“That…”
For some reason, in that moment, Salamandine thought of Sargasso. That old-looking figure massaging his temples whenever the other Four Heavenly Kings said anything.
His body was formed of materialized mana, so it wasn’t as if massaging his temples like a human would make a headache go away. She had never understood why he did something so useless.
Now she knew. When you heard something so frustrating and absurd, you simply wanted to do something.
“Then why on earth are you going out of your way to meet that sinister bastard?”
Inian smiled faintly.
In truth, by this point she had realized that Salamandine’s wariness of Raban was not because he was a black mage who failed as a human but passed as a beast. The scam Raban had explained to her the night before had belatedly come to mind.
‘He said he pretended to be a mascot, was it?’
“Because he is a being who can directly come into contact with the highest-quality negative thoughts in this city.”
“…You’d better not underestimate mascots. They aren’t beings you can deal with by brute force alone.”
As expected, Inian’s true nature really was that of an extra-dimensional monster. Salamandine slowly explained the habits of mascots.
“Just like they altered you into that form, they use magic that lies outside our common sense. Even the source of their mana is strange.”
“The being called Mother, you mean?”
“The way the Mother Fairy secures mana. She probably obtains it from the dreams and hopes of the entire world.”
“…What sort of lunacy is that?”
Inian was genuinely shocked. Black magic did harvest mana from emotions such as pain and ruin, but that was by no means easy.
Black mages didn’t develop torture magic as a hobby because they were bored. It was because they had to harvest magically pure pain for the conversion rate of negative thoughts into mana to rise even a little.
Hatred, too, yielded more the more it was not ordinary hatred, but hatred that was specific, vivid, and directed at a particular target.
And yet they harvested enough enormous mana from vague emotions like dreams and hope to alter the body of an Archduke of the Demon Realm?
Unless they were forcing the shape of humanity’s desires with something like a brainwashing beam, it was impossible. Or else it was an entirely new kind of magic that even a demon who had set foot in many worlds had never once witnessed.
“Sounds insane, doesn’t it? But it’s true. Their power source is dreams and hope, and apparently the amount of mana generated from the sense of achievement they get after defeating a monster is greater than the mana they use to defeat it, so it’s perpetual motion or something.”
The Archduke of the Demon Realm wanted to clutch the back of her neck. What karma had that black-magic abomination Raban accumulated, for him to drift into a dimension like this of all places?
“So be careful. The mascots you’ll be facing are sinister bastards with bellies full of vipers. Avoid negotiating with them if you can.”
“Even so, I must visit the counseling room.”
“Do you really have to?”
“The mascots’ protection is concentrated inside the school, is it not?”
She meant that they could identify the students likely to harbor negative thoughts, then attack them outside the school. Dine felt an inexplicable aversion.
‘Hm. Is it because it’s a cowardly tactic?’
“…Fine. Do as you like. Since I’m going with you into a danger zone, I have one request too.”
“Say it.”
“Meet me after school. As you said, outside the school, the eyes of those fluffy things won’t reach us.”
Tap, tap. The two girls stood before the counseling room door.
***
Raban was brewing a spectacular cup of black tea with his ever-improving skill at embezzling the counseling room’s supplies. Usually, he only boiled enough for himself, and when the students asked, “Are you the only one drinking, Teach?” he would grumble and pour out one more cup, but today was different.
That was because today’s peer counselor on duty was Na Ihyeon.
“Ihyeon, take yours.”
“Huh. Didn’t you usually bring your own herbal tea separately in a thermos, mister?”
“That’s what I drink to take care of my health. Sometimes you have to drink proper tea too.”
“No wonder I thought it was way too bitter. It was a health supplement?”
Na Ihyeon looked at Raban with an expression that seemed to be gazing upon something pitiful. Raban shrugged and pushed the black tea in front of Na Ihyeon.
“Thanks. I’ll drink it well.”
“It’s not mine, so thank the school.”
As Raban sipped his tea and made casual conversation, he recalled Inian’s plan. The reverse idea of dragging Salamandine here and extracting negative thoughts.
‘The premise was good, but there’s no way an executive of an enemy organization would crawl into a death trap…’
Footsteps echoed down the corridor. Judging by the sound, two people were approaching. Inian had really brought Dine with her.
“She did?”
Raban was dumbfounded. Why on earth had this worked?
“What is it?”
“A student here for counseling. I heard footsteps outside.”
Na Ihyeon nodded. For a mister who took health supplements, his ears were sharp.
There was no need to get up and open the door for no reason. To students who came seeking counseling, excessive kindness could feel heavier than it needed to.
‘Though nine out of ten kids who come these days are here to see mister anyway, so maybe it doesn’t matter.’
Na Ihyeon waited languidly for the door to open.
“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“The transfer student said she wanted to look around the counseling room. I came to guide her.”
And the moment she saw Dine enter through the door, that languor vanished. Dine’s true identity was one of the Ivory Tower’s Four Heavenly Kings.
‘Why on earth is she here?!’
Meanwhile, Raban was just as flustered.
‘No! Of all times, one of the Four Heavenly Kings attacks when my excellent supplier of negative thoughts is here!’
With Inian’s sociability, he had thought there was a nine-in-ten chance she would fail to entice Dine. To think she would succeed in luring one of the Four Heavenly Kings at the exact moment it overlapped with a Na Ihyeon encounter event. Raban hurriedly set his mind spinning.
“Oh. You’re the student from lunchtime. You didn’t get indigestion, did you?”
The moment Inian heard Raban’s kind voice, a rejection reaction surged up within her, but she endured it with patience befitting an Archduke of the Demon Realm.
“Thanks to you, I finished my meal well.”
Raban very naturally took out teacups and offered them to the two of them.
“What’s this? You usually give it to us in paper cups because washing dishes is a pain, mister.”
“She’s a transfer student. We should treat her a bit kindly.”
Raban answered with a single shrug. Idle nonsense, just enough. On the surface, it looked like a cheerful conversation fitting for high school students.
Na Ihyeon was tense because one of the Four Heavenly Kings had suddenly appeared in the counseling room, Dine was tense because she had no idea what that mascot was thinking, and Raban was tense because he had no idea what one of the Four Heavenly Kings might do to Na Ihyeon.
Inian, who had driven the three of them into that state of tension, was savoring the aroma of the tea with a proud expression that seemed to shout, “I did it!”
“Ah, Dine.”
“Yes…?”
Salamandine swallowed. Naturally, the mascot must also have realized that the girl with the courtly speech was the monster that had appeared in the Black Forest.
“Could you spare me a moment? There’s something I’d like to talk about.”
Was he going to interrogate her about what intention she had in bringing a monster here? Dine clicked her tongue inwardly. You people were the ones who brought that monster into the school.
“Yes, of course.”
But inner thoughts were inner thoughts, and acting was acting. Dine maintained her composure and headed into the counseling room’s inner chamber.
Cold sweat ran down Na Ihyeon’s cheek. Even if Salamandine had been faithfully living her school life as Dine, she was still one of the Four Heavenly Kings, the archenemies of magical girls. For all she knew, mister might suddenly turn into a monster inside there and come bursting out.
Inian tilted her head as she watched Na Ihyeon sweating bullets.
“Is something the matter?”
“N-nooooo?”
“You are sweating quite a lot.”
“I was born this way!”
Na Ihyeon forcibly turned her gaze away from the inner chamber. It wasn’t as if she could transform right this second and have it out with Dine. She shook her head once and looked at Inian.
“Come to think of it, we’re in the same class, aren’t we?”
“We are.”
Inian’s gaze swept over Na Ihyeon. Indeed. Just as Raban had said, she harbored dense negative thoughts.
While Raban was fishing for Salamandine in there, she would try shaking Na Ihyeon up a little.
***
Click. The door to the inner chamber closed. A silence cut off from the outside settled over the narrow room.
Salamandine glared fiercely at Raban.
“…I’ll say this in advance, I wasn’t the one who approached that side first. You saw it at lunchtime too.”
“Oh dear. That is not what I called you in for.”
“What?”
A faint trace of bewilderment crossed Salamandine’s face.
“I am not in charge of that, you see. There is a separate department that monitors the secret meetings of suspicious individuals.”
“What? Then why did you summon me?”
“Do you remember Magi White’s ‘wish’?”
Her red eyes flashed. With a measure of anger, contempt, doubt, and some other emotion Raban did not know.
“That arrogant ambition of becoming friends with us? Ha. As long as that girl is a lackey of you mascots, it’s impossible.”
“I cannot pretend not to see the wish of our magical girl. So I have arranged this private conversation.”
“What?”
“The first step of friendship is, of course, conversation, is it not? I do not think the gap between your Ivory Tower and us can be narrowed so easily, but it would be shameful to speak of impossibility in the face of dreams and hope.”
“I wondered what you were going to say. What a useless topic. I’m leaving.”
Salamandine immediately rose and was just about to turn the doorknob.
“If conversation feels burdensome, think of it as a deal.”
Raban spoke in a gentle tone.
“A deal?”
“Once a week. If you speak with me honestly.”
“Hmph. Whatever you offer in exchange, we won’t fall for your proposal—”
“We will share the Luncheoner detection alert with you.”
Dine’s expression filled with shock. That meant…
“The shadow mage is still alive!?”
“Unfortunately. The crocodile demonic beast did not devour all of him.”
Raban shrugged. As expected, it worked. The Ivory Tower’s Four Heavenly Kings had even swallowed their pride and proposed cooperation in order to subjugate the shadow mage.
If they were told that the monster who had driven both the magical girls and the Ivory Tower into panic had not been completely annihilated, of course they would come running in horror.
‘Of course he’s alive.’
After all, he was alive and breathing right in front of Salamandine’s eyes.