Chapter 12: The Source of His Strength

The Undertakers, a corpse disposal unit dispatched from the Neutral Faction.

After putting up a ward to keep people away, they quickly went about collecting the sorcerer.

Shiga Inui was making a call on his smartphone.

His contact was apparently Mineki Shian.

A high-pitched voice could be heard berating him.

“My ba—c’mon, I said I’m sorry, Shian-chan… Huh? You’re coming here? Ah, well, it is the territory you manage, so I guess that makes sense… Yeah, yeah, okay. Talk to you later.”

Shiga Inui hung up.

He sighed, thinking what a pain this had all become.

“Haaah… My precious day off. How did it turn into such a hassle…”

Shiga Inui grumbled, looking thoroughly annoyed.

In response, the woman next to him looked on, puzzled.

(Why…)

She was about to ask why he didn’t kill them all, but stopped herself.

It was due to her own shallow assumption that, given his personality, he would simply act on his whims.

She could have seen him killing everyone, but from a sorcerer’s perspective, such an act wouldn’t be the wisest move.

That’s why she’d figured that he must possess at least a shred of a sorcerer’s mentality.

“You wanna know why I didn’t kill the other two? The reason’s obvious.”

Shiga Inui said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“I got tired. No way I can fight all of them using my Arts.”

He claimed he’d stopped fighting simply because he was exhausted.

(…So he really didn’t have any deeper reason after all, did he…)

Abarabana Tenri sighed.

Shiga Inui added an “Oh,” and then continued.

“Well, if you’re looking for another reason… one was to extract information from, and the other was to spread the word about how strong I am.”

She looked surprised.

She never would have thought this man capable of such forethought.

“I’d have been satisfied killing them all, but then I wouldn’t know why they attacked me. So, I spared the one who didn’t have the will to fight… As for the other one, he probably ran off because he’d gotten some piece of intel. Judging from their conversation, they wanted to know about my abilities.”

“If they wanted to know about your abilities… then why use your Arts?”

To willingly give an opponent information and let them escape is a fatal mistake for a sorcerer.

At her words, the back of his neck grew itchy, and he scratched it with his nails.

“…Huh? Well, I didn’t realize it until the end of the fight. It was only after I used my Arts that I thought, Ah, so these guys want the details on my Arts… Anyway, either way.”

He narrowed his eyes. Abarabana Tenri felt a flicker of suspicion at his evasive tone.

Behind his sunglasses, his eyes held a cold gaze.

“The question is whether they can do anything about it, even with the secret out.”

He had a point.

Space-Time Arts.

An ability that governs and manipulates time and space—how could one possibly counter such a thing? It would be incredibly difficult.

“So, about my Arts—uh, right, the ‘Jikuu’ Arts. That’s what you thought it was, right? Then… that’s probably what my opponents thought, too, when they faced it.”

“Why… so careless…? It’s your own Art, isn’t it? In the first place…”

Shiga Inui cut her off with a question.

“Question for you… Why do you think I barely used such an incredibly powerful ability in our fight?”

He said, holding up one finger.

“Number one: I wanted to hide the fact that I could use this ability. Or number two: I could use this ability, but chose not to.”

Faced with the two choices, she pondered.

(He showed signs of using it during our fight, too… No, that was just an increase in physical ability from manipulating his Flow. In that case…)

She recalled her experience fighting Shiga Inui.

He had mostly just overpowered her with his physical prowess, which was honed by manipulating his Flow.

Her assumption was that he had deliberately not used his Arts simply to show off the difference in their strength.

“…Number one, I suppose?”

After thinking it over, she chose the first option.

In response, Shiga Inui shook his head from side to side before speaking.

“The correct answer is, ‘I can’t really use it, but I could have if I’d really tried.'”

It was neither number one nor number two.

She felt a surge of irritation at what wasn’t even a trick question, but one where he’d revealed the answer after the fact.

“The ‘Jikuu’ Arts… it’s probably amazing if you can use it, but… I haven’t mastered this ability. The Flow consumption is insane, and if I mess up, I could even time-manipulate my own memories and forget things.”

He was revealing more and more information about himself.

He was explaining that the demerits of his Art outweighed the merits.

“Considering the disadvantages for me, I can’t really use it in the middle of a fight. That’s why I don’t use my own Arts very much.”

“…And yet, you seemed to be using it to some degree without any issue?”

It hadn’t looked like Shiga Inui had failed for a second when he employed his Arts.

“Yeah… I can manage if it’s just a simple application of my Flow manipulation. Things like manipulating my own body’s time to accelerate, or stabbing an opponent with ‘Wedge’ to stop their time… I can even manage to control space with my Flow as long as it doesn’t leave my grasp, but any technique that has to leave my hands is insanely difficult.”

Shiga Inui laughed breezily.

He was taking it awfully easy, considering he could have been caught off guard and killed.

“Haaah… With an attitude like that, how in the world do you plan to fight from now on?”

“Huh? That’s why I chose you, isn’t it?”

Eh? Abarabana Tenri could only wonder.

As if answering her unspoken question, Shiga Inui continued.

“You were making sorcerers, right? And modifying their Arts to some extent, I hear.”

“In the end, though, they were all taken by that long-haired member of the Hiryuuin family…”

“And I bought into that. I decided I needed your power, your skill at modification.”

Shiga Inui grabbed her shoulders.

“Work for me. Make me stronger, Tenri.”

He said her name, then gave a slight bow of his head.

(To think this man would bow his head to me…)

She, who had felt nothing but defiance toward him until now, was filled with a sense of superiority.

Though her position was like that of a slave, the thought that she would be allowed to modify him brought a smile to her face.

(If this goes well, I could have this man in the palm of my hand…)

Just as she was thinking that.

A shadow approached them with a roar.

“You… You…!”

Burning with rage, Mineki Shian closed in on Shiga Inui.

Spotting her, Shiga Inui called out her name.

“Oh, Shi-Shian-chan, why’re you so mad?”

A fist smashed into his face as he wore a sycophantic expression.

(Considering he revealed his hand in a fight with a sorcerer and then willingly let one escape, her anger is understandable…)

Abarabana Tenri sympathized with her.

If one of her own allies let an enemy get away, she wouldn’t get that angry, but she would certainly write them off immediately.

“Gueh!”

Mineki Shian grabbed Shiga Inui by the collar and shook him back and forth.

But the source of her anger wasn’t the battle between sorcerers…

“You bastard! Didn’t I tell you not to take any detours!! Why are you in the red-light district!!”

“Eh?”

Abarabana Tenri felt that her anger was misplaced.

“Wh-whoa, hold on, Shian-chan! I was attacked!”

“Did it not occur to you that you wouldn’t have been attacked if you hadn’t taken a detour, you stupid mutt!!”

It was true that one could see it that way.

Still, wasn’t her rage a bit too excessive for that? Abarabana Tenri thought.

“To think you’d touch another after you’ve held me is unforgivable!”

(…Aha.)

Now she gets it, Abarabana Tenri thought, convinced.

The root of her anger was, in short, jealousy.

And if she was jealous, that meant…

(She’s in love with this awful man, isn’t she?)

That was her interpretation.

In that case, Abarabana Tenri slowly stood up.

“Ahem.”

She cleared her throat, drawing their attention.

As the two of them looked over, she approached with a smile.

“A pleasure to meet you. My name is Abarabana Tenri. I’m the daughter of the family head who was just killed by the Hiryuuins.”

Just as she finished her brief introduction, her legs got tangled beneath her.

Her lower body had always been frail, and she could barely even walk without a cane.

In that state, Abarabana Tenri started to pitch forward.

“Whoa, careful.”

Shiga Inui said, catching her in his arms.

Mineki Shian could only stare, stunned at his quick action.

(Hee hee… She’s jealous. My grudge against you all for destroying my clan won’t disappear over something like this… but this feels wonderfully satisfying.)

Her various frustrations had been piling up, and she was using this as a way to vent.

“You damn weakling who lost to the Hiryuuin family…!”

Shiga Inui saw the look on her face as she gritted her teeth.

He looked delighted at this rare expression of jealousy.

“Eh, no way. Shian-chan, are you jealous? Seriously? You liked me that much? Well then, guess I can sneak into your room toni—buh?!”

Her iron fist once again connected with Shiga Inui’s face.

Her gaze shifted from Shiga Inui to the man who was tied up.

“Is this the fellow who attacked you?”

Mineki Shian said, looking at Soui Shuryakuma.

He was bound and unable to move.

If he tried to channel his Flow, the restraints would react, absorbing the energy and tightening their grip on his limbs.

Essentially, Soui Shuryakuma was in a situation where he could not escape.

“…”

He watched them from between the gaps in his long bangs.

He showed no particular sign of resistance, appearing completely docile.

“For now, I’m taking him to my mansion. We’ll interrogate him there.”

Abarabana Tenri reacted to her words.

“Oh? So you’re taking him to what was formerly my mansion?”

Mineki Shian scowled.

Then she spoke to Shiga Inui, who was standing near Tenri.

“Inu. She’s your property, isn’t she? Shut her up.”

Annoyed, she ordered Shiga Inui to punish Tenri a little, and he responded with a cheerful salute and a word of assent.

“Yessir!”

Shiga Inui’s hands began to wander over her body.

His fingertips crawled over her skin like caterpillars, toying with her.

“W-wait, in a place like this… please have some decency! Are you listening?! Nnh!”

The attendants who had come with Mineki Shian led Soui Shuryakuma away.

“…Anyway, I’m going to interrogate this man now.”

“Yeah… got it. What a mess, and you just moved in, too…”

Shiga Inui said it as if it were someone else’s problem.

She bristled at his tone.

“You’re helping, too, you know. I’ll be with this man all day. You will take command and finish the moving.”

Shiga Inui’s face showed his annoyance.

Mineki Shian saw his expression and was about to scold him, but…

“Hm? All day?… Which means… in other words…”

Shiga Inui muttered to himself.

A lewd smile spread across his face, and he gave a thumbs-up and a nod.

“Okay, oh yeah! Leave it to me! Take all the time you need with that interrogation!”

Shiga Inui said cheerfully.

At his sudden change of heart, Mineki Shian felt a sense of foreboding.

“…Are you really going to work on the moving?”

“Of course! I’ve had a change of heart! I’m serious, you can count on me!”

Shiga Inui declared.

She had a pretty good idea of what this man was thinking.

“…I expect you to be hands-on. Don’t think you can have a hands-off approach just because I’m not here, you hear?”

“Nope, I’ll be totally hands-on! For real, I’m serious.”

In the pause between their conversation, with the sound of dripping moisture, tears streamed from Abarabana Tenri’s eyes as she spoke.

“P-please… j-just take… y-your… hands off… me!”

She said this while twitching slightly.