Tonight's Consultation Was Perfect
……What the hell is this fucking face.
She’s actually strong as hell……
My gaze followed Ruby’s every movement as if something had possessed me.
This wasn’t mere violence.
In the pitch-black darkness, flames bloomed along crimson trails.
It was like the fluttering hem of a dancer’s dress as she spun through a deadly waltz.
Of course, this wasn’t her full power.
The elves might sneer at her as a half-breed, but noble blood of that race still ran through her veins.
Even setting magic aside, she possessed an elf’s miraculous dynamic vision and perfect physical balance.
If she had a bow in her hands?
Just imagining it sent a chill down my spine—overwhelming potential.
Bare-handed and unarmed, she was already on a level that might not pale even against the current Hero, Elara von Heim.
She was a first-prize lottery ticket that hadn’t even been scratched yet—no, one that had only just begun to be scratched.
“Gyaaaaah!! Hot! S-save me!!”
“Th-this crazy bitch!! Run!!”
The thugs’ desperate screams filled the alley.
Every time Ruby flicked a finger, the flames coiled around their limbs alone with the precision of living vipers.
Lethal, yet never fatal.
The buildings remained unscorched; only the trash burned.
It was perfectly controlled violence—closer to art than brutality.
Thud.
“Kyaaaaah! R-run!!”
“Fuckiiiiiing hell!!”
The ones wreathed in fire rolled on the ground, then tore off their burning leather armor and fled into the darkness like rats.
It was an ugly sight, like a swarm of insects scattering in panic at the sight of a torch.
“Ha!? You’re running!? You filthy bastards!”
Ruby snarled at their retreating backs.
Her eyes blazed and her shout was rough, yet it was clearly different in texture from her usual precarious rampages.
Instead of chasing them further or smashing buildings, she simply scattered the flames as if brushing dust from her hands.
Fsssss.
Crimson embers melted into the night air like snowflakes.
Then she hesitantly turned her head and looked at me.
It was a gaze thick with the need for recognition, as if asking, Did you see that?
I smirked and wordlessly gave her a thumbs-up.
“……Hmph.”
Ruby snorted and whipped her head away.
But even the hood couldn’t hide the tips of her ears burning red.
Now the only ones left in the alley were the elf girl crumpled on the ground and Ruby, staring blankly down at her still-warm white hands.
Crackle.
Psychological Insight illuminated her inner world.
The murky colors that had been tangled behind her back until moments ago were clearing away as if they had never existed.
In their place rose something clear and transparent, like the sky after rain.
Sky blue.
Wonder.
A small measure of self-acknowledgment.
I slowly clapped as I approached her.
“As expected, Ruby. This suits you far better than arson, you know? See? You can do it.”
“Ha……? I didn’t do it because I wanted to. I was just pissed off because of you, and some trash happened to be there so I took it out on them.”
Arms crossed, Ruby shot back curtly while looking down at the girl on the ground.
“U-um……”
The trembling elf girl carefully pushed herself up.
Her eyes were filled not with fear, but with pure admiration.
“Thank you so much for saving me…… so…… you’re an elf, right……?”
“……!”
Ruby’s shoulders jerked hard.
Elf.
The title she had heard her entire life was “half-breed.”
Not once had anyone ever called her that with respect and gratitude—a completely foreign word.
Ruby hurriedly yanked her hood lower in flustered panic.
But even that couldn’t hide the heat flooding her face.
“W-who said I saved you? Don’t get the wrong idea.”
She snapped her head away in denial.
Yet the tip of her voice trembled ever so slightly.
“I just…… got annoyed hearing that ‘pointy-ear’ crap right in front of me, so I cleaned them up. I didn’t do it for you. Got it? Then get lost.”
“Even so…… you saved my life. You were really, really cool. Unnie.”
Thump.
That single word painted over her colors once more.
Pink.
A shy, soft pink bloomed like cherry blossoms, fluffy and warm.
Perhaps because the sight made me oddly proud, the corner of my mouth lifted on its own.
That was when it happened.
Wheeeeeee────────!
— Over here!! A huge blaze just shot up!
— It might be Ruby Scarlet! That alley!
From the far end of the alley came the shrill blare of whistles and the frantic shouts of the city guards.
Well, of course. Lighting a campfire in the middle of downtown wasn’t going to go unnoticed.
“Damn it…… tangled up again.”
Ruby scowled and glared at me.
“Hey, kid. What now?”
“Hmm, good question…… what should we do.”
I grinned and stroked my chin.
Then I slowly stepped up beside her and snatched her slender wrist.
“What?”
“We run. Doing what Ruby does best.”
Tap!
I pulled her into a full sprint toward the opposite end of the alley.
The sound of two pairs of feet pounding through the night air echoed off the walls.
Behind us the whistles pursued relentlessly; beside me a witch gasped for breath, clutching my hand like a lifeline as she kept pace.
Under the moonlight, the fierce headwind tore Ruby’s hood free.
Her surging crimson hair streamed out across the night sky.
I turned my head to look at her.
Her face was flushed from the run, yet her eyes no longer held venom or gloom.
Only the vibrant smile of a girl who found this whole situation absurd, ridiculous—and thrilling beyond reason.
Tonight’s consultation was perfect.
Target Ruby Scarlet's psychological defense mechanism has been weakened.
Tweet-tweet-tweet────.
“…Fuck, that’s so goddamn noisy.”
That damn bird racket coming through the window.
Normally I would’ve opened the window and launched a fireball to turn the thing into roast chicken.
“Huuu…… morning, huh.”
I scowled and pushed myself up from the bed.
A throbbing hangover.
An unfamiliar sensation wrapping my body.
Looking down, I saw a single loose white dress shirt barely covering me.
Last night I’d stripped off those stifling clothes and grabbed whatever was in sight to sleep in. Of course it had to be this.
I climbed out of bed and padded barefoot over to the window.
My reflection in the glass.
Crimson hair a tangled mess, thighs looking bare and thin beneath the shirt hem.
Anyone could tell I looked like a screw had come loose.
“…What the hell is this fucking face.”
The expression staring back at me from the window felt unfamiliar.
Eyes emptied of venom. And the corners of my mouth, ever so slightly relaxed.
Like someone who’d had a good dream.
……Had my heart ever been this quiet before?
Every time I looked at the city outside I wanted to burn everything to ash, yet that urge to destroy had eased a little.
“…Because of that bastard?”
Unconsciously my fingertips drifted toward my lips.
Last night—the way that guy had caught my flames bare-handed.
And the firm grip that had seized my wrist when we ran together.
Normally irritation should be boiling up first thing in the morning.
Even with the cheap wine hangover from last night still buzzing in my skull, somehow I didn’t feel bad.
Instead, a ticklish sensation lingered in one corner of my chest.
I raised a hand and touched the corner of my mouth in the glass.
Lips that were always twisted or full of contempt…… had softened into a gentle curve.
— It’s not hot. Maybe because Ruby’s heart is colder.
— As expected, Ruby. This suits you far better than arson, you know? See? You can do it.
His voice circled my ears like an auditory hallucination.
In an instant, mortifying heat flooded my face.
“Uwaaaaagh!!”
I clutched my head and screamed.
“Crazy bitch, crazy bitch! Ruby Scarlet! What the hell were you doing?!”
Just some counselor.
A human piece of trash who groped my body and called it ‘desensitization training’ while teasing me the whole time.
Come to think of it, last night I’d shown him every last scrap of my bottom-of-the-barrel trauma and spilled every story I had.
And that wasn’t all? I’d held that bastard’s hand and acted out a lovers’ escape drama?
“This is black history. I have to forget it right now.”
I shook my head hard and forced my gaze elsewhere.
Then the cheap hat and hood draped over the chair caught my eye.
The cheap hood he’d thrown over me yesterday.
Normally I would’ve incinerated that trash the second it touched me, claiming I didn’t even want it near me.
“……”
As if possessed, I walked over and picked the hood up.
Rough, coarse texture. But when I brought it to my nose, mixed with the acrid smell of smoke……
his scent clung faintly to it.
“Ha, what a smell…… still, it smells like that guy.”
I grumbled with my mouth, yet instead of burning the hood I folded it neatly and set it on the desk with a soft thump.
“Well, even if that pervert bastard gave it to me…… throwing it away feels weird, right? Yeah, that’s it. And…… it was the first time I ever got thanked while wearing those clothes……”
The praise I’d heard from that pointy-eared elf girl.
Just remembering it made a smile rise on its own.
I’d always thought the only way to feel better was to smash and burn everything. Surprisingly, saving someone wasn’t so bad either.
Of course, the feeling that quietly rose while thinking that…… was because of that bastard’s scent……
“Ah, no……! It’s a trophy. No other meaning!”
Making excuses to myself, I stood in front of the mirror.
“…Haa, damn it. Why am I like this because of that human bastard.”
I roughly undid the shirt buttons and changed clothes.
My usual ripped pants and T-shirt.
But standing before the mirror, I felt something was missing and paced in front of the vanity.
“Maybe…… I should put on some perfume?”
A red bottle I never even glanced at normally.
Rose musk, was it?
I pressed the pump with my thumb.
Pssht—.
A subtle, sensual rose fragrance wrapped around my wrists and the nape of my neck.
“…Still, the scent’s nice.”
I wasn’t doing this to smell good.
Absolutely…… not because of that brat.
I glared at the flushed face of myself in the mirror.
“Just…… in case I still smell like booze from last night. Better than smelling like sweat, right? Yeah.”
A perfect excuse.
I fled the room as if escaping.
The hotel corridor was silent.
I stopped right in front of the room next door—his room.
Was he still asleep?
No presence at all from inside.
Curiosity.
The urge to check.
I carefully turned the doorknob.
Fortunately—no, stupidly—the door wasn’t locked.
Creak.
The door opened, revealing a bed with morning sunlight slanting across it.
“……”
There lay the brat counselor, dead to the world and snoring softly.
Blanket half-kicked off, hair a mess.
Normally he acted like such a sly old snake. Right now his face was completely defenseless.
“Ha, seriously……”
I approached his bedside without a sound.
Looking at his sleeping face, why did little laughs keep leaking out?
Instinctively I reached out. The thought of poking that annoying cheek.
Poke.
“Nngh……”
“……”
Even poked, he seemed deeply asleep.
I quietly looked down at him.
With those eyes that always saw straight through me closed, he looked exactly like a little kid.
Annoyingly handsome, damn it.
“Hey. Get up.”
I whispered softly, but he didn’t so much as twitch.
Instead he only mumbled and buried his face deeper into the pillow.
Somehow that made me want to mess with him even more.
Just one little smack. Very carefully.
The instant my finger was about to touch his cheek—
Grab.
“……?!”
Suddenly his hand shot up and seized my hand floating in midair.
I froze, too startled even to scream.
“Mmm…… Ruby……”
“……!”
F-fuck, is he awake?!
I yanked my hand free in a panic and bolted out of the room without looking back.