Like a Dragon -3-
Like a Dragon -3-
Inside Hotel Pink Quartz.
The method Max intended to use basically required a thick face to begin with.
After all, hotels like this require a key card to use the elevator.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
With confident steps, he entered as if he were a guest.
Ellen, who had come in one step late, stuck close to his side.
"You sure this'll work?"
"Came 'cause I was worried Oppaya might be too weak."
"Well, thanks for that. I'll handle things from here, so just follow me."
"I'm not bad at ad-libs, you know! I can do it too!"
Bickering with Ellen, they headed toward where Yoo Wi-kang and the affair partner were.
The other party had called the elevator with their key card first, so they planned to hitch a ride.
Ding!
The elevator opened.
Max and Ellen entered after the two had boarded.
The button for the 25th floor was already lit.
"Hm?"
Max made a small sound, pretending he no longer needed to press anything.
He leaned his back against the cool metal wall and waited for the floor to rise.
Beeeep!
The elevator door opened, and the four people got off on the 25th floor.
A quiet, dark corridor lined with doors. Ellen and Max, standing in the hallway, deliberately walked in the opposite direction from the target.
Hiding around a corner, they waited to hear the sound of a door opening.
Just before it closed, they quickly checked the room the target had entered.
'Room 2501.'
The room at the very end, easy to identify.
Max headed toward Ellen, who was at the corner.
"Let's go back down."
"...You, you're gonna book the room next door?"
"Gotta try at least. Don't know if there's a guest, but if not, I'll take the room right above or below."
Fortunately, catching a descending elevator didn't require a key card.
If necessary, they could have found a cleaner or employee and offered a bribe to use it.
It felt like they'd saved some costs already.
'Let's make this quick.'
Coming down to the first floor, Max immediately headed to the counter.
"Is Room 2502 available? I'd like to stay for just one night."
Max floated the memo pad and pen on the counter, spinning them above his palm.
The employee, realizing he was a mage, gulped nervously.
"I-it's certainly available, sir...!"
"What's the price?"
"...430,000 credits."
The employee who announced the price couldn't keep his eyes still, rolling them around in nervousness and fear.
Max didn't pay it any mind, finishing the payment with cash he'd prepared in advance.
Taking the key card, he boarded the elevator with Ellen again.
He pressed the button for the 25th floor.
As the elevator began moving, Ellen, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly tilted her head.
She poked Max's shoulder with her horn hidden under her hood, warning him.
"If you try any funny business with me, I'll zap you with lightning! Got it?"
"Ellen. Let's focus on the job."
"You think I don't know all men are wolves! Ah, talking about wolves pisses me off too... Anyway, don't you get any weird ideas!"
"Yeah, yeah."
Ellen was more amazing the more you looked at her. She really had such a colorful imagination.
The direction her thoughts leapt toward lightly exceeded Max's predictions.
'Do I give off an impression that I'd do something like that? Or is it the kind of free imagination that exceptional mages have...?'
Getting off the elevator, they headed to the room.
Opening the door and inserting the key card, the lights came on inside.
"Ohhh...!"
Leaving Ellen, who had taken off her hood and was looking around in wonder, Max pressed his ear to the wall.
Tsk. He made a dissatisfied sound and pulled away.
"The wall's thicker than I expected. The soundproofing's good."
"Then whatcha gonna do?"
"I've got a few methods in mind. Just make yourself comfortable, Ellen."
"Hmmph..."
Ellen made a prim sound and started wandering around the room before grabbing the remote.
Turning on the monitor to lighten the mood, a skin-colored image filled the screen.
"!?!?"
She turned off the monitor with an astoundingly fast reaction.
Rolling her eyes to check on Max, fortunately he had his back to her and was preparing something. He didn't seem interested in her.
'What kind of place is this... When you date, is this where you normally come?'
She'd heard about the love lives of her academy friends, but this was more explicit than she'd imagined.
Did all those friends spend their weekends with their lovers in places like this?
'...How embarrassing.'
Ellen turned around and opened the box containing the disposable items.
She had a rough idea of what might be inside, but curiosity got the better of her.
As soon as she opened it, various items were visible.
Things you couldn't mistake even if you had no experience.
'If I said these were vitamins, I'd be called an idiot.'
And the single-use gel included alongside.
Curious, she just slightly tore open the end. A transparent, sticky substance oozed out and got on her finger.
"Ugh!"
Ellen made a face and scrubbed her finger vigorously with a wet wipe.
Finishing her exploration, she returned to Max's side.
"Did you spill something?"
"No. Don't mind me and focus on the job."
Max looked puzzled for a moment, then immediately climbed onto the bed and fiddled with the window.
Clatter!
Whether to prevent jumping out, the window below the floor-to-ceiling glass only opened slightly at the top.
Even so, it was enough for Max to try the method he had in mind.
'With a gap this wide, it's plenty.'
─Brring! He turned on video recording on his smartphone and used telekinesis to send it outside the window.
The farther the distance, the less precise telekinesis became and the more magical power it required, so this room was perfect.
"Wow, Oppaya really does think like a pervert."
"...That's a compliment, right?"
"'Course! Right now it's a compliment for being good at your job!"
Controlling his telekinesis to prevent the smartphone from breaking, about 2 minutes passed.
He retrieved it safely and immediately checked the gallery.
"Oh my, that's a bit explicit."
"Lemme see too! What did it catch?"
"Whoa, hey! Kids shouldn't see this!"
"Where ya findin' a kid! Ya crazy or what!"
Max dodged Ellen as she lunged at him and sent the video to Yoo Wi-kang.
In less than 10 minutes, he received a message from the office: "Proceed as requested."
'I don't know if this guy's brain is damaged or what.'
Max immediately gathered his outerwear and belongings.
He double-checked to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything.
"Ellen. Let's go finish up. Grab your stuff."
"Ended early without using the whole weekend? That's anticlimactic."
"That's a good thing. When we're done, I'll get you a cab so you can go home and sleep."
"Y-you think I was gonna do that...! Did ya think I was gonna share a bed with Oppaya or somethin'!"
"What are you talking about? I'm sleeping at the office."
Ellen glared at him as if she could shoot lightning from her eyes, then pulled her hood over her head.
Max let out a wry laugh and stepped out into the hallway.
Then they faced the door of Room 2501.
"How we gonna open it? Telekinesis?"
"Let's try knocking first."
"Geez. As if they'll open it."
"If the guy still has his manly pride, he will."
"Huh? Ah~"
Ellen mulled over the information she'd overheard at the office.
Soon she nodded in understanding.
Yoo Wi-kang, who had requested this job, was an elite.
Even with a weak disposition, he was a person who'd learned to distinguish right from wrong through social life.
If the affair partner had been an ordinary person, it could have been easily resolved by just borrowing a gun from that boisterous friend with a revolver.
Finding evidence of the affair would have been simple if he'd just taken some time off work. It would have been less of a loss than paying a mercenary's fee.
Yet Yoo Wi-kang still came to the mercenary office and commissioned the job.
That meant he'd judged it impossible to kill the affair partner with his own hands, but that he'd prepared thoroughly.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a mercenary for a mercenary—that was the path he'd chosen.
'To be precise, he said the guy was former mercenary.'
Yoo Wi-kang had also passed on information about the specific target to Max.
The affair partner was a former mercenary who had settled down as a guard for Eco Scrap. He wasn't from the Bohemian Association.
Moreover, he was said to constantly brag about his mercenary days among the guards. He had a harsh reputation among his coworkers as arrogant and knowing his place.
'At least the information about him being 3rd rank seemed correct.'
If the rest of the information was also true, then this guy lacked self-reflection. He was overconfident in his abilities, which meant there was a high chance he'd open the door to a knock.
Why? Because a woman was watching. Simple reason.
If he didn't open it, they'd just break it down.
"Oppaya. Can I neutralize him?"
"Hmm..."
"I'll control my strength. I'm gettin' frustrated and wanna let off some magical energy."
"I suppose. You'd subdue him more cleanly than I would. I'll leave it to you. Try for minimal external damage."
"Okay!"
Ellen showed confidence. Max curled the corners of his mouth and pounded on the door.
It wasn't a knock. He hit it with irritation, as if venting. Bang! Bang! Bang!
— Who is it!
Max ignored the voice from inside and kept pounding the door.
Click!
The sound of the lock releasing.
"What kind of bastard—!"
The man's face appeared, blood vessels bulging on his forehead from rage.
Ellen's finger moved.
[La-Mancha Thunder]
A single stream of electricity flowed into the man's body.
Lightning swam through his internal organs.
Thud.
The man collapsed on the spot.
His outside was intact, but a burning smell emanated from him.
Ellen took one step into the room.
Through the open gap in the door, a musty smell and cigarette smoke wafted out thickly. Ellen made a face and retreated.
"Eww! I don't wanna go in with that stench."
"Good work. Just wait a moment while I finish up."
Max used telekinesis to lift the now unresisting man's corpse and entered the room.
Mistaking his footsteps, Yoo Wi-kang's wife responded.
"Honey? You didn't kill someone again, did you? Control that temper~"
As Max entered the room, Yoo Wi-kang's wife covered herself with the blanket.
"Who...?"
He lifted her with telekinesis as well.
Laying them out side by side, he took photos and explained the scenario.
"You two were leaning against the window, making love, when you fell. Romantic, don't you think?"
"W-wait a moment! Please spare me! Spare me!"
"Don't worry. There won't be any pain. You'll be dead before you hit the ground."
"My husband sent you, right! I'll pay you more! If I divorce him, I'll get a settlement, and from that money—!"
Crack! The woman's neck twisted from the telekinesis.
"Hmm, this should do it."
Max piled the two bodies together, then used a shock spell to break the window.
He threw the bodies upward.
Ellen, who had accompanied Max on his commission, naturally spent the weekend at her family home.
Then, Monday morning.
As Ellen was leaving for the academy, a piece of clothing caught her eye.
'Ah, I brought that with me. I can return it on my way to work.'
Wearing the zip-up hoodie Max had lent her, Ellen headed toward Minerva Academy.