"Ah, I dropped my phone."
No matter how much I rummaged through my pockets, my cellphone didn’t turn up. I must have dropped it earlier, when I was facing off against those security robots.
Of course, that much I could just buy again, but the fact that I could no longer contact Amber with it was a problem.
‘What am I supposed to do now?’
I had smashed up about five state-of-the-art security robots that cost 300 million won apiece to make, so by simple calculation, I had inflicted 1.5 billion won in losses on the Silver Corps.
‘Getting fucked was miserable enough, and now I’m about to lose my job too.’
Was this what they called responsibility without pleasure? Not that there had been no pleasure at all.
For reference, the person responsible for driving me into this state was apparently in a country on the other side of the globe right now, receiving a commendation.
Just then, her figure appeared on an electronic billboard attached to a high-rise building.
"Ruby really is amazing. And her face is pretty too."
"I want to meet her in person~"
"……."
That was a statement I simply could not let pass with a generous heart. If I could, I wanted to expose Ruby’s true nature to the entire world.
But there was no one who would believe a word I said. I’d be lucky if they didn’t treat me like a lunatic.
"Tch."
For now, I returned to Café Eclipse, but after causing that mess, I wondered if I could shamelessly go back to running the shop.
Depending on the situation, there was a chance I would have to say goodbye to this place too, a shop that held a year’s worth of memories.
I was seriously considering whether I should throw myself into a dogeza before the boss to prevent that from happening, when…
"Oh my, Mr. Jade. Are you closed today?"
"Sophia. Something came up, so I think it’ll be difficult."
At the sudden voice calling me, I turned to the side and saw a familiar face walking toward me.
Magical Girl Sapphire, real name Sophia.
She was Ruby’s partner, and known as the person Ruby trusted most.
Recently, she had been stopping by our café often to chat with her friends, and at some point she had gotten close to me, the owner, as well.
‘At first, she said she came looking for the man who seduced Rabi, didn’t she?’
Hide it, do whatever. That was probably me.
In the end, thanks to Amber covering for me by saying she had rejected my confession, that purpose seemed to have faded somewhat, but…
‘If she finds out Rabi stormed into my house after that, what’s going to happen?’
I absolutely cannot let this girl find out. She does have a bit of a crazy psycho lesbian streak somewhere in her.
"Were you coming by today too?"
"Yes. I heard from Ms. Amber that shaved ice would be added as a seasonal menu soon."
It was true that, since summer was just around the corner, I had once discussed whether it might be a good idea to add shaved ice as a seasonal menu.
‘Right. Amber!’
My head had been so tangled that I had forgotten, but I needed to contact her quickly. She was surely worried about me, since I had scanned only my ID card and disappeared.
"Sophia. Can I borrow your phone for a second? I think I dropped mine somewhere, and I need to contact Amber right away."
"Oh my, of course. I hope you find your phone soon."
What a kind attitude. I felt ashamed of myself for saying a girl like this had a crazy psycho lesbian streak.
And just as Sophia handed me a smartphone in a blue case, the personal color of Magical Girl Sapphire—
…with miraculous timing, a call came in from someone.
If it had been an ordinary call, I could have just handed it back to Sophia, but…
[ Rabi ]
Displayed on the screen was the name of the very person who had stolen my chastity and run away not long ago.
"……."
Wait, wasn’t this a chance to talk to Rabi in secret?
Fortunately, it was on silent mode, and Sophia didn’t seem to have noticed the call. If I pretended to call Amber like this and spoke with Rabi—
[ Ah, Mr. Jade! ]
"……."
It was clearly Sophia’s smartphone, so how did she realize it was me? At this point, it was more fascinating than frightening.
[ I thought you’d be contacting me soon. Back then, I was embarrassed, so I ran away at the end… ]
"…After that, you properly, you know, did it, right?"
[ Contraception? Of course! I have no intention of causing trouble for you, Jade. ]
You’re already causing me more than enough trouble without worrying about that.
Still, it was a relief. I had poured almost 200,000 won into related books alone, but now there was no need to gauge Rabi’s reaction over this.
"From now on, I’m reporting everything you did to the Silver Corps. That’s fine, right?"
If this incident became known, Magical Girl Ruby’s reputation would plummet to rock bottom, and the Silver Corps, having gotten rid of a troublesome enemy, would gain momentum toward its goal of world domination.
[ ……. ]
Perhaps my words had shaken her badly, because she fell silent for a moment.
Was she going to say she never thought I would go that far? Sorry, but this is the seed you sowed—
[ …You still haven’t told them? ]
"What?"
Rabi, sounding genuinely puzzled, instead threw a question back at me.
I still haven’t told them? What on earth did she mean by that?
If I made this public, her life as a magical girl would certainly be over.
[ As expected, Jade, you’re amazing. You’re on a completely different level from other humans. Someone who can sincerely worry about others… that kind of person. ]
In the end, even after that, I could not understand a single word Rabi said.
***
"Once more. No, back from there. Or is it forward, not back? Anyway, rewind it."
The three executives of the Silver Corps were watching the newly recorded CCTV footage with their eyes wide open.
"…As expected, from this angle, it’s just barely out of view."
In order to prevent the location of their headquarters from being identified, the Silver Corps had installed CCTV only in cleverly selected spots, so the area right in front of the main gate could not be monitored.
"Seriously, slacking off like that… This happened because you abandoned your post on your own!"
"Eek! I-I’m sorry!"
At Citrine’s irritable tone, a man dressed in the Silver Corps uniform bent his waist ninety degrees.
Worried about this blind spot in the CCTV, the Silver Corps had stationed guards at the main gate in shifts every half day.
However, as luck would have it, he had gone to the bathroom at that exact moment, and so had failed to confirm the full sequence of events.
"What has already happened cannot be helped. Even if it is only the parts you remember, report the details to the boss."
"U-understood! All hail Lapis!"
At Crystal’s words, the guard quickly left the room to write his incident report.
Watching him go, Citrine let out a sigh and began inspecting the security system again.
"Magical Girl Ruby’s magic was detected at 5:28 a.m. The employee named Jade also scanned his ID card at 5:28 a.m. Could there be such a coincidence?"
"Rather than a coincidence… hearing it like that makes it feel as though the two are connected."
"The greatest possibility is that this employee called Jade was carrying an object imbued with Magical Girl Ruby’s magic."
"…That little brat’s?"
A security system that detected Magical Girl Ruby’s magic.
This system had one fatal flaw: even if it was not Ruby herself, as long as it detected magic of the same wavelength, the alarm would go off.
"In other words, if it contains Ruby’s magic, even if it’s a 100-won coin, the alarm will ring. You understand that much, right?"
"Thank you for the kind explanation."
"Well, it’s not completely impossible that this guy called Jade or whatever possesses magic of the exact same wavelength as Ruby, but…"
"That’s not it. I heard from Amber that he has no magic at all."
Chris said so while looking at Amber, who stood far off with her head bowed deeply.
"Then we’ll rule out that line… However, there’s one point I can’t understand. The fact that all my robots were destroyed."
The crystallization of science, made by pouring a huge sum of 300 million won into each one, had all been turned into scrap metal. It was utterly abnormal.
"Ah, just thinking about it again pisses me off! Whoever broke them, I’m beating them to death no matter what!"
"You can just make more robots. More importantly, Amber is the issue right now."
As Chris remembered it, Jade was certainly a subordinate Amber cherished dearly.
One could somewhat guess that from the way she still insisted on calling him her senior, even though she had been promoted before him.
"She’s still young. If she has to send off someone precious to her, it will surely leave trauma behind."
"It’s not confirmed that he’s dead yet. There’s no corpse either."
"Citrine… choose your words a little."
While Chris and Citrine were bickering on the opposite side, Lapis, the leader of the Silver Corps, approached the dispirited Amber.
She had always brightened the mood and raised the morale of the Silver Corps with her cheerful, energetic demeanor, but now she wore a dark expression for the first time in a long while.
To Lapis, it was an expression she never wanted to see again.
"Boss, if something happened to Senior…"
"Don’t worry. He’s alive and well."
"R-really?!"
At those words, Amber’s dark expression brightened all at once.
"It looks like one of my subordinates found him. They say they’ll send a photo right away…"
"Haaah~! Seriously, making people worry like that!"
With a hand over her chest in relief, she checked the photo on the device Lapis handed her.
In the photo was her senior, wandering the streets with a happy expression beside one of her classmates, oblivious to her worry.
"Who’s that next to him? He’s sticking close to a girl."
It had already been a year since Jade and Amber had met. The two had trusted each other so much that they had never even had a petty argument, running together in a three-legged race all this time—
"…Huh?"
That day, for the first time, Amber got pissed.