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Having lost fighting force with Komiha gone, the difference in combat power has widened to a degree where it can’t be overcome.

What I can do is create an opening somehow and use my power on one or two enemies at least with the resolve of being struck down along, but…it is a curse that loses its effect when I die, so there would be no point in paying with my life.

Even though I am aware that I have no chance of winning already, I am so wretched.

“But well, that’s what makes it worth it. You are the ideal opponent.” (Soraid)

He is not an unreasonable threat like Arcreal, but an approaching threat that can be purely challenged with wits.

That’s how it should be.

As long as I have this power, I have to continue wielding this power against the ones I should.

I must continue thinking about how I should use it.

“But what should I do…? At this rate, I would just be a princess waiting for Ritial to save me. That’s not good. There’s no point in that.” (Soraid)

I remember the past.

I have a talent involving memory, so I can retain or erase my memories, making it possible for me to rummage my memories freely.

But there hasn’t been a time when I would want to keep my memories.

I used this talent in order to simply erase the bad memories of the countless physical abuse I received from my parents for being an abnormal being.

No matter how horribly I was treated, I could face my parents with a smile. I thought they would definitely be kinder to me if I did that -I erased my memories with that idiotic thought.

I only reached the conclusion that this was creating an even deeper rift between me and my parents when everything was already too late.

—Even if you can erase the memories, the truth doesn’t change.

Even though my heart should be peaceful, the wounds in my body continued increasing.

That pain was enough to make me switch my actions from escape to defense.

And then, I ended up using my power on my parents.

A young mind despite their old body, a child they don’t remember raising was in front of their eyes; the panic of my parents was truly comedic.

—The only thing a discrepancy in memories creates is fear. It will never lead to a good result.

My parents chose to vent their displeasure towards their unreasonable present state on me, and I ended up using my power even further.

The result was that they couldn’t even speak anymore. The only thing there were pathetic beings that could only wail.

—Aah, what a horrible power. So unsightly.

I thought about using this power more.

I have the power to make a mess of the life of someone. I was born with such power.

I must wield it since it was given to me.

I wouldn’t be able to accept having been born with a power like this otherwise.

“There’s someone I have to wield this power against. That’s why there’s a point in my life -a point for having been born with this talent.” (Soraid)

I will wield this power solely by my own will. I must.

No matter how much others shun me, I am fine with just being thought of as necessary.

There’s no point in me living if I can’t wield this power for my own sake.

A life prepared for the sake of someone else is the same as a tool. I would like none of that.

“There’s no need to worry about the winner and the loser… Yeah, let’s set fire to this Torin.” (Soraid)

I am a bit displeased about imitating the resident of Yugura’s planet. I wanted to do something only I could do if possible, but the only thing left to me is this power and the weak hoodlums.

This is the only thing I can think of when it comes to something anyone can do and serves as an irreversible disturbance.

“He most likely will be able to read my actions… But I doubt he will be able to deal with every small movement of all the hoodlums, so you could say a haphazard method like this one works the best instead.” (Soraid)

I will burn what I can and then…let’s act depending on how I feel at that time.

The resident of Yugura’s planet will read my thoughts even if I were to think deeply about it.

Then, I just have to change what I will be doing depending on my mood at that time.

Now that I have decided, I have to return to the base first.

It has been a while since I escaped from Ekdoik, but it is possible that he is chasing after me.

They might be thinking about letting me swim and crushing my base.

I use detection magic to check my surroundings.

“—Haha, so he has read me to this degree?” (Soraid)

I have set magic seal stones in the vacant houses of this city and made it so that the enemy can’t use detection magic freely.

But I know which houses I have set the stones in, so I have set different marks to their respective buildings.

That’s why I can safely use detection magic by avoiding such spots after confirming those marks…that’s how it should have been.

“The location of the magic seal stones have been purposely shifted… It is most likely the same for the other places.” (Soraid)

What I can think of is that he noticed the marks, and he has comprehended me to a degree where he can tell them apart to the same degree as me…

A drawing on a chimney, a fraction of the weed being cut, and faint peculiarities in the normal houses; I thought there would be no way such marks could be seen through though…

“But if he were to do that, they won’t be able to use detection magic either. Then, I just need to search in my own way.” (Soraid)

I hit the base of my staff on the ground and pay attention to the echo of it by increasing my sense of hearing with mana strengthening.

I can have a grasp of the construction in the surroundings by doing this.

The downside is that I can only use it in silent places, and I have to close my other senses, so I would be late in reacting if I were to be attacked in this state.

“…Well, there’s no way he would be able to read this timing as well.” (Soraid)

I was thinking about acting immediately if I were to detect something, but it was unnecessary worry.

There isn’t the shadow of anyone around, and the people in the houses are all sleeping. But there were a number of bad discoveries.

There’s traps set at places I might pass by. But they are at locations that wouldn’t catch the attention of others and no one would pass by.

It is possible I would have been caught in the traps if I had returned without thinking about anything.

I confirm that there’s a rope set at a part of the back alley and I direct my attention at the surroundings.

This is a clapper? Quite the amount of noise would have been made if my leg had been caught in this.

“Was Mix the one who set this one? But it is set poorly for it to be her.” (Soraid)

It seems like they haven’t set any deadly traps since there’s the possibility of civilians being caught in them by coincidence, but…it is insulting to think I would be caught by a bad trap like this one.

I use night vision magic and advance through the night city carefully.

I tried using detection magic a number of times on the way, but the location of the magic seal stones really were moved, and I can’t use it properly.

More time than I expected was eaten thanks to this, and I arrived at the dilapidated house that’s the den of hoodlums a lot later than anticipated.

“S-Soraid-san! What brings you here this late in the night?!”

“You ask me why? Komiha has failed. Change of plans. I have decided that you guys will be rampaging even more in Torin.” (Soraid)

“Us…?”

The hoodlums are looking gloomy.

It is not like I don’t understand how they feel when Komiha, who surpasses them in combat power, has been defeated.

“I am not expecting you guys to flourish in battle. What you will be doing is acting scattered and setting fire around.” (Soraid)

“Fire…?”

“You have already experienced setting fires a number of times, right? You are simply doing that on a larger scale. After the whole capital burns, just run away, and hide until things settle down. Share this between yourselves.” (Soraid)

I take out a bag of gold from my pocket and throw it at the feet of the hoodlums.

This should be enough to live without any issues for a while even if they all manage to miraculously escape without getting caught.

“G-Got it… And so, when are we doing it?”

“We will make preparations at once after the money is divided. With Komiha having been captured, this place will be sniffed out soon enough. Do it at once. I will go check outside for a bit.” (Soraid)

I said just now that Komiha messed up. Do their brains not work to that degree?

But these guys feel almost no guilt.

I am sure they will perform the arsoning without issues if I give them gold.

“G-Gotcha… Then, you rascals, we are dividing the gold!”

I go out of the dilapidated house and search for enemies again. There’s no ominous shadows outside, and it doesn’t seem like I have been tailed.

But I found a clapper trap close to this house, too.

This place is most likely also one of the places they have as a target.

I have to think of a place to hide after the arsons.

I should finish preparations for the arson first and wait for the signal to regroup with Ritial.

If I get the signal, I will have the hoodlums burn the places, and lower the alert of the area around the firm.

That degree of a distraction should be enough if Tsudwali is present.

After that…trying a do-or-die of aiming to directly assassinate the resident of Yugura’s planet doesn’t sound bad.

He is someone that can become my enemy. It is an action that’s worth putting my life on the line to perform.

“Yeah, let’s do that. I will most likely be easily killed by Mix or Ekdoik after that, but there’s definitely a point to it.” (Soraid)

How should I kill him?

I could destroy his mind instead of returning his memories to the past. But that won’t be possible this time around since it would take a decent amount of time compared to driving a wedge.

An attack through magic… If he has me read, it can be blocked with a single magic seal stone…

In the first place, he is frail and can easily be killed, so a pure mana strengthened attack would be best, but…there’s no flair to it.

“Excuse me, Soraid-san.”

“Wa? I am currently thinking. I don’t want to tag along with any pointless stu—” (Soraid)

The anger interfering with my thoughts disappeared.

Why is my body this stiff?

Aah, because of this guy?

This guy has stabbed a knife on my side.

“—Hah?”

My body collapses…with just a single thrust of a knife?

No, now that I look closely, this knife…isn’t the same as the ones these guys carry around.

Judging from the shape, it is the type that you smear poison on.

Aah, so that’s why my body can barely move, huh.

“I-It is your fault! Because you try to use us as sacrificial pawns!”

What is this guy saying? I even gave them funds for escape.

It is not my business whether they mess up and get captured, but I have given you the bare minimum assistance, right?

My body is barely moving.

I tried to get my body up using my staff, but I slip from the blood flowing out from my side and fall again.

“H-Hiih! You guys, we are running away!”

The hoodlums were noisily running away.

Pointing at someone and hurriedly running away… Are you whining children or something?

A clunking sound rang in the emptiness after a while.

—What’s this sound? Aah, is it clappers? It took me a while to realize since I rarely hear that sound.

“Hnn…the wound is…not that deep, but…” (Soraid)

I should be able to stop the bleeding if I do mana strengthening. But I can’t draw strength most likely because of the poison running through my whole body.

This is troubling.

It is as if my body is slowly turning into stone.

“This would be the second time we meet, I guess? How are you feeling, Soraid?”

I hear a voice.

My eyes should still be able to move.

Aah, this guy… Black hair and black eyes… The resident of Yugura’s planet, huh.

There’s Mix by his side as well.

These two have awfully contrasting expressions on their faces.

“…You are surprisingly calm. A bit surprised?”

“It seems like this is a lethal paralyzing poison after all. The pain might be unexpectedly numb.” (Soraid)

The resident of Yugura’s planet picked up my staff with an amused face.

I don’t think I will be able to get up without that. No, I doubt I would be able to even with it.

“…You…set those guys up on me, didn’t you?” (Soraid)

“Yeah, I had Kayle and Haakudoku investigate the looks of the hoodlums in this city. I then inquired for the people who have been coming and going from the Holstear Company, and pinpointed this location. I also grasped the fact that there’s magic seal stones scattered in this city.”

So this guy used my subordinates just like I did with his.

What, so there was no need to feel dislike about arson just because the methods would overlap.

We are both copying each other.

“The number one reason for shifting the locations of the magic seal stones in the city was in order to buy time to set a surprise attack while you did a surprise attack on Ekdoik with Komiha. There were a lot of childish traps on the way in a state where you couldn’t use detection magic properly, so it must have taken quite a lot of time, right?”

They used the battle of Ekdoik as a signal to make contact with these guys and have it so that they betrayed me, huh.

Are you telling me that they managed to make them betray their symbol of fear in just a few hours?

“They were people who were ruled by fear to begin with. I managed to easily talk to them at least with some moderate threatening. They didn’t really believe me when I said that you would have them commit arson and use that opening to escape though. I gifted them that knife and told them: ‘You don’t really need to believe me. Just listen to Soraid’ and then left. I set clappers at the place where they would most likely escape towards.”

So that’s how…

In their eyes, I moved exactly as the enemy predicted and they mistook it as me using them as sacrificial pawns.

Even if so, they really went all in…

Well, if they were in the mindset of ‘they will be sacrificed if they move as I told them, or become free if they were to stab me in a do-or-die’…they might do it.

“This is such a terrible end… There’s no flair to it. That’s my only gripe, I guess…” (Soraid)

“Is that so. It is because you used that power of yours on me that you ended up with this conclusion. There was meaning to it.”

“…What a terrible way of putting it.” (Soraid)

That’s just karma.

Aah, that’s fine, I guess.

I see, I see. There was still meaning.

“Was it fun, Soraid?”

“I had fun at the end regardless of how it ended up there, I suppose…” (Soraid)

“I see, I see. That’s great. I had fun too.”

This man is smiling in satisfaction.

But this smile is…no, this is not something I should worry about.

Regardless, the future of this man is…

“We could have become friends. So pitiful…”

“Right. But this kind of end isn’t bad either.” (Soraid)

“…Haha, no doubt.”

I thought there was no flair, but this man comprehends me.

There’s no flair better than being able to die in front of the person that comprehends me.

◇◇

“—The death of Soraid has been confirmed.”

I checked the pulse and state of his pupils, and told this to Mister Friend.

I observe Soraid while closing his eyes.

Even though Soraid died through a lethal poison, slowly going cold like ice as he lost the freedom of his body, his face was peaceful as if he had gone to sleep.

“Now then, it should be around here…”

Mister Friend began to search the body of Soraid as if switching with me when I stood up.

That sight of his rummaging around the body of the life he himself took while humming, I unknowingly tightened my fist.

“Mister Friend, what are you—” (Mix)

“Found it, found it. Here, it is the key. With this, we can capture the Illegitimate that are at the basement of the firm too.”

“…Right.” (Mix)

I caught the key that Mister Friend threw and put it in my pocket.

I didn’t have any deep thoughts regarding it despite being something we went through great lengths to get.

Mister Friend slowly stood up and gave me the staff that he took from Soraid.

“There’s no one to supply mana to this staff now that Soraid has died. This curse will go away even if we leave it be. What will you—”

I didn’t wait for him to finish speaking and sliced up the staff of Soraid with ‘dance’.

Mister Friend was dumbfounded until the staff fell, but he soon returned to his amused face.

“You want me to go back that quickly? I am hated.”

“—I don’t want to see Mister Friend like this any further. Mister Friend would comprehend the heart of the other party, and even if they were to end up dying, he was by no means someone who would enjoy it.” (Mix)

“Well, yeah. Me and me have that standing. But me is different.”

Mister Friend picked up the fragments of the staff that fell on the ground, and observed them with interest.

The current Mister Friend most likely has no interest at all in my feelings. But it will finally end with this.

I was worried that he might have some sort of scheme, but Mister Friend will be returning to normal now that the staff has been destroyed.

“I understand that the current Mister Friend is different from the Mister Friend I know. I apologize for treating you as if you were the same person.” (Mix)

“Aah, you were bothered by that? It doesn’t matter though.”

I reflexively grabbed the collar of Mister Friend faster than my brain could process the meaning of those words.

The feelings of relief were so easily shaken.

But I couldn’t not say it.

“Then, why…why did you do something like this…?!” (Mix)

“—Sorry, can you let go?”

I was sure he would look at me with those eyes again.

That’s what I thought, and yet, Mister Friend spoke to me with a troubled face.

I was surprised by this and let go. I ended up moving back a few steps.

“Hmm, now that the staff is broken, what I wanted you to do is done, so…let’s talk for a bit. The future me is going to be spilling the secret anyways.”

“What you wanted me…to do?” (Mix)

The atmosphere I am feeling from Mister Friend is similar to the one I have felt until now, which drained my strength in some sort of way.

“The me around this time…it goes without saying that my standing was mainly as me. When I am faced with a lot of evil intent, my heart ends up hurting no matter what. In that case, I should just have a heart that enjoys it instead -the result of that adjustment was me.”

“…I understand that.” (Mix)

The current Mister Friend enjoys comprehending the hearts of his targets, shaking them, and controlling them.

I can tell that this is not out of his personality, but the way he stands.

“But the reality is that I can also switch to me and me. It was me at the time when I woke up, but I could immediately tell that I was incompatible with you guys. But I didn’t switch. It is because I judged that it is fine to stay as me.”

“…No way.” (Mix)

Are you telling me Mister Friend could have acted the same as usual, but purposely didn’t?!

He didn’t mind staying in this personality that enjoys shaking our hearts? That’s just…that’s just…!

“Cause, Mix, if I didn’t do that, you wouldn’t have been able to part with me, right? You wouldn’t have thought about getting rid of me.”

“…Get…rid…?” (Mix)

“You destroyed the staff without any hesitation. I wanted at least one person who would do that. Someone who would not listen to a word I said; someone who would erase me.”

“What…are you saying?” (Mix)

I right now can’t think of what lies ahead.

Mister Friend laughed as if troubled as he continued speaking.

“Just as you said before, the me that you know and the one present here are like two different people. And this is something I learned after reading the files left here, but the future me doesn’t have the standing of me. I understand the reason why, it is about myself after all. He probably couldn’t endure it even when trying to enjoy it.”

I have heard that the past Mister Friend was fed up of living emotionally in his former world, and learned to live in a way that took distance from others.

The current Mister Friend is most likely in a start of slightly before that.

“Maybe that’s why…even though in the past I wouldn’t show hesitation in rushing into danger, I became even more frivolous of my own life. Well, it is not like there’s that much of a difference though. And so, I judged that disappearing as me was the right decision.”

“Even if you tell me that… I don’t really get the meaning…” (Mix)

“Cause if it had gone like this and like that, what would you have thought?”

Mister Friend grabbed the sliced staff and brought it back together, and moved it to his back.

As if he were protecting it from me…

“I don’t want to disappear. Please save me, Mix.”

“?!”

Tears rolled from the eyes of Mister Friend with a weak expression unbelievable from his usual self.

I couldn’t think of it as an act. It made me feel as if the staff was back to normal, and my chest tightened to a painful degree…

“I am by no means someone with a strong heart. I am a coward, a weakling, and a pathetic human being. I am scared of disappearing…unbearably scared… There’s no way I would be able to finish it with my own hands. That’s why I couldn’t switch to me or me. If I were in those standings, I knew I would use any dirty tricks for the sake of surviving.”

“That’s…” (Mix)

“If the first person I met when I came to this world was you… You have thought of that before, right?”

That’s sly. There’s no way I haven’t thought of it.

If I had been the first one to meet him instead of Lady Ratzel…even if words wouldn’t get through, I am sure I would get close to Mister Friend and…

“I would have used your heart in this fashion all too naturally for the sake of surviving. There’s the possibility I wouldn’t have to disappear after all.”

“If that’s so…why did you…” (Mix)

“Didn’t I tell you already? I am a standing that won’t even be needed to exist in the not so far future. That’s why I managed to put the current me and the future me on a scale. No matter which one I chose, there’s no future for me. What I prioritize is myself -the next thing would be the ones around me. If the target of comparison is the same, I will simply go for the result that is most desirable for you guys -the people around me.”

Mister Friend wiped away his tears with his sleeve and returned to his artificial smile.

But his eyes were slightly red.

For the current Mister Friend, not destroying the staff and letting Soraid live would have kept him existing for longer.

There might have been a way for him to not return to normal ever again.

“Well, the shallow reason would be in part because I don’t want to get too along with you.”

“W-Why…?” (Mix)

“Well, I wouldn’t want the girl with favorable emotions towards me to take a bitter decision, moreover, confirm the result that I wasn’t the one that was chosen.”

Mister Friend said this and laughed. It is the same smile from the heart that I saw in Gahne.

But isn’t it cruel of you to show me that face right now?

Even though I got rid of you without hesitation.

“I…” (Mix)

“Do your best, Mix. If my tastes haven’t changed, you should have a chance. I am cheering for you. It is questionable whether I will go to the world of the dead though.”

Mister Friend said those words and suddenly lost consciousness.

The curse of Soraid was dispelled and his original memories returned, leading to his faculties stopping temporarily due to the shock of it.

I carried Mister Friend and decided to get him to a safe place first.

“…Thanks, Me-dono. I will work hard so I can answer your support.” (Mix)

They are words that won’t be reaching anymore, but I couldn’t not say these words towards the staff on the ground.

—–

She somehow got along with the 3rd standing after having an actual talk.

Me: ‘Even if so, it doesn’t change the fact that I bullied Mix this time around. There’s no way for me to deny my bad personality though’.

Me: ‘Complain to yourselves for adjusting my personality to be one that would want to bully the girl I like’.

Me: ‘Aah, I hear nothing. Try standing in the boots of the one that will have to clean up your mess. My stomach hurts’.

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