Don't Answer a Question with a Question!
The woman stared at me as if to say, What's your problem? just because I'd been quietly looking back at her. A sharp retort slipped out before I knew it.
But I quickly regained my cool.
Honestly, what she said made perfect sense. Sure, the cigars in this world were infused with mana, so they didn't reek like regular smokes, but there were still people who hated the scent. This was the duke's garden, after all—and she'd been here first. Hard to argue with that.
"..."
The only issue was that I'd just survived about forty-four hallucination-induced deaths, leaving my nerves frayed to hell.
A person's face can reveal a lot. You know that feeling—like, Oh, this jerk's totally dismissing me.
I turned my gaze to the woman in front of me. Sharp, upturned eyes and pursed lips. She didn't strike me as beautiful so much as prickly.
"What are you staring at? Didn't you hear me?"
She was using formal speech, but her expression and tone dripped with contempt. Bizarre how palpable it was.
Was my blank stare getting under her skin, or was she pissed that I'd ignored her warning?
Her emotionless facade cracked for a split second.
"How dare you... ignore me?"
Then she started yammering on. But I ignored her, rolling my eyes to peer behind her.
This woman didn't particularly bother me.
But...
"..."
Standing just a step behind her, like a loyal attendant, was her maid. She was the one catching my attention.
Why?
My instincts, sharpened from the brawl with the duke, were screaming it loud and clear. Not the woman in front of me—the maid one step back was far more dangerous.
Hummm.
From the moment the woman spoke, I'd quietly spread smoke across the ground without her noticing.
If I wanted, I could slit her noisy throat in an instant.
"Put out that cigar right now. This is your warning."
I met the eyes of the woman lecturing me.
She had no clue.
She couldn't even sense the blade—or gun barrel—pressed right against her.
But.
A quick glance.
The maid, a step away, was different.
She'd been subtly aware of the smoke creeping along the ground from the start.
As my smoke shifted ever so slightly, her fingertips trembled unconsciously.
I watched her, then shifted back to the woman still nagging me.
What to do...
Should I put the fear of god in her?
The thought flickered through my mind.
But then.
[So, what do you think? Care to share your thoughts on tasting death?]
The duke's voice echoed in my head once more.
"Fuuu... Yeah, fine."
I decided to back off.
Slowly, I plucked the cigar from my lips and held it in my hand.
I wasn't some psycho who'd kill over a minor annoyance, and I wasn't asshole enough to threaten someone this oblivious.
This was the garden. She'd been here first, so her complaint was fair.
Besides.
I'd die before I pulled the same shit as the duke.
I'd just tangled with him, gotten sick of his mind games, and now imitating him? That'd be a joke.
"So, who the hell are you, anyway?"
I sized up the woman. Neat dress wrapped in a red robe.
Where had I seen that before?
Oh, right. Back in the alleys, when we hired that mage—the robe looked just like his, but his was blue. This one's red.
"...When asking someone's name, you introduce yourself first, no?"
I'd tried zoning out with other thoughts, but nope.
"Don't answer a question with a question!"
My least favorite bullshit.
Just answer the damn question—why throw one back?
Talking with Mist was different. It was like piecing together a puzzle, a detective game chasing clues to the truth.
But this woman? Nothing like that.
"Huh?"
And she didn't even realize she was the problem.
I kicked off from my spot and headed straight for the room Mist had shown me.
"Wha..."
Bella, the last illegitimate child of the Nebla Duke family and a candidate for headship, was speechless for the first time in her life at this thug's behavior.
She knew absurdity could hit so hard it left you mute.
"Are all the people here this rude?"
The casual speech slipped out unbidden.
But for Bella, the question was inevitable.
Didn't the family head force death experiences under the guise of a "test"?
One rival woke her from sleep with screams, and another was this cigar-stinking lout?
"Haa..."
Bella squeezed her eyes shut, forcibly quelling the anger bubbling inside.
Calm down. I'm a mage. Top graduate of Adrian Academy from the magic nation Adrian.
A genius among geniuses. The continent's youngest high mage to earn a crimson robe. Losing composure would tarnish the mage's name.
"Fuuu..."
After deep breaths for a while, Bella called to the maid standing rigidly behind her.
"Nella."
The Nebla servant who appeared out of nowhere one day.
But Bella hadn't felt much from that encounter.
A year of assassination attempts?
Just keep defensive spells active. Easy.
Her overwhelming mana reserves justified any arrogance. Mastery in wielding it for spells.
As the world said, Bella was a born genius poised to become an archmage soon.
That her blood came from the Nebla Duke family, rulers of the empire's south? Utterly natural, she truly believed.
A commoner who graduated top of magic academy, carving her path from the bottom to a bright future.
That pride steeled her even more.
"Get me info on that thug. Right now."
Even a genius like her had her pride shattered since entering the Nebla family.
Fainting from the head's hallucination. Waking to alarm bells and another bastard's screams.
And now this sudden cigar-fumed intrusion.
"What a clusterf— Whoops."
Startled by her own crude slip, she clapped hands over her mouth.
Sink to their level, and you're no better.
"Fuuu..."
Knowing that all too well, Bella eyed the still-motionless maid.
"Not moving?"
"...Yes, understood."
Under Bella's icy gaze, Nella bowed her head, showing respect to the legitimate heir who'd passed her test.
After bailing on the frustrating conversation with that question-dodging woman, I headed straight to the room Mist had guided me to.
"Unexpected."
"Huh?"
Mid-stride, Mist glanced at me and said that.
Unexpected? What?
Spotting my quizzical look, she continued.
"I figured with your personality, Master Abel, you'd slyly take control of the talk. Not deliberately provoke her and blow it up like that."
"...Yeah, normally I might've."
I slipped the cigar back between my lips as I replied.
"Too annoying."
Yeah, my usual self might've chatted her up casually.
That woman... didn't catch her name?
Anyway, she screamed fellow bastard at first sight. Could've pried some info out.
"But nah."
I'd seen her type plenty.
Like the mages hired by imperial underworld groups out to kill me.
Heads held high, egos through the roof—treating non-mages, normals, and ability users like primitives.
Of course, I wiped them all out.
And learned their tells.
"Her type doesn't spill info in chit-chat. Or you gotta grovel first."
Sure, butter her up and maybe she'd talk.
But why the hell would I?
Bend over backward for a mage who might drop dead any second?
My face twisted involuntarily.
"Hate that shit."
The words came out low, unbidden.
She gave me a strange look.
How to describe it? Like appraising a gem...
Lick.
As I stared, she suddenly licked her lips.
Her apricot tongue peeked out—almost seductive.
A chill ran down my spine.
"You..."
"Is something wrong, sir?"
One blink, and her face snapped back to normal.
So quick it felt like my imagination. Made me doubt my eyes.
"Nah, couldn't be. Hey, sometimes you look at me all weird—what's that about?"
"I have no idea what you mean."
"Don't dodge."
We were bantering nonsense when—
Bang!
A door flew open mid-hallway. A man burst out.
"Raaagh! You dare kill me! I'll slaughter you!!!"
He charged like a wounded beast.
I watched impassively as Mist's voice whispered in my ear.
"Ah, that's Kaizen, the bastard from the north who arrived today."
"That guy's...?"
I eyed Kaizen roaring and bolting into the distance.
That direction looked like the head's quarters. He'd taken the same test as me, huh?
"Oh, and the woman from earlier is Bella. Another Nebla bastard."
So one heir's that raging lunatic sprinting off screaming,
and the other's the infuriating mage girl?
The thought sparked a question.
If I weren't here, wouldn't one of those two take over the Nebla family?
"Hmm...?"
Could those two actually run the duke's domain and underworld?
"Wait."
No way. If they could, the early academy incident with the underworld gang targeting it wouldn't have happened in my knowledge.
In other words.
"If one of those two becomes head..."
the duke's house goes under, right?