Recently, an elegant refinement had been added to the counseling room: herbal tea brewed personally by the “counseling room teach.”
All sorts of students, drawn by the strangely soothing aroma, cried, “Teach, me too!” but the counseling room teach, who became childish only at times like this, kept evading them while shouting, “Not giving you any. Don’t wanna. It’s mine. It’s for grown-ups.”
Naturally, Raban had no intention of sharing the special herbal tea he had made himself.
First, this was a black-magic recovery potion infused with the negative thoughts of an erosion entity. Something this precious could not be shared with others, not even a sip—no, not even a single drop.
Second, this was a deadly hazardous substance infused with the negative thoughts of an erosion entity. It might be precious to a black mage, but if an ordinary person drank it, it would not be strange for them to suddenly suffer unexplained multiple organ failure, be carried away, and die.
If that happened, a magical girl would be dispatched, and she would blast him with a death beam. Raban did not want to be reduced to a handful of ash by a magical girl’s beam before he could even return to his homeland.
But if he kept hiding it every time, it would only attract even more attention. So today, instead of his Black Forest blend herbal tea, Raban had procured a tea that was simply incredibly bitter.
It was meant to cut off their curiosity with, “See? I told you it’s the taste of grown-ups.”
But for some reason, just as the atmosphere was turning into a sort of challenge where everyone insisted they would try it, and Raban was getting a headache over it—
Dine approached the noisy counseling room.
‘Damn it….’
Her steps faltered. Originally, the counseling room was in a rather remote place, so not many students came and went.
But lately, thanks to the counseling room teach, who made for such satisfying teasing, everyone seemed to drop by whenever they were bored; through the glass window of the sliding door, the number of people inside looked to be at least five.
‘Huh? Dine?’
Dine could be seen from inside the counseling room as well. The peer counselor students keeping watch there could guess the reason for a visit just from the atmosphere of a student hesitating outside.
Friends who approached out of curiosity after hearing rumors about the counseling room teach usually wore lively, cheerful expressions. Or else suspicious smiles that seemed to say, “I was bored, and this is perfect timing!”
Conversely, friends who truly needed counseling tended to have somewhat stiff faces and, for some reason, hesitated to come in.
This was the latter. They gave a suitable signal to the friends who had been bickering and playing with the counseling room teach.
The kids gathered here had all heard the teach lecture them at least once that “the counseling room must be a comfortable place for students who truly need counseling,” so they were quick on the uptake.
Everyone naturally got up, chattering that it had been fun, and slipped out of the counseling room. Dine carefully moved her feet. A red-haired student entered, crossing paths with the students passing by.
“Dine, what’s wrong?”
“Well… I have something to consult the teacher about.”
The peer counselor students nodded. Even that “young lady” Dine must have her own worries. After falling into the sea on the school trip and being hospitalized with pneumonia, she must have fallen quite far behind in class.
The distance between her and her friends must have grown a little, too. A student who had been looking at Dine warmly called out in a lively voice.
“Teach! Counseling!”
“I am not a teacher. And you did tell her that I don’t have anything like a counseling license, right?”
“You just told her now!”
“Oh, seriously.”
Raban trudged over and opened the door to the inner room inside the counseling room. Dine headed into the inner room with her head bowed low.
Click.
“Now, sound from here does not carry outside. Please speak comfortably.”
***
Dine kept biting her lips.
The state of the Four Heavenly Kings was laughable, but she had learned for certain from what had happened last time.
This “Luncheoner” that had appeared was not something the Ivory Tower or the magical girls could handle alone. Even old Sargasso had agreed.
The Luncheoners he knew had had their minds somewhat broken by the backlash of devouring immense power, making them unable to use proper strategy or tactics. But this individual was different. The dispersal of its presence, and its cunning surprise attack through the underground.
It possessed proper intelligence. What made it even more dangerous was that, while doing so, it avoided engaging magical girls, as though it had not forgotten its mission.
Sargasso had said this:
‘Perhaps that thing can even use the function the Luncheoners lost when they absorbed the magic power of the old era—the heretical art of reaching out to the wicked mother and borrowing her authority.’
If the Luncheoner began encroaching upon the world in earnest, powered by the terrifying magic of the Mother Fairy, that would be fatal even from the mascots’ standpoint.
As quickly as possible, it had to be destroyed with overwhelming power.
That was why Dine had called Raban out.
From the beginning, he had been a janitor who had suddenly appeared after the battle between the shadow mage and the magical girl. The Four Heavenly Kings had deduced that Raban was highly likely to be personnel on the mascots’ side.
As for Dine personally, she was already convinced he was a mascot. She had generously warned him to be careful about the counseling room’s security, and the merciless sarcasm she had received in return was a coldness that no one but a mascot could display.
After the sea-diving incident, even the other Four Heavenly Kings, who had begun by doubting any judgment Salamandine made, came to support Dine’s opinion after Raban’s work assignment.
Because right after Dine advised him to strengthen the counseling room’s security, Raban was placed in charge of the counseling room.
He had laughed when he first heard her advice, then brazenly stepped forward himself as the person responsible for security. It was a decision befitting a gloomy mascot.
Dine pressed a hand to her temple and slowly opened her mouth.
***
Raban recalled his memories of running into that red-haired student who had a suspicious amount of magic power.
‘She kept saying such vague, pie-in-the-sky things that I figured she was either a chuuni or a magical girl.’
Why had such a dangerous person come here?
‘To catch some suspicious bastard slipping and beat him to death…?’
The mascots must have assigned him to the counseling room with the intention of smashing him immediately if he approached a student. But until now, he had not revealed his true nature.
Had the mascots’ patience run out, leading them to use a magical girl as bait and issue some order like, “If he shows any improper movement, execute him on the spot-mohu”?
Raban looked at his opponent with the greatest vigilance he had mustered since arriving at Hikarious.
“So you have descended in person to a place where resentment gathers.”
Of course, his eyes were open kindly. If she said, “What’s with that look?” and fired a magic cannon at him, he would not be able to withstand it.
“The fact that you accepted my advice must mean there is a possibility for us to speak with one another.”
“…?”
Raban tried not to reveal his suspicion. He had not taken over the counseling room after hearing Dine’s warning; he had been assigned here through the mascots’ suspicious work order.
“Please tell the black and white pair. We must cooperate with one another and shatter what is hiding in the shadows.”
‘This sounds like she’s talking about the magical girls…?’
Tell them?
Then did that mean Dine was not a magical girl?
Raban’s brain, awakened by the concentrated caffeine of the bitter herbal tea, began to move fiercely. He once again analyzed the scent he had gathered when he seized the erosion entity.
The acrid smell of fire, the scent of embers that seemed ready to flare up at any moment.
The smell of the fire spirit that had burned his familiar in the park was faintly lingering in the counseling room. From Dine, right in front of him.
‘Good heavens.’
Raban was shocked.
‘Her real name is Salamandine, so she made her alias Dine?’
It was so absurd that he had not even suspected it. Damn it. Just how half-hearted did an alias have to be for someone to come up with that idea?
He gathered his confusion. What mattered now was how to make use of this unexpected information.
‘Dine has judged me to be someone connected to the magical girls.’
He reinterpreted her words and actions from the day they first met in light of the information he now had.
‘What Dine was warning me about was the shadow mage—in other words, she was warning that I might target the counseling room.’
The fact that she had conveyed a warning about the shadow mage meant that Dine considered Raban himself to be something like a mascot’s underling. Fortunately, the outward circumstances had happened to unfold in a similar way.
‘The Ivory Tower sees me as even more of a threat than I expected. That’s why they’re trying to form an alliance with the magical girls and defeat me….’
He could use this.
The corners of Raban’s mouth lifted.
***
“I have heard you well, Salamandine.”
“…!”
“The voices in this room certainly do not carry outside. You may speak with peace of mind. Normally, such things should be avoided, but in the current emergency, precise communication is necessary, is it not?”
Raban was looking at her with a sharp gaze. Behind the dark circles under his eyes, she could feel the meticulous calculations of profit and loss unique to a mascot taking place.
“First, please understand that, from our perspective, we cannot help but be skeptical of the Ivory Tower’s proposal for an alliance. You and we have maintained a hostile relationship for a long time, and the conflict with the Magilists is still ongoing.”
“Since we’ve beaten each other up that much, you lot should know our skills better than anyone, shouldn’t you? We’re saying we’ll graciously act as bait. Put the magical girl brats on standby, then blow that thing away with your usual vicious finishing move.”
Salamandine set aside her disguise as Dine and returned to her usual manner of speaking. Being able to speak informally to that obnoxious mascot bastard truly set her heart at ease.
“Yes. We know very well. But the skills the Ivory Tower has shown are premised on battles against the Magilists, are they not? In the last battle, you showed a somewhat vulnerable side to the Luncheoner’s surprise attack.”
“Ugh, that was the same for you people!”
Raban realized that his scam had succeeded. Right now, he was casually tossing out internal information that, if he were not a mascot, only a magical girl who had fought alongside the Four Heavenly Kings would know.
For Salamandine, there was no choice but to naturally conclude that this temporary counseling room employee was a mascot in disguise. Pretending to be utterly expressionless, Raban answered Dine’s protest.
“We did not go down as helplessly as Sargasso. Seeing one of the Four Heavenly Kings driven to defeat in an instant was shocking even for us. If the Luncheoner had not been absorbed in handling the erosion entity, it would have been a truly dangerous situation.”
“….”
“The Four Heavenly Kings and the Luncheoner are not a good match. Especially when it comes to surprise attacks. However, your offensive power is not something the Luncheoner can easily deal with.”
Salamandine recalled how her flames had burned away the Luncheoner’s bundle of blood vessels without much difficulty. Those vicious bastards—had they already analyzed that in the meantime?
“What are you trying to say?”
“Rather than wait for the Luncheoner’s attack, let us attack the Luncheoner’s hiding place.”
“What? You’ve already found it?”
Maintaining his expressionless face, Raban nodded.
“Where is it?”
“The Black Forest.”
***
Charles, the wicked boss tormenting Na I-hyeon.
Behold the intervention of the Agency (a.k.a. the magical girls) and the Outsiders (= the Ivory Tower).
Delisting shall come for your Sacrifice Securities.