Chimpanzee Enclosure
"Hey, you look pretty shaken up."
Kang Jiye jabbed a finger into the face of the Royal Witch, who was still slumped on the ground.
There was no need to explain the situation. The Royal Witch had originally been S-class — and not just any S-class. Her mana reserves had far surpassed even the Plant Queen's. Honestly, if we'd faced each other at full strength out on open ground, I could have thrown myself at her a hundred times, a thousand times, and still never won.
Which meant that fully resurrecting her required an enormous amount of mana. And the best hand I currently held was a mere Flush.
As I'd mentioned before, reviving a Royal Witch demanded mana on the scale of a Royal Straight Flush or higher. Flush, Full House, Four of a Kind, Straight Flush, Royal Straight Flush — each step up roughly doubled the mana cost. By that math, this resurrection ritual had been performed with only one-sixteenth of the mana it actually needed.
"H-how is this even possible? I designed it so it wouldn't respond to anything below a certain mana threshold!"
The Royal Witch trembled, both hands shaking, her face contorted with furious disbelief. Even that looked cute.
I answered kindly in the language of magic beasts.
"You put a little too much faith in a spell that got cracked a long time ago."
She froze.
"A cracked spell…?"
"Looks like you built in all kinds of failsafes to avoid being bound… but you should've paid a little more attention to the rest of the design."
"…?"
"Hmm. For example — shrinking the blueprint itself before using it?"
"…!"
She clearly hadn't anticipated a method that crude. Even a grand mage would have needed absurd mana calculations to pull it off. Only then did the full picture of what had happened click into place, and the Royal Witch's mouth fell open.
"Th-that's ridiculous."
"Don't deny it. How else do you explain the castle and the entire island shrinking?"
She swallowed hard for no good reason. When she finally turned to look at the castle, sure enough, it had shrunk. The main gate, which should have stood seven or eight meters tall, was now barely big enough for me to squeeze through.
Having accepted reality with impressive speed, she moved on to her next question.
"B-but the binding — if it had succeeded, your body should have exploded!"
"Ah. That."
"This isn't something you can just 'crack'! It was a self-destruct function!"
She wasn't stupid, so she'd clearly anticipated some kind of tampering during the resurrection. Because of that, the spell had hit a snag and I'd had to pour in a little extra mana. I'd nearly wrecked the Flush hand entirely. It had been a genuinely dangerous trap — designed so that anyone who tried to bind the witch would have their own body explode. In this case, the caster hadn't been me; it had been the Flush hand itself.
Might not sound like a big deal, but Trump Cards were Pecia's unique Ethereal Items. If one broke, there was nowhere to take it for repairs. Say the Ace of Hearts got destroyed… I'd be locked out of every single combination that used that card for a long while. One-pairs and triples had enough flexibility that I'd manage, but anything from a Royal Straight Flush on up? Catastrophic.
If Pecia had a weakness, that was it.
"Glad you brought that up. Come here."
I'd been scared out of my mind, okay? This little shit had the nerve to plant a trap?
I crouched down and pressed my middle finger against the Royal Witch's forehead.
Thwack!
"Gyaaah!"
How about that? Just a flick from a high B-class, but with that tiny body of hers, it had to hurt like hell.
The Royal Witch clutched her forehead and rolled across the ground. The feeling was strange. I was hitting someone who wore my own face. Should I feel satisfied that I was beating up Pecia, or sorry because that face was mine now?
One thing was certain…
"Damn, that felt good."
Face or no face, how often did you get a free pass to mess with someone like this?
I huffed on my finger and recharged the moisture. Kang Jiye gave me a puzzled look.
"Why? Why are you hitting her?"
"Just because. She's a magic beast."
"Ah— so it wasn't a disagreement or anything?"
"Nothing to disagree about. She was just refusing to face reality, so I fact-checked her a little."
"I see. Still, you're on the same side now. Go easy on her."
"Mm… fair point. But she wasn't one of mine originally."
Besides, a boss of this caliber didn't submit easily. Even now she was desperately resisting my mana, refusing every command.
"I can't go into detail, but I still don't have full control over her."
Kang Jiye's eyes widened slightly.
"You don't have control? Then isn't that dangerous?"
"It's fine. A little physical therapy and she'll come around."
Truthfully, all I had to do was threaten to cancel the Flush hand inside the castle and it would be over. But that felt like a waste.
"You lot… daring to look at me with pity—"
Whoooosh—!
Suddenly the mana stored in the Flush hand began draining at a terrifying rate. The entire floating castle trembled, and the witch before me started growing — slowly, but unmistakably. In that short span she'd reverse-engineered the shrinking method I'd used and was trying to undo it.
I panicked and tried to stop her.
"Hey! Hey! Stop that!!"
The Royal Witch's mouth split into a grotesque grin as she cackled.
"You dare try to claim the soul of Eldrisa— pffft!"
She suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood and collapsed. Her whole body convulsed. The demonic energy she'd forced together scattered like mist, and the body that had grown even a little shrank right back down.
"I told you not to do that…"
Why was she so determined not to be pitied?
I crossed my arms and sighed. Kang Jiye, still startled from the earlier tremor, asked in confusion,
"What just happened? Explain."
"I used a low-rank hand, remember? If she forces her mana past that limit, the hand cancels and the summoning breaks."
Of course, the reason she'd coughed up blood was that she'd forcibly condensed my mana. She'd tried to absorb something of a higher grade than her own body could handle and suffered the backlash. But explaining that would mean revealing my origins, so I stuck to the card story.
Kang Jiye tilted her head.
"Where would she get mana to grow with?"
"She tried to steal mine. More precisely, what was stored in the card."
"Ahh."
Kang Jiye already had a rough grasp of my skill. She nodded in understanding right away.
"So she's okay now? She looks like she's about to die."
"She was an A-class Gate boss, for what it's worth. If this was enough to kill her, she might as well bite her own tongue and be done with it."
"That's true, but… hey, are you all right?"
Kang Jiye poked the fallen Royal Witch with a finger. Something about the sight felt so oddly out of place that I laughed.
"You're more worried than I expected. And you're a hunter."
"Well, look how tiny she is, and she's in so much pain… Besides, when she was originally cleared, no hunters died. A few serious injuries, that's all."
If there had been casualties, she would have opposed the resurrection, Kang Jiye muttered. Apparently a fairly strong extermination squad had been dispatched to that Gate. Usually, anything in the high A-class range came with the expectation of four or five hunter deaths.
Even so, isn't that a little too much of a safety blind spot?
The only good magic beast in this world was me. Treating the others the same way — treating them like people — was a problem.
"She's still a magic beast. I'm worried you're getting too attached to something you just met."
"You're one to talk, you little thing."
"…"
Okay, fair. I was a Queen, on top of everything else.
But what is this? This massive urge to sulk?
I'd only pointed out the truth, yet my mood was teetering on the edge of sour. Was this how that sloth had felt back then? For some reason I genuinely wanted to flop down on the floor.
"Aigoo, my little pouty one. I'm not saying you two are the same. We're family, after all."
The second my lips started to stick out, Kang Jiye wrapped her left arm around me. Her instincts really were terrifyingly sharp.
But this time, the word family had slipped out so naturally that my eyes went wide.
Family?
How long had we even known each other? Barely three months, if that. Was this okay?
The thought that things were moving a little too fast crossed my mind, but I didn't particularly want to argue the point. I leaned into Kang Jiye's arms.
The Royal Witch looked up at us with a pale face.
"What on earth…"
"What are you looking at? There's no room for you here."
"Ahem. Tsk. Friends should get along."
I loaded up another finger-flick, and Kang Jiye stopped me. I stared at her, half-incredulous.
"She just tried to eat me."
"Uh…"
At that moment — for better or worse — Yena's booming voice rang out. I'd kept her at a safe distance earlier.
"Mom!!! Unnie!! Look at the little guys!!!"
Hmm.
So… do you know what happens when another animal gets dropped into a chimpanzee enclosure?
Especially if it's something small — a ferret, say.
They yank it, throw it, chew it, tear it, taste it. Absolute chaos.
Why am I bringing this up?
Because those lunatic Party Bears had ripped the Royal Witch's royal guards to absolute shreds.
The same ones that had clung to Kang Jiye's legs earlier and gotten flung away. Magic amusement-park toys were built to kill enemies with extreme prejudice, so that part was inevitable. The problem was that they'd done it right in front of Yena.
Kang Jiye, having witnessed the scene, hurriedly scooped Yena up and blocked her view. She forced a smile and made a request.
"So… those ones are going to need some training."
"Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry."
"No, a little one like you has nothing to apologize for."
Yena was buzzing with excitement.
"Our little guys are so strong! The ones charging at me — they just snatched them up and slammed them into the ground, bang bang… then each one grabbed an arm or a leg and went riiiip."
"That's not something you learn from, sweetheart. Our good girl."
She was a hunter's daughter, so killing magic beasts wasn't the issue. Torturing them to death like toys was a different matter entirely. Finding joy in violence was not great for emotional development.
"More! Give us more!"
"I didn't even get to touch one!"
"Toys! Fair! Share!"
Meanwhile, the Party Bears that had swarmed in out of nowhere started swinging their arms and staging a protest. With numbers like theirs, the ones who hadn't gotten a turn with the armored magic beasts were thoroughly displeased.
I sighed despite myself.
This is rough. They did protect Yena, so I can't just scold them outright.
Honestly, I also enjoyed tormenting enemies to death, which made it hard to lecture them. Magic beasts took after their masters, after all.
"All right, all right. We're heading to a dungeon soon, so everyone shut up. Make a racket and I won't open the door."
I clapped my hands like I was wrapping things up, and the Party Bears went silent in an instant before scattering in little groups. The fact that a threat like that actually worked was both funny and a little sad, but at least the problem was solved.
The Royal Witch, finally coming back to her senses, narrowed her eyes.
"Those are… a Queen's?"
Had she figured something out? Her tone turned respectful as she addressed me.
"Could it be that you are of Royalty?"
"…"
While I held her gaze in silence, Yena hopped down from Kang Jiye's arms and came running over.
"Wow, she looks exactly like Unnie!!"
"Yena, that's dangerous."
Weakened or not, she could still kill someone of Yena's level without breaking a sweat. I reached out to stop the contact — and the Royal Witch planted her staff in the ground and dropped to one knee.
"I have not the slightest intention of causing trouble in a Royal's domain. Being revived by your power is an honor."
…
I paused mid-reach.
Maybe this one was more decent than I'd thought?
"Shall I eliminate these humans for you?"
"You still haven't learned a thing."
I moved to smack the Royal Witch upside the head — and Yena yelped and threw her arms around her.
"Why are you hitting her! Why are you hitting our Mini-Pecia!"
"……?"
"……?"
Yena gently stroked the Royal Witch's head.
"Don't worry~. I'll protect our little unnie~."
The Royal Witch stared at Yena with a half-dazed expression. A human far weaker than herself was petting a magic beast on the head — of course it would feel unpleasant.
But in that instant, the Party Bears sensed the killing intent and swarmed in from every direction, surrounding them both.
Shing!
Hundreds of them drew their steel needles in unison. The Royal Witch flinched and looked around.
Along the main road, down every alley, perched on the rides and rooftops — murderous teddy bears packed every surface, eyes gleaming.
Kang Jiye watched their perfect coordination with open admiration.
"Wow. If those things tore you apart, there wouldn't be a scrap left."
"……"
The Royal Witch let the killing intent drain away and groped carefully with her hands until she pulled Yena into an embrace.
Tight.