The Heavenly Mandate Cult's Optimized Talent

Parmenia was a Shrine Maiden of the cult.

Hand the real Shrine Maiden over to the guards, and then what? The charges against Lupin—charges that amounted to nothing in the first place—would vanish. Obviously. The logic was so simple and so clear that Lupin did not waste a moment thinking it over.

Thwack. Thwack.

Little lumps kept rising on the unconscious Parmenia's head. She had been trapped in a nightmare of her skull cracking, over and over, against a boulder, and only now did she barely claw her way back to her senses.

"Agh. Agh. Why won't the landslide sto— agh."

"You open your eyes quick."

"Hah. Hhk... what...? What kind of garbage dream... ah."

The instant Parmenia saw Lupin smiling at her, bright and untroubled, she screamed.

"Hey! You! Why?! Why the hell?!"

She pitched forward—and went down in a crash. At some point she had been lashed to a steel chair, unable to twitch so much as a finger. The veil she had poured her heart's blood into making rested in Lupin's hand, and it had not even been folded. It was wadded into a careless, crumpled mess. Lupin shook it at her with open pride.

"For a cultist, aren't you a little too pure? I'm only asking just in case, but you didn't actually think I was going to keep helping you, did you?"

"Shut up, you traitor! You talk too much!!"

Parmenia was the sort of person who liked being lodged firmly in place somewhere. In a sense, she understood people even less than Lupin did. So when Lupin had resolved the crisis at the station, Parmenia's heart had already tipped a long way toward her. A benefactor. Someone to be grateful to. Roughly that sort of position.

How many people in the world suspect that a benefactor is about to crack them across the back of the head out of nowhere? Lupin, on top of that, was being hunted by the guards. Cult and criminal were always bound to tangle together, like it or not, and so Parmenia had never really had a choice but to be taken in.

Come on—she had been drenched head to toe in bright red blood. She had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shown an interest in a Shrine Maiden's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠veil. And above all, those eyes. Thoughtless pupils, steeped in impulse and madness. That was Klein, through and through. And this wasn't a criminal? Anyone could see that Lupin was the same kind of creature as Parmenia. Even the august Cheonmyeong Jiwang himself might have fallen for it. Of course, every time Lupin had scooped her up without ceremony, that strength had been a strongman's, and Parmenia had long since abandoned the very idea of resisting or running.

"You liar..."

Resentment dripped from the mutter. Lupin answered as if it were nothing at all.

"I didn't lie."

"......"

"Think about it. Didn't I say I was going to sell you off to the guards?"

The most brazen person in the world set her hands on her hips, looking thoroughly pleased with herself.

"Anyway, we're going to the guards. Turn ourselves in and walk in the light."

"N-no! Just let me die!"

"Nope. Then my false charge doesn't get cleared."

"Ehehe. Or else... how about you try enjoying life as a wanted woman while you're at it...?"

Life as a wanted woman.

Lupin lightly pictured her own future with a bounty on her head. She would still be beating villains down, opening their safes, and vanishing without a trace. Far from the bounty climbing, wouldn't she just end up a hero?

"Whoa! Lupin took down another villain!"

"The Association must cancel the bounty on Lupin's head!"

That was the only sort of scene that came to mind. Sure, if some bank ever ran a colossal scam and bled the citizens dry, and some pigeon marked the bank president, cleaned out the vault, and landed on a wanted list, that could happen. But there was no sign Lupin was about to get tangled up in anything of the kind. There were simply too many Secret Safes, great and small, lying around her as it was.

Mm. Yeah. I really can't picture it.

"You can enjoy that yourself. Let's go. To the police station."

"Wait, wait, wait."

"What?"

"Seriously. I. Have a really good idea."

"Why do I feel like I can already see the future?"

"I-it's a really good idea! Just listen!"

But Parmenia was desperate too. She was a scientist, and an expert in poison. She had committed no small number of crimes, yet the medical knowledge she possessed was something even the Imperial Union watched with keen interest—data won by pushing all the way into human experimentation the empire could not legally conduct. So even if the guards caught her, she would be shut in a special prison, not marched straight to the gallows.

Cheonmyeong Jiwang would never take that situation lightly. Wasn't she a precious human resource? He would be certain to send the Black Dragon Corps, his personal guard, along with a few Shrine Maidens, to get her out. And then Klein would come dragging along behind them, claiming Parmenia owed her a debt and scheming, one way or another, to milk it dry.

Parmenia hated that crazy woman to the bone. Always snatching, always extorting, always threatening her to hand it over. They were both Shrine Maidens, and yet Parmenia's side of it had been closer to slavery. So not ending up in a cell mattered more than anything. She could not afford to create a situation in which Klein got to shine as the main force.

"That guard captain. He isn't the type to just accept it if you drag me over and offer me up."

"No way. I wiped all the makeup off, just in case. Right now I'm a perfect match for the composite sketch, you know? I even tried the veil on. Flawless. Wasted."

"E-even so! Think about it. Just a minute ago you were insisting you were the Shrine Maiden, and what did they make you do?"

Now that she mentioned it. Lupin nodded, her brow creasing.

"Fair. They did make me do something completely ridiculous."

"You were claiming to be the Shrine Maiden and provoking them the whole time. If I suddenly say I'm the Shrine Maiden, you think they'll believe it?"

Hah. What a joke. Whether that's right or wrong, we ask the guard captain.

...Except it was too reasonable to brush aside like that. If Lupin had only fooled around a little, maybe. But she had no idea how wildly she had carried on, all for the sake of a single veil.

"So I'll tell them myself that you got hit with a hallucination poison and weren't in your right mind. And if I appeal to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them with cuteness while I'm at it, won't they fold completely? What do you think?"

Lupin hated thinking about complicated things. So if someone stepped forward and worked out a plausible line of reasoning in her place, she would hear them out. Besides, Parmenia at this moment looked exactly like a mosquito doing a tap dance. Begging to be spared, promising she would do anything—honestly, it was pretty cute.

"I'll do everything I can to persuade the guard captain. You just have to help me once."

"What do I have to help with?"

"Could you take one look inside my bag?"

Lupin opened the doctor's bag and took out everything inside. Little medicine bottles of every color and size lined up in a row.

"Don't tell me all of these are poison."

"Yeah. Among them, that one. Oh! That one! The blue poison. Use it while I'm in the guards' custody."

Lupin went tch, tch, tch, crooking her index finger as if to say not a chance. When there was a land mine worth stepping on, she spotted it with uncanny precision.

"Trying to make me kill the guards for you?"

"I-it's not that kind of poison!"

"Then what is it."

"Deep Dream. A sleep poison. Once you fall asleep, you can't wake for a full day and night."

"This isn't actually a poison that kills people, right?"

"If you're curious, test it on me. Go on."

Still bound to the chair and bent forward, Parmenia kept tucking her chin in toward her chest. It meant she was confident.

"The method's simple, too. Just open the lid and it spreads across the whole area in no time. Poisons like this are my specialty anyway, so there's no way you'd come under suspicion. The moment the poison gets used, it'll be obvious it was me."

"And where's the guarantee the guard captain won't suspect me?"

"My doctor's bag is packed with medicine bottles. That'll be enough."

"That's true. But why don't you do it yourself?"

"Because even I can't do a thing with my arms and legs all tied..."

"I thought you looked weak. Guess you really are."

The words jabbed Parmenia right where it hurt. She knew she was weak. She knew. And maybe that was why a baseless grudge exploded, and the tears came flooding out.

"I... I didn't want to be weak either.... Hic."

Lupin took one look at that spectacle and had to admit it. The guard captain, surprisingly, might not be someone with strange tastes after all. A woman who didn't merely put a villainess to shame, but was beautiful enough to crack a clay pot, sniveling that she was some frail little girl—how was that not going to stir indecent thoughts?

Gasp. What am I thinking.

Lupin, who had nearly picked up a bad taste without realizing it, snapped back to herself. At this rate, it seemed Yegor meant to bend even other people's preferences with an invisible hand. As expected, that was a man she must never get too close to. And here she was, pointlessly suspecting someone who had only been locked up under false pretenses.

"Ah. Anyway! If this still isn't enough, I'll give you a few poisons as a gift!"

"I don't need to use poisons like that."

"They're all precious. Incredible poisons, and I'm the only one in the world who can make a proper antidote for them."

....

Gifted with five kinds of extreme poison, Lupin summed the lot of them up in a single sentence.

Poison that worked beautifully on bastards who played games with treasure chests.

The next five treasure-chest con artists she met had better be ready.

"Fine. I'll do as you asked. And that sleeping drug? Give me the antidote for it, too."

"The antidote to Deep Dream... why?"

"In case my companions fall asleep by accident. I'll need to wake them."

"Ah, yeah, yeah! Sure! Anyway, thank you so much!!"

Parmenia kept slamming her forehead into the ground to show her gratitude. Lupin spoke to her.

"First, that cute look you mentioned. Show me a sample, too. I need to check in advance whether it'll work on the guard captain."

Ahem. Ahem. Parmenia cleared her throat and poured her soul into the performance.

"Um, Captain. You know. I wanna turn myself in. The bounty on my head, too—I'll give it to you. You've been cheering me on for so long, haven't you. I'm so happy......"

Parmenia. Did the woman have no shame at all? How did she pull off an act like that so naturally, without taking a single breath? Lupin, who had once poured her very soul into playing a schoolgirl fresh out of the army, nodded.

"That should be enough."

"For real? Thank youuu... no. Ahem! Thank you."

But the softened mood lasted only a moment. As Lupin untied her, she dropped her voice low.

"Betray me, and you die."

Freed, Parmenia was dumbfounded, but she couldn't bring herself to show it. After all, the one who had stabbed her in the back before anyone else...

"What. Why are you looking at me like that."

"I'm not! Hahaha..."