The android from City U, known as the Angel Series, temporarily stopped functioning upon arrival in City E, then immediately retreated back to City U. The people of City U were initially taken aback by the android’s sudden return, but soon realized that the cause was the restoration of the Angel Series’ control.
As to how this happened—who knows—but it must have been the work of a villain in City E. Upon grasping this, City U quickly requested that City E lead them to the culprit, but City E remained silent.
Meanwhile, the villain in City E was busy with something else—
“Hmmm….”
“……”
Acting as a temporary professor, I was checking an exam paper brought in by my student. Normally, such tasks would fall to graduate students or teaching assistants under a professor, but what could I do? That slave candidate was still studying.
I couldn’t ask him to grade his own answers. So, I took the liberty to mark the paper and frowned as I scribbled lines across it.
“Why did you get this wrong?”
“Um, no way I could get everything right from what we just learned yesterday.”
“I gave you a day. Can’t you memorize five books?”
At my words, Meister looked down at me with an incredulous expression. His gaze wasn’t something a mere slave candidate should dare send to their master, so I tapped on my smartphone, prompting him to finally realize what he had done wrong, and he dropped to his knees to confess his sins.
“Gah, agh-!”
“Not going to loosen up that glare of yours?”
“I’m, I’m sorry…!”
“Use your ability. Your ability. I loosened it for your body, didn’t I?”
“No, my ability is to control machines… agh-!”
“Backtalk.”
I tapped my temple, gesturing for him to think. He was too busy confessing his crimes to notice this enormous hint, though.
What a frustrating guy. In the end, I had to spoon-feed him the answer.
“Your ability is to emit an electromagnetic field to control electrically conductive machines; why don’t you know your own body is a machine made of flesh? You could dominate your brain and memorize all the books.”
“I’ve never used my ability like that….”
“What matters is faith, faith. That’s how superpowers work.”
Meister stared at me as if I were speaking nonsense, then closed his eyes again as if he didn’t want to confess any further, and began to groan. It seemed he was trying, as I suggested, to use his ability on his body.
Watching him groan, I sighed heavily. It was damaging to the student’s autonomy for me to be this accommodating, like a red pen teacher… but what could I do? He was dumber than I expected.
‘Why can’t he memorize something so simple?’
Back in my day, when a professor gave an order, without fail, I accomplished it the next day no matter the obstacle. Whether it was possible or not didn’t matter; what mattered was that I had something to do.
Yet this damned guy was already slacking off… the road ahead seemed quite long indeed.
“─That won’t do.”
“Lacking faith. Faith.”
“Seriously, it really doesn’t work…”
“Shall I make it work?”
“…No, I’ll figure it out myself.”
Once more, I sighed heavily at the guy who was closing his eyes and groaning again. Just how long would it be until I could turn this rebellious fool into a proper person? I finally understood how well-loved I was by my professors.
And why they entrusted me with such grueling tasks instead of all those other kids…
“Gah-! Why are you hitting me!?”
“Because you brought back those memories!”
“Are you out of your mind….”
“I can hear everything.”
If a swan swam among ugly ducklings, how could anyone not admire that swan? Unless they had eyes made of holes, no one could say otherwise.
* * *
[The traffic light has changed.]
“Hmm-.”
Hani was walking with the help of the Evilus Agent. For her, nearly blind, the Evilus Agent served as another pair of eyes.
Although her hearing was sharp due to poor eyesight, she couldn’t hear the traffic light change with her ears, especially in a rundown city that hadn’t updated a single traffic light in decades.
After carefully avoiding obstacles, Hani arrived home and quickly changed her clothes to start cooking. This was something previously nearly impossible until she got help from the Evilus Agent.
[The eggs are on the right. Yes. Cut the green onions like that. Be careful with your hands. The bowl is—.]
As she put the perfectly made scrambled eggs into her mouth, Hani perked up, delighted with her cooking, but then stopped when she heard the loud sound of boots pounding.
Visitors to this rundown area were always the same; either landlords or debt collectors. And she remembered every bit of their footsteps.
However, the footsteps she now heard weren’t familiar at all and were too light to belong to a debt collector. They didn’t match the heavy spirits of the people in this neighborhood.
—Are you there?
The owner of the footsteps stopped right in front of Hani’s house and began knocking on the door, searching for the landlord. Hani cautiously grabbed the sword placed in the corner and approached the door.
She hid the sword from view and was ready to strike at any moment before slowly opening the door. As she did, the voice of the Evilus Agent rang in her ears.
[It’s a woman in her twenties. Her height is around 160 cm, and her weight is approximately 40 kg. She is not a registered individual.]
Meaning it was someone she had never seen before. The other person stood silently in place, not making a sound. An eerie stillness began to erase her presence.
Hani had never encountered anyone who made such silence in her life. The sound belonged less to a person and more to a natural element, like a plant. A girl shrouded in stillness.
“Who are you?”
“Ah— I’m sorry for the late introduction. I’m Flower. May I come in for a moment?”
“Ms. Flower… it’s not that I mind, but what’s the matter?”
“I prefer to talk inside. There are too many eyes watching outside.”
Indeed.
Hani felt the gazes peering from outside upon hearing Flower’s words. The residents of the run-down neighborhood were glaring at her, as per usual, with wary eyes. If they lingered too long, it might cause panic among the neighborhood folk.
Hani quickly let Flower into her home and locked the door. Click-! Even though the old hinge creaked loudly, Flower was unfazed and began to look around the room.
“Wow… I’ve never seen such a bare room before!”
“……Sorry it’s so plain.”
“Oh, no! I didn’t mean it that way! I was rude.”
Startled, Flower coughed a few times and then sat down on the bare floor. With no small table between them, it was just Hani’s sword that they had to share.
Even in front of a sharp sword that could slice her at any moment, Flower smiled without an ounce of fear as she opened her mouth.
“You’re the Sword Demon, aren’t you?”
“Sword Demon…?”
“Oh my, you don’t know? You’re famous! There’s a Sword Demon in this city who slays villains.”
Hani was bewildered by this nickname she was hearing for the first time and absentmindedly fumbled with her sword’s hilt. She never imagined she would be called by such a shameful title.
Seeing Hani’s ears turn red, Flower began to clap her hands joyfully, as if she had finally found what she was looking for.
“A ruthless swordsman who slays the wicked! Though some say it’s a little harsh to be indifferent to her victims, she’s highly regarded as a vigilante who eliminates villains—”
“…Could you please stop talking about that?”
“Ah, yes! I will!”
“So, why have you come to find me?”
“—I want to borrow the power of the Sword Demon.”
Flower’s emerald eyes fixated on Hani. Looking into her eyes, shining as if they were a forest filled with nature, made the rundown shack feel less like a decrepit home and more like being in the midst of a lush forest.
As refreshing scents filled Hani’s nostrils, she trembled slightly and gazed at Flower while fiddling with her sword’s hilt again.
“…My power?”
“There’s too much trash in the world. To slice through that trash, I need the power of a hero like you.”
“I’m not a hero. I’m just a somewhat more moral person than others…”
“I intend to punish those without even a shred of that morality.”
Flower slowly approached Hani.
With each of her slender hands coming closer, Hani felt an unexplainable pressure. It felt like a gigantic forest was approaching her.
“This world is harming nature too much. Since AI appeared, the pace has only quickened.”
“…What is it that you desire?”
“I want to return to nature.”
First and foremost—
Flower turned her gaze toward the smartphone that had been watching them, specifically, the AI within it.
“That damned AI needs to go away first.”
