Chapter 16
In response to Saintess Ariel's question, the holy knight once again gave the report he had just delivered.
"Yes! A terrorist attack involving an airship bound for the imperial capital took place, but fortunately, one of the nobles aboard managed to kill every member of the criminal organization [Red Dawn Society], so the casualties are reportedly fewer than expected."
"Haa..."
At the holy knight's report, Ariel unconsciously clutched her aching head.
Not many people had been injured. That truly was fortunate.
It meant that no one had died needlessly.
But.
'It's different.'
The history Ariel knew differed greatly from the present.
The terrorist attack involving the hijacking of an airship had happened exactly as she remembered, but what came afterward was different.
The nobles aboard the airship had risen up and attacked the [Red Dawn Society].
Eventually, cornered, the [Red Dawn Society] had resorted to the worst possible option: ramming the airship into the Magic Tower, the tallest building in the Empire.
The collision between the airship and the Magic Tower.
The result had been the worst terrorist attack in history, with countless people aboard the airship dying instantly and the Magic Tower collapsing, causing an absurd number of casualties.
Because of that terrorist attack, the spread of the drug [Mirage] throughout the capital had not been prevented, either.
That was what should have happened originally.
'What in the world...'
It was good that she had regressed to the world before it was destroyed by the power of the holy relic.
But the world she had returned to was not the world she had known before.
An academy called [Crocus Academy], which she had never even heard of, had appeared.
And when she tried to eliminate in advance the dangerous figures hiding in the capital's underworld, knowingly or unknowingly, those people had already been dead or missing for a long time.
It was a world with something added to the one she originally remembered.
Ariel could not hold back her rising sigh and let it out.
'It didn't listen to me, either.'
Rather than simply not listening, it felt as though causality intervened whenever she tried to speak of future disasters or events.
When she had tried to persuade others to prevent the various disasters that came before this worst terrorist attack, it had felt as though they twisted her words and heard something else.
That was why Ariel had guided people's actions.
For example, she had moved priests to the location where the incident would occur in preparation for this terrorist attack.
'I can't say anything about my regression, and they won't listen when I try to speak of future disasters or events.'
The legend of a woman who had once been favored by the God of Prophecy in the distant past.
Was this what the heart of a woman cursed so that no one would believe the prophecies she uttered felt like?
She had thought about it many times, but she was beginning to realize that she lived under quite a number of restrictions in exchange for the miracle of regression.
"Phew... All right. Then who stopped the terrorist attack?"
"Ah... Well, apparently the heir to House Nebla stopped it."
"Nebla? Don't tell me you mean Kaizen—the black-haired man?"
A man who would later become the head of House Nebla, but ultimately fail to seize control of the underworld because of his lack of ability.
That was all Ariel knew about the man named Kaizen.
That such a man had stopped this terrorist attack?
"Ah, no. According to the report, it wasn't a black-haired man, but a gray-haired man... Saintess?"
'Again?'
The future had changed once more.
At the holy knight's report, Ariel wanted to give up on everything.
As that thick, clinging helplessness began to envelop her, she gritted her teeth once again.
Crack.
No, no. As if I would give up over something like this.
It was fine even if she could not use her knowledge of the future after regressing.
She could at least prepare, knowing when disasters would occur.
She had not regressed only to give up over this degree of despair.
With that thought, Ariel shook off the helplessness that had descended upon her once again.
"First, please investigate the heir to House Nebla who stopped this terrorist attack."
"Investigate?"
At the holy knight's question, Ariel gave a small nod.
She had to find out whether this was a butterfly effect caused by her regression or merely the result of coincidence.
However, she could not reveal those thoughts as they were.
She could not say them, and even if she forced herself to, causality would intervene with any mention of regression, whether spoken, written, or drawn.
"Yes. It's just a small curiosity of mine."
Ariel said that while hiding her true thoughts.
***
After learning the candidates for this world's romance-fantasy protagonist through my conversation with Breck, I immediately entered the small villa Breck had prepared.
"Come to think of it."
"Hm?"
"How do you intend to conduct the investigation?"
"Oh, that?"
I casually sat down in one of the chairs provided in the villa, took out a cigar and a cigar cutter, and spoke.
"Sit down here first. You can't keep standing like that, can you?"
I offered her a seat, since she looked as though she intended to stand there until I told her to.
After cutting the cigar to a suitable length, I lit it, and smoke slowly began to rise.
Rattle.
I immediately began smoking the cigar and guided the smoke from my mouth to open the villa's window.
Once a window opened in the sealed room, letting in air, the cigar smoke slowly began to escape outside.
"My ability is surprisingly well suited to this sort of information warfare."
As I quietly watched the cigar smoke, I slowly put the cigar to my mouth and drew in the smoke.
My mouth filled with smoke. When I exhaled it, the smoke soon began gathering in one place.
A smoke clone.
As its intuitive name suggested, it was a kind of clone that took human form.
"Its range is about ten kilometers. It has roughly the strength of a knight, and all the information this clone sees and hears comes to me... Ah, that won't work."
"Pardon?"
Perhaps because I had suddenly revealed my ability and then broken off mid-sentence, Mist asked in a puzzled voice.
Looking at her, I continued with a slightly awkward smile.
"You know my other ability, right?"
The ability that gave me an advantage when I revealed my abilities or information to the other party.
Mist had been told everything when I first met her, so there was no way she did not know.
When we had just formed the loyalty contract, the first thing I had made sure of was that she could not reveal anything about my abilities, so she would not have forgotten it, either.
"But the restriction isn't activating as I explain this ability..."
The reason the ability was not activating was obvious.
"I guess it didn't activate because I don't regard you as an enemy, and you don't regard me as one, either."
"..."
"Hmm. Everyone around me has always been an enemy, so I never knew what would happen in a situation like this."
I had intended to reveal my ability to her and increase its output.
I said that with a slightly awkward smile.
"...Lord Abel."
"Yes...?"
What was it? Why was she looking at me like that again?
She was looking at me with the same gaze full of strange heat that I had briefly seen before coming here.
"...Are you doing this on purpose?"
"What?"
On purpose? What? What had I done?
All I had done was not regard her as an enemy,
and become flustered because this was my first time encountering something like this. That was all.
What was there about that to suggest I was doing something on purpose?
When I looked at her with those thoughts, she watched me for a moment with a strangely heated gaze, then returned to normal with a small sigh.
"Phew... Yes. You wouldn't toy with someone's feelings over something like this."
"??"
Afterward, I asked Mist what she had meant, but she exercised her right to remain silent, and the matter ultimately petered out.
About three days passed like that.
***
The Bensetta Family.
A minor family with a total of twenty members, selling low-grade drugs and the scraps of contraband from other major families.
"Damn it!!"
Gunshots began ringing out through their shabby headquarters.
An attack by another family?
Or the police, purging the Empire's criminal organizations?
Or was it the purge squad I had heard rumors about—the one House Nebla used to sweep organizations away?
No, no. None of those.
"Godfather! The enemy's too fast! We can't hit him!"
"Damn it! Then shoot in every direction!! You'll hit him at least once! Shoot, hurry!"
The family was on the verge of annihilation at the hands of a single man.
"How is he so fast?! Guhk!"
"Beryl! You bastard! Guhk!"
The sounds of the organization members collapsing came from every direction.
"Kuhk!"
"Godfather! Run first! Guhk!"
When the last member who had urged him to flee collapsed, a chilling silence descended upon the building that had been filled with commotion.
"Damn..."
Step. Step.
What the hell was that monster? Was he one of those people called mana awakeners?
A monster that could dodge bullets and send a person flying with a single punch really existed?
'Damn, damn, damn!!! What is that monster?! Is he a knight? Has a knight come?!'
The unidentified intruder strolled toward him leisurely, like a predator savoring its prey.
The boss of the Bensetta Family trembled with fear as he aimed his revolver, which had one last round remaining, at the intruder.
"Die, you damned monster!"
A cry that was little more than a desperate outburst.
An attack laden with a curse against that monstrous bastard who had toyed with his men as though hunting them.
Thud.
'Did it hit him?'
Had the boss's desperate wish been answered?
The intruder's face, which had not allowed a single attack to land until then, jerked backward.
The face. He had hit him in the face.
Even if he was a knight, it would be difficult to survive a revolver round striking him in the face!
Crunch!
The final sight he saw as he rejoiced at having brought down the intruder was...
The impact of his face caving in, accompanied by—
the sight of a monster made of smoke beyond the mask that had been blown away by the bullet he had fired.
'Damn...'