Chapter 24

Inside an ordinary household, a middle-aged woman with only her skin remaining, along with two strangers, had turned the house upside down and left everything in disarray.

But they weren’t scam artists as the middle-aged woman’s daughter had described to others; they hadn’t come here to ruin a place where others ought to live.

In fact, these were people who didn’t even visit this house when its owner was in good condition.

If one were to ask whether they were good people who didn’t commit crimes, the sight of overturned belongings in the house would suffice to prove that it wasn’t entirely true.

“Still, there is no remaining information about the protagonist of another realm here… The daughter of this house seemed to have fled upon seeing the shoes left at the entrance. Should we chase after her or leave her alone?”

The leader of a group of killers who did not hesitate to k*ll, and a silent girl who issued orders on behalf of the leader to the killers.

Though the idea of them chasing after the runaway daughter could create an unsettling sensation, the truth was exactly the opposite.

Her ability could be useful to them, so they planned to find her and protect her before others came and harmed her further.

Though their group was not altruistic, and in fact was considered a criminal organization by society, they had a baseline of morality: they did not permit internal strife among their members, and they resolved to never interfere with individuals vital to their group.

And the ability of the daughter of this house fell within that acceptable boundary for inclusion in their group.

“Yes, then we shall go find her. We’ve already established an ability to locate her at any time. And as for the individuals lying about here carelessly, you might as well clean them up, right?”

The middle-aged woman with short brown hair, partly paying attention and partly ignoring the girl’s words, walked with a vacant expression toward the door, only to suddenly halt.

The girl, who was holding the woman’s hand and walking beside her, stopped as well, catching sight of the women waiting outside.

Bait.

The girl, suspecting that the woman was planning to leave her as bait so she wouldn’t follow, smiled mischievously.

“Aha, should I clean up the bait for you? There’s no need for our master to get their hands dirty.”

A black current rose from the girl’s hand. The sheer force of the wind generated by the current shattered walls and flung shoes outside, all with an immense gust.

And this overwhelming power was directed toward the bait in front.

The girl, who aided the protagonist standing at the peak of supernatural battles, was definitely not weak. However, the current merely tousled the hair of Erica and Inna standing outside before disappearing.

“You would do well to get out of our master’s way cleverly. How audacious to dare resist and block our master’s path—you must be desperate to d*e, huh?”

In contrast to her words, the girl’s thoughts were rapidly processing. The energy she emitted was notoriously hard to block. If they just effortlessly deflected that force, the better strategy was probably to approach them from another direction.

From the girl’s hand, a darker current of energy didn’t extend further, but instead, her shadow started to stretch towards the bait.

Rather than the forceful gale, the shadow, which adhered tightly to the ground and was harder to weaken, was akin to a probing jab designed to test how the powerful and sharp gust was negated.

Yet, to the girl, even this jab-like shadow was no different from the sickle of the Reaper for those incapable of stopping it.

“Hmm, the brainwasher is the woman behind you, right? Since this isn’t a direct battle with the brainwasher and I’m stepping in to fight on your behalf, wouldn’t it be fair if you granted me one favor later?”

“Favor?”

Inna’s calm voice rang out as the ground rose and blocked the shadow along with the entrance. While the shadow left several scratches on the ground, it eventually recoiled in frustration, reuniting with the girl.

In the battles between supernatural ability users, the key was to use one’s abilities without revealing them and to ascertain the enemy’s abilities.

Even the girl, who had fought numerous other supernatural power users, couldn’t decipher the abilities of her current opponents. This signaled their strength was incomprehensible.

And, of course, there was no way she could guess.

The violent energy was softened into a gentle touch by the influence of persuasion. The ground beneath her feet transformed into a shield by the same influence.

Because how could she possibly guess the power that made the world protect her—such a capacity could define a true heroine in any supernatural battle story.

“Master. I believe I need your permission to unleash my full power for the right confrontation.”

If the enemy’s abilities remained unknown, it was best just to overwhelm them with absolute firepower and speed so they couldn’t react.

The girl sought the essential approval from her master first, but the master simply extended a left hand forward.

Her left hand was configured in a form where her thumb pressed against her index finger, resembling the shape commonly used to prepare for a slap.

“Shall… shall I do it myself?”

The signal given by her slightly terrified voice was met with a forward thrust of her index finger. What followed was a silent collapse.

A hole tore through the earth blocking the entrance. The walls around them crumbled into dust and vanished.

The seemingly impossible feat by humans concluded silently, dissolving before it reached Erica and Inna with a faint buzzing sound.

The white lightning stopped by the protagonist’s extended right hand.

The white-haired girl seemed to be trembling, likely because she exerted too much power, but her blue eyes were filled with anger as she stared at the adversaries in front.

“What… are you?”

They could not have anticipated the appearance of such ruthless killers who could destroy a part of the house and strike a lethal blow without hesitation, not with powers relating to mental manipulation but something far different.

“There is no reason to explain ourselves. You’re likely to report us to the police or the association as soon as we leave, so why would we bother offering information…”

While Erica’s emotions were stirred by the first genuine anger she’d ever felt in this world of deceit, the girl’s words only further inflamed it.

The fact that the [one hit] was blocked by Inna, and that the ability activated was entirely due to coincidence—her intuition and nothing more—was ignored.

Even though Inna had blindly followed her words, she had almost died, whether Inna was a fake heroine from a romantic visual novel or not.

To Erica, this person seemed like one of the few real people in this world.

The idea of someone so real almost dying nullified any speculation that her powers might re-emerge next time.

When the emerald-haired girl, seeing Erica approaching with clenched fists, attempted to quietly extend her shadow, the bespectacled woman simply removed her glasses.

“Long time no… see. Didn’t expect you’d be… here.”

Erica continued walking forward, wary of potential ambushes, while Yuna, ignoring the woman’s words and focusing only on protecting Erica, smiled serenely.

Both Erica and Inna ignored the woman’s coarse voice, and while the emerald-haired girl angrily thumped her chest, the woman, evidently unaffected, smiled.

“A bad time for… a fight? Anyway, I’ll… leave for today.”

Before either could even consider fleeing or respond similarly, the girl’s shadow swallowed both the woman with glasses and herself before vanishing completely.

With a trembling right arm, Erica looked down at the spot where they disappeared, fully aware of their perfect escape.

The first encounter between the protagonist of a supernatural battle story who was destined to possess the world’s strongest power and Erica, who wielded an incomplete yet promising shield, ended with the other side’s escape.

“Why didn’t you finish it?”

With the power of the world’s strongest protagonist, even the girl who had blocked a near-playful attack, leaving her arm trembling, and the other mysterious girl could have been wiped out in one go.

The master usually communicated via her gaze, but directly articulating her opinion made the girl uneasy.

It was as if the master didn’t merely want to clear away the unpleasantness of someone obstructing her path but recognized a familiarity akin to someone she had met before.

Although the girl herself was undoubtedly there to k*ll them.

The woman, stroking the girl’s head while wearing her glasses, attempted to enter one of their hideouts, an abandoned factory, but the rustling sound from above interrupted them.

“I wasn’t looking for this direction, but we found them.”

A boy who had gone out earlier with the Student Council President to search for the Queen appeared, as if welcoming them back to the abandoned factory.

The protagonist of the school slice-of-life genre.

Proof of the protagonist rested in the boy’s hands as the “Radiance” manifested.

The Radiance, akin to a small sun, illuminated the dark, abandoned factory, brightening his presence further.

“Sorry, but game over here.”

“Where do you dare…”

The genuine protagonist of this romantic visual novel—the boy who struggled desperately to his side—leapt down toward the woman beside Erica, the strongest protagonist of the visual novel.

The battle between protagonists took place where only Erica couldn’t see, and thus began.