Drug Bust (1)
It seemed Jackie had quite the talent for drug manufacturing after all.
"No wonder I never trusted those bastards. Tch, honestly."
"Is that so."
"I'd bet they caught wind of the young ladies coming to the Magic City and slunk off out of sheer embarrassment."
"Well, that's a shame."
She'd made it so well that we were practically being taken for the original creators of Upper ourselves. The gentleman had now turned completely to our side.
"You're right about that. Those bastards aren't even human yet."
Apparently they'd had the gall to try passing off an inferior knockoff as the genuine article. And then, worried they'd be found out, they'd thrown a careless deal our way.
You're hardly upstanding citizens yourselves, peddling drugs.
I followed behind the gentleman, who was carrying on noisily, keeping my smile at just the right level.
"Here we are."
Deep in a back alley, we arrived in front of an abandoned building stamped with a redevelopment notice.
Is this universal across every world with gangsters?
Even in this magical world, the hangouts of delinquents weren't much different.
"Huh? Odd, what's the broad you brought tagging along behind you?"
"She's Brody's client."
"The boss's?"
At the gentleman's words, the scattered delinquents began slinking to their feet. The one at the front of the pack shoved his ugly mug right up into my face.
"Tch, scrawny little thing, aren't ya. What, you think you're some big-shot mage or somethin'?"
"No."
They'd said they couldn't sense a speck of mana or anything else off me. I honestly couldn't fathom why everyone who laid eyes on me kept mistaking me for a mage. I'd never once demonstrated a spell to anyone, anywhere.
"Well, whaddya know, not a mage either? Then how about it — we drag her off and make her the boss's footstool? Whaddya say? Look at this broad's eyes, boys!"
"That's enough — step aside when you're told!"
"Hold up, gramps, gimme a sec. Girls with eyes this insolent, you gotta break their spirit early, that's what I say."
Smirk.
I smiled right back at the snickering man.
Right, these guys are drug dealers anyway. So this much should be fine.
Quietly, expression maintained, I gripped the syringe in my hand—
"A gift."
—and drove it into the delinquent's thigh.
"...Huh?"
What were the effects again? They weren't coming back to me. But I did remember one thing for certain — it was said to be ferociously addictive.
"Tch, what a waste of the goods."
"And here I thought I was being treated to such warm hospitality."
Wait, weren't you the ones asking for drugs?
I never did manage to recall exactly what the effects were if you actually took a hit. So, erring on the side of caution, I stepped three paces back from the delinquent.
He stared blankly down at the syringe jutting from his thigh, and then, as if something clicked, his face flashed over with fury in an instant.
"You crazy bitc—"
"Stop."
Just as the thoroughly enraged delinquent lunged toward me, a heavy voice boomed from inside the derelict building.
Wham.
"Gahk."
The delinquent, his head slammed into the wall, rolled his eyes back and crumpled.
The muscular skinhead who'd silenced his underling with a single punch strode straight toward me.
Body enhancement?
The shirtless skinhead's arms were etched with several magical formulas. Yep. That was, without question, dangerous.
"That's far enough. Don't come any closer."
The moment he uses magic, I'll erase the lot of it.
Too much of a hassle to deal with him whining about his engraved formulas afterward. When I stepped back two paces, the skinhead's lips curled into a sly grin.
"My apologies. I took you for someone a little bolder."
"Is that so."
No need to invent excuses for retreating after the fact.
He seemed to have slapped a convenient interpretation onto things all by himself.
"Is this distance acceptable, then?"
"Yes."
The skinhead nodded, and in his hand was a syringe I recognized all too well.
"We inspected the goods. Impressive. With product like this, I honestly can't fathom how far we could stretch the volume once we cut it."
"Is that so."
"Tenfold. No, greedy as it sounds, we could probably push twenty."
"...Ah."
"Well, I don't know what sales plan you've got in mind, of course."
It can multiply that much?
So they weren't selling it as-is. I'd only ever seen the mountains of seized product stacked dozens of boxes high after every drug bust, so I'd assumed they needed at least that much in raw form.
"Any interest in scaling the operation up a bit more seriously?"
No, it's already far too big as it is, thanks.
According to the skinhead's subsequently long-winded explanation, they had a backer behind them — someone they called the Elder.
From what I gathered, a promise had already been secured: even if they were caught mid-operation by the Ministry of Intelligence's investigative corps or the Imperial Guard, the Elder would use their influence to have them released.
"And this 'Elder' will be attending the entrance ceremony?"
"So I hear."
"That would be quite difficult to track down on our own."
Just as Jackie had said. From countless noble houses, to colossal trading companies, to the guardians attached to commoner children—
—there were far too many candidates to put on the list of suspects.
"We can't very well detain them all and investigate every last one."
"So you'll blow it all up?"
"Excuse me?"
"You know, stage a false-flag terror attack to pin down the visitors' feet and—"
"I'm obviously not going to do that."
What on earth do you take people for?
"And there's no guarantee that would even catch the 'Elder.'"
"Ah, that."
If it were guaranteed to work, or if it were the only option left, I might consider it. But when there were far better methods available, why bother?
"In any case, it seems we'll need to mingle with that crowd a little more."
She began placing the drug syringes one by one into an elegant silver rectangular travel case.
About ten should do it, I suppose?
"You won't just sell these off the moment you receive them, right?"
"Cutting them will take quite a while."
Apparently there were various reasons they wouldn't be able to offload it immediately. And even if a few leaked out, Jackie was confident she could trace them herself.
Then there's really nothing to worry about.
I carefully closed the neatly packed drug-filled case and locked it.
Better safe than sorry — I'll hold onto one more.
I picked up a syringe, stuffed it into my pocket, stood, and gave a brief stretch.
"Looks like we can proceed as planned."
"Yes. I'll make the arrangements with the Ministry of Intelligence."
The night before the entrance ceremony, we meet the skinhead and demonstrate that we truly possess Upper.
Then, on the day of the entrance ceremony, after the event concludes, the skinhead meets with that 'Elder' in person and conducts the drug deal directly.
And at that scene—
—investigators lying in wait nearby swoop in and round up the entire drug ring in one sweep.
The picture: a clean arrest, the Penalty Assignment completed, done and dusted. So far, the operation had gone off without a hitch.
"So, what exactly are you planning to do about this?"
"...I suppose I'll start thinking about it now."
Her gaze stung.
If I just close my eyes for a moment and open them again, maybe—
...Yeah, right. Like they'd disappear.
What am I supposed to do with this.
Yes — as for the operation, everything was fine. But piled high in front of me was a heap of seized drug boxes I had absolutely no idea what to do with.
Hidden at the entrance of the derelict building, Charlotte clamped a hand over her own mouth.
"You brought the goods?"
"Right here."
As far as she was concerned, she was simply shadowing an older sister she'd grown close to during her travels, worried about her.
What if she really is doing compensated dating? If so, I'll definitely talk her out of it. And if she's just desperate for money, then hiring her as a maid wouldn't be a bad solution either.
But the scene that unfolded before Charlotte's eyes — as she racked her brain over how to convince Alpinia — was nothing like a sordid romance between an aging man and a maid.
"Boss, with this product, we're set to rake in a fortune, aren't we?"
"Keheheh—"
"Just how potent is this stuff, that a single syringe yields twenty doses...?"
"...Should we try a little taste?"
"Are you insane? Can't you see what state the vice-boss is in right now?"
...Drugs?
Ever since the worst crime in history had been exposed within a criminal organization called Serket — the practice of dosing human beings to turn them into 'magical materials' — drug trafficking in the Magic City had been strictly banned. It carried a minimum sentence of several decades' imprisonment, and depending on the circumstances, even the death penalty.
This was not a problem Charlotte could help with, or cover up for, on her own.
Report it.
She'd report it first, and then visit her in prison often. That much, at least, she could do. Just as Charlotte steeled herself and reached into her coat for her communication orb—
Clang.
"Kyaaah!"
The orb hit the ground and shattered, and every person in the building snapped their attention toward the source of the noise.
"Boss! There was a rat skulking around back here!"
A delinquent who had crept up from behind and seized Charlotte twisted her arm behind her back and pressed a blade to her throat.
"Bring her here."
Dragged to the center of the pack, Charlotte instinctively rolled her eyes and searched for her sister — for Alpinia.
Huh?
Ice cold.
There was not a shred of emotion in Alpinia's gaze as she looked at Charlotte.
"An academy student, then."
"Boss, what do we do with her?"
Dice.
Charlotte channeled her mana.
"Th-this kind of behavior will not be tolerat—"
Just as magic was about to fire from the hands of Charlotte, whose casting preparation had completed in a flash—
"Hrrk."
The man called the boss seized Charlotte by the collar and hoisted her clean off the ground with one hand.
"What, did getting into that piddling little academy make you think you were something special?"
"P-put me down—"
The formula etched along the boss's arm glowed red.
I should have attacked immediately.
Regret rippled through Charlotte's eyes. A direct bombardment right off the bat might have won her the fight. But Alpinia had been inside the building, and that hesitation had cost her.
An ominous red glow. She didn't know what the engraved formula was, but she could grasp its effect.
Mana plunder. It stole the opponent's mana, cutting off spellcasting entirely.
A mage built to hunt mages. The man before Charlotte was exactly that breed.
"I'll carve it firmly into that body of yours so you never lash out again."
After raking his gaze slowly over her, the boss licked his lips with a vulgar expression.
"This one, I'll quite enjoy educating."
"Wait."
At Alpinia's voice, stepping in to bar the boss's way, Charlotte barely clung to her fading consciousness and turned her gaze toward her.
Ah.
And then she regretted it. She would have been better off not looking at all.
"How about this, instead?"
It was a wretched smile. In Alpinia's hand was a syringe filled with the drug.
"So you had some stashed away."
"I thought something like this might happen."
"You had a rather brazen streak, it seems."
The boss's smile deepened.
"Ah, in your case—"
"It happens often enough. Fools who convince themselves they can do anything."
"Hmm."
"Thoroughly trampling such people is my taste. What do they call it — an 'education'?"
"BWAHAHAHAHA!"
The boss roared with laughter, then thrust the Charlotte dangling in his grip toward Alpinia.
"If that's your taste, by all means. Here — she's yours."
Bewilderment. Despair. And then, resignation.
Feeling Alpinia's presence close at her back, Charlotte slowly closed her eyes.
And then—
...
...
......
...And then?
Shunk.
"GRAAAAGH! Y-you fucking bitch—!"
"Boss! You alright?!"
"Damn it all — a betrayal!"
The grip clutching Charlotte's collar went slack. The syringe hadn't sunk into Charlotte — it was buried in the back of the boss's hand. Delinquents were shouting from every direction.
"Betrayal? Hardly."
Amid the chaos, a hand wrapped around Charlotte's shoulders. A calm voice sounded right beside her ear.
Charlotte's gaze drifted, quite naturally, to the side.
"You lot were the targets from the very start, you insects."
Alpinia was smiling.