Aftermath of the First Product
While Eight was racking his brains over the mass production of his new tonic, Regalia stared at the potion sample placed before her and let out a soft hum.
“Hmm… So this is what Galrm praised so highly…”
On the surface it looked like an ordinary tonic, no different from any fatigue-recovery drink. She gave it a tentative lick, and the taste seemed no different either.
Just what kind of special secret was hidden inside this potion that it had restored Galrm to his prime? Determined to uncover the answer herself, Regalia picked up the bottle and gulped it down.
There wasn’t much liquid, so even her small mouth emptied the bottle quickly. After finishing it, she smacked her lips at the refreshing lemon flavor, then tilted her head when she felt no particular effect.
Nothing at all?
She had assumed that if the potion could return Galrm to his peak, something equally dramatic would happen to her. Even if not to the same degree, she had expected to feel a surge of power like a hero.
Yet strangely, no effect appeared. At this rate it really was no different from drinking a regular energy drink.
Even while suspecting that Galrm and Eight had tricked her, Regalia still ordered the company researchers to analyze the potion. Perhaps there was something different in its composition.
“—President? These documents require your signature.”
“Mm. Bring them here.”
After that, Regalia had no time to think about the potion as she buried herself in work. She did notice that her body felt unusually refreshed and free of fatigue, but wasn’t that the sort of thing that happened after drinking any ordinary energy drink?
While she passed the time without sensing anything special, the strangeness finally hit her that night.
After dinner, a bath, and light exercise, she lay down in bed the moment the clock struck ten. Children needed to sleep and wake early if they wanted to grow tall and fast, so she never broke this routine.
Yet today, the instant she lay down, sleep refused to come. Her body, as if it felt no fatigue whatsoever, kept her mind wide awake.
“…This is trouble.”
Intuitively realizing she wouldn’t fall asleep like this, Regalia simply closed her eyes and passed the time counting sheep. By the time she had counted roughly twenty-eight thousand, she realized the sun had risen.
She hadn’t slept a wink. Regalia headed to work with perfectly clear eyes. That night she counted sheep again.
Before sleep finally claimed her, Regalia counted a million sheep.
“Uwooooooh—!”
“The fatigue, the fatigue is gone!”
“I feel like I could stay up for three days and nights straight…!”
The tonic Eight created was distributed to every member of the organization. The members drank it whenever they felt tired or right before heading into battle.
Its effect was tremendous. Just as Regalia—despite being a child—could stay awake for three days and nights without issue, their chronically exhausted bodies were now overflowing with vitality.
The combatants in particular could now exert strength surpassing most heroes. When one considered that the bats they usually swung had only been at the level of an ordinary person who exercised a bit, this was an astonishing achievement.
Of course, the person who benefited most was Galrm. Since the potion had been custom-made for him from the start, it was only natural that he received greater benefits than the others.
“Uahahahaha—! Come at me, you greenhorns!”
Galrm swung his weapon and clashed with the heroes. Those who remembered that until recently he had been a washed-up beastman who could barely handle a rookie hero were left stunned by the absurd power behind every swing.
“Why the hell did that damn beast get so strong—?!”
“I don’t know! And Red! Calling him a beast is species discrimination!”
“Who cares about that right now!”
“Looks like you’ve got energy to spare! Then I’ll shift into higher gear!”
“Uwaaaaaack—! You crazy son of a bitch—!”
Galrm didn’t bother explaining that he was a tiger beastman and therefore closer to a cat than a dog. Instead he swung his weapon wildly enough to make the “son of a bitch” comment die in their throats.
As expected of a war hero who had broken through countless battlefields, Galrm’s weapon technique had reached the realm of mastery. If one judged purely by the result of killing, he surpassed most masters.
After harassing the heroes with his sword for a while, an alarm suddenly blared from inside Galrm’s coat while he was mid-swing. Hearing it, he stopped and stood still.
“Mm— Quitting time. I’ll be heading back now.”
“Y-you crazy bastard…! It’s only three o’clock, you villain!”
“The heroes’ working hours are none of my concern. I’ll be going now.”
With those words, Galrm retreated while carrying the fallen combatants. The heroes wanted to pursue, but they couldn’t bring themselves to do it. They had already failed to subdue him even in a fair head-on fight, and they had the distinct impression he had been holding back. Especially when they remembered that he could have killed them but had chosen not to swing with lethal force.
Chasing an opponent like that could lead to far worse consequences. It could cost them their lives. Heroes were people who subdued villains, not people who threw their lives away.
The heroes who had been staring blankly at the retreating villain organization returned to the association late and vented their frustrations.
“Augh—! Director! Can’t we just arrest that beast bastard?!”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?!”
They knew Galrm’s identity, which villain organization he belonged to, and even the location of that organization—yet they were told they must not arrest him?
Couldn’t they simply raid the base with a team of heroes while he was resting? That was what the hero Red thought.
But there was a reason they could not actually do so.
“That place is somewhere even the president cannot enter recklessly.”
“Excuse me? Even the president can’t enter?”
“That entire city is private property of Evils Enterprise. Every building, every vehicle on the streets—it all belongs to them. The citizens living there are essentially borrowing Evils’ property.”
“…But they’re villains. What if they harm the citizens?”
“Do they seem like the type who announce the exact date and time of their attacks? And don’t you know that most of those citizens are employees of Evils Enterprise or its subcontractors? That when an evacuation order is issued, the citizens are happy because it means they don’t have to work during business hours?”
Hearing that, Red felt his throat close at the unbelievable reality. What kind of situation was this? It was as if…
“That’s just… completely like children playing house.”
“Say that anywhere else and you’ll get cursed out. They’ll call you spoiled.”
“Why…?”
“Because it’s better than cities where villains conduct guerrilla operations and put bullets in heroes’ family members first, or cities that have to fight monsters from outer space that don’t even communicate. Or would you rather be transferred to one of those cities?”
“…No, I was wrong.”
At the director’s remark that he could experience the hero play he wanted so realistically there, Red offered a sincere apology. Certainly. He could not accept it, but he could understand. Wasn’t it better than villains running wild and slaughtering people indiscriminately?
When he thought about it carefully, this form of villainy wasn’t necessarily bad. They had established a kind of rule while operating in this city. In this city, you must act this way. Otherwise you will turn even more enemies against yourselves than anyone else.
In fact, wasn’t the villain-related death rate in this city less than one-tenth of other cities?
“What you should be doing is not entertaining such strange thoughts, but subduing and arresting them on the scene. Fortunately they don’t complain about that much.”
“…Speaking of which. Hasn’t that beast bastard become strangely strong? Was he always that powerful—?”
“Red.”
“Ah, sorry. Not beast—villain bastard.”
At Red’s words the director nodded as if it were understandable and took something from his pocket. Seeing the object, Red looked at the director with a questioning gaze.
The director gave a light shrug and explained what he was holding.
“It’s a new product released by Evils Enterprise. An energy drink.”
“Why this…”
“Our scientists analyzed it. Even though it appears to be diluted to roughly one part in tens of thousands, it still far surpasses the performance of every existing energy drink. The performance-to-price ratio is absurd.”
A high-performance energy drink released by a company run by a villain organization. And an executive of that villain organization who had suddenly become stronger. If one could not suspect a connection between the two, one ought to question whether there was anything but a hat rack sitting on their shoulders.
“—We are searching for the scientist who created this.”
“…And if we find him?”
“We’ll try to recruit him to our side by any means necessary.”
Even as they said it, neither the director nor Red believed it was possible. Whoever had made it, they would never be able to offer better conditions than the global conglomerate known as Evils.
“—Achoo!”
“A-are you all right…?”
“Ah, yes. I suddenly felt a chill.”
I rubbed my nose as I looked at Aile, who had come all the way to the laboratory. From what I had observed in the short time since meeting her, this gloomy girl who struggled even to voice her own opinions would not have visited my lab without a special reason.
And that guess proved correct.
“I-I heard from the boss. That Mr. Eight would make a tool for me…”
“Yes, that’s right. Do you have anything you usually use?”
“Ah, n-no. I only… joined the villain organization because I could meet magical girls…”
“Hmm. Then shall I just make whatever I think is best?”
“…Anything is fine?”
Aile’s eyes sparkled as she asked. It seemed she was rarely willing to express her own opinion. When I gave a light nod, Aile—surprisingly—spoke without a single stutter.
“—I want to become a tentacle.”
“…Pardon?”
“A tentacle. You don’t know? It appears often in magical girl doujinshi.”
Well, I did know, but I could only stare at Aile in disbelief. This gloomy girl looked back at me with complete seriousness.
My head was already starting to ache.