novelraw Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Xenos, the supreme commander of Castalners (he disliked the term “boss”), let out a low groan. It was because of the unpleasant news he had just received.
—Omantis, whom we sent as part of the Feral Wolf pursuit unit, is dead.
—Yes. Omantis’s head was handed over to the Security Bureau. We searched the surrounding area, but the bodies of his subordinates have not been found yet.
—Then the culprit must be the one who turned in Omantis’s head and collected the bounty.
—Uh, about that…
The subordinate hesitated before continuing.
—That bastard submitted Omantis’s head anonymously to the Security Bureau. It will be difficult to track him from that direction.
—Where was the last place Omantis visited?
—Apparently, he went to some kind of counseling office or resolution office before he died.
—A counseling office or a resolution office? Speak clearly.
—It seems to be both.
—Then abduct the owner of that counseling-slash-resolution office. Pull out a few fingernails, and something will come out.
Xenos spoke of kidnapping and torture as if it were nothing. As the supreme commander of Castalners, such things were probably trivial matters to him.
“They are preparing retaliation after all.”
“Well, that figures.”
Erisa and I had been eavesdropping on the entire conversation from behind a single wall.
This was one of the reasons I had chosen to actively help Feral Wolf. I had killed Omantis. Omantis was a Castalners executive, and apparently a fairly big one at that. I was certain that Castalners would attempt retaliation against me.
Once retaliation began, it would likely interfere with the operation of the counseling office. Before that happened, I intended to apply pressure to Castalners first.
I had learned the location of Castalners’ hideout through Sigmar. In the light, Sigmar ran a Gipone service, while in the shadows he worked as a cleaner and an information broker. If one dealt with Sigmar, it was possible to obtain most kinds of information.
‘Though I had to pay extra as the price of the deal.’
Even while acting friendly and calling me a “comrade,” he always made sure to collect every coin he was owed. As a result, I had spent quite a lot of money on this information.
‘Well, it is not exactly my money anyway.’
I planned to bill the expenses to Director Justin later.
—If someone could kill Omantis, they must be quite skilled. Gather two or three executives and…
While listening to Xenos’s voice through the wall and waiting for the right moment, I lightly tapped Erisa’s shoulder.
“Erisa, now.”
“Yes.”
Erisa nodded and raised her hand. A lump of pure white light formed in her grasp. It was slightly smaller than a baseball, extremely small in size. However, its power would be far beyond imagination.
Erisa threw the light toward the wall.
BOOOOM—!
An explosion erupted with a deafening roar that felt as if it would tear my eardrums apart.
Beyond the collapsed wall, the figures of Xenos and the Castalners members were revealed. They stopped their conversation and stared at us. Shock was plainly visible on their faces and in their eyes.
“You bastards, what the—!”
Castalners was a fairly large criminal organization in the underworld, but it was not so large as to be called a shadow ruler or a great evil.
The individual combat strength of Castalners members was also only at that level. There was no need to even draw upon Dawn’s Call like before.
I threw a punch at a member who charged at me with a club.
CRACK!
The casually thrown punch shattered the man’s jaw. The strength drained from his eyes, and he collapsed. His body lay limp, his jaw twisted at an unnatural angle. At a glance, he looked dead, but he probably was not. Even if he was, it did not particularly matter.
Seeing my movement, the other members hesitated and stepped back. They seemed to realize that this was not a problem that could be solved by simply charging in.
They could not ignore Erisa’s presence either. She was a mage, and as was often the case with highly skilled mages, her mere presence was enough to overwhelm most opponents.
“Who are you?”
“I am Kain of the Kain Mental Health Counseling and Resolution Office.”
Xenos’s eyes widened.
Aside from that, he showed no other obvious signs of agitation. He seemed to be trying to regulate his emotional signals in his own way.
Showing clear surprise in front of his subordinates would undermine his authority, and he likely did not want to reveal his unease to me.
However, I could catch even such subtle emotional signals.
In contrast, I erased all of my own emotional signals.
Most people cannot completely hide even subtle emotional cues, no matter how hard they try. For example, when lying, one might pretend to tell the truth through tone or expression, but it is impossible to fully control pupil dilation or the trembling of one’s gaze, as was the case with Xenos.
I could. I had been trained for it.
Of course, training alone was not enough to make it possible.
Having erased every trace of emotion that could surface through my expression, posture, gaze, or tone, I looked at Xenos and spoke.
“Mr. Xenos, let us have a conversation.”
I pulled over a chair that had been in front of Xenos and sat down, facing him directly. Xenos’s subordinates, the Castalners members, surrounded me. I was effectively encircled, but it did not feel particularly threatening.
“I came here because I want something from you, Mr. Xenos. You likely want something from me as well. We will take turns stating our demands and granting them one by one. What do you say?”
Xenos could not refuse.
He looked back and forth between Erisa and me, then reluctantly nodded. He was desperately trying to hide his fear and confusion, but the emotions were clearly visible in his shaking eyes.
“Very well. Then let us make one demand of each other. I will hear your demand first, Mr. Xenos.”
“…I want to know how you found this place.”
“I have a capable information broker. I purchased the information from him. I cannot say more than that.”
Xenos nodded. Now it was my turn.
“Do not pursue Feral Wolf. And do not even think about retaliating against me.”
“So you came here because of Feral Wolf?”
“Not only for that.”
“I am curious what gives you such confidence. What if I decide to play some dirty trick?”
Xenos’s brow furrowed.
I spoke while continuing to conceal my emotional signals.
“You still have not found the bodies, have you?”
“Bodies? What bodies?”
“The bodies of Omantis’s subordinates. Where do you think they all went?”
In truth, I did not even know where the bodies of Omantis’s subordinates had gone. I had left their disposal entirely to Sigmar.
“Your side is not the only one capable of playing dirty tricks.”
In a sense, this statement was a bluff. However, it would not appear to Xenos as mere bravado. To him, I would seem genuinely frightening.
Fear, after all, is born from ignorance, and to Xenos, I was an existence whose depth he could not gauge.
Moreover, I was not speaking solely to bluff. If I wanted to play dirty, I could do so as well.
A clearer anxiety surfaced in Xenos’s eyes than before. It meant that he was too shaken to hide his emotional signals any longer.
The silence stretched on. Xenos stared at me as if trying to assess me. It would not be easy.
In the end, Xenos avoided my gaze and gave a crooked nod.
“…I promise. I will no longer pursue Feral Wolf. Nor will I retaliate against you.”
“Thank you.”
I stood up. Together with Erisa, I left Castalners’ hideout. At Xenos’s command, the Castalners members who had surrounded me stepped aside and cleared the way.
We emerged from the hideout onto the street. Only then did fatigue wash over me.
‘Am I a counselor, or a resolver?’
My former clients… or rather, people of the modern world.
Modern anxiety often stems from vague worries or concerns.
In other words, it lacks a tangible cause.
Because of that, it often improves quickly with consistent medication. Or it improves with a moderate change, such as quitting one’s job, resting, or starting to exercise.
‘This place is different.’
The fantasy world I had been reincarnated into showed remarkable development in certain fields thanks to magic. However, awareness of life, morality, and ethics remained at a pre-modern level.
At times, horrific incidents that seemed straight out of the medieval era still occurred.
Perhaps because of that, people’s anxiety here had substance. Rather than vague worries, many suffered anxiety disorders because they were truly being pursued by someone or facing threats to their lives.
Just as Feral Wolf’s anxiety stemmed from Castalners’ relentless pursuit.
For this reason, anxiety disorders here often did not improve through medication and counseling alone. In such cases, one had to step in directly and eliminate the source of the anxiety like this.
‘I could simply prescribe medicine and provide counseling, then pretend not to know about the rest… but that would not sit right with me.’
In any case, it was exhausting work. Since it was the path I had chosen myself, I could not complain freely.
As I was rubbing my face to shake off the fatigue, Erisa, who had been walking behind me, lightly tugged at my collar.
“Teacher Kain.”
“Yes?”
“I think it is time to replenish the calories for brain activity.”
“You are hungry?”
Come to think of it, I had not eaten in quite a while either. I had been so busy counseling Feral Wolf and dealing with matters connected to her that I had forgotten about mealtime.
There was a fairly decent restaurant nearby. It sold meat, bread, and soup. The menu was simple, but the food was good.
As always, Erisa ate quietly with small, restrained movements. However, judging by the noticeable dilation of her pupils, the food seemed to suit her taste.
Erisa stared at me as if she had something on her mind.
“Teacher.”
“Yes?”
“Then why did you let him live?”
She was referring to Xenos.
He was certainly an evil man who deserved death, but there was no need for me to deal with him personally.
“From here on, it is no longer my responsibility.”
“…?”
Leaving the puzzled Erisa behind, I paid the bill and returned to the counseling office.
***
“Haaah… haaah… haaah…!”
After Kain and Erisa left, Xenos remained there for a long time, struggling to steady his breathing. Fortunately, fresh air flowed in through the hole in the wall. Otherwise, he might have lost consciousness.
The subordinates stared at their leader with bewildered expressions. They could not understand why Xenos was reacting this way.
“Supreme Commander, what is wrong with you?”
“Haaah… hoo….”
Only after taking several deep breaths did Xenos finally calm down.
When he lifted his head, his face was drenched in cold sweat. The sweat dripped from his chin, falling drop by drop. In contrast, his lips were bone-dry and pale.
The subordinates vaguely assumed that his fear must have originated from Erisa. Even to their dull eyes, she was clearly a tremendously powerful mage.
Contrary to their expectations, Xenos’s fear stemmed from Kain.
‘I could read nothing… nothing at all. That is not a human. What in the world…’
To stand at the head of an organization, there was something more important than strength: the ability to read the flow.
Xenos was quite adept at reading the flow. He had expanded his business by reading the flow of money, and crushed traitors by reading the flow of rebellion.
He was usually able to grasp another’s intentions simply by observing their eyes and expressions, and he had easily ferreted out external spies who infiltrated Castalners.
However, from the man named Kain, he could read no emotion at all.
It felt as though Kain was threatening him, yet there was no hint of killing intent or anger. At the same time, he did not seem relaxed either.
He did not appear stronger than Xenos, yet he did not appear weaker either.
Nothing could be measured. Meanwhile, Xenos felt that Kain was reading every corner of his own mind.
It did not feel like speaking to a person. It felt like conversing with an unknown being that possessed dozens of eyes.
Disgusting. Yes, disgustingly unsettling and terrifying.
Xenos remained there for a long time, trembling as he struggled to catch his breath.
He never wanted to face Kain again.
“Recall all Feral Wolf pursuit units. And that counseling office or whatever… tell them not to even stick their heads anywhere near it.”
***
“How did you do it?”
Two days later, those were the words Feral Wolf spoke when she came to see me.
According to her, Castalners’ pursuit had come to an abrupt halt. Retaliation from miscellaneous criminal organizations had also ceased.
It seemed Xenos had kept his promise. Feral Wolf asked several times what kind of conversation could have produced such a result, but I did not answer in detail.
“I told you. I resolved it through conversation.”
“So you mean physical conversation?”
“No. Actual conversation.”
“No, that does not make any sense…”
She asked again several times afterward, but I continued to evade the question. Before long, Feral Wolf gave up on getting an answer.
“In any case… I can finally sleep peacefully now. Both me and Nyxle.”
“Yes. That is what matters.”
Now it was time to return Feral Wolf to Ms. Nyxle.
Since I now knew that Feral Wolf was not rampaging blindly, there was no longer a need to use the restraint chair.
“Ms. Feral Wolf, I will now administer Mist’s Lullaby. Take a deep breath in, then breathe out.”
I laid Feral Wolf down on the bed and administered Mist’s Lullaby into her body.
She soon fell asleep, and her swollen form gradually shrank until she finally became Ms. Nyxle. Ms. Nyxle regained consciousness and looked at me with half-lidded eyes.
“This is…”
“I have finished speaking with Ms. Feral Wolf.”
I explained everything that had happened with Feral Wolf.
That Ms. Nyxle had nearly been violated by her father, that Feral Wolf’s personality awakened and killed her father as a result, and that this led to her ill-fated entanglement with Castalners.
And that Feral Wolf’s actions had, in truth, all been done to protect Ms. Nyxle.
“That cannot be true. F-Feral Wolf lying…”
“As you know, Ms. Nyxle, if it had been a lie, I would have noticed.”
At our first meeting, I had read the mana within her body and seen through her lies. If Feral Wolf had lied, I would have seen through that as well.
Finally, I even played the last recorded message in Feral Wolf’s voice. Ms. Nyxle broke into a cold sweat in confusion, her body trembling.
Murmuring incomprehensible words, she eventually fell silent, her expression turning blank as if she had resigned herself to the truth.
“My father… to me… so that is why he died. No, Feral Wolf killed him. And after that, Castalners… ah…”
With the new information, the pieces that had previously felt subtly inconsistent likely began to fall into place.
As a result, Ms. Nyxle had no choice but to believe my words.
“Ms. Nyxle, are you all right?”
“…Yes. No, no. Yes…”
Ms. Nyxle had learned the truth.
While this would have removed her fear of losing her body to Feral Wolf, she had also learned anew that her father had tried to violate her.
And that the one who killed her father was not a bandit, but her other personality.
She seemed devastated by the truth.
“When it becomes too difficult to endure, taking this medicine will help.”
I prescribed her the Clear Mind Elixir, which was effective at reducing depressive symptoms.
It was something that even I found shocking to hear. For Ms. Nyxle herself, the shock must have been beyond imagination. A weaker person might have gone mad.
“…Teacher.”
“Yes, please go on.”
Ms. Nyxle’s eyes reddened.
She tried to endure it, but in the end, she broke down in tears. Once they started, the tears would not stop.
She did not bother wiping them away. Instead, she clenched her teeth.
“How can the world be like this?”
I could not answer that question.
To Ms. Nyxle, the world must have suddenly become brutal and cruel. Things that once seemed insignificant would now appear horrific.
Trite words would not be enough to comfort her.
I took her trembling hand.
“When it becomes too hard, please come see me. Sometimes, just talking with someone can make things better. I showed you how to use the recorder earlier, did I not? Talking with Ms. Feral Wolf through it will also help.”
“…Yes. Thank you, Teacher.”
Ms. Nyxle left the counseling office, dragging her feet.
Ms. Nyxle was a capable investigator of the Security Bureau, and Feral Wolf was the protagonist of an urban legend who judged evildoers.
In reality, however, Feral Wolf had merely struggled to protect herself, and Ms. Nyxle was nothing more than a victim of the world.
Ms. Nyxle’s back as she left the office somehow looked small.
But she would recover.
By consistently taking the Clear Mind Elixir, communicating with Feral Wolf through the recorder, and occasionally receiving counseling from me, with time, Ms. Nyxle’s condition would improve.
Certainly.
***
Two weeks passed.
“Teacher, have you seen this?”
“Hm?”
That morning, Erisa suddenly handed me a newspaper. On the front page, written in large letters, were the following headlines.
“Security Bureau Investigator Nyxle Wellfor Purges Castalners, the Bane of Lumiere”
“Is This the Revival of Feral Wolf? ‘Judgment’ Resumes”
There was even a column debating which of the two, Nyxle Wellfor or Feral Wolf, was more heroic.
Knowing that the two were essentially the same person, I let out a small laugh.
“This Nyxle Wellfor mentioned here is the one who came two weeks ago, right?”
“Probably. It is not a common name.”
I began reading the newspaper where I sat.
Only now did I understand why Ms. Nyxle and Feral Wolf no longer came to our counseling office.
Previously, Feral Wolf’s “judgment” had been her unilateral action, and it had not truly been judgment at all. It had merely been killings committed while shaking off Castalners’ pursuit, which happened to be perceived as judgment.
But the current “judgment” was judgment in the truest sense.
Feral Wolf was now purging not only Castalners, but other criminal organizations as well. As a result, the scale of criminal organizations within Lumiere had shrunk, and even minor crime rates were reportedly dropping sharply.
Moreover, this “judgment” no longer seemed to be Feral Wolf’s unilateral action.
Unlike before, Feral Wolf’s judgment was being carried out in a highly systematic manner.
Now that Ms. Nyxle and Feral Wolf could communicate through the recorder, this was likely the result of combining Ms. Nyxle’s intelligence as a Security Bureau investigator with Feral Wolf’s martial power.
Ms. Nyxle, who had once looked as though she might collapse at any moment while asking how the world could be like this, was far stronger than I had expected.
She had been mired in despair, asking how the world could be so cruel. Now, she was changing the world herself.
By day, she was Security Bureau Investigator Nyxle Wellfor. By night, she was Feral Wolf.
That was why Ms. Nyxle and Feral Wolf no longer needed to come to our counseling office.
I finished reading all the articles and columns about them. A smile escaped me.
“…That is good.”
Just then, someone knocked on the counseling office door. I already knew who it was.
“Welcome, Director Justin.”
“It has been a while. Has it been about two weeks?”
Director Justin hung his coat and hat on the rack, then plopped down into the chair across from me. Smiling broadly, he looked at me and spoke.
“Have you heard the news? Nyxle Wellfor, the one I introduced to you before, pulled herself together thanks to you and wiped out Castalners. It is all thanks to you, Teacher Kain.”
“How could that be thanks to me? Ms. Nyxle is simply capable.”
“No, truly, it is thanks to you. Ah, by the way, that building next door. The one you were eyeing for expanding the office.”
“Yes.”
Director Justin had said that if Ms. Nyxle’s problem was resolved, he would help me purchase the neighboring building at a low price.
It was, in a way, offering priority purchase rights to the building as a form of counseling fee.
There was a lot I could say about that.
“Was it the day before yesterday? I heard that the neighboring building was already sold to someone else. What will you do?”
“I bought it.”
“…Pardon?”
“I am the one who bought that building.”
As I blinked in disbelief, Director Justin continued calmly.
“I bought it the day before yesterday, and yesterday I transferred the ownership to you.”
“Then that means…”
“Yes. It is already your building. Use it however you like, whether to expand the counseling office or as living quarters.”
I was dumbfounded.
“…Is this really all right?”
“There are no legal issues, so feel free to use it. I told you, did I not? That I would make sure to help you properly. And this is a small personal gift from me to you.”
THUD.
Director Justin placed a heavy bag on the counseling desk. Inside were stacks of cash and various rare medicinal ingredients.
He had called it small, but it was anything but. The value of the medicinal ingredients alone rivaled the monthly salary of an average Security Bureau investigator.
When I simply stared at the bag without taking it, Director Justin tilted his head.
“What is wrong? Are you not going to take it? Should I take it back?”
“Director Justin.”
“Yes? Why are you glaring at me like that? It is frightening.”
Looking at Director Justin, who was still pretending ignorance, I let out a sigh.
“You already knew, did you not? That Ms. Nyxle was Feral Wolf, and that Feral Wolf killed Ms. Nyxle’s father.”
The sense of unease I had felt when listening to Feral Wolf before had come from this.
Director Justin was capable and observant. He would have immediately realized that Feral Wolf was the one who killed Ms. Nyxle’s father.
Knowing all that, he had not arrested Ms. Nyxle. Instead, he had taken her in and allowed her to work as a Security Bureau investigator.
If he knew that Ms. Nyxle was Feral Wolf, he could have arrested her, yet he allowed Feral Wolf to roam the city and carry out her “judgment.”
In other words, he had tacitly condoned Feral Wolf’s private acts of vigilantism.
“…As expected, you are capable.”
Director Justin smiled.
“Honestly, it would have been harder not to notice. Whenever Investigator Nyxle was absent without leave or took time off, Feral Wolf’s judgment would always begin.”
“Is it really acceptable to condone Feral Wolf’s vigilantism like that?”
“Feral Wolf’s existence benefits the kingdom. As you can see in the newspaper you are reading, crime rates have plummeted thanks to her. Minor crimes, in particular, have decreased by nearly seventy percent.”
With his usual inscrutable smile, Director Justin continued.
“More importantly, it is no longer a matter of condoning.”
“…What do you mean?”
“The Security Bureau has officially hired Feral Wolf as an unofficial investigator. Currently, Feral Wolf’s ‘judgment’ takes place under the supervision of the Security Bureau. Publicly, it appears that the Bureau is pursuing Feral Wolf, but in truth, we are cooperating.”
I blinked in surprise.
“So that is what was going on. No wonder the ‘judgment’ was unusually systematic.”
“Moreover, using Feral Wolf allows us to intervene in matters that the Security Bureau cannot handle directly. There was no reason not to make use of her.”
“I see. Just as entrusting Ms. Nyxle to me was part of your plan.”
Director Justin did not know my background in detail.
However, through my actions so far, he knew that I had connections with unofficial information sources like Sigmar, and that at times, my information network was even better than that of the Security Bureau.
That was why Director Justin had entrusted Ms. Nyxle to me.
He must have predicted that in the process of helping Ms. Nyxle, I would inevitably come into conflict with Castalners.
‘And thus, he would have predicted that I would use unofficial channels, namely Sigmar, to learn the location of Castalners’ hideout.’
Indeed, I had learned the location of Castalners’ hideout through Sigmar, information that even the Security Bureau had failed to uncover, and I had “conversed” with their leader, Xenos.
The Security Bureau would then have tracked my movements to identify Castalners’ hideout, and as a result, they would have been able to wipe out Castalners in one sweep.
Director Justin smiled faintly.
“It is true that I used you to catch Castalners. But did you not go along with it knowingly?”
“Well, that is true.”
I had not realized it from the beginning. Halfway through, I had begun to sense something was off, and by the time I went to Castalners’ hideout, I had fully grasped Director Justin’s intentions.
That was also why I had not dealt with Xenos myself.
Knowing that Director Justin was using me, I still played along.
Because there was nothing to lose by doing so.
“As expected, you are capable. Have you ever considered joining the Security Bureau? A good position just opened up…”
“As I told you before, no.”
I refused bluntly. Director Justin smiled wryly in regret.
“In any case, I am sorry for using you. That is why I brought such a generous bribe. Please forgive me.”
Director Justin gestured toward the bag with a sly look.
I smiled, raising only one corner of my mouth.
“Turning a blind eye to crime and accepting bribes. You are impressive.”
“Do not be sarcastic. Sometimes, one must exercise flexibility rather than cling to principles. I merely greased the wheels a little. For public good and justice.”
“Is it really acceptable for someone who may soon become the Director of the Security Bureau to act like this?”
“Hm? What did we just talk about, Teacher Kain?”
As always, Director Justin feigned ignorance and stood up.
“Then I will be on my way. There is still much work to be done for public good and justice.”
“Please come and receive counseling sometime soon. You seem to be in dire need of it, Manager.”
“You are quite the jokester, Teacher Kain. I am more normal than anyone. If I am not normal, then who is?”
I stared at Director Justin’s retreating back. He left the counseling office with light steps, without looking back.
“…Good grief.”
He truly was a consistent man.