The Incubus Hides His Kindness #3
The Incubus Hides His Kindness #3
"Are dream demons normally that gentle around women?"
"Well, treating women like property is the dream demon way. That blond one's got a weird personality."
"A pure-hearted dream demon — the gap makes him quite appealing. He'd make an interesting subject for a play."
The actors on stage muttered among themselves while glancing at me.
I could understand their chatter, to an extent.
I'd met fellow incubi in my life too, and every single one of them had such a garbage personality it was hard to even start a conversation.
Word was, they treated women so roughly that even brothels sometimes denied them entry.
Even prostitutes avoided incubi.
An incubus like me would look like an absolute oddball in the eyes of the continent's people.
"I really won't hit you. Do I look like the kind of psycho who beats his woman?"
"Hoo. I'm sorry for being a girl who cusses out her boyfriend and calls him an idiot."
"It's fine. You cussing me out is kind of cute."
"Really?"
"Really."
I pulled my hand away from stroking Rebecca's hair.
Only then did Rebecca let out a sigh of relief.
The actors on stage watched us, exchanged a few words among themselves, then resumed preparing for their performance.
Then Michelle came down from the stage and spoke to me.
As the client, she had to brief us on the quest.
"Like I said yesterday, adventurers, you just need to search the theater interior. One of you can cover the area around this performance hall, and the other the costume room where my things are. That masked stalker bastard could show up any time. You'll probably need to keep patrolling."
"Understood. Rebecca, which side do you want?"
"I don't care either way."
"Then you take the costume room. I think it's better for me to move around this area. Running into a stranger near the costume room and causing a commotion would be a pain."
Michelle said she'd given the theater staff a heads-up about me.
But you never knew — if I, an incubus, ran into a stranger, it might still cause a scene. The actors on stage seemed to have relaxed around me. So it seemed reasonable for me to search the performance hall area.
"Luke. I'll go to the costume room!"
"See you later. Let's meet around lunchtime and compare notes. If either of us finds anything, even something minor, we should tell each other."
"Yeah."
Rebecca nodded and left the performance hall, heading toward the costume room. A building layout plan was posted on the wall near the performance hall, so she wouldn't get lost. Left alone for a moment, I began searching the area around the performance hall.
'A masked stalker, huh?'
A stalker wearing a pure white mask — there's no way he wouldn't stand out!
He was basically an attention whore who deliberately wore a mask to draw aggro everywhere he went. Keeping my hand ready to draw my longsword from my waist at any moment, I thoroughly searched the nearby restrooms, lounge, and such.
'There's really no one here.'
It was a holiday, so there wasn't a trace of anyone inside the theater.
I circled around the performance hall area, killing time meaninglessly. Where in this huge theater could the stalker be hiding? No, was he even hiding here in the first place?
'The stalker's probably taking the day off too, right? Even those guys would want to have fun on a holiday.'
After returning to the performance hall with nothing to show for it.
I sat down in one of the audience seats for a moment and sank into thought. There was no guarantee that we'd catch the stalker inside the theater today. So I had to use my head, if only to avoid wasting time pointlessly.
'Is there even a place inside this theater where a stalker could hide?'
From what Michelle said, the stalker showed himself fairly frequently inside the theater. If so, there was a high likelihood that he'd set up a regular entry passage or a hiding spot somewhere.
Alright, let's try deduction.
I recalled the building layout plan that hung on the wall. It was a layout befitting a large theater, with countless rooms listed. Over it, I imagined the stalker's possible movement routes.
'Where? Where does the stalker move?'
Then suddenly, the actors performing on stage caught my eye. In that moment, I thought of a clever trick to accelerate my deduction.
Namely, immersing myself in the stalker who infiltrates the theater!
Acting it out and putting myself in the stalker's shoes!
As if possessed, I rose from my seat.
And then, I staggered forward, covering my face with my palm like a mask.
"I am the culprit."
"I am now moving as the culprit."
Running my imagination's graphics card at maximum capacity.
I became the masked stalker and imagined his movements.
"I can't just walk in through the theater entrance. I'm an attention-seeker who walks around in a mask. It's important not to draw suspicion. I enter the theater using my own secret passage that no one else knows about."
"Even after entering the theater, I can't move around freely! I'm a cowardly loser who fakes blood letters with ketchup. You could even call me a novice when it comes to stalking...!"
"When the hallway is empty, I cautiously move through the theater interior."
My eyes flashed as I looked around wildly like a madman.
The method acting began in earnest.
"Where is Michelle right now? The costume room! I discover Michelle changing her clothes in the costume room!"
The scene the stalker saw painted itself vividly in my mind.
The scene of a masked man watching Michelle in the costume room!
"I want to steal Michelle's things. I form a hand seal and summon a Mage Hand. I send the Mage Hand flying and aim for Michelle's handbag."
"The handbag is too heavy! I accidentally drop the handbag on the floor! Michelle has noticed me and is screaming! Before I get caught, I grab some light underwear and run away!!"
The stalker fleeing, clutching a fluttering pair of panties!
The stalker dashes down the hallway, looking for a place to hide.
An elderly security guard chases the stalker but is easily shaken off.
It's easy to shake off an old man whose spine barely holds him up.
"So where? Where did I choose as my hiding spot?"
Shaking as if possessed, I recalled the stalker's final movement route. A hiding spot chosen in advance within the theater.
A room not far from the costume room━.
"Ah, aaaaaaaaahhh."
Something's surfacing!
Just a little more thought and the deduction will be complete!
"It's, it's cooomiiiiiiing up-!"
The moment I was completely seized by the stalker's illusion!
Thwack-!
Someone smacked the back of my head hard.
"Keuhk."
"Y-You're being too loud! It's embarrassing."
I fell forward, foaming at the mouth.
Behind me, Rebecca was staring at me, her face flushed red.
With that one strike, the illusion that had seized me was cleanly blown away.
Face down on the floor, I had no choice but to wail.
"I'd almost remembered it all."
"Remembered what!"
Rebecca was looking at me with an expression stained by shame.
Looking around, the actors on stage were also sneaking glances at me.
I could understand why she was embarrassed.
"I was in the middle of deduction."
"De-deduction? You were making that much noise while deducing?"
"I was becoming the stalker in my imagination! Immersing myself in the stalker to trace his movement route."
Still sprawled on the floor, I clutched my head and tried to recall the next scene.
But as if my brain had been reset, nothing came to mind.
Seeing my deflated expression, Rebecca seemed extremely flustered.
"That... was really deduction?"
"Advanced deduction technique."
"I-I see."
Rebecca finally seemed to realize her mistake. She broke into a cold sweat looking at me, genuinely regretful. I couldn't hold her responsible. In any case, I must have looked like a lunatic steeped in madness.
"......It can't be helped. Let's go outside and get some fresh air. Let's talk about what we've each discovered."
"Yeah."
I took Rebecca and went out into the hallway.
We cooled our heads in the hallway where a fresh breeze blew. Maybe feeling sorry for interrupting my deduction, Rebecca kept chattering beside me.
"I think I looked around all of the second floor where the costume room is. Being a theater, there were a lot of really interesting props."
"So, did you find anything that could be a clue? Like traces the stalker left behind?"
"No-! There was nothing. Luke, what about you?"
"I didn't really find anything either."
Talking it over, it seemed Rebecca hadn't achieved anything particularly fruitful either. Nor had the masked stalker appeared at the theater. At this rate, the whole day might go to waste in vain.
'We'll be able to catch the stalker within a week, right? I need to practice magic to prepare for the promotion match too....'
I predicted that this quest would become a drawn-out affair. If we waited inside the theater, the stalker bastard would show up someday.
It was just as I vowed to chase the stalker with patience.
"Oh, a cat-."
Rebecca suddenly exclaimed.
Just as she said, a cat appeared in the theater hallway. The pitch-black cat was walking down the hallway with something in its mouth. I tried to ignore it, thinking it was just a stray. But I couldn't. Because I saw what the cat had in its mouth with my own eyes.
"A hand?"
"That cat, it's holding a human hand in its mouth. A theater prop?"
A single human hand dangled conspicuously from the cat's mouth. A translucent hand with a hazy interior. Someone who didn't know better might think it was a theater prop.
But I saw through the hand's identity in an instant.
'Mage Hand.'
A magic hand exactly as described in the spell book.
That hand was now held in a cat's mouth.
At last, I had found a clue to track down the stalker.
*
Michelle had said that the masked stalker knew how to use the Mage Hand spell. That's why I'd read the magic book containing that same spell last night.
I could roughly guess why a magic hand was in a cat's mouth.
'If a stray animal carries it off, the hand gets stolen. Magic-created hands are subject to many limitations, after all.'
Mage Hand magic had several restrictions. The hand's strength was weak, of course, and you couldn't make the created hand disappear at will. It only vanished once its duration ran out.
If a stray animal bit it and ran off, the magic hand would inevitably be stolen.
I quickly spoke to Rebecca, who was watching the cat.
"It's the stalker! That hand is the stalker's magic!"
"What? That thing is magic?"
"Look closely! The fingers are twitching!"
The hand in the cat's mouth was struggling weakly. The mage connected to its sense of touch was probably resisting. But lacking strength, it couldn't escape the cat's jaws.
"Rebecca. Can you get that hand away from the cat?"
"Why?"
"I'll explain later! Hurry!"
At my request, Rebecca looked puzzled but rushed toward the cat. Before long, with nimble movements, she succeeded in snatching the cat's tail.
Yaaaaoooowww-!!
The cat, startled, spat out the hand it was holding.
Rebecca let go of the tail and lightly scared it off, chasing the cat away. Freed, the magic hand began to squirm grotesquely on the floor. I watched the magic hand's movements silently, my mouth shut.
How many times did it repeat the squirming motion?
At some point, the magic hand floated up into the air. Rebecca watched the levitating hand in a daze.
"A h-hand flying in the sky-."
"It's Mage Hand magic. Miss Michelle said so, right? That the stalker could create a hand with magic. The stalker used that magic hand to steal Miss Michelle's belongings."
"...Then does that mean the stalker is nearby?"
"Yeah. He might be around the theater building right now. All we have to do is follow that magic hand."
I recalled the characteristics of Mage Hand that I'd read about in the magic book.
"A magic hand has the property of automatically returning to its owner when the distance grows too far. It ends up chasing the mage. If we follow that hand, I think we can find the stalker."
"Hoo."
A Mage Hand with a function to automatically return to its owner.
By exploiting that function in reverse, finding the stalker was possible. Whether the content in the book was correct or not, the magic hand soon began moving somewhere. Floating in the air, it traveled through the theater interior.
Watching the magic hand for a moment, I realized something surprising.
"The magic hand is going up the stairs?"
"The stalker is on the upper floor?"
The magic hand, which had been moving slowly along the wall, was already going up through the staircase. It might suddenly change direction and go out the window, but...
The probability that the stalker was hiding inside this theater right now was high.
Where on earth?
Where had he been hiding all this time?
Watching the magic hand leisurely floating through the air, I felt chills.
"Let's go."
I gripped my longsword and chased after the magic hand.
Rebecca, moving alongside me, also drew her curved blade and watched our surroundings warily.