Hostage Rescue Training (3)
To sum up Ageha’s character in one word, she was a tsundere.
A rich girl, bad at being honest, the kind who couldn’t sleep without her teddy bear, bad at being honest, unexpectedly soft-hearted, and so on and so forth.
None of that really mattered. What mattered most right now was that her pride—in herself, and in her own abilities—was enormous.
In other words, it was only natural that my words would get under her skin completely.
“Just a moment. Why exactly should I be supporting you? I admit you’re strong, but isn’t that a little too high-handed of you?! With my abilities, I might not be able to restrain Changwon, but I could at least keep Lionel in check! And you want me to just sit in the back and suck my thumb?!”
Ageha was furious in a way I’d never seen before, unloading an unbelievable amount of dissatisfaction on me.
By the time Team Two’s fight ended, she was still firing off complaints so fast I couldn’t even get a word in, and I had the distinct feeling I’d made a mistake.
I’d meant to give her the short version first and explain the details afterward, but I wasn’t in a state where I could explain anything in detail.
…Well. I was trying to copy what the original novel’s protagonist had done once. Guess it didn’t work so well.
Then again, in the original story, she’d still been dumping complaints like this even when she had some feelings for the protagonist. I had neither feelings nor goodwill—just a mountain of resentment. So I supposed this was only natural.
“All right. So, just calm down for a second. I’m the one who messed up.”
I didn’t particularly want to, but I had to calm her down enough that she’d listen, so I clasped my hands together in apology and did my best to soothe her.
“You think this is something you can brush off with an apology?!”
“…Then do you just want to lose?”
When that still didn’t work, I wiped the smile off my face and jabbed at her again, making it impossible for her to do anything but bite back.
She hated losing almost as much as she hated being ignored.
Of course, that didn’t mean she was stupid enough to stick her head into a fight she couldn’t win.
Just like how she hadn’t dared mouth off to me after seeing Fukkin go down in an instant.
“I have to win, don’t I?”
Now that I’d said it that way, Ageha pressed her lips together, clearly angry but unable to refute me.
“Then I’ll take your silence as agreement. I’m not saying you’re useless, so you need to support me. It’s just that the rear is where you can perform at your best.”
Now I could explain things properly.
I told her how Changwon and Morgan were likely to act, and then laid out the plan for how I meant to counter them.
“Wait. How do you know that…? Don’t tell me, you predicted all of their moves…”
Ah. So that was what had shocked her.
I tapped a finger against my ear and said,
“I eavesdropped. Whether I wanted to hear it or not, it came through loud and clear. I couldn’t not hear it.”
“That’s cheating…!”
“Cheating, huh? You sure sound awfully comfortable being a stickler for rules. And watch your mouth. That’s species discrimination.”
Ageha blinked in confusion, asking how that could possibly count, then quickly apologized in alarm.
“…Still, at least let me go with you. My abilities will definitely be useful.”
Even so, perhaps because her pride still had a shred of dignity left, she proposed that she be allowed to accompany me—she just didn’t want to do absolutely nothing in the back and suck her thumb.
“Fine by me. But there probably won’t be time to calmly distinguish friend from foe, so don’t blame me if you get caught up in it.”
I figured if I told her not to drag me down, she’d just flare up again, so I chose a more accommodating line.
“Hmph. This time, I’ll show you I’m strong enough that you won’t need to worry about anything like that…!”
But it looked like I’d lit a fire in the other direction instead.
Well, the more seriously she worked, the better for me. No reason to stop her.
After Team Three’s fight ended and Changwon and Morgan went inside the building to prepare however they liked, we circled the exterior and checked the positions of the ventilation shafts while freezing them shut.
“There’s another one here, Ageha.”
“Understood. O chill of winter, gather here.”
As she recited the spell, ice bloomed at once.
“Really… this will work, right?”
“It won’t have a massive impact, but sometimes a difference the width of a sheet of paper decides everything.”
When I put it that way, she didn’t seem to have anything else to say and simply kept chanting as she sealed up every place air could escape.
“By the way… magic, huh. It’s not like it has no limits, is it?”
It got awkward just standing there in silence, so I asked about the limits of her abilities—her magic.
The novel never really went into it, and I was curious on a personal level too.
“No. First, you have to recite an incantation. And you have to understand the principle behind it, too. There are plenty of magic users, but the incantations differ from person to person, so each of us has to explore magic entirely on our own…”
“So magic isn’t as conveniently magical as it sounds.”
“…Was that supposed to be a joke?”
Ageha stopped freezing the vent and looked at me as if asking whether I was serious.
“Just an observation.”
“I see… then.”
Once it looked like everything was sealed, Yustitia called out that it was time to begin.
At her signal, I entered the building with her, peeling off the top of my tracksuit as I went.
Then I mixed the Nepetalactone I’d synthesized in advance with a fine spray of water and scattered it through the air.
“Ageha. I’m counting on you.”
Normally, I would’ve had to get close enough to spray it directly, but with Ageha along, this was a viable method.
“Understood. Blow, fierce wind!”
At her incantation, a gust of wind swept in from behind us and carried the mist all the way down the hallway.
Morgan would be patrolling the first floor, so there was no way he wouldn’t breathe it in.
If you were wondering what I’d just scattered, it was the cat-doping compound found in catnip.
That stuff that makes cats roll around in circles and go completely out of their minds.
Lionel’s weakness was his own ability.
Lionel’s power was a beast-type ability: lion.
It was a pretty solid ability, letting him take on the physical traits, strength, and speed of a lion.
But at the end of the day, a lion is still just a big cat.
I was exploiting the fact that catnip sent them completely feral.
Why didn’t it affect me? Because I broke it down the second I inhaled it.
As I spread the catnip compound across the first floor, I soon heard footsteps heading our way.
It was Morgan, drooling, his eyes glassy and unfocused, shuffling toward us in a daze.
“H-Haha… h-heh, the sky, the sparrows are flying… two mountains…”
Maybe he was completely gone, because even after seeing us, he didn’t try to fight. Instead, he staggered closer with both arms outstretched, reaching for the air as if he wanted to touch us.
Looks like the effect was a bit too strong.
I didn’t want to be groped, so I grabbed one of the hands reaching toward me and used his own momentum to throw him over my shoulder, subduing Morgan in one smooth motion.
“Tie him up.”
“It really… works… Ah. O tangle of fate, bind that man!”
Even while groaning in pain and muttering nonsense, Morgan was shoved off to one side of the hallway, and we headed up to the second floor.
Now the real main event was starting.
Changwon was the real other class.
“If you want to back out, now’s your last chance.”
“Do you really think I’d be scared? Even if a bear appeared, standing my ground is the founding principle of our Toojuu family. I won’t run!”
That wasn’t a bear. That was a dump truck.
Still, if she insisted on doing it herself, there was no reason to stop her.
The more actors I had drawing attention, the better.
Following the sound, we made our way to the room where Changwon was waiting, and he greeted us there.
Right beside the hostage.
“So we meet again. I’d hoped our reunion would take place in a quieter and more… cultured setting.”
“You’re lucky we met again at all. I was planning on never seeing you again.”
“Is that so? Then I suppose I’ll have to seek you out, even if it means going to you.”
“You sure do say disgusting things so casually!”
After boosting my body to its limit, I blasted smoke toward the bastard and charged in the direction I’d obscured.
But as if he’d seen through the move in advance, he snatched me out of the air with telekinesis and hurled me straight at Ageha.
“Eek?!”
Ageha managed to dodge at the last second, preserving herself, but she was still no real help.
More importantly, so that was it—he really had wrapped telekinesis around his body like a barrier. The smoke scattered before it ever reached him, which made that clear.
“Thunder from the heavens, de—kyah!”
Ageha must have noticed the barrier too, because she tried to roast Changwon with lightning that wouldn’t be stopped by it.
But before she could finish the spell, he flicked a hand and sent her flying toward me instead.
As I caught her, his gesture sent me crashing into the ceiling, then the wall, then the floor.
“I don’t understand. With an ability like this, how did you defeat a boss monster? Was that dungeon really that low-level?”
He was overflowing with confidence.
Ageha was sprawled on the floor and couldn’t get up.
It didn’t seem like she was injured so much as her spirit had been broken.
Especially if the way she looked at me, apologizing, was anything to go by.
“…Block the door.”
“I’d like an answer first.”
Ageha muttered a spell under her breath and sealed the door with ice.
“An answer, is it?”
I drew a deep breath and slowly began changing the room’s atmosphere.
Taking away the oxygen, breathing out only what remained.
“Want me to tell you?”
“Please do.”
“I don’t know how low-level the dungeon was, but I think I’ve got a good idea of how low-level you are. You moron.”
I filled the room with nitrogen.
Neutral. Odorless. Invisible.
Something your senses couldn’t perceive.
By the time the body recognized it was being starved of oxygen, it was already too late.
Changwon, after hearing my answer, called me a vulgar woman and raised a hand in disgust.
That posture—was he planning to smash me flat with telekinesis?
If it landed, it would definitely break bones all over the place, but—
That didn’t happen.
Because Changwon’s concentration broke.
If that bastard had been even a little less arrogant, he would’ve broken the door or torn down the wall long ago and secured oxygen that way.
“I told you. I thought I knew your level.”
Changwon’s ability was powerful, but it demanded an extreme degree of concentration.
In a situation where there wasn’t a single breath of oxygen left, maintaining his fading consciousness was about the limit—never mind using his ability.
This had been the plan all along. Fill the room with nitrogen and suffocate him.
I hadn’t even needed Ageha, really.
I could’ve just spewed nitrogen myself.
Still, with Ageha’s help, it had become a little easier.
Maybe I should thank her.
“Y-You… how…”
I kicked Changwon in the solar plexus, sending him flying even though he was still trying to hold on, and answered him kindly.
“Because I can make it inside my own body. What, is that too advanced for a low-level idiot like you to hear?”
I kicked the ice door apart, then covered Ageha’s nose and mouth with my hand to give her oxygen before carrying her out of the building in a princess carry.
“Good work, Ageha.”
She probably couldn’t hear me anyway, so I decided to say something embarrassingly cheesy.