you think? How about having a little talk with me?”
“……What do you mean ‘talk’?”
“I’m asking if you would come to our side instead, in exchange for not taking the lives I’m holding. There’s actually quite a bit of open space right now, thanks to someone.”
“……”
Phew.
Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.
So now anyone can treat me like it’s no big deal.
No matter what, there’s no way I would change sides. Of course, it’s a separate matter that I don’t plan to just throw away the lives of these people.
I mean, someone was trying to bribe me with money, and now they’re trying to threaten me with hostages.
“……You can’t be serious, can you?”
When I asked, the witch simply shrugged her shoulders.
“Clara sister……”
From behind me, Aurora muttered with a worried voice.
There was nothing to worry about.
I had never thought of switching sides to begin with.
“If you want to try, go ahead. I’m curious how far this miraculous power can reach.”
As I turned my gaze, preparing to see if I could break the spell on those who were brainwashed, the witch chuckled.
Surely, what I saw wouldn’t be everything. There were probably still people in the house. If the entire area were under the spell, those invisible could also be holding weapons against their necks.
Moreover, while the miraculous power might be omnipotent, I myself was not omnipotent. Using such a wide-ranging power would surely cause me to faint afterward.
Well, fine. Then it would be time to move to Plan B.
I don’t consider myself particularly smart. Just today, I couldn’t hold my tongue for even a few minutes, and caused things to escalate to this level.
But thankfully, I’m not completely brainless.
That means I still have the sense to look for another way even in this situation.
Let’s sort through the knowledge I have.
First, I concluded two common points from considering the witches I’ve seen.
First, witches needed to be close to the humans they controlled to manipulate strong emotions. I hadn’t fleshed out the settings around witches properly, I had just slapped whatever scenario came to mind into the novel, but it seemed this was acting as a kind of basis.
The Witch of Doubt in this world failed to cause any incidents before I dealt with her, but in the novel, she tried to circle around the 21st District, spreading doubt and making people distrust each other.
The Witch of Jealousy didn’t appear in the novel, but she entered human society at great risk to manipulate the cadets’ emotions and ended up getting taken out.
The Witch of Resentment couldn’t manipulate the elves. Instead, she merely remained a remnant in Arlil’s consciousness, misdirecting and harassing those who intruded. The fact that she couldn’t do more suggests that the Witch of Resentment was not simply ‘not doing’ something, but rather ‘unable to do’ it.
Despite having left part of her consciousness in Arlil for over 500 years, the Witch of Resentment still couldn’t bring down Elven Society.
And now… looking at the Witch of Hate in front of me, I thought,
“So, how will you act? Will you give up all the beastkin to deal with me? Or will you sacrifice yourself to protect the beastkin?”
…Even though she was speaking so confidently.
The second common point was that all witches messed up their plans because they couldn’t control their own emotions.
Seeing every witch so far, they had stumbles due to their inability to control their feelings. The only one who barely managed to make a mistake was the Witch of Doubt, who didn’t doubt anything until she was killed. The Witch of Jealousy and the Witch of Resentment acted according to their emotions and ended up failing.
Hence, I thought I understood why this witch appeared here.
Because I disgusted her.
The fact that I, who had derailed her smoothly running plan, was so disgusting she wanted to kill me.
…At that point, that emotion approached hatred rather than mere disgust, but those witches hadn’t been operating with such objective judgment anyway.
“Ha…”
I let out a deep sigh.
“Do you really think you can act like that?”
When I asked incredulously, the witch momentarily showed a dazed expression.
“What…?”
“Look. Suppose I run towards your direction from right here.”
I pointed at the ground beneath my feet with my index finger and explained as I lifted it towards the direction of the witch.
“How many seconds would it take to run such a short distance?”
“If you don’t understand what I’m saying…”
The witch looked at me with a look that said she’s never seen a more foolish person.
“Are you saying…?”
“Are you saying you’d make the beastkin take their own lives? I heard you. But really…”
I answered with an equally dazed expression.
“Then let me ask you one question.”
With my index finger still pointed at the witch, I declared. A small drop of blood from the magic circle began to spread slowly, but I didn’t care.
I was confident I could win without miracles.
“When I rush towards you… do you think you can wait without using the beastkin to stop me?”
“……What?”
Use the beastkin as hostages? Yeah, well, you were clever enough. I’m not the type to just watch people die in front of me. If something like that actually happens, I may very well use the miraculous power as a response to save everyone.
But here’s the thing, orders matter in any plan.
Isn’t it more important to knock out the root of the problem first?
If I were to use the power of miracles and then faint, I wouldn’t be able to kill the witch.
Thus, I should first take care of the witch, and then use the power of miracles to save the people who had harmed themselves and were about to take their lives.
Simple logic, right?
And also—
“Then,”
I crouched down. I positioned myself like a sprinter preparing for a start.
“I’m coming!”
And then, I started sprinting with all my might!
As I charged towards the witch with all my strength, would she be able to stop me without letting the beastkin use their lives as shields!?
“Stop her! Don’t let her come this way!”
Right, I expected that!
Thwack!
I delivered a falcon punch to the face of the beastkin who stood in my way. Honestly, it was such a satisfying punch I wanted to shout it out loud, but it was too embarrassing to do so, so I just swung my fist.
Crack, I heard a satisfying breaking sound. I wasn’t sure if his nose broke or if my hand did—
Whatever the case, I cast a heal on my hand.
The reason I didn’t cast a heal on my opponent was that if they woke up, they’d be filled with hatred and undoubtedly become pawns of the witch again.
There was absolutely no mixing of personal emotions in that decision.
As one guy fell, I spotted an old man running towards me. He was the one who refused my food, preaching survival of the fittest, and such.
My kick landed on the old man’s face with a thwack.
Smack—! A satisfactory noise sounded. Of course, my personal feelings were absolutely not involved. It was merely an unfortunate accident in the course of my duties as a saint.
Is being a saint able to justify public executions, though?
Well, let’s say it is. If needed, I might even have to throw a tantrum at the Pope.
“V-violence against those who charge at you only deepens your hatred for me!”
“I don’t care. I’m not coming back anyway. Most importantly, prioritizing beating you is key.”
“The injuries they sustain…!”
How considerate it was of you to worry about them, for a witch.
Of course, it wasn’t really about caring for them, more about worrying about me getting closer.
“Oh, don’t worry. After this is over, I’ll g~ive them full treatment!”
As I smiled and said this while delivering an uppercut to a girl charging at me, the witch’s expression crumpled up.
Yeah, that’s how it should be.
There’s no way the villain would have a calm expression, right?
Anything that charged at me had no hope of doing anything useful. Aurora was right behind me, as were Andrea and Uncle Paul.
I could hear someone who had charged at me fall to the ground with a thud after getting hit.
Well… that says it all.
I’m not alone.
Ahh, I’ve been yearning to say that line.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Alright,”
I slammed a straight punch into the face of the man charging at me, and continued,
“Are you sure it’ll be alright,”
If the fact of a merciful saint violently attacking the townsfolk spread, it would be widely concerning.
Please take care of the saint’s image, sigh.
“Just a moment ago, weren’t you the one who asked me to come to your side? Now you’re worried about my image?”
“……”
And I think it’s fine if I tarnish my image.
It’s already too good anyway. I think it might need a little nerf.
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