The Witness Must Be Eliminated
Protecting a client's private life is part of the job.
"The witness... must be eliminated."
A murderous aura pricked at the skin like needles.
From Mocca Mellow's slender fingertips, a violet orb of mana swelled with a chilling, low hum.
True to a magic engineer — magic over physical force, is it?
I let a crooked smile tug at the corner of my mouth.
This was no empty threat. That was the real thing.
Even so, I had no reason to wet myself with fear.
White's Oath.
Absolute defense. Once every twenty-four hours.
The moment I took fatal damage, an ice shield charged with Elara's mana would wrap around me.
So what I needed to focus on right now wasn't survival.
It was how to cook this cute little beast.
"...Haa."
I let out a deep, theatrical sigh for her benefit.
"Your calculations are off, Miss Mocca Mellow."
"...What?"
An unexpected reaction. Her brow furrowed, her eyebrows twitching.
Without so much as glancing at the lethal magic rising to her chin, I tapped my wristwatch.
"Let's say you eliminate me right here. What then?"
"...What then?"
"What about the body disposal? The bloodstains and residual mana that'll spray all over this room? And the rotting smell?"
I jerked my chin toward the ceiling.
"You call Lady Beatrice your master, don't you? Then you know better than anyone. A special envoy personally dispatched by the Magic Tower Lord vanishes from her disciple's room on the very first day of counseling..."
"..."
"Where do you think the Magic Tower Lord would search first?"
Mocca's dull eyes began to waver. I could almost hear that so-called genius brain whirring at full speed.
The worst-case scenario my words pointed to. A corpse. Beatrice's pursuit. A room search. And then... the discovery of those gruesome experimental traces.
I nudged a tattered experiment log rolling on the floor with the tip of my shoe.
"Lady Beatrice would just love the state of this place."
"...!"
"Once she finds out her beloved disciple has been up to something this horrific in the corner of her room... cutting off your Magic Network connection probably won't be the end of it, will it?"
⚡ Skill Activated ⚡
⟨ Psychological Insight ⟩
A ringing filled my ears, and I felt her inner world thrashing violently.
This time's keywords were...
[PANIC]
[CONFUSION]
It landed perfectly.
I clicked my tongue and drove in the finishing blow.
"Full research budget cuts as the basic package, and getting kicked out of this cozy room into a solitary cell in the underground dungeon? Ah — I hear they don't even get mana communications down there, let alone Wi-Fi."
"Th-that...!"
Magic Network cutoff.
The moment those words hit her eardrums, the color drained from Mocca Mellow's face. The murderous glint in her eyes from moments ago was gone without a trace, leaving only the despair and terror of a collapsing world.
"N-no... A life without internet... that is a torture far worse than death...!"
Shwoooosh————.
The mana orb spinning furiously at her fingertips deflated like a punctured balloon and fizzled out into nothing.
Just as I thought.
A woman more terrified of losing her Magic Network than of killing someone. A hikikomori who hated having the blood-stench and gruesome traces filling this room discovered more than she hated dying.
I was certain I'd seized the upper hand. Slowly, I stepped close enough to hear her breathing.
"So make your choice."
"...Ch-choice?"
"Option one. Kill me, get caught by Lady Beatrice, and rot in an underground dungeon cell with no Magic Network for the rest of your life."
I held up my index finger, then slowly raised my middle finger and waggled it in front of her eyes.
"Option two. Quietly go through with counseling with me, and bury this... mess we saw today as a secret between the two of us."
"A s-secret...?"
"Yes. My lips are very sealed. Protecting a client's private life is a counselor's duty, after all."
I smiled gently and held out my hand to her.
A devil's temptation.
But she had no right of refusal.
"So what'll it be? Will you make me an accomplice, or a snitch?"
"Uuuugh..."
Mocca Mellow bit her lip until it bled, as if furious. Whether from wounded pride or from having her weakness seized, her small shoulders trembled. She looked just like a rain-soaked puppy.
In the end, she raised the white flag in a voice that barely crawled out.
"...Y-you really won't tell? You won't go running to Master about... this humiliating state of mine?"
Humiliating state...?
An odd way to put it for simply being caught at a murder scene. For the Calculator of Slaughter who'd supposedly killed ten thousand people, the cleanup had been rather messy. Professional pride, maybe?
"I promise. But there are conditions."
"C-conditions?"
"You will earnestly participate in my counseling from now on. And..."
I picked up a spoon that had fallen on the floor and pressed it into her cold hand. When our fingers brushed, I felt her flinch and go rigid.
"Until counseling is finished, you will obey my every word without question."
"Huuuh..."
An expression so dumb and innocent it was hard to believe this was the witch who'd been about to kill me moments ago. I grinned and jerked my chin at the bloodstains and scorch marks splattered on the wall.
"By the way, your work method is rather... rough. Leaving traces like that makes cleanup a pain."
At my words, she turned red all the way to her ears and hung her head, clutching the spoon tightly.
"...My calculations were immature."
"Oh?"
"I meant to finish it cleanly... but I failed to regulate the output. The suffering only dragged on, and it just got messier."
Hollow-eyed, Mocca Mellow stared into empty air and muttered under her breath.
"So... I was merely attempting to correct an error."
"An error?"
At my question, Mocca slowly nodded.
"Indeed. An unnecessary variable that should not exist in this world."
Her voice was laced with deep self-mockery and revulsion.
"It had no value in living... I tried to cleanly erase it to zero in one go. But the formula got tangled... and all that remained was this filthy residue."
Wow. She really is a crazy bitch...
Killing a person because they had no value in living, and treating them as nothing more than an "unnecessary variable." And calling the fact that they survived without dying "filthy residue"? Genius magic engineer, my ass — she was clearly a sociopath who only saw humans as numbers. The way she grumbled about the suffering dragging on gave me chills, but on the surface I casually played along.
"Well, you learn by failing, right? Next time you can just handle it cleaner."
"...?!"
Mocca Mellow's head snapped up with a look of sheer shock. Her pupils trembled as if hit by an earthquake, like she was staring at some incomprehensible creature.
What's with that reaction? Did I give her encouragement that was too nauseating?
She swallowed dryly and looked up at me with trembling eyes.
"...Are you truly a counselor?"
"Of course. A counselor will shake hands with the devil if it means a successful outcome for the client."
At my quiet voice, her expression shifted strangely. In the place where her wariness crumbled, a peculiar sense of trust began to sprout. At the very least, the conviction that this man wasn't the type to go scurrying off to Master to tattle. And the relief of having a sole accomplice who understood this "horrific hobby" of hers.
Mocca, who always hung her head in classic hikikomori fashion, looked me straight in the eyes for the first time. Of course, she still dropped her gaze just as quickly, without confidence.
"...Very well. I shall trust you."
She let out a deep sigh and brushed back her messy short hair. That sight was rather... stimulating.
"In exchange, keep your promise. What happened in this room goes with you to the grave."
"Of course. My mouth is heavier than a vault."
We exchanged meaningful looks.
With that, the perfect pair of accomplices was born.
I cheered inwardly.
Success.
I'd walked into the tiger's den and fastened a pretty collar around the tiger's neck.
Holy shit I genuinely thought I was fucked.......
I thought this girl was just some shut-in hikikomori goddess in a corner..... but no, she's a full-blown psycho.
Calculator of Slaughter?
Bro she was literally drafting formulas to kill people as painfully as adjusting chemical concentrations, I shit you not?
I ran into a fucking psychopath lmao holy crap what do I even do about this guys
[Attachment: roughly_zoomed_Mocca_Mellow_bust_motion.JPG]
Still, thanks to the classic "witness" cliché and the childish-but-effective pressure of "If you mess with me, I'm telling Beatrice!", I managed to escape.
If not for that, my neck would have been snapped by now — in a very different sense from the photo on that monitor.
I put on a deliberately casual front and typed a reply with trembling fingers.
Made it back alive, huh...
True enough — up until a little while ago, things had been pretty grim.
At CancanRobotII's words, a hollow laugh slipped out of me unbidden.
Hoo...
As the tension drained, fatigue rolled in like a wave.
Right. Psychopath or genius, at the end of the day she was just another hikikomori whose life had gone off the rails.
No need to be that scared.
For today, I'd wash my feet and just go to sleep.
That was the moment I was about to put my back to the bed.
BANG—————!
Wh-what the fuck?!
A heavy vibration thundered through the wall of the next room.
An earthquake? Or an attack?
I reflexively sat up and pressed my ear to the wall.
And what came through was...
not the whisper of a murderous assassin...
but a very familiar scream from a certain valley.
— No, you fucking idiot!! Hey you Tarzan butcher bastard!!! Why the hell are you going in there!!!!
A bellow loud enough to punch through the wall.
— I said gank! Gank! Gank!! Top is in a one-versus-one soul duel right now!!!!!! You blind-ass bastard!!!
Clack-clack-clack, clack!
Bang! Bang!
The shriek of keyboard switches. The shotgun thuds of fists slamming a desk.
It was Mocca Mellow.
The cold-blooded killer who'd been weighing whether to take my head from an "anatomical perspective" just moments ago was nowhere to be found.
— Again, again, again! What are you doing! Ah, the enemy Tarzan pitched a tent in top!! And our Tarzan is off playing some life RPG where? Did you come to pick herbs? Huh?
Her howling continued.
— And why did mid blow up again! Hey you bugs!! Hit surrender at fifteen! You won't? Is that how your parents raised you? Huh?!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
— Open it!! Run mid!!!
...This lunatic.
Every time I hear this kind of noise, I genuinely start to doubt whether this girl is actually a villainess.
She just sounds like a foul-tempered gaming hikikomori...
Haa...