Masquerade (5)
Thomas snapped his notebook shut.
He stared blankly at the unconscious woman for a moment, then turned to his friends.
“...That was more dangerous than I expected.”
“Y-yeah, no kidding.”
The drug Eric had brought was far more potent than any of them had anticipated. They'd assumed it was about the same strength as the stuff they used back home, and dosed it accordingly.
At first the woman had seemed unaffected, just lying there quietly — and then her emotions suddenly surged, and she began thrashing around violently.
It had taken all three of them piling on top of her to pin her down. After that, she'd screamed of excruciating pain, rolled her eyes back, and passed out.
“We'll have to water it down dozens of times.”
“At this potency, you could dilute it a hundred times and it'd still work.”
Once they got back, they'd secure permission to use the Magic Engineering Department's facilities and get the business underway in earnest.
Say they sold one dose for 100,000 Erk — a hundred units would make them 10 million Erk.
“Hey, hey, be careful with it. Be careful.”
“Think of it as 100,000 Erk per drop.”
Thinking of it that way, the drug they'd wasted on the woman was starting to feel like a real loss.
“Well, we only found that out by testing it on her, didn't we?”
“Right. Let's look on the bright side.”
About one notch of the vial. If they'd made ten doses and sold them, that would've been a million Erk down the drain.
“Whatever, Eric's bringing more anyway.”
“True enough.”
“Man, we really set ourselves up nicely with that underclassman, huh?”
If Eric brought over even a few more doses, they could rake in tens of millions of Erk in the blink of an eye.
Right now, the three of them had to pool their allowances together just to buy a single woman. But once the drug money started rolling in, they could each play around with a girl on both arms.
We could dose that insolent girl — Charlotte, was it — and that stuck-up maid, too.
If we sweet-talked one of them right and got them hooked even once, we could turn her into a slave, couldn't we?
Just as Thomas and his friends were swelling with these grand dreams—
Hissss—
“...Huh?”
A hissing sound.
An ominous dread swept over the three of them. Tense as bowstrings, they scanned the room.
A snake, coiled and ready to strike.
“A s-snake!”
“Why is there a snake in here?!”
As if to bar the way between the unconscious woman and the three of them, a red snake as thick as a man's forearm had appeared out of nowhere.
Hissss—
“GYAAAAH!”
No one needed to go first — all three scrambled over each other and bolted for the door.
“Wh-where did it even come from?”
“Must've crawled in through a vent or something!”
“How the hell do they maintain this place?!”
The woman was abandoned where she lay, and Thomas and his friends stumbled out of the room, gasping for breath.
Their nightmare was only just beginning.
Hissss—
Hissss— hissss—
Dozens. Hundreds. Maybe thousands.
Red snakes filled the corridor from wall to wall.
“GYAAAAAAH!”
“Th-they're climbing up?!”
"J-just run!"
The Magic Engineering Department. Of the four faculties at the Academy, it was the only one open even to those who couldn't use magic.
Its students generally fell into two camps.
Fanatics devoted to magical tools more than magic itself. And ordinary people who couldn't cast a single spell without a magical tool.
Thomas and his friends belonged to the latter.
“Wh-where's the entrance?”
“How should I know?! Just run!”
“Never join a party like this again!”
The three of them were sprinting in a blind panic when they desperately rounded a corner—
“Oh.”
Suddenly, the fox was there.
And its body was spattered with blood.
“““Huurk.”””
Thomas and his friends swallowed hard.
After all, they'd complained last time that I'd overdone it.
So this time I showed a little more restraint. Aside from the ones who'd actually fired magic at me, everyone got off with just one ankle.
Now all that was left was to leave the aftermath to the investigative unit, link up with Zakinah, and slip away.
And I had a perfectly solid pretext for arresting the organizers, too.
Massive quantities of the drug Upper, scattered throughout the building. Charges of drug possession and distribution.
Yeah, clearing it all out feels great.
I'd disposed of every last bit of the drug that had been such a headache, and the investigative unit was spared a tiresome legal battle with the human traffickers.
Of course, if anyone traced where the drugs came from, it'd be a restitution bomb waiting to go off.
As long as nobody finds out, no problem.
Only Zakinah and I knew the truth.
Everyone else would just pin it on the organizers. Well, once a connection to Morgue came to light, the interrogations and punishments might get a touch harsher.
They're criminals anyway. Not my problem.
Taking down a large-scale drug operation means a fat bonus, too.
I was heading back toward the party hall where Zakinah waited, in a pleasantly light-footed mood, when—
“Uwah!”
Figures came lunging at me from around the corner, and I thrust out my hands on reflex.
CRUNCH.
“Ah, mmm...”
With a head clutched in each hand, I observed them for a moment.
“The fox...?”
“W-wait, I can't get out...!”
Three dogs. Masks that looked vaguely familiar.
Where had I seen them...
Three hound masks. It came to me quickly enough.
Oh, those students from that magic-something department. The ones with that spell.
They weren't friends who really needed subduing. I was just about to let go of the two heads—
“UWAAAAAAH!”
—when the one dog I hadn't grabbed let out a shriek.
Thunk.
“Oh.”
Something familiar had buried itself in my arm.
Why does she have this?
The question flickered through my mind for only a moment. She'd probably just gotten lucky and picked it up somewhere, I decided, and let it go.
“N-now's our chance! Run!”
“Damn it, Thomas! I was counting on you!”
“RUUUUN!”
I clicked my tongue briefly as I watched the three idiots shriek their way back into the depths of the mansion.
“Hmm...”
Then again — what was it this stuff was supposed to do again?
Zakinah approached Alpinia.
Through the eyes of the red snakes, she had watched the three men's every move.
“May I tear them apart? Those three.”
“Tear apart what, exactly? They're students at your Academy.”
“They'll be expelled at minimum anyway. This whole affair is going to be a disciplinary case.”
Well, in that case, I suppose it's fine.
Alpinia gave a small nod.
“Don't kill them.”
“Understood.”
The moment the words left her mouth, the swarm of red snakes near Zakinah vanished down the mansion's corridors at blistering speed—
“GYAAAAAAAH!”
—and soon, a harrowing scream rang out from far away.
Uh, is that...? In a sense, is that death?
Alpinia idly pondered whether death of the reproductive kind counted as death, and absently pulled the syringe out of her arm.
“Are you all right? Any symptoms?”
“A body on drugs isn't one worth listening to.”
“That's... well, fair enough.”
Zakinah's gaze lingered briefly on Alpinia's chest.
She knew perfectly well that drug addiction meant nothing to Alpinia. And yet.
Zakinah's brow furrowed. Stepping around to face Alpinia, she carefully lifted off her fox mask.
Hm. Well, this is.
“You're not yourself this time.”
“S-so it seems.”
A slight sway in her step, heat rising through her body, her thoughts going soft and hazy.
Zakinah studied this uncharacteristic Alpinia, deliberating — and soon arrived at the answer.
“It's the ingredients.”
“S... sorry, what?”
An ordinary drug would have had no effect on her whatsoever. But this time, the drug's composition was the problem.
Upper was a synthetic narcotic built on a base of mana recovery potions.
In its pure form it should have carried properties close to a raw mass of mana — but the compounding process had mixed in all manner of additives, stripping the mana of its nature.
And that was precisely why.
Even inside Alpinia's domain, the drug had shown no reaction at all.
The trouble began when it was injected directly into her body.
As the compounded mixture was absorbed into her flesh, it split into two components: the narcotic, and the mana.
And then, the separated mana degraded.
In other words — spam. What Alpinia herself called a failed product: degraded mana, generated without her consent or her will.
If the spam had existed outside her body, it would simply have dissipated and been done with. But it had formed within the range of her domain — so the spam converted itself into the form of Fuse—
“Haah... keep it short.”
“It will probably detonate soon. Spectacularly.”
As the drug worked its way deeper into her body, the volume of degraded mana only grew.
Alpinia exhaled a fevered breath and clutched at her own chest.
“Can you endure it?”
“I'll m-manage.”
It would have been nice to carry her out of the building. Unfortunately, it seemed that ship had already sailed.
Before long, the Fuse — overflowing past its limit — began to shimmer around Alpinia like heat haze.
“How sad.”
“Haah, haah—”
Her breathing grew ragged. Her head hung low, her hunched shoulders trembling in fine spasms.
Watching her, Zakinah took careful steps backward.
She stole a glance out the window. And there, with miserable timing, she saw the Security Bureau's investigative unit entering the mansion.
“So you finally get to attend in person. A grand demolition show.”
“That...—”
Keep your mouth shut.
The words she couldn't quite bring herself to say scattered into the air, empty and unfinished.
Before long, thin black lines began to creep across the mansion's walls, one by one.
Rrrrrr...
“What's happening?! Vanguard team? Vanguard team!”
“Ah— a... H-hold the assault! Stop! Fall back!”
Alpinia murmured, piteously.
“Cut... it off...”
The next instant, a massive earthquake shook the grounds.
It was karma.
There had been one minor incident — namely, half the mansion collapsing.
But in the end, every last one of the Masquerade's organizers was safely handed over to the Security Bureau's investigative unit.
The affair even accomplished the remarkable feat of getting none other than the Deputy Director himself to ride an express train out and visit the scene in person.
“Well then. If you have an excuse, by all means, offer it.”
“I'm innocent.”
As always, of course, I had done nothing wrong.
At the Magic City's train station, in front of the night express.
Cedric looked down at his doomed cousin, brow creased.
Not a single trace of remorse.
She didn't even seem to grasp that she'd caused the incident in the first place.
Ordinarily, he would have treated her to several more hours of heartfelt advice, but there simply wasn't time. Cedric's to-do list was a mountain range, as it always was.
“The investigation into Duke Dennis is complete.”
“Is that so.”
House Dennis. He had no idea where or how she'd learned of it — but thanks to her tip, he'd dug into someone he never would have suspected under normal circumstances.
The method was a mess, and the solution she'd engineered was about as bad as it could possibly be.
“To give you the conclusion — he's black.”
But whatever the process, she did bring back results.
Within the Security Bureau's administrative office, they called her the Mageblade.
Drawn, it delivered overwhelming power — and in exchange, one had to shoulder a mountain range of cleanup and paperwork.
Everyone knew just how brutal that cleanup would be, which was why Cedric was the only one who ever bothered dragging Alpinia out to use her.
If it's necessary, then a Mageblade is what I'll swing.
Cedric let out a short sigh and held out a set of documents to Alpinia.
“Go meet them.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cedric took a moment to study Alpinia's unchanging smile. His hand, drifting unconsciously toward her head, stopped mid-air — and he boarded the train in silence.