The Fighting Dog of a Ruined Organization

“Give up… on the hostage?”

It was an unexpected answer.

Because it was such an obvious answer.

“That’s right meow. If a weak hostage who can’t escape is captured, shouldn’t you give up? Where’s the way to win without giving up?”

Mohanya didn’t have even a bit of her usual playful atmosphere. It conveys an overwhelming feeling on a different level from when Eris gets serious.

“A hostage shouldn’t be captured in the first place meow. You should think that the match is over the moment they’re captured meow.”

“B-but you always have a solution, don’t you? Surely there must be a way to win even if a hostage is taken…”

“Yes, there might be meow.”

Mohanya’s voice was heard from the side.

Wasn’t she right in front of me?

I didn’t see her move at all?

“Only if you can kill the opponent faster than they can kill the hostage meow.”

Mohanya slowly walked back in front of me and continued speaking.

“Or… there might be ways to play mind games, or create a situation where you take a hostage too and both shout to release each other meow.”

Mohanya came back in front of me and faced me. It’s suffocating to see Mohanya, who was always full of mischief, being so serious.

“In the end, the situation becomes unfavorable from the moment the hostage is captured meow. If you can’t save them, giving up is the best option meow. Mohanya has lost quite a lot of people like that meow.”

Mohanya’s eyes always had heart-shaped pupils. But now the pupils are not heart-shaped.

Vertical pupils.

The pupils have lengthened vertically like a real cat’s eyes.

“Living in a world where you don’t know when you’ll die, are you afraid of people dying? You’ve been killing people without hesitation until now, but you can’t even imagine your precious people dying?”

It was chilling.

Because Mohanya, who had seemed the most fantasy-like among all the people I’ve met so far, was speaking realistically.

“Wake up meow. If you don’t want hostages to be taken, become strong enough that no one can touch them meow. Or block all risk factors so they won’t be captured in the first place meow. If you can’t even do that, strengthen your precious people meow.”

─ It’s foolish to be so obsessed with fantasy that you can’t see reality just because you’re Fantasia meow.

“You need to know reality to create and enjoy fantasy meow. Think carefully about why Fantasia eventually fell, and how cruel and merciless reality is meow.”

─ Well then, I hope Puppy won’t ask foolish questions the next time we meet meow.

And Mohanya disappeared.

The weight pressing down on me disappeared.

My legs gave out and I sat down without realizing it.

“Phew…”

I couldn’t breathe properly, crushed by the atmosphere. No matter how playful and psychotic Mohanya seems, she’s a monster with a basic combat power of 10,000.

A monster whose maximum is unknown, reaching 100,000 when holding a kitchen knife.

When that monster got serious and talked about reality, I couldn’t say anything.

Yes, Mohanya wasn’t wrong. Rather, it was a wise answer to a foolish question. A hostage shouldn’t be taken in the first place, and if taken, it’s as good as defeat.

Because I’m not as strong as Mohanya right now.

“It was a stupid question.”

I sometimes forget because of Mohanya’s occasional ridiculous appearances, and the enjoyable daily life spent with Eris, Shizu, and Yu Jin-ri.

Even though the Renny Sist incident is imprinted as a trauma, I end up forgetting during happy times and when I feel like those times might be taken away.

That this world is a noir world.

The fact that cruel gangsters rule the cities and form cartels, and victims are shedding tears of blood even at this moment.

“…Mom.”

And even the fact that Mom is fighting painful memories in a mental hospital.

“This is no time to be making excuses.”

As Mohanya habitually says, I shouldn’t make excuses. I took a deep breath, got up, and started guarding the surroundings again.

Blocking all risks that could lead to hostages being taken. To do that, it’s right to prevent suspicious people from entering the house.

“I can handle anyone except the Big Three organizations.”

The Big Three organizations won’t attack without a reason anyway. That’s why I was more worried about the organization members than my own life.

I stayed up all night like that. Even when the sun rose and morning came, nothing happened.

Thank goodness. It seems we can get through today without incident.

Thinking that, I entered the workshop and saw Yu Jin-ri coming out of the lab with dark circles under her eyes.

“A masterpiece… A masterpiece has been born! This is truly a great discovery!”

What Yu Jin-ri was holding was Eris’s coat and a small staff. The staff had a small skull attached to the end, probably a compressed version of the goblin shaman’s skull.

“Ung… What’s that?”

Eris was still not fully awake, yawning and rubbing her eyes. Shizu handed Eris some water and said,

“It’s the staff and clothes that Yu Jin-ri made all night.”

“Wow! A staff?! Does that mean I can use magic?”

“Probably! This is a great discovery after all!”

Yu Jin-ri had dark circles under her eyes, but she smiled brightly, happy to have created something.

“Quickly, quickly! I want to try it!”

As Eris jumped up and down asking for it, Yu Jin-ri handed over the staff, saying she could look forward to it. Eris grabbed the part with the skull as the handle and lifted it.

“Ah, you shouldn’t hold that staff like that.”

“Huh? This isn’t how to hold it?”

“No. You need to hold it with the skull facing up. That skull acts as a container to compress the magi.”

“What? Then it’s not cool at all! Originally, such a small staff should have a pointed end to be cool!”

Oh, Eris. I agree with what you just said. A staff should have a pointed end to be cool.

“But I had no choice…”

But Yu Jin-ri probably knows that too. Theoretically, she must have had no choice. I’m not sure if Eris will let it slide, saying she must have had no choice.

“Phew─ I’ll let it slide since you made it all night.”

Wow, Eris is letting this slide?
Has she become a bit more mature? Though she was originally an adult.

“Thank you for understanding! Next time, I’ll research and research more to make an even cooler staff and make a super great discovery!”

Yu Jin-ri also nodded enthusiastically, burning with motivation. Yeah, yeah, both of you are doing well.

Still, patting Yu Jin-ri’s head feels awkward, so I’ll just pat Eris’s head.

“That’s good, young miss boss.”

“Wh-what?!”

But Eris’s reaction is strange.

When I patted her head, she blushed and was startled. Why is she acting like this?

“What’s wrong? Are you sick somewhere?”

“N-no, no…”

Eris, still blushing, glanced at me a few times, then shook her head and cleared her throat.

“It’s nothing, so Hyeonu doesn’t need to worry about it!”

What’s this? Usually, when I pat her head, she should smile innocently like a young child and be happy.

No matter how I look at it, this reaction is puberty.
Can puberty come at 20 years old?
Or is it already menopause…

“Young miss boss, is it already menopause?”

“M-menopause? It can’t come this early.”

“Your face is red, so…”

“Th-this is because it’s hot! It’s because it’s hot, so don’t worry about it!”

Seeing Eris’s strange reaction, Yu Jin-ri blinked her eyes, exhausted from staying up all night.

“Why is she acting like that? Could it be because of the dryad’s branch? No, that can’t be…”

“What do you mean?”

Yu Jin-ri glanced at Eris and then whispered in my ear.

“As you know, the dryad’s branch turns people into perverts. So it wouldn’t be strange if it made the boss, who was as pure as a young child, become conscious of you.”

“But you processed it and removed that effect, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I proved it myself. I felt lewd the entire time I was researching, but now that it’s made into a staff, I don’t feel lewd at all. Especially with the skull attached, it doesn’t create that kind of feeling at all.”

“Then why is the young miss boss acting like that?”

“Well… Maybe it’s because there are always variables in this world? But Eris-nim was hardly affected by the branch’s effect originally, so it should be fine. It’s probably a temporary symptom.”

What if it’s not temporary?

Is my precious daughter boss going to turn into a pubescent middle school girl mode?

If she becomes more mature through that process, there wouldn’t be any particular problem. Although it would be regrettable.

“But how do you use magic with this?”

“Normally, you’re supposed to use the magi mixed in the air. But since the boss has magi addiction, a lot of magi has accumulated in her body.”

According to Yu Jin-ri, if one can use magic, magi addiction is rather a genius talent. Because normally, magi doesn’t accumulate in the human body.

“People with magi addiction accumulate a lot of magi in their bodies in an instant. They’re literally walking magi tanks!”

“If you’re a scholar, please don’t use such vulgar words.”

I clicked my tongue and said, but Yu Jin-ri continued her explanation without minding.

“So, hold the staff and concentrate for a moment. Feel the magi accumulated in your body. Rather than being accumulated in one specific place, it’s evenly distributed throughout your body, you know?”

If you can feel that, keep imagining moving all of it to the skull of the magic staff. Then it will really move.

“Okay! I’ll try!”

And Eris sharpened her gaze, then,

“Wingardium Leviosa!”

She shouted, but nothing happened.

“Avada Kedavra!”

She kept on,

“Stupefy!”

“Crucio!”

Enthusiastically shouting Harry Potter spells, but,

“Expecto Patronum!”

Nothing happened.

“It’s not Harry Potter spells, it’s almost at the level of Magikarp’s Splash.”

“What?! Hyeonu, did you just call me Magikarp?!”

“Ah, no…”

“I’ll show you whether I’m Magikarp or not! This time I’ll do it properly, so watch!”

Perhaps in this world, Magikarp is called Magikarp? They both have similar meanings.

“Boss, if you can’t feel the magi well, it might be good to try using the magi addiction treatment. You know that cool feeling all over your body when you use the treatment? That’s the sensation of suppressing the accumulated magi so it can’t run wild. It means areas without magi don’t feel cool.”

Since it means only the places that feel cool have magi, it should be easier to approach.

“Really? Then I’ll give it a try!”

Eris took out a cigar from her pocket, cut off the front part with a cutter, lit it with a lighter, and put it in her mouth.

Smoke spread thickly. Eris seemed to understand something and grinned with the cigar in her mouth.

“Okay, I get it! I don’t need things like spells!”

She doesn’t need things like spells?

Is it silent casting magic?

That’s amazing.

“That’s right! Originally, magic doesn’t need things like spells. Spells are just put in media to look cool.”

No way.

How fundamentally lacking is this world where all magic is silent casting? Chanting spells is part of the romance of magic.

“That’s right, that’s right, only the knights who used ki used spells. They chanted spells to coolly draw out their aura blades!”

At this point, the author who created this world can only be seen as crazy.

Hoping that what Eris just said was a joke, I watched her. The skull attached to the staff started vibrating as if she really got the hang of it.

And soon a huge glowing sphere appeared, and,

“Huh? Why is this so big?”

“Wh-whoa! This is bad, I can’t control it!”

“You can’t control it? Aah! Everyone run away! This is going to explode soon!”

“Even if I die, I will die by Eris-nim’s side…”

“Waaah Shizu! Don’t do that, run away!”

Eris burst into tears and told us to run away, but it was already too late.

Because the huge sphere had already enveloped the entire workshop.

“Ah… Let there be, light─”

God, please let us survive this explosion.