Calm Down, My Cat
Whoa, calm down. My cat.
The air began to scream as it boiled over.
This was no mere physical heat.
It was a murderous intent so vicious it could evaporate the moisture from skin in a single instant.
“……Spit it out. You little brat.”
Crunch.
The silver fork in Ruby’s grip crumpled like soft taffy.
At the same time, crimson heat haze erupted from her entire body like an explosion.
Target ‘Ruby Scarlet’s rationality has dropped to the critical threshold.
……As expected, this won’t be easy.
Running your mouth in front of a patient with anger management issues is no different from using a time bomb with an exposed detonator as a pillow.
A suffocating hot wind filled the room.
The salad on the table instantly crumbled into ash, and the water in the vase boiled past its limit and sublimated into the air.
This was the Flame of Calamity.
A silent threat that reducing an entire hotel to ashes would be no trouble at all.
An ordinary person would have had their legs give out and collapsed long before now.
But I deliberately steadied my breathing.
Hoo…….
What am I supposed to do in a situation like this?
Suddenly, the advice of a certain community user with the nickname ILoveBlondeBigBreasts flashed through my mind.
‘Act in accordance with your Class.’
Act according to your class……
I am Counselor Aris, so……
I clearly had to act like a counselor.
Yes, even in a situation like this—ironically—I needed proper counseling techniques.
I narrowed my eyes as if lost in deep thought.
Subjectively three seconds. The phrase from Chapter One of Counseling Theory came to mind.
[Do not avoid the eyes of an enraged client. The moment you avert your gaze, they recognize the other as ‘prey’.]
When I recalled that textbook phrase, a snicker escaped my lips with a soft pfft.
“……Why the hell are you snickering?”
“Ah, well. Because I’m your biggest fan.”
I casually poured oil onto the burning house.
“……What?”
Ruby’s eyebrows twitched.
“This crazy bastard…… Have you lost it? Are you joking right now?”
KWAANG─────!
The table flipped over, and the dishes screamed as they rolled across the floor.
Her crimson eyes slit vertically like a reptile’s, gleaming with a chilling light.
“Fan? Why? Is my fire show fun? Or do the screams of people burning to death sound like an orchestra to you?”
Ruby’s shoulders shook as she snickered, as if the whole thing were laughable.
Then, in an instant, her eyes flew wide open.
“Either way, you’re dead. The price for treating me like a spectacle…….”
“No.”
I cut sharply through her tirade and took one step forward into the seething heat.
“Not your flames.”
“……What?”
“I mean I’ve been watching the frail hesitation hidden behind that fire demon of yours.”
I slowly closed the distance.
The scorching wind whipped my bangs into disarray, but my gaze remained locked on her eyes like a driven spike, unwavering.
“Everyone else curses you as a mad arsonist. A personality wreck. A terrorist who can’t even control her own rage.”
One step.
Before I knew it I had reached the wreckage of the table.
“But my eyes saw something different.”
“……Shut up.”
“You’re not angry.”
Two steps.
Now close enough that I could reach out and touch her. I whispered in a low voice that struck bone.
“……Right now, you’re trembling because you’re scared.”
Ruby’s expression hardened like plaster.
The murderous aura that had been swelling to the bursting point until a moment ago froze in place, pierced clean through by that single accurate blow.
“This bastard…… what the hell are you saying……?”
“Because if you don’t steal someone else’s heat, your heart freezes solid. A survival instinct thrashing around because you want to live—because you don’t want to freeze to death.”
I jerked my chin toward the crushed fork.
“That rage is only a shield. Isn’t your true heart screaming for someone to stop you?”
“…….”
In that instant a heavy silence settled over the hotel room.
Ruby stared up at me with a dazed expression.
Did it land?
No. My judgment had been too optimistic.
If you carelessly touch a wounded beast, it doesn’t grow docile—it sinks its teeth into your throat.
“……Bullshit!”
KWAANG!
Ruby kicked her chair back and shot to her feet, seizing me by the collar.
In a flash my vision flipped, and my back slammed roughly into the wall.
“Ugh……!”
Fuck, there goes my spine.
True to her anger management disorder, there was zero control over her strength. She was a runaway locomotive.
“What the hell do you know?! What does a piece of shit like you know about me to run your mouth like that?!”
Hissss─────!
The smell of burning rose thick between the fingers clenched on my collar.
It was no mere metaphor.
The high heat pouring from her palm was scorching the collar of my shirt and searing the skin of my neck.
Target 「Ruby Scarlet」 is displaying a powerful defense mechanism.
Her rationality is on the verge of collapse.
……Several times more difficult than Elara.
And physically far too dangerous.
This is seriously fucking hot.
Cold sweat poured down like rain from the pain of my flesh cooking.
It wasn’t quite a fatal crisis yet, so even White’s Oath refused to activate.
Damn inflexible skill.
“You son of a bitch, I’m going to kill you…….”
The face of Ruby right in front of me was no different from a demon’s.
Her lips were bitten until they bled, and the capillaries in her eyes had burst, leaving them bloodshot and red.
“What? I’m regretting it, I’m scared, I’m begging someone to stop me? What the hell do you know? What do you know?!”
Ruby howled like a beast as she pinned me.
“And what? Scared? Ha, don’t make me laugh. Did you forget who I am? I’m Ruby Scarlet. The half-elf who burns everything! You human brat!!”
She poured more strength into the hand gripping my collar and screamed.
Hot flames flickered as if they would scorch my eyelashes.
“Take it back. Shut that disgusting mouth right now and take it back!! What?! Your true heart is begging to be stopped? Don’t make me fucking laugh! Take it back! Or I’ll burn you to death right down to the bones!!”
A clear death threat.
But I did not back down.
If I showed weakness here, I would never hold her leash for the rest of my life.
I swallowed even my groans.
Instead I stared straight into her blazing eyes.
If I looked away or screamed now, this counseling session would fail.
Enduring the pain of my skin burning, I slowly raised my hand…… and seized the wrist of the hand that was gripping my collar.
“……You little shit, you won’t let go?”
“Let’s talk after you let go of this.”
Sizzle.
The sound of flesh cooking rose clearly from my own palm as well.
“Look at this crazy bastard……? You really want to burn that bad?”
Ruby twisted the corner of her mouth upward, but her eyes were not smiling at all.
A flicker of bewilderment crossed them for an instant.
I did not let go.
No—I tightened my grip on her wrist with even greater force.
The searing heat burrowed into the nerves of my palm, but I clenched my teeth and endured.
Then I spat the words out low and deliberate.
“……It’s not hot.”
“……What?”
“Not hot at all. Your flames.”
Her crimson pupils shook as if an earthquake had struck.
I did not miss the opening and drove the fact home.
“If you’d really meant to kill me, my head would already be a lump of charcoal. Right?”
“Ha……?”
“But look. You can’t even properly burn my collar.”
I jerked my chin toward the hand still gripping my collar.
“……Your hand is trembling like this. How is any power supposed to go into the flames?”
Only then did Ruby’s gaze drop to her own hand.
Her pale hand, even while clutching my collar, was trembling violently like an aspen leaf.
It was not from anger.
Fear.
The primal terror of having her bottom exposed was dominating her unconscious.
“Ah…….”
Ruby’s lips parted blankly.
She had realized it too.
That she was not angry right now—she was thrashing like a child on the verge of tears.
Whooooosh…….
As if it had all been a lie, the flames that had been threatening me withered away without strength.
Where the bluff had been stripped away, only a shabby reality remained.
“……You son of a bitch.”
The strength drained from Ruby’s hand.
The hand that had been gripping my collar slid free and dropped with a soft thud against my chest.
From between the red hair, a voice thick with moisture spilled out.
“……You unlucky bastard.”
Still, maybe my poison had worked.
She bit her lip as if she refused to admit defeat.
Rather than having submitted of her own will, it was more accurate to say she had been overwhelmed by this incomprehensible situation.
Thud.
Her arm fell limply into empty air.
An ordinary heroine would have apologized or teared up here, but Ruby Scarlet was different.
She staggered one step backward and glared at me as if staring at some bizarre lifeform.
“……You, are you insane?”
Her gaze locked onto my ruined shirt collar and the palm that had been cooked bright red.
“Why didn’t you let go? Did you go crazy wanting to burn to death for real?”
“Haha…… If I’d let go, I get the feeling the hotel would have gone flying.”
“Ha…….”
Ruby let out a hollow laugh as if she couldn’t believe it.
She muttered while looking back and forth between her own unharmed palm and my burns.
“……You vicious bastard. Are you even human?”
True to her anger management disorder, I suppose?
Honestly I had expected an apology first, or at least some concern.
There was none of that.
The only thing lingering in her eyes was a kind of awe, as if she were looking at a madman.
It was the expression of someone whose pride had been trampled by the fact that her karmic flames had been blocked by nothing more than a human’s bare hand.
Yes. This is Ruby Scarlet.
……For now, today’s counseling ends here.
If I stay any longer it might actually become dangerous.
And my palm hurts too much.
I hid the throbbing hand behind my back and smiled as if nothing were wrong.
“I’ll come again tomorrow. I hope you’ll have calmed down a little by then.”
“…….”
“And as for the palm…… I’ll be billing you for the treatment. It’s going to be quite expensive, you know?”
I turned without waiting for an answer.
“Hey.”
A low voice came from behind me.
“……If you grab me like that again next time.”
Ruby ground her teeth and spat the words.
“I’ll burn you down to the bones for real.”
Still a savage warning.
But I could tell.
The murderous intent from earlier was no longer mixed in. The poison called ‘fear’ had drained out of her voice.
Click.
I closed the door without a reply and stepped out. The cold air of the hallway rushed over me.
The moment the door shut, I let the poker face I had been maintaining collapse completely.
Cold sweat poured down my back like a dam bursting.
“……Haa, fuck.”
I raised my trembling hand.
A scorching heat was devouring my entire palm.
Blisters had formed to the point that the skin was about to peel off.
But beyond the door it was quiet.
By now Ruby was probably inside the room, grinding her teeth and chewing her nails, or tearing a pillow apart because she couldn’t contain her frustration.
Or maybe she was confused, muttering, “What the hell is that bastard’s deal?”
So that the existence of ‘me’—the one who had endured her flames—would not leave her head.
Not guilt, but an unresolved question and an uncomfortable aftertaste left behind.
That is the only way to handle that crazy woman.
I shoved the tattered hand into my pocket and let out a short snicker.
“……Still, it’s quite entertaining.”
I fully intend to collect the medical fees.
Not in money—but with her leash.