An Ability Worth Trying at Least Once with a Smoke Ability

The top floor of the Nebula ducal estate, the duke's room.

"Right. Let's talk about this drug incident."

The duke slowly rose, detaching the wires from the medical equipment attached to him because of the internal injuries he had suffered in his fight with Abel.

Pain surged through him, as though his lungs were being squeezed, but the duke paid it no mind.

What he wanted to know was Abel's whereabouts and actions.

...

Lin, the captain of the Nebula ducal family's execution unit, [White Shadow], had been watching the duke with concern. Now, they began reporting on Abel's actions.

"Based on the testimony of the airship captain we bribed, it appears that Abel had already understood the situation inside the airship through his ability before taking action."

It was merely simple profiling.

The only difference was that this was not an investigative technique for catching criminals, but a method of inferring an ability user's powers—in other words, mana profiling.

They had analyzed the testimony of the people who had been aboard around Abel at the time.

It was a method of deducing an ability user's approximate powers from their movements, behavior, and psychology.

"The fact that he didn't move immediately suggests that the time he spent simply smoking a cigar inside the airship was intended to assess the situation within."

The most important aspect of mana profiling was accurately identifying an ability user's personality.

Based on that personality, they assigned statistical scores to various aspects of an ability user's powers and inferred what kind of ability they possessed.

Whether it was an ability characterized by destructive power.

Whether it excelled at reconnaissance and stealth.

Or whether it possessed exceptional versatility.

"Stealth beyond the notice of an ordinary person like the captain."

Next, Lin began reading a report that roughly summarized Abel's actions after arriving in the capital.

"After arriving in the capital, he used a clone made of smoke to obtain information about a minor Family."

Of course, this too had been an observation carried out discreetly from a location dozens of kilometers away, so as to stay out of Abel's sight.

Even then, after Abel sensed someone watching him, they had no choice but to continue observing him from farther away.

"Tentatively designated a smoke clone. We estimate that the clone's strength was roughly knight-class, while the ability's range was approximately nine to ten kilometers."

Of course, it was highly likely that this had not been Abel's full strength, so the extent of his true power remained unknown.

"Finally, because of the barrier he used when confronting Heros, the culprit behind this drug incident, we were unable to determine what phenomena occurred inside it."

As the captain of [White Shadow] delivered the report, Lin inwardly marveled at Abel's ability.

Even after witnessing the abilities of hundreds of ability users, they had never seen anything quite like this.

"Taking all of his actions into account, he scored nearly perfect marks in every category of his ability."

This was the first time they had encountered such a case.

Even the head of the Nebula ducal family standing before Lin did not possess such an all-around ability.

Only after entering the realm of a second awakening—the second awakening of an ability—could the duke materialize his illusions.

If they dared to make a judgment, only the duke's second-awakened ability was comparable to Abel's.

"However..."

Lin, who had continued speaking as though they were almost praising Abel, let their voice trail off slightly and looked at the duke.

"We believe the trigger for his ability is probably the smoke from a cigar Abel himself had smoked."

"Hmm..."

"The ability itself is extraordinary, but given that restriction, my conclusion is that it isn't completely flawless."

"Is that your opinion?"

The duke said this as he looked at Lin, who had risen to the position of captain of [White Shadow] through their mana-profiling ability.

"Lin."

Under the duke's gaze, Lin finally voiced the strange sense of déjà vu that had been circling in their mind.

"...There is one strange point."

"What is it?"

"The personality we inferred for Abel and the restriction on his ability. Those two things don't fit together."

Normally, abilities came without restrictions.

But there were certainly cases in which restrictions allowed an ability to produce even greater output.

"I've seen countless cases of ability users with restrictions, but I've never seen two factors contradict each other this thoroughly."

For example, there had been an ability user who awakened solely from a desire for revenge.

It was an ability that showed only ordinary—or even below-ordinary—output, but its user could wield overwhelming power against the object of their revenge.

There had also been an ability user whose output was restricted to eighty percent at a specific time, only for their power to grow stronger once that time had passed.

Both of those cases had been closely connected to the users' personalities.

But what about Abel?

Based on the reports, Abel's personality seemed to be the meticulous and thorough type.

And yet someone like that supposedly had a restriction that allowed him to use only smoke from a cigar he had personally smoked?

"It's an extremely strange situation, but we lack sufficient grounds to make a judgment, so for now, all I can do is harbor the question."

The duke grinned.

Hearing Lin's doubts, the duke recalled his fight with Abel and smiled faintly.

"Is that so... Then when will Abel depart today, and when will he arrive at the ducal estate?"

"Yes. Based on our assessment, airships are currently unable to operate because of the terrorist attack."

"Well, that makes sense."

It was a terrorist attack that had occurred in the sky—and the first airship hijacking in history, at that.

If the Empire had ignored that and resumed airship operations, the duke would have wondered whether the elderly emperor currently ruling the Empire had lost his mind.

For reference, the airship carrying Ariel had already departed from the Holy Kingdom when the terrorist attack began, so its continued operation had been unavoidable.

"We estimate that he will arrive by car in approximately three to five days."

The Empire was already on edge because of the terrorist attack.

Since the Empire was so vast, he would inevitably lose time at the checkpoints he had to pass through whenever he entered a new city.

"I see. A pity. Is there nothing else to report?"

"Ah... There is one thing."

"Hmm. What is it?"

"We've detected signs that the other two illegitimate children hired mercenaries to secretly ambush Abel while he was on his way here."

The two of them had regarded each other as rivals and kept one another in check, but now they had learned that Abel had distinguished himself in the capital.

To the two who had thought of Abel as nothing more than a wastrel, his accomplishments had been no different from a predator suddenly intruding on their territory.

Even rivals would cooperate when a common enemy appeared.

"...The other two illegitimate children requested Abel's location from our [White Shadow]."

"So did you tell them?"

At the duke's question, Lin immediately shook their head.

Perhaps it was their imagination, but the duke's voice seemed strangely subdued.

"No. Since there was no particular benefit to us, we refused the request."

At Lin's answer, the duke nodded as though satisfied.

"Good. You did well. As a reward for successfully wrapping up this matter, the entire [White Shadow] will receive a bonus. Go collect it from Sebastian."

"Yes!"

Creeeak.

Thud.

After leaving the duke's room, Lin walked down the hallway and let out a sigh of relief.

'Just as I thought.'

The duke's reaction.

'He considers Abel his successor.'

For Lin, it was the obvious conclusion to draw.

'It's a good thing I gave Lena such emphatic warnings.'

Because they had been thinking along those lines, Lin had repeatedly warned Lena, the [White Shadow] member who would meet Abel during this mission, to be extremely careful in her conduct.

As a result, Lena acted excessively intimidated by and submissive to Abel, but Lin actually felt relieved when they saw it.

Submission was preferable.

No matter how infamous [White Shadow] was as the ducal family's execution unit, Lin wanted to avoid getting on the wrong side of the next head of the household.

***

"Hand over everything you've got!"

A group had stopped the car that was peacefully heading toward the ducal estate.

Armed with various firearms, they looked like lowlifes of the worst sort at a glance.

Since they had not awakened mana, they had armed themselves with guns, the easiest means of obtaining power.

'Mercenaries.'

Seeing them, I lightly inferred their identity.

I was already irritated at having to make the journey by car because we couldn't use an airship, and now we had to deal with an ambush, too?

"Hand over everything you have right now, then get out of the car and lie face down!"

"Well, we'll be using this maid for a while. That's fine, isn't it, big brother?"

Ugly, vulgar words.

"..."

Dealing with them was a hassle.

I leaned back against the car seat and slowly exhaled some of the smoke stored inside my body.

The smoke began to slowly coalesce. Once it had gathered into a ball about the size of a marble, I immediately opened the car window.

Swish.

The smoke orb climbed along the window until it reached the roof of the car, and soon the mercenaries' voices rang out.

"Huh? What's that?"

"Smoke?"

My smoke was, by nature, invisible to ordinary people's eyes.

But they could see my smoke?

'What? One of them was a mana-awakened person?'

Judging by their appearance, I had assumed they were merely low-level mercenaries, but I would have to reconsider.

This was a planned ambush.

And one involving disguises, too.

'Hmm...'

As I listened to their voices, I began controlling the smoke orb that had gone outside.

Thus, the smoke clone was complete.

"Damn it! An ability user?!"

“What?! An ability user?! Nobody said anything about that!”

Sharing the clone's field of vision, I saw them aiming their guns at the car rather than the clone.

They had ignored the clone and immediately aimed for the car containing the ability user. They were clearly veteran mercenaries.

But it was too late.

"..."

There was a technique I had used when I first awakened this ability.

A technique used by the most famous smoke ability user in the memories of my previous life.

The character who was mercilessly mocked for milking that one technique and nothing else. That very technique.

The clone's form began changing in an instant.

It began to writhe as though it might explode at any moment.

Puff-puff-puff!

Then dozens of fist-shaped clouds of smoke poured from the clone and began sweeping over the mercenaries.

"Aaaaargh!!!"

"Guh!"

The scene outside instantly descended into chaos.

The mercenaries were annihilated.

The numerous cars they had used to block the road were overturned as well, clearing the road ahead.

Watching that, I took a cigar from inside my coat and slowly lit it.

I had held back until then, worried that the smell would seep into the car, but if I didn't smoke now, I felt I might collapse from frustration.

"Get us moving."

"Aren't you going to ask who was behind this?"

When Mist asked from the driver's seat, I lowered the window, exhaled smoke outside, and answered.

"It doesn't matter. I can guess who it was. Just drive."

"...Understood."